Wacom’s Bamboo Pad: a Magic Trackpad-esque peripheral with stylus input for $49 and $79

Wacom's Bamboo Pad

Touch pads are nice for navigating with gestures, but what about when you need to scribble a signature or mark up a draft by hand? Well, Wacom has an option with its new stylus-friendly Bamboo Pad. The peripheral enables multitouch gestures alongside a pressure-sensitive Wacom stylus. Compatible with both Mac and Windows PCs, the add-ons can employ a wireless connection or be tethered via USB and come in one of four accent-hued options: grey, blue, green or purple (violet unit is wireless only). If you’ve already gotten cozy with a Bamboo Stylus feel, that input device will work alongside this new Bamboo Pad as well. Wired units will set you back $49 while the wireless model is priced at $70 with both arriving later this month. For now, you can snag a closer look at the goods in the gallery down below. %Gallery-slideshow83491%

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Breaking down the PS Vita TV: Why Sony’s $100 set-top box is more than a consolation prize

PlayStation's $100 play for the settop box PS Vita TV

Late last night / very early this morning, Sony’s PlayStation team finally unveiled a release date for the PlayStation 4 in Japan: February 22, 2014. That’s just short of 100 days after the company’s new game console launches in the US, and nearly as far away from the console’s arrival on European shores — a far cry from the PlayStation 3’s launch strategy, which put the console in Japanese gamers’ hands first.

Instead, Sony’s got another idea for Japanese gamers this holiday in the PlayStation Vita TV. The $100 set-top Vita hooks up to televisions and functions as a Vita does, albeit with a DualShock 3 paired for control. It’ll even act as a Remote Play device for the PlayStation 4 when that console eventually launches in Japan. Unlike some Japan-only PlayStation hardware from Sony’s past (PS3’s Torne DVR device, for instance), Vita TV seems bound for an international release.

In Sony’s official PR, the company says, “PS Vita TV will be available first in Japan prior to any other regions, on November 14, 2013.” Prior to any other regions, eh? PlayStation’s US counterparts are keeping coy. We asked if the console was being considered for release in North America and were told, “We are considering every opportunity, but have nothing to announce at this time,” by an SCEA rep.

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Zivix PUC gets MIDI instruments talking wirelessly to iOS and PCs (video)

Zivix PUC gets MIDI instruments talking to iOS through WiFi video

Zivix promised wireless freedom to iOS-loving guitarists when it unveiled the JamStik; today, it’s extending that liberty to a much wider range of musicians. Its just-announced PUC peripheral connects most any MIDI instrument to iOS devices, Macs and Windows PCs through a direct WiFi link. The device works with many CoreMIDI-capable apps, and it takes power through either a micro-USB source or a pair of AA batteries. Zivix plans to sell the PUC for $129 in December, although you’ll get a price break if you reserve early — the company is running a crowdfunding campaign that lets early adopters pay between $69 to $99 for a regular model.

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Source: Indiegogo

Switched On: More wedge, less edge, no hedge

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On More wedge, less edge, no hedge

Casting aside such permutations as the DSi and the DSi XL, it makes ordinal sense for the Nintendo 3DS to have followed the Nintendo DS. This is true even if the “3” was for the number of dimensions and not necessarily generations (in which case it might have been named the DS 3). But it seems a bit puzzling on the face of it to come out with a product called the 2DS after the 3DS. Changing the sub-brand immediately calls the notion of compatibility into question even if one can see why Nintendo wouldn’t want to include “3D” in a product that doesn’t display it. (At least it’s not being called “the new 3DS.”)

And that’s but one of the confusing things about the 2DS, in which the strongest champion of hand-held gaming hardware has eliminated the signature feature of its latest portable console generation as well as the clamshell design with which the DS series has been identified since its debut a decade ago. The result is a makeover of the portable 3D handheld that is a bit less portable and a lot less 3D.

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IFA 2013 wrap-up: Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1, smartwatches, lens cameras, 4K displays and more

IFA 2013 wrap-up: Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1, smartwatches, lens cameras, 4K displays and more

We reckoned IFA would be an exceptionally busy show, and now that we’ve combed through all of our coverage and condensed it here, it’s clear the event lived up to our expectations. Sure, the venerable CES may have topped IFA in show floor square feet, but the announcements in Berlin generated perhaps even more excitement than those that came out of Las Vegas in January. A pair of high-profile smartwatches, two titanic smartphones, a duo of lens cameras, 4K displays and a bevy of hands-ons await you in a neat, yet massive, roundup after the break.%Gallery-slideshow83286%

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Latest Surface Pro accessory rumor points to a desktop dock

DNP Desktop dock rumors swirl for Microsoft's Surface Pro tablets

Microsoft is supposedly working on a desktop docking station that’s compatible exclusively with Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 slates (following yesterday’s rumor of a battery packing keyboard cover), according to reports from Neowin and WinSuperSite. So what could the Docking Station bring the Pro and its (still unannounced) sequel? Possibly, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports as well as gigabit Ethernet and audio in / outs. Even if your typical workflow requires multiple monitors, Redmond has you covered thanks to an external video output. These are box-standard features on any recent PC, sure, but they could help fix the issues we had with the Pro’s basic usability. We don’t have price or availability info, but there’s likely an announcement coming soon — we are over a year out from the Windows 8 tab’s reveal, after all.

