Dec 02
Intel rolls out beta of Software Development Kit for Atom Netbooks running Windows and Moblin. Chipmaker looking for new apps to boost Netbooks sales even higher.
Dec 02
Motorola Sholes Tablet detailed, sounds as tasty as we’d hoped
Posted in: Android, moto, motorola, rumor, Today's Chili
Knowing what we now know of the Droid — codename Sholes — the mere mental image of that “Sholes Tablet” that we’ve been hearing about for a while brings us to our geeky knees. Taiwanese forum Mobile01 seems to have details on just what the Sholes Tablet is all about, and while we’d normally be skeptical to the point of dismissal, the presence of a few believable-looking images has us on the bandwagon. The biggies on the rumored spec sheet include HDMI out, 720p video recording paired to an 8 megapixel cam (which is hopefully of much, much higher quality than the Droid’s miserable 5) with xenon flash, and Motorola’s own CrystalTalk tech for background noise reduction on calls. It’ll apparently be running Android 2.0 — the presence of BLUR is unknown — and the screen is a predictably awesome 3.7 inches at WVGA resolution with multitouch support; missing, as the name suggests, is the original’s sliding QWERTY keyboard. All signs point to use seeing this in the next few months, so enjoy those Droids and Milestones while you can, yeah?
Motorola Sholes Tablet detailed, sounds as tasty as we’d hoped originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
BGR | 
Mobile01 | Email this | Comments
Dec 02
Our first question was: Is there a Zii processor in there? The answer is no. We don’t know why Creative would want to borrow its processor’s name, but this new range of speakers won’t have Zii chips in them.
Dec 02
Kingston 40GB SSDNow review
Posted in: Features, review, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili
From the moment that we heard of the new 40GB Kingston SSD, we couldn’t help but get our hopes up. Who knows if (or more likely, when) SSD drives will ever completely replace spinning platters with all the digital media people collect today, so rather than stretching your budget and compressing your media in order to stuff everything onto a 256GB solid state drive, we dug the idea of snagging a small (and affordable) SSD for boot / application operations and utilizing a spacious HDD for archival. Not to mention — regardless of how fast a disk is — two are almost always better than one. If you’re interested in rigging up a similar setup, hop on past the break to have a look at our impressions.
Gallery: Kingston 40GB SSDNow Review
Continue reading Kingston 40GB SSDNow review
Kingston 40GB SSDNow review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Dec 02
AT&T and Verizon drop lawsuits, make nice for the holidays
Posted in: ad, advertising, att, breaking news, BreakingNews, commercial, lawsuit, legal, Today's Chili, verizon
Well well, maybe we can all get along after all: AT&T and Verizon just dropped their various advertising-related lawsuits against each other. We can’t say we’re surprised, considering AT&T lost its request to have Verizon’s ads pulled down for the holidays — spending money to litigate this further would have simply been a waste, and generated even more bad PR. Now let’s just hope these two suck it up and battle it out over service quality and pricing, like they should have been doing all along. Or AT&T can just make some more nonsensical Luke Wilson commercials, whatevs.
Update: Whoa, so this is crazy. We just checked out the other suit that was dismissed, and it turns out that Verizon actually sued AT&T back in July, but not for any damages — instead, Big Red asked the court to rule that its various “Most Reliable 3G Network” taglines were actually true. That wackiness certainly explains why AT&T felt the need to push back, we suppose, and it makes Verizon’s current whining over Sprint’s “Most Dependable 3G Network” claims part of a larger, lamer pattern. We’ve included a shot of the case after the break, check it out.
