Jul 10

Rockchip plans on slashing Android phone prices with new RK2808 chipset

Posted in: Android, Today's Chili

Rockchip, already a favorite among dirt cheap, feature-laden PMPs, has its sights set on Android and we couldn’t be happier. The company sees Android’s free nature being the perfect match for the Chinese market, and plans to release its low-cost RK2808 chipset in October to take advantage of that. In addition to Android, Rockchip claims the RK2808 enables additional multimedia capability over what’s currently available in Android handsets. No matter how well the RK2808 pans out, it’s obvious that the second half of this year will mark a real explosion in Android, and if we could get some $100 or $200 unlocked imports mixed in there somewhere, we certainly wouldn’t be complaining.

[Via PMP Today]

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Rockchip plans on slashing Android phone prices with new RK2808 chipset originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 10

Axxis fingerprint door lock invites hacker wannabes to burgle your premises

Posted in: security, Today's Chili

Biometric security might sound cool, but relying on fingerprint recognition alone for securing anything more serious than your Windows password typically results in the rapid hacking, whether through flesh or software, of that protection. Well, Axxis is trying to address this problem with a new dual-factor security lock — requiring a PIN alongside fingerprint identification — which allows you to customize access times for each registered user and also spy on their comings and goings. Retailing for $699 per lock, alongside an entirely-not-optional $299 accessory, this is hardly a bargain bin item — with a price like that, a burglar might be inclined to steal the locks instead of your treasured possessions.

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Axxis fingerprint door lock invites hacker wannabes to burgle your premises originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 10

Adafruit’s Citizen Engineer comic book / SIM card reader kit

Posted in: hack, mod, Today's Chili

The gang at Adafruit Industries are on a mission — and they won’t rest until every man, woman, and child on this planet has access to the DIY and open source electronics they crave. The most recent project of theirs, Citizen Engineer: SIM Card Hacking, is a comic book that both serves as a primer on GSM and SIM cards and tells you how to build a SIM card reader. And if that weren’t awesome enough, if you purchase the title for $35 they’ll throw in the reader kit — either enabling your thirst for knowledge or jump-starting you on your path towards a new life as a hacker / fixer for the Russian Mafia. Video after the break.

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Adafruit’s Citizen Engineer comic book / SIM card reader kit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 10

Samsung’s YP-R1 spotted in the wild leering at kids

Posted in: in the wild, InTheWild, samsung, Today's Chili, touchscreen

We like bubble-gum icons and ginger bread men holding “Touch Me!” signs as much as any predator. It’s just not the first motif that comes to mind when choosing an interface for what otherwise looks to be yet another mainstream digital media player. Perhaps Samsung’s YP-R1 is targeting 9-year old Korean girls — however, that sure looks like a brushed metal box to us, not teddy-bear taffeta affixed to a Mickey Mouse effigy as we’d expect. Otherwise, the YP-R1 is the same 2.6-inch touchscreen 400 x 260 pixel player with up to 32GB (€149 for 8GB model) of storage we’ve already seen only now with an expected September ship date, at least in France. One more shot after the break. What can we say — this is what you get when we hope to be surprised.

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Samsung’s YP-R1 spotted in the wild leering at kids originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 10

Memorex hears the cry of underserved female gadget hounds, delivers the pink

Posted in: ipod dock, IpodDock, Today's Chili

Memorex recently had a study carried out on its behalf, which found that roughly 70 percent of women feel “underserved” by electronics companies. Women, who buy about 40 percent of electronics, think (according to this study) that most products are made and marketed for men. Memorex ingested that data, and decided to offer up some new options for the ladies… and they came up with a neon pink, purse-shaped iPod dock. The miniMove Boombox would be just another crummy looking piece of gadget noise, had it not come swaddled in such a spate of condescending mumbo jumbo. Kasia van Hall (a woman!) of Memorex told the Times of London that “women want to know about technology, but only just enough to get a taste of it,” adding that the majority “simply don’t have time or energy to read long instructions and play with cables.” The device, in similar, less-pink form, has been on shelves since last December.

Now, it’s true, we of the Engadget nerdom are possibly in the minority, but it seems like a crappily designed iPod dock painted pink is hardly the answer to the conundrum of women’s gadget needs. Then again, we have been known to try to insert our BlackBerry into the VCR. Were we not supposed to do that? The miniMove Boombox will be available in the next two weeks in the UK for a totally cute £59 (that’s $96 for all you mathematically-challenged gals).

