Duh.
Study suggests that future robots in the home could be lethal originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 08:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Using Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, it is possible to hook up a USB hard drive to your iPad and read files. The catch is that you’ll need to jailbreak the iPad first.
Maxwell Shay, iPad owner and now iPad hacker, offers a rather involved but straightforward walk-through on his blog. First, you need to use the Spirit jailbreak to open up the iPad and allow third-party apps to be installed. Then you need to grab an application called iFile (available in the Cydia application repository on your jailbroken iPad for $4, with a free trial), along with the “Nano” terminal text editor.
After that, you’ll need to be confident of your command line skills, as you’ll be using SSH and editing PLIST files. The step-by-step instructions will get you through.
Then you need to hook up the USB drive. The iPad’s port will not power it, so you’ll need a desktop version with a power adapter, or a Y-cable that will let you plug the drive into the iPAd and a second, powered, USB port (your iPad charger, for example).
Maxwell demoes his hack using the iPad PDF viewer Goodreader, available in the real App Store, but any file-browsing app should see the contents of the drive. From there, you can browse and open files, as well as copy them to the iPad’s internal storage. You probably don’t want to do this on the go, due to the limitations of plugging the drive into a power source, but if you want to grab a bunch of photos or movies from a friend’s home, for example, this hack will let you copy them for take-away.
That overpriced Camera Connection Kit is starting to look a lot more useful. In fact, although Maxwell doesn’t try it, this hack should also let you use the SD card reader from the same kit for arbitrary file storage, not just for photos and videos.
How to Mount External FAT32 and HFS Hard Drives [Time More via Engadget]
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Yeah yeah, “more cores and faster speeds,” you’ve heard it all before right? That’d be our reaction too if we weren’t talking about the successor to the Nehalem-Ex, Intel’s most gruesomely overpowered chip to date. Launched under the Xeon 7500 branding in March, it represents Intel’s single biggest generational leap so far, and with its eight cores, sixteen threads, and 24MB of shared onboard cache, you could probably see why. Time waits for no CPU though, and Intel’s planned 32nm Westmere-Ex successor will move things forward with an unspecified increase in both core count (speculated to be jumping up to 12) and operating frequencies, while keeping within the same power envelope. Given the current 2.26GHz default speed and 2.66GHz Turbo Boost option of the 7500, that means we’re probably looking at a 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz 12-core, hyper-threaded processor, scheduled to land at some point next year. Time to make some apps that can use all that parallel processing power, nay?
Intel plans to stuff more than 8 cores, extra speed into 2011 server chips originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 07:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Surely by now you’ve come across something on YouTube that was flagged for copyright infringement, a process that’s surely powered by massive teams of elves and other mystical creatures who watch each and every video uploaded to the site. NEC is looking to put them all out of work with a system that, with just 60 frames worth of video (about two seconds, typically) can identify copyrighted video with 96 percent accuracy and a false alarm rate of one in 200,000 — even if it was copied from digital to analog or had captions added. This process is now part of the MPEG-7 Video signature tool, apparently the international standard, and works by creating signatures for copyrighted video that are just 76 bytes per frame. That’s small enough for a desktop with a single core, 3GHz processor to churn through 1,000 hours of questionable video in one second, looking for matches all the while. Unless you freelance for the MPAA this isn’t software you’ll be running, but if you’re a fan of the torrents there’s a good chance that someone you know very indirectly will be.
Continue reading NEC tech detects illegal video uploads in seconds, MPAA swoons
NEC tech detects illegal video uploads in seconds, MPAA swoons originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 06:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Novatel’s little MiFi, the personal 3G router that turns a cell-signal into a Wi-Fi hotspot, is about to jump on the App Store train. Applications for the device will be sold by PocketGear, which is billing itself as an iTunes-like store, but is really just a big website that sells software for smartphones.
The MiFi is a surprise winner in the iPad accessory market. Many people are opting for the portable router over a 3G iPad. Sure, you almost always need to sign up for a monthly plan, but you can share the connection with any of your devices, from laptop to iPod.
So what can we expect? The press release is vague, with nuggets like this: “[I]ts onboard Web server enables the MiFi to connect to remote data locations, retrieve data and present it to the user either online or offline.” That web-server will enable things like BitTorrent clients, download management (continuing to pull down content even when you power-down your computer) and even logging your position using GPS, so you could geo-tag your photos later.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen “apps” on the MiFi. Back in March, Novatel added a media-server to the device, allowing you to stream movies from the MiFi’s microSD card to, say, an iPod Touch. This was courtesy of a firmware update, though, rather than a purchased application.
The launch date of the new store is as yet unannounced. One thing we do know, though, is that that the $130 premium for the 3G iPad might be better spent elsewhere.