Continue reading AT&T and Verizon drop lawsuits, make nice for the holidays
AT&T and Verizon drop lawsuits, make nice for the holidays originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Dec 02
Psystar ceases sales of Mac clones
Posted in: Today's ChiliFollowing a settlement agreement with Apple, Psystar’s Mac OS-loaded hardware is no longer available on its site. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10407687-260.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Circuit Breaker/a/p
Dec 02
Phone-O-Scope brings SLR lenses to the iPhone the hard way
Posted in: diy, iPhone, lenses, mod, Today's Chili
We’ve seen a few iPhone camera mods and even the odd off-the-shelf case with interchangeable lenses — but why buy new lenses when you already have some perfectly good ones for your SLR camera? That’s the thinking behind this so-called Phone-O-Scope built by camera modder Bhautik Joshi, at least, which makes use of an always handy laser pickup from a CD player, some PVC pipe couplers and, of course, duct tape to let you attach any regular SLR lens to your iPhone. As you might expect, however, the end result isn’t exactly flawless, but the Bhautik does seem to be happy with the “fuzzy, Holga-like images” he’s able to get with the rig. Judge for yourself after the break, and find the details for building your own at the link below.
Continue reading Phone-O-Scope brings SLR lenses to the iPhone the hard way
Phone-O-Scope brings SLR lenses to the iPhone the hard way originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dec 02
Harman announced today the newest addition to the JBL Creature PC speaker line: the Creature III. Fans of the original and Creature II will find the updated martian-mushroom design familiar. The new 2.1 speakers, available for $129.99 exclusively at Apple Stores and Apple’s Web site, come in black or white and feature touch-sensitive controls. The speaker set, which features a more compact subwoofer design than previous models, also “glows” from the bottom, which will do nothing for the sound experience but might somehow enhance your enjoyment of Pink Floyd and Sigur Ros albums.
Another nice added feature: Despite the touch-sensitive volume controls, the Creature III will remember what volume level you used on your previous listen when you power up the speakers, which only sounds like a disadvantage if you were blasting them late at night and then turn them on again first thing in the morning.
Look for a review of the Creature III speakers on PCMag.com in 2010.
Dec 02
Samsung Omnia II unboxing and hands-on
Posted in: Features, hands-on, samsung, Today's Chili, unboxing, Windows Mobile, windows mobile 6.5, WindowsMobile, WindowsMobile6.5
It’s here at last, and we’re frankly thrilled to be holding Samsung’s very first TouchWiz 2.0 device, the Verizon Wireless-bound Samsung Omnia II. The 2.0 software brings with it a Widget Store, and as a general UI manages to skin over a majority of Windows Mobile 6.5, which is puttering along underneath. The handset is a tad on the bulky side, but makes up for it with a wonderful 3.7-inch AMOLED WVGA screen and a very nice 5 megapixel camera. We’ll have a review for you before long, but for now you can check out a quick video rundown (including some playtime with the Samsung-exclusive “Swype” keyboard) after the break. And if that video is enough to convince you, the phone is available now on Verizon Wireless for $200 after rebate.
Continue reading Samsung Omnia II unboxing and hands-on
Samsung Omnia II unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Dec 02
When Steve Cabouli had his wallet stolen in an airport a few years back, he didn’t just get mad. He fired up Google and searched the internet high and low for a “hi-tech wallet”. After failing to find one, he decided to make one. So was born the iWallet.
The iWallet is a kevlar and carbon fiber box with a fingerprint-reading lock, so, like Judge Dredd’s Lawgiver gun, it can only be used by its owner (unlike the Lawgiver, the iWallet doesn’t blow off the hands of a would-be-thief). It also has Bluetooth inside, and if the “wallet” wanders too far from your compatible cellphone (BlackBerry) then an alarm will sound.
But what if the battery runs out? Sadly, there is no mention. What if a thief manages to make off with your valuables, perhaps because you have the wrong kind of cellphone? You are, of course, out of luck: The iWallet might be “tamper resistant”, but once the thief has your iWallet in his home or thieve’s den, a screwdriver should make swift work of prizing it open.
Better is the final feature, a feature that means that you won’t need to wait for a pickpocket in order to lose your money. That “feature” is the price, a wallet-emptying $600 (or a mere $300 for the fiberglass version).
We shall leave you with the promo video, so fantastically cheesy and full of hammy acting that it could easily pass as a croque monsieur. Available December 11th.
iWallet Product page [iWallet]
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.