Nyko Wand+ is a full Wii Motion Plus replacement, smashing through screens this March

Nyko has what it plans to be the world’s first Wiimote replacement with the Motion Plus add-on built-in. Dubbed the Wand+, the controller will retail for $39.99 and should be on shelves by March. In addition to those fancy gryoscopes, the Wand+ has a matte rubberized back and rubberized buttons that are pretty comfortable to the touch, there’s a built-in camera for acting as a “regular” Bluetooth mouse, and the whole assembly is much lighter than a Wiimote / Motion Plus combo. Perhaps we won’t die of acute carpal tunnel after all. Check out some action video after the break.

Nyko Wand+ is a full Wii Motion Plus replacement, smashing through screens this March originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES: Panasonic intros new line of Blu-ray HTIBs

Panasonic introduced its new line of Blu-ray home-theater-in-a-box systems at CES 2010, adding Netflix, Pandora, and Wi-Fi to last year’s feature set. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10428064-269.html” class=”origPostedBlog”2010 CES/a/p

Kodak touchscreen Slice camera, underwater Playsport camcorder, and friends hands-on

Where do you show most of your digital photos to friends? Probably via Facebook or Flickr or the like, but many consumers simply do the most logical thing: turn their camera around and squint at the dinky LCD. That was the idea behind the Slice, announced yesterday and more or less designed around a lovely 3.5-inch touchscreen that may not be quite as big as a 4 x 6 print, but it’s far more versatile. The 14 megapixel camera has a solid feel in the hand and looks great. For those feeling a little more adventurous there’s the 1080p Playsport camcorder, which looks and feels more or less like a beefy Flip. To prove its disrespect toward moisture, the camera was unceremoniously plunked into a fish bowl, where it seemed hardly perturbed. Finally is the Pulse digital photo frame, a somewhat pedestrian-looking seven-inch, 800 x 600 model that sports the ability to receive photos via e-mail, so you can shoot those pics of the grandkids off to nanna without her having to touch a thing. Pictures of all that and a pair of new EasyShare models in the gallery below. Oh, and a crab, too.

Kodak touchscreen Slice camera, underwater Playsport camcorder, and friends hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Energizer showcases new power solutions at CES (hands-on)

Energizer is on hand here at the Mirage for Digital Experience, where it’s demonstrating tons of power solutions, ranging from solar to induction. It’s making some additions to its Energi To Go line that will surely appeal to most consumers. Our favorite offering was the new EnergiStick, which comes in both microUSB and mini USB varieties, and will keep your cellphone (or other micro/mini USB equipped electronic) charged for an additional 30 minutes. There’s also a new induction charging unit set to ship this summer for around $100. Finally, Energizer’s showing off its tree-hugging side with a new line of flashlights that employ a hybrid charging scheme — they use solar cells and have manual hand cranks.

Energizer showcases new power solutions at CES (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s 14-inch transparent OLED laptop (video)

If you thought the XPERIA Pureness was wild with it’s meager 1.8-inch transparent screen, wait’ll you get a hold of Samsung Mobile Display’s prototype 14-inch notebook — complete with what’s being touted as the world’s first and largest transparent OLED prototype. When the thing is off, the panel is up to 40 percent transparent (as opposed to the industry average of below twenty-five percent). Not much more to say about it (we’ll let you know as soon as our friends from Korea tell us more), but there is plenty to see: so get a load of the video after the break.

Continue reading Samsung’s 14-inch transparent OLED laptop (video)

Samsung’s 14-inch transparent OLED laptop (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s pico projecting W9600 gets a brief hands on

Samsung made a fairly tame showing at CES but we did bump into a rather sweet bit of integrated projection fun. The W9600 replaces last year’s W7900, and, like its predecessor, the specs are pretty thin. We do know, however, know that it uses Texas Instruments’ WVGA chip for the projection, has a 5 megapixel cam, a completely beautiful touchscreen AMOLED display, and can project vids, pics, and even the phone’s interface. We’ve always felt that projection phones are pretty toys but ultimately, we didn’t see a really solid reason they existed when we first saw them, and we still don’t with the W9600. That being said, this phone doesn’t feel so much like a work in progress, the focus wheel, finish, branding and the rest make this feel a bit more like a real phone and less like a dummy phone. Of course, the whole point is moot as the Anycall-branded W9600 will likely never make its way to our pockets, let alone our carriers. But do feel free to wander the gallery and take in the sights.

Samsung’s pico projecting W9600 gets a brief hands on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG eXpo projector hands-on

You’ll be familiar with the LG eXpo and its specs already — which include a slideout QWERTY keyboard and 1GHz Snapdragon under the hood — but we thought we’d go try the handset out for ourselves and tell you what we thought. Construction on this little machine was plenty sturdy to withstand the bumps associated with its unusual shape, while the keyboard slider mechanism had a reassuring feel to it. On the whole our impression was that you’ve got a middle of the road modern phone with a sales hook that depends on just how into projecting your images you are. Trust us, the sharp and large picture you may hope for from this device is possible only in very limited circumstances — even a moonlit night seems likely to mess with your enjoyment of the attached pico projector’s output. For the most part, you’ll have to be content with either watching 14-inch movies with the curtains drawn, or projecting ill-defined naughty pictures on the whiteboard while the teacher isn’t looking. Even if neither of those sounds like your kind of thing, feel welcome to peruse the hands-on gallery below.

LG eXpo projector hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES: Panasonic’s mainstream Blu-ray players get Wi-Fi, Netflix

Panasonic announced its new line of mainstream Blu-ray players, which now include Netflix and Pandora streaming. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10428011-269.html” class=”origPostedBlog”2010 CES/a/p

HP Mini Android smartbook hands-on

Okay, so it isn’t the HP Slate, but this Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered, Android-running Mini is definitely a departure from all the netbooks they’ve been putting out lately. At this point, this is just a concept and the white plastic chassis is far from pretty or final, and frankly it just looks like a last generation HP Mini. The 10-inch resistive touch display was responsive to finger taps from what we could see in our brief fondling. Oh and the Android we know and love was, you know, running. It all looks interesting, but for now we were way more impressed with Lenovo’s Skylight. Video coming soon.

HP Mini Android smartbook hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eyes-on with DirecTV 3D

Panasonic invited us to a sneak peak of 3D at its booth tonight and representatives from DirecTV were there showing off its new 1080p 3D HD demo feed. The quality was pretty good and quite enjoyable. There were no noticeable compression artifacts in the demo loop which included soccer, College Football, Avatar, Toy Story 3, and a few documentaries with awesome architecture and breathtaking views of mountains and ocean wildlife. We also had the chance to speak with the DirecTV technical staff which told us that the 1080p24 3D signal doesn’t take any more bandwidth than 2D content at the same resolution and frame rate. We were told the demo was indeed real and that we were actually watching the signal you’ll be able to watch in June — after your existing set-top gets a simple firmware update and assuming you have a 3D HDTV, that is. We have to say this is something we’re looking forward to and with every demo we become more convinced that 3D is actually going to take off.

Eyes-on with DirecTV 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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