Hasta La Gadget!

The successor to Sony’s underappreciated Netbox was introduced at IFA recently, and now the company has revealed pricing for the SMP-N200 in the United States. It’ll be on sale for $99 in October, and updates the old box with support for 3D, live streaming content and other unspecified new features. The original featured then-impressive support for local media playback and streaming, but does the Blu-ray-less wonder does it have what it takes in 2011? If it has a UI refresh and access to comparable sources thanks to Sony’s now streamlined Video Unlimited / Music Unlimited media approach then this could play well as a one-two punch with a connected PC, phone or tablet. We’ll find out next month, check out the details after the break or our hands on pics from CEDIA here.

Continue reading Sony’s SMP-N200 player set to take on Roku, Apple TV for $99 next month

Sony’s SMP-N200 player set to take on Roku, Apple TV for $99 next month originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

This week Inhabitat shined a light on the future of high-tech architecture as we brought you 20 stunning sun-powered homes that are getting ready to battle it out in this year’s Solar Decathlon – including Team New York’s prefab Roof Pod, Canada’s TRTL solar shell house, and China’s Y Container home. We also brought you exclusive photos of the recently unveiled 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero, while the Empire State Building soared to new heights as it achieved LEED Gold certification. In other NYC news, we covered an underground park in the Big Apple which is to be illuminated entirely by fiber optics. Vincent Callebaut also unveiled plans for an incredible self-sufficient skyscraper for Taiwan, and we learned that scientists are planning to build a fake volcano for climate change research.

It was also a hot week for energy-generating tech as Intel unveiled a solar laptop chipset that can be powered by a desk lamp and MIT developed a tiny kinetic generator that can produce 100 times more power than previous devices of its kind. Meanwhile, Google invested in the power of pig poop and researchers rolled out a new inexpensive, powerful, and lightweight jelly battery that could one day power laptops and electric vehicles. Energy infrastructure also got a boost as a UK competition showcased six designs for next-generation power pylons, and New Mexico announced plans to build an entire city for the sole purpose of testing green technologies.

In other news, this week we spotted several pulse-pounding electric vehicles: a streamlined carbon fiber jet ski and an incredible mirrored motorcycle. We also went back to the future with a look at Nike’s new pair of LED studded kicks, and we spotted a slick set of retro robots made from salvaged materials. Finally, we shared a bevy of tips for living a more sustainable lifestyle — check out these seven gadgets that can improve your health and five ways to green your home entertainment system.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: sun-powered homes, retro robots and a solar laptop chipset originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netflix’s website has suddenly changed (again), removing any queued Watch Instantly titles that aren’t currently available from view. Previously they entered the saved section of the queue, keeping a slot full and occasionally indicating when the movie would be licensed for viewing again. A blog post published after the fact suggests inactive titles on the list made things complicated (but not too complicated for the DVD queue, where the saved list remains), and that while they’re invisible, they’re not deleted and will still reappear when (if) a title is available to stream again. Users hugging the 500-item limit in their queue still have those ghost titles taking up a slot, although we’re told that will be fixed in the next few days.

If you want to see the list again just to go over it or queue them on disc, Hacking Netflix indicates FeedFliks (one of our favorite alternative queue management sites along with InstantWatcher) is still able to show your expired titles — for now. Just a bit of advice for Netflix: If you’re trying to show some appreciation to the millions of customers you expect to stick around through Q3 despite higher prices and an uncertain content licensing future, making arbitrary and unannounced changes to the way we access our data is the wrong way to do it. As it is, we’re forced to wonder if this move is less about streamlining and more about hiding the amount of titles that are going offline lately or in the near future.

Netflix abruptly yanks unavailable streaming movies from ‘saved’ view originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 19:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A company called Osram Opto Semiconductors has created a new infrared LED that can be used in conjunction with detectors to create ultra-thin touchscreens. We’ve seen infrared used in touchscreens before, most notably in Microsoft’s Surface and recent e-readers from Barnes & Noble and Kobo. But, Osram’s solution is complex enough to work in a multitouch tablet, while being as space-saving zForce. At only 0.45mm tall the diodes and sensors can easily be crammed into a bezel around a screen and sip just 35mW during regular use. Now the company just has to convince someone to put the tiny IREDs in their products.

Tiny infrared LEDs could find a home in ultra-thin multitouch screens originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, it works as such. You dig up ancient photos — a few generations prior, or even a few decades ago — scan ’em in, and tag them to their rightful place on Google Maps. Then, folks who visit the ‘What Was Here’ project website or download the iOS app (all linked below) will be able to see what kind of world they’d be living in if Uncle Rico’s time machine actually worked. ‘Course, the initiative needs you, you and you to participate if it’s to be dubbed a success, so we’d recommend using whatever’s left of your weekend to contribute. And then send your mum a “thinking of you” letter using the very map you’re improving. Who said retro had to be retro, anyway?

‘What Was There’ project adds a pinch of history to augmented reality originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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