Hasta La Gadget!

Researchers in Australia set a few robots loose on the linguistic landscape. The droids come up with random words to navigate, and even create, maps–with surprising accuracy.

NEC caught our attention at CES with a dual-screen Android tablet / e-reader that, at the time, it was calling the LT-W Cloud Communicator. Well, it’s since been rebranded the LifeTouch W and it will officially hit shelves in Japan this June. Under the hood nothing has changed — it’s the same pair of 7-inch, 800 x 600 resistive touchscreens, 384MB of RAM, and Cortex A8 CPU of unspecified speed we played with in January. Sadly, that also means we’re looking at the same dated Android 2.2 OS and paltry five hour battery life. No word on cost or whether this will ever appear outside of Japan, but we’d be surprised if this ugly stepsister of the Kno actually makes its way across the Pacific.

NEC’s dual-screen LifeTouch W tablet shipping in Japan this June originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turkish website Donanimhaber has correctly pegged some early NVIDIA details in the past, and it’s now back with a leak of a new AMD Fusion chip that’s said to be a part of the company’s upcoming “Sabine” platform. Dubbed the A8-3530MX, the 32nm, quad-core processor purportedly clocks in at 1.9GHz and boasts 4MB of Level 2 cache, and it can apparently be boosted to 2.6GHz in TurboCore mode. Otherwise, it’s said to pack an integrated Radeon HD 6620G graphics core, along support for for both 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM and low-power DDR3L memory. Of course, all of that it still unconfirmed by AMD itself but, if Donanimhaber is to be believed, we should be seeing this one hit laptops sometime June.

AMD quad-core A8-3530MX processor for laptops to debut in June? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We have some sad news to share with you today: Willard Boyle, the man who created the imaging technology behind everything from digital cameras to barcode scanners, has died at the age of 86. In 2009, Boyle shared a Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the CCD, which allowed people to capture images in digital format for the first time. It all began way back in 1969, when Boyle and his future co-Laureate, George E. Smith, started laying the groundwork for the CCD while working at Bell Laboratories. Building off of Einstein’s photoelectric effect, the two eventually came up with a way to locate and quantify the electrons that are knocked out of orbit every time light strikes silicon. Boyle and Smith used this technology to create their own digital camera in 1970, as well as a TV camera in 1975. Prior to his groundbreaking invention, Boyle spent two years working for NASA’s Apollo program and helped develop both the ruby laser and the semiconductor injection laser. The last three decades of Boyle’s life were spent in Wallace, Canada, where he grew up and, on May 7th, passed away after battling kidney disease. He’s survived by his wife, three children and an indelible legacy.

Willard Boyle, man who revolutionized digital imaging, dies at 86 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 15:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are many ways to get your phone’s tunes to your system’s speakers, and now thanks to XtremeMac, you have two more. At $80, the InCharge Home BT is just $20 cheaper than an Apple TV, and it only lets you stream audio over bluetooth (vs. video, and WiFi for the Apple TV). Its on-the-go counterpart, however — the InCharge Auto BT (also $80) — is a much easier sell, beaming music and phone calls to a car stereo without a need to tether your handset to your receiver. Despite the company name and ubiquitous “Made for iPhone” branding, XtremeMac has confirmed that both devices offer identical functionality with non-Apple handsets as well, along with iPods, iPads, and other bluetooth-enabled gadgets. Available now, both devices support A2DP, connect to your speakers using a bundled 3.5mm cable, and include a 10-watt USB port for charging your devices — assuming you don’t mind cording up, on occasion.

Continue reading XtremeMac InCharge Auto & Home BT chargers stream music, phone calls over bluetooth

XtremeMac InCharge Auto & Home BT chargers stream music, phone calls over bluetooth originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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