Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s Windows 8 developer preview greeted us with an interface steeped in Redmond’s new Metro style — its tile-centric start screen is sleek, fresh, and downright pretty. Imagine our surprise then, when the preview’s desktop default view punted us straight back to the contemporary “Aero” dressing of Windows 7. It’s not an ugly interface by any means, but shiny, translucent window frames are so last generation. Where’s the style? In the big M’s latest Building Windows 8 preview, of course. The MSDN blog’s latest Task Manager update shows the familiar feature in a clean Metro suit. Although Aero is still the OS’ default look, the Windows 7 basic theme has been substituted for a style heavily inspired by Metro’s clean tiles. The post doesn’t say much on the matter (nothing at all, in fact), but it’s nice to see the classic interface getting a facelift to match Microsoft’s new look. Want to see more? Hit the source link below, it’s got all the Metro window frames you could ask for.

Update: This post originally misstated that the updated Basic theme was a new style, but in fact, it is already available in the Windows 8 developer preview.

Windows 8 desktop interface swaps classic theme for Metro, gets with the times originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for Kinect-like depth sensing magic in your pocket? It might be on the way, according to Eric Fossum, the man behind the CMOS sensor. During an Engineering lecture at Yale, Fossum let it slip that he was working on a new time-of-flight range sensor with Samsung, and said “we’re trying to catch up to a lot of people.” Pulling up a slide, Fossom described a 2-megapixel color sensor with a time-of-flight sensor inserted inside. “This doesn’t even get announced until February,” he said. Mentioning Sammy’s place in the 3D TV game, Fossum said that there wasn’t enough 3D content available to make 3D sets viable, “We have to enable people to be able to make 3D content before we can sell a lot of 3D TVs.” Between his lecture slides and befuddling words, Fossum suggested that cell phones equipped with 3D color image sensors could fill this content gap, calling it a “vision.” Hold tight to that word, though — Fossum wasn’t exactly crystal clear on what Sammy’s going to do with this technology, or what it’s going to announce in February. What do we know for sure? We need more 3D programming. Well, that and Samsung is going to announce something next year. Hit the break to hear the man in his own words. You can even pretend you’re a Yale student, we won’t judge.

Update: Fossum dropped by to give us a statement. “The RGBZ sensor represents the state of the art in research and development,” he says, “Technical information about this R&D advancement will be reported in February.”

[Thanks, Salem]

Continue reading Eric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages

Eric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Volta BCN electric motorcycle announced, set to go on sale in Q2 2012

Volta BCN electric motorcycle announced, set to go on sale in Q2 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It ain’t the first automaker to do so, but Ford’s taking a step in the ‘stay in your own lane!’ direction with a new technology package for the Explorer. The Driver Alert System is slated to launch in early 2012, and it’ll tout new lane keeping technologies, including a system that can help detect drowsy drivers. The goal here is to keep sleepyheads from destroying lives — be it their own or others — by suggesting that they pull over, rest and have a sip of coffee if they’ve been cruising along for an extended period of time. Furthermore, a camera setup will monitor one’s lane position, and if they drift too far away from the straight and narrow, their steering wheel will vibrate. It all sounds good and well, but the fact that a AAA survey found that over 40 percent of Americans have “fallen asleep or nodded off while driving” makes ‘staying at home’ seem like the sensible choice.

Continue reading Ford’s Driver Alert System keeps you in the right lane, recommends java on occasion

Ford’s Driver Alert System keeps you in the right lane, recommends java on occasion originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Oct 2011 20:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even if you’re not planning on picking up one of Espoo’s latest handsets, Microsoft is also on the scene at Nokia World 2011 giving live demos of the upcoming Xbox Companion remote app for Windows Phone 7. It allows for simple remote control of video playback on one’s console, plus content browsing / search with Bing and other metadata display, as seen in two demo videos from the show floor embedded after the break. Also seen in both of the demo videos? An orange tile suspiciously labeled Vudu Movies, despite the lack of any official announcement that the (currently PS3 exclusive) Wal-mart owned service is coming to Xbox Live. A third demo shows off gaming integration with Kinectimals that lets animals jump back and forth from console to phone. Now that the Xbox 360 will integrate search and playback from more video services than ever after the fall update, we’ll see if the remote app draws Xbox fans to Microsoft’s phone platform.

[Thanks, @AttilaG]

Continue reading Xbox Companion app for WP7 shown off at Nokia World, leaks Vudu integration (video)

Xbox Companion app for WP7 shown off at Nokia World, leaks Vudu integration (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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