The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation

Oh, Ben — how far you’ve come. But now that you’re about to star in your very own web show, don’t ever forget that we had you first. Pleasantries aside, we couldn’t be more thrilled to hear that the man responsible for pushing the art of modding into the mainstream is set to host a bi-weekly web TV show on the subject. The Ben Heck Show will see its first episode published on September 13th, where Ben showcases a mod of a controller for an avid gamer with a serious disability. Future episodes will highlight “projects inspired by the modder community, ranging from mods for a particular need to gadgets that help electronic enthusiasts work and play faster,” which means that you and yours can send in ideas that may end up on the show. Head on past the break for a trailer, and be sure to pencil this one in right beside our own Engadget Show when it comes time for viewing pleasure.

P.S. – Congrats, Ben!

Continue reading The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation

The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gesture Remote Brings Touch to TV Screen

gesture-remote.jpgStill in concept, the Gesture Remote
looks quite capable of solving the age-old remote problem.

The universal remote is handy for
turning on the TV easily. There is no need for a TV remote just to
turn it on, the cable remote to change channels, or a stereo remote
to adjust volume. Throw the DVR, DVD player, and other devices in the
mix, though, and there are too many buttons and functions. The
universal remote can’t handle the load.

Enter the Gesture Remote from IDENT
Technology. This would allow you to surf TV channels and digital media using
gesture. Using touch-technology, there are no buttons or keypads to
deal with. Imagine the Gesture Remote as the Apple Magic Trackpad for the palm.

Just like a mouse, you can easily drag
and drop or select content on the screen. Select the highlighted item
by tapping the thumb. Scroll, flick, rotate, or zoom in and out for
volume control and channel selection. It’s that easy.

The Gesture Remote would have to be
able to talk to any kind of box, such as satellite, cable, and FiOS,
as well as other devices. Here is to hoping this becomes reality.

Google TV set to launch this year, Samsung considering Android for its TVs

As you’re probably well aware, the Wintermute-like intelligence known as Google has designs on your television. Not only is Samsung contemplating Android for its sets, but Eric Schmidt has stated that its Google TV service is on track for launch this autumn (as a beta, undoubtedly). Finally, Maps on your plasma! Unfortunately Samsung’s plans are far less certain, with company President Yoon Boo Keun offering little more than a “[w]e will have to see, but we are reviewing,” when asked whether the OS will make a suitable platform for couch potatoes the world o’er. According to Yoon, about half of the company’s 3-D TVs rock web browsers, a figure that will only increase over the next couple years. We only hope that if they do go with Android, the implementation is better than that of some of their handsets.

Google TV set to launch this year, Samsung considering Android for its TVs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp releases slew of new Quattron TVs at IFA 2010

Just in case those George Takei commercials didn’t clue you in that Sharp was serious about Quattron, the company has announced four new TV lines at IFA sporting yellow as a fourth subpixel color. At the top of the list, the Quattron 3D-enabled LE925 line will be available in 60-inch or 46-inch sizes and feature Sharp’s proprietary high-speed FRED LCD signal processing technology along with side-mounted scanning LED backlighting — which like the LV Series — is touted to produce 1.8x better brightness than competing sets and reduce 3D crosstalk. Aquos Net+ connectivity is thrown in too, along with 2D-to-3D conversion, a digital triple tuner and 8GB of built-in flash memory for timeshift recording. Playing second fiddle to this overachiever are the 2D-only LE924E, LE824E and LE814E series, which will also feature Aquos Net+. Pricing details for all of the new lines are still unknown, but they’re slated to be available in Germany and Austria later this month. Here’s hoping Sulu gets his jaw checked out before then.

Continue reading Sharp releases slew of new Quattron TVs at IFA 2010

Sharp releases slew of new Quattron TVs at IFA 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s 50-inch 720p PN50C490 3D plasma on sale now for under a grand

Looking to spoil yourself with a fancy new 3DTV? Ain’t got the cash to go all-out? Hello, compromise. Samsung’s 50-inch PN50C490 — which we peeked just a few weeks ago — is now shipping from Amazon, Best Buy and a slew of other local consumer electronic marts if we had to guess. As a refresher, this mid-sized HDTV has a 720p resolution, 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, no internet connectivity to speak of, a USB socket, three HDMI inputs, a pair of component jacks and support for the third dimension. It’s up for grabs today at just $989, but you’ll probably want to budget a few extra hundies for that Samsung 3D Starter Kit (not to mention a few 3D Blu-ray Discs).

