Hasta La Gadget!

Dell has just taken the wraps off a brand new addition to the Alienware family, hailing it, rather poetically, as “a serenade to raw gaming power.” It’s called the Alienware Aurora, and it’s staring at you with a Cylon-like grin in the image above. Beneath its menacing veneer lurks Intel’s six-core, 3000 series Core i7 CPU, an X79 Express chipset and quad-channel DDR3 memory, all of which are kept in check by Dell’s liquid cooling and active venting technologies. The gaming rig also supports both multi-display and 3D configurations, with GDDR5 memory-laced graphics cards. In case you’re not satisfied, you can always get under the hood and tinker with it yourself, without even busting out your tool belt. The Alienware Aurora is available now for prices starting at $2,200, so hit up the source link for more details.

Dell unveils Alienware Aurora gaming rig, will serenade you for $2,200 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Glasses-free 3D displays for smartphones and tablets aren’t exactly anything new, but Chimei Innolux (otherwise known as CMI) has devised a novel twist for its latest 4.3-inch screen. Not only does it boast a high 720p resolution, but it employs a new “cell gap” process that displays a standard 2D image when you view the screen at an off-angle, instead of leaving you with a murky 3D image. The company also promises that the 3D images are brighter with less of a moire effect than other displays, and it’s able to work in any orientation. As you might have suspected from the state of the prototype pictured above however, there’s unfortunately no word as to when it might wind up in an actual phone.

CMI shows off 720p glasses-free 3D display for smartphones with 2D off-angle viewing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for Kinect-like depth sensing magic in your pocket? It might be on the way, according to Eric Fossum, the man behind the CMOS sensor. During an Engineering lecture at Yale, Fossum let it slip that he was working on a new time-of-flight range sensor with Samsung, and said “we’re trying to catch up to a lot of people.” Pulling up a slide, Fossom described a 2-megapixel color sensor with a time-of-flight sensor inserted inside. “This doesn’t even get announced until February,” he said. Mentioning Sammy’s place in the 3D TV game, Fossum said that there wasn’t enough 3D content available to make 3D sets viable, “We have to enable people to be able to make 3D content before we can sell a lot of 3D TVs.” Between his lecture slides and befuddling words, Fossum suggested that cell phones equipped with 3D color image sensors could fill this content gap, calling it a “vision.” Hold tight to that word, though — Fossum wasn’t exactly crystal clear on what Sammy’s going to do with this technology, or what it’s going to announce in February. What do we know for sure? We need more 3D programming. Well, that and Samsung is going to announce something next year. Hit the break to hear the man in his own words. You can even pretend you’re a Yale student, we won’t judge.

Update: Fossum dropped by to give us a statement. “The RGBZ sensor represents the state of the art in research and development,” he says, “Technical information about this R&D advancement will be reported in February.”

[Thanks, Salem]

Continue reading Eric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages

Eric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What if there were a way to add smells to the things you see every single day on the internet? To some, just the thought of that there scenario would induce nausea. To others — primarily those who spend their days Googling various rose gardens around the globe — it just might be the extra dimension to surfing that they’ve been waiting for. If you happen to find yourself tucked into that second camp, we’d like to introduce you to Olly, the web-connected robot that’s capable of emitting smells based on inputs from the ‘net. The critter was dreamed up by Tim Pryde and the folks surrounding the Don-8r (Foundry, if you’re curious), and while there’s currently no way to purchase one, instructions are forthcoming to produce your own with a 3D printer. In fact, it’s recommended that users build a few, stack ’em up and connect different inputs (Twitter, Instagram, your mum’s vegetarian cooking blog) to each one. It’s the perfect cacophony… or the perfect disaster, depending on your browsing habits.

[Thanks, Tim]

Olly: the web-connected robot that converts pings to odors originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s Personal 3D Viewer’s finally found its way off the showroom floor and on to the shelves of Harrods? That’s right, the dual screen 1280 x 720 0.7-inch OLED sporting headset’ll initially be a limited exclusive to the well-heeled UK retailer, with a general country-wide release set for later this month. US gamers will have to hold out just a few more days until its end of October launch, but if you’re super impatient, there’s always that import option. Think you can shell out for the £800 (about $1,276) price tag? Then plan to pick one up the next time you’re in town to see the Queen.

Sony’s 3D HMD goes exclusive for Harrods, leaves America waiting originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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