When Windows 7 is unleashed this fall with more gesture-recognition built directly into the operating system, more PC makers are planning on taking advantage.
While touch-screen desktops are gaining popularity, there haven’t been many consumer-friendly touch-screen notebooks yet. But that will change soon. Last week Sony said it plans …
Over at BoingBoing Gadgets, Rob “The Boss” Beschizza takes a Wiz on modern games. To be precise, he has reviewed the tiny, retro game-playing handheld console, the GP2X Wiz, and decrees it “The best portable yet for retrogamers.”
I’m a retro-gamer. I used to beat all comers at Street Fighter 2 (SNES) playing with my feet. I once lent that same SNES and a copy of Super Mario Kart to an apartment full of weed-smoking stoner friends so they could practice and “offer me more of a challenge” (result, a thrashing for me). So I’m well into the idea of putting these classics in my pocket, but for one thing…
The price. The GPX2, from Korean company GamePark, costs $180. This is steep, even on a million dollar per year blogger’s salary. On the other hand, the machine has a 320×240 2.8” AMOLED touch screen display, a gig of memory and an SD card slot. It also runs a flavor of Linux, meaning that once I have laid out my $180, I can keep my cash and use emulators and hypothetical collection of legal ROMS. In short, $180 puts every old game, ever, on a handheld. Is this starting to excite you yet?
Gp2X Wiz Runs Retrogaming Rings Around Mainstream Rivals [BBG]
Product page [ThinkGeek]
Had enough Kodak this fine morning? No? Good. Just hours after showcasing its newest 1080p pocket camcorder, the aforesaid firm is hitting us up with a few more new pieces to digest. First up is the EasyShare Z950, a modest megazoom-in-a-P&S-body that packs a 10x optical zoom, 12 megapixel sensor and a $279.99 price tag. Next, we’ve got the totally ho hum EasyShare M381, which also offers a dozen megapixels alongside a 3-inch rear LCD, 5x zoomer, easy upload to Facebook / YouTube, face detection, a variety of lovely hues and an MSRP of $179.99. The last cam is the M341, which steps down to a 3x optical zoom and a smaller 2.7-inch LCD for $149. Closing things out is the EasyShare D830 (£119.99; $196) and D1030 (£169.99; $279) digital photo frames, which check in at 8- and 10-inches respectively (in terms of display size) and tout interchangeable face plates, 512MB of internal memory, a Quick Touch border, memory card reader and a USB port. Everything here should ship in the US and UK by September, though those hungry for additional details are welcome to tap that read link.
[Via DigitalCameraInfo]
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Kodak debuts EasyShare Z950, M381 and M341 digicams originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Streaming media provider Vudu has partnered with LG to include its software into upcoming LG high-definition TVs. The move will get rid of the intermediary set-top box and allows consumers to directly watch on-demand content from the internet on their TVs.
“Smart TV’s are part of an exciting new industry trend,” says Alain Rossmann, CEO of Vudu. “Vudu is partnering with leading consumer electronics vendors to embed the new Vudu service directly into the TV, eliminating the expense and hassle of purchasing, installing or connecting another device to the TV.”
The new Vudu service delivered through LG TVs allows consumers to discover and watch high definition movies on-demand. The service will be available on upcoming models of LG’s broadband TVs later this fall.
Licensing Vudu’s software to consumer electronics makers such as LG though is a strategy that allows Vudu to go out of the box and focus on delivering the service. It’s a strategy similar to what GPS-navigation devices maker Dash had adopted. Dash started out by producing standalone GPS boxes with its software that offered services such as local search. But the company soon abandoned the hardware-based GPS systems and instead focused on licensing its applications and services to run on other products. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion acquired Dash earlier this year.
In the last two years, streaming media boxes that bring online movies, TV shows and content to the TV have become popular with consumers, though they are still a small fraction of audience that rents movies. Apple launched its Apple TV in 2007. Meanwhile, Roku, a company that started by offering $100 boxes in partnership with Netflix included access to content from Amazon.com earlier this year. Netflix rival BlockBuster also has a streaming video box available.
Vudu says its service differs from rivals in that it can offer movies in 1080p definition and high resolution Dolby Digital surround sound. Vudu also offers features such as instant fast forwards, rewind and instant start for all its movies. Customers can instantly buy or rent from the company’s library of movies with no monthly fees.
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Apparently one of the most common, and therefore obvious, places to hide your valuables is under the bed. This means its the first place a thief will look. But if you have the BedBunker, it will make no difference — he won’t be able to open it anyway.
The BedBunker is a gun cache which sits under your mattress and infuses your dreams with manly, death-spraying action. Inside the 10-gauge steel box you can cram the bare essentials for survival: 35 rifles and 70 handguns. You can even take the optional castors to turn this into a rolling weapon-wagon.
