Sep 18

Nokia Booklet 3G hits the unboxing phase of its product cycle

Posted in: laptop, netbook, nokia, Today's Chili, unboxing

Might as well add your own soundtrack, because chances are, you won’t be able to understand what the narrator with a tattoo on his left hand is saying. Not that you really need, as you can probably get the gist of this Nokia Booklet 3G unboxing. We’ve got blue packaging, a power brick, a “Hello, Hei” greeting just under the portable itself, and a fairly sleek portable to boot. Of course, with a $800 price tag on the outside and an Atom processor on the inside, it’s not the most attractive of combinations. See the whole kit and caboodle after the break.

[Thanks, mimo]

Continue reading Nokia Booklet 3G hits the unboxing phase of its product cycle

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Nokia Booklet 3G hits the unboxing phase of its product cycle originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 18

ASUS AiGuru SV1T videophone adds 7-inch touchscreen to 70s nostalgia

Posted in: ASUS, skype, Today's Chili, touchscreen

You’ve got to hand it to ASUS — the little Taiwanese company isn’t afraid of pushing the limits in niche markets. Above is its latest Skype-certified AiGuru dedicated videophone, the SV1T. The major new feature of the all-in-one device with WiFi (or Ethernet), VGA webcam, mic, and speaker is that large 7-inch 800×480 pixel touchscreen. A compelling device if they can get the price right; its predecessor listed for $300 — about $201 too much in a market saturated by cheap netbooks.

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ASUS AiGuru SV1T videophone adds 7-inch touchscreen to 70s nostalgia originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 18

HP and Dr. Dre team up to shill a limited edition Envy 15

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, HP, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili
When we saw the HP-branded Envy leak a whole four days ago we certainly didn’t expect to get any news on the beast so soon, but ‘lo and behold! The new Envy is here, and we’ve been getting plenty of positive feedback from HP fanboys the world o’er regarding the new sub-brand. Who could find fault with a Windows machine that features everything we love about those new MacBooks, including the chicklet keyboard, unibody aluminum chasis, thin-and-light physique, multitouch trackpad, and all the Microsoft OS action you so obviously crave, wrapped ever-so-lovingly in a Hewlett Packard shell? We’ll tell you who: Lady Gaga. That’s right, the popular recording artist and all-around good American just found out that HP has teamed up with Dr. Dre to create a limited edition Envy 15 laptop and is a little perturbed that she wasn’t involved in the branding. How dare they think that a matte black chassis and bright red “Beats” logo would be enough to sell this bad boy? We’ll tell you what — if you feel for her plight, you might think about spending some of your heard earned cash on a pair of her headphones. The rest of us can feel content to peep the gallery below and think about what might have been.

Gallery: HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition

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HP and Dr. Dre team up to shill a limited edition Envy 15 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 18

Mission-style PC casemod easily slides into your La-Z-Boy collection

Posted in: case, desktop, diy, mod, PC, Today's Chili

Jeffrey Stephenson is to case mods what Benjamin Heckendorn is to console mods. There, we said it. After watching the former pump out wood-grained mod after wood-grained mod, Sir Jeff has issued yet another — wait for it — wood-grained mod. The black walnut mission-style side table is actually a full-blown PC in disguise, with a standard ATX mid-tower within that’s equipped with an Intel Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA graphics and dual stage temperature-controlled exhaust fans. He notes that it’ll be available next Spring for those with fine tastes, though we’re sure he’d customize it to fit your living room suite for the right price.

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Mission-style PC casemod easily slides into your La-Z-Boy collection originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 18

Nokia N86 8MP finally available stateside

Posted in: nokia, Today's Chili

It’s still showing as a preorder on Nokia USA’s own site, but Amazon and the brick-and-mortar flagship stores in Chicago and New York are finally stocking the N86 8MP — a little bit of a stretch for the “coming weeks” claim made at the North American version’s launch announcement back in July. The beefy dual slider features a 2.6-inch QVGA OLED display, US 3G up to 3.6Mbps on the downlink, and WiFi — but clearly the big draw is its 8 megapixel cam with Carl Zeiss optics around back accompanied by a dual LED flash. We would’ve liked this last month, but the good news is that it’s launching for less than the $558 originally mentioned: Amazon’s got it written up at $469, while the flagship stores are apparently hawking ’em for $30 more.

[Via The Nokia Blog]

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Nokia N86 8MP finally available stateside originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 17

Follow up to ‘Good-bye iPhone…’

Posted in: Today's Chili

My last post about “reverse switching” from an iPhone back to a BlackBerry generated a lot of great comments that I believe warrant a short follow-up (much shorter than the original post, I promise). I can’t address all the comments, but here are a few thoughts.

