Hasta La Gadget!

Last week, we talked about the space shuttle Endeavour making its farewell flight around California as it headed to LAX for landing. This space shuttle was flown around several highly visited areas in the Los Angeles basin perched atop a modified Boeing 747 aircraft. The Endeavour will ultimately end up living the remainder of its days in Los Angeles at the California Science Center.

The last 12 miles of Endeavour’s journey will be the slowest of them all. The space shuttle will be transferred across surface streets in the city of Los Angeles at speeds of around two mph or under. Previously, we talked about a number of old trees that had to be cut down to make room for the space shuttle to drive down Los Angeles streets.

The space shuttle remains at the airport until its final journey begins on October 12. For now, the space shuttle resides in a hangar at the airport and will be rolled out in mid-October by four computer-controlled transport vehicles. The massive size of the space shuttle measuring 78-feet wide and 58-feet tall means special concessions had to be made by the city to remove obstacles all along the path.

Other than having to remove trees, streetlights and power lines also had to be moved. Trees and other removed obstacles will be replaced once the space shuttle reaches its final destination. Endeavour will arrive at the California Science Center on October 13. At that time, the museum will spend about two weeks touching up the orbiter and the shuttle will go on display on October 30. The final exhibit will feature the space shuttle in a vertical position accompanied by its massive fuel tank and rocket boosters. The final exhibit isn’t expected to be completed for about five years.

[via MSNBC]

Endeavour successfully completes its Los Angeles-area flyovers is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Netflix’s new user interface experience popped up on Android tablets last year before progressing to the iPad and finally iPhones just last week, but now the company officially announced it’s completing the circle by pushing it to Android phones. As seen on other devices, it’s focused on larger artwork, and offers the ability to scroll through many more titles, as well as search its streaming library from anywhere within the app. Users can tap once on a title to see more info about it or double tap to start playing immediately. The new UI is available on hardware running Gingerbread and above. It may already be appearing on your device but if not, check out the video preview embedded after the break.

Update: We downloaded the app and started poking around and have discovered a rather unfortunate detail left out by Netflix — the new UI is not optimized for high-res displays. Icons, thumbnail images and even the company’s logo are noticeably pixelated on our Galaxy Nexus. Even on the qHD panel of our Droid RAZR M things are pretty fuzzy looking. Hopefully Netflix will address the issue soon and maybe, just maybe, make it look like an Android app instead of an iOS one..

Update 2: We’ve heard from Netflix on the issue, and are told that certain screen resolutions + certain flavors of the OS are resulting in “suboptimal” rendering. Currently it’s doing more testing and making tweaks to improve the experience across the board, we’ll let you know when they arrive.

Continue reading Netflix extends new user interface experience to Android phones (Update)

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile

Netflix extends new user interface experience to Android phones (Update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple sold over five million iPhone 5 handsets in the first weekend of sales, the company has announced, with the entire first batch of devices snatched up by shoppers. “While we have sold out of our initial supply,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement today, “stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date.”

“We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough iPhone 5s for everyone” Cook concluded.

Demand for the iPhone 5 was already expected to be strong, with Apple revealing that over 2m preorders were placed in the first 24hrs of availability last week. Despite online sales, however, queues still formed outside of brick & mortar Apple Stores in major cities, with the iPhone 5 going on sale in several locations in North America, Europe, and Asia.

While Apple scrambles to produce more iPhone 5 units, the next phase of the smartphone’s roll-out fast approaches. 22 more countries will get the handset on September 28, with Apple promising over 100 countries will have the iPhone 5 by the end of 2012.

More on the iPhone 5 in our full review.

iPhone 5 sales blast past 5m in opening weekend is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With the introduction of the new Lightning connector for iOS devices, Apple pretty much rendered a ton of iOS accessories useless. Granted you could always buy the Lightning adapter, but this is additional money spent that many people probably think is unnecessary, but we guess change has to happen at some point or another. Either way if you’re looking to pick up some iOS compatible speakers, you might be interested to know that Bowers and Wilkins has introduced a couple of new speakers that will rely on the AirPlay technology, so even if you don’t have the new Lightning adapter or the iPhone 5, rest assured as you will still be able to play your music on them.

Both the A5 and the A7 feature the same design, with the A5 being a more compact option. Both will feature WiFi and Ethernet LAN ports for network connection, and neither model will come with a dock connector, thus giving the impression of a very clean and sleek finish. Both models will also feature a 3.5mm audio jack that will allow it to play with non-iOS devices, with the A7 featuring a USB port for music streaming and possible firmware upgrades. The A5 will feature two 20W Nautilus tweeters, two 20W mid-range drivers, while the A7 will come with two 1” 25W Nautilus tube aluminum tweeters, two 3” 25W mid-range drivers and a 6” 50W subwoofer. Both speakers are expected to be released in October with the A5 and A7 being priced at $499.99 and $799.99 respectively.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: AirPlay Direct rumored for September announcement, TuneBridge is an AirPlay receiver that will cost you $60,

So, how’s that new iPhone doing? Not too shabby — looks like Apple’s moved more than 5 million in three days, according to a press release the company just dropped. Cupertino is also reporting that iOS 6 has been installed on more than 100 million devices since the operating system was unleashed on the world. At present, the iPhone is available in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Australia, with 22 more countries being added to the list before the end of the week. By the end of the year, the number is expected to top 100. Check out the obligatory back-patting by Tim Cook and pals in the presser after the break.

Continue reading iPhone 5 sales hit 5 million in first weekend

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

iPhone 5 sales hit 5 million in first weekend originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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