Hasta La Gadget!

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? If you’ll recall, we heard that Recon Instruments was fixing to up-end the winter sports goggle market in February of this year, with an optimistic-at-the-time ship date of October 2010. Lo and behold, the outfit has managed to nail its estimate, and the planet’s first GPS-enabled goggles are now available to highfalutin’ skiers and snowboarders. At least initially, the company will be rolling out a limited set, with two models to choose from: the $499 Transcend SPPX is fitted with an SPPX polarized and photochromic lens, while the $399 Transcend SPX features an SPX polarized lens. Aside from the fact that these probably cost less than those ho hum Oakleys in the ski shop, they’re equipped with a Zeal Optics’ frame design with a micro LCD display, which appears to hang approximately six feet in front of the user. That head-mounted display provides real-time feedback to the wearer, including speed, latitude / longitude, altitude, vertical distance traveled, total distance traveled, a chrono / stopwatch mode, a run-counter, temperature and time. Yeah, wow. You can bet we’ll be trying to snag a set for review when we do our best impression of “hitting the slopes” post-CES.

Continue reading Recon-Zeal Transcend goggles now shipping, GPS and head-mounted display included

Recon-Zeal Transcend goggles now shipping, GPS and head-mounted display included originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, ha! If you’ll recall, we happened upon a Lenovo-branded netbook of sorts back in June, but curiously enough, Freescale and Pegatron components were powering the thing. Now, it seems that yet another flavor has emerged as the Efika MX Smartbook. Frankly, we aren’t too sure this thing fits into the ‘smartbook’ category (given the comparatively spacious 10-inch display), but we are sure that the $349 price point is borderline absurd considering the wealth of decent netbook options at or below that very MSRP. At any rate, those still interested should know that there’s an 800MHz i.MX515 processor under the hood along with 16GB of NAND Flash, an MMC / SD card slot, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, a 1,024 x 600 resolution panel and enough oomph to power through HD video, supposedly. Tap that source link if you’re looking to take a risk, but we’d probably recommend against it.

Efika MX Smartbook now on sale for an exceedingly unattractive price originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 06:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not the biggest of releases, but progress is progress at this point. Since launching in late April, Microsoft has been rather mum on the future of its latest Windows Home Server build. This week, however, the second major beta release has been let loose into the wilds, with Vail’s most recent build now available to download there in the source link. The Big M doesn’t go into great detail on what all has been added and / or changed, only saying that this new version has “plenty of enhancements and improvements over the original.” The so-called “Preview” also adds support for Mac OS X backups, though users should know that storage check and repair (among other things, most likely) aren’t exactly working seamlessly. But hey, that’s what you get for living on the beta, right?

Windows Home Server ‘Vail’ sees new beta release, adds OS X support originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If ever there were a place for using the phrase “it’s about time,” this would be it. If you’ll recall, we heard rumors that Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 would be headed to AT&T as far back as November of last year, possibly proving just how grueling the certification process is for getting a handset onto Ma Bell’s network. Those whispers flared up again back in April, and our hunches about yesterday’s tease seem to be confirmed today. The Android-powered X10 (v1.6 so far as we can tell, but the PR carefully dodges the issue) will be available for consumers starting on August 15th, with the handset boasting a 4-inch touchpanel, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, inbuilt GPS, 8.1 megapixel camera (with LED flash), 8GB of onboard memory, a 2GB flash card and a couple of SE’s own apps atop the stock Android build (Mediascape and Timescape). AT&T’s claiming that this bad boy will set you back $149.99 on a 2-year service plan, but Sony’s saying that it can be picked up in a local Sony Style store for $20 less. Oh, and if you wait a week, it’ll be $49.99 on contract over at Amazon. Decisions, decisions.

Update: Yep, it’s Android 1.6. Commence weeping.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia 10 officially debuts on AT&T: $130 on contract

Sony Ericsson Xperia 10 officially debuts on AT&T: $130 on contract originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember Panasonic’s DMP-B15? You know, that “world’s first portable Blu-ray player” that was introduced at CES and just started shipping last month? With an $800 price tag, there’s a good chance you never even let the thing enter your stream of consciousness, but we can only wish you the best of luck as you try to ignore this one. RCA has quietly started to ship its BRC3108 10-inch portable Blu-ray player, which is equipped with a rechargeable battery, integrated stereo speakers, a headphone jack, 1080p HDMI output and bundled car / AC adapters alongside a carrying bag with headrest attachment for in-car use. The mini player lists for $349.99 on Amazon, and it’s already starting to appear in select Target locations. You’ll notice that Amazon still shows the device as being available for pre-order, and even the Target model didn’t have a shelf tag yet. That said, we’re sure someone in the back can pull some strings if you wave your credit card around long enough.

Update: Looks like it’s listed at $299.99 at Target — image is after the break. Thanks, Thomas!

[Thanks, Scott]

Continue reading RCA BRC3108 portable Blu-ray ships to Target, seriously undercuts Panny’s DMP-B15

RCA BRC3108 portable Blu-ray ships to Target, seriously undercuts Panny’s DMP-B15 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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