Hasta La Gadget!

Geeks who are into fast cars and stereoscopic displays must think that watching F1 races in 3D is the bees-knees. However, FIA, the sport’s governing body, has often been resistant to new technology — only adopting HD a few years ago. That’s why when the FIA asked Sky to produce a test-broadcast of the practice testing laps in the run up to the Barcelona Grand Prix, the British broadcaster jumped at the chance. Naturally, BSkyB wanted to show off its technical marvel, and so invited us to come and see what it was like. Of course, like the good geeks that we are, our attention was focused on keeping Sky’s chief engineer Chris Johns in a corner and needling him with questions. Curious to find out what he said (apart from “please go away,” of course)? After the break is where all the cool kids are at.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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There are few things worse than spending your hard-earned money on a video game and then finding out it’s crap. To avoid this problem I typically download the demo first and decide if it’s a good game before I spend my $50 or $60. If you’ve been on the fence about buying EA’s new Need for Speed Most Wanted video game, the demo is now available, despite the game being released two weeks ago.

EA announced that the demo is available right now on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The demo let’s players cruise around the open world of Fairhaven City and gives you a good taste of what to expect from the full game. Players will get to drive an Aston Martin V12 Vantage to begin with and can find three other vehicles hidden around the city.

Those other vehicles include the Porsche 911 Carrera S, Audi R8 GT Spyder, and the Ford Focus RS500. Players of the demo will have to hunt down those cars to be able to drive them and unlock unique races, challenges, and mods they feature. Those who play the demo will be also able to achieve up to 50,000 Speed Points that will carry over into the full game if you purchase it.

As the world awaits the arrival of BlackBerry 10 hardware, the Wall Street Journal has a report from RIM CEO Thorsten Heins that the company is ready to start showing off the “nearly complete” devices to carriers next week. Separately, CrackBerry has heard the same from its sources, along with word that more internal employees are becoming a part of the beta test group (already plugging away since May on alpha dev units like the one shown above) as well. As RIM is preparing to ramp up production of test devices, the CEO was also ready to confirm more details about the hardware, including that two devices are due at launch — one all-touchscreen and one QWERTY / touchscreen combo — with plans to expand to six models evenly split between the two options, and that it will stick with removable batteries.

Before RIM tries to convince end users early next year that its new OS was worth the wait, it will have to persuade potential carrier partners. Fortunately, if you believe one unnamed WSJ source, it’s already showing a “marked improvement” over existing phones that makes BlackBerry more competitive with Android. We’re not sure if that will keep BBM addicts on the hook until new hardware launches, but with the roadshow about to commence we should hear more concrete details soon.

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM is taking two BlackBerry 10 beta units on tour soon for carrier previews originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 22:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard to ignore Google’s X Lab-born Project Glass. News of the slim-lined, sci-fi goggles’ existence first surfaced this past February and it wasn’t long after that Mountain View’s own elite began to flaunt the heads-up display in public. While little of the device’s true purpose and functionality is known, we have been privy to certain features over the past few months, like photo sharing to Google+ and even its ability to overlay Maps. Though product lead Steve Lee shrugged off rumors of a late 2012 launch, it does appear the company’s itching to spill a few more (jelly) beans at today’s I/O conference.

To do that, Sergey Brin rushed onstage at Google I/O wearing the glass units to give us a brief live action demo courtesy of a skydive over San Francisco. Video of the jump, performed by four divers in a blimp, was streamed live through Google Hangouts to attendees at the Moscone Center. In keeping with the extreme vibe of this demonstration, the showcase was handed off to bikers on the rooftop, also outfitted with the lenses, who jumped from building to building via ramp and then eventually cycled into the arena and right up to Sergey, himself. As a finishing touch, Brin also snapped a shot of the team using his own headset. All told, it’s a pretty incredible way to once again officially tease this forward-looking tech.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Update: Google’s posted the entire segment by itself, it’s embedded after the break if you want to relive every step (stage to blimp and back to stage, with a few handoffs in betwee) as it happened.

Continue reading Sergey Brin demos Project Glass onstage at Google I/O (video)

Sergey Brin demos Project Glass onstage at Google I/O (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

CyanogenMod for TouchPad alpha released, is surprisingly functional (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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