Nov 01

BMW 3 Series gets ‘full-color’ heads-up display

Posted in: minipost, Today's Chili

If you’ve been hankering for some HUD action in your next auto, you’ll have one more choice come next spring: the all-new 2012 BMW 3 Series. The launch will mark the first time a heads-up display has made it into Bavaria’s volume seller, after debuting as an optional extra eons ago on its 5 Series. Since then, HUDs of limited hues have permeated München’s high-end, splaying speed and navigation directions in the line of sight of road-going elites everywhere. However, this iteration is “full-color,” which besides pleasing ROY G. BIV fans, makes it “more intuitive,” as the company reasons it’ll aid drivers in recognizing crucial alerts faster. That, or we’re really just a generation away from über cool AR wizardry and movies on our windscreens. Of course, no word on when the 3’s brethren will get the technicolor treatment, but we’re betting it won’t be long, given that’s the dash of a 6 Series you see above. PR, per usual, is after the break.

Continue reading BMW 3 Series gets ‘full-color’ heads-up display

BMW 3 Series gets ‘full-color’ heads-up display originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 16

Colorware spills its inks on your iPhone 4S, charges dearly for it

Posted in: Apple, ios, iPhone, iphone 4s, mobilepostcross, mod, mods, phone, Today's Chili
You didn’t think the latest iPhone would be saved from Colorware’s paint-dipped hands, did you?
Lo and behold, the company’s swatches are currently ready for application on the 4S. Similar to its iPhone 4 treatments, you’ll be able to spice up your device — and its earbuds — with a mixture of glossy, metallic and soft-touch coatings (excluding mainly the front face, which remains stock black or white). Colorware’ll gladly sell you a fresh 16 or 64GB model for a whopping $1,500 or $1,700, respectively, or you can mail yours in to get a Benetton-esque makeover for just $250.

Colorware spills its inks on your iPhone 4S, charges dearly for it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 22

The Engadget Interview: Lala and Color founder Bill Nguyen

Posted in: Android, Apple, interview, iPhone, Today's Chili
Bill Nguyen radiates enthusiasm. It’s constant and infectious, and when he attempts to sell you on his latest project, it’s hard not to get excited — this alone seems reason enough to want the guy on your team. Nguyen also has more than his share of experience heading startups — some have even gone so far as describing the Houston native as a “serial entrepreneur,” certainly not a stretch, having founded Onebox.com and Seven Networks early in his career.

It was the creation of Lala, however, that really put Nguyen on the map. The service was founded in the mid-’00s, around the concept of CD swapping, users mailing physical discs to one another in little red and white Netflix-like envelopes. The site shifted gears soon after, being reborn as a streaming service. The concept was born from Nguyen’s typically utopian vision of free music streaming, in hopes of spurring purchases amongst a dedicated audience — the actual product, not surprisingly, was far more of a compromise, limiting the streams of users who didn’t already have that music stored in their PC. Read our full interview after the break.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Lala and Color founder Bill Nguyen

The Engadget Interview: Lala and Color founder Bill Nguyen originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 22

Color abandons app independence for Facebook, hopes you’ll pay someone a ‘visit’

Posted in: Android, iPhone, mobilepostcross, Today's Chili
Color launched to a fair amount of fanfare back in March, and it’s not surprising, really — the company was spearheaded by Lala founder Bill Nguyen, with ten of millions in backing from some top venture capital firms. The hype surrounding the photo-sharing app didn’t take long to die down, however — over the past several months, we haven’t heard much from the startup. Turns out the Color team was rethinking the project from ground up. The company used f8 this week to launch a new version of the app built entirely around Facebook. The new Color harnesses updates to the social Network’s Open Graph protocol to introduce the concept of “visits,” a social gesture that prompts a user to request a live video feed from a Facebook friend upon seeing an interesting photo in their feeds on the social network or in the iPhone / Android app. The brief video stream can be attended by multiple users, becoming something of a mini UStream built into Facebook. The new Color is currently in a closed testing phase, though interested parties can sign up to take part below.

Color abandons app independence for Facebook, hopes you’ll pay someone a ‘visit’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 15

Sony outs trio of limited edition PlayStation 3 consoles, keeps it fresh with a few paint jobs

Posted in: console, minipost, playstation, playstation 3, Playstation3, ps3, sony, Today's Chili

How do you keep selling a five-year old system? You slap a new coat of paint on it and call it a “limited edition,” that’s how. Which is precisely what Sony’s gotten up to with three newly colored versions of its PlayStation 3. Hitting the electronics giant’s homeland this November 17th are a duo of 320GB consoles, offered up in either Splash Blue or Scarlet Red, that come paired with a similarly hued DualShock controller and ¥29980 ($390) asking price. The prettiest of the bunch, however, won’t be released until December 15th in Japan, and that’s the Final Fantasy XIII-2 Lightning Edition Ver.2. Timed to coincide with the retail debut of the Square Enix-made sequel, that console (pictured above) also boasts a 320GB HDD, bundled copy of the game and a plain old black controller — all for ¥37960 ($494). If you need to add a little spice back into your gaming life, it might be time to get your import on.

