Hasta La Gadget!

After five years behind locked doors, researchers at Lockheed Martin’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratories in New Jersey have emerged with a working prototype of the “Samarai,” a tiny DARPA-commissioned surveillance drone. The nano air vehicles (NAVs), modeled after falling Maple leaf seeds, are designed to be super light weight and agile for vertical lift off, hovering, and navigation in tight spaces. Like your favorite $5 Subway sammie, these surveillance bots are a foot long, but instead of being shoveled in your mouth, they’re thrown like boomerangs into flight and controlled using a tablet app or a basic remote. These eyes in the sky will officially launch next week at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference, but until then you can check out the video of their first flight below.

Update: Lockheed Martin wrote in to let us know that although originally commissioned by DARPA, this project is currently funded internally. Lockheed also noted that the flight recorded in the video is only a test flight, rather than a first flight for the Samarai.

Continue reading DARPA’s Maple leaf Remote Control drone takes first flight (video)

DARPA’s Maple leaf Remote Control drone takes first flight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile customers with a 200MB data plan will need to monitor their data usage much more closely, now that the carrier has decided to charge data overage fees. Learn about the new policy here.

Originally posted at Dialed In

Zediva fought the law and the law shut it down. The unique DVD rental service, sued by the MPAA and Hollywood studios for running afoul of licensing and distribution agreements, has temporarily closed shop. A statement on the outfit’s website optimistically refers to the court-ordered injunction as an “intermission,” pointing to a hopeful future resumption of operations, and guaranteeing customers a solution for unused credits. The company’s promised to fight back against Judge Walter’s decision, and is in the process of appealing the ruling that could see it facing a permanent service blackout. We hope for the sake of its “DVD-changing monkeys” that all parties involved can work this out. Make sure to head past the break for Zediva’s full explanation.

Continue reading Zediva puts the brakes on its streaming service, soothes your fears with monkeys

Zediva puts the brakes on its streaming service, soothes your fears with monkeys originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Programming note: Today, the role of Roger Cheng will be played by Optimus Prime.)

Earlier this week, HTC made a big to-do about a “major news announcement” that would be revealed on Thursday morning. There was speculation that it could be a settlement with Apple or a partnership with HP and WebOS. However, no one expected what was actually announced: a majority stake in Beats Electronics, the makers of Beats by Dr. Dre and other headphones. We go over the details of the partnership and try to make sense of the decision on this week’s podcast. Plus, Nokia pulls back on Symbian and feature phones in North America, and we take a look at this week’s reviews. Get your Dialed In fix right here.

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News

HTC announces deal with Beats–does anyone care?

Nokia hanging up on Symbian in U.S., Canada

MetroPCS takes a shine to the Samsung Admire

Rugged push-to-talk Samsung Convoy 2 rolls into Verizon

Verizon reveals the LG Revere

Samsung, Nvidia announce dual-core Galaxy R

Verizon strike gets nasty

Verizon opens Application Innovation Center in S.F.

LG Enlighten to join Verizon this fall?

Sprint’s BlackBerry 7 OS handsets get priced, available on August 21?

Reviews

HTC Wildfire S (T-Mobile)

Samsung Character

LG Attune

Pantech Breeze III

Upcoming reviews

Sharp FX Plus

Originally posted at Dialed In

GPS, a 16 megapixel CMOS sensor, 15x optical zoom — we’ve seen it all before. But a feature that displays places of interest on the camera’s 3-inch LCD? Well, that sounds a bit like augmented reality (AR)! The Fujifilm FinePix F600 EXR’s new Landmark Navigator mode does exactly that, packing one million pre-loaded locations from around the world. Looking to find your way from Rome’s Trevi Fountain to the Spanish Steps? The compact cam will point the way, including other stops along your route. You can also add your own locations, or launch Photo Navigation, which lets you easily return to places you’ve photographed — or plot them on Google Maps once you get home. There’s also 1080p movie capture, a 12,800 ISO high-sensitivity mode (that you’ll probably never want to use), sensor-shift image stabilization, and a 24-360mm lens with an f/3.5 maximum aperture. But as you may have guessed, we’re most excited about those AR features, so jump past the break for the full scoop.

Continue reading Fujifilm FinePix F600EXR packs photo navigation, augmented reality in a 16 MP digicam

Fujifilm FinePix F600EXR packs photo navigation, augmented reality in a 16 MP digicam originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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