The light!!
(Credit: NEC)
Energy-efficient computer monitors are seemingly the new black. With each new press release vendors never fail to mention how much power their products use, or more specifically, don’t use. Nothing wrong with that, really; I’m just usually skeptical of manufacturer’s claims. Which is …
Filed under: Wireless
Researchers create Amazing X-Ray Wireless Network! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Laptops, Wireless
Sierra Wireless adds 2-in-1 HSPA+ AirCards to a lineup already fraught with action and danger originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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X10, whose website is the only place where animated gifs still remain king, just released a universal remote that can handle both X10’s home appliance controls as well as all your A/V gear in your home theater.
$100
Actually a good deal.
There are two components of the remote that, depending on your habits, you may use more or less of. There’s the “universal remote” part of the iconRemote RF, which acts similar to the Logitech Harmony remotes in that it controls all your electronics, but it doesn’t have the fancy software programming suite to back it up. And there’s the X10 part of the remote, which acts as a wireless control—via the included wireless receiver and appliance/lamp modules—to various appliances around your house.
The iconRemote RF is a so-so universal remote, and you program it like you do the old style ones you buy at Radio Shack; you point it at your TV and you stop cycling when the TV turns on. Repeat as many times as you have A/V equipment you want to control.
This method makes initial setup actually easier than the Logitech Harmony remotes, but limits you to how much fine-grained control you have. The remote may “know” how to turn on and off your receiver, but it doesn’t understand how many HDMI inputs there are or how to switch between them. So it’s a universal remote only for more simple systems with just a TV and maybe a DVD player.
One nice feature the iconRemote introduces is the semi-hard coded favorites, which has network logos on screen that you can click to jump to. And, as the name of the remote implies, it has an RF to IR blaster included, so you can eschew line-of-sight and put your equipment in a cabinet and still be able to change channels.
Package includes an RF to IR blaster
It’s only a rudimentary universal remote
Also, it’s kind of gigantic
X10 has dialed down their popup ads in recent years, but their product is the same: home automation via light, appliance and electronics controls. The package includes one wireless transceiver, one lamp module and one appliance module. The transceiver takes the wireless signals and shoots them over your powerline, which them gets interpreted by your lamp or appliance module to turn on/off whatever’s plugged in.
Its major flaw is the fact that the whole transceiver + module has to be on the same circuit. A transceiver upstairs wouldn’t control a lamp downstairs, for example, because they weren’t able to talk to each other over the electrical system. You’ll have to go and buy more transceivers to control every room of your house this way.
But, once you do have everything set up, being able to dim lights, turn on and off appliances, and otherwise interact with other X10 home automation devices, is a pretty valuable thing to have in your universal remote.
Controls X10’s home automation modules
Comes with one transceiver and two control modules
You’ll have to buy a lot more to control your entire house
At $100, the iconRemote RF is a pretty interesting package. It’s not great enough of a remote to replace a Logitech Harmony for hardcore users, but it is decent enough to be a step up from those cheaper universal remotes you may have. Coupled with the fact that it’s an X10 remote, it’s a very handy thing to have at all times.
To get the package, add both the iconRemote RF and the Remote-Controlled Dimmable Theater Lighting to your cart before checkout. [X10]
Apple quietly purchased Placebase, an online-mapping company, earlier this year. The acquisition could indicate the Cupertino, California, company’s plans to reduce its dependence on Google services, such as the Google Maps application currently built into the iPhone operating system.
The news of the acquisition broke unofficially on Twitter in July, but the buyout was only recently confirmed by ComputerWorld’s Seth Weintraub with some online sleuthing.
Jaron Waldman, former Placebase CEO, is now part of the “Geo Team” at Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. Waldman does not disclose a description of his duties or the role of the Geo Team, leaving the tech community guessing over the purpose of this buyout.
Why would Apple purchase a mapping company?
The most obvious reason would be to buy the maps, of course. The Maps app included with the iPhone pulls geographic data from the Google Maps service, but the app itself was coded by Apple. Apple’s iPhoto ‘09 organizes photos based on where they were taken, also using data from Google Maps.
Purchasing Placebase could enable Apple to incorporate its own mapping technologies. Perhaps the company will also embrace the opportunity to innovate around mapping and add a dash of exclusive geo-savvy features to its Macs, iPods and iPhones.
Apple’s desire to wean itself from dependence on Google would not be surprising. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently resigned from Apple’s board of directors due to “conflicts of interest” between the two companies. The resignation followed Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice app for the iPhone, which led to an FCC investigation.
“As Apple and Google’s interests diverge, expect Apple to find ways to rely less and less on Google services,” said Michael Gartenberg, a tech strategist at Interpret. “It’s happening already.”
Of course, the Placebase acquisition was very recent, so it could be some time before we see what Apple has in store with mapping.
Here’s a clue of what Apple might deliver: In February, software developers tinkering with Mac OS X Snow Leopard said they discovered evidence that the operating system would support triangulation to approximate the latitude and longitude of a Mac. But when Snow Leopard released, that feature did not appear. Perhaps Apple is waiting to develop its own mapping technologies with Placebase before unlocking this new tool.
What are your ideas about what Apple could do with this buyout? Please add your thoughts in the comments below.
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Photo: SteveGarfield/Flickr
Continue reading Video: BumpTop 1.2 with multitouch support available now
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
Video: BumpTop 1.2 with multitouch support available now originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For more than 60 years, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute has promoted and undertaken “applied research…of wide benefit to society as a whole,” according to its mission statement. That’s why it’s
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Originally posted at Appliances & Kitchen Gadgets
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)Whether CULV thin-and-light laptops will ever fully find a spot between the Netbook world and the full-featured laptop world, they are most definitely a category that’s growing every day. Dropping an optical drive and throwing a low-voltage processor alongside a long-lasting battery is the trend
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Amazon might have been extremely contrite about remotely deleting 1984 from Kindles, but a Jeff Bezos apology and an offer to restore the book doesn’t necessarily add up to a meaningful change in policy. As part of the settlement with that student who sued over the 1984 situation, Amazon’s had to clarify its remote-deletion guidelines, and they’re pretty much the same as ever: they’ll hit the kill switch if you ask for a refund or if your credit card is declined, if a judge orders them to, or if they need to protect the Kindle or the network from malware. Sounds simple, right?
Well, sort of — saying they’ll delete content at the behest of judicial or regulatory decree pretty much leaves the door open to exactly the same situation as the 1984 debacle, just a couple procedural steps down the line and with less blame placed on Amazon. If you’ll recall, 1984 was deleted after the publisher was sued for not having the proper rights, and Amazon took the proactive step of deleting the content — and although Amazon won’t do that on its own anymore, all it takes now is one strongly-worded motion before a sympathetic judge and we’re back at square one. That’s pretty troubling — no judge can order a physical bookseller to come into your house and retrieve a book they’ve sold you, and saying things are different for the Kindle raises some interesting questions about what Amazon thinks “ownership” means. We’ll see how this one plays out in practice, though — we’re hoping Amazon never has to pull that switch again.
Filed under: Handhelds
Amazon clarifies Kindle book-deletion policy, can still delete books originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of our biggest complaints about the PSP Go seems to be partially addressed today as the portable console officially goes on sale. Sony has updated the Go’s firmware to 6.10, which introduces a new PlayStation Store interface and access to a much larger portion of original PSP
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