Smartype puts screen in your keyboard so you can see and type while you type and see

Smarttype puts screen in your keyboard so you can see and type while you type and see

Marrying a keyboard and an LCD is not exactly revolutionary any more. Art Lebedev has been doing it since at least 2008. But those devices have always been aimed at power users and gamers, not your average Joe. Smartype, from KeyView, doesn’t display custom buttons for World of Warcraft of alter the fonts you see for languages that don’t use the Latin alphabet. Instead, its primary purpose is to display exactly what you’re typing. The screen along the top of the tiny deck allows users that aren’t proficient touch typers to see what they’re pecking out, without looking back and forth between the keyboard and their monitor. There are also a handful of apps that pop up notifications for email or display the current weather. The goal is to bring the interactive app revolution that has made our phones “smart” to the rather staid world of the keyboard. For now the Smartype is only available in Israel, but the company is working on international availability. For more, check out the video after the break.

[Thanks, Ilya]

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Smartype puts screen in your keyboard so you can see and type while you type and see originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation for Orion spacecraft

NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation of Orion spacecraft

NASA has always used the desert as its own personal playground, and we’d imagine that its team had a blast in Arizona yesterday, as a mock parachute compartment of the Orion spacecraft was dropped from 25,000 feet above Earth. The dart-shaped object experienced free fall for 5,000 feet, at which point, drogue chutes were deployed at 20,000 feet. This was then followed by pilot chutes, which then activated the main chutes. As you’d imagine, these things are monsters: the main parachutes — three in all — each measure 116 feet wide and weigh more than 300 pounds. Better yet, the mission was successful.

Naturally, all of this is in preparation for Orion’s first test flight — currently scheduled for 2014 — where the unmanned craft will travel 15 times further than the ISS and jam through space at 20,000 mph before returning to Earth. Yesterday’s outing is merely one in a series of drop tests, and yes, it’s important to remove any unknowns from the situation: eventually, humans will be along for the ride.

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NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation for Orion spacecraft originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is this Nokia’s new Windows Phone handset? Mr. Blurrycam thinks so

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Just when you think that the era of decent smartphone cameras has killed the Blurrycam, you get a beauty like this. Here’s an image purporting to be of a new Nokia Windows Phone 8 handset that, if real, we’ll see on September 5th. Of course, it could just as easily be a block of golden marzipan with some detailing, but at least it gives us hope that the company’s sticking with its trademark polycarbonate in various shades of primary colors.

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Is this Nokia’s new Windows Phone handset? Mr. Blurrycam thinks so originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 06:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Garmin, Navigon GPS apps now consider mass transit, remember where we parked

Garmin, Navigon GPS apps now consider mass transit, remember where we parked

Third-party navigation apps still tend to fall apart when the keys are out of the ignition — try to cut back on car use and you’re often kicked over to another app with its own set of rules. Both Garmin’s StreetPilot Onboard app and its Navigon equivalent are getting a much more holistic experience through respective upgrades due this fall. Android and iOS users alike can soon buy an Urban Guidance pack that factors buses, subways and other forms of public transportation into their on-foot routes. The playing field is leveling off for drivers willing to stretch their legs, too: iPhone owners with Navigon’s app get the same last-mile walking directions and parking finder as their Android counterparts. StreetPilot iPhone app users are left out of this last addition, but they’ll see compensation in the form of an optional Panorama View 3D mode and the Google Street View they’re about to lose from Maps in iOS 6. The updated titles will still cost $30 for Navigon-only regional packs, $50 for editions with US-wide maps and $60 for all of North America, although you’ll need to spend $5 more ($3 during the first two weeks) for Urban Guidance and $10 for the Panorama View 3D pack.

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Garmin, Navigon GPS apps now consider mass transit, remember where we parked originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Desire X announced: Android 4.0 on a 4-inch Super LCD screen

HTC is keeping a low profile at IFA 2012 this week but it does have at least one phone to reveal to the throng of tech journalists and writers making their way around Berlin, the Desire X (formerly Proto). It’s a humbler new handset for the Taiwanese manufacturer and one whose outer hardware has already toured China. It’s now been mildly adjusted (that is, improved) with one of Qualcomm’s lower-end Snapdragon S4 processors, clocked at 1GHz, while it keeps that 4-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, Beats Audio integration and 4GB of storage we saw earlier. There’s also an extra 25 gigs of free cloud storage courtesy of Dropbox, while the camera packs the same capabilities as One series devices including HDR capture, continuous shooting and the ability to capture video and stills at the same time. The device will launch across as-yet unconfirmed countries in Europe and Asia starting next month — and we’ll have a hands-on for you later today.

