Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview

We just got a look at the new Kinect Dashboard-lite for the Xbox 360. In some ways, it’s pretty charming, with fun, jazzed up icons (when you hover over them they tilt and show off depth), a simplistic layout, and some great voice controls. The downside is this all comes at the cost of a brand new, fairly redundant interface for accessing functions that are already available with your Xbox 360 controller in the regular Dashboard. Still, there’s no denying the joy of waving a hand to log in, hovering over icons to select channels (though the wait-to-click mechanism strikes us as eventually frustrating), and scrubbing through media with very intuitive gestures.

The best part is the voice control, however, allowing you to speak “Xbox” and then a command like play, pause, back, forward, stop, Zune, etc. It’s ripe for abuse (pausing your S.O.’s seventh Netflix screening of The Constant Gardner ad nauseam), but Microsoft says it’s working on eliminating random commands that might seep into conversation. Our biggest worry is that we’re going to see confusion and fragmentation of functionality with the divergent UI requirements that Kinect apps and regular Dashboard apps require — we can’t imagine the Facebook or Last.fm folks being super thrilled at creating an all-new app just to support Microsoft’s whims, but we’re told just such apps are in the works. Is the existing Dashboard really so complicated that Kinect couldn’t control it? Check out a video of this puzzling Kinectasticness after the break.

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Kinect-optimized Xbox 360 Dashboard preview originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba Satellite L600 and C600 series laptops think of the struggling students

We’re starting to think Toshiba’s got more Satellites than NASA, but for those that can’t squeeze together the cash for a new A or M Series laptop, Tosh has its L600 or C600 machines standing close by. The 13-inch L635, 14-inch L645, 15.6-inch L655, and 17.3-inch L675 have all been remodeled with that new Fusion X2 finish, which looks glossy from afar but is actually fingerprint resistant. They don’t get the new chiclet keyboards, but the flush keys are smooth and there are dedicated right / left mouse buttons under the touchpad. Internally there’s your pick of Intel Core i3, Core i5 CPUs and AMD Athlon II, Turion II dual-core, Phenom II Triple Core and Quad Core processors. While the entry level $515 model won’t be equipped with the discrete ATI Radeon 5145 GPU, it’ll be a configuration option. Lower down on the spectrum you’ve got the 14-inch C645 and 15.6-inch C655, which are your typical set of bargain basement laptops. Both are available with Intel Celeron and Pentium processors as well as AMD’s Athlon V120 chip. Not the most attractive pair of laptops we’ve seen, but it’s hard to complain when they start at $449. Check them out for yourself in the gallery below, and then hit the break for more details in the full press release.

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Toshiba Satellite L600 and C600 series laptops think of the struggling students originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba Satellite M645 boasts NVIDIA Optimus and improved aesthetics, Satellite A665 makes its 3D arrival

We know, that’s a pretty loaded headline, but that’s exactly what Toshiba’s new laptops are… loaded. Let’s start with that beauty pictured above — the now fairly familiar and often leaked 15.6-inch Satellite A665. Starting at $1,599, the 3D bad boy boasts pretty much everything you’d want in a mobile gaming rig under two grand, including an Intel Core i7-740QM CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 350M graphics with 1GB of VRAM, a 640GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, and a Blu-ray drive that supports 3D playback. It comes with NVIDIA’s 3D Vision kit, which includes the usual active shutter glasses and emitter. But it’s not all about the specs on the A665 — both it and the M645 have been redesigned with chiclet keyboards and a new Fusion X2 finish that combines a glossy and matte coating. Those taken with the A665 but aren’t into the 3D stuff can configure a 16-inch version, which starts at $799, with a choice of Intel Core 2010 processors.

The 14-inch M645 is the smaller version of the A665 and features Core i3, i5 and i7 CPU options as well as AMD’s Phenom II Quad Core processors. On the graphics front, we’re extremely happy to see the line use NVIDIA’s Optimus technology to automatically switch between the GeForce 310M or GeForce GT330M GPU and the IGP. To boot, the systems can be configured with Blu-ray and 7,200rpm hard drives. We should also mention that both the A665 and M645 have Toshiba’s new Sleep + Music capability, which allows you plug a music player into the mic jack and blast out your tunes through the laptop’s Harmon Kardon speakers even when it’s powered down. We told you these machines were loaded. We’ll be bringing you full reviews soon, but in the meantime enjoy the pics and full PR below.

