Dec 13
The Huawei Ascend reaches its second U.S. carrier, MetroPSC. The Android phone runs version 2.1 of the Android operating system.
Originally posted at Dialed In
Dec 13
Angry Birds for Android will soon let you pay to get rid of ads, with the currently undisclosed fee charged directly to your phone bill rather than via Google Checkout.
Dec 13
Kaleidescape has fulfilled its promise of launching the industry’s first Blu-ray server by releasing its new 100-disc Blu-ray disc vault we saw at CEDIA that, when paired with its M300 or M500 players, can rip, store, and stream copies of Blu-ray movies throughout the home. However, despite its pricetag of $1,495 (plus $2,500+ for the player) there’s still some serious restrictions — each disc vault has to be connected to an individual player, and the discs have to remain in the vault for the player to stream their ripped copies over the network. Sony’s 400 disc changer can store more movies, but this should load them faster and offer easy browsing with cover art and title info. We suppose this is the “simplest” ripping solution available for now, but a year and a half later we’re still wondering if Blu-ray’s Managed Copy feature will ever launch and make a legitimate movie jukebox option a reality.
Continue reading Kaleidescape launches 100-disc Blu-ray movie server
Kaleidescape launches 100-disc Blu-ray movie server originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dec 13
For hackers, Clear must have known that its iSpot mobile hotspot would be hard to resist — $100 for the device contract-free plus unlimited WiMAX for $25 a month is a pretty insane deal, after all, and the only catch is that they try to lock non-iOS devices out of the action. Indeed, it took mere hours for unlocks to start coming out of the woodwork, but now it’s easier than ever: the developer of one of the original iSpot hacks has circled back to create a new unlock that requires nothing more than a couple link clicks while you’re on a machine connected to the hotspot. How is that possible? Turns out there’s a vulnerability that makes it possible to execute arbitrary commands on the iSpot through web code, and Clear hasn’t yet updated the firmware to patch it. On that note, the developer tells us that there are actually some iPads that aren’t able to connect to the iSpot without the hack, ostensibly because Apple is using some MAC addresses that the iSpot’s current firmware isn’t expecting — so ironically, you might need this “jailbreak” just to use the thing the way Clear intended. As always with these sorts of things, proceed with caution — we don’t have an iSpot lying around to try this ourselves, so let us know how it goes.
Clear iSpot gets easy web-based ‘jailbreak’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
iSpot Unrestricted, seclists.org | Email this | Comments
Dec 13
Fraunhofer IIS uses Awiloc indoor positioning magic to guide museum patrons
Posted in: germany, gps, Today's Chili, Wireless
If you’ve been to a museum in the past year and change, chances are you’ve been coerced into ponying up an extra five bones for some sort of handheld apparatus. Supposedly, these things accompany patrons and enhance the experience, but more often than not, you’re stuck with a grimy audio device that tells you little more than you brother Bob, who is undoubtedly tagging along behind and educating everyone in a 50 foot radius. Folks who choose to spend their time waltzing through the Museum of Industrial Culture in Nuremberg, however, have it better. The Fraunhofer IIS has developed a new technology for WLAN-based positioning, and unlike conventional GPS approaches, Awiloc actually works indoors. As the story goes, visitors to the museum can grab a handheld that follows their movement and then shows them what they’re facing (or aren’t facing, for that matter) in detail. Of course, they could also use the tracking data to see which exhibits were drawing the most attention if they were smart, but how exactly would the privacy advocate in you feel about that?
Continue reading Fraunhofer IIS uses Awiloc indoor positioning magic to guide museum patrons
Fraunhofer IIS uses Awiloc indoor positioning magic to guide museum patrons originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dec 13
All the Gawker Media sites were compromised this weekend. This probably leaves you with a lot of questions on the status of your accounts. Here’s the place to ask them. Both editors and tech are here at your disposal. More »
Dec 13
After all the hype, the very first Nissan Leaf has been delivered to a resident of San Francisco. 31 year old entrepreneur Olivier Chalouhi is the lucky owner of the very first electric Leaf.
The San Francisco Bay area is just the first stop on Nissan’s launch tour, which will see the automotive manufacturer unveil the Leaf in several areas across the US, including Southern California, Arizona, Oregon, Seattle and Tennessee. The initial markets were chosen based on several factors, including the current and future EV infrastructure.
It’s going to be a slow process though. Nissan doesn’t expect to have a full, nation-wide launch until 2012. The next wave of Leafs isn’t expected until early next year, when the much-anticipated car will be available in both Texas and Hawaii.
Dec 13
A new hybrid vehicle is helping to keep the streets of New York City clean.
Dubbed the Allianz 4000, the new vehicle is touted as being the world’s first hybrid street sweeper. The vehicle features a 200 horse power diesel engine and two 12 volt lithium-ion batteries. It can reach speeds of up to 60 miles per hour and, according to the manufacturer, provides 40 percent in fuel savings when compared to non-hybrid sweepers. As it turns out, the process of making a hybrid sweeper is more difficult than you might imagine.
“A sweeper is not a typical light duty truck and therefore we need to be able to accommodate many different functions including transport, sweeping, dust control, and emmission compliance,” Allianz sales manager Chad Bormann told Wired. “We have the ability to operate using a smaller single diesel engine running at lower RPMs. This alone creates savings against any street sweeper that requires an auxilliary engine in conjunction with the chassis engine to drive and operate the sweep functions. The fuel savings are extreme and the carbon footprint minimal considering that street sweepers are operated for long shifts daily all over the world.”
The Allianz 4000 is currently prowling the streets of New York, but the manufacturer hopes to expand to other cities in the future as well.
Dec 13
New Kindle sells ‘millions,’ bests all 2009 Kindle sales
Posted in: amazon, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, sales, Today's Chili
Amazon has left us with no choice: making sales conclusions based on a single additional letter. The company, notoriously vague on Kindle sales, has announced that “in just the first 73 days of this holiday quarter, we’ve already sold millions of our all-new Kindles.” In other words, at least two million, and more for Kindle overall if you consider DX (still on sale) and the recent lightning deal blowout of the Kindle 2. Amazon’s Department of Creative Statistics also noted that this elusive sales figure is greater than all its Kindle sales in 2009. How many is that, you ask? No idea — we know “millions” were sold between 2007 and 2009, but parsing it out further would only unravel a mystery Encyclopedia Brown has been spending pages and pages to solve — and still has a ways to go.
New Kindle sells ‘millions,’ bests all 2009 Kindle sales originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dec 13
Judge throws out Paul Allen’s massive patent suit, Allen plans to continue
Posted in: Apple, Google, lawsuit, netflix, patent, patents, Today's Chili
Remember the massive patent lawsuit leveled at Apple, Google, AOL, Facebook, ebay, Netflix, and a number of other companies by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen? Well, it’s now hit something of a snag — a federal judge dismissed the case on Friday, stating that Allen’s suit “failed to identify the infringing products or devices with any specificity,” and that the court and defendants were basically “left to guess what devices infringe on the four patents.” For his part, Allen apparently plans to persevere with the patent fight, and said through a spokesman that the dismissal was merely a “procedural issue,” and that “the case is staying on track” — Allen now has until December 28th to file an amended complaint.
Judge throws out Paul Allen’s massive patent suit, Allen plans to continue originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Computerworld, InformationWeek | Email this | Comments
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