Dec 29
Starting in 2010, car buyers will be able to get a factory-installed HD Radio receiver through which they can tag songs for later purchase and download.
Dec 29
Bedroom DJs and wannabe Sven Vaths, take note. Key of Grey has got its hands on the Vestax Spin DJ controller and they give it some pretty good marks. Of course, no one is going to confuse this bad boy for a pro rig, but the reviewer found the hardware solid enough for home use, and the bundled Algoriddim djay software is more than up to the task. In fact, both the software and hardware are full featured enough to make it worth a second or third look: multiple cue points and sampler controls (commonplace on DJ mixers yet pretty rare on software-based rigs) get kudos, while the lack of a waveform view can be a huge turn-off for some folks. Want to get a closer look? We got it for you: move on past the read link for the award-winning video.
Continue reading Vestax Spin DJ controller gets reviewed, much approved (video)
Vestax Spin DJ controller gets reviewed, much approved (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dec 29
It’s been a great year in pictures—some more identifiable than others. Here is a retrospective of 2009’s best mystery shots. Care to take another guess?
Each image links back to the original post containing the answer.
Hint: Once you find out what it is everything makes sense. Don’t over think it. [Click to see the answer]
Doc Brown’s flux capacitor? A blinged-out religious relic from the future? A Tron 2.0 prop? [Click to see the answer]
Jellyfish attacking an undersea monster? That would be cool, but the reality is much simpler, and more beautiful. [Click to see the answer]
Ready for some mystery? The answer is… [Click to see the answer]
The engine room of the next Enterprise? A glimpse at the heart of some new particle accelerator? The lens of a new US military laser? [Click to see the answer]
While it may look a bit like Galactica’s CIC it’s probably older than you are. [Click to see the answer]
It looks like a gigantic bird hunting device but it will actually let you become one with nature rather than destroy it. [Click to see the answer]
Some kind of circuit board close up? No. A nuclear power plant’s control panel full of gauges and labels? No, that’s not it either. [Click to see the answer]
No, that’s not the moon… [Click to see the answer]
A shot from the Iron Man sequel? A costume from a 22nd-century staging of Swan Lake ? My new back tat? [Click to see the answer]
They aren’t shiny radio dishes or deadly antimatter arrays in Area 51. [Click to see the answer]
A huge version of Darth Vader’s light saber? Close, but not quite close enough. [Click to see the answer]
Is this a cosmic dover over the skies of California? Maybe the aliens are telling us to chill out. Or perhaps the Holy Ghost went to grab some In-n-Out. [Click to see the answer]
Is this the entrence to Jason Chen’s secret lair where the Gizmodo magic happens? Maybe a place to lock up anyone with the swine flu? What on Earth requires a HAL 9000 to keep guard? [Click to see the answer]
At first glance I thought this was a NASA image of some sort, maybe a solar flare. I even wondered if I could get a high-res version in turn into a poster. Then I found out what it actually is. [Click to see the answer]
Tattoo under a powerful microscope? One near some feminine naughty bits? No. [Click to see the answer]
This is a tricky one. What’s the QR Code on that flag our little Android friend is waving? [Click to see the answer]
Dec 29
If you owned a bike when you were a kid, you would have, at some point, turned it into a “motorbike”. You would have taken a clothespin and a playing card and attached the latter to the chain-stay with the former. The resulting flickety-flack sound was enough to turn your pushbike into a roaring speed machine. And it was free, as long as you didn’t suffer punishment for choosing any card other than the joker.
The Turbospoke does exactly the same, only it costs $25 and is way better. It even uses a card to do the sound-making: There are three differently “tuned” cards in the pack, and they are made from longer-lasting plastic. These cards fit into a supplied clamp and onto this you mount the exhaust. And this is the best part, as the exhaust not only looks like a motorbike exhaust, but it acts as a horn speaker to amplify the sound.
About that sound. It’s less “motorbike” and more “lawnmower”, but it sure beats the old fashioned, home-made way of doing it. In fact, if the kids in your street ever get one of these, it’s likely to be just as annoying as the teenager who guns his two-stroke 125cc bike past your house twice a day. So annoying would it be that I’m thinking of strapping one on at the next bike polo game to psych-out the other team.
Turbospoke Product page [Turbospoke]
Turbospoke review [Gram Light Bikes]
Dec 29
iPhone reception issues plague O2… too (updated with AT&T’s response)
Posted in: Apple, AppleIphone, att, iPhone, o2, Today's Chili
It would appear that AT&T isn’t the only carrier in the world suffering from a horrible and nagging case of the iPhones. In an interview with the Financial Times, O2 head Ronan Dunne apologized to customers for the poor performance the network has been experiencing since the introduction of the iPhone 3GS to its airwaves this summer. Just as US customers (particularly those in dense, urban areas) have learned to struggle through dropped calls, the inability to make or receive calls, or weak data connections, our brethren on the other side of the pond have felt a similar sting. Says Dunne, “Where we haven’t met our own high standards then there’s no question, we apologise to customers for that fact,” adding that the carrier had fixes at the ready and that the issues would be “more than addressed” shortly. Unlike the widespread problems here, the O2 mess seems to be relegated largely to London, though it’s curious to know that AT&T isn’t alone in being hamstrung by a network clearly not prepared for the onslaught of data being pushed up and down its virtual pipes. Also unlike the AT&T situation is the fact that O2 has solutions in mind (including the installation of 200 additional mobile base stations in London), and they’re clearly taking ownership of the situation. Ahem, Ralph.
