Xcom Global international MiFi / data rental service review

A few months earlier in the year, we covered the arduous process of staying connected while traveling abroad. One of the ways we mentioned for jetsetters, backpackers and common tourists to stay jacked in while situated far from their homeland was a MiFi rental service from Xcom Global. The company has only been operating for a matter of months, but we recently took their services for a spin in order to give you a more detailed look at what to expect. The long and short of it? These guys are the guys to contact when you’re about to grab your next passport stamp. Read on to find out why.

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Xcom Global international MiFi / data rental service review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Hundred-Year-Old Submarines [Steampunk]

Nowadays we tend to think of submarines as sleek, futuristic, and powerful. But back in the Victorian era, it was these steam-powered clunkers that ruled 20,000 leagues under the sea. More »

Sharp trots out AQUOS Quattron 3D HDTVs, complete with Blu-ray recorders

You should know by the inclusion of a Blu-ray recorder that these guys are reserved for the Japanese market, but what’s stopping you and yours from drooling over ’em? The 52-inch LC-52LB3 and 46-inch LC-46LB3 are the latest members of the AQUOS Quattron 3D family, and aside from packing 1080p panels and integrated TV tuners, you’ll also get a slot-loading Blu-ray drive that plays back BD films and can toast material on BDXL media. Not too shabby, eh? They’ll be on sale halfway across the world this November, but pricing remains a mystery — we’re guessing it’s one of those ‘if you have to ask…’ type scenarios.

Sharp trots out AQUOS Quattron 3D HDTVs, complete with Blu-ray recorders originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsofts Steve Ballmer Gets Raise. Kevin Turner Still Makes Way More

Ballmer Win7.jpg

Steve Ballmer is back, baby. The Microsoft chief received a 5.8 percent raise for 2010, bringing his salary up to $1.34 million. That’s up from $1.26 in 2009. It puts him roughly around the level that he was making in 2008.

According to The Seattle Times, “[Ballmer] received 100 percent of his targeted incentive pay. The board could have awarded up to 200 percent.”

Ballmer also received a good share less than many of his peers at other companies–and even some of his co-workers. Take, for example, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, who nearly doubled his 2009 earnings in 2010, pulling in an impressive $10.4 million, according to Microsoft’s filings with the Securities and Exchange commission.

The Microsoft board–Ballmer’s bosses, more or less–praised the chief for the “strong financial year” and the “successful product launches” of Windows 7, Office 2010, and more, but docked him for the swift failure of the Microsoft Kin and the company’s overall lackluster performance in the mobile space.

Great, that’s all we need–more reasons for the guy to scream.

Spokesman: The NFL Will Be On A Tablet (Probably Verizon)

You may soon be able to watch live pro football on your tablet, but unless it’s on Verizon’s network, maybe not the tablet you might like.

NFL VP and media strategist Brian Rolapp told the Wall Street Journal that the league is currently in talks with Verizon about distributing live and rebroadcast games and other content to tablets. “The NFL will be on a tablet,” he said. “It’s a question of what shape or form.” Verizon declined to comment.

Why Verizon? The carrier already has a $720 million four-year exclusive deal to show games and other programming on phones with its NFL Mobile service that was just signed in March. Depending on the terms of that deal (and remember, in March, the iPad wasn’t even in stores yet), tablet computers are most likely not included, but the NFL may find it practically and legally difficult to partner with another wireless provider.

Why would you want to watch an NFL game on a teeny-weeny tablet? Besides being better than watching NFL on a phone, I have two words for you: VGA Adapter.

A Verizon spokesman told the WSJ that the company wants to secure the rights to rebroadcast every NFL game. Suppose you’re on the road, in a hotel, and the local channels aren’t showing your team’s game. Hook up your tablet to the television, and you’ve got it on your screen. You can even catch the Monday night game at the airport while your plane back home is delayed.

Regardless of how the deals eventually shake out, that scenario is definitely appealing to the NFL’s millions of hard-core fans, who are frequently both tech-savvy and constantly hungry for more content, and who have repeatedly demonstrated their devotion with dollars.

