Hasta La Gadget!

Qualcomm’s MediaFLO tech was originally intended for screens so small that resolution, artifacting, and wholesale crappiness don’t really matter, but when you’re building out a whole new wireless network for this thing, monetization is a high priority wherever you can find it. To that end, Audiovox is lending a helping hand with a new receiver launching later this year that’ll plug into most in-car video systems and deliver MediaFLO programming straight to your back seat, your front seat, or whatever bizarre place (engine compartment, maybe?) you’ve mounted a display. We weren’t terribly impressed with the video quality; generally speaking, DVD is probably the better entertainment option here, but if live shows are a must-have for you, this is just about the only cheap, easy way to roll. We’re told 10 to 15 channels will be available at launch — but unfortunately, Audiovox says that neither AT&T’s nor Verizon’s exclusive channels will be part of the lineup. Pricing hasn’t been announced; if we had to guess, we’d figure on something like $20 per month, so you’d better really desperately need blurry TV when the drive gets boring.

Filed under: Portable Video

Audiovox in-car MediaFLO hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

PopSci’s Adam Weiner did some calculations to see if young Kirk could survive the car jump in the new Star Trek trailer. Adam’s wrong. We have the real answer in our own video.

According to Adam, he would have needed to apply a force of 3,900 Newtons with his fingers to stop from falling. His calculations, however, don’t take into account the friction of his body, as some of the comments in his article point out. But then again, he gave Kirk a 4m/s liftoff speed on his jump—which is quite high.

In any case, we stand by our answer: Who gives a vulcan ass about this. [PopSci]

The song is “Dead” by the Pixies, from the album “Pixies at the BBC”. Go get it. It rocks.