Feb 17
A standard Rubik’s Cube has more than 42 quintrillion possible positions. A Lego Mindstorms robot called CubeStormer can solve the cube in less than 12 seconds.
Feb 17
Compaq AirLife 100 hands-on
Posted in: Android, hands-on, HP, Today's Chili
We visited with HP to see what’s changed since we saw the Compaq AirLife during CES — aside from it now having a name — in early January. We were told by HP that the device’s plastic housing has been improved, received confirmation that it’s indeed running a 1GHz Snapdragon, and will be sold exclusively through a deal with Telefonica. The AirLife’s performance was impressive while scrolling through carousels of photos, and control of the resistive display was also snappy with no stuttering while scrolling — that we noticed. If reaching across the keyboard to touch the screen isn’t your thing, you also have the option of using the touchpad that is equipped with three Android buttons for home, menu, and back. Sadly though, as it isn’t a Google certified device, it won’t have access to the Android Market, but rather will reach into Telefonica’s homegrown option: mstore. We guess as long as the store offerings are decent, and easy for consumers to access, the AirLife may well get some attention come launch time in Spring of this year. Pricing remains a mystery, but if it is able to compete with Lenovo Skylight at $499, less the carrier subsidy, it could be pretty attractive. Video tour and some pictures are just below the fold.
Gallery: Compaq AirLife 100 hands-on
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Compaq AirLife 100 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb 17
Opera Mini browser for iPhone?
Posted in: Today's ChiliLast week Opera Software announced it would show a sneak peek of its Mini browser for iPhone–with or without Apple’s approval. We follow up. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10455031-78.html” class=”origPostedBlog”3GSM blog/a/p
Feb 17
The World of Warcraft publisher announced Wednesday that it has begun beta testing of the sequel to its 1998 hit, StarCraft. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10455315-52.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Geek Gestalt/a/p
Feb 17
HTC Desire listed at Amazon’s German portal (update: €519)
Posted in: Android, europe, germany, Google, HTC, on sale, OnSale, price, smartphone, Today's Chili
Curious as to what HTC will be charging for its Sense-enabled Desire? If Amazon’s German portal is to be believed, it’ll go for a cool €419 ($572). Of course, the site doesn’t give any indication as to when it’ll actually ship to those that order, but it is clear that Amazon is doing the selling and not some third-party merchant. Just under six Benjamins for a souped-up Nexus One? You know you’re in for that.
[Thanks, Lars]
Update: We had a feeling this price was too good to be true and sure enough, Amazon.de now lists the Desire for a steeper €519 ($711), alongside the newly arrived Legend, which has shown up with a €459 ($629) asking price [Thanks, Sebastian].
HTC Desire listed at Amazon’s German portal (update: €519) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb 17
Case Turns iPhone Into Universal Remote While Charging It
Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Apple, apps, iPhone, Today's Chili
You would think that turning the iPhone into a universal remote control would be easy, but it turns out it’s not: We’ve seen a couple of unimpressive attempts from developers. FastMac and Umee’s solution looks like it might work though.
Dubbed iV Plus, the gadget consists of an iPhone case with an integrated battery and a built-in infrared transmitter, which communicates with an app to control your home entertainment products. The idea is such: After a long day of work, you can plop down in front of the couch, pop your iPhone in the case and charge the handset while using it as a remote to control your TV, your stereo or whatever else is in your living room. And if you’re OK with carrying your iPhone around in a chunky case, there’s a bonus: It actually includes a LED flash for snapping photos.
Even more interesting is Umee’s design of the app. You can select remote control codes based on manufacturer and types of devices in your living room. From there on, you can actually customize the remote control buttons, adding or removing whatever ones you wish. So say for instance you only use five buttons on your Comcast cable box remote: the power, select, guide, page-up and page-down buttons, for example. You can delete all the junk and keep those buttons you actually use.
The iV Plus sounds promising, because past universal remote apps we’ve seen have failed to create an intuitive user interface to comfortably control your living room gadgets, rendering the product impractical.
We tried a demo of the iV Plus at Macworld Expo last week, and it was only working with television sets at the time. We’re looking forward to trying the iV Plus when a full version is available. Due for release in the second quarter of 2010, the case will cost $130 and the app will be free.
Compage page [FastMac]
See Also:
- First Look: Accessory-Powered App Turns iPhone Into Universal …
- IR Dongle Turns iPhone into Universal Remote
- Experimental Tech Turns Your Coffee Table Into a Universal Remote …
- 5 Nifty Apps That Turn Your Android Into A Universal Remote …
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Feb 17
General Mobile’s Touch Stone: how can something so wrong be so right?
Posted in: Android, hands-on, kirf, mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, Today's Chili
General Mobile — maker of the DSTL1 dual-SIM Android phone — has always walked a fine line between KIRF and originality with its phones, and its latest batch is no different. Normally it’s easy to resist a device widely regarded as a knockoff (for most of us, anyhow), but in the case of the newest model here, General Mobile’s actually managed to answer a question HTC’s failed to so far: where the hell is the HD2 with Android? The so-called “Touch Stone” (deep breaths, Palm) rings true to many of the actual HD2’s specs, from the 5 megapixel camera to the 4.3-inch capacitive WVGA display, but this sucker adds an “optional” analog TV tuner (which won’t do countries with digital transitions any good) and Android 2.0 atop an ARM9-based PXA935 core. Sadly, this phone doesn’t quite exist yet — we were shown a dummy model today with the promise of retail toward the end of the year, at which point HTC and others will undoubtedly have phones like the Supersonic on the shelf. If you’ll excuse us, we need a cold shower, but you’ll find more shots of the Touch Stone along with the Cosmos (launching soon) and Cosmos 2 dummy (launching… well, eventually) in the gallery.
General Mobile’s Touch Stone: how can something so wrong be so right? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb 17
The Asus Eee PC family tree
Posted in: Today's ChiliFor purposes of historical interest, we’ve rounded up the past few generations of Eee PC Netbooks for easy perusal.
Feb 17
South Korea is getting ready to build a robot theme park that features reconstructions of robot-oriented movie sets, a robot arm ride, and even robot cashiers and performers.
Feb 17
Adesso sure isn’t lacking for keyboards of all shapes and sizes (seriously, look at its website), but the company has nonetheless somehow found room for yet one more with its new KB-4200USB model, which packs boasts both a built-in trackpad and wireless connectivity. Thankfully, the trackpad (non-multitouch, it seems) on this one is a bit less awkwardly placed than on the last model, and the design is more along the lines of something like the diNovo Edge (not exactly a bad thing). Of course, this one also packs a similarly higher-end price tag — $120, to be exact.
Adesso rolls out WKB-4200UB wireless keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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