Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is a multimedia machine. The console lets you consumer all manner of media through your television set, like games, movies, music, and even, well, TV. Microsoft this week announced that the system will be getting AT&T U-Verse, bringing the Xbox HDTV and DVR capabilities.

In order to use the service, you’ll need a U-verse account and set-top box. There’s also a mandatory Xbox kit, which includes a 360 remote control–that’ll run you an extra $99. Oh, and an AT&T cable guy is going to have to come to your house to install the thing. The handy video above will explain everything to you.

U-verse is currently available in a number of markets across the US.

You can’t help but smile, can you? ECOtality‘s latest entrant into the rapidly expanding Blink line of EV chargers looks awfully familiar to avid motorists, and for good reason. Designed to mimic a conventional petrol pump, the DC Fast Charger should blend right in when installed in Best Buy parking lots, gas stations and beyond, with the company aiming to get these positioned in a wide variety of locations in order to ease “range anxiety.” We’re also told that motorists will eventually be able to utilize the Blink Network Smartphone Application in order to locate the nearest charging station and receive GPS directions, and an RFID-enabled payment system makes it easy to drain your wallet, rejuvenate your vehicle and get you back on the open road. There’s even a 42-inch LCD on the top, and while it’s primarily engineered for ads and information, we’re sure a few wire swaps would have your Xbox 360 displayed in no time flat. The DC Fast Charger should be hitting 16 major American cities in the near future, and there’s a video after the break to tide you over.

Continue reading DC Fast Charger joins the ECOtality EV charging station fleet, looks like a fuel pump

DC Fast Charger joins the ECOtality EV charging station fleet, looks like a fuel pump originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You see a lot of weird things living in New York City–honestly, it just sort of comes with the territory. That’s not to say that New Yorkers are entirely unflappable, of course–there are still those things that genuinely freak us out: silver orbs floating through the mid-afternoon sky, for example.

New Yorkers spotted just that above Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood at roughly 1:30 PM yesterday. “You really have to look up to see it,” a witness calling himself Rico told The New York Daily News. “It’s a little crazy. I guess that’s why they call it an unidentified flying object because they don’t know what it is.”

Fair enough, Rico, fair enough.

The FAA received several calls about the sighting. “We re-ran radar to see if there was anything there that we can’t account for but there is nothing in the area,” a spokesman for the organization told the paper. “There was some helicopter traffic over the river at that time and we checked with LaGuardia Tower. And they said they had nothing going low at that time.”

The objects, it seems, were just a bunch of silver balloons. At least that’s what they want you to think.

Rejoice, PS3 owners, your Netflix streaming experience just got vastly better than anything else on the market. Starting October 18 Netflix on the PS3 will no longer require a disc, and it’ll stream some content with 1080i 1080p resolution and / or 5.1-channel surround audio, while everyone else will be stuck with a max of 720p stereo for the time being. Oh, and you’ll get subtitles on some content as well. Netflix is partnering with Dolby on the audio side, and the surround format will be Dolby Digital Plus, which is the same codec used by the VUDU HDX streaming service — we’re guessing it’ll require a tiny bit more bandwidth but the results should sound pretty great. Netflix says 5.1 will come to other platforms “over time,” so we’ll see how long that takes — and given that the PS3 is now disc-free and the company’s eschewed the SRS surround features baked into its Silverlight-based platform, we’re guessing Microsoft’s exclusivity period has now completely run its course. Video and PR after the break.

Update: Though the official PlayStation Blog originally reported the service would display streaming video at 1080i resolution, they’ve since struck that out — they say it’ll do 1080p now. Much better.

Continue reading Netflix on PS3 goes disc-free, gets 1080p streaming and 5.1 surround sound (update)

Netflix on PS3 goes disc-free, gets 1080p streaming and 5.1 surround sound (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nope, it’s not a Facebook “phone,” but it’s probably the closest you’re gonna get to one right now. Skype has just unleashed the no-longer-in-beta version of its 5.0 Windows software, and not only has it drastically tided up the interface, but just like the rumor said, it’s taken advantage of Facebook Connect in a big way. The new version, which will apparently be available for public download within minutes of this post hitting the internet, still has a familiar look and feel, but the most noticeable changes are the addition of photos to the contacts list and the new Facebook tab. Logging into your Facebook account within the program populates your regular News Feed, but also attaches Skype call / SMS buttons next to friends that have either their Skype handles or mobile phone numbers listed on Facebook. Hit one of the buttons and you’re, well, connected! There’s also an option to view your Facebook Phonebook, which basically lists all your contacts’ mobile phone numbers — though, oddly, it doesn’t list Skype handles within that area. Of course, the final version still allows for 10-way video calls and includes the automatic call recovery feature, which brilliantly reconnects dropped calls as if the drop didn’t really happen. If and when these features will hit Skype’s mobile version, your guess is as good as ours — a company spokesperson told us there’s nothing to talk about on that end right now. Of course, we could go on and on about the new software, or you could hit the source link, download it yourself, and let us know what you think about it below.

Update: Skype says the source link should work — even though it says it’s Skype 4.2, the software is 5.0.

Continue reading Skype 5.0 for Windows busts out of beta, integrates your Facebook friends

Skype 5.0 for Windows busts out of beta, integrates your Facebook friends originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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