Hasta La Gadget!

The Japanese camera equipment maker expects the new Foveon sensor in its upcoming SD1 will prove more competitive. Also: new image-stabilized lenses and Sigma’s financial crisis. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20017073-264.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Deep Tech/a/p

Look, we know that every new BlackBerry model is going to bear a striking resemblance to the model it replaces — that’s just how RIM does things — but isn’t this getting a little out of hand? The BlackBerry 6-equpped Bold 9780 has been leaked a few times at this point, but we’re seeing it now for the first time totally unshackled from Mr. Blurrycam’s surly bonds… and yeah, if you had any doubts as to whether it was a dead ringer for the 9700 it’ll likely be replacing, you can put those doubts to rest. Of course, when you’ve got a keyboard as good as the Bold series does, sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone, we suppose — just makes that lucrative early upgrade market a little tougher to tap.

[Thanks, Dion]

BlackBerry Bold 9780 in the wild one more time, still looks exactly like a 9700 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been just shy of a year since TerreStar’s Windows Mobile-based Genus was announced for AT&T, offering a unique combination of GSM / HSPA backed up with satellite capability for those times when you find yourself in the middle of nowhere; in fact, you may have assumed that it had already been released by now. After all, this isn’t the phone for 97 percent of the population — it runs Windows Mobile and still works in places where us soft city folk would never dream of going — so odds are good you never bothered to follow up on it. Fact is, though, it’s just now available for the first time today, so as long as you’ve got a line of sight to TerreStar’s bird and a willingness to tolerate WinMo 6.5.3, you’ll be able to make and receive calls throughout the US, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and in the surrounding waters — and it’s all on one telephone number. Of course, having a single number eliminates the cool factor of being able to say “if you can’t reach me, try my sat phone,” but let’s be honest: convenience wins here. Right now, the phone’s only available to business and government users… and with $799 upfront for the phone and satellite service running $25 a month plus per-minute, per-message, and per-megabyte charges of 65 cents, 40 cents, and 5 dollars, respectively, that’s probably for the best. Follow the break for AT&T’s full press release.

Continue reading TerreStar Genus hybrid satellite phone hits AT&T at long last for $799

TerreStar Genus hybrid satellite phone hits AT&T at long last for $799 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Right on schedule — or a day early, depending on your time zone — Sony has unleashed version 3.50 of its PS3 firmware. And as previously promised, it’s got 3D Blu-ray movie playback with it. According to the Official US PlayStation blog, there’s also some added Facebook integration and new methods of grief reporting. We’re still updating and will let you know what else we might unearth.

Update: Surprise, surprise, it works. We were able to test Blu-ray 3D out and got it running without too much hassle, as long as the HDMI setting is on “Auto” it will detect your 3DTV and switch to the correct mode just like it has for gaming since the update that enabled 3D functionality there. We didn’t see any differences in the menus with the Disney Blu-ray 3D demo disc we had on hand, but we’ll be checking out how BD-Java functions in 3D later on.

Update 2: Per Sony’s v3.50 support page, and verified by several sources, the PS3 has to choose between Blu-ray 3D playback and lossless audio, whether from DTS-HD MA or Dolby TrueHD, it will fall back to a compressed codec while playing 3D content, while menus, items and BD-Java contet “may be different” on the PS3 than on other systems.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading PS3 firmware 3.50 is a go, 3D Blu-ray movies suddenly feel more wanted

PS3 firmware 3.50 is a go, 3D Blu-ray movies suddenly feel more wanted originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 23:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The plot thickens! You might recall that alleged Storm3 shot from a few hours back — didn’t look half bad, right? Well, remember how we also postulated that it could be a Photoshop job? It’s still too early to call it one way or the other, but BGR is reporting that the real Storm3 is more of a Storm2 clone that’s slimmed down a bit, lost a tad of weight, and matches up with specs we’d seen in the past, even daring to carry on with the clicky SurePress display that the Torch ditched. Why Verizon would release a phone at the end of 2010 so close in design to an existing device that has accumulated virtually zero buzz is unclear; furthermore, we’re more confused than ever whether the shot we saw earlier was a fake or yet another RIM device unrelated to the Storm line. For now, we’re going to chalk it all up to SurfBook mania until we get it sorted out, so hang tight.

BlackBerry Storm3 is actually a warmed-over Storm2? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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