Continue reading Toshiba Satellite M645 boasts NVIDIA Optimus and improved aesthetics, Satellite A665 makes its 3D arrival

Toshiba Satellite M645 boasts NVIDIA Optimus and improved aesthetics, Satellite A665 makes its 3D arrival originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba Satellite T200 Series makes its U.S. debut, starts at $470

We’re no strangers to Toshiba’s new T200 Series ultrathin laptops — heck, we even spotted the slim portables lounging around at Computex a few weeks ago — but Tosh is finally giving up the full specs, pricing and availability. The 11.6-inch T215 may look and feel like a netbook at 3.3 pounds, but it’s got grown-up specs, including AMD Athlon II Neo single or dual-core processors, ATI integrated graphics, up to 320GB of storage space and 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The larger 13-inch T235 has similar AMD options, including Athon II Neo and Turion II Neo processors, but also works in Intel’s Pentium dual-core CPUs. Though rather oddly, the 3.9-pound laptop won’t be available with those new Core ULV processors like it is in the UK. Oh, and just to refresh your memory, the new laptops are available in black, red and white and have the same, sturdy chiclet keyboards as the Mini NB305. Both models will be available on June 20 and will start at $469.99. That price sounds mighty good to us, but we will reserve judgment until we get these in for a full review. Hit the break for the full PR and the gallery below for some hands-on shots.

Continue reading Toshiba Satellite T200 Series makes its U.S. debut, starts at $470

Toshiba Satellite T200 Series makes its U.S. debut, starts at $470 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect Sports and Joy Ride previewed, in brief (video)

We’ve already gone a bit more in-depth with the likes of Kinect Adventures, Dance Galaxy, and Your Shape, but we also had a couple brief thoughts on Microsoft’s motion-centric sports pack and cartoon racer. With Joy Ride, you’d think holding your arms out pantomiming steering would be burdensome, but in our time with Joy Ride, it really never became an issue. In fact, the one control aspect we were hesitant about going into the race — power sliding — turned out to be quite effortless. It made perfect sense tilting our bodies around sharp corners. It’s during the windows where stunts were allowed that we discovered the full-bodied parallel to button mashing. Seriously, people were instinctively ducking jumping, twisting, and flailing hoping for some bonus points.

As for Kinect Sports, Microsoft wasn’t showing much of its track-and-field centered Kinect Sports title, but what we saw didn’t fill us with confidence. The bowling game was particularly troubling, with numerous very random throws (that ended up in the gutter a lane over) and a very finicky depth-perception that wouldn’t let us really wind up or step forward very effectively. Meanwhile, the 200 meter hurdles worked just fine, but it was also a pretty simplistic running-in-place experience that was possible a couple decades ago with the NES’s Power Pad — although Kinect makes it a lot harder to cheat. Miller vs. Miller video after the break.

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Kinect Sports and Joy Ride previewed, in brief (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your Shape for Kinect preview: the path to enlightenment, one virtual step at a time (video)

Even as the Kinect-exclusive Dance Central got certain Engadget editors into the groove, it didn’t resonate with all of us, so we headed downstairs for a peek at Your Shape, to get in touch with our inner Zen — and beat things up, of course. We had a blast punching blocks, though the system only recognized strikes that crossed our own body, and some editors were tripped up by the mirrored virtual doubles the game generates. Actual yoga poses were far better done, with Kinect accurately tracking our moves with little perceptible delay. Unlike in Wii Fit, which merely measures center of balance, a joint gauge of sorts (you can see the angle of your bones) let us readily tell when we were slouching or off-kilter, and adjust our posture respectively. We broke a sweat, looked like doofuses and had fun doing it — what more could you want? Video after the break.

