We visited Griffin’s CES booth to check out the Beacon universal remote control expecting yet another Redeye clone, but instead wound up walking away impressed. Two notable features of the prototype Bluetooth to IR converter device are that it’s battery powered and includes a 360 degree IR blaster. These are key since they give users the freedom to place the transmitter almost anywhere around an entertainment center. The free iPhone remote app built by Dijit was the real highlight though. The UI and functionality was incredibly intuitive, and we especially liked that the setup process doesn’t require inputting device model numbers. Instead, users just pick the brand and then test a series of code cycles to see if their components respond. The TV guide and Netflix integration are also points of distinction over competitors — since you can select shows or movies to watch directly from the app. Last but not least, your remote settings can be saved and downloaded to as many devices as you like. To give you a feel for the system, we’ve included plenty of shots of the app’s UI in the gallery below along with more photos the device.
Continue reading Griffin Beacon universal remote control system hands-on
Griffin Beacon universal remote control system hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
One company at CES wasn’t shy about imitating the popular cell phones from other manufacturers. CNET checks out a series of handsets that look familiar, but are anything but.
Originally posted at CES 2011
Remember when George “Geohot” Hotz demoed homebrew on the PlayStation 3? Yeah, we know, it was a whole day of CES ago. Well, it looks like that video wasn’t a random crack, but full custom firmware, and not just for show — he just released it to the world. Believe it or not, we didn’t bring our PS3s with us to CES 2011, so we can’t actually test it for ourselves, but if you have faith or enjoy living on the edge, you’re two clicks, one USB stick and a manual System Update away from potential freedom. Now, let’s see him keep his original promise.
[Thanks, Omar]
Geohot releases PS3 jailbreak for firmware 3.55, world ceases to have any meaning originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
Geohot | Email this | Comments
The folks from One Laptop Per Child were on-hand at this year’s CES, courtesy of the organization’s hardware partner, Marvell. I had the opportunity to chat up OLPC’s chief technology officer, Edward McNierey, who was showcasing a forthcoming version of the company’s flagship XO laptop.
The new system, due out later this year, if the organization’s first to be built around an ARM chip. In light of Microsoft’s announcement earlier this week of an new version of Windows capable or running on an ARM processor, I had to ask whether the company had any plans to partner with Microsoft on a future system.
McNierey joked that the company had finally managed to create a version of hardware that couldn’t run a Windows OS, adding that the organization’s head, Nicholas Negroponte had predicted that Microsoft would soon issue an arm compatible OS, prior to the recent announcement.
MSI’s WinPad 100A runs on Android 2.3, includes an ARM processor, a USB port, Mini-USB, HDMI, an SD card reader, a front-facing camera on the upper-left side, and a headphone jack.
Originally posted at CES 2011
Do you love 3D? Do you love pictures? Do you love 3D pictures? The ViewFun 3D Show picture frame from ViewSonic may just be your fix you’ve been dreaming of. The $179 photo viewer jankily converts 2D stills to 3D (and videos, too, apparently, although we didn’t get to see a demo) and eliminates the use for those funky glasses. The images remind us of holograms we used to find in cereal boxes, except bigger. The 8-inch frame sports capacitive buttons on the bezel that light up on contact. Along the left side of device, you’ll find a USB 2.0 port, SD slot and power button. In order to stand this thing up, the company packed a pull-out plastic kickstand that felt pretty flimsy. Oh, and the remote control we demoed had improper button mapping, which made it virtually useless. Peek the gallery below the fold for a bunch of shots of this thing on the CES show floor.
Gallery: ViewSonic ViewFun 3D Show hands-on
ViewSonic ViewFun 3D Show photo frame hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
The folks behind the Pleo robot dinosaur didn’t have much but promises and a giant, not-for-sale version of the bot at last year’s CES, but Innvo Labs has come through this year. They have a number of their new Pleo RB dinos on hand, and we got a chance to both check them out and talk to Innvo COO Derek Dotson about what the future might hold for the robot dinosaur that refused to die. As for the current Pleo RB, while it may look relatively unchanged from before, it does boast some fairly impressive improvements, including voice recognition (with any language), more touch sensors, the ability to sense temperatures, RFID-based “learning stone technology” for feeding and other advanced commands, and time of day awareness. As you might be able to surmise, the combination of those latter two means that the Pleo will get slow and lethargic if you don’t take care of it, but Innvo assures us that it won’t actually die (just make you incredibly sad).
It sounds like we could be seeing some even bigger changes in future generations of Pleo, though. Innvo tells us that they’ve basically pushed the current design to the limit, and they seem to be keeping all options on the table for future models. We asked about different versions, internet-connectedness, and even a Roomba-like ability to recharge itself, and Dotson said that Innvo considering all of those, but that it doesn’t want to rush and do anything that would dilute the Pleo brand. Hit up the gallery below for a closer look at the Pleo RB, and head on past the break for a video.
Gallery: Pleo RB hands-on
Continue reading Pleo RB cuddles up to CES, we go hands-on and talk to Innvo about future Pleos
Pleo RB cuddles up to CES, we go hands-on and talk to Innvo about future Pleos originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Myriam Joire contributed to this article.
Continue reading Intel Oasis: firetrucks, dragons, and trains hands-on
Intel Oasis: firetrucks, dragons, and trains hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Cars are big and stupid. Well, most of the time, anyway. Need to bring home a couple sheets of drywall in the rain? Man it’s nice to have a big truck with a cab. Need to run Jr. to school five miles away on a smoothly paved? Suddenly that full-size, extended cab, 13.5mpg dually monster starts seeming just a little silly. Assuming people continue their flock to the cities, in the future that latter situation will be an awful lot more common than the former and our cities simply won’t be able to manage. The streets won’t be wide enough, parking garages tall enough, nor oil wells deep enough. We need something different, and GM thinks that something is the EN-V. Even though it still isn’t the future we just got a drive in one, so read on for our impressions.
Gallery: GM EN-V test drive at CES 2011
General Motors takes us on a crazy test ride in the EN-V electric prototype vehicle (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
