Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been well over a year since we published our take on Yamaha‘s perplexing, beautiful and all-around intriguing Tenori-On concept, and evidently the masses have spoken out. This week, the company announced that it will soon be shipping a “more affordable” version with the name Tenori-On ‘Orange,’ with some vendors already leaking a £649 ($1,077) MSRP. Put simply, the new Orange version will retain all of the musical functionality that the original had (or has, as it were), but the magnesium casing will be replaced by a rugged plastic one and the battery / back panel LED options will also be removed in order to shave costs. Still, we’re all for peeling back on the flash in order to get more music makers into more hands, so we’ll certainly look to wrap our own paws around one when it starts shipping in December.

Update: Engadget Japanese just did a quick hands-on with the Orange, check it out!

[Via MusicRadar]

Filed under: Peripherals

Yamaha intros more affordable Tenori-On ‘Orange’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Ballmer might have no idea what’s going on with the Microsoft Courier tablet, but a new set of documents leaked to Gizmodo certainly suggests the product is more than just a couple videos the boss-man hasn’t seen. The images detail the Courier’s unique user interface, which draws on everything from multitouch gestures to pen-based handwriting recognition. The heart of the interface appears to be the Smart Agenda, pictured above, which pulls together all your disparate content like calendar entries, emails, and to-dos into one unified starting place, described as “Cliff Notes” to the Pagestream “novel.” The journal itself appears to be searchable by all kinds of data, including time, location, and tags, and it’s all accessed by a special multi-button pen. There’s also a camera and an offhand mention of “boos and subscriptions,” so it sounds like whoever was dreaming this all up considered using the Courier as an ebook reader as well — which would be totally sweet, given the types of annotations you could do. Of course, none of this is real yet, but we’re hoping against hope — please, Mr. Steve, make our holiday dreams come true?

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Microsoft Courier interface explained in more detail originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been nearly three full years since we’ve seen anything hot and fresh from LAb[au], but thankfully, said drought is decidedly over. By using a combination of aluminum, Plexiglas, LED lights, determination, wit, stepper motors, critical thinking and IR tracking technologies, the f5x5x5 sculpture was created. Dubbed a “kinetic and luminous framework,” the installation is part of a larger ’16n’ project designed to confront architectural problems (like congestion and flows) with spatial sensing technologies. We know, that’s all pretty deep — but if you’re just lookin’ for a good time, we’d recommend heading past the break, mashing play and dropping your kudos in comments.

Continue reading LAb[au]’s f5x5x5 framework sculpture mesmerizes on video

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

LAb[au]’s f5x5x5 framework sculpture mesmerizes on video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Southwest Airlines may not own a plane with a headrest infotainment system, but it’s still far and away the most enjoyable commercial flight you’ll find in the US of A (save for Virgin America, naturally). Granted, we’d like to see in-flight WiFi offered on a few more of its flights (read: 100 percent of them), but hey, we’ll take free checked bags and friendly employees any day of the week. We’ll also take fuel savings and environment stewardship, both of which Southwest is aiming to give us by creating the planet’s first “green plane.” By utilizing recyclable InterfaceFLOR carpet, weight-saving seat covers and life vest pouches, a lighter foam fill in the seats and aluminum (as opposed to plastic) seat rub strips, the newfangled Boeing 737-700 ends up some 472 pounds lighter than a conventional one. The savings? 9,500 gallons of jet fuel per year. We’re not sure when the bird is expected to take her first voyage, but here’s hoping a few others are hatched in the near future.

[Via DailyFinance]

Read – Southwest press release
Read – China View’s fuel calculations

Filed under: Transportation

Southwest builds first ‘green plane,’ Ma Earth shows her gratitude originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Japanese is live at Tokyo’s Digital Content EXP0 2009 where we’ve gone eyes-on with Sony’s 360-degree 3D display prototype. Check the video (and sample image) after the break for a quick walk-around to see how Sony hopes the device can be used both commercially and in the home — we’re not talking HD here folks but it’s an interesting concept nonetheless.

Continue reading Sony’s 360-degree 3D prototype displays blown minds (video)

Filed under: Displays

Sony’s 360-degree 3D prototype displays blown minds (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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