Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we’re leaning back with our tablets — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

There are certain back to school purchases we could never talk you out of. A laptop? Vital. A smartphone? Highly recommended. A printer? Necessary — if you’re the kind of person who finishes papers minutes with minutes to spare, leaving no time to swing by the computer lab on the way to class. But a tablet? We’ll be honest: we can’t think of a good reason why you need one, but we can more than sympathize if you’re dead-set. We’ve picked a few noteworthy choices for each budget, though if you’re really lucky you’ll win one of 15 Samsung Galaxy Tabs and won’t have to pay a dime. Simply leave a comment below to be entered to win, and check out our giveaway page for more details. So wipe off the glasses, grab your clicker, and get ready to jump past the break for this year’s tablet picks for back to school.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2011: tablets

Engadget’s back to school guide 2011: tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This tiny stylus can be gripped between fingertips

Imagine a stylus barely longer than the first knuckle of your thumb. A stylus as tricky to grip and use as the worn-down stubby pencils you were too cheap (or too poor) to replace back in school. Now imagine that, instead of being comfortably cylindrical, these styluses instead are a sharp-edged lozenge shape, complete with a sharp plastic strip protruding from one side.

Congratulations. You just imagined the JAVOedge Mini Stylus for iPad 2. The tiny chalk-stick sized nubbin slots into the dock connector when not in use to stop you losing it (hence the plastic strip), and comes in both black and white to match either flavor of iPad.

The storage idea is a good one, but if you’re going to wrestle with such a short pen, why not just use your short an stubby finger? The stylus could have been made a little longer, too, and still be short enough not to stick out when plugged into an iPhone or iPod Touch.

The stub-tastic styluses cost $10, and are available now.

Apple iPad 2 Mini Stylus [JAVOedge via Oh Gizmo and the Gadgeteer]

See Also:

• Wacom Stylus for iPad Is Not What You're Hoping For
• Crayola iMarker, a Kid-Friendly iPad Stylus
• Magnetic Stylus Sticks to Your iPad
• Brush Stylus Paints on iPad

You know the old saying about not judging a man until you walk a mile in his shoes? Well, those who were quick to pass judgement on Bernie Madoff might want to try John Vaccaro’s new iPad cases on for size. The pockets are made from the Ponzi scheme mastermind’s pants, which were seized after his arrest. Vaccaro bought them up at auction and has begun making custom cases for the Apple tablet. At $350 each, they don’t come cheap, but you do get a certificate of authenticity — but with Madoff’s name attached, how could you possibly go wrong?

iPad case helps you get into Bernie Madoff’s pants originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a recent Apple patent, embedded projector technology may be closer to a reality than previously thought. Image: Patently Apple

Maybe an iPhone with an embedded projector isn’t so far off after all.

A patent uncovered by Patently Apple reveals Apple’s intention to eventually include a mini projector in the iPhone and iPad and a pico projector-like accessory for MacBooks.

But the most incredibly novel and useful part of the patent description isn’t the projector. It’s the advanced gesturing analysis that would be used in conjunction with the projector to interpret shadow or silhouette movements when presentations (or even workspaces) are displayed in a dark environment.

In Patently Apple’s words, “The level of detail associated with this patent would suggest that Apple’s development teams are moving full steam ahead on the projection system project.”

Just last week we saw the development of a new glass lens tiny enough that it could eventually be used in mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. And although interactive displays, typically in the form of holograms, long have been a staple of science fiction, such technology has in recent years moved increasingly closer to a reality. Intel researchers, for instance, have developed a projected display that behaves like a touchscreen.

The gesture-detecting technology would involve a library of gesture commands that could be used to easily share data. For instance, an image could be shared from one projected display to another. Figures in the patent show a swipe-type motion, not unlike what’s already used in iOS, would instigate the image transfer. Shadow or silhouette gestures would be detected with a camera, then analyzed with image-processing software.

Since the projector lens would be mounted on the side of the iPhone or iPad, an image could be projected on a wall simply by placing the device on a flat surface. Alternatively, a tripod could be used for displaying the projected image on a surface.

Two devices could also be used to display one single, larger, unified image in a “Unified Display Mode.”

Apple first revealed it is working on projector display technology in 2009, and has issued a series of related patents since then. This, by far, is the most detailed yet.

Continue reading Hitachi’s 50-inch P50-GP08 3D TV could be its Japanese swan song

Hitachi’s 50-inch P50-GP08 3D TV could be its Japanese swan song originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch, AV Watch (translated)  |  Hitachi (translated)  | Email this | Comments