Hasta La Gadget!

UPDATE: C64 Emulator has yet again been pulled from the App Store for sneaking in an easter egg that allows the execution of code in a BASIC interpreter. See the end of the post for details.

Finally, a Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone. The application, previously rejected by Apple, has at last been approved and brings some classic 8-bit action to your pocket.

The emulator is unlike most others in that it is legal. Usually when old (and new) consoles and computers are recreated in software, the emulator itself is fine, but the games played on them are either pirated or in a gray area, where the original authors or copyright holders cannot be found.

C64 emulator only offers legit games, and as such is a little starved for titles. You pay $5 and get five games: Artic Shipwreck, Dragon’s Den, Jack Attack, Jupiter Lander and Lemans. More games can be bought from within the app itself and are added to a decidedly slick and non-8-bit-looking library. Controlling everything is dome via on-screen representations of joysticks and buttons, and as this is an actual emulator, you get all the low-fi goodness of the original code.

Update:

In order to win Apple’s approval the developer Manomio pulled the BASIC interpreter from the application. It turns out that it was still in there and could be activated with a few keystrokes. It took all of a few minutes for Apple to hear about this and pull the application yet again. For a developer that went to such lengths to secure copyright permissions, this seems a bit dumb. From the developer’s blog:

Unfortunately Apple this night pulled the C64 App from the App Store. We had agreed with Apple to remove basic from the application, but as we believed it would be possible to convince Apple to let it in later on, we left it in the app to be activated remotely by us when we had “go” from Apple.

[A] new version has been submitted to Apple, and we can only hope Apple will appreciate our efforts to apply the changes they need in order to put it back on.

Oops.

C64 Emulator Approved by Apple and Now Available [Touch Arcade]

Developer blog post [Manomio]

The Esprimo Q1500, which might remind you of a Mac Mini, is back with the mischievous intent to show off the wares that Apple won’t let you have. Though we suspected the Intel CPU inside would be a CULV variant, it turns out to be no less than a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo T9600 — and it got a good workout by the awesome Engadget Spanish crew, who ran a 720p video in Windows Media Player alongside a Blu-ray movie without any hiccups. The good news extends to the machine itself, which remained quiet in operation and cool to the touch a full 10 minutes into its mini torture test. If we said prices for the top config might be a little cheaper than expected, would you finally be excited? Video after the break.

Continue reading Fujitsu Esprimo Q1500 flexes Blu-ray muscle on video

Filed under: Desktops

Fujitsu Esprimo Q1500 flexes Blu-ray muscle on video originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See what a little corporate secrecy can do? It drives the public, and the reporters, nuts, kicking up a whole lot of sparkly publicity-dust along the way. And doesn’t hurt that the brand in question is the cult camera-maker, Leica.

Today’s exciting news is that the details of tomorrow’s “secret” announcement have been leaked in the form of a pdf brochure and an online mini-site. The products are the M9, an update to the M8 rangefinder line, and the X1, a compact camera with a big CMOS sensor.

The M9’s big feature is its full-frame sensor, which will allow proper use of the company’s legendary lenses; the M8, like other crop-framed cameras, would make these lenses longer than they were meant to be. The larger sensor hasn’t added any sensitivity – ISO still tops out at 2500 – but it has let Leica squeeze some extra pixels on there: 18 of them, proving once again that a once innovative company has fallen behind the curve: Even Canon, as megapixel-mad a company as ever existed, has learned the error of its ways.

Not much else is new. From the outside, not many people would spot the difference between the M8 and the M9, but then, the camera design is pretty much already perfect for what it does (apart from having to remove the bottom plate just to change out memory cards). In the box is a nice surprise. Instead of writing its own processing software, Leica has just thrown in Adobe’s Lightroom, a very nice touch.

The X1 is likely to be in more people’s price range, although actual prices are not in the brochure. Details are scarce, but the blurb includes this:

It is equipped with a CMOS sensor equal in size to that of many DSLR cameras, and it’s fitted with one of the very best Leica lenses […] As an optional alternative to its impressive array of manual functions, it provides automatic features, such as autofocus

We take that to mean an APS-C sized sensor, as found in all but full-frame DSLRs. If the pixel-count is kept low, this could actually be a Leica compact worth buying (usually it’s best to buy the identical but differently branded Panasonic versions).

We’ll find out the rest tomorrow, no doubt. If anyone is paying attention during the Apple/iPod furore.

Leica M9 microsite, brochure and more Leica X1 info [Leica Rumors]

LEICA M9 microsite screenshots [Leicaphile/Flickr]

See Also:

• Leica 'Teaser' Promises M9 Next Week

What do you add to a pocket projector that already has a massive 640 x 480 resolution and the power of 9 suns lumens? Why, a WinCE-powered computer, of course. Now, when everyone else is fumbling around with their bulky laptops, you can bust out your Darling, use the top-mounted touchpad to navigate, and be the fastest projector gunslinger in the office. There’s even a stand, a pair of mini-USB ports for hooking up a keyboard and mouse, and an SD expansion slot to augment the already super-generous 1GB of Flash storage. So how much does a PC with a huge display and SSD cost these days? $180. Don’t tell us that ain’t progress. Check it out after the break.

[Via Pico Projector Info]

Continue reading Guangzhou Darling DP2000 is a nutty pc-in-a-projector that we kinda love (video)

Filed under: Displays

Guangzhou Darling DP2000 is a nutty pc-in-a-projector that we kinda love (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This one sure took awhile but the oft leaked HTC Click has been renamed and kicked out the door as the Tattoo. While HTC is light on specs with the press release, we know it has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, 3.5-mm headset jack, and microSD expansion. And besides being small and compact, the Tattoo can be personalized with owner-designed covers — hence the name. The HTC Tattoo lands in Europe early October before hitting select global markets in the months to follow.

Update: And… out pop the specs: 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, 512MB/256MB ROM/RAM, 106 x 55.2 x 14-mm / 113 grams, 2.8-inch touchscreen LCD pushing 240×320 QVGA pixels, 900/2100MHz HSPA/UMTS and quad-band GSM/EDGE, internal GPS, 802.11b/g WiFi, digital compass, accelerometer, and Bluetooth 2.0. Not bad for a mass-market device.

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Tattoo (aka, Click) brings Android, Sense UI to all originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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