Hasta La Gadget!

In April, innovative Spanish router maker FON launched the La Fonera 2.0 router overseas. Last week, FON announced the router here in the United States, calling it the “Fonera 2.0n”.

Retailers will begin selling the 2.0n router beginning in October for $99. As the name suggests, the router supports 802.11n, which is scheduled to be finalized in September.

The FON hook is the fact that it creates two parallel Wi-Fi connnections, one reserved for your private use, and the other open to the public. If you own a La Fonera router, therefore, those public channels are open to you when you travel, and your router is also available as a public hotspot for your FON buddies.

FON also claims that the new router contains an advanced processor that will help it sync connected applications running in the background, instead of waiting their turn for a single channel.

Some users might also be interested in the router’s ability to process some BitTorrent torrents (RapidShare and MegaUpload are specifically named) while saving the downloaded content to a user-supplied USB hard drive that can connect to the integrated USB hub. I was a bit worried about this when I talked to Hitachi about their $79 SimpleNAS device that transforms a USB drive into a NAS; it’s not clear whether the La Fonera requires you to reformat the drive or not. Still, for just $20 more, you’re getting a lot more functionality. You can also use the software to turn a 3G dongle into a shared Wi-Fi connection, according to FON.

After risking life and limb to show off Panasonic’s double-As in a harrowing climb up the Grand Canyon, EVOLTA is back for more record setting hijinks. This time, however, he’s been tasked to pedal his adorable little heart out on a miniature tricycle. The plan is to take this year’s Le Mans race by storm and break some sort of world record for distance traveled by a robot — though we’re not sure how exactly that’s defined, since EVOLTA isn’t exactly a speed demon. This new version of the bot has been completely revamped to ride a bike and follow an infrared path blazed by his superiors. A couple of videos are after the break.

[Thanks, Alex]

Continue reading Panasonic’s EVOLTA bot sets his doe-eyed sights on new endurance record

Filed under: Robots

Panasonic’s EVOLTA bot sets his doe-eyed sights on new endurance record originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

It’s a tale of mystery, intrigue, and suspense. It reads like something out of a Cold War spy thriller. Really it’s the tale of an fourth generation iPhone prototype that went missing somewhere between China and Cupertino. At its center is Sun Danyong, a 25-year-old employee of Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn.

After one of 16 prototypes of the forthcoming handset went missing, Danyong’s apartment was searched illegally, and, according to some reporters, he was detained and possibly abused. Last Thursday, after 3 A.M., he jumped to his death out of his apartment window.

The eight new Image models

(Credit: PSB Speakers)

Paul Barton in New York last week

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

PSB Speakers are on a roll. Sales are up, possibly because the Canadian manufacturer has completely redesigned one of its lines each year for the last three years. The company is adding new dealers, so it’s easier than ever to find PSB Speakers in your town.

This year it’s the mid-price Image series that was completely redesigned, with models ranging from the $299/pair Image B4 bookshelf speaker to the $1,199 T6 Tower speaker. There are eight models in all, including a bipole surround and two center-channel speakers.

Mr. PSB himself, Paul Barton, was in New York City last week to talk to the press about his latest designs. He told me he visits his factory in China six times a year, and personally supervises preproduction planning and testing to ensure his quality standards are met. A lot of audio companies build speakers in China, but few follow through to the extent PSB does.

Just as he has for decades, Barton continues to design and develop all of his speakers in Canada, at the National Research Council’s facilities in Ottawa.

Barton demonstrated the tiny B4, midsize B5 bookshelf models and the large T6 towers with NAD electronics in a hotel room. The sound of all three was lively and clear, and sure, the larger ones produced more bass than the smaller ones. But honestly, my favorite was the smallest Image, the 9-inch-tall B4.

…

Originally posted at The Audiophiliac

Um, yikes? An unexpected (and unwanted) surprise struck some 145,000 BlackBerry users in the UAE this time last week, when an official looking prompt coerced many of the aforesaid Etisalat customers to follow through with a software update. Rather than bringing about performance enhancements, the SS8-built app enabled the carrier to keep tabs on customers’ messages. According to RIM:

“Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application… independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorized access to private or confidential information stored on the user’s smartphone. Independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server.”

Like we said, yikes. The zaniest part is that Etisalat isn’t backing down, still assuring the world that the upgrades were “required for service enhancements.” At any rate, RIM has made remarkably clear that the update wasn’t one authorized by the company, and it’s even providing an app remover for those who’d prefer their BlackBerry to be in working order and, you know, not forwarding all their email to some dude in an Etisalat supply closet. Good on you, RIM. Bad on you, Etisalat.

[Thanks, Gerald]

Read – Confirmation of spyware
Read – RIM app remover

Filed under: Cellphones

Etisalat BlackBerry update was indeed spyware, RIM provides a solution originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments