This episode had a number of potential titles. Nerd Alert, Nerd party, Nerdgasm… but we honed in on the one that really encapsulates the sheer nerditude of stuff covered in today’s show. Let your inner nerd shine through.
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Originally posted at Gadgettes, the blog
Free, ad-supported phones have long been a rumored endgame for Android, but the way that model ends up playing out may not happen the way everyone thought. mocoNews is citing “multiple sources who are familiar with the deals” in saying that Google has been sweetening the pot for both manufacturers and carriers of Android devices by tossing in a cut of the ad revenue generated from their services — search, Maps, and the like. This would certainly explain Android’s stratospheric rise through the ranks in carriers’ lineups around the globe, and — more importantly for consumers — gives them more wiggle room to slap huge subsidies on handsets (assuming the trickle-down economic effect kicks in at all). For competitors, Google offers a unique value proposition here that can’t really be met by anyone except perhaps Microsoft — and with Redmond looking to reestablish its relevance in the mobile space this year more than any other in recent memory, we could definitely see the two sparring to line Verizon’s and AT&T’s pockets with the most green. Naturally, all the parties involved have clammed up — no one’s saying a peep about whether this is true, or to what extent — but we certainly wouldn’t be surprised.
Google cutting in Android carriers, manufacturers on ad revenue? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
CNET editor Jasmine France gives a rundown on the ins and outs of maintaining interpersonal relationships in a digital world. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-20001193-49.html” class=”origPostedBlog”MP3 Insider/a/p
Nintendo Wii users don’t have to feel left out anymore. Netflix has started shipping instant streaming discs to Wii owners who have signed up for it.
The move makes Wii the last console among its peers to get the service.
About a year-and-a-half ago, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 became the first console to offer direct access to Netflix for gamers. Sony’s PlayStation 3 users gained access to Netflix’s instant streaming service late last year.
Finally, in January this year, Netflix said it will offer streaming for Wii users starting Spring. Wii users with a broadband connection and a subscription to Netflix can access Netflix’s library.
The movie rental service sent out e-mail alerts to customers Thursday and has said discs for the Wii could be in the hands of consumers before the weekend.
The Wii can’t play high-definition streaming shows or movies but we are hoping an innovative interface for using Netflix through the Wii’s controller makes up a little for that.
Photo: (ginnerobot/Flickr)
The whole point of Gobi is that you can buy one device and use it with multiple network technologies or carriers, but apparently Qualcomm isn’t kidding around about the idea. It just announced a slew of data chipsets (voice still isn’t part of the picture) with all sorts of new goodies. New technologies supported include EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (the five people on earth using Rev. B will be thrilled), HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA+ (which looks to be the evolutionary end of HSPA), and LTE. The mother of all these chipsets is the MDM9600, which can do LTE up to 100 Mbps, dual-carrier HSPA+ up to 42Mbps, HSPA+ up to 28Mbps, and EV-DO Rev. A / Rev. B. Qualcomm also says it’s moving Gobi beyond just laptops, with USB modems, e-readers, and “gaming devices” now in the cards. No word on when they’ll start showing up, but much of it will have to do with carrier rollout as much as Qualcomm’s ability to ship these out the door.
Qualcomm adding the kitchen sink to Gobi, including EV-DO Rev. A, dual-carrier HSPA+, and LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Synology DS410 NAS will back up your files, won’t incite a passionate response originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Why carry around a netbook and a smartphone when you can have a netbook / smartphone? Why indeed. Especially when you can have something as sensible as the BPhone, which is now finally available for the completely reasonable price of $569.99 (unlocked, of course). That will get you a not-quite-pocketable convertible device with a 5-inch touchscreen, along with a 624MHz Marvell CPU, ARM Linux 2.6 for an OS, 256GB of flash storage, built-in Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS, and quad-band GSM connectivity on the “phone” side of the equation. Sound like just the thing you’ve been looking for? Hit up the link below to get your order in.
[Thanks, BrianB]
BPhone netbook / smartphone hyrbid now available to order originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
A handheld cube-shaped display promises to offer all the thrills of 3-D without the annoyance of the glasses. The device called pCubee arranges five LCD screens into a box-like shape so viewers can pick it up, watch content or play with virtual objects inside.
Weighing in at about three pounds, pCubee gives users a chance to poke and prod objects virtually using a stylus. You can shake the cube, tilt it or interact with a touchscreen, all while retaining the 3-D experience.
“Most people think 3-D is all about stereo and having alternating frames to help the brain perceive depth,” says Sidney Fels, who leads the Human Communication Technologies Lab at the University of British Columbia, where the project was designed. “What we wanted to offer is a fish-tank-like experience in a handheld device.”
A wave of successful 3-D movies such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have spurred interest in bringing the 3-D viewing experience closer to consumers. Major consumer electronics companies such as Samsung, LG and Panasonic have started selling 3-D TVs that are fundamentally based on the principle of stereoscopy. Stereoscopy involves presenting a slightly different image to each eye of the same scene so when the brain fuses those images, it perceives depth. That also means viewers have to wear glasses for the 3-D effect.
A different principle called motion parallax is at work in the pCubee. Motion parallax is the apparent change in position of an object, depending on the distance from which you view it. It’s a very effective cue for 3-D, says Fels.
“Our brains are wired to perceive motion parallax and interpret it as 3-D,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons why even if you have just one eye, you can do reasonably well with depth in the real world.”
The pCubee’s design helps the brain interpret this better.
“The fact that it is handheld greatly increases motion parallax,” says Ian Stavness, one of the researchers who worked on the project. “If it were fixed to the desk, you would have to move your head around and it would not be so comfortable.”
And as the video shows, pCubee is fun and easy to use.
The pCubee has three graphics pipelines that drive the screens on the sides of the box. A motion tracker watches the pCubee and the user’s head. The software that powers the device ensures that the user’s view of the box and the rendered perspective on each screen are in sync.
Fels says his team is looking to commercialize pCubee so it can be in the hands of consumers. The team is looking to improve the design and refine it by experimenting with OLED screens to replace the LCD panels that are being used currently.
“The pCubee can be used as a game platform, a CAD-CAM platform and in museums,” says Fels. “We imagine this as something that would be on everybody’s coffee table.”
[via Technabob]
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Photo: pCubee
Mobinnova Beam netbook spotted running Android, sporting other improvements originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oh, brother. This just keeps getting better and better, and by “better and better,” we mean “uglier and uglier.” Google’s abrupt decision to stop censoring results in China and redirect users on the mainland to the outfit’s Hong Kong portal has stirred up all sorts of tense feelings around the globe, and if you thought this whole war would be confined to the desktop, you were sorely mistaken. China Unicom, which is gearing up to present its customer base with a few more smartphone options with Android loaded on, recently announced that it wouldn’t be using Google as the search engine on those very phones. Lu Yimin, president of the operator, was quoted as saying that his company was “willing to work with any company that abides by Chinese law,” but that it didn’t have “any cooperation with Google currently.” Granted, this is just the latest in a series of blows to Android’s proliferation in the world’s biggest nation, but you can really tell it’s getting personal now. C’mon guys — can’t we just hug it out?
China Unicom won’t use Google’s search engine on Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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