Hasta La Gadget!

Western Digital, Seagate and Hitachi square off in 3TB hard drive roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, you don’t see this too often. A new phone dubbed the Smart Bar is set for sale in Japan on September 22nd that combines the retro styling of a candybar with a modern 3-inch touchscreen. We’re undeniably intrigued by the numerical keypad (for obvious reasons), and the WVGA display sports an admirable pixel density of 311ppi, although the rest of the specs are decidedly mundane. The handset is manufactured by Huawei and features an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 SoC, 512MB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera and Gingerbread. There’s also support for 802.11n (which allows tethering for up to five simultaneous devices), Bluetooth 2.1 and IrDA. It features 3G support on the 2100 and 1700MHz spectra, along with tri-band 1900 / 1800 / 900MHz GSM capability. The Smart Bar will sell for approximately ¥29,800 ($385), where fans of vintage fusion may select from black, white and brown variants.

Smart Bar from eAccess combines Gingerbread with traditional numpad for old-school enthusiasts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Temper that excitement. This isn’t the rumored quad-core, Kal-El running Transformer 2. Still, ASUS is doing its best to port the tab buzz to the enterprise set with its quietly introduced Eee Slate B121. Unlike its tablet PC bretheren, this business-minded slate runs Windows 7 Professional atop an Intel Core i5 processor, and comes loaded with the security tweaks necessary for the corporate road warrior: like Computrace LoJack for remote location and data wipe, and a Trusted Platform Module microchip that stores encrypted data. Also tacked on to the $1,500 12.1-inch package are a Bluetooth keyboard and Wacom Digitizer stylus. As for the specs, well, there’s a 1280 x 800 LED Gorilla Glass display, 4GB RAM, 64GB of storage, dual USB 2.0 ports, mini-HDMI out, SD card slot and 2 megapixel front-facing camera. No official word on exactly when this biz-friendly tablet’ll be available, but now would be a good time to convince your IT department to order it up. Be sure to hit the source below for the company’s soft sell.

ASUS Eee Slate B121 slabs it up for the enterprise market originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve heard of pianists, flutists and organists, but have you heard of Thereminists? The title, originally applied to players of another hands-free instrument from the 1920s, has been repurposed for those who can manipulate invisible sounds in a 3D space called an Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment (AHNE). By tweaking a Kinect sensor and using the OpenNI framework and OSCeleton, researchers at the SOPI Research Group at Media Lab Helsinki were able to create an AHNE “proof concept” called “Tension.” Outfitting a volunteer with sensor-laden gloves with a small vibration motor for haptic feedback, they were able to create “music” — add a pinch of Pitbull, and you’re looking at the world’s next great mellow anthem. Check out the full music video after the break.

Continue reading Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment makes music the hands-free way (video)

Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment makes music the hands-free way (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We really, really love gadgets, but nothing brings us greater joy than to see our readers unbox a new toy, especially when it can help improve your experience at school. So this year we’re giving away bags — 15 of them, in fact — each filled with 20 amazing prizes. Each winner will score a laptop, tablet, a killer camera, and even a new dual-core cell phone, along with plenty of other awesome items. We’ll be choosing one commenter from each of our back to school category pages, and one from our main contest announcement, so if you meet the qualifications listed on each post, simply leave a comment to be eligible to win. You won’t be penalized for commenting more than once on each post, but it won’t help your chances, either. And since we’ll be randomly selecting one commenter from each post, enter at each of the 14 pages linked to here, along with this page to boost your odds. We’ll wrap things up at 12PM ET tomorrow, so better get clickin’!

Note: Comments added below will not be eligible, nor will those left on the main back to school page — if you see a long list of terms and conditions above the comments section, then you’ve made it to the right place.

Engadget’s massive back to school 2011 sweepstakes ends tomorrow… find out how to win! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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