Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re on AT&T or Verizon you may have watched an episode of something or another wirelessly via FLO TV, and while the service has hardly taken the nation by storm, it’s probably the closest thing to DMB we Americans are going to get for awhile. Qualcomm was rumored to be working on a dedicated device for the service also called the FLO TV, a television-tuning gizmo with a capacitive touchscreen, and now here it is, captured sitting precariously close to the edge of the table, looking set to tumble onto what’s surely a greasy, dingy floor below. The device also doubles as a PMP, and while only 4GB of storage means it won’t be a particularly good one, with any luck there’s a microSD slot in there somewhere. It’s all very hush-hush at this point so we don’t have any idea about pricing or availability, but perhaps the loose lips at the FCC will give us an answer to that second question soon.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Wireless

Qualcomm’s FLO TV device caught in the wild with a cup of joe originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not sure how, but a deal with Google that gives On Demand Books access to an additional 2 million public-domain books slipped by us last week. On Demand Books, you’ll recall, is the company behind the Espresso Book Machine — an ATM, of sorts, for printing digital books. The machine prints, binds, and trims a single paperback-quality book with full-color cover in just a few minutes. So fast, in fact, that it’s been captured in the 2 minute and 31 second video after the break. Mmm, candy.

[Thanks, Raphael C.]

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Continue reading Video: Espresso Book Machine now serving 3.6 million books, thanks Google

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Video: Espresso Book Machine now serving 3.6 million books, thanks Google originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A trusted tipster with a proven past just gave us the launch day scoop on the hotly anticipated HTC Leo. A Windows Mobile 6.5 handset we recently spied with HD2 branding and a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 800×480 resolution — a pixel density that should give plenty of room for finger-friendly TouchFlo 3D navigation. According to said source, the O2 intranet site lists the “HTC HD2” on its future products list with an October 12th launch date. O2 peeps will immediately recognize the lack of XDA branding which makes the claim a bit suspicious. Then again, HTC has been trying to break the shackles of pointless carrier rebranding for years. Truth be told in the days ahead.

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC HD2 (aka, Leo) launching on O2 UK October 12th? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the amazing augmented reality application demo for the iPhone that we saw back in July? It was called Nearest Subway, and it overlaid floating representations of nearby New York subway stations onto the live video coming in through the camera of the iPhone 3GS. These appeared to be hanging in space, pinned in place by the 3GS’ compass and GPS.

That application is now available to buy, for just $1. There have been a few changes — it’s now called Bionic Eye, for instance — but the jaw-dropping virtual signage is still there, and the subway stations have been joined by other points of interest, hotels, fast-food joints and, splendidly, Hooters.

Bionic Eye now works anywhere in the United States, not just New York, and you can buy add-ons for the subway systems of New York, Washington and Chicago from within the application. To use it, you just hold it up and look. As you scan the electronic window across the cityscape the app updates in real time and shows you where things are. Move the iPhone down to a horizontal position and the jiggling signs turn into a list. Touch one of the items and the display shows an arrow pointing you towards, say, a lunch of wings and tight-fitting T-shirts.

Magically, this all works offline, so you need neither a Wi-Fi or data connection (although the app will show you any Wi-Fi spots around you). Everything is contained within the tiny 2.9-MB download. You will need the 3GS for this, as it has the essential compass, but you can use it with older iPhones or iPod Touches and get the same points of interest plotted onto a Google Map — equally useful but less jazzy.

Outside the United States, the UK, France and Tokyo are supported. Available now.

Product page [iTunes]
Product page [Bionic Eye]

See Also:

• If You’re Not Seeing Data, You’re Not Seeing
• How It Works: Augmented Reality
• Yelp Sneaks Augmented Reality Into iPhone App
• Augmented Reality Hobo Signs? There’s an App for That

The HP and Voodoo co-branded Envy notebook in 2008.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard is sending mixed signals on what exactly it plans to do with the Voodoo PC brand it acquired three years ago.

After purchasing the gaming and PC enthusiast brand in 2006, HP in 2008 began using the Voodoo name beyond powerful gaming PCs. It painted the name Voodoo and VoodooDNA on high-end HP notebooks and desktops, and talked up their premium engineering and design. They used the analogy that if the HP brand were a Smart Car and Compaq were a Chrysler, Voodoo would be their Maybach.

But a year later, HP’s consumer PC lineup contains little trace of the Voodoo branding. HP had introduced the HP Blackbird with VoodooDNA and more recently HP Firebird with Voodoo DNA. Both are nowhere to be found on HP.com. In a more recent example, a new notebook, called the HP Envy was released last week. A year ago it was called the HP Voodoo Envy 133. Though the updated model takes some Voodoo ideas like the thin profile, quick booting, the power adapter, and packaging, you’d have to be a Voodoo fanboy to know Voodoo had any sort of influence at all on it.

So what gives? It seems the Voodoo team didn’t have much to do with the Envy, despite its sharing the same name with older products.

“The reason there’s no ‘Voodoo DNA’ on the (most recent) product has to do with the overall design language, the target market, and the fact that we weren’t directly involved in the design,” Rahul Sood, the founder of VoodooPC and the chief technology officer of gaming PCs for HP, wrote on his personal blog.

In the same post, Sood that Voodoo is “transitioning from ‘desktop and notebook’ manufacturing to something beyond.” While it’s unclear what “something beyond” means, he hints that besides HP taking some design and engineering cues from Voodoo that the company he founded didn’t quite fit into HP the way Sood had initially expected.

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Originally posted at Circuit Breaker