It may not be a 50,000 piece Rivendell, but this sprawling Hobbiton Lego setup is impressive in its own right. Displayed at SteineWahn 2012 in Berlin, the set depicts Hobbiton right around the time of Bilbo’s birthday party, right before the trilogy kicks off. More »
It looks like all the big companies now have got an 8 megapixel camera in their smartphones, and although I’ve had one for almost a year on my iPhone, I am somewhat disappointed that no one has released a smartphone with a better camera, except that PureView craziness Nokia released. Nevertheless, HTC comes right back at Nokia with their own brightly-colored Windows 8 Phone, complete with 8MP camera.
Ever since HTC admitted that they had way too many phones and that most of them were too big, I had to reconsider my opinion of them. The HTC 8X is the company’s new signature handset, with a 4.3-inch HD LCD screen (720 × 1280), with a Gorilla Glass 2 covering, Beats Audio for be a better headphone experience, a 2.1 MP front facing camera and a 8MP backside-illuminated camera.
The phone has full quad-band support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE and WSPA/WCDMA networks, as well as 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. It’s also got built-in GPS, compass, motion sensors, and is NFC capable. There’s even a dedicated headphone amp, which is kind of an interesting feature. The 1,800 mAh battery isn’t bad, but I would have liked something bigger, given what Samsung puts in their phones these days.
Under the hood, the HTC 8X runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual core processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It will be available this November in blue, black, red and yellow.
[via Uncrate]
You don’t have to look high (or low) to find a litany of complaints regarding Time Warner Cable‘s service, support or pricing, but it’s evidently aiming to right one particular wrong later today. According to Bloomberg, the National Football League has inked a deal with TWC to bring the NFL Network and RedZone Channel to its systems. The move comes just months after the NFL ushered its networks onto rival Cablevision, putting TWC is a particular bind in the greater NYC market. It’s still unclear where the channels will be positioned and how much extra you’ll have to pony up to get ’em, but hey — it’s cheaper than moving to a FiOS neighborhood. (Though, admittedly, less satisfying.)
Update: Both parties have confirmed it, NFL Network and NFL RedZone Channel are coming to Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks starting September 23rd. NFL Network will be included for customers on the Digital Basic and Sports Pass tiers, while NFL RedZone is on the Sports Pass package only, check the press release after the break for the relevant details and self-congratulatory affirmations.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
NFL Network and RedZone Channel coming to Time Warner Cable (Update: Officially confirmed) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently touched down in Australia to give a speech at the QUT Business Leaders’ Forum – on the same day the iPhone 5 released in the country, no less. While he was there, Australia’s 9 News reports that he took some time to look to the future and consider the technology we’ll be enjoying in 40 years. It turns out that he’s excited for the AI era to arrive in force, talking about all of the advancements we’ll have made in just a few decades’ time.
“In 40 years we will have computers that are conscious, that have feelings, that have a personality,” Woz said. “A computer is going to be your best friend. You’ll talk to it. It’s going to look at your face and know your expression. It’s going to know your heart and soul better than anything in the world.” While that does sound a little bit creepy, having computers with a personality of their own is also somewhat exciting at the same time. Woz clarifies that some humans might be replaced by machines and that we might have to restructure society as a result, and paints a rather lonely picture for iPhone users of the future.
In 40 years, provided Apple keeps up with the yearly iPhone releases, we’ll be on the iPhone 45. That’s a strange enough though all on its own, but Woz says that “It’s going to know me so good I won’t want you humans.” Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up for debate. The upside to all of this, however, is that it will be keeping technology companies on their toes. Woz says that technology will be progressing so quickly that manufacturers will need to act fast and get in on the ground floor if they want to be responsible for changing the way we use computers and smartphones.
While it’s very exciting to consider where technology will be in 40 years from now, it’s also a bit alarming to think that we’ll eventually be relying on technology even more than we do today. Woz is definitely onto something when he says that artificial intelligence is the next big thing in technology, though. What do you think of all of this? Are computers that have personalities and know us “better than anything in the world” a good thing?
Woz on iPhone in 40 years: “I won’t want you humans” is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The upcoming ASUS Padfone 2 has been making its way to headlines this past week, and today we have a leak reportedly sharing its full spec sheet. After seeing some leaked benchmarks, yesterday ASUS sent out invitations for their official unveil, but today we might know all the details a bit early.
While we can’t fully confirm what we are looking at, according to Mobile01 Forum this is the box for the Padfone 2, calling the post “Padfone 2 specs revealed.” The details on the box shown in the image above seem to mirror many of the rumors as of late, including the recently leaked benchmark. The Padfone part 2 is looking quite nice.
