Jun 16

Adamo redux: Dell teases new thin-and-light laptops in Paris with no specs

Posted in: thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, ultraportable

See that? That’s Dell’s Phil Bryant and Michael Tatelman briefly displaying what they described as an “entirely new model line” of thin-and-light laptops without any further comment at an event in Paris this morning. If that sounds like a replay of the poorly-received Adamo teaser at CES with old dudes instead of models, well, you’re right — Tatelman even referenced the negative Adamo reaction but said “we’re going to try this again.” Good plan. At least this time we don’t have to wildly guess at what we’re seeing: we’re almost positive that’s a pair of those Intel CULV-based ultraportables rumored to be released in August, and unless Dell’s foolishly keeping with the Adamo theme, we’d assume specs and prices will match up with Acer’s Timeline series. Keep a sharp eye, we’ll let you know.

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Adamo redux: Dell teases new thin-and-light laptops in Paris with no specs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 16

Seagate and Rebit Team Up for Easy Backup

Posted in: Today's Chili

seagatereplica.jpgPC users will no longer need to look at Apple’s Time Capsule in envy, thanks to the Seagate and Rebit-powered Seagate Replica, a backup appliance supporting whole-PC backup on multiple machines. The device, powered by Seagate’s hardware and Rebit’s software, is attached via USB and keeps an up-to-date copy of whatever is on the PC, without having to rely on scheduling or manual backup. Lose your whole system? The Replica will bring it back just as it was the day before.

If you have more than one machine in need of backup, Seagate offers a multiple-PC version with twice the hard drive space (500GB instead of 250) and a plug-and-play dock for swapping out the drive. The price for this peace of mind? The Replica has an MSRP of $129.99 for the single-PC version and $199.99 for multiple PCs. Not bad, especially considering the Time Capsule goes for $299.99 with the equivalent 500GB.

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Jun 16

Engadget’s recession antidote: win a Phosphor E-Ink watch!

Posted in: contest, e ink, recession, Today's Chili, watch

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got a curved E-Ink wristwatch from Phosphor up for grabs. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Special thanks to Phosphor Watches for providing the gear!

The rules:

  • Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
  • You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
  • If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  • Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  • Winner will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) E-Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch with Black Leather Band. Approximate retail value is $185.
  • If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
  • Entries can be submitted until Tuesday, June 16h, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

  • Full rules can be found here.

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Engadget’s recession antidote: win a Phosphor E-Ink watch! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 16

Vodafone doesn’t waste any time, offers Samsung Jet free on contract

Posted in: samsung, Today's Chili, vodafone

Samsung may have only just officially taken the wraps off its Jet touchscreen phone yesterday, but it looks like folks in the UK can now already get their hands on one courtesy of Vodafone — and for free, no less. Of course, that’s if you’re willing to sign a two-year contract and grab a minimum £20 per month plan, which actually isn’t too bad a deal as far as these things go. In case you missed it, or understandably have it confused with one of Samsung’s other new phones, the Jet packs a 3.1-inch AMOLED display, along with a 5-megapixel camera, built-in GPS, a speedy 800MHz processor, a WebKit-based browser and, last but not least, Samsung’s un-smartphone TouchWiz 2.0 interface.

[Via Pocket-lint]

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Vodafone doesn’t waste any time, offers Samsung Jet free on contract originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 16

Metal Gear needs better writing, not graphics

Posted in: Today's Chili
Metal Gear Solid Rising

Metal Gear Solid Rising doesn't need to be this pretty.

(Credit: Konami)

Metal Gear Solid Rising won’t be using the Metal Gear Solid 4 game engine to help Kojima Productions save some cash. Instead, the game’s developer plans to build the title “from scratch” to ensure that it’s as beautiful as possible.

“We’re redoing the engine from scratch, and it’s going to look amazing,” Sean Eyestone, the host of the Kojima Productions podcast, said in a recent episode. “It’s going to be a big project like Metal Gear Solid 4. The entire team is serious about making it look as good as possible on every platform.”

As a Metal Gear fan since the beginning, I really like the series. There’s something enchanting about Solid Snake, Liquid Ocelot, Big Boss, and all the other characters that make up the story. But I’m deeply concerned by Kojima Productions’ focus on the beauty of the Metal Gear series instead of the content of the games. For years now, the franchise’s individual titles have been preachy and long-winded.

We don’t need better graphics from Hideo Kojima and his team; we need better writing.