MiFi App Store Press release [PR Newswire. Thanks, Kevin!]
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Photo: Charlie Sorrel
Toshiba has a long history of making highly desirable ultraportables. Now, if today’s rumor pans out, it seem set to bust out another in the form of the world’s lightest (less than 1Kg with SSD) 13 incher. Besides sporting a 16:9 aspect ratio, USB 3.0 dock, and standard voltage CPU (a Core i5 is teased), this slim lappie features a 2nd SCiB (Super Charged ion Battery) power source that we’ve seen charging to 90% in just 10 minutes in prototypes from way back in 2008. No idea what “Blaze Mountain” cooling is… but we want it, assuming this is anything more than a prototype. Ah hell, we want it anyway. Check the illustration after the break.
Update: New details just came in: available in Core i3, i5, or i7-620 configurations with 4GB of memory, 500GB hard disk or optional 512GB SSD. And after talking to vozExpress, we have every reason to believe that Toshiba will be making this official in short order. New pic with Toshiba branding added after the break.
Continue reading Toshiba building world’s lightest 13-inch laptop with fast charging SCiB battery?
Toshiba building world’s lightest 13-inch laptop with fast charging SCiB battery? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 06:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
For this week’s giveaway, we’re serving up a ticket to the Webby Awards in New York City on June 14, 2010.
Much of the appeal of the original Olympus Digital Pen, the EP-1, was in its design. The metal body was a retro-classic, and went a long way to balancing out the camera’s flaws. So when the EP-2 arrived clad in boring black, it looked both pedestrian and clunky. Worse, it didn’t fix the slow autofocus or low-res screen of the original.
Now, with a new silver version, the EP-2 has at last regained its looks. Should you buy this instead of an EP-1? No. Not unless you want to use an electronic viewfinder, or plug in an external microphone. The only real hardware difference between the Pens one and two is the electronic socket behind the hot-shoe, into which these accessories can be plugged.
The new colorway comes to the west next week, and will sell for €800 ($1,000) in a kit with the Zuiko Digital ED 14-24mm ƒ3.5-5.6 lens.
PEN E-P2 now available in stylish silver [DP Review]
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When done right, a science fiction or fantasy film will leave audiences with a prescient glimpse into our actual gadget future. Remember the heady pre-iPhone, pre-Pureness days of 2002 when you first saw Minority Report? Staring silently, mouth agape, jonesing for a chance to partake in a multi-touch, transparent display future using nothing but gestures? Well now that Iron Man 2 has been released, we’ve got another chance to look into the high-tech crystal ball, this time envisioned by a team of artists at Perception who did the design, animation, and visual effects work that turned Tony Stark’s transparent LG smartphone (pictured above), touch-screen coffee table, and holographic lab environment into an on-screen reality. The group was compelled by director Jon Favreau and the team at Marvel Studios to keep the UI elements “legible and logical, while still appearing to be several generations beyond the typical user experience.” Perception tells us that some of its inspiration was directly attributed to Engadget as it researched near-term technologies for the film’s future reality. No doubt, we do see influence from Emblaze’s First Else navigation elements and limited color palette as well as Microsoft’s InkSeine research at the heart of the doomed Courier UI. And if we’re not mistaken, Stark’s big ass computing table is almost certainly inspired by Microsoft Surface. Now get past the break and check out Perception’s contribution to Iron Man 2, the future of Google search alone is not to be missed.
Gallery: Iron Man 2: The technology (video)
Continue reading Iron Man 2: the gadgets (video)
Iron Man 2: the gadgets (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 05:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Ricoh has announced the new P10 lens/sensor module for its weird GXR camera. The GXR, you will remember, is little more than a shell with some buttons and a screen. The lenses come with their own matched sensor and plug in as an entire unit. This one has a 28-300mm (35mm equivalent) range paired with a 10MP backlit CMOS sensor. It will capture RAW images and shoot 720p video. The aperture range runs ƒ3.5-5.6 and there is image stabilization built in.
There are a few ways to look at the GXR. You could view it as a way to perfectly match sensor and lens, using a smaller sensor in a long telephoto, say, for better magnification. This is doubtless the line Ricoh is pushing. You could also see it as a technological millstone: Where lens tech is mature, and a good piece of glass will outlast you, sensors are still improving fast. Tying the two together is a great way to spend a lot of money on future upgrades.
We do like Ricoh’s innovation, though. As well as this new lens (to be available in summer 2010), the company has shown off a range of planned add-ons, including a remote-controlled waterproof unit, a GPS add-on, a printer and a projector. None of these is coming to market soon – Ricoh says it is concentrating on expanding the range of lenses – but it shows some clever thinking.
Ricoh unveils P10 28-300mm [DP Review]
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