Aug 31

Leica to announce new cameras on September 9th, absolute best day to stand out in the headlines

Posted in: camera, digital camera, DigitalCamera, dslr, Today's Chili

We know Leica’s target demographic is decidedly less consumer and more devoted professional photography, but even still, September 9th isn’t exactly the most apt timing to maximize press coverage on a next generation camera lineup when your competition of the day will be Apple’s annual iPod event and the release of Beatles Rock Band. Still, the urge to make announcements on 9-9-2009 at 9:00AM ET has gotta be too hard to pass up, and possibly not topped until 10:00AM on October 10th of next year. Video teaser after the break; no idea what we’re expecting to see from Leica (M8 successor, perhaps?), but we can all but guarantee it won’t be priced for mass consumption.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

Continue reading Leica to announce new cameras on September 9th, absolute best day to stand out in the headlines

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Leica to announce new cameras on September 9th, absolute best day to stand out in the headlines originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 31

Review Time: JH Audio’s Ridiculously Expensive, Totally Awesome Custom Earbuds

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Today's Chili

pr_jh13_f

We all know a good earbud is hard to find. Just open up a new iPod, iPhone or hell any portable audio device out there and have a listen to the included ‘buds. They’re crap, right? JH audio is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Its newest bespoke earbuds, the JH13s, deliver some of the crazy-best aural experiences we’ve ever heard in an earbud. Here’s an excerpt from reviewer Jackson Lynch:

The buds delivered fantastic sound separation with uncompromising booming bass, rattling mids and crystalline highs. For a lark, we tried mating the JH13s with the Ray Samuels Audio P-51 Mustang high-resolution headphone amp and ALO Audio’s 30-pin iPod line-out cable, just to see if that could improve on what we deemed to be aural perfection.

Adding these two (expensive) components opened the floodgates of unadulterated sound, yielding the richest, most complete experience we’ve ever coaxed out of a set of earbuds. Yes, the JH13s are terribly expensive, but they also make for the most luxurious listening this side of heaven.

Check out the rest of the awesome write-up of the JH Audio JH13PRO Earbuds on our reviews site.

(Photo by Jonanthan Snyder/ Wired.com)


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Aug 31

Sony unveils waterproof universal remotes for deep-sea TV addicts

Posted in: remote control, RemoteControl, sony, Today's Chili, TV, waterproof
If you’re very clumsy (or you love watching TV in the bathtub) Sony Japan has just the thing for you. The Rimotokomanda RM-PZ3SD universal remote comes in a palette of soothing colors, works with a wide variety of sets (including those by Panasonic / National, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Victor / JVC, Sanyo, Aiwa, Sharp, Funai / PRECIOUS, NEC, Fujitsu, Pioneer, Philips, and, of course, Sony), and offers at least a modicum of water-resistance for wet-handed TV viewing (we’ll leave that part up to your imagination). To be unleashed on the Japanese buying public “soon” for ¥2,468 (around $26). More pics after the break.

[Via Boing Boing]

Continue reading Sony unveils waterproof universal remotes for deep-sea TV addicts

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Sony unveils waterproof universal remotes for deep-sea TV addicts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 31

The 411: Envious of Europe

Posted in: Today's Chili

Welcome to the 411, my new Q&A column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have the same questions, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers …

Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast

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Aug 31

Netbook sales growth doubles laptops in Q2 ’09

Posted in: netbook, sales, Today's Chili
While it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given the fairly steady growth netbooks have seen since their inception as a product category, it’s still pretty notable that they’ve apparently now managed to nearly double traditional laptops in sales growth during the second quarter of this year. That word comes from market research firm DisplaySearch, which found that netbook shipments grew an impressive 40% compared to the same quarter last year, as opposed to 22% for plain old laptops. As excitingly illustrated in the chart above, however, that still leaves netbooks (or “mini-notes”) well behind laptops in terms of total shipments, although that seems almost certain to narrow considerably in the months and years ahead — at least until the line between netbooks and laptops becomes so blurred that we just start calling everything “laptops” again.

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Netbook sales growth doubles laptops in Q2 ’09 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 31

10 Houses Built From Unlikely Materials

Posted in: Today's Chili, top

James May’s Lego abode may be shaping up to be spectacular, but he’s far from the first person to build a house out of something novel. Here are ten more amazing homes with, shall we say, unorthodox constituents.

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Aug 31

BlackBerry Essex to bring WiFi on Tour?

Posted in: BlackBerry, RIM, rumor, rumors, Today's Chili, wifi

We’re starting to get the feeling they just didn’t know about WiFi in Waterloo until now, because almost every BlackBerry hardware rumor we’re hearing lately is all about how RIM’s adding the wireless networking spec and everyone’s oh-so-happy. Case in point: today we’ve got word of a new BlackBerry Essex, which is essentially… the Tour with WiFi. Seriously, that’s the whole rumor, and we’re guessing it has something to do with Sprint mandating WiFi on all of its future handsets, so it’s not even particularly wild. Don’t get us wrong here, we’re glad to have WiFi — it’s extremely nice on the Bold, and it certainly improves battery life — but considering the sorry state of the BlackBerry browser and the continued lack of real IMAP on the BlackBerry platform, we’re just wondering when BlackBerry fans will have some real changes to get excited about.

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BlackBerry Essex to bring WiFi on Tour? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 31

This month in video games screenshots: September 2009

Posted in: Today's Chili

This month in video games screenshots: September 2009

View the full gallery

While Batman: Arkham Asylum may have saved the summer’s brutal video game drought, it looks like September will really bring the goods. With this resurgence of quality gaming titles also comes our monthly slideshow tradition.

Both virtual band franchises have major releases this month as Guitar Hero 5 and

…

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Aug 31

The verdict: Logitech takes the mouse prize with Darkfield sensor

Posted in: Today's Chili

The results were conclusive in our mouse head-to-head. Logitech’s Performance Mouse MX and its new Darkfield sensor boldly went where Microsoft’s Explorer Mouse and its BlueTrack sensor could not. We tried two different glass tabletops and Logitech’s new mouse tech had no trouble maintaining signal integrity. Microsoft’…

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Aug 31

Toyota develops breathalyzer ignition-interlock, BJ McKay promises to hack it

Posted in: Today's Chili, Toyota, Transportation
Shoving breathalyzers into MIDs and PNDs has been all the rage overseas for quite a while, and now it looks like Toyota itself is getting in on the act. The breath-alcohol ignition-interlock system features a handset that detects alcohol on your breath (if any) and snaps your mug with a digital camera. Depending on your level of “fun” (that is, alcohol consumption) the thing can be set to alert you (in case you forgot about those three Iron Citys) or lock the vehicle’s ignition altogether. In addition, it can be used to monitor vehicles of commercial fleets and notify the boss if the driver shows up sloshed. Testing of the device commences September 1st, and will go through November 30. Historians agree that had this technology been available thirty years ago, the 1970s CB radio craze could have been avoided altogether.

[Via Yahoo!]

Continue reading Toyota develops breathalyzer ignition-interlock, BJ McKay promises to hack it

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Toyota develops breathalyzer ignition-interlock, BJ McKay promises to hack it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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