Gallery: HTC Desire X

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HTC Desire X announced: Android 4.0 on a 4-inch Super LCD screen originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 02:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kindle for iOS updated with rapid highlights, adjustable margins and more

Kindle for iOS updated with rapid highlights, adjustable margins and more

We know Jeff Bezos & Co. have some sort of intriguing announcement planned for next week, but while we wait for that to take place, you might want to update your iOS-friendly Kindle application. Amazon just pushed out version 3.2 of the reading app and it’s loaded with a slew of new features, including adjustable margins for your “preferred reading experience,” rapid highlights to let users mark passages within their content, as well as improved brightness controls that, in theory, should make the overall viewing experience a tad bit better. Meanwhile, “Print Replica Textbooks” have been enhanced with fresh highlighting traits and an all-new notebook feature to save bookmarks, notes and images. The Kindle update can be snagged now from the App Store directly from any Cupertino-made slab, or you could always click on the source link below — your choice.

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Kindle for iOS updated with rapid highlights, adjustable margins and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe pushes TV Everywhere forward with Adobe Pass 2.0, promises easier logins on more devices

No matter what’s going on with Flash, Adobe is still pushing other technologies, and one of them is the one that powered NBC’s Olympics apps this summer, Adobe Pass. The company counted more than 88 million authenticated streams during the games, and its tech is behind apps for other networks like ESPN and Cartoon Network. Now it says it can make things better for cable companies and their customers to get viewing on mobiles with Adobe Pass 2.0, which includes technology like automatic authentication, which was tested on Comcast and Cablevision customers during he Olympics. We tried it then and it couldn’t have been easier, logging in while connected to your home network flips the switch based on IP address or MAC address, and then it worked at home or on the go, no password necessary.

Another feature rolling out is “Free Preview” which lets viewers watch before they’re finished logging in, while a Server Side API on the way should open up access to more apps on more devices. We’re not sure if that’s enough to stem the tide of cable cutting, but if it means more and easier to use viewing even when we’re not in front of the HDTV, then we’re for it. This is all a part of Adobe’s “Project Primetime” which it expects to roll out in full across iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS and other platforms later this year, check the blog post linked below and video after the break for more details.

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Adobe pushes TV Everywhere forward with Adobe Pass 2.0, promises easier logins on more devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Maps for Android adds turn-by-turn biking navigation, helps pedal-pushers in 10 more countries

Google Maps for Android adds turnbyturn biking navigation, helps pedalpushers in 10 more countries

Google’s cycling directions have been slowly expanding their reach to the mobile world and other countries, but the only option for navigation so far has been to memorize the route. As of today, you won’t have to stop every five minutes to get your bearings. Google Maps for Android has received a low-key update that adds spoken, turn-by-turn Google Maps Navigation for riders in every country where biking directions exist — if you can clamp your phone to your handlebars, you can find your way. Many more riders are just seeing mobile support of any kind in the process. Both navigation and regular directions should now be live in the Android app for 10 more countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Cyclists just need to swing by Google Play to keep their two-wheeled adventures on track.

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Google Maps for Android adds turn-by-turn biking navigation, helps pedal-pushers in 10 more countries originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vimeo adds advanced uploading features, custom thumbnails and Dropbox integration

Vimeo adds advanced uploading features, custom thumbnails and Dropbox integration

Last we heard, Vimeo was the one being integrated into a couple of Microsoft’s photo and movie-making products, but now it’s the video giant announcing a service integration of its own. Of course, as you can see above, we’re talking about the recently announced Dropbox synthesis — which will allow Vimeo users to upload vid content straight from the cloud locker behemoth, as well as save all original files to their account. Furthermore, Vimeo’s also added new advanced uploading features that essentially allow uploads to be resumed, plus the ability to choose any frame and set it as a thumbnail — a nice addition to those soundtrack tools from earlier this year. You can give these a try yourself now; in the meantime, however, we recommend checking out Vimeo’s fresh feature-touting visuals after the break.

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Vimeo adds advanced uploading features, custom thumbnails and Dropbox integration originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jelly Bean pre-release for Verizon Galaxy Nexus now available from Google

Jelly Bean prerelease for Verizon Galaxy Nexus now available from Google

More timid users might want to sit this one out, but for everyone else, you’ll be glad to know that a pre-release build of Android 4.1 is now available for installation on the Galaxy Nexus from Verizon. Many of you are likely aware that custom Android builds such as AOKP and CyanogenMod have provided an early taste of Jelly Bean for a while now, but this time around, the flashable zip files are available directly from Google — that’s right, this is pure AOSP. Specifically, users will be treated to build JRO03O, which is an incremental update over the previously released binaries. The caveat here is that the software has yet to receive certification from Verizon, and you’ll need to unlock your bootloader to join in the fun.

For experienced users who’ve already installed a custom recovery utility such as ClockworkMod Recovery, the process couldn’t be easier. Naturally, if you’re already on a custom build, you should perform a data wipe within the recovery utility, then install the IMM76Q package and then flash the JRO03O build on top of that. Regardless of your experience level, anyone with the proper motivation should be able to pull this one off. Those starting at square one will find a complete list of instructions at the source link below.

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Jelly Bean pre-release for Verizon Galaxy Nexus now available from Google originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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