[Thanks, James]

Samsung’s 50-inch 720p PN50C490 3D plasma on sale now for under a grand originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon streaming 99-cent ABC and Fox shows… right now (update: purchases, not rentals!)

Eager to get on the new Apple TV‘s cheap 99-cent TV show rentals but not so pumped to wait four weeks for it to ship? No worries: Amazon’s also now offering 99-cent rentals purchases of various ABC and FOX shows, which means a whole host of Amazon VOD-compatible devices just got some cheaper streaming options as well — and hey, Roku just cut prices on its entire lineup of Amazon- and Netflix- compatible players, so you can get in the game for as little as $60. Of course, the Apple TV also features day-and-date movie rentals, local streaming, AirPlay, and that slick iPhone / iPod touch Remote app, but only your heart truly knows if those are worth an extra few bucks and a month of fevered desire.

Update: As our astute commenters are pointing out, these are actually listed as 99-cent purchases, making this a far better deal entirely. We don’t know if that’s for real or just an error right now, though — we’re double checking and we’ll let you know.

Update 2: Yep, we’ve confirmed that these are 99-cent purchases, making this a much better deal than Apple’s rental model — although only you can decide whether you actually need permanent streaming access to Dollhouse Season 2.

[Thanks, Stephen]

Amazon streaming 99-cent ABC and Fox shows… right now (update: purchases, not rentals!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Redefines Remote Control — Now, It’s Your Cellphone

Promotional Image from Apple.com.

The App Store has offered a Remote app for iOS devices for a while now, but the new Apple TV might be the best use-case to show what an app-based touchscreen remote can do.

The new Apple TV had two remotes. The first is the minimalist metal slab that will ship with your tiny box. The second is the iOS application that you’ll download from the App store.

The first iteration of Apple TV had the same little white infrared remote the company used to ship with laptops. It was great for clicking through a slideshow presentation. It wasn’t very good to keep around your living room, unless you stuck it in a bowl with your keys. It wasn’t a real remote, and most people hated keeping track of another remote anyway, especially one that got lost at the drop of a hat.

The new remote, released earlier this year, isn’t a lot different from that old white remote. It’s a nicer device; like everything else Apple makes now besides the new square iPods, it’s a long strip of aluminum. It’s still got just six buttons: up, down, right, left, play/pause and menu.

But that minimalism seems almost smarter now. Apple now seems to be figuring out the exact number of hardware buttons it needs on each device. It took away too much on the iPod Shuffle, so now some buttons are coming back. It wanted to get rid of the buttons on the Nano, so it changed it to touchscreen.

For the Apple TV, it’s keeping the action on the screen, with the software interface. Make that easy to navigate, give people the exact options they need depending on context, and you don’t need dozens of buttons on the remote/media player/phone.

Maybe you don’t even need a remote, though. That’s because Apple TV’s second remote control is the Apple-made mobile device that Apple TV customers probably already own.

Seriously — what are the chances of someone buying Apple TV who doesn’t have an iPod, iPad or iPhone?

[Continue reading]


Hands-On With New $100 Apple TV

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SAN FRANCISCO — When Steve Jobs was preparing to introduce the Apple TV, he called it “one more hobby,” and based on our first impressions, that’s a safe choice of words.

The new Apple TV is a major hardware upgrade. One quarter the size of its predecessor, it’s a small black box with curved edges, somewhat resembling a hockey puck. The highlights: It costs $100, and it integrates nearly instant streaming TV and movie rentals, along with Netflix streaming.

The major limitation: For TV rentals, only two studios are on board to stream shows through the Apple TV — ABC and Fox. This isn’t an adequate replacement yet for cable subscriptions.

So calling it a “hobby” was right — Apple’s starting out small, and maybe it’ll roll into something bigger if more studios warm up to the idea.

