Hasta La Gadget!

Good old white space is finally about to get itself some real action, courtesy of the FCC’s upcoming (and long-delayed) ratification of a decision to authorize its unlicensed use. Opening up the spare spectrum that resides between TV channels’ broadcasting frequencies — which in itself has expanded in the wake of the transition from analog to digital television — is expected to be a massive boon to innovation, with exponentially larger wireless networks being the first prospective benefit. Such WiFi nirvanas have already been set up in Claudville, Virginia and Wilmington, North Carolina, while Microsoft, Google, HP, Sprint, and others are said to be mulling and testing out their own ways for exploting the newfound wireless freedom as well. Another positive note is that former requirements for white space-using devices to be able to tap into a database and identify themselves are likely to be scrapped, making for much simpler rollouts of whatever awesome new tech awaits in our future.

[Thanks, Marc]

FCC set to approve use of unlicensed airwaves, wants ‘innovators and entrepreneurs’ to exploit them originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 06:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that T-Mobile’s got its G2 slider out in the open, the cosmic universe reckons it’s time to look towards the next HSPA+ device — and the next iteration of the Android-laden myTouch series. We’ve seen alleged pics of the myTouch HD before, and now TmoNews has what it claims is an internal document from the carrier boasting some of the key features of the device. Sure, it could be all for naught, but let’s hear this one out. According to the alleged paper, the myTouch HD runs on “America’s largest 4G network” (that’s gonna make some eyes roll) and has a 3.8-inch screen, Swype, 4GB internal space, a bundled 8GB SD card, a five megapixel rear camera, and a VGA camera on the front for video chat over Qik or Yahoo Messenger. There’s also talk of screen sharing for pictures and video onto a HDTV, but that could be something as simple as HDMI output. Something tells us the 1GHz “dual processor” is more than likely a typo that’s meant to say dual-core, à la the Snapdragon chips, but when you’re dealing in the world of the unconfirmed, we suppose anything’s possible.

Rumored T-Mobile doc pegs myTouch HD with front-facing camera, screen sharing, and ‘dual processor’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s decided to litter its Asian portal with a smattering of blood-red “coming soon” signs, signifying an unannounced but seemingly very real wave of laptop refreshes. The F Series gets to play with NVIDIA’s new 425M mobile GPU, but the real hotness is to be found in the Z Series, which get access to 2.8GHz Core i7-640M and 2.66GHz Core i5-580M CPU options from Intel. You’ll recognize both as mostly roadmap fodder until now, and they’re joined by the i5-560M, which makes its debut on a couple of Sony’s midrange consumer lines. Basically, it’s a whole lot of new silicon in what look like the same old enclosures, but that’s not going to stop us from speccing out a Quad SSD-equipped VAIO Z just for the fun of it. We can probably expect these upgrades to journey westward soon as well, so why not hit the source link for a little bit of advance reconnaissance?

[Thanks, Wes]

Continue reading Intel Core i5-580M and Core i7-640M highlight Sony’s Asian laptop refresh

Intel Core i5-580M and Core i7-640M highlight Sony’s Asian laptop refresh originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 02:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bullseye! The 2011 Lincoln MKX matches the best-selling Lexus RX 350 on most fronts and blows away all mid-size SUV competitors with a dazzling new version of Sync, SD Card navigation, affordable high-tech options, and to-die-for audio. So long as you like big chrome wheels, you’ll be a happy driver. A fully optioned MKX puts you on the high side of $50,000, but there’s the humbler Ford Edge stablemate as a fallback. Lincoln’s best-in-class cockpit technology puts the MKX on the short list of every midsize-SUV buyer. You’ll have to decide if the MKX platform is as competitive as the embedded technology.

• Dumb and Dumber? Lincoln’s Capacitive Touch Volume, Fan Controls

Say hello to NVIDIA’s GF106 core (please pretend you’ve never met before). The company’s third Fermi desktop iteration is described as “a little more than half of the GF104 implementation,” which in real terms means 192 CUDA cores versus the GTX 460‘s 336, reduced memory bandwidth with a 128-bit-wide bus and a lower number of ROPs at 16. These disadvantages are ameliorated by 783MHz graphics and 1566MHz processor clock speeds as well as a much more forgiving power profile — the new GTS 450 cards will require just the one 6-pin power connector for auxiliary juice. Pricing is aimed squarely at conquering the market currently occupied by ATI’s HD 5750, which, as we saw over the weekend, plants the 450 around the $130 mark. You’ll have to read the reviews below for confirmation, but NVIDIA promises “awesome” overclocking headroom on its new card, going as far as to suggest stable 900MHz graphics clocks aren’t out of the realm of possibility.

Read – HardOCP
Read – Tech Report
Read – Guru 3D
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Legit Reviews
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – TweakTown

Continue reading NVIDIA makes GeForce GTS 450 official, promises beastly overclocking

NVIDIA makes GeForce GTS 450 official, promises beastly overclocking originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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