Hasta La Gadget!

Just when you thought HTC’s going all the way with its BoomSound feature, the company stopped short with its Desire 500, a mid-range model that’s just been announced for the younger Taiwanese audience (think: university students). As you can see above, the new device takes design cues from the One S for its front side (but with plastic instead of metal), and from the One SV on the back. Despite the lack of front stereo speakers, this phone still packs the same 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 SoC featured on the Desire 600 range. Similarly, you’ll still find NFC, microSD expansion (on top of just 4GB of built-in storage) plus Sense 5 UI with BlinkFeed and Video Highlights here — the latter works alongside the same pair of cameras: an 8-megapixel f/2.0 main camera, plus a 1.6-megapixel front imager.

What’s slightly disappointing, perhaps, is the low 800 x 480 resolution on the 4.3-inch display, and we’re even more baffled by the relatively high suggested retail price of NT$11,900 or about US$400. Hopefully it’s just a way to persuade more people to get the subsidized Desire 500 from Taiwan Mobile, HTC’s exclusive local partner for this phone come August 1st. Stay tuned while our colleagues in Taiwan grab some hands-on photos.

Update: Our brethren over at Engadget Chinese has just posted their hands-on. Enjoy!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Via: Engadget Chinese

Source: HTC

When you ask a bunch of 3D printing nerds to design a better birdhouse, you can expect some wild and wacky offering—but this thing is perhaps the ultimate avian abode.

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Sony’s 3D head-mounted displays have been asking for a place in your film-watching and gaming routines since 2011, but now their latest HMD is volunteering to act as the viewing end of medical endoscopes. Hirai and Co. have just unveiled what amounts to a retooled HMZ-T2, dubbed the HMM-3000MT, which helps surgeons peek inside a patient’s body in 2D or 3D — the latter of which is said to improve precision. By eliminating the need to keep tabs on an external screen, the electronics giant thinks doctors won’t have to restrict their posture and movement.

Though the hardware carries the same 720p 0.7-inch OLED panels as its sibling, it’s been tweaked for use in a standing position with beefed up support for balance and comfort. The hardware also packs a picture-in-picture feature to catch different views of operations, and even the ability to rotate and flip video feeds. While the headgear has been approved for use in Japan, it hasn’t been confirmed for a launch in other territories. In other words, don’t expect to see it if you go under the knife relatively soon.

Filed under: Sony

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Source: Sony

It was origin story time on “Teen Wolf” and there were two stories being filled in. Deucalion’s story was being told to Scott and Allison by Allison’s grandfather, while Derek’s uncle was telling Derek’s story. But neither man proved a reliable narrator. Luckily, the audience was treated to the events as they really happened, and it shed a lot of light onto the characters of both men.

It was revealed that Derek fell hard for a teenager named Paige when he was younger. His Uncle Peter tried to convince him to turn her, but Derek resisted. When he refused, Peter had another werewolf bite her instead. But Paige wasn’t strong enough to survive the transformation and begged Derek to put her out of her misery. He did so, but the taking of an innocent life is apparently what turns a werewolf’s eyes blue.

Hollywood Life’s Andy Swift loved the origin story, noting that we finally found out why Derek’s big, bushy eyebrows always look so sullen.

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For many police officers, their cruiser’s front seat is often their office — but a parked car isn’t always a safe car. With Surveillance Mode, Ford hopes to keep your city’s finest a little safer in the heat of the night. By combining its existing driver-assist tech — backup cameras, power door locks and cross-traffic alerts — the Dearborn automaker has devised a system to signal officers of a potential attack from behind. When a potential assailant crosses into the rear camera’s viewing range, Surveillance Mode sounds a chime, the windows roll up and the doors lock. This ought to give officers valuable extra time to apprise the situation at hand. It may not be a tumbler, but it’s a start.

Oh, and don’t fret about your local black and white’s sanity: Surveillance Mode can be deactivated at will, so gaggles of pedestrians won’t set off the alarm every five minutes.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Ford News Center