Hasta La Gadget!

3DTV is “cool and all,” but one of the biggest challenges to its adoption is a lack of substantial content. VideoEFx is a small company with a nondescript booth situated somewhere in the ginormous Las Vegas Convention Center, but what it’s showing off is quite remarkable. A small black box about the size of an iPhone, it can take any 2D content and convert it to 3D in real time. Our first impression was one of amazement, especially given the fact that we were watching ourselves in real time through a standard 2D video camera hooked up to the TVs in the booth. When we asked how such a thing could be possible, we got hints about some fairy magic creative engineering that employs similar visual cues that your eye processes when you look at anything. Apparently some broadcasting companies have expressed interest in using the tech to power their own 3D streams due to the simplicity (and cost effectiveness, we assume) over current 3D filming solutions. We know you can’t experience it from wherever you’re tuning in, but take our word that this is some seriously impressive stuff — even if other companies have achieved similar 2D to 3D conversion magic within TVs before. Still, not all sets offer this capability, and this even doubles as a three port HDMI switch. It’ll carry a $400 price tag when it lands in April.

VideoEFx box transforms your 2D content into 3D (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Wireless Media Stick is an interesting little product that aims to bring media streaming to pretty much anything with a USB port. If the concept sounds familiar, that’s because it kind of is — we reviewed the Infinitec Infinite USB Memory Drive late last year. This USB stick has built-in WiFi, so you connect it to your network and can plug it into pretty much anything with a USB port that can read a mass storage device. We saw it demoed in a Blu-ray player as well as an iPod dock (both USB-equipped of course), and in the short time we spent with it the thing seemed to work as advertised. Under the hood it’s essentially a Samba client, so all you have to do is share a folder on your Mac or PC and it’ll show up in your Xbox, PS3, or whatever other box you’ve got it plugged into. We also saw an Android app that enables you to share all your content on your device straight to the stick, which should be hitting the Android Market January 30th. There are also BlackBerry and iOS versions in the works, but we weren’t told when to expect them. We watched a playback of a Green Hornet movie trailer streamed to the device and it didn’t seem to have much lag, but we’ll have to put one through the paces to make a final judgment call. If you want to pick one up, it’ll cost you a cool $120.

Wireless Media Stick hands-on: stream your content to anything with a USB port originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, this is what happens when the iPhone 4 and the iPad mingle in the back alleys of Shenzhen and bring mutant KIRF-y children to CES. The EYO T8100 is a dumbphone boasting a (likely resistive) 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen, quad-band GSM radio, dual SIM slots, two megapixel rear camera (with flash), VGA front camera, analog TV tuner, Java support, and WiFi, all wrapped in a silver / black, white, or pink package. Check out the spectacle in the gallery below.

Crapgadget CES, round five: iPhone 4 and iPad wed in unholy KIRF matrimony originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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