The Web sites Sears and Amazon are showing 3D TVs in stock and available today, but Samsung is keeping official word under wraps until March.
Pentax is going for broke with its take on the rugged camera, the W90, which is unlikely to ever be confused for a svelte and stylish point-and-shoot. What it loses in looks, it gains in usability, however, as the 12.1 megapixel shooter can withstand shocks from a height of four feet, go nearly 20 feet under water, and withstand temperatures as slow as -10 degrees Celsius. The dustproofing is just topping on that rugged cake, though it still offers things like 720p / 30fps video recording and 5x optical zoom that are now considered standard camera specs. There are also three forms of shake reduction: one is post-processing of affected images, the second is by automatically increasing the ISO in low light conditions, and the third is the use of “exclusive software” during movie mode. We can’t say any one of those will be as good as a well-implemented optical image stabilization, but at least they’re there and might offer some assistance. As to the X90, it joins a growing band of 26x and above optical superzoomers, while adding the W90’s 720p video mode and anti-shake plus its own sensor-shift stabilizer for good measure. Both shooters are expected in April, priced at $330 for the W90 and $400 for the X90, though we’ve noticed the former will show up a month earlier in the UK with a £270 ($417) price tag.
Pentax makes all-weather Optio W90 and superzoom X90 official originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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File under “They don’t make ‘em like they used to”. This is the Kodak Bantam Special, a beautiful camera from 1936, made from machined aluminum and finished with enamel. The camera was designed by a company named Teague, and employee Sarah Matheny posted this lovely picture on the revamped Teague blog.
What strikes us, apart from its stunning looks, is that this limited edition camera was arguably more adventurous in its shape than most modern cameras (although it does conform to the Art-Deco styling of its day). Even when constrained by the needs to carry a roll of film, the folks at Teague came up with a case both unusual and functional (that sticking-out piece on the right is a flip-open cover).
Apart from the Olympus Pen, what other modern camera looks anything like this good? It is especially annoying as – provided you put the sensor behind the lens – a digital camera can be any shape you want. Heck, even the good-looking Pen is really just a reworking of an old design.
Perhaps there is a market for more innovative cameras. Or maybe somebody should take these old, obsolete film-shooters and retrofit them with digital guts. Who wouldn’t buy one of those?
Holy Bantam! [Teague via Kottke and Core77]
Put your skeptic hats on kids ’cause we’ve got a juicy one for you. When Greig Williams, Nokia’s General Manager for South East Europe, was asked by the German language Die Presse whether Ovi Maps would be coming to Android and Windows Mobile he responded very simply, “That will be the next step.” Well then, that’s pretty clear… but as much as we’d like to believe it, we simply can’t pin our hopes to this statement alone.
Remember, Nokia’s motivation for making its Ovi Maps service free was to sell more handsets; not handsets from its competitors but high-margin smartphones from Nokia in an effort to boost its profits. And unless it can pump out the Android version before Google Navigation goes global, there won’t be much motivation to download a presumably fee-based (it certainly won’t be free) Ovi Maps on the platform unless Android users are willing to pay to have Nokia’s localized maps on the device instead of downloading them over the air as the Google offering requires. Besides, is Nokia really going to dedicate staff to Android development when its more advanced Ovi Maps still aren’t available on its much touted Maemo MeeGo mobile computing platform? Not likely. Regarding “Windows Mobile,” well, 6.x’s days are numbered and getting Ovi Maps approved on Windows Phone 7 might not ever happen in light of Microsoft’s own efforts with Bing navigation. Of course, Greig offers no dates, and on a long enough time line anything is possible. We’ve already contacted Nokia for clarification and will update you just as soon as we hear back.
Update: Nokia just got back to us with an unsurprising response: “have spoken to Greig and he absolutely didn’t make that statement. As I understand it, this has now been, or in the process of being, taken down by the De Presse journalist at their site.” So much for that.
Nokia’s Ovi Maps headed to Windows Mobile and Android? (update: no way) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Alright, keep your socks on here, this is as noncommittal a statement as Redmond can make on the matter, but when asked directly about the likelihood and possibility of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones being transitioned to the new hotness that is Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft’s Alex Reeve had this to say:
It’s early days yet, and that’s really for our hardware partners to think about.
