Dec 10

Sony says PS3 motion controller was codenamed ‘Gem,’ might or might not actually be called Gem

Posted in: ps3, sony, Today's Chili
We never heard much more of the rumored Sphere codename for Sony’s PlayStation 3 motion controller since it cropped up a few months ago, but it looks like we now finally have another name for it besides “PlayStation Motion Controller.” That word initially came from EA’s John Riccitiello, who let slip the name “Gem” during his talk at the UBS 37th Annual Global Media Conference when speaking about Sony’s and Microsoft’s new motion controllers. Just odd enough to work? Well, not so fast, as Sony would only go so far as to confirm to Kotaku that Gem was “an early code name for the product,” adding that they “haven’t announced final name at this point.” Not exactly a full-on non-denial denial, to be sure, but it would seem that the door for Gem is at least open a tiny crack.

[Thanks, Aaron]

Sony says PS3 motion controller was codenamed ‘Gem,’ might or might not actually be called Gem originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 10

HP Plans 1-2 Windows Phones Next Year

Posted in: HP, Today's Chili, Windows Mobile

glisten-200.jpg

The HP iPAQ Glisten (eww) may be an underwhelming, stock Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. But HP isn’t out of the smartphone business; in fact, they never were, HP’s Mike Hockey said to me today.
HP has been releasing one or two phones a year for a few years, but the last one we actually saw on a US carrier before the Glisten was in 2006. The HP iPAQ 510 from 2007 and the HP iPAQ 910 from 2008 never made it to a carrier in the US, but they were more popular with carriers in Europe and Latin America, Hockey said.
The company has refocused on getting phones into US carrier channels, acknowledging that unlocked devices just aren’t going to sell over here in large quantities. So expect to see iPaq phones appearing on US carriers at least annually from here on out. That will allow HP to sell to “prosumers” and small businesses as well as big enterprise buyers.
HP also has a “tight, ongoing” relationship with Microsoft, Hockey said. It sounds like HP will stick with Windows phones for a while going forward – and that explains, in many ways, the major problem with the Glisten. Unadorned Windows Mobile 6.5 just isn’t attractive to anyone except large enterprise IT buyers right now.
Before you mock, remember that Apple only releases one phone a year, but it’s a great device. If you want to be a presence in the phone market, you can do it with one phone a year, but that phone has to be a real differentiator. The Glisten, with its creaky generic Windows Mobile 6.5 build, just isn’t it.
All that could change next year, if Windows Mobile 7 impresses. HP better hope it does.
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Dec 10

The Best 5.1 Speaker Systems You Can Buy for $800 or Less

Posted in: speakers, Today's Chili, top

During our week celebrating precision audio, you guys asked about respectable but affordable home-theater audio. So we hit up CNet’s Audiophiliac, Steve Guttenberg, to clue us in to three exceptional 5.1 speaker/subwoofer combo packages selling for $800 or less.

Energy RC-Micro 5.1

Energy is big on small speakers. Their RC-Micro 5.1 system ($600) includes four satellite speakers that stand a mere 4.7 inches tall, and the center speaker isn’t a whole lot bigger. The wee 240-watt, 8-inch subwoofer is a seriously gutsy performer. The big catch with most little systems is they crush wham-bam dynamics, and their bass either booms or runs out of gas. No problem here, the RC-Micro 5.1 belts out bombast like a larger system. It’s simply one of the most refined sounding micro systems I’ve heard to date.

Mirage Nanosat 5.1 Home Theater

The Mirage Nanosat 5.1 Home Theater ($600) sounds unlike any box-type satellite system on the planet. Conventional speakers project sound forward, the Nanosat speakers produce a ratio of 30 percent direct and 70 percent reflected sound. The direct sound heads straight to the listeners, while the other 70 percent bounces off the room’s walls and ceiling before finally reaching the listeners. With the room lights turned off, the Mirage satellite speakers can literally disappear as sources of sound. The system comes with five identical satellite speakers and a rather potent mini-subwoofer.