Nonetheless, I got some hands-on time with the new Apple TV and it is a promising start.

TV and movie rentals are really snappy and fast. After choosing to rent a movie or show, the Apple TV takes a few seconds to prepare a buffer and begins streaming your video live.

Also particularly cool was internet integration. I enjoyed searching through Flickr streams: Select a photo and hit the Play button and it immediately plays a slideshow with music and fancy transitions. I’m too lazy to check my friends’ Flickr streams the normal way on Flickr.com, aren’t you? Plus, the photos look great on a big screen through the Apple TV’s HDMI connection.

The Apple TV’s remote is familiar: It’s got the same aluminum and black design as the current MacBook Pros. It’s also very similar to the current Apple remote that controls Macs — only it’s a little longer and the buttons have small bumps for subtle tactile feedback. It feels great in the hand and navigating through the Apple TV menu was really smooth.

As good as the idea sounds, you won’t be able to use your iPhone or iPad as a remote for the Apple TV (not yet, at least). Instead, there’s a feature called “AirPlay,” so if you’re using your iPad or iPhone to listen to music, look at photos or watch a video, you can tap an AirPlay button, select your Apple TV and boom — your content is streaming onto your Apple TV. We weren’t able to test that since this feature won’t be available until iOS 4.2 ships in November, but we’ll keep you posted.

You can also stream media from your Mac’s iTunes library by choosing the “Computer” option and selecting a movie or playlist. I tested that out too, and it worked fine, but do note that iTunes only supports a few formats for video (.H264, for instance). So if you prefer getting media through some alternative non-iTunes-compatible means, you’re still going to be doing a lot of file conversion before you can watch your videos on the Apple TV.

All in all, it’s a cool device, and for $100 it’s going to pose a serious threat to the Roku Netflix player. But as a TV replacement, it’s still not there yet. Maybe later.

See Also:

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com


Gefen TV Auto Volumbe Stabilizer Adjusts Sound on TV

gtv.jpgI always suspected that commercials are much louder than my umpteenth episode of Law & Order, but other than preemptively hitting mute before the commercial break, there wasn’t much I could do about it. Until the Gefen TV Auto Volume Stabilizer, came along, that is.

The volume stabilizer has to be physically near the TV and the stereo receiver for this to work. The stabilizer’s input port is plugged in to the TV’s audio output (analog or optical port), and the stereo receiver’s input is connected to the stabilizer’s audio output port. Since the sound from TV has to pass through the Gefen box before heading out to the speakers, it won’t work with the TV’s built-in speakers.

It is not restricted to just the TV, either. You can connect the stabilizer to the DVD player, Blue-Ray player, or any other multimedia source.

The device uses Dolby Volume technology and to maintain a steady volume. In case you don’t want sound to be adjusted, there is a Bypass button on the front that stops the stabilizer from modifing any audio input.

Gefen claims that the device controls the volume so subtly that you won’t even notice that it is doing it. All I care is that it does.

It is available online at Gefen for $179.

Verizon pushes for holograms in 10 years, wants to deliver it via FiOS

Apparently, there is something out there called 3D television that’s soon to be all the rage in homes nationwide (we bet our friends at Engadget HD could tell us a thing or two about it). And what does all that new and exciting 3D content mean? That’s right — new and exciting bandwidth requirements, which is music to the ears of folks at Cisco and Verizon. Hell, Cisco predicts that streaming video (including 3D content) is expected to more than quadruple bandwidth demands by 2014. But that isn’t the wild part — the company’s CEO John Chambers is predicting that in ten years holograms over IP will become commonplace. Apparently, Verizon has been conducting experiments with the technology over its FiOS network — and when not sending spooky, holographic disembodied heads out into cyberspace, its CIO Shaygan Kheradpir has been testing a 1Gbps link in his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Apparently, this kind of connection will have to become commonplace before we start seeing holograms in our homes, but we’re pretty sure that Kheradpir only pointed out this last fact to make us jealous.

Continue reading Verizon pushes for holograms in 10 years, wants to deliver it via FiOS

Verizon pushes for holograms in 10 years, wants to deliver it via FiOS originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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