Hasta La Gadget!

Tired of touchscreen tablets that lack speed, a usable UI, or support for a certain streaming video format that will go unnamed? As one of our favorite sayings goes, if you want it done right, do it yourself. One Engadget reader took that idea to heart in crafting the 13.4-inch carbon fiber contraption you see above, imbuing it with enough high-end netbook parts to run Windows 7 at a brisk pace and play 720p video on its large, resistive touchscreen. Starting with the guts of an MSI X320, adding an accelerometer and 40GB solid state drive and finally sandwiching a random Chinese digitizer on top, the whole 1.6GHz Atom Z530 machine cost him under $700 in parts. For that price, we’re sure many of you would be happy to follow in his footsteps, but if not, by all means continue complaining to your tablet manufacturer of choice. We have another favorite saying: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Video after the break; Q&A with the creator at our more coverage link.

Continue reading MSI X340 reborn as DIY carbon fiber tablet, watch it stream YouTube at 720p (video)

MSI X340 reborn as DIY carbon fiber tablet, watch it stream YouTube at 720p (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 15:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you have a GPS navigator, you probably pull it out of your glove compartment only when you’re going somewhere unfamiliar. But what about everyday use? Magellan has just introduced a line of navigators designed to help you get to familiar places more quickly.

All of the company’s 2010 RoadMate navigators come with free lifetime traffic. Using that data, they can calculate different route options for you to choose from. The revised traffic interface provides a higher level of control and now includes flow reporting, not just accidents.

Some models in the line include free future maps updates, as well. The top model, the RoadMate 3065 ($299; shown above) includes a Traffic Wake-up feature, which automatically powers on the navigator and has your real-time traffic updates ready when you need them.

Video game research project at the University of Nevada makes games modeled on the Wii more accessible for people with visual impairments. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20006305-247.html” class=”origPostedBlog”News – Health Tech/a/p

Gigabyte‘s just let its Computex ‘cat’ out of the bag, and while most of it is stuff we’ve already seen plenty of, there was one new addition. The 11.6-inch M1125 netvertible boasts a high res 1,366 x 768 display, an Intel Calpella chip, USB 3.0 and an optical disc drive. This little guy also has a new fangled docking station and a full sized keyboard to boot. We don’t have anything resembling full specs yet, nor do we have pricing or availability information — though we get the feeling we’ll be seeing plenty more of this one in the week to come. Full press release follows.

Continue reading Gigabyte busts out M1125 netvertible ahead of Computex

Gigabyte busts out M1125 netvertible ahead of Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Three months ago, it seemed Flash was as good as dead. Now, with a new Flash player for the Android platform and some big companies throwing their support behind the format, the technology looks like it won’t become history just yet.

Following the partnership with Google for Android OS,  Adobe is finding more supporters for its video format. Nokia, and Opera, the browser maker, have announced they’ll be sticking with Flash.

“It is the only proprietary part of the Web we support,” Opera co-founder von Tetzchner stated at the recent Open Mobile conference in London, PC Mag reports.

Nokia will also continue its support for Flash, says Alberto Torres, Nokia’s vice-president for business solutions.

In addition, reports claim media giants Time Warner and NBC Universal won’t be replacing Flash with HTML5 anytime soon. Time Warner has been especially opposed to the subscription model allegedly promoted by Apple.

No surprise there, as Time Warner announced a big deal with Adobe last year to bring online properties such as Warner Bros. Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting System, and Home Box office.

The war for the future of online video started when in 2007, iPhone appeared and surprised the world (and its future users) by completely nixing support for Flash. Apple stepped up the anti-Flash campaign by not allowing any Flash-developed applications on the iPhone and iPad, with Jobs himself leading the PR effort.

Recent months have seen major websites like YouTub, Vimeo and The New York Times embrace the HTML5 format which the iPhone and iPad can run. Disney, in which Jobs is the largest individual shareholder, launched an iPad app that includes all ABC shows for free. Other networks such as CNN and Fox have also started using HTML5 on their sites.

Meanwhile, Adobe is trying to fight back. Last week, it showed a beta version of Flash Player 10.1 for Google’s Android OS. Flash would require Android version 2.2 aka ‘FroYo’.  Android 2.2 will be the the first mobile platform that fully supports Flash, instead of the stripped-down Flash Lite version.

The launch of Flash Player 10.1 for Android, along with support from big players like Nokia and Time Warner, points to a vigorous effort by Adobe to push back against Apple’s criticism. This trench warfare is bound to continue for a while.

See Also:

• First Look: Flash Arrives on New Android OS
• Adobe Gives Up on Flash for iPhone, iPad
• Google Fires at Apple, Integrates Flash Into Chrome Browser
• Apple Promotes ‘iPad-Ready’ Websites Ditching Flash
• Steve Jobs Claims Flash Will Kill the Mobile Web
• HTML5 for iPad Won’t Kill Flash, But Could Change Apps

Photo: Flash Player 10.1 on Nexus One (Keith Axline/Wired.com)