Hasta La Gadget!

Intel has just announced that CEO Paul Otellini will be stepping down in May of 2013. The long time executive will be retiring from the company and industry that he has dedicated the last 40 years of his life to, leaving behind a legacy that has seen Intel’s dominance in the x86 field grow to almost unapproachable levels. As the fifth chief executive in the company’s history he’s overseen not only the processor reboot that followed the inefficient Pentium 4, but also played a role in Apple’s famous transition from PowerPC to Intel. Otellini and the board of directors will work together over the next six months to ensure a seamless transition of power; however, a successor has yet to be chosen.

The change at the top comes at a time when Intel is facing renewed competition, but from an unexpected source. The rise of smartphones and tablets has seen the ARM architecture and its numerous licensees surge in both mindshare and marketshare. Intel is only now getting into that realm with its ultra low-power Medfield line of x86 chips. Whoever takes over as CEO in May will be facing a landscape that poses serious challenges to the company’s CPU dominance.

For Otellini’s complete statement, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Intel CEO Paul Otellini to step down in May, leaves a legacy of x86 dominance

Filed under: Misc, Intel

Intel CEO Paul Otellini to step down in May, leaves a legacy of x86 dominance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading IRL: Logitech UE 900 headphones, Nokia Lumia 900 and the Galaxy Note II

Filed under: Misc, Samsung, Nokia

IRL: Logitech UE 900 headphones, Nokia Lumia 900 and the Galaxy Note II originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Nov 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canadian Windows fans rejoice! The rumors have panned out, as Microsoft opened its first permanent non-US retail location on Friday at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto. To celebrate this milestone, the company had a grand opening event with special guest Wayne Gretzky and a performance by the band Train. For the sake of die-hard Windows fans everywhere, here’s hoping Microsoft is just scratching the Surface of its international expansion plans.

Filed under: Misc, Microsoft

Canada calls dibs on Microsoft’s first permanent international store originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Been keeping up to date with the quirky robotic ball named Sphero? We’ve been wondering when its Augmented Reality Engine would finalize into a full-fledged app since we first witnessed it as E3 as a simple 2D tech demo. Well, Today is the day that this Android and iOS-controlled ball makes it first official-release steps into the world of AR — the engine has grown up, powering Orbotix’s latest free app, Sharky the Beaver. While the game itself is still admittedly silly and demo-like since we saw an early adaptation in August, there’s no question that the AGR is now is a polished state.

As a refresher, unlike other implementations that require a stationary marker, Sphero serves as one that can move around your area, while also relaying information about its position. The 3D character on screen rotates its directions as you spin Sphero, and, as you can see above, it even allows you to pick the ball up while it’s being tracked. The frame-rate of tracking in the app itself looked very smooth, and it does an admirable job keeping track of the ball, even if it ends up off-screen. At the point, gameplay is limited to flicking cupcakes on the ground that Sharky goes to automatically, and there’s no word on if and when we’ll see the features shown off in the early version (namely, the part where the Sharky part of the name was actually a key element, as you chased people on-screen to get their cupcakes). All in all, we’re more curious than anything to see what else the folks at Orbotix will come up with in the realm of AR — for more in the meantime, check out the our video hands-on after the break.

Continue reading Sphero’s Augmented Reality Engine gets fully realized in Sharky the Beaver (video)

Filed under: Misc, Robots, Software

Sphero’s Augmented Reality Engine gets fully realized in Sharky the Beaver (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Used to be, the Scrabble app was the techiest way to play the venerable vocabulary game, but the folks at Mind Sports have given the analog version some serious geek cred. In preparation for the Prague Mind Sports Festival, the organizers spent £20,000 building a Scrabble board with integrated RGB controlled LED lighting, nine embedded circuit boards and 225 RFID antennas (one per square). Plus, special game pieces were crafted containing RFID tags. Why? Well, the wireless tech combined with some purpose-built software lets tournament organizers broadcast games online in real-time — the system reads the board in a mere 974 miliseconds. Those wishing to see the ultimate Scrabble system in action can do so when the tournament starts on December 1st, and there’s more info in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Scrabble board packs RFID technology, broadcasts tournaments online in real-time, costs 20,000 pounds

Filed under: Misc, Gaming

Scrabble board packs RFID technology, broadcasts tournaments online in real-time, costs 20,000 pounds originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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