Hasta La Gadget!

It’s official. The cans we saw teased earlier in the week have just been made official by Sleek Audio and Curtis Jackson (otherwise known to the world as 50 Cent), with the rapper himself dishing out cash and input to make it happen. We’re told that they were designed by 50 and engineered by Sleek, and are the first headphones ever to offer ‘Wireless Hybrid’ technology with military-grade metals. More specifically, the Sleek by 50 Cent Platinum headphones utilize Kleer lossless wireless technology, with a 60 foot range and a micro-USB rechargeable battery. If you run out of juice, there’s a detachable mic cable that can be jacked in for continued listening. The cans themselves house a pair of 50mm dynamic drivers, a customized internal amplifier and a call-out to Dr. Dre. Just kidding. Maybe. We’re still waiting on a price and release date, but we’d expect ’em to ship soon for just a touch more than HP’s Beats — you know, given the wireless and all.

Continue reading Sleek by 50 Cent Platinum headphones announced, invites Beats to a showdown

Sleek by 50 Cent Platinum headphones announced, invites Beats to a showdown originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each year we see more and more cars at CES, more and more infotainment systems, and more and more reasons to get excited about driving to work. But each time Ford is the company with the biggest presence, and this year there’s more Blue Oval than ever with the first CES unveil of a whole new car, the upcoming Focus Electric. Alan Mulally was kind enough to take a few minutes to speak with us about just what the heck the company is doing here and, more importantly, what kind of surprises are coming from his keynote speech on Friday. It’s all in the video below. And, yes, more of that Mustang too — which just so happens to be painted in our favorite color.

Continue reading Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally tells us why CES is important (video)

Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally tells us why CES is important (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well it’s official boys and girls — Apple’s Mac App Store is live as of this morning, and available to use and abuse via a Snow Leopard update (version 10.6.6 to be exact). The OS X application market takes the company’s wildly successful iOS App Store to its logical conclusion, bringing an orderly, structured app buying experience to desktops and laptops across the globe. The Store will launch with over 1,000 titles, including Apple standards like the iLife suite broken out into separate parts (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) selling for $14.99 each, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for $19.99 apiece, and the bank-breaking Aperture for $79.99. Of course there’ll also be third-party apps present at launch, including Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Pixelmator, Cheetah 3D, and Flight Control HD (yes, a port of the iPad version).

The software itself will be a separate application that functions much like the App Store, providing update notifications and a universal installation process. That process, mind you, will be part of the requirements for getting your application into the store, along with Apple’s famous content policies — so we’re sure we’ll see some irate devs with painful rejection stories. Or maybe not. We know that the company is planning on getting lots of familiar developers into the Store, but we also know that some of what Apple is looking for may not gel with, say… Adobe’s installation procedures (or worse). Regardless, right now the number of apps available is small, but you can expect it to grow fast now that every Mac user will get a crack at this software. We’re going to be doing a much deeper dive on the experience and report back — until then, if you’re using it, let us know what you think in comments.

Apple’s Mac App Store goes live originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer’s ten-inch Tegra 2 tablet with Verizon LTE? You’re looking at it right now, courtesy of the NVIDIA booth at CES 2011’s Digital Experience show. It’s just the same engineering prototype with an early build of Android 2.2 we’ve seen before — it’ll run Honeycomb at launch — but this time, we got to touch. The hardware seriously feels final, with a solid metal case and a supremely responsive touchscreen that tracks a full ten points of contact. There’s an interesting array of ports, too, with a full-sized USB port (as well as micro-USB) on one side and a dedicated charging socket too, as well as a dock connector on the bottom. What’s missing are the standard Android Home, Menu and Back buttons, as instead of those, you simply swipe the lower right corner of the screen to bring up a tiny pane of virtual alternatives. No LTE connectivity to be found at Digital Experience, we’re afraid, so we’ll have to bring you speed tests another day — but we’ll have video up soon. For now, peep the gallery below.

Update: Video after the break!

Continue reading Acer Iconia Tab A500 first hands-on! (update: video)

Acer Iconia Tab A500 first hands-on! (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We finally have at least one carrier for RIM‘s new flagship tablet. The BlackBerry 4G PlayBook, as it’s being called here, is heading to Sprint’s 4G network (presumably WiMAX, which we guess isn’t as big a buzzword) this summer. To be specific, according to the press release, it’ll be “available exclusively from Sprint this summer,” which leaves plenty of wiggle room for non-4G PlayBooks and other release windows. It also says it’ll be the first PlayBook model to include 4G, so an LTE at least will be a little while longer (and a 3G one maybe earlier). Full presser after the break.

Continue reading BlackBerry 4G PlayBook coming to Sprint network this summer, obviously 4G compatible

BlackBerry 4G PlayBook coming to Sprint network this summer, obviously 4G compatible originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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