Worried that things might get hot and the caps will start popping underneath you? The safe is fireproofed for 120 minutes, giving you time to get out before things blow. For the truly paranoid, we suggest just throwing a mattress inside and sleeping in the BedBunker itself (warning, air supplies may be tight). How much for this macho princess-and-the-pea accessory? $2,200-$4,000 depending on size. Infomercial below.
Product page [Bed Gun Safe via Uncrate]
So, let’s recap. We’ve got Microsoft’s own Steve Ballmer on record saying that the company’s Project Natal is on track for a 2010 release, a redaction of said statement, and a slimy report from overseas noting that the motion-sensing accessory is slated for a 2H 2010 launch. Just in case you needed one more modicum of evidence that Natal is headed for Christmas trees far and wide next year, THQ CEO Brian Farrell has said as much on the company’s Q1 earnings call. To quote:
“With respect to the cycle itself, if you look at what’s happening in the industry, the fact that we have for example, Natal from Microsoft, a platform addition coming late next year.”
Of course, Mr. Farrell here may just be regurgitating news that he heard through the grapevine rather than inadvertently slipping the world a piece of insider knowledge, but hey, are you seriously going to question the insight of the guy who green-lit Bratz: Super Babyz? Exactly.
Filed under: Gaming
THQ’s CEO joins the fun, says Natal is coming “late next year” originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This article was written on July 11, 2007 by CyberNet.
Remember in May when we wrote about Google’s new Mapplets? The developer preview is over and it’s now live! Mapplets are mini-webpages served inside an IFrame within Google Maps that allows users to create their own mapping mash-ups. According to Google, ever since the official Google Maps API was released in June 2005, over 50,000 Mashups have been created. And ever since May when the preview version of Mapplets was launched, over 100 developers submitted Mapplets.
You’ll notice a “My Maps” tab on the Google Maps page, and this is where you’ll be able to select the content that you would like to layer on your map. There is a lot to choose from, so the “search” feature will come in handy if there’s something in particular that you want to add to your map like local real estate. If not, just browse around by clicking “add content.”
I created a map that displayed gas prices from GasBuddy.com, Google Real Estate Search, and weather from WeatherBug. This is what my map looked like:
As mentioned in our previous article about Mapplets, this gives developers the chance to get creative with their own mapplets and receive exposure. The list of mapplets available just continues to grow (back in May it was 23) which means there there’s a greater chance you’ll find relevant mapplets to add to your own map.
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We’re doing our darnedest not to be recklessly optimistic here, but after weeks and weeks of nothing, a few new somethings have sauntered into Palm’s App Catalog. If you’ll recall, we actually heard earlier this month that said catalog was destined to get some serious additions in the near future, and we’re hoping that the surfacing of these two is a sign of things to come. Announced this morning over on Palm’s official blog, OpenTable and Fliq Bookmarks are now available to download on the Pre. The former allows hungry owners to secure themselves a spot at a nearby eatery, while the latter works with The Missing Sync for Palm Pre to transfer Safari bookmarks from your desktop (Mac for now, PC coming soon) to the Pre. Sure, it’s not like these two are the killer apps we’ve been longing for, but at this point, any progress is great progress.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software
Palm’s webOS gets a couple more apps — are the floodgates opening? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While USB flash drives are now available in sizes that likely dwarf your own HDD, Super Talent’s Pico line isn’t looking to compete on sheer capaciousness. What it lacks in capacity, so to speak, it makes up for in size — or, the lack thereof, we should say. The outfit’s “world’s smallest*” drive just jumped from 8GB to 32GB, and considering that there’s at least a marginal chance that this thing slips out of your palm / pocket / etc. and into a puddle, Super Talent even threw in a dash of water resistance. A half dozen models are expected to ship this week, with prices ranging from $85 to $99. Too bad you won’t even be able to find it between the couch cushions after it arrives.
*Image probably isn’t to scale, but it might be.
Filed under: Storage
Super Talent’s Pico USB drive: still world’s smallest, now 32GB originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Zi6 is still fairly fresh in our memory banks, but Kodak’s already looking ahead with its newly unveiled Zi8 pocket camcorder. The Flip Ultra HD competitor boasts 1080p recording this time around, in addition to usual features like face tracking, image stabilization, a 2.5-inch LCD display, and SD card slot. YouTube uploading is back, and joining it Facebook support, too. It’ll be out in September in blue, red, and black colors for just a hair under $180.
Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV, Portable Video
Kodak’s Zi8 HD pocket camcorder hits the 1080p mark, adds Facebook uploading originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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