Update: AT&T responded and let us know they had fixes underway too. Here’s an outline of forthcoming changes the carrier says it’s making.
- We are nearly doubling the wireless spectrum serving 3G customers in hundreds of markets across the country, using high-quality 850 MHz spectrum. This additional spectrum expands overall network capacity and improves in-building reception.
- We are adding about 2,000 new cell sites, expanding service to new cities and improving coverage in other areas.
- We’re adding about 100,000 new backhaul connections, which add critical capacity between cell sites and the global IP backbone network.
- We’re enabling widespread access to our Wi-Fi network – the largest in the country with more than 20,000 hotspots in all 50 states – allowing them to take advantage of the best available AT&T mobile broadband connection.
- We’re rolling out even faster 3G speeds with deployment of HSPA 7.2 technology, with initial availability in six markets planned by the end of the year.
iPhone reception issues plague O2… too (updated with AT&T’s response) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dec 29
There comes a time in every TV series when you know the show is desperately fighting cancelation. No, it’s not the episode where the main character meets their doppelgänger (although that is a good indication). It’s the one where the hero is saved from a deadly bullet to the heart by a cigarette-case/book/cellphone luckily placed in the breast-pocket.
As ever, when a home-made solution becomes well-known, it is quickly commoditized, and the The Damned is just such a product. The Damned is a bulletproof pocket handkerchief designed to protect the heart of the gentleman from well-aimed or wayward projectiles. The 270 x 270mm (10.6-inch) square woven from “ballistic strength aramid fiber”, a material similar to Kevlar. But can a small fold of fabric really stop a bullet? From the blurb:
If a gun is aimed at you, fired, and the slug hits you, you will be hurt despite the properties of the square; The impact of the projectile itself is likely to fracture, crack or break your bones bones and bruise you. According to the specifications of the textile, a ballistic projectile such as a bullet will not pass through thirty two layers of this material. We take NO responsibility for those who feel compelled to test the endurance or resistance of the textile in any way.
We certainly won’t be calling this one in for a Gadget Lab review. Not through fear, you understand. No, we don’t need it because we already know a foolproof way to protect a gentleman’s heart: Stay away from girls. €95 ($137).
The Damned [Sruli Recht via
Dec 29
Palm Pre OS Update Now Live and Full of Goodies
Posted in: palm, Phones, pre, Software, Today's Chili, webos
Sprint has pushed out the 1.3.5 update for the webOS which runs on the Palm Pre. Along with this are Palm’s release notes, which are thankfully a lot more detailed than the single paragraph that Sprint teased us with yesterday.
There’s a lot going on in the update, from the merely aesthetic (a new font for the screensaver clock) to the welcome (better battery life in areas with poor signals) to the downright scary (“A user can perform a full erase by pressing and holding Sym + the orange/Option key + power for 10 seconds”). There’s even support for ancient technology, in the form of properly displayed animated gifs in the browser.
Most of the big changes, though, are in the app store. You can now download multiple applications at once, and they continue in the background if you want to do something else. There’s an “update all” button, auto-resume for interrupted connections and best of all, you can fill up the whole of the Pre’s memory with applications if you want to.
Once you have installed this update, future updates will be downloadable over a 2G connection, not just 3G.
But the best change is the silliest. You know that little line over the ē in “Prē”, the one everybody ignores? Palm has finally removed it from the default email signature, as apparently it wasn’t showing up properly on some receivers’ phones.
The update is free, and available now.
Software update information for Palm Pre Sprint [Palm]
See Also:
Dec 29
Cydle P29A spices up mundane spec sheet with Mobile TV capabilities
Posted in: gps, media player, MediaPlayer, mp3 player, Mp3Player, navigation, PMP, radio, Today's Chili, touchscreen
Well, it seems like South Korean companies aren’t fooling around when it comes to getting us riding that newly minted Mobile TV bandwagon. In the wake of LG announcing its first Mobile DTV devices this morning comes Cydle with the P29A PMP. It sports a 2.9-inch touchscreen (see what they did there?), an accelerometer for automatic reorientation, a world clock, and voice recording via a built-in mic. That’s a somewhat disappointing goodie list, considering the currently available HD radio-playing P29H (pictured for illustration purposes) also has GPS onboard. Still, you can snap up the A model in Q2 2010 for $199, which seems like a keen price when compared to the $499 Mobile DTV car tuner we’ve seen before.
Cydle P29A spices up mundane spec sheet with Mobile TV capabilities originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dec 29
2011 Audi A8 preview
Posted in: Today's ChiliCNET Car Tech gets a sneak peek at Audi’s 2011 A8. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10419232-48.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Car Tech blog/a/p
Dec 29
Philips SA075 officially launched in Beijing, spotted in the wild
Posted in: launch, philips, PMP, Today's Chili
Hard to say exactly how many Earthlings (and Martians, for that matter) are jazzed about Philips’ forthcoming SA075 PMP, but it looks as if the wait for a ship date is drawing to a close. Over in Beijing, the player was recently showcased at a product launch party, and while a stateside release still hasn’t been talked about, it was confirmed that the HD playback will be capped at 720p (and not 1080p, as the unicorns and elves were hoping for). We’re also told that the display will boast an 800 x 480 resolution, an HDMI output will be onboard and at least a few gigabytes of storage will be included. Riveting, no?
[Thanks, Gavin]
Philips SA075 officially launched in Beijing, spotted in the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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