Hasta La Gadget!

Predictably, as the leader in North American LCD sales, Vizio’s booth was absolutely filled with LCD HDTVs, including the slew of displays announced this week during CES. We got some hands-on time with the OnLive implementation Vizio’s bringing to its VIA Plus (read: Google TV) as well as the Versus single screen head-to-head gaming setup — which you can check out on Joystiq — a quick look at new soundbars with wireless subwoofers, new headphones and even an interesting Android-powered clock radio with integrated iPod dock, but our biggest question was if the new Theater 3D tech based on LG’s FPR passive 3D screens was ready for prime time. Check out a few more pics in the gallery and our impressions after the break.

Continue reading Vizio CES hands-on with ultrawidescreen TV, passive 3DTV, OnLive and Android clock radios

Vizio CES hands-on with ultrawidescreen TV, passive 3DTV, OnLive and Android clock radios originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen plenty of IR blasters around the Engadget trailer but few, if any, include WiFi and Z-Wave home automation radios. But that’s exactly what the boys over at Square Connect have planned as a followup to their existing SQ Blaster product. A trick that lets you control your home theater equipment, window coverings, lights, and HVAC systems from the company’s own SQ Remote iPhone app. At least that’s the plan when it ships sometime around Q2, possibly touting WiFi Direct capability and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). The device above is a non-working prototype that just happens to look nice with the Apple TV. It features cutouts for a USB port (power and setup), IR extenders, built-in blasters, and removable antenna. Working models are already in field testing with shipments expected to land in the homes of consumers sometime in Q2.

SQ Blaster Pro is a WiFi, Z-Wave, and IR blaster home automation powerhouse originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Viliv had its new Android tablets on display for us to get our grubby hands on, and the company continues to impress us with its sleek designs and attractive feature sets. The X10’s claim to fame is its monstrous 8300 mAh battery which should yield over ten hours of use even with its 10.2-inch display. What we saw was only a prototype, but it doesn’t seem that the battery added any additional bulk to the svelte design. The X7 seven inch model should look pretty familiar, considering it has essentially the same exact enclosure as that X70 slate we spent time with earlier (the only difference is the OS and some tweaked buttons). Both tablets have a Cortex A8 processor chugging away at 1 GHz, front and rear 1.3 / 3 megapixel cams respectively, and support for 3G. They were currently running Froyo but will ultimately ship with Gingerbread. When we mentioned Honeycomb we couldn’t exactly get a straight answer, but it’s a safe bet that won’t happen off the bat and a very vague “3.0 (TBD)” note in the press release doesn’t make anything more clear. Check out these twin tablets getting cozy in our gallery shots below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs

Viliv X7 and X10 Android tablets hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Baz Luhrmann extoll the virtues of Blu-ray, Stone suggests stocking up (video)

Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Baz Luhrmann extoll the virtues of Blu-ray, Stone suggests stocking up (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just got a chance to meet iRobot’s AVA and talk to iRobot’s CEO Colin Angle about his plans for this intriguing new bot. What we’re looking at right now is basically a developer platform, or a “concept car” as Colin put it, showing off ideas for a consumer-facing bot with a lot more smarts than a Roomba, with hopes to attract developers who can extend its functionality. What wasn’t clear to us before is that the tablet perched atop the bot can be any iPad or Android tablet — not some first-party model by iRobot — and the point of that is to let existing iPad and Android devs to develop apps using their regular tools that can control the bot through an API iRobot will give them access to. That means, unlike some robotic SDKs out there, developers won’t have to learn the ins and outs of robots before they build an app for the AVA, they just have to pass simple instructions to the bot which can be interpreted by iRobot’s already impressive software. For instance, the robot can already drive itself around a building and map it entirely, so then a software dev would just have to pick a point on a map and send AVA on its way — no complicated navigation work on the app dev’s part. iRobot also sees potential for game devs, which is particularly interesting because they could combine two of the “hot” areas of current game development: Kinect-style motion controls and touch controls. It’s all very exciting, we assure you, so we suggest you follow after the break and watch this video — before we sic AVA on your ass.

iRobot AVA chills with us at CES, will turn Android and iPad app developers into roboticists (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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