Hasta La Gadget!

After debuting quietly at CEDIA Pioneer’s 2010 line of Blu-ray players is finally available for purchase, including the low end BDP-430 and its two Elite cousins, the BDP-41FD and BDP-43FD. Other than the obvious addition of Blu-ray 3D compatibility, key upgrades from 2009 include WiFi readiness with optional dongle, streaming from YouTube (after a firmware update), Netflix and Pandora, an expanded continue mode to make sure you start The Twilight Saga: Eclipse right where you left it and the return of Pioneer’s iControlAV remote app for iOS devices. Starting price? $299 for the BDP-430, $399 for the BDP-41FD and its home automation-friendly RS-232 port, while $499 is required to bring home the “armored chassis” of the BDP-43FD

Continue reading Pioneer’s 3D Blu-ray compatible, Netflix streaming player triumvirate now shipping

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Pioneer’s 3D Blu-ray compatible, Netflix streaming player triumvirate now shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Pioneer  | Email this | Comments

There’s no shortage of iPhone navigation apps out there, but we can’t say we’ve seen too many that come with 1.6GB of offline map data — especially for free. That’s the hook for NavFree USA, which just went live in the App Store — sure, it also has some interesting social features like crowdsourced map updates and navigating to friends, and you can buy add-ons like traffic and speed camera info, but we think most people will use the free turn-by-turn and call it a day. That is, until Apple builds navigation directly into the OS. PR after the break.

Update: Commenter marklarson just pointed out the hilariously misguided compass icon in the upper left there, and now we are downloading this app just to look at it whenever we need to be cheered up.

Continue reading NavFree launches free US iPhone navigation app with offline map data

NavFree launches free US iPhone navigation app with offline map data originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  iTunes  | Email this | Comments

Continue reading Snapstick shows off iPhone-controlled internet TV prototype

Snapstick shows off iPhone-controlled internet TV prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNET, Snapstick  | Email this | Comments

The idea of using an iPhone or iPod touch as a universal remote has been tossed around for years, but it’s always required either a finicky external dongle or an extravagantly expensive home automation rig. Instead, we’ve been treated to a host of single-device remote apps for everything from FiOS, DirecTV, Comcast, and Dish Network DVRs to the Apple TV to the Boxee Box to… well, you name it. A little company called Peel has a dramatically different idea, though — it’s launching the Peel Universal Control system, which is designed to take your iPhone or iPod touch head-to-head with universal remote heavyweights like Logitech’s Harmony system.

The company is made up of a bunch of former Apple engineers, and their solution is extremely novel: instead of attaching a dongle to the iPhone itself, they’re controlling your A/V rack using a pear-sized (and Yves Behar-designed) wireless IR blaster that’s supposed to live quietly on your coffee table. The blaster (called the Peel Fruit) connects over ZigBee to a tiny network adapter (the Peel Cable, also designed by Behar) that attaches directly to an open Ethernet port on your WiFi router — a two-part hardware setup that seems fussy, but is designed to obviate the need for software configuration during installation, and allows the IR blaster to run for nine months on a single C battery.

Continue reading Peel turns your iPhone into a universal remote — using a wireless external IR blaster

Peel turns your iPhone into a universal remote — using a wireless external IR blaster originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Peel  | Email this | Comments

After going through some rough times with its RedEye mini dongle and doing right by replacing them, ThinkFlood appears to be running full beam ahead once more. Specifically, the company has announced that RedEye owners will soon have the ability to setup and control their remote systems straight from their PC or mobile browser. On the mobile front, apparently the web app will even work on Android and BlackBerry devices, despite being optimized for Safari on iOS — hinting that non iPhone owners could possibly let their phones control more than their social lives soon. Setup wise, the web version also allows users to automatically align and move multiple buttons at once, plus assign commands to over 70+ keyboard shortcuts. Combined with the ability to make adjustments using a mouse on a computer’s larger screen, tweaking custom RedEye remote layouts just got infinitely easier — you hear that Harmony? The iOS app 2.0 update is also now available as a free ‘Plus’ download in the iTunes store, and finally supports the iPad’s lovely screen in either orientation. In a sense, it’s further substantiating the tablet’s new career path as a jumbo-buttoned geezer remote of the future, but hey — no gripes here.

Continue reading ThinkFlood’s RedEye universal remote control becomes web compatible, leaves past woes in the dust

ThinkFlood’s RedEye universal remote control becomes web compatible, leaves past woes in the dust originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Marketwire  |  RedEye  | Email this | Comments