Hasta La Gadget!

Peruse the Android Market this morrow and you might come across a hot new addition from the folks at DoubleTwist. That’s right, the iTunes-aping desktop sync manager has gone native on the Android platform and early feedback on its media player implementation has been positive. The free music and video player app does that whole seamless thing quite well, apparently, interfacing directly with your Windows or Mac computerino and porting over relevant playlists, ratings and media. A widget and other features are coming soon, though you’ll likely have to pay for them, given the “free for a limited time” note on the download page. Better get it while the gettin’s good.

DoubleTwist adds some polish to Android with new media player app originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s time to take a glimpse into the future — the future of what will someday be swimming in your bloodstream. Video highlights from the 2010 NIST Mobile Microrobotics Challenge have started trickling out, and we’re mighty impressed. Through various events, like the 2mm dash, universities and institutions competed to determine whose tiny contraptions would reign supreme. Various competitors won various prizes, with the French CNRS team spanning that 2mm distance in an amazing 32ms, while Swiss team ETH Zurich showed its prowess at slotting 100µm pins (human hair sized) into impossibly small holes. That’s a picture of one of the competition arenas above, and we think you’ll want to see the video of ETH’s tiny bulldozer doing its thing after the break. In a few years we figure these little suckers will be doing something like this in your body, but instead of assembling puzzles they’ll be overcoming natural defenses and removing your will to live.

Continue reading Micro machines experience thrill of victory, agony of defeat at Mobile Microrobotics Challenge

Micro machines experience thrill of victory, agony of defeat at Mobile Microrobotics Challenge originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iRiver’s just announced two new lines of cheap PMPs for your fanciful, color-loving ears. First up, the T8 Candy Bar boasts a classic USB stick design, and is available in eight outrageous colors. They pack 4GB of storage and a battery life of up to 17 hours — but not much else. Up next the slightly more interesting S100, which comes in both 4GB and 8GB varieties, with a 2.83-inch, 240 x 320 resolution color display, FM Radio, microSD slot, and 720p video playback. Both the T8 Candy Bar and the S100 are available in Korea only so far, and the T8 runs 69,000 Won (around $58) while the S100 starts at 129,000 Won (around $106) with several different configurations. Shot of the S100 is after the break.

Continue reading iRiver busts out low end T8 Candy Bar and S100 PMPs in Korea

iRiver busts out low end T8 Candy Bar and S100 PMPs in Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So that simultaneous global launch isn’t going to materialize quite as we were told, but Samsung is indeed bringing the Galaxy S to the widest possible audience. The Korean giant has made its 2010 flagship official in Europe today, meaning you should be able to sign your life away to your favorite carrier in exchange for it very soon indeed. We’re told the 4-incher will be making its American debut later in the year, though a protracted delay appears unlikely. Pricing on the Galaxy S might not turn out to be all that democratic, but its comprehensive choice of more than 100 global carriers sure will be, and might suggest we’ll get a choice of networks when the phone finally makes its way Stateside. Hang tight, gringos, not long to go now.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S launches in Europe, hitting US ‘later this year’

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Galaxy S launches in Europe, hitting US ‘later this year’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may not think to look at ASRock when considering a new pre-fabricated HTPC, but the company had two new SFF boxes at Computex that could certainly suffice. The Vision 3D (available in black / silver and with or without a Blu-ray drive) was the sleeker of the two, with a minuscule form factor that could easily be tucked beneath your cable box and a Core i5-520M CPU at the helm. Other specs include NVIDIA GeForce 300 / 400 series graphics, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive, slot-loading optical drive, 7.1-channel audio (with a fancy THX certification logo, to boot), gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a bundled remote. The other guy (Core 100 / 200 series) looks an awful lot like the S330 that we spotted at CeBIT last year, offering a Core i3-330M CPU, integrated Intel graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a Blu-ray combo drive and the same general port arrangement as the Vision 3D. Both units will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium, though no pricing or release date information was available.

In related news, the company was also showing off its newly released AIWI solution, which consists of an iPod touch / iPhone app and a lightweight application that runs on ASRock motherboards in order to allow for motion control gaming with an iDevice you already own. The demo that we saw here in Taiwan was perfectly seamless, and the responsiveness was on par with Nintendo’s Wiimote. Apparently this is designed to be used exclusively with ASRock mobos (whereas similar alternatives from Sixense can work with any setup), but it’s still a solid addition for those who tend to end up with ASRock-labeled gear. Enough yappin’ — head on past the break to catch the action yourself.

Continue reading ASRock AIWI turns your iPhone / iPod touch into HTPC motion controller (video)

ASRock AIWI turns your iPhone / iPod touch into HTPC motion controller (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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