May 15

Is GPS on a Road to Failure?

Posted in: gps, satellite, Today's Chili

GPS_satellite.gifGPS accuracy may plummet over the next decade like a satellite crashing to earth, if the parties in charge of maintaining it don’t step up the job. That’s according to recent studies, which state that the GPS system, which is based on the orbit of 24 to 32 satellites, will likely suffer if that minimum number can’t be maintained.

There’s a decent chance it might not be, either. Part of the issue lies in the fact that there isn’t a single committee overseeing the system. Also at issue is that many of the satellites we rely on for GPS are upwards of 19 years old. The launching of new satellites has fallen behind schedule. The next one is set to launch this November, three years after initially planned.

As TidBITS points out, however, given how dependent the military is on GPS, it doesn’t seem likely that it would let the accuracy drop so significantly.

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May 15

Pirate Bay in Trouble Again?

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites


This article was written on February 01, 2008 by CyberNet.

Pirate Bay Sinking The Pirate Bay is a torrent site that has been through just about everything you can imagine, and yet the site is still available. Now they are jumping through some hoops again, and this time there are four workers being charged with “assisted copyright infringement“. If they are found guilty they could possibly spend up to 2 years in jail, but the crew has already said that the site will stay alive regardless. The people going after them are none other than Warner, MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI.

I wonder how far this “assisted copyright infringement” can be stretched. For example, if I know someone looking to download a song and I tell them to go download it from the BitTorrent network then technically I am assisting in copyright infringement. Are there going to be spies walking around trying to get people to recommend download music and movies illegally? When will the madness end?

Here’s what the Pirate Bay had to say about the trial:

In case we lose the pending trial (yeah right) there will still not be any changes to the site. The Pirate Bay will keep operating just as always. We’ve been here for years and we will be here many more.

It also came to our attention that it’s now possible to buy the documents, from the police!, in the current investigation about The Pirate Bay. But only on paper. And it’s not 4000 pages, it 4620 pages. And they cost 6050 SEK for all of them (about 1000 USD). Our view of it? Why not just make a PDF, make a torrent of the PDF and seed it. We know a perfect place you can do that for free, and nobody would have to pay for all those pages of investigation. And a hell of a lot of trees would be saved… And even though the information in the investigation might be a bit personal at times (alcohol intake, sex addictions) we’re not suing the police for commercially exploiting the material they took from us without permission.

[via BBC & Torrent Freak]

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May 15

UK Man Builds Worlds Smallest Car Out of Toy

Posted in: Today's Chili

Worlds_Smallest_Car.jpg

And you thought the Smart fortwo was small: An enterprising 47-year-old fellow named Perry Watkins took a Postman Pat–a popular toy car in Europe–and converted it into a 39-inch-tall, 26-inch-wide vehicle that is known as the World’s Smallest Street-Legal Car.

As Autoblog reports, Watkins gutted the toy car, added a steel frame to the fiberglass shell, and then sat the whole thing on a quad chassis. The little car gets its oomph from a 150cc, four-stroke, single-cylinder engine hooked to the rear wheels. To make it street legal, Watkins added working headlights, taillights, windshield wipers, turn signals, and a horn, not to mention a license plate.
Supposedly, the thing gets 70 miles per gallon and can hit a top speed of 40 mph–assuming that you have the stomach for it. I don’t think you could get me in this thing if you tried. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t hilarious–and totally awesome. Short video after the break. (Thanks to Warren W for sending this in.)
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May 15

10 Examples of Summer Movie Merchandising Run Amok

Posted in: feature, Movies, Star Wars, Today's Chili, top

The summer movie season is getting heated up, and the recent release of Star Trek has me thinking about all of the absurd merchandise that has come out over the years.

Star Trek certainly isn’t the only franchise that has gone way too far in the quest to make a buck—it’s bitter rival Star Wars also comes to mind. The battle between the two franchises has been fought on many fronts, but the question about who has the stupidest merchandise has yet to be debated.

[Original Image via Flickr]

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May 15

Engadget Podcast 146 – 05.15.2009

Posted in: ad, Apple, att, engadget podcast, EngadgetPodcast, Microsoft, motorola, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, playstation 3, Playstation3, podcast, pre, ps3, rumors, snapdragon, sony, speculation, tegra, Today's Chili, zune

Josh Topolsky and Paul Miller walk into a bar, but the bar is a recording studio.

The bartender, who is the recording engineer, asks, “Why the long faces?”

“Sigh,” Paul says, and looks down at his feet. “Nothing but a buncha crummy phone rumors and probably fake slim PS3 pictures this week.”

“It’s hard to podcast when there’s no exciting news to podcast about,” says Josh, staring off into the distance.

The door slams open: it’s Nilay Patel. “I know what’ll cheer you guys up!” he says as he slams three stiff drinks down on the table. “Trashing AT&T about the Slingplayer app!”

Smiles creep over Josh and Paul’s faces. They nod, the engineer hits the record button, and history is made: The Engadget Podcast, volume 146.