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Via: WinSuperSite

Source: Neowin

Eye Tribe starts taking pre-orders for $99 Windows eye tracker

DNP Eye Tribe affordable eye tracker

Leap Motion, Kinect or MYO could satisfy your yearning for motion control, but an itch for eye-tracking tech might be harder to scratch. There aren’t a lot of them on the market yet, which Eye Tribe hopes to change now that it’s opened pre-orders for the developer edition of its Windows peripheral. Similar to the Tobii REX, the Eye Tribe Tracker is a thin bar that plugs into a PC or a tablet via USB and follows your line of sight, except its $99 price is a bit more palatable. Since the firm’s hoping developers will integrate eye control to existing games and software for the benefit of future buyers, the first version of the device will come with an SDK. Eye Tribe’s yet to lay out plans for the Android version showcased in April — the video after the cut also hints at iOS and OS X integration — but it has promised to ship the Windows eye tracker before the year ends.

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Source: Eye Tribe

Binatone’s Brick phone was acceptable in the ’80s (hands-on)

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“If you’re an ’80s guy like me, then you know it’s important to be a shark. That means getting up, choking down a double espresso and listening to Huey Lewis. Then it’s time to hit the trading floor and make a cool hundred mil or something before dinner. Lunch? Lunch is for wimps. Talking about wimps, those hipsters who use Native Union’s Pop retro smartphone handset are scum. Me? I’m all about the Binatone Brick. Cram in a SIM card and you can make calls on this thing AND play Snake (I mean, we are living in the future) even while riding the elevator. But pair it over Bluetooth to your smartphone, and you’ll impress everyone when you’re walking and talking. It’ll launch soon for you mere mortals, priced at £50 in the UK with a 1,000mAh battery, but for a big-shot like me who’s always making deals, I’m holding out for the 2,000mAh version that’ll come later for £80. Oh, and one more thing — in the time it took you to read this, I just bought San Marino.”

-G. Gekko

Mr. Gekko’s views are entirely his own and do not reflect those of Engadget or AOL.

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Follow all of our IFA 2013 coverage by heading to our event hub!

Dana Wollman learned during this report that greed, for want of a better word, is good.

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Source: Binatone

16 ways to play: SmartGlass support for Xbox One doubles the controller cap

With the new Xbox this November, Microsoft’s bringing a new iteration of SmartGlass to iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices. And with said new iteration comes promised SmartGlass ubiquity. Microsoft GM and SmartGlass team lead Ron Pessner told Engadget as much in an interview this week on all things SmartGlass for Xbox One. You’ll need to download a new (still free) SmartGlass app to your Smart device of choice come launch day (the new app won’t function with Xbox 360, just the One).

Up to 15 of your best friends can bring their Smart devices over and…well, nothing just yet, but the Xbox One will support 16 Smart devices connected at one time (double the connected controller cap). Just imagine the possibilities for virtual canasta! Okay, not so thrilling, but the potential for games like Monopoly or Dungeons & Dragons is evident. Or maybe something more like Spaceteam?

Pessner also promised that the connectivity between Smart device and console is “three-and-a-half times faster” on Xbox One than with 360 (depending on your home wireless setup), and the first time “only takes about four seconds.” And while on the go, the SmartGlass app can be used for mobile shopping, allowing a game or other piece of content to be purchased and made available when you get home. Pessner wouldn’t go into specifics, but he told us, “We definitely want to make sure it’s a seamless process for customers and they’re able to find a piece of content regardless of where they are — the web or the SmartGlass app — and being able to have that content ready for them to play when they return to their Xbox One.” The remotely queued content will show up as pinned to your Dashboard when you get back to the console, available to play immediately.

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Griffin’s MultiDock looks sleeker than ever, and it can still house and charge a herd of devices at once

Griffin's MultiDock looks sleeker than ever, and it can still house and charge a herd of devices at once

In an age where expecting humans to limit themselves to a single piece of electronics is a little too much to ask for, what could be better than to own a physical hub where multiple things can be charged simultaneously? In all seriousness, though, the Griffin MultiDock can indeed be a rather handy tool for businesses, schools and other organizations needing to store, power and sync a large number of devices at once.

What’s also good about the second-gen MultiDock is that it’s no longer only compatible with iPads, allowing a multitude of slabs from different manufacturers to be housed inside of it. Griffin’s also quick to point out that the new MultiDock’s design was the result of a collaboration with designer Thomas Meyerhoffer, who’s more famously known for having worked on the Apple eMate. Regardless, be prepared to break the piggy bank, since the MultiDock’s set to be priced starting at $699 when it becomes available later this month.

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Source: Griffin