Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon’s next dual-mode Andorid smartphone, the HTC Droid Incredible 2, should go on sale April 28.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

You already know the strange powers of Stephin Merritt, but today we’re talking about real magnetic fields. Powerful electromagnets, it turns out, can do remarkable things to the brain — in this case, prevent a volunteer from reciting “Humpty Dumpty.” The carefully directed magnets temporarily disrupt the brain’s speech centers; the volunteer can still sing the rhyme using different areas of the brain, but simply can’t overcome a series of stammers when trying to merely recite it. Of course, it’s not all mad scientist applications: the UK team experimenting with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) thinks it can help us understand and treat migraines (as we’ve seen before with the Migraine Zapper), depression, and ADHD, among other ailments. But improving physical well-being doesn’t make for nearly as entertaining media — see the British inflict some involuntary quiet time in the video above.

Magnetic fields shut down speech, permit love songs (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally projected to launch in Q4 of 2010, Verizon has finally started pushing out version 1.9 of its Media Guide software to set-top boxes in Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Harrisburg. Other regions can expect to be upgraded over the next couple of months, but just in case you’ve forgotten what’s coming here’s a few of the new features: a widescreen HD guide as shown above replacing the old 4×3 SD one, support for switching 3DTVs into the correct mode automatically, native passthrough, 1080p, external hard drives, DVD-style chaptering on DVR recordings, an all new search function and access to DVR recordings from other boxes in the house. Those are just some of the features included in this massive upgrade (not all of the boxes support all of the new features, doublecheck to see if yours is supported first — this could be a good time for an upgrade), check out the release notes on Verizon’s forums for more details, or check out the press release and a trailer for the new software included after the break.

Continue reading Verizon FiOS TV 1.9 software update adds an HD guide, DVR enhancements

Verizon FiOS TV 1.9 software update adds an HD guide, DVR enhancements originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it looks like Larry Page had a bit of good news and some bad news to deal with on his first quarterly earnings call as CEO of Google. The company has just reported $8.58 billion in gross revenue for the first quarter of 2011, which represents a 27 percent increase over the first quarter of last year, but is actually a bit less than analysts were expecting. That figure also doesn’t include the company’s so-called traffic acquisition costs, however, which totaled $2.04 billion for the quarter and bring the company’s actual revenue down to “just” $6.54 billion. Net income for the quarter was $2.3 billion, which represents a more modest gain from $1.96 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Also cutting into profits quite a bit was Google’s operating expenses, which were up a hefty 33 percent to $2.8 billion — a sizable chunk of which went to the nearly 2,000 new employees the company hired during the quarter.

Interestingly, Google also revealed a few Android stats during its earnings call, saying that app downloads are up a full fifty percent from the fourth quarter of 2010, and that there’s a total of three billion Android apps installed worldwide. As for Android devices, there’s apparently 350,000 of those being activated every day. Head on past the break for company’s full earnings report.

Continue reading Google announces Q1 earnings: $8.58 billion gross revenue, $2.3 billion net income

Google announces Q1 earnings: $8.58 billion gross revenue, $2.3 billion net income originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back at CES we were dazzled by Fulton Innovation’s vision of the future of wireless power, which included an inductively-charged Tesla Roadster. Now, someone’s actually making it a reality. Siemens and BMW are partnering on a field trial for inductive chargers, with the device itself making its debut in May ahead of it being deployed in Berlin in June. In theory these can be installed into parking lots, taxi queues, and of course driveways, sunk right into the ground — out of sight and mind. Neither company is saying which prototype car will be given the ability to catch the waves that these inductive chargesters will be throwing out, but we’d hazard a guess it’ll be one of BMW’s new i cars, which won’t look nearly as futuristic as the invisible wheels above that look to have escaped from the Wonder Woman set.

[Thanks, Jason]

Continue reading BMW and Siemens partnering for wireless-charging EVs, cutting the cord this May

BMW and Siemens partnering for wireless-charging EVs, cutting the cord this May originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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