Update: We added a video feed of your charming hosts from the recording studio after the break. It’s definitely an experiment at this stage, so let us know what you think!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Around the World

00:01:42 – Wild and slim PS3 redesign caught on camera?
00:17:20 – AT&T issues official statement on SlingPlayer’s 3G blackout for iPhone
00:28:49 – Microsoft’s latest ad: iTunes and the iPod are crazy expensive
00:37:26 – Microsoft “Pink” specs leak out: Tegra, Snapdragon, OMAP 3, oh my?
00:50:57 – Fuzzy math: Palm Pre to run about $470 full retail?
01:01:29 – Hold the phone: T-Mobile G1 v2 to really be the Samsung Bigfoot?
01:06:13 – Motorola’s first Android phone to be the T-Mobile G1 v2?

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Engadget Podcast 146 – 05.15.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 May 2009 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 15

Guitar Hero 5 makes room for four drummers, axe slingers or screamers

Posted in: controller, Music, Today's Chili

Alright, so you know Guitar Hero 5 is on the way — that’s all fine, well and good. But, did you realize that the birth of that game will also enable you to destroy your den by making room for four drum kits? Yes, we’re serious. GH 5 promises any kind of musician mix ‘n match you can dream up, enabling gamers to play with three singers and a drummer, four bassists (imagine someone cloning Sting and replacing the other Police with artificial Stings) or four skin slammin’ drummers. With possibilities this endless, you know things are bound to get savage.

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Guitar Hero 5 makes room for four drummers, axe slingers or screamers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 May 2009 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 15

Fit-PC 2 nettop stays slim, gets an Atom upgrade

Posted in: nettop, Today's Chili

The original Fit-PC slim may have been able to proclaim itself the “world’s smallest,” but with an 500MHz AMD Geode processor and no more than 512MB of RAM, it had a bit of difficulty with the “PC” side of the equation. Fit-PC looks to have gone some way towards improving that with its new Fit-PC 2, however, which matches the current nettop ranks by adding your choice of an Atom Z530 or Z510 processor. Otherwise, you can expect the usual 1GB of RAM, your choice of 2.5-inch SATA hard drive, built-in WiFi, a generous six USB ports, HDMI out, XP or Ubuntu for an OS, and support for full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. From the looks of it, this one is just starting to roll out now, and will set you back between $245 and $400 depending on the configuration. Still looking for more? Then head on past the break for a quick hands-on video.

Continue reading Fit-PC 2 nettop stays slim, gets an Atom upgrade

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Fit-PC 2 nettop stays slim, gets an Atom upgrade originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 May 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 15

Hands-On With Verizons LG Versa Game Controller

Posted in: LG, Tech Toys, Today's Chili, Verizon Wireless

gamepad.jpg

The LG Versa VX9600 phone for Verizon Wireless lets you switch out its plain back for various keyboards and controllers. The phone comes with a QWERTY keyboard, and earlier this month a game pad became available. The game pad could make the Versa one of the top gaming phones in the world, if enough games supported it. Right now, I could only find three games which did.

The Versa game pad is a sliding back cover that, when closed, makes the Versa look like a thick candy-bar-style touch screen phone. Slide the pad down, though, and you get some old-school Nintendo-style controls: an eight-way rocker with start, select, A, B, X and Y buttons. The phone’s UI rotates into landscape mode when you slide open the pad, and the phone gets a special home screen mode with large buttons to launch your games from. The gadget doesn’t require batteries, and you can replace it with the plain back or QWERTY keyboard whenever you like.

I spent a morning with the Versa’s gamepad, downloading games off of Verizon’s deck and trying to play them. Of the 10 games I downloaded, only three worked well with the game pad: Need for Speed Undercover, Pac-Man and Monopoly Here & Now.

Playing Need for Speed with the game pad was the best driving-game experience I’ve ever had on a phone. There was none of the cramped confusion you get when you normally play action games on a phone – driving was easy and smooth. I was disappointed to find that the game didn’t make any use of the A/B/X/Y buttons, though.

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May 15

Sony Alpha 230, 330, and 380 DSLRs out on May 19?

Posted in: dslr, leak, rumor, rumors, sony, Today's Chili

This next item is for all of you DSLR fiends who are champing at the bit in nervous anticipation of the revamped Sony Alpha 230, 330, and 380 DSLRs that were subject to some leakage a week or so ago. It looks like the cameras in question will be the raison d’être of a press event that the company has scheduled for the 19th of May, so you may just be getting your hands on the video-less wonders in short order — y’know, if that’s what you’re into. With prices starting at €549.99 (around $738) and going up from there, these bad boys feature a revised UI, HDMI out, and Memory Stick Duo support. And if you think that’s exciting, wait’ll you get a load of the spec breakdown! Peep it after the break.

[Via Photo Rumors]

Continue reading Sony Alpha 230, 330, and 380 DSLRs out on May 19?

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Sony Alpha 230, 330, and 380 DSLRs out on May 19? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 May 2009 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 15

Radius Gives a Rainbow of Sound

Posted in: earphones, headphones, iPod Nano, Today's Chili

RadiusTruTone.jpg
Shouldn’t your music player look as good as it sounds? Radius thinks so, which is why it just introduced the TruTune Fine Color series of in-ear earphones. It’s the perfect accessory for iPod nano 4G owners, since the nine colors match Apple’s rainbow lineup. Time to coordinate your look, nano owners.

The earphones are available for a reasonable $19.99 each, and are made from ultra-light aluminum. The mini-plug is gold-plated, for better audio quality. Each set comes with three sizes of silicone caps, so you can get the most comfortable fit possible.

The TruTone line is available from several online retailers, including Amazon and Buy.com. Check the Radius site for more information.

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