Sony outs trio of limited edition PlayStation 3 consoles, keeps it fresh with a few paint jobs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 12

The Most Wicked Optical Illusion I’ve Seen So Far

Posted in: science, Today's Chili, top

This is sick. Sick because the spiral effect is making me sick and sick because it reminds me how flawed/awesome/trippy our color perception is. Believe it or not, the green and the blue in this spiral is the same color. More »

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Sep 06

Acer’s Liquid Mini gets Ferrari-fied, doesn’t get any faster

Posted in: Android, app, application, car, Cars, gingerbread, mobilepostmini, phone, smartphone, Today's Chili
Acer’s Liquid Mini won’t be breaking speed records anytime soon, but at least it can look like a red hot racer, now that it’s received the Ferrari treatment. Following in the Liquid E‘s skid marks, this Liquid Mini Ferrari Edition features a vibrant red exterior emblazoned with the automaker’s iconic shield, and ships preloaded with engine ringtones, racing-themed wallpaper and other apps. Under the hood, however, lies the same, Gingerbread-based handset, replete with 512MB of RAM, a 3.2-inch display, five megapixel camera and rather underwhelming 600MHz processor. No word yet on when the device will be hitting the raceway, but you can get a closer look at the source link, below.

Acer’s Liquid Mini gets Ferrari-fied, doesn’t get any faster originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 12

Cyclone Display exemplifies ‘multi-colored expression,’ totally heading to a nightclub near you (video)

Posted in: concept, hands-on, Japan, prototype, Today's Chili, university, video

Ever heard of Yoichi Ochiai? You have now. Hailing from Japan’s University of Tsukuba, this whizkid was on hand here at SIGGRAPH to showcase one of his latest creations — and it just so happened to be one of the trippiest yet. The Cyclone Display was a demonstration focused on visual stimulation; a projector shown above interacted with a plate of spinning disks. Underneath, a cadre of motors were controlled by a connected computer, and as the rotation and velocity changed, so did the perceived pixels and colors. The next step, according to Ochiai, would be to blow this up and shrink it down, mixing textures in with different lighting situations. With a little help, a drab nightclub could douse its walls in leopard print one night, or zebra fur another. Interactive clubbing never sounded so fun, eh? You know the drill — gallery’s below, video’s a click beneath.

Gallery: The Cyclone Display at SIGGRAPH 2011

Continue reading Cyclone Display exemplifies ‘multi-colored expression,’ totally heading to a nightclub near you (video)

Cyclone Display exemplifies ‘multi-colored expression,’ totally heading to a nightclub near you (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 01

Colorware Barfs Paint Onto Once-Stylish Leica D-Lux 5

Posted in: Today's Chili

Ugh

This is what happens when you let someone like me choose colors

Given that Leica’s D-Lux 5 is little more than an overpriced re-badging of the Panasonic LX5, there might actually be a market for Colorware’s re-painted version. If somebody is willing to pay an extra $370 just to get Leica’s red-dot logo on their camera, surely they’d also be dumb enough to pay another $400 to have the thing resprayed?

The premium point-and-shoot will go from dull black to pretty much any combination of nausea-inducing colors you like. The explosion in a paint factory you see above was arrived at using the randomizing “Brainstorm” button on the Colorware site. I dare you to come up with something worse.

Don’t have a lovely Leica that you’d be willing to sacrifice? Colorware will charge you a mere $1,200 and supply the camera, too. That’s not so bad. At least Colorware isn’t charging a markup on top.

So go ahead and get customizing. And if you do come up with something more hideous than the monstrosity at the top of this post, then attach it to an e-mail and send it to someone you hate. Whatever you do, don’t send it to me. Please. I beg you.

Colorware Leica D-Lux 5 product page [Colorware via Uncrate]

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Jul 13

Fujitsu’s e-reader gets a refreshed look at e-Book Expo Tokyo (video)

Posted in: e ink, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, Today's Chili, video

Fujitsu got to show off its recent color e-reader flossy flossy at the e-Book Expo Tokyo (the former Digital Publishing Fair) in Japan last week. Besting its previous market entry — the FLEPia Lite — this 8-inch, 157 dpi cholestric LCD module sheds both its predecessor’s weight and Windows OS for a 220 gram, Linux-operated, slimmed-down profile. While the 4,096 color range remains exactly the same, it’s the elimation of dithering from the display that’ll be brightening up your future literary experiences. Processing speed also got a significant makeover here, translating into 0.7 second writing speeds — a number the company promises will go down as full color capacity increases. Unfortunately, this slab of technicolor ebeauty doesn’t appear to be headed for a US debut, so interested parties should start saving for that import option. Robo-Brit voice-over video demonstration after the break.

Continue reading Fujitsu’s e-reader gets a refreshed look at e-Book Expo Tokyo (video)

Fujitsu’s e-reader gets a refreshed look at e-Book Expo Tokyo (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 02:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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