Hasta La Gadget!

What if your media streamer was as small as your media card reader? What if your list of “what ifs” shrunk by one this evening? And what if, by chance, said media streamer shipped with a remote nearly double the size of the product itself? We’ll confess, it’d be a weird, weird situation, but it’s one that you can actually experience for yourself if you’re cool with handing over £49.99 ($82). The bantam PicoHD5.1 packs a lot of oomph into a pocket-sized device; on one side, there’s room for a USB hard drive, thumb drive or SD card. On the reverse, you’ll find HDMI / component outputs capable of piping whatever media you just plugged in onto your television or monitor. There’s even support for 5.1 channel surround sound, and we’re told that it’s encased in aluminum — you know, for those inevitable bumps and bruises. Is the “smallest HD multichannel media player” truly as spectacular as it sounds? Hard to say from afar, but hey, that’s what 60 day money-back guarantees are for… right?

Minuscule PicoHD5.1 media player looks like a card reader, acts like a media streamer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vudu’s movie service is already available on 300-odd set top boxes and HDTVs including the PS3 and Boxee Box, but now it can add your personal computer to the list since it will start streaming its entire catalog right on the company’s website. The Flash-based player will let customers watch movies they’ve rented or purchased like any other device, but due to licensing issues it’s limited to a maximum 480p resolution with stereo sound for now. That’s disappointing for a company that pioneered high quality 1080p streaming with its HDX format but it could help attract customers who find a rental packed in with one of their DVDs or Blu-ray discs from Walmart. There’s no word yet on plans for mobile devices, but general manager Edward Lichty confirmed to us it plans to make content accessible in “as many places as possible” so we’d expect to hear something on that front soon (but probably after the launch of premium VOD.) Until then, there’s a few more screens in the gallery and a press release after the break or you can just check out the 2.0 interface for yourself on Vudu.com once everything goes live.

Continue reading Vudu starts streaming movies to the browser, but only in SD

Vudu starts streaming movies to the browser, but only in SD originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can’t say we’re pleased that camera makers still haven’t called an armistice in their megapixel war, but a race for the speediest memory card is one battle we can get behind. Delkin says its 32GB Elite 633 SDHC is the fastest in the world, with 80MBps and 95MBps write and read speeds, respectively, handily trumping Sony’s new Memory Sticks that so recently impressed us. This card’s ideal for people who shoot gobs of 1080p video, 3D movies, and high-resolution shots coupled with RAW files, but with a price of $440, it’s only worth it for pros. And debutants.

Delkin Elite 633 claims to be the fastest SDHC card with 80MBps write speeds originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A researcher at North Carolina State University is warning of an Android 2.3 security vulnerability that gives attackers access to your personal information, further proof that Gingerbread isn’t all sugar and spice (to be fair, that SMS issue has since been remedied). According to Xuxian Jiang, the bug allows malicious websites to access and upload the contents of a user’s microSD card, including voicemails, photos, and online banking information to a remote server. The flaw apparently resembles a similar bug in previous version of Android, thought to have been addressed with Gingerbread. However, as Jiang points out, that fix is easily bypassed. Apart from removing the microSD card, disabling JavaScript, or switching to a third-party browser, Android 2.3 users have little recourse in squashing the bug. The folks at eWeek reported that Google is working on a solution to the problem, but there’s no word on when we can expect to see an update.

Android 2.3 security bug shows microSD access vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 10:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lexar. It’s Where Memory Matters. And it’s also the only game in town to introduce a Class 10 microSDHC card. For those currently using an Android phone with a user-accessible microSD slot, you’ve probably gritted your teeth on a number of occasions waiting for your current Class 2 or Class 4 card to catch up with your demands. It’s one of the downfalls to removable storage, but thankfully, the device you see above looks to us like a glistening solution. The 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card promises a minimum sustained write speed of 10MB per second and a read speed of nearly 20MB per second, which should all but eliminate any lag from loading up your favorite playlist. Lexar plans on shipping this guy with preloaded software to manage and sync stored images and videos, and speaking of shipping, it should be available right now on Amazon for $149.99.

Continue reading Lexar unveils 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card, quick-fingered Android users celebrate

Lexar unveils 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card, quick-fingered Android users celebrate originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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