Definitive Technology ProCinema 600

Definitive Technology is a high-end speaker company, but it is one that has learned how to sell its products for a lot less than high-end prices. Take the ProCinema 600 six-piece satellite-subwoofer system ($800). Clever engineering solutions make for an exceptional package. For example, the system’s injection-molded mineral-filled polymer speaker cabinets have more of a high-end feel than more typical plastic or fiberboard cabinets. The 250-watt, 8-inch subwoofer has a second 8-inch “infrasonic radiator,” in order to produce extraordinary deep-bass slam. The ProCinema 600’s resolution of fine detail, razor-sharp imaging, and dynamic kick are the stuff that make high-end worth it. Listen and you’ll see.

For more details and full reviews of these three amazing systems, head over to The Audiophiliac.

Steve Guttenberg’s CNet blog, The Audiophiliac covers high and low-end audio and everything in between. He’s been reviewing audio components for 14 years. He has never ever heard anyone make a Police Academy or Short Circuit joke about his name. Ever.

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Dec 10

Yobo’s handheld SNES gives your old carts a new lease on life (video)

Posted in: portable, Today's Chili, Wireless
If you’ve been lusting after the various one-off SNES portable mods we’ve been posting ‘lo these many years, this next item’s all you: Yobo, a company known for its various game system clones and accessories, is now offering a little something called the FC 16 GO. A riff on Hyperkin’s FC Mobile II (we’re assuming they share an OEM) this guy accepts SNES cartridges for classic game play, and ups the display size to 3.5-inches to boot. Your hard-earned $60 gets you a device with a fully functional built-in joypad, TV outs and two wireless 2.4Ghz controllers. Powered by either a replaceable, rechargeable battery or the included AC adapter. Check out the video after the break to see what you’ve been missing.

Continue reading Yobo’s handheld SNES gives your old carts a new lease on life (video)

Yobo’s handheld SNES gives your old carts a new lease on life (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 10

Three awesome-sounding 5.1 speaker-subwoofer packages

Posted in: Today's Chili

Looking for a maximum bang-for-the-buck home theater speaker package? Check out these reviews of systems from Definitive Technology, Energy Speakers, and Mirage. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-10411342-47.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Audiophiliac/a/p

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Dec 10

Dell Adamo XPS: Exclusive to John Lewis in the UK for the holiday season

Posted in: laptop, Laptops, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, uk

If you’re lucky enough to live in the US, buying the super slim Adamo XPS is just a matter of hitting up Dell’s website — and then ponying up nearly $2,000, of course. Those in the UK, however, have been sorely out of luck. Luckily for them, we’re hearing that the much lusted-after laptop will be available at John Lewis department stores in time for holiday shopping. That’s right, this hinged baby — which boasts a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor, a 128GB SSD, a 13.4-inch WLED panel, a 2 megapixel camera, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and GS45 integrated graphics — will be available there as of today, for the base price of £1750 (that’s about $2,800). For a better idea of what this bad boy looks like, check out our hands-on impressions video after the break.

Continue reading Dell Adamo XPS: Exclusive to John Lewis in the UK for the holiday season

Dell Adamo XPS: Exclusive to John Lewis in the UK for the holiday season originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 10

Dell’s Adamo XPS now shipping to some (and we’ve got pics to prove it)

Posted in: laptop, now shipping, NowShipping, pictures, ship, shipping, ships, Today's Chili, ultraportable, unboxing

Dell’s 9.99mm thin Adamo XPS wasn’t supposed to ship to even the earliest orderers until December 22nd, but it seems as if a minor Christmas miracle has happened over at Adam’s office. In fact, those ordering one of these slimsters today won’t see it until mid-January, but if you got in early, there just might be hope for you yet. Oh, and if you’re pretty certain that your order will simply be delayed indefinitely as Old Man Winter holds you down, feel free to cheer yourself up by perusing the gallery below. Or slip into an infinite loop of depression — your call.

