Hasta La Gadget!

NVIDIA and Audi have been building high-end infotainment systems for some time, but until now, the best of the team’s efforts have only been available to European drivers. Not anymore — NVIDIA announced today that Audi’s latest Tegra-based MIB high-end is ready to hit the road, and is due to arrive in major markets in Asia, the US and Canada by 2014. The system uses a variety of technologies to offer drivers live updates from Google Earth real-time updates on gas prices and even weather forecasts.

Audi says it’s planning to bring the MIB systems to all of it’s new vehicles, and is also pimping the tech out to other brands, such as Volkswagen and Skoda. The company didn’t specify which Tegra chip would be making the international tour, but NVIDIA general manager Taner Ozcelik suggests that upgrading the system to the company’s latest is a relatively smooth process. “NVIDIA’s modular VCM approach lets companies like Audi quickly move from a Tegra 2 processor, to a Tegra 3 and beyond.” Read on for the company’s official press release.

Continue reading Audi to take NVIDIA powered MIB systems global, drive Tegra through Asian, North American markets

Filed under: Transportation, NVIDIA

Comments

Earlier today, Rode announced its newest addition to its already plentiful lineup of microphones. This time, it’s one specialized for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The microphone uses Apple’s outgoing 30 pin adapter (Sorry early adopters), so the user can also use headphones simultaneously while recording at rates of up to 24-bit/96kH. The pair of immovable half inch cardioid condensers are positioned in a 90-degree alignment for proper stereo recording without picking up too much ambient noise. They should also dodge any bi-positional recording issues when recording both guitar and vocals at once.

Amongst the angst of CES, the sound quality seemed good, but what really makes the iXY a legitimate contender is Rode’s app. There’s two versions: a free lite one and a $5.99 pro version, the latter being extremely adjustable in every aspect of audio recording — gain, input, boost levels, high/low-pass filter options, equalization effects and many more.

The iXY Microphone is available now for $199, and comes with a foam windshield and carrying case. Rode has mentioned that an iPhone case with a standard hotshoe attachment with pistol grip is in the works, and will arrive in the next few months.

Check out the video past the break, where we compare recordings from the Rode iXY attached to an iPhone and a Rode Videomic Pro on a DSLR.

Continue reading Rode iXY Microphone ears on (video)

Filed under: Peripherals

Comments

The majority of Sharp’s area on the CES show floor is taken up by its 2013 consumer AQUOS range, but hidden in dark corners are tech demos, concept panels, and ridiculously priced displays. One demonstration set is split into two sections, comparing the company’s next-gen Quattron yellow sub-pixel technology with the current generation. Did the color’s look great? For sure. Did it look like the current-gen Quattron had been made intentionally low quality? Definitely. The two-faced demo TV also had the glare-reducing Moth-Eye technology on board, as did a 70-inch UHDTV concept model which a Sharp rep called “just an exercise in engineering.” It wasn’t exactly gasp-inducing, but the anti-reflective tech was certainly working. Finally, hidden behind a curtain and crammed into a small pitch-black room (literally) were a bunch of Sharp’s “Integrated Cognitive Creation” (ICC) 60-inch 4K LCDs. The hook of the ICC PURIOS is that it upscales 1080p to 4K, and will do so for only $25,000 – $30,000 when it launches in the US this summer. We couldn’t really tell the difference between the HD and 4K pictures, but maybe we should’ve brought a microscope for a more thorough analysis.

Filed under: Displays, HD

Comments

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Continue reading The Daily Roundup for 01.08.2013

Comments

When Valve hardware engineer Ben Krasnow gave a speech at a German technology conference back in December, he spoke to the much ballyhooed “Steambox” concept we’ve been hearing so much about in recent months (among other, vastly different subjects). Following that speech, a report on Golem.de (translated at the Neogaf gaming forums) posited that Krasnow indicated a reveal of said Steambox at this March’s Game Developer’s Conference, or perhaps at this June’s E3 gaming trade show — but Krasnow tells us he didn’t say that exactly. “With regards to the Steambox news — there has been a lot of things stated in the media which I didn’t say. For example, it’s true that we are working on getting Steam into the living room, and are planning for a hardware box, but we have no current plans to announce anything in 2013,” Krasnow said in an email.

“The box might be linux-based, but it might not,” he continued. “It’s true that we are beta-testing Left for Dead 2 on Linux, and have also been public about Steam Big Picture Mode. We are also working on virtual and augmented reality hardware, and also have other hardware projects that have not been disclosed yet, but probably will be in 2013.”

Valve also chimed in with a boilerplate statement, which explained the company’s presence at this week’s big consumer electronics show. “Yes, Valve will be at the show to meet with hardware and content developers in our booth space. Many PCs optimized for Steam and Big Picture will be shipping later this year. We are bringing some of these as well as some custom HW prototypes to our CES meetings.” We saw one such example of a PC optimized for use with Steam’s Big Picture Mode last night in Xi3’s Piston modular PC — the first of many of these setups we expect to see in 2013. Valve continued, “These custom prototypes are low-cost, high performance designs for the living room that also incorporate Steam and Big Picture. We will be sharing more information to the press and public in the coming months.”

Filed under: Gaming, HD

Comments