Hasta La Gadget!

German site BestBoyZ has delivered a string of HTC leaks in recent weeks, and the latest is a fairly legit-looking handful of alleged press shots of the Mondrian. As a refresher, the Mondrian seems to be one of the many code and commercial names floating around for Windows Phone 7-based devices HTC is looking to ship at or very near to the platform’s retail launch, a higher-end unit (possibly equipped with a 1.3GHz Snapdragon) that would probably hang in the same space as the rumored HD7 and Trophy. Interestingly, the shots — which show a unit with a German ROM — have HTC Hub listed on the home screen, despite some recent talk by CEO Peter Chou that his company’s first-gen WinPho 7 products would lack serious software customization. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on how much you appreciate HTC’s design team, we suppose.

HTC Mondrian poses for press shots? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we talk about “the internet of things,” we usually begin with commercial and household applications — tracking inventory, or a lost remote. But one future of networked objects might be in public information and infrastructure: the internet of cars.

For four years, MIT’s CarTel project has been tracking the driving patterns of GPS-equipped taxis in metro Boston. The research team, led by computer scientists Hari Balakrishnan and Sam Madden, thinks we can stop spotting traffic jams after the fact with news helicopters or roadside sensors by equipping cars themselves with position sensors and wireless connections. They’ve developed a new software algorithm that optimizes information-sharing between multiple nodes on a network, when those nodes are on the move, drifting in and out of close contact with one another.

Equipping cars with position and network technology has several advantages over traditional traffic-tracking methods. It’s already here, in the form of on-board GPS systems and the RFID fobs city car-sharing programs use to track cars and give multiple drivers access to vehicles. It’s less expensive than helicopters, and less static than fixed roadside sensors. Finally, news organizations and planners can see traffic tie ups as or even before they happen, rather than after the fact.

There are potential privacy concerns. Why should I allow the Department of Transportation, my local news team, or any entity to track my movements? Collection of this information would have to be closely regulated, highly encrypted, and strictly anonymized — perhaps even initially restricted to public and publically licensed vehicles likes public transit, cabs, police/fire/rescue vehicles, or cars and trucks owned by local government. The whole point is that when it comes to plotting traffic patterns, tracking unique users simply doesn’t matter.

But the potential upsides are tremendous. Having better knowledge of actual traffic patterns could help urban planners improve their transportation infrastructure, from retiming traffic lights to restructuring bus routes. It could help first responders and ordinary drivers avoid potential tie-ups.

Researchers at Ford and Microsoft are sufficiently intrigued. They plan to test the MIT researchers’ algorithm and network design in future versions of Sync, the Redmond-designed, Detroit-implemented automotive communication and entertainment system.

Image and video from Ford Motor Company

See Also:

• Your Lost Gadgets Will Find Each Other
• Car Thieves Use GPS Jammers to Make Clean Getaway
• Network Location Turns Your Mac into a GPS Box
• Will the Internet of Things Be Open or Closed?
• Spime Watch: Shipping Containers and the Future Internet of Things …
• First International Workshop in the Urban Internet of Things: Call …

If you’re searching for a way to wreak havoc on an ex-lover or a rotten business partner, look no further than the video above. The 8-minute tutorial walks you through the steps to hack an iPad to run Windows 95.

That’s just wrong.

We’ve seen people hack iPhones and Windows Mobile phones to run the Android OS, which could prove useful. But if you’re even thinking about installing Windows 95 (not even XP) on an iPad, you’re just twisted. Demented. Messed up. Hellbent on revenge. And a nerd.

At least it’s not Vista, though.

See Also:

• iPhone Hacked to Run Android 2.2
• Editor Gets Android Running on an iPhone
• DIYers Hack Windows Mobile Phones to Run Android

Ah, “premium” video-on-demand. Media controllers have been fighting the inevitable forever, but now it seems they’re finally coming around to the future — letting users watch silver screen gems (or duds, for what it’s worth) in their home shortly after release in the theater. Before you bust out the golf claps for these dudes and dudettes, you should know that they’re planning to ding you for around $30 for the privilege, so it’s only remotely of interest if you happen to have a family of eight. According to a new Bloomberg report, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Walt Disney Co. are all in talks with major cable systems to “offer films for as much as $30 per showing soon after they run in theaters.” Disney’s also thinking of streaming its content to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with Warner expected to begin testing an offering later this year that lets consumers watch new(ish) release material for “$20 to $30 per viewing.” Of course, we guess it can’t hurt to throw the option out there and see exactly who is desperate enough, but we’re guessing this won’t exactly be the demise of the cinema. Or Redbox.

Sony, Warner and Disney mulling $30 at-home viewing option, we laugh and wait for the $100 option originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s Kin moved so quickly from curiosity to cadaver that we’ve almost managed to forget about the thing already, but one group will always remember: the KIRFers. This model is called the Haina X5-01 and it’s something of an ode to Microsoft’s less than dearly departed Kin One handset, a direct copy of the hardware we actually found to be somewhat derivative itself. This model, however, merrily leaps right over the line between imitation and clone, even stealing one of Microsoft’s sample images of the UI. Thanks to that we don’t actually have any real screenshots of what OS the thing is running, but something tells us that whatever ROM it’s rocking it won’t be nearly as adept at keeping up with our chaotic lives.

Keepin’ it real fake: the Haina X5-01 KIRFs the Kin One originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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