Hasta La Gadget!

See that glowing face? Yep, it’s the super-enthusiastic Roborover from WowWee. We won’t lie: we were a bit stoked by the arrival of this yellow explorer at Engadget’s doorstep. Too bad it didn’t exactly walk all the way from its warehouse, forcing us to go through the painful procedure of cutting up the tapes and untangling the ties of its shipping box. Five minutes later we’ve got a 4-pound robot on our hands, and we’d say overall the build quality is an eight out of ten (the cuts on the plastic parts could do with a finer finish) which is pretty good for a toy. You’ll be pleased to know that those treads are for real and supported by a third mini roller at the back, but the friendly manual does say, “For indoor use only.” Think we’ll skip that page, thank you. Now kids, you might need your daddy’s screwdrivers and some extra cash to feed the Roborover three “C” size batteries, and another three “AAAs” for the chunky IR remote. All ready to go? Skip along to learn how the Roborover explores the “ancient tombs of your parents’ closet.”

Continue reading Review: WowWee Roborover gets friendly with your furniture

Filed under: Robots

Review: WowWee Roborover gets friendly with your furniture originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All-in-one desktops and laptops are among the first PCs with Windows 7.

With the launch of Windows 7, computer shoppers are emerging from a dark period when newly purchased desktops and laptops would arrive with an already archaic operating system. Even with the promise of a free upgrade, it made …

Originally posted at Windows 7 Insider

The latest device to join the explosively-growing e-book reader crowd is the $260 Barnes & Noble “Nook.” Nook debuted Tuesday and will be available at the end of November, Barnes & Noble says.

E-readers are one of the fastest-growing consumer electronics products, although the overall category is still small. About 3 million e-readers will be be sold in the United States this year, says research firm Forrester, with sales doubling in 2010.

To succeed, Nook will have to battle Amazon’s market-leading Kindle — now in its second generation — and a host of e-readers from Sony and other companies. But Barnes & Noble is betting there are a few things about the newcomer that will set it apart.

Hear are five Nook features that we think could give the device a leg up over the competition.

1. Sharing capabilities: One of the best things about hardcovers or paperbacks is that you can give them to family and friends. E-readers, so far, haven’t offered that to consumers. Instead, devices such as Kindle have locked down books and made it impossible for users to lend books that they have bought. Nook tries to change that with its LendMe feature. Nook users can loan books to friends for two weeks and those e-books can be accessed through PCs or smartphones such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone. Lending the book through Nook makes it unavailable to the original owner, but at the end of the two weeks, the book reverts back to its owner. Though Barnes & Noble says some publishers might not allow this for the books they publish, its a big step toward finding an acceptable solution to the question of digital rights management around e-books. Bonus: It means no longer having to bug your friends to return books they borrowed from you years ago.

2. Android OS: The Nook is the first e-book reader to run Android, Google’s operating system written for mobile devices. Android has become a favorite of mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola and HTC because it’s open source and can be easily customized. It also gives users access to applications through the Android market. Barnes & Noble hasn’t announced anything about putting out a software developers’ kit for the Nook. But it hasn’t ruled out the idea either. “We do think, just because of the excitement and all the development around Android, that, in the future, putting out an SDK would be exciting for us and for our users,” says Barnes & Noble president William Lynch.

3. Color touchscreen: In the world of e-readers, Nook’s dual display feature is unique. Nook has the usual black-and-white E Ink screen for reading books, but it also has a color capacitive touchscreen, similar to the iPhone’s, located in the lower portion of the device. The touchscreen lets readers  browse through books by flicking through them. When not navigating books or magazines, the touchscreen goes dark to let readers focus on the content (and to save battery power). Though the idea strikes us a bit of a gimmick, it is still interesting, because it is a step out of the rut that current e-readers design seems stuck in — a single black-and-white display in a 8-inch frame.

4. Access to 3G and Wi-Fi: When Amazon first introduced the Kindle, it offered free over-the-air wireless book downloads through Sprint’s network. Kindle 2 bundled a basic browser into the device and extended the idea. The wireless connectivity feature put Kindle ahead of its rival Sony, whose earlier e-reader required users to plug the device to their computer via the USB port to download books. Since then, wireless 3G connectivity has become a nearly mandatory component of all e-book readers. But Nook is the only one to offer both 3G and Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi feature is limited for now: On launch, it will work only in Barnes & Noble stores, all of which offer free Wi-Fi. But we are hoping that its Wi-Fi will be soon be opened up to access all hotspots.

5. In-store browsing: Most of us turn to Amazon when it comes to buying books, but there is something to be said for walking into a bookstore, sitting there with a cup of coffee and browsing. The Nook lets you do just that. In a neat trick that takes advantage of Barnes & Noble’s brick-and-mortar stores, the Nook lets users read entire e-books for free in-store. None of the Nook’s storeless rivals wiil be able to offer that for a very long time.

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader
• Barnes & Noble’s comparison of the Nook and Kindle 2
• New Asus Color E-Reader Folds Like a Book
• Plastic Logic E-Reader is Slimmer than Kindle DX
• Sony’s E-Book Reader Adds Touchscreen, Wireless Downloads
• Cosmo Publisher Plans an E-Reader of Its Own

Photo: Nook (colony of gamers/ Flickr)

There are a ton of iPhone/iPod speaker docks on the market, but can they match the features on the Yamaha PDX-60? This system comes with a wireless dock that turns your music player into a remote, letting you control what comes out of the speakers as you lean back and enjoy. Even better, it streams uncompressed audio to the speakers, so you’ll get the fullest sound possible.

When your iPhone or iPod needs charging, there’s a dock on top of the speaker that lets you play music while powering up. A smaller card remote is included for when your iPhone or iPod is docked on top of the speakers. The system includes two 3 ¼-inch speakers with dynamic bass response, and it comes in four colors: black, gray, blue, and pink. Yeah, it costs more than most speaker docks ($299.95), but the convenience just might be worth it.

Well, this one’s been years in the making (literally), but it looks like the very first white space network using those newly freed up broadcast TV channels has now been lit up in Claudville, Virginia (population 916), which should just be the first of plenty more rural communities to come. As you might expect, the network was no small undertaking even considering the size of the town, and involved an “experimental license” from the FCC, network infrastructure from Spectrum Bridge, and a slew of equipment that Dell, Microsoft and the TDF Foundation contributed to the local school and computer center. No word on anything like actual speeds just yet, but we’re guessing the Claudville residents will be plenty pleased regardless, as they’ve been stuck with nothing more than dial-up or expensive satellite internet until now.

Filed under: Networking

First ‘white space’ network hits Claudville, Virginia originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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