Hasta La Gadget!

Believe it or not, the crew at Engadget HQ will be packing up and headed to CES 2011 a fortnight from today, and it looks as if quite a few undercover products from NEC will be making the same trip. The company has just revealed that its single-screen Cloud Communicator tablet will be on display, but moreover, a dual-screen version will be making it awfully tough for the former to get any attention whatsoever. Now, dual-screen devices aren’t exactly new, but an Android tablet with a pair of 7-inch LCDs is definitely more inciting than Kno’s education-minded megabook and the two-faced e-readers that swarmed CES 2010. Details on the hardware are few and far betwixt, with NEC only revealing that both panels will be touch-enabled, WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth modules will be baked in and that a stylus will be included for good measure. Also, it’ll fully support the use of different programs on each LCD, which — if executed properly — could melt our faces into the desert sand below. Sadly, our prying for images got us nowhere, but we’re assured to see more at next month’s extravaganza. Hang tight.

Continue reading NEC teases dual-screen Cloud Communicator Android tablet, promises more at CES

NEC teases dual-screen Cloud Communicator Android tablet, promises more at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know that killer new app you just got for your iPhone? Could you beam us a copy to try? Of course you can’t — it doesn’t work that way — but someday soon it might. The fine folks at Patently Apple recently unearthed an Apple patent app that describes a way to transfer apps over peer-to-peer Bluetooth or shiny, star-filled WiFi. The idea goes that if a company wants to spread a program by word of mouth, it might as well make it shareable too, and so the owner of an app could transfer an “application seed” to friends and associates with a similar device. You’d pick from a menu of apps to beam over, where only those greenlit by their developer would be available to send, and your recipient would receive a trial version — or somewhat less excitingly, a link to the App Store — over the air. The patent app suggests that recipients could even share the demo in turn, generating generation after generation of word-of-mouth sales, and that companies might even reward particularly influential sharers in some way. What’s that rumbling we hear? Just the gears turning in the minds of men plotting the next great pyramid scheme.

Apple looking to patent sharable apps, considers calling them ‘seeds’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iGrill meat thermometer for iPhone is the expensive, unholy marriage of the meat thermometer and iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At first look, $150 seems a ridiculous price for a Bluetooth dongle that lets you control your SLR from your cellphone, but digging into the specs shows that it ends up as quite a bargain. But first, what does it do?

Named the BlueSLR, the little box plugs into your Nikon SLR via one of its ports (there are three identically priced models with different plugs) and talks to your phone via Bluetooth. From a companion app, you can control the camera’s focus, shutter speed, and self-timer, or fire remotely from “up to 300-feet away” (that must be some powerful Bluetooth in there).

That alone might be worth it for some pros, but we tend to ask a little more of our gadgets. The BlueSLR also has a GPS unit to geotag your photos, writing the GPS data directly into the RAW of JPEG file. Given that GPS-only widgets go for around the same price, the BlueSLR starts to look cheap.

Right now the device is Nikon and iOS-only, with support for Canon, Android and Blackberry (!) coming soon. The iOS app is a free download. Wow. I think I just sold myself on this thing…

BlueSLR product page [BlueSLR]

BlueSLR app [iTunes]

See Also:

• DSLR Camera Remote HD for iPad
• Remote Display Lets You Use Camera from 500 Feet
• Downgrade Your Camera With The Gigtube Remote Viewfinder
• Unleashed: Bluetooth GPS for Nikon Cameras

We know, that headline makes it seem like the Plantronics Voyager Pro UC is going to seduce you, and well, after spending sometime with the headset yesterday at D: Dive Into Mobile we’re thinking it may actually be pretty hard to resist. While it’s not as snazzy as the Jawbone Icon or the Jabra Stone, its ear piece and ear hook contain capacitive sensors that know when you’ve got the device on your ear or in your hand. So, not only can the headset automatically switch a call or song from your phone to the headset when you put it on, but even if it’s paired it won’t ring the headset unless it’s actually on your ear. That means if you’ve got it paired but have it in your pocket or across the room, you’ll be able to pick it up on your phone without a problem.

On top of that, the Pro will come with a USB dongle and Voice Alerts software, which integrates with Microsoft Outlook. When configured, the software will read the subject line of an email sent by certain specified contacts into your ear. We told you it was seductive! Sadly, the Voyager Pro UC won’t actually be out until early next year and we don’t know anything on pricing yet, but in the meantime check out some more pics of the device below.

Plantronics Voyager PRO UC senses your Bluetooth wants and needs, softly whispers in your ear originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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