Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today’s bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the holiday season.

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of your holiday list and have only one person left — unfortunately, they’re the one that never leaves the living room. With eyes constantly glues to the screen, a simple sweater or even the finest Williams-Sonoma has to offer just won’t cut it. Luckily, we’re here to help, especially if that poor soul is limited to some old school XGA projector, juggling multiple remotes or still waiting to make the jump to Blu-ray. Dig in after the break and see what will distract them from the HDTVs unnatural light long enough to say thanks.

Continue reading Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Home theater setups

Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Home theater setups originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t find your Nintendo DS? Try one of the new Adidas sneakers instead.

Adidas has created a virtual 3-D world that can be accessed using an upcoming line of five men’s sneakers in an idea that ties into one of the technology trends of the year: augmented reality.

“The foundation of augmented reality lies in adding a layer to the real world,” says Chris Barbour, head of digital marketing for Adidas Originals. “That’s what we have done. We have taken a real world item and added a fantastic virtual world on top of that”

All users have to do is go to the Adidas site and hold up their sneaker, which has a code embedded in its tongue, in front of their computer webcam. A virtual world then pops out in front of them and they can navigate it using their sneaker as a controller.

“We are not trying to mimic a real-world look, we have a more stylized, pop-up book creative approach,” says Barbour. “The neighborhood is displayed on a two dimensional computer screen, but you can use your shoe to control the angle and depth of view and zoom in and out, giving a 3-D sense of perspective.”

Over the next few months, Adidas plans to introduce three augmented reality games developed by game developer xForm into the virtual neighborhood. The sneakers will then serve not only as the key to get in, but also act as the controller for the games. Among those available will be a skateboard game, where the sneaker acts as the controller to navigate the virtual city’s alleys, a Star Wars-like game with the sneaker and a music-based game.

The shoes with the augmented reality codes will cost between $65 and $95 and will be available starting February.

Sure, a large part of this is a marketing gimmick and Adidas is not the only company to try out augmented reality in its products. But that doesn’t take away from that this is an idea that makes an ordinary physical object fun and injects some technological pizzaz to it.

See Also:

• If You’re Not Seeing Data, You’re Not Seeing
• At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry
• Augmented Reality Ghost Hunting Creeps Into App Store
• John Mayer’s Augmented Reality Video Puts Fans in Picture …

Photo: Adidas

Shimon is an autonomous robot marimba player created at Georgia Tech. When teamed with iPhone app ZOOZBeat, Shimon can jam Thelonius Monk-style.

Apple plans to demonstrate its touchscreen tablet at a January event, multiple independent reports suggest.

Sources have told Financial Times, Business Insider and Boy Genius Report different pieces of information that, when added together, indicate Apple is preparing a special event to show off the tablet next month.

The most detailed report comes from Financial Times, whose sources claim Apple will hold an event Tuesday, Jan. 26 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco — a venue where Apple has held its previous iPod events. The topic of the event is unknown, but Financial Times speculates it will center on the tablet.

The Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer cites a “plugged-in source in the mobile industry” who said Apple has contacted select developers to ready a higher-resolution version of their apps for a demonstration of the tablet in January.

Wired.com contacted seven developers of popular iPhone apps, who each said they had not received such a note regarding screen resolution from Apple.

One major iPhone developer, Raven Zachary of Small Society, told Wired.com he had to “ignore media requests pertaining to Apple rumors or confidentiality.” (Small Society helped develop the popular Zipcar iPhone app, which was demonstrated at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June.)

Boy Genius Report cites an “amazingly accurate” source who is confident that there will be a 7-inch model of the Apple tablet. The vast majority of rumor reports regarding the tablet have described the product as a 10-inch version of the iPhone or iPod Touch. Boy Genius Report’s source hints that there may be two models. The source also said the tablet would be announced January.

In September, Wired.com compiled a roundup of multiple rumor reports regarding an Apple tablet. The consensus was that Apple was preparing a 10-inch touchscreen tablet running the iPhone OS. Several anonymous sources have said the product will have a strong focus on competing with e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle.

The most credible report to date came from iLounge in late September, whose source said Apple was aiming to announce a touchscreen tablet no later than Jan. 19. iLounge established a solid track record after accurately leaking iPod models prior to their launch. Opposing Boy Genius Report, iLounge’s source said in September that a 7-inch tablet had been tested but was judged to be too small, so the latest version had a 10.7-inch screen.

Apple did not immediately respond to Wired.com’s request for comment regarding the event.

See Also:

• Everything We Know About Apple's Touchscreen Tablet
• Apple Tablet Due For Spring Launch, Guesses Analyst
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• In-App Sales and iTablet: The Killer Combo to Save Publishing …
• Video: Sports Illustrated Makes a Play for a Tablet App
• Video Demonstrates Wired's Concept iTablet App
• Who Will Buy the Apple Tablet? Steve Woz
• Video: Popular Science Publisher Is Planning for Tablets, Too …
• Insider Spills Rumored Apple Tablet Details to Gizmodo

Photo: A mock-up illustration of an imaginary Apple tablet by Stephen Lewis Simmonds

Anti-malware testing group AV-Comparatives.org not only gave Microsoft Security Essentials a top rating for malware removal, but now they’ve given it their best ranking in their performance test as well.

AV-Comparatives.org ran a series of real-world tests running through common scenarios like downloading, extracting, copying, and encoding files, installing and launching applications, and they also ran through an automated testing suite as well. Once the dust had settled, it became clear that not only is MSE one of only three products that both blocks and removes malware well, but it’s also very light on system resources.

Out of all the products tested, Microsoft Security Essentials was the best-performing free antivirus solution, and one of only two that received “very fast” on each of the real-world tests, earning it their top award: an “advanced+” ranking. We’ve been telling you for a while that you don’t need to pay for Windows security, and now with MSE ranked alongside the top paid apps in both malware removal and performance, you might want to consider making the switch.

Hit the AV-Comparatives link for the full report in PDF form, or check out the PC Mag story for the overview—if you can deal with some irritating in-text ads.