Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been about six months since we heard Comcast was running tests of a brand new set-top box platform but now thanks to one of our tipsters we’re able to see it in action and find out what’s on the way. From the remote to the box to the menus it’s all new, and appears to be a major step forward for the company and already includes familiar apps like Facebook and Pandora. The look of the new guide mirrors what we’d seen in the manual received by the FCC in December and demonstrated on Samsung HDTVs at CES earlier this year, intended for 16×9 displays and moving the main navigation elements to the top. The redesigned remote has a few new buttons and while it hasn’t gone the QWERTY route, the software and hardware are designed around T9-style access for searching and messaging, with a button and microphone icon suggesting voice control is a possibility as well. The DVR itself is the Pace box we’d seen previously, although there was differing information on the number of tuners and hard drive space available, suggesting these details may still be up in the air. Check after the break for more details and our tipster’s first hand account of the new TV experience.

[Thanks, Mark van der Linden]

Continue reading Comcast’s next generation Xfinity Spectrum DVR shows off quad tuners, new menu and apps

Comcast’s next generation Xfinity Spectrum DVR shows off quad tuners, new menu and apps originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 16:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We found the BlackBerry PlayBook to be a pretty solid piece of hardware, but it seems there was a problem batch — an inside source tells us that nearly 1,000 faulty tablets were shipped to Staples, and now they’re being recalled. We’re hoping that Staples (and any other affected retailers) will reach out to customers and inform them of the problem right away, but just in case that doesn’t happen, we’ve compiled a searchable spreadsheet of all 935 alleged serial numbers for you to check against your own. Find it right after the break.

Update: RIM tells Crackberry that the faulty batch of the 16GB tablets was indeed limited to the approximately 1,000 units described here, and that they had a faulty build of the OS “that may result in the devices being unable to properly load software upon initial set-up.” Furthermore, the company says that only a few went out to customers and that most are still in distribution, so with any luck you’ll never have to deal with this problem to begin with.

Continue reading RIM recalls 900 faulty BlackBerry PlayBooks, here are the serial numbers (update)

RIM recalls 900 faulty BlackBerry PlayBooks, here are the serial numbers (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 May 2011 21:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s already made its rounds of the European continent, and now LG’s Optimus Pad seems poised to make its North American retail debut via Rogers in Canada. A helpful tipster sent us the above screenshot that reveals Rogers will be the exclusive career of the Honeycomb tablet (known as the G-Slate in the US), with a $700 starting price. With a data plan, the price ranges from $450 for a three-year contract to $650 on a month-to-month contract. Users seeking a one-year deal will shell out $600, while a two-year contract comes with a $530 asking price. The 8.9-inch slab should land up north May 17th, so plan your life accordingly.

[Thanks, Anon]

LG Optimus Pad coming to Rogers May 17th originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 May 2011 03:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The New York International Auto Show has just wrapped up and, for part of our most recent Engadget Show, we were given the opportunity to sit down with one of the biggest players in the automotive industry: Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally. He got his start as a Boeing Engineer in 1969 and, among many other achievements, helped get that company into the 21st century with fully-digital cockpits. He moved over to Ford in 2006 and, since then, has completely turned the company around. His enthusiasm for everything he does is patently obvious, including his enthusiasm for what could be powering the next car that sits in your driveway. With Ford about to launch its first fully-electric car in about 100 years, the Focus Electric, the time seemed ripe to get the man’s perspective on what’s down the road for transportation — and just when we might actually get our flying car.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Ford’s Alan Mulally talks the future of transportation

The Engadget Interview: Ford’s Alan Mulally talks the future of transportation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That, friends, is an inventory listing from Best Buy indicating the mythical white iPhone 4 will finally be in stock and for sale this Wednesday, April 27th (just in time to be overshadowed by rumors of the iPhone 5). Of course, we’ve seen it pop up in inventory systems before, including Best Buy’s, only to be let down when the alleged street date came and went without so much as a glossy-white glimmer of hope. But, we’ve heard straight from Apple’s Phil Schiller that it would ship in the spring, and with one already finding its way into the hands of a lucky Londoner a Wednesday release for the paler-than-black iPhone is looking plausible. Still, we’re not quite ready to call this one confirmed.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

White iPhone 4 coming to Best Buy on Wednesday? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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