Hasta La Gadget!

TomTom has been on a mission to keep itself relevant as smartphones increasingly start to overstep on its territory, and the GO I-90 is another move in its counteroffensive plan. Capable of slotting into the double DIN slot usually reserved for in-car radio / music players, its big selling point is that it integrates into your dashboard yet is still capable of being moved around like a discrete nav unit. You wouldn’t be left decrying the loss of your radio either, with the GO I-90 sporting FM (with RDS support) and AM reception, USB support for MP3 players including iPods, and a promised compatibility with an “extensive” list of phones for handsfree calling — unfortunately, the poorly worded PR makes no mention of Bluetooth so we’re not sure how they’ll pull that off. Throw in a guarantee to receive the latest maps, TomTom’s Map Share for crowdsourced routes, and a Help-Me! emergency menu, and you get a pretty comprehensive product. Shame about that €599 (about $893) sticker then. Available in Europe in December.

Filed under: GPS

TomTom Go I-90 integrates into any dashboard, brings radio ‘infotainment’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These days, a proper computer is so cheap that we can’t help but wonder if dedicated internet appliances will soon die off. The NPR Radio (an actual physical radio that, yes, will play NPR Radio*) at least brings a few things to the party that a netbook still can’t: a speaker that will produce more than a tinny buzz, and a remote control, but otherwise this does no more than a piece of software.

Along with NPR stations (1,000 of ‘em) the Livio-made radio will tune in to any of 16,000 internet radio stations, or you can hook up another music player into the jack, and play them through its seven watt speaker. The search funcion doesn’t sound too quick, either:

In mere minutes, through a wireless of Ethernet connection, search by genre, location or keyword, and find NPR content and other world programming for free.

“Mere” minutes, in a world where google search times are measure in milliseconds. Still, it should pass the “granny test” in ease of use, and it looks like a friendly radio and not a scary, virus-catching computer. The price for the radio is $200, and profits go to NPR. Or you could buy a $200 iPod and do an App Store search for “radio”.

Product page [NPR]

*We know that The “Radio” in NPR Radio is redundant. If you’re going to point that out in a comment, don’t. Just go outside and try to make some friends instead.

AMD has just outed a selection of new Athlon II procs, which do little to help it reclaim the performance crown, but will be of interest to anyone who likes to keep things minimal — whether we’re talking about prices or temperatures. Starting at $69 per chip (when bought in bulk) with the 2.7GHz dual-core X2 235e and topping out at $143 for the 2.3GHz quad-core X4 605e, AMD’s new e-tagged processors operate within a 45W thermal envelope, as opposed to the relatively standard 65W TDP. The Sunnyvale outfit makes some ill-advised claims of “up to 75 percent” better performance versus comparable Intel CPUs — the small print tells us that number is derived from 3DMark Vantage while testing with different GPUs — but we suppose until the Thuban six-core shows up, AMD will have to take performance gains from wherever it can get ’em, including its own imagination.

Filed under: Desktops

AMD ‘s new Athlon II processors aim to go easy on the power, your wallet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, so ASUS’ Eee PC 1005HA is certainly decent enough as it is, but we can’t help but think that the company is stretching things a bit with its new “business edition” of the netbook. Apparently, all that’s needed to earn that designation is Windows XP Professional for an OS, and a standard 2GB of RAM, which no respectable businessperson would ever be without. Otherwise, you’ll get the usual 10.1-inch display, Atom N280 processor, 160GB hard drive, and a promised 10.5 hours of battery life — all in the very same Seashell enclosure, of course. Still no official word on a release over here, but it looks like folks in Japan will be able to pick this one up on October 20th for just over the Yen-equivalent of $700.

[Thanks, TheLostSwede]

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS throws XP Professional on Eee PC 1005HA, dubs it ‘business edition’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Canon isn’t skipping the number “four” after all. While initially unveiling what looked to be a half-complete website with two teaser videos, the company has now gone official with the EOS-1D Mark IV. So what’s new to the table? For starter’s there’s a 16.1 megapixel APS-H CMOS sensor, ISO range of100 to 12,800 native, up to 102,400 (hello, Nikon), 45-point area customizable autofocus with 39 high-precision cross-type focusing points, dual Digic 4 processors, 1080p HD video, and an option WFT-E2 IIA wireless file transmitter for connectivity over 802.11a/b/g and ethernet. Launch date is sometime in December, and body-only price is estimated at about $4,999 but subject to change. Press release after the break.

Update: Care to see what all the fuss is about, or want a better explanation of the new features? Canon’s released a pair of first-look videos, found after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Canon EOS-1D Mark IV announced: 16.1 megapixels, 45-point autofocus, and extreme ISO ranges of its own

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV announced: 16.1 megapixels, 45-point autofocus, and extreme ISO ranges of its own originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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