Hasta La Gadget!

Valve Software’s hardware division is still in its infancy. Despite having existed for over a year, recruitment is still its primary concern — “prototyping is almost secondary,” longtime inventor/hacker/now Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth told us in an interview this week. As the team ramps up, production becomes more and more prolific, of course; Ellsworth lights up when she talks about the work her team is doing now. She gets verbose when asked about corporate culture at Valve, about how she’s never worked at a company where risk and failure are so acceptable — even encouraged. She’s visibly excited about the prototypes she’s creating at Valve’s new prototyping facility, but manages to contain herself enough to not let slip exactly what her and her team are working on.

When asked what the team’s immediate goals are, she obliquely states, “To make Steam games more fun to play in your living room.” That’s the team’s one-year goal, at least. The challenge is making games that require a mouse and keyboard palatable to people who are used to a controller, or to people who just don’t want to migrate PC controls to the comfort of their living room. Working in tandem with Steam’s newly beta’d “Big Picture Mode,” Ellsworth’s team is creating a hardware solution to the control barriers found in many Steam games. She wouldn’t give any hints as to what that solution is exactly, but she left no options off the table — from Phantom Lapboard-esque solutions to hybrid controllers.

Regardless, it sounds like gamers will have a chance to give feedback on those designs, as Valve’s hardware team is planning a beta for its various products. Ellsworth is hoping to have one for the team’s first product in the coming year — we’ll of course know much more about the product by then, she says. Internal beta tests are already underway, and a variety of the team’s prototypes are available in the office for other Valve employees to tool around with. The next step is getting prototypes into gamers hands — she says Valve already has a production line for short runs, making a beta possible — and iterating on design before launch. As for how the beta will be handled, she posits it’ll be tied to Steam in some way, but no logistics are anywhere near nailed down.

Continue reading Valve’s first hardware beta starting by next year, wearable computing still far off

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Laptops

Valve’s first hardware beta starting by next year, wearable computing still far off originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

HP bet big on the smartphone world when it purchased Palm, but the company fell flat on its face and webOS failed to take off. The reasons for the failure are numerous, but the new CEO Meg Whitman is smart enough to realize it can’t simply abandon the market entirely. In an interview with Fox Business, she said that HP “ultimately has to offer a smartphone.” Though she was willing to acknowledge that the company is “working on this,” she would not divulge too many details about its mobile plans. Whether or not webOS may rise from the ashes as a largely community-powered platform remains to be seen, but we wouldn’t be shocked to see HP pivot towards its longtime partner Microsoft, and release a Windows Phone 8 device. Perhaps the best glimmer of hope for the former Palm system was Meg’s focus on developing markets. She rightly points out that, in some parts of the world, the first and only “computer” a person may own is a smartphone — and reaching that audience is essential to Hewlett-Packard’s success. Going back to the webOS well (with its open source support) would allow the company to save a few dollars on the cost of a new handset. Check out the video after the break for the full quotes in context.

Continue reading Meg Whitman says HP has to ‘offer a smartphone’

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

Meg Whitman says HP has to ‘offer a smartphone’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ZDNet, Dow Jones  |  Fox Business  | Email this | Comments

If you’re a lover of the Rolex timepiece lines Submariner, Sea Dweller, GMT, and more, you’re about to get strapped with a brand new technologically forward-thinking addition to your collection, the Everest Band – here combining futuristic 3D printing production with the crowdfunding environment known as Kickstarter. With the technology used by the team behind this project, the Everest Band was made specifically for the Rolex family (Explorer II and Yacht-Master included too!) With a tolerance for error so small it’ll make you flip, our short interview with Michael DiMartini of Everest Horology Products (the group behind the Everest Band), shows the real effort that must be put into creating 3rd party accessories for fine-tuned equipment as well!

The story goes like this: Everest Horology Products has a real love for the Rolex line of timepieces, and because they wanted a product that did not exist, they decided to make it themselves. The Everest Band is the group’s first product, and it’s been developed over the course of 8 months, from drawing board, to prototyping, to production. The watch band that’s at the center of this whole project was created with 3D prototyping and what’s called “opti-jet” technology to make the next-generation insert inside the band a reality in this product – and Everest Bands Kickstarter is the next big step.

“3d prototyping was incredibly important in both aesthetic and fit for this rather unique project. Since the Everest band was fitting on to a Rolex, where tolerance for error is around .005 mm, it had to be perfect. The room for error was so small that with accurate models we would know if we were going down the wrong path very quickly. It allowed for us to try different designs at an incredibly low price and test both a solid and flexible concept.

The flexible “opti-jet” technology we used was intrical in determining the solid end link insert. One thing that we know will set this product apart from the rest is the fact that the insert that we used has both a molecular bond and a mechanical bond. This type of double redundancy allows to ensure that we have a permanent piece that will never fall out. The majority of other designs are one or the other – without the 3d Prototyping we would not have been able to correctly make this design happen.” – DiMartini

Above: 3D prototype test model bands appear in a basic off-white tone before they’re perfected. Once the perfect size is found, the perfect colors come next.

The insert in the band here is not just so well made that there’s no danger of it falling out, it’s darn near impossible to pull out, too! With the air friction barrier action going on here there’s a solid product, inside and out, that’s like nothing else out on the market – not in Rolex watchbands, anyway. Have a peek at a demonstration of the Everest Band here to see the final product:

DiMartini also made it clear that Kickstarter was and is instrumental in getting this project off the ground. A startup situation like this makes it so startup debt – a killer, in many cases – doesn’t need to be as much of a factor as it traditionally has been in the past. The web as a whole, too, has been a perfect battleground for Everest Horology Products to take off in and with.

“Kickstarter is our marketing tool and we are the voice. It was a perfect scenario for a company like ours. … The web has been our way of getting out the word and been our main reason we are seeing the success we have. The Forums, Facebook, twitter, etc. have been absolutely incredible for allowing us to communicate with the public. We have used it to not only market the product, but also design it. We listened to what the market wanted and what others were missing.” – DiMartini

Take a peek at the Kickstarter project page for Everest Bands right this minute to get a better idea of what this team of innovators is aiming to do for the future of timepiece bands right this minute. And stay tuned with the Everest Horology Products group for future products as well – things are looking up!

Everest Bands creator talks Kickstarter effort and 3D printing innovation is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s been nearly a year since we spoke with Stephen Elop in New York City for the launch of the Lumia 800, a year that hasn’t exactly been full of success on the financials front. But, forget all that, because the new devices are here! We had the chance to chat with Stephen about the new Lumia 820 and 920 and ask him what he thinks the chances are of this version of Windows Phone will be the one that finally gains some traction in the market.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

The Engadget Interview: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Google Doodles are the Cracker Jack prizes of the Internet, the digital back of the cereal box, a quirk that humanize the giant search company. And it’s funny because the Doodles themselves exist in a sort of mysterious world—they pop up one day and then disappear. Very few people know about the process of creating Google Doodles. Well, here are the humans of the Google Doodle team talking about doodling. More »