Hasta La Gadget!

Pocket Radar promises to be world’s smallest speed radar originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Palm’s Pre is many things to many people it still can’t game. Oh sure, it’ll play Magic Fortune Ball like a champ but when it comes to intensive 3D action the Pre is as helpless as a would-be terrorist trying to ignite his underwear. See, webOS and the Mojo SDK currently can’t exploit the GPU the way other smartphone platforms can. Rewind a few weeks, however, and we’re reminded of a video showing EA’s Need for Speed Undercover running impossibly smooth on a Pre. At the time, the video and claims of the device running Flash were shot down as fake largely due to the accompanying screen caps of the purportedly new App Catalog. Well guess what? Those screen caps were vindicated today with the webOS 1.3.5 update that just so happened to launch a new App Catalog matching the leaked images, exactly. That lends credence to the video then doesn’t it, while hinting at future apps and games with full OpenGL graphics support. Is that the big reveal at CES alongside enhanced Pre+ and Pixi+ handsets headed to Big Red? We’ll find out shortly enough — until then check the gameplay after the break.

[Thanks, Brian K.]

Continue reading Palm Pre plays Need for Speed, undercover (video)

Palm Pre plays Need for Speed, undercover (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you thought the automakers would be leaving CES to the TV and PMP makers, Ford would like to have a word with you. A few words, actually. Aside from announcing that in-car WiFi will be available next year, the iconic blue oval is today calling itself the first car manufacturer to offer factory-installed HD Radio with iTunes tagging capabilities. Slated to become available on select 2011 Ford models sometime next year, the implementation will enable listeners of HD Radio to “tag” songs they like via a single button press; from there, the song information will be logged within the radio’s memory, and up to 100 tags on Sync can be stored until an iPod is connected to suck them down. Once that data hits the iPod, users can then preview or purchase them conveniently through iTunes. There’s no word yet on pricing (we’re being forced to wait until CES), but we’re guessing it’ll demand quite the premium.

Continue reading Ford becomes first automaker to offer HD Radio with iTunes tagging

Ford becomes first automaker to offer HD Radio with iTunes tagging originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the Bolt from CES 2009? Man, that was ages ago. If you’ll recall, projector phones were actually all the rage for around 4.67 minutes at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and ever since we’ve been dealt months of nothing alongside one lone ranger of something in the LG eXpo. Evidently Logic Wireless is hoping that we’ll forget all about the Bolt that never shipped and instead focus on the next best thing: the 150LGW. Available for order now at Skymall (of all places), the projector phone looks significantly slimmer and more stylish than the company’s first crack, and aside from the inbuilt PJ, there’s also twin SIM card slots, dual cameras, an Office file viewer, quad-band GSM radio, Bluetooth and Symbian running the show. We aren’t too sure we’d be willing to shell out $499 without any proof that this thing is worth its salt, but you can bet we’ll be on the hunt for it once CES 2010 opens up next week.

Logic Wireless 150LGW projector phone reminds us of that Bolt we once saw originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort may be enjoying the spoils right now, but the world’s most popular port may just give ’em a run for their collective dollars by the end of next year. DisplayLink, which enables monitors to receive signals via USB instead of through one of the more conventional cables, has been mildly successful with USB 2.0 at the helm, but a whole new world is about to open up with the introduction of USB 3.0. As you’ve no doubt seen by now, the third iteration offers up over ten times the bandwidth of v2.0, which would obviously allow for great resolution support when channeling video. In reality, USB 3.0 is the first USB protocol that could support a legitimate high-def video stream, and it’s expected that a prototype device will be shown at CES next month transmitting content at up to 4.8 gigabits per second. In theory, at least, USB 3.0-enabled DisplayLink would allow vast 30-inch panels to be connected to netbooks via USB without having to rely on a sub-native resolution, but then again, said netbooks will probably need a GPU with a bit more oomph than the current Ion can provide. Not like that’ll be an issue for long, though.

USB 3.0-infused DisplayLink products coming in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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