As the Director of the company’s UK Mobile Business Group, he’s well positioned to know what’s going to happen after said early days, and it’s encouraging to hear that at least Microsoft won’t be putting up any barriers to that HD2 upgrade we’re all dreaming about. After all, the Chassis 1 specs we keep hearing about tend to sound an awful lot like HTC’s 1GHz Snapdragon-powered bad self, so let’s keep our fingers crossed and our minds open.
Microsoft: Windows Phone 7 upgrades will be possible, up to OEMs to make them happen originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Back up your files on this thumb-drive and you’ll keep your data from crossing to the Dark Side. The lightsaber drives hook up using a USB plug hidden inside the handle and can store just 1GB each, which is hardly enough to justify their $20 price-tag.
The lightsabers do at least make good use of the normally annoying flashing lights found on almost all pen-drives: When you plug them in they will glow, either with the malevolent red of Darth Vader or the moronic, headstrong and self-centered green of Luke Skywalker.
Available now, as officially endorsed Lucasfilm collectables.
Japanese Lightsaber USB Thumbdrive [Think Geek]
3G anywhere is great, but locking yourself into a two (plus) year contract to get access to it is decidedly less-so. Enter Telava, a prepaid wireless company that is launching its so-called Broadband Bullet. It’s a simple USB modem that you can pop into your port-having device and get online at typical 3G speeds, the interesting thing being here that your $50 a month for 5GB ($60 for unlimited) comes without a contract. You can pay for one month, take a month off, then pay for the next two, switch between 5GB and unlimited, and generally do whatever you like without getting hit with an ETF. What you will get hit with is a $100 up-front security deposit, or you can pay $200 if for some crazy reason you want to keep the thing. Telava promises “nationwide coverage everywhere,” and while we’re not sure which network it’s piggy-backing on the coverage map looks reasonably comprehensive, so go get some, infrequent travelers.
Update: As a few of you have pointed out in comments, this appears to be T-Mo’s network it’s piggy-backing on.
Telava 3G Broadband Bullet kills mobile broadband contracts dead originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Factor 001 is a $34,000 bike designed and made by Formula-One engineers at bf1systems. It was built “without compromise”, ignoring the UCI (cycle sport’s governing body) rules in order to come up with what is possibly the most technically advanced “training device” ever. The most amazing thing about the design is that it looks – in essence – just like the bike I used to ride to school as a kid.
A bike’s basic two-triangle design is almost perfect, but that hasn’t stopped the bf1 guys from going all high-tech on its ass. Almost the entire bike is made from carbon fiber, but is still strong enough to take out on a real road (although NYC potholes might prove a problem). The bike also has a lot of electronics inside, from power meters to built-in GPS to a handlebar-mounted touch-screen. This bike isn’t meant for racing: it’s all about training.
There are a few departures from conventional diamond-frame design. The head-tube is gone, and instead the forks go all the way up to the handlebars. Apparently it is more efficient than the standard design, but it looks rather more primitive, too.
Gears? Shimano Di2 of course — the electronic Dura-Ace. These are combined with some truly weird-sounding tech. The aluminum cranks, for example, have an “embedded wireless torque system that is usually fitted to F1 driveshaft systems.”
I’d love to take it for a spin, and the Factor 001 would surely be light enough to carry up the many flights of stairs to my apartment (exact weight isn’t given as it depends on the custom spec). But $34,000 for a bike? That seems like crazy money, and takes away one of the best parts of cycling — you don’t need to be rich to afford the best bikes in the world.
And if you think you might need this to improve your performance, consider the story of Luke Whyte, the British biker who entered a South African road race at the last minute, even though he only had a knobbly-tired mountain bike. Despite this “handicap”, Whyte came in first.
Factor 1 [Factor 1 via Oh Gizmo!]
Honda shows off three-wheeled 3R-C concept vehicle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This is the hottest thing you’ll see today: an iPhone with a custom titanium back. Martin Schrotz wasn’t happy with the plastic back of his iPhone 3GS, so he did what anyone would do. Martin measured the original case digitally, plugged those numbers into some CAD software and then milled his new case design from a solid ingot of titanium,.
You first thought will be “what about the reception?” I thought the same thing, and apparently so did Martin. The block from which he carved his masterpiece is in fact a titanium alloy which, although non as RF-transparent as plastic, gives a good enough signal.
We love it, especially the unibody-chunkiness of it, which makes it look like a tiny iPad. Version 2.0 is already under way, with a smaller Apple logo and a thinner case near the antenna, which is one of the thickest bits of titanium in V1.0. More pictures below.
Custom Metal iPhone [Mod My I forums via Engadget]
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