If the leak is to be believed, the Padfone 2 will be sporting a 4.7-inch 1280x720p HD display although the box confusingly says both Super AMOLED and IPS+, but it can’t be both. Then the brand new quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro will be under the hood, along with 2GB of RAM, and an impressive 13 megapixel camera. Sounds like the LG Optimus G if you ask us. The specs however, are all about the phone and not the accompanying tablet.
Other specs include a HSPA+ model, 4G LTE (in select regions) and a decently sized 2,140 mAh battery for the smartphone. It’s also being listed as just 9mm thin, so it should be a bit lighter and thinner than the original Padfone. Either way we’ll learn all the details on October 16th in Milan and Taipei as ASUS unveils the new Padfone 2.
[via PocketDroid]
ASUS Padfone 2 leak reveals 4.7-inch display, quad-core S4 Pro, and more is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Thought that the optional $49 4G data plan for a year that Amazon announced with the Kindle Fire HD was tood good to be true? You’re not the only one. An interested Kindle owner called up Amazon and asked what happens when the first year is over. He shared his results with ZDNet, and it sounds like Kindle Fire owners are going to get a nasty rate increase after a year. From Amazon:
The $49.99 data package is only available for the first year of service. The data plans after one year will change accordingly to the plans offered by the service provider AT&T.
At this time, there are no special data plans offered by AT&T for Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ after the first year. AT&T provides their own data plans and all this information has been updated in the AT&T website.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Kindle Fire HD Hands-On, Wal-Mart quits selling Kindle tablets,
Yes, the world’s just nuts about the iPhone 5 at this point in time, although that might just be the perception by media that wants us to believe that. One thing’s for sure, we do know that the iPhone 5 has achieved the fastest selling pre-order to date, and looks set to move plenty of units on launch day (today) itself as well. The thing is, the iPhone 5 does seem to be rather fragile, considering how Overclockers UK member “sharingan_sasuk” discovered that the anodized aluminum on the black and slate iPhone 5 is not too hot when it comes to durability. He took a Liquidmetal SIM card tray pin to his black iPhone 5′s aluminum back, using a set of keys to scruff the edges, realizing that it happens all too easily. I know that it is a no-brainer, where using keys is guaranteed to scratch even the “toughest” consumer class phone in the market, but the whole point of the exercise is to show off just how fragile the anodized aluminum case is.
The white and silver model should not be any tougher though, but since it is colored that way, any scratches would be far less noticeable. I guess this is similar to the issues that the previous generation of iPod nano and iPod classic devices faced, where coating on the anodized aluminum cases eventually wore off even if you took care of it really, really well. The “winner” from this? Third party manufacturers who roll out iPhone 5 cases.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone 5 teardown by iFixit , iPhone 5 shipping date delayed to 3-4 weeks,
They may look as ridiculous as they sound but Phoropters are essential eye-doctoring devices. These overgrown binoculars have helped optometrists measure an individual’s refractive error, more commonly known as your eyeglass prescription, since the 19th Century. Our friends at Oobject have collected the very best examples of phoropters since the Victorian Era. More »
Who was America’s greenest commander-in-chief? A recent list from Canadian-based media company and “clean capitalism” advocates Corporate Knights ranks the greenest presidents based on votes from leaders of some of the country’s largest environmental groups.
Corporate Knights surveyed 12 environmental groups, including World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, 350.org, Greenpeace and others. Leaders of the dozen groups provided their nominations for the three greenest presidents in U.S. history, according to a press release.
America’s 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, claimed the top spot by a wide margin. As president, he established the first national wildlife refuge, in Florida, along with “150 national forests, 51 federal bird reservations, 18 national monuments and five national parks,” explains Grist’s David Roberts. Along with Roosevelt, two other members of the Republican Party made the list– Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
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While Philips is backing out of the ultrawidescreen game, it appears Vizio is still trying to move at least a few more units. The company announced that its 58-inch CinemaWide HDTVs have moved from being available exclusively online, to the physical store shelves of Costco and Sam’s Club stores. If the prospect of watching most movies without any black bars (although standard 16×9 TV programming won’t quite fit without side bars, zooming or app/menu filler) hasn’t quite moved you to buy, there is also the news that its price has dropped another $500 to a shade below $2,000, which puts it closer to the 46-inch HDTVs it’s size resembles when watching regular widescreen video. When they initially started shipping our friends at HD Guru were told it was a limited one time only run of 1,000 units — we’ll see if any more sets show up or if this the last gasp for HDTVs in this format.
Filed under: HD
Vizio’s CinemaWide 21:9 HDTVs hit physical store shelves, price slides below $2k originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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