Continue reading Your Shape for Kinect preview: the path to enlightenment, one virtual step at a time (video)

Your Shape for Kinect preview: the path to enlightenment, one virtual step at a time (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect Adventures preview unearths our frightening lack of coordination

Maybe we came into it as pre-judgers, but there’s nothing about Kinect Adventures that really redeems the experience in our biased, fun-hating eyes. We’re not really sure if our bigger problem is with the loose controls or the actual gameplay concepts, but it’s certainly a mix of both. We started out with the mining cart obstacle course, which has a certain charm in its simplicity: side step, jump, duck, and the occasional arm spread to gather tokens. These grander gestures seemed pretty easy to handle, and while we’d certainly grow bored of the game after 30 minutes or so, it would at least be a good 30 minutes of cardio.

Things went downhill from those middling heights, however, with the very vague and unsatisfying block-busting ball game, that seemed hardly responsive to our quick, desperate motions (or maybe we just weren’t very good at it), and the frenetic but ultra-loose controls of the river rafting. At least the teamwork aspect of the rafting game is interesting, and we’d love to see how good we could get with a dedicated partner, but there’s just something about hopping and side-stepping that just can’t feel as complex and comprehensive as “real” controls. In all we recognize these experiences as stuff that could only be done with Kinect… we’re just not sure yet if they needed to be done. You can check out video of our miserable performance after the break.

Continue reading Kinect Adventures preview unearths our frightening lack of coordination

Kinect Adventures preview unearths our frightening lack of coordination originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect Dance Central preview, or how we learned to stop caring and love the groove (video)

We’re gonna level with you, internet at large, we jumped at the chance to be on camera for our hands-on with Dance Central for Xbox 360’s Kinect. It’s not because we think we’re good dancers — we don’t — but it was subsequently decided that a lack of shame was more fun. So let’s get on with the details. Menu navigation was a little janky at times, but selection was a simple swipe from the extreme right to left of an arm’s length. As we saw earlier, the game is a progression of dance riffs you have to emulate with the on-screen dancers. It took until the first chorus of MIA’s “Galang” to really get a feel and comfort for the pace; by that point it was easy enough to keep an eye on future moves and correct past mistakes of similar grooves. Frankly, inherent embarrassment notwithstanding, it was very entertaining. Pictures below and video after the break — and don’t you worry, we’ll be going back for seconds.

Continue reading Kinect Dance Central preview, or how we learned to stop caring and love the groove (video)

Kinect Dance Central preview, or how we learned to stop caring and love the groove (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N8 preview

Strap yourselves in, pilgrims. Nokia’s next great handset has resurfaced in London today, and this time we were even allowed to turn it on. There’s pretty much no way you could be unaware of the N8 by now — Nokia’s done the viral video thing, the teaser demo thing, the feature walkthrough thing, we’ve covered it to near-exhaustion. But we’ve never seen it, you know, doing stuff. You can now consider that omission corrected, as we’ve finally powered up the 3.5-inch OLED screen, entered the overhauled Symbian^3 wonderland, and come back to tell the tale. In-depth impressions and video after the break.

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Nokia N8 preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer beTouch E130 kicks it BlackBerry-style, but runs Android 1.6 (video)

It’s not everyday that we come across an Android phone with an exposed keyboard, so naturally Acer’s beTouch E130 caught our eye here at Computex. The BlackBerry-esque phone is equipped with a 2.6-inch QVGA touchscreen display, a scroll ball and a full QWERTY keyboard. In hand the device felt really solid, and though the screen is smaller than most Android phones, the rough-feeling scroll ball is great for navigating the menus. The keyboard is probably our favorite part of the phone — like Nokia’s E71, it has a rubber-like coating giving the keys a nice bounce. But all of that good stuff came to a bit of a halt when we realized that the E130 is part of Acer’s lower end BeTouch line — it packs only a 416MHz ST-Ericsson CPU, 256MB of RAM, and 512MB of ROM. Additionally, it runs a now-dated Android 1.6 OS. We guess we can’t expect every smartphone to boast a 1GHz Snapdragon and a beta version of Froyo, though. Vid’s after the break, if that’s what you’re into.

Continue reading Acer beTouch E130 kicks it BlackBerry-style, but runs Android 1.6 (video)

Acer beTouch E130 kicks it BlackBerry-style, but runs Android 1.6 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Jun 2010 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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