[Via Jezebel]

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Memorex hears the cry of underserved female gadget hounds, delivers the pink originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 09

Sony Vaio W hands-on roundup

Posted in: netbook, roundup, sony, Today's Chili, vaio

Looks like our friends across the pond were among the lucky few to get a their hands on Sony’s Vaio W netbook — that still feels weird to write — and the big takeaway here is that despite its size, the 10.1-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution screen is gorgeous. As for video, though, it’s still an Atom-powered portable with integrated Intel GMA graphics, meaning smooth HD is more or less out of the question. The good news if it pans out, however, is that Sony will likely offer a 2GB RAM update, which should help out a bit. There was also near-universal love for the keyboard, with PC Pro being the lone exception, decreeing it just average when compared to what the Samsung N110 offered. Battery life couldn’t be tested, and as for price? Well, no one seemed too bothered by the £400 tag, but we still maintain our own reservations until we get some time with it ourselves. You want more? A platter of impressions await you just below.

Read – PC Pro
Read – TechRadar
Read – Stuff.tv
Read – What Laptop

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Sony Vaio W hands-on roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 09

webOS 1.1 rumored to be on the way to Pres shortly, sounds boring so far

Posted in: palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, rumor, Today's Chili, webos

If you were hoping for more system sound configurability, better notification control, or an equalizer in the music player (heck, we’ll settle for bass and treble), your wait might be nowhere close to over — but the good news is that it appears there’s some sort of update on the way for Pres in the field that’s significant enough to justify a 0.1 bump in webOS’ version number to 1.1. Corporate types will get all fired up over better managed Exchange policy integration with support for device wipe after failed PIN attempts, auto PIN lock, minimum password complexity, and a bunch of other things that your average Pre owner isn’t going to give a flying iPhone about. Perhaps more interesting to everyone else is the claim that additional built-in apps are a possibility for 1.1, though there’s no detail there — it could be best-of-breed stuff culled from the App Catalog, new first-party apps, or a combination. PreCentral’s hearing “within 30 days” for the release, so go ahead and get your firmware upgrade pants on now just in case.

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webOS 1.1 rumored to be on the way to Pres shortly, sounds boring so far originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 09

Silverlight 3 out of beta, joins forces with your GPU for HD streaming

Posted in: sdk, streaming, Today's Chili, web browser, WebBrowser

A day earlier than expected, Microsoft has launched its third edition of Silverlight and its SDK. As Ars Technica notes, some of the bigger improvements on the user side are GPU hardware acceleration and new codec support including H.264, AAC, and MPEG-4. If you’re looking to give it a spin, there’s a Smooth Streaming demo available that, as the name suggests, does a pretty good job of streaming HD video with little stutter, even when skipping around. If you’ve got Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 6, Safari 3 or anything fresher, hit up the read link to get the update.

[Via Ars Technica]

Read – Download Page
Read – Smooth Streaming demo

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Silverlight 3 out of beta, joins forces with your GPU for HD streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 09

Ask Engadget: What’s the best nettop out there now?

Posted in: AskEngadget, Features, nettop, Today's Chili

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Jamison, who can’t seem to settle on a minuscule new desktop to handle email, web browsing and the occasional Skype call.

“All of these new nettops have me intrigued. I’m looking for a small, quiet and cheap PC to replace my aging tower in my home office, and all it really needs to do is load Microsoft Office, check email and surf the web. Is there a particular nettop that’s better (or a better value) than another? I know it’s a rather new segment, but hopefully someone has taken a chance on one already. Thanks!”

Look, we know you’re scared to admit that you own a nettop, particularly in front of your hardcore gaming pals. But trust us, there’s no shame in using an underpowered machine to handle low-power tasks. Toss your opinions in comments below, and feel free to send in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com.

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Ask Engadget: What’s the best nettop out there now? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 09

Sprint mandating WiFi on future smartphones, WLAN-lovin’ BlackBerry Tour coming next year

Posted in: BlackBerry, cdma, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, Sprint, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw, wi-fi, wifi

By the time Sprint gets around to releasing the 9630 Tour with WiFi, due out sometime early next year, we think most everyone’ll have moved on to any one of the numerous BlackBerry devices likely to hit in the interim. What’s more important in this FierceWireless report is that Sprint’s requiring WiFi “in all its major devices going forward” — which should mean pretty much every smartphone that lands in its CDMA-loving mitts. Verizon Wireless, who along with Sprint is also launching the WLAN-less Tour this Sunday, said that the company’s working with RIM to get WiFi into future BlackBerry, but didn’t oblige us with any hopeful descriptors that’d help us understand just how strong of a push was being made. Frankly, smartphones without WiFi at this point is downright criminal, and with CDMA phones trailing behind their GSM counterparts in this category, kudos to Sprint for taking the initiative.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Sprint mandating WiFi on future smartphones, WLAN-lovin’ BlackBerry Tour coming next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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