[Thanks, Adam]

Gallery: Dell’s Adamo XPS now shipping to some (and we’ve got pics to prove it)

Dell’s Adamo XPS now shipping to some (and we’ve got pics to prove it) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 10

Sungale introduces 4.3-inch Kula: the WiFi-enabled portable TV

Posted in: PMP, Television, Today's Chili, TV, wifi

Not so keen on coughing up a month’s worth of WoW coinage in order to pay for FLO TV services? If so, and you can somehow keep yourself surrounded by WiFi waves at all times, Sungale just might have a cheaper alternative. The outfit has just revealed what it says is its “first IPTV,” though frankly it sounds more like a WiFi-enabled PMP with a knack for finding web programming. The 4.3-inch Kula is described as an “ultra-portable WiFi-enabled IPTV that allows users to access a large number of live streaming television programs from all over the world, selectable by country, language and topic like News, Sports and Finance all without the high rates.” Aside from using WiFi, there’s no mention of any other protocol to tap into various channel “packages,” though we’re not completely shutting out that possibility until we see this bugger at CES. Other specs include 2GB of internal memory, an SD / MMC expansion slot and support for a slew of file formats. Hop on past the break for the full release, which naturally omits any semblance of a price tag in keeping with the elusive theme.

Continue reading Sungale introduces 4.3-inch Kula: the WiFi-enabled portable TV

Sungale introduces 4.3-inch Kula: the WiFi-enabled portable TV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 10

Unicom: 100,000 iPhones Sold in China

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, Today's Chili

It’s not quite selling like hotcakes, but the iPhone’s move to the Chinese market isn’t exactly a dud, either. The handset’s Chinese carrier, Unicom, reported this week that it has moved more than 100,000 units since Apple’s phone first went on sale in that country at the end of October–not bad, considering that initial reports from the country were looking pretty grim.

China is home to more than 700 million mobile subscribers–more than any other nation in the world. Unicom called the number a “great success,” but as PC World points out, it’s nothing compare to South Korea, a much smaller market where mobile users pre-order 60,000 devices.

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Dec 10

How Lala and the Web Will Make iTunes Even More Powerful

Posted in: Apple, cloud, itunes, Music, rumor, Today's Chili, top

We’ve been wondering what a Lalaized iTunes would look like, and we weren’t too far off: The WSJ says iTunes is evolving into a web-centric model, making the biggest music store in the world that much more powerful.

You won’t need software anymore to buy songs from iTunes. iTunes will just be on the web—you’ll be able to buy and listen directly, through search engines or other sites, much like you can with Lala now. Or if you’re not familiar with it, think about the way Amazon is embedded on the internet, and imagine that for music, through iTunes. It’s a kind of ubiquity would make the biggest music store in the world even more influential and intractable, a fact that’s not lost on record labels.

It’s an uprooting of the entire iTunes model: Not only would you buy songs and manage your iTunes library through the web, iTunes could shift to having a serious streaming component, away from “download to own,” as Apple’s been evaluating the impact of Pandora and Lala on iTunes, though the WSJ is more tentative on this point.

Also, you may very well be able to put your music in the cloud. Essentially, you would own right to listen to the song anytime and anywhere, not just the digital file you downloaded. There’s also a chance that Apple will use Lala’s ability to scan your current music library, match it up with the files on their servers, and give you access to the songs you already own anywhere via its servers.

Two mildly tangential points: Lala Chairman Bill Nguyen appears to be heavily involved in the new effort, making joint calls to the labels with Apple’s Eddie Cue, indicating it’s a classic Apple tech-and-brains acquisition, and the WSJ backs up the previously rumored $80 million pricepoint, saying Apple paid $85 million for Lala.

This whole iTunes revamp could happen as early as next year, although there’s expected to be some pushback from a music industry already cowed by Apple’s strength. But Cupertino’s been keeping the major labels on life support for so long, there’s just not much they can do about it. [WSJ]

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