Image via NFL.com

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Netbook Navigator Nav 9 Slate PC review

It’s been over nine months since Steve Ballmer whipped out the HP Slate at CES and divulged that there’d be Windows 7 “Slate PCs” hitting the market. It sure was a memorable keynote, but since that fateful day all we’ve got to show for actual Win 7 tablets are a slew of leaked videos of HP’s elusive device, information / trade show sightings of lots of similar products, and the less than stellar Archos 9. Until now that is. A small company, interestingly and rather ironically called Netbook Navigator, has managed to get its act together slightly ahead of the rest with its Nav 9 Slate PC. Starting at $599, the 8.9-inch resistive-touch Windows 7 Home Premium tablet is powered by an Intel Atom N280 processor and can be configured with up to 2GB of RAM and 32GB of flash storage. Yep, it sounds a heck of a lot like your first generation netbook with its keyboard cut off… and, well, that turns out to be just one of the Nav 9’s major problems. You’ll want to see what we mean in our full review after the break.

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Netbook Navigator Nav 9 Slate PC review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Commuter Cycle Concept is Bike and Briefcase

Want to ride to the office, but can’t find anywhere to put your briefcase? Then try the commute with Marcos Madia’s Bikoff concept: it is both bicycle and briefcase.

Contrary to appearances, the bike doesn’t go inside the briefcase. Instead, the case is an important structural part of the bicycle, which is itself a very simple folder with a hinge in the main tube. When assembled, the case slots in, locks the bike open and provides extra support to that rather weak-looking tube.

Going on the computer-generated images, the specs include a carbon-fiber body, disk-brakes with the cables running inside the tubes, rear suspension and a rather neat-looking seat/seatpost combo. I like the simplicity, even whilst I worry that the rear brake-cable could easily be snipped by the scissoring hinge. If I was in the market for a folding bike, though, I’d likely choose a Brompton – they fold up into a tiny package, and they seem to do it with nothing more than the flick of the wrist.

Marcos Madia’s Bikoff [Coroflot via Core77]

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HP Names Sex Scandal-free CEO (Hes Still Controversial, Though)

Leo-Apotheker.jpg

How to pull all of those high-profile sex scandals behind you? Simple. Hire a CEO that no one’s ever really heard of. Hire Léo Apotheker. That’s precisely what HP just did. Apotheker does have some prior CEOing experience. He was briefly in charge of SAP AG, a German software company, from April 2008 to February of this year.

Apotheker had been with that company for some time, however, having first joined its ranks in 1988.

His own history seems the polar opposite of the manner of scandal that defined his predecessor, Mark Hurd and Hurd’s own predecessor at Oracle, Charles Phillips. Hurd, of course, was pushed out of the company after the discovery of accounting irregularities–a discovery that arrived suspiciously close to the surfacing of a sexual harassment suit filed by Body of Influence 2 actress, Jodie Fisher.

Phillips’s face, meanwhile, had been plastered on billboards along with his alleged ex-mistress, YaVaughnie Wilkins.

Apotheker’s story, meanwhile, is that of a man who worked his way up the ranks of a major organization to become the one of the first Jewish child of holocaust survivors to run a major German company. In 2007, Apotheker was awarded a medal by the French Légion d’honneur. He was recognized for his contributions to the French economy.

HP’s stock dropped four percent on the news of Apotheker’s hire. It seems not everyone is excited by the prospect of HP’s new chief. Fortune reached out to members of the investment and tech communities who dropped such definitive one-word reactions as “Idiotic” and “astonishing.”

You see, Légion d’honneur awards aside, not everyone thinks that Apotheker did a bang up job running SAP AG. He did leave after seven months, after all. Why? He left involuntarily, according to Fortune, after SAP “had its clock cleaned” by Oracle and IBM.

Why is Amazon Making an Android App Store? [Amazon]

Judging by the leaked terms and conditions, Amazon plans to swagger into the Android world with an alternative app download store, fists a-whirling. Are they building it to co-exist with Android’s Market…or for an Android-powered SuperKindle? More »

Belkin Conserve Gateway will track your whole home energy usage, confuse this guy

Belkin Conserve Gateway will track your whole home energy usage, confuse this guy

We’re not sure exactly what Kevin Ashton is looking to find inside the back of the Belkin Conserve Gateway he’s holding. As General Manager for the division that produced it, he should know quite well what it is: a sort of wireless gateway that connects your smart meter and smart appliances to your network, letting you capture your whole-home energy usage in real-time. Earlier entries in the Belkin Conserve line allowed you to track and manage individual devices, but this new gateway uses ZigBee to talk to your meter and compatible devices, then turns around and pumps that information to a “cloud-based device management system.” Belkin hasn’t shown us any interface shots yet, so we don’t know exactly how that information will be presented, but we’re assured it will be easy to understand — even for corporate executives who confuse Ethernet ports with kaleidoscopes.

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Belkin Conserve Gateway will track your whole home energy usage, confuse this guy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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