For the record, in my post, I’m describing 3.1 software on an iPhone 3G.

Yes, the 3GS actually speed some things up, such as the camera; however, in my view, the iPhone’s speed issue is not one of CPU horsepower, but because of its fundamental interface architecture. As I say in the article, the paned, step-by-step interface is “easy,” but it puts a limit on how fast it can be used, simply because of the number of steps it requires to perform a task. Apple can speed the CPU all it wants, and it will only make a marginal difference to the key usability index of time on task (the amount of time it takes to start and complete an activity).

(As an aside, on the topic of doing great user interface with a low performance device, here’s an old post I wrote about the UI design of the Palm. Palm beat the experience provided by Windows Mobile phones of the day, even though its CPU, memory, and screen were far inferior.)

As some point out, there are things that can be done with a jailbroken phone that address specific issues. However, I’m using a work-issued phone, so I’m not going to jailbreak a phone that doesn’t belong to me. Besides, jailbreaking is something that only a tiny percentage of users will risk doing, or even know about. You may say I’m a BlackBerry power user (I don’t really think I am; there are people who know way more about it than I do), but things like knowing one’s way around the menu are way less geeky than jailbreaking.
…

Originally posted at Matter/Anti-Matter

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Sep 17

Pentax K-x hands-on

Posted in: 720p, dslr, Features, hands-on, Today's Chili

We just got a quick look at Pentax’s value priced, 720p-shootin’ DSLR, the K-x. Unfortunately, the models we saw were pretty early prototypes, so we didn’t get to really see how the camera performs. Overall the build quality seems solid, but nothing incredible — though quite good for the $650 pricepoint. We were sad to hear that those crazy color options will be Japan only: the US is only getting red, white, blue and black. But how about that red! We can honestly say it’s one of the wilder shades we’ve seen on a consumer electronics product, and our camera seemed have a trouble comprehending the particular shade of red. We look forward to all the curious looks we’ll get when we have a final build of the product to play with in the wild.

Gallery: Pentax K-x hands-on

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Pentax K-x hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 17

LG introduces XPION X30 Ion-based nettop

Posted in: intel, LG, nettop, NVIDIA, Today's Chili
Apparently not content to let ASUS have all the fun, LG’s just announced the XPION X30, its first Ion-based nettop. This little fella features an Atom N230 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 250GB HDD, and ships with Windows Vista (for the time being, at least). Aside from sporting six (count ’em!) USB ports, it weighs in at a mere 2.4 lbs, draws just 40 watts of power, and can be VESA mounted to the back of your LCD. But never mind all that — as long is it allows us to stream American Ninja from Netflix with minimal fuss we’re happy. Debuts tomorrow in Korea.

Gallery: LG XPION X30

[Via SlashGear]

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LG introduces XPION X30 Ion-based nettop originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 17

Cornell gurus look to carbon nanotubes for efficient solar cells

Posted in: research, science, solar, solar power, SolarPower, Today's Chili, university

You know what we love? Solar-powered gadgets, and carbon nanotubes. Oh, and Ivy League schools. Boffins from Cornell University are now looking to use the multifaceted carbon nanotube instead of silicon to develop efficient solar cells, and judging by the glacial pace at which solar cell efficiency is improving, we’d say the sector could use the boost. The researchers have already fabricated, tested and measured a simple solar cell (called a photodiode, just so you know) that was formed from an individual carbon nanotube. The tube was essentially a rolled-up sheet of graphene, and while the inner workings would take days to explain, the gist of it is this:

“The nanotube may be a nearly ideal photovoltaic cell because it allowed electrons to create more electrons by utilizing the spare energy from the light.”

So, solar-powered F-350 trucks are now a possibility for next year, right?

[Via Graphene-Info]

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Cornell gurus look to carbon nanotubes for efficient solar cells originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 17

Video: Joules robot rides shotgun, helps pedal on two-person bicycle

Posted in: bike, diy, mod, robot, Today's Chili, video

There’s “desperate for companionship,” and then there’s “just plain cool.” We’re going out on a limb here and suggesting that the scenario you see unfolding above is a case of the latter, with modder Carl developing a robotic partner that not only rides shotgun on this tandem bicycle, but also helps pedal. A PMG-132 electric motor is connected to Joules (that’s the robot, just so you know), and thanks to an array of nuts, bolts, joints and the promise of a better life in Carl’s garage, Joules has graciously agreed to help power the bike for as long as his owner decides to exercise. Trust us, there’s a truly touching video waiting for you after the break, and you’ll immediately lose five nerd points should you choose not to head down there and look.

Continue reading Video: Joules robot rides shotgun, helps pedal on two-person bicycle

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Video: Joules robot rides shotgun, helps pedal on two-person bicycle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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