…

Originally posted at The Digital Home

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Jun 16

Like weeds: new Natal Xbox rumor shot down, 3D Xbox rumor pops up to take its place

Posted in: Microsoft, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili, xbox, xbox 360, Xbox360

Rumor mongers seem hell bent on Microsoft building a brand new Xbox, despite what we assumed was wonderful news that current Xbox owners wouldn’t have to shell out for new hardware to handle Project Natal. Well, Microsoft has already hit back against 1UP‘s rumor of a new Xbox coming in Fall 2010, calling the report “nonsense.” Others have pointed out that the camera hardware actually does almost all of its own processing, so a slight hardware bump to the 360 would be kind of pointless — though most seem to agree that Microsoft will package Natal with the 360 in a new SKU akin to the Arcade or Elite.

Meanwhile, TeamXbox, the ones who seemed to think the Zune HD was a portable game console of sorts, have a new rumor in the works: the next Xbox 360 won’t be out in 2010 because Microsoft is going to wait for 3D-capable TVs to become more commonplace and launch a stereoscopic 3D console at that time. It sounds enticing, but given the fact that the Wii has succeeded directly in the face of its next-gen television empowering PS3 and Xbox 360 competition, we can’t say it’s the most likely of ideas — if anything, Microsoft will need to have some solid backwards compatibility for us 2D “Take On Me” types.

[Via PC World]

Read – Microsoft sources play down reports of new Xbox
Read – TeamXbox predicts 3D Xbox

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Like weeds: new Natal Xbox rumor shot down, 3D Xbox rumor pops up to take its place originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 16

Sony updates B-Series Walkman for Japan

Posted in: Today's Chili

Photo of the Sony B-Series Walkman MP3 player.

The Sony B-Series Walkman in all it's multi-hued, torpedo-shaped glory.

(Credit: Sony)

No one knows if the “B” in B-Series stands for budget or boring, but both are fitting descriptions for Sony’s lowest-tier Walkman MP3 player. Still, in these troubled times, the world needs cheap, pretty things, …

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Jun 16

Cheap Geek: HP Notebook, Microsoft Zune Bundle, iRobot Looj

Posted in: HP, notebook, Today's Chili

HPG60-230US.jpg

I don’t normally look at DVD deals in this space, but there are good prices online. Amazon has the Love Boat season one, volume one, for $26.99. When I was young I liked Gopher, but now I think Captain Stubing is hilarious.

1. Today’s deals are aimed at the last-minute Father’s Day shopper. If you’re feeling generous, go for the HP G60-230US notebook. NewEgg.com has it for $449.99 after $50 mail-in rebate, and it comes with free shipping. This notebook is loaded with a 2.0GHz Intel dual-core processor, 3GB RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and a big 16-inch screen. It even includes a LightScribe drive, perfect for dads who like to burn CDs and DVDs.

2. Was that last one a little too much to spend on Dad? I hear you. How about this: NewEgg.com is selling a Microsoft Zune bundle. You get a 30GB first generation Zune plus a kit that lets Dad play his Zune’s songs over the car stereo. You can get all this for a low $99.99. Dad doesn’t need to have an iPod; he’ll be cool with this.

3. What? That was still too much? You say you’d like a gift that looks expensive and techie but is actually way cheap? Got it. Buy.com is selling the iRobot Looj gutter cleaning robot for $39.99 and it comes with free shipping. Even better, if you pay using PayPayl you get $10 off instantly, making the price $29.99. For that Dad gets a cool robot tool and the illusion that you paid a lot of money.

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Jun 16

Huawei U8230 Android phone officially launched at CommunicAsia

Posted in: Android, Today's Chili, Windows Mobile, WindowsMobile

Remember that mysterious Huawei Android number from MWC? It’s all grown up and officially launched as the U8230 now. Specs are still maddeningly ambiguous, however — the only hard info we’ve got is a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a 1500mAH battery, which is said to be the largest battery “among Android-powered handsets currently available.” Considering the only set that’s really out there is the notoriously battery-poor G1, that’s not such a radical claim, but we’d sure love to test this one out in person when this launches (perhaps on T-Mobile?) alongside the 2.8-inch Windows Mobile-powered C8000 later this year.

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Huawei U8230 Android phone officially launched at CommunicAsia originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 16

SkullyBoom has its eye on you

Posted in: Today's Chili

Photo of the SkullyBoom SB1 portable speaker.

The SkullyBoom SB1.

(Credit: Delicious Drips)

If you’ve been looking for a speaker that accurately mimics the look of Hello Kitty’s decapitated skull, the SkullyBoom SB1 ($60) should be right up your alley. The grim, little speaker box uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery to power a single …

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