Hasta La Gadget!

Man, talk about coming straight out of left field. After blowing it out at CeBIT just two months ago, Navigon has just announced its intentions to pull out of the navigation business here in North America. According to CEO Egon Minar: “Due to the difficult economic environment and the aggressive pricing we have decided to withdraw from the PND business in North America for the time being. We are however not closing down our Chicago office which will continue to serve our automotive and mobile phone businesses in North America.” He did assert that the company would “continue to fulfill all obligations to its existing PND customers in terms of map updates, etc.,” but nothing else on the subject was said. So long, Navigon — we’ll miss your “uber-premium” wares.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: GPS

Navigon withdraws from GPS business in North America originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 May 2009 11:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew you’d do the right thing Cowon, we just knew it. Barely a fortnight after the company introduced its most capacious S9 to date over in South Korea, said player has made its way stateside… at least that’s the impression that we get. Listed now as “in stock” on Amazon, the 32GB Titanium / Black unit is shown as being sold by JetAudio, which just so happens to be Cowon’s official online home for sales. If you surf over to the S9 section on JetAudio’s website, however, the 16GB model is still listed as the largest one available. We’re guessing the latter’s admin hasn’t had time to update things between that Friday night rave and that six pack of Dos Equis on Saturday, but we hear Amazon has a pretty good reputation, anyway.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Cowon’s 32GB S9 PMP goes on sale in America originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 May 2009 04:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may think that the Navy‘s just the baby brother to the two other US Armed Forces, but its weapon development record definitely shows otherwise. Just over two years after building an 8-Megajoule railgun, the branch has penned two $7 million checks to defense contractors Boeing and Raytheon for the design and development of a free-electron laser (FEL). For what it’s worth, such a device has been yearned for since a day after the dawn of time, as unlike chemical-based lasers, the FEL would be 100 percent electric and easier to move. For those unaware,this stormy petrel of a weapon would be used to blast down missiles in mid-flight, all while putting on a pretty impressive light show. ‘Course, the Navy must also figure out how to build a massive energy generating ship in order to use it, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here, okay?

[Image courtesy of AIP]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Science

Navy shells out for development of missile-killing free-electron laser originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI’s eco-friendly Wind Top AE1900 has already been formally introduced and spotted over in Hanover earlier this year, but the outfit notorious for withholding price and availability information until the last possible moment has finally let loose those very details. The 18.5-inch all-in-one PC is available with an Atom 230 or 330 CPU, a 1,366 x 768 resolution touchscreen, integrated GMA950 graphics, 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, a 160GB or 250GB hard drive, 4-in-1 multicard reader, dual-layer DVD writer, WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and audio in / out sockets to boot. Two configurations are available (both are shown after the break), with the lesser of the two going for $529.

Continue reading MSI’s Wind Top AE1900 all-in-one PC comes to US at $529

Filed under: Desktops

MSI’s Wind Top AE1900 all-in-one PC comes to US at $529 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We already heard that the Big N managed to lighten its DSi inventory by 300,000 during the handheld’s first full weekend in America, and apparently another 135,000 procrastinators swooped in to grab one as the week finished up. Potentially more amazing, however, is the overall impact of Nintendo in the month of March. Last month, Nintendo systems accounted for just south of 60 percent (58.4 percent, if you must know) of all video game hardware sold in America. And yeah, that’s even despite a shocking 17 percent drop in Wii sales during the same 30 day window. Have we mentioned lately that things seem to be going quite well in the Mushroom Kingdom? ‘Cause they definitely do.

[Via Joystiq]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Nintendo moves 435,000 DSi handhelds during first week in US originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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