Hasta La Gadget!

Adding WiFi to a cable set-top box is probably something every geek has thought would be a great idea, but we suspect you and AT&T aren’t on the same page. You were probably thinking it’d be cool to stream viral internet videos to the big screen without switching inputs, or maybe you thought it’d be cool to ditch the cable modem and WiFi access point and feed your laptop internet via the same box you deliver your HD with. Nope, AT&T and Cisco obviously don’t think those are worthy ideas, and instead, this new box simply works without a coax cable. We suppose there’s a market for this as only like 90 percent of TVs have coax running to them already — and no new house is built these days without ’em — but we have tried to stream HD via WiFi and it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that it doesn’t “just work.” Of course the fact that U-Verse’s H.264 streams are pitifully over-compressed should help, but even when you add that to the great performance of 802.11n, we suspect you’d still be better served by a good ol’ copper wire.

Continue reading AT&T and Cisco have WiFi on the cable box backwards

AT&T and Cisco have WiFi on the cable box backwards originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You might have seen Motorola’s WiFi-only Xoom popping up at European e-tailers, but it’s reportedly flying the red, white and blue today, having materialized at Sam’s Club in the good ol’ USA. Droid-Life stumbled upon several snapshots of these Xoom Wi-Fi vouchers, with a $539 price tag hanging above their heads — plenty cheaper than a cellular Xoom, and also slightly more affordable than a similarly specced iPad 2. Of course, Sam’s Club deals in wholesale merchandise, and even should this price be accurate the tablet may not be widely available at the same rate, so don’t count out $599 as the Xoom Wi-Fi’s MSRP. Meanwhile, let us know if you manage to find and ring one up at the register, eh?

[Thanks, Michael]

WiFi-only Motorola Xoom appears at Sam’s Club, bearing $539 price? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Design project paints city’s WiFi networks with light

Design project paints city’s WiFi networks with light originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally Motorola gives us a chance to say something positive about its pricing of the 10.1-inch, Tegra 2-powered Xoom tablet. UK electronics retailer PC World has just put up its Xoom pre-order page, which will surprise many waking Brits with an extremely reasonable £450 ($730) asking price. That’s £60 less than the direct competitor 32GB WiFi-only iPad — the Xoom only has one storage option of 32GB and the model listed here comes without 3G — and perhaps more importantly, is only £10 more than the 16GB version of Apple’s tablet. It’s common knowledge that to take on the iPad empire you’ll have to at the very least match its price, and Moto is doing even better than that in the UK. There’s only one worrying sign, we haven’t been able to place a Xoom into our shopping basket yet, as the “Pre-order today” button seems to be malfunctioning, but we’re guessing that’s a temporary glitch that will be fixed without the price shooting up skywards.

Update: T-Mobile Germany has also revealed its Xoom pricing, this time for the 3G model: €699.95. Distribution will begin at the end of April and T-Mo will have a three-month exclusive on the tablet in its native land. The pricing positions the Xoom a mere 95 Euro cents above the 32GB-equipped iPad WiFi + 3G, meaning that your choice will truly come down to preference and not economics. See T-Mobile’s full press release after the break.

Update 2: The PC World price and pre-order have been pulled. Gulp. Let’s hope they comes back unchanged.

[Thanks, John]

Continue reading Motorola prices WiFi-only Xoom at £450 in the UK (update: €700 in Germany with 3G)

Motorola prices WiFi-only Xoom at £450 in the UK (update: €700 in Germany with 3G) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, by now you’ve seen the PlayStation Certified Qriocity tablet known within Sony as the “S1.” But that’s not the only tablet the venerable Japanese company is preparing to launch in 2011. We’ve been told by a pair of highly trusted and proven sources that Sony is also working on two rather unconventional tablet form factors including a dual-screen Honeycomb clamshell and newfangled Windows 7 tablet slider.

First, let’s look at the clamshell model sporting a pair of 5.5-inch displays — a device first hinted at in a 2010 Sony patent application titled “Electronic Book with Enhanced Features.” However, unlike the patent’s blocky illustration, we’re told that Sony’s clamshell — known as the “S2” internally — more closely resembles an oval cylinder when closed as depicted in the illustration above. Spec-wise, we’re told that it will be very similar in performance to the S1 with a Tegra 2 SoC and WiFi + 3G radio on the inside and front- and rear-facing cameras on the outside. And like the S1 tablet, the S2 will be focused on delivering Qriocity media to the consumer. Sorry, no word on whether the S2 is PlayStation Certified. Obviously, the S2 won’t be running stock Honeycomb — instead, Sony is currently optimizing the Android OS to make the most of those two displays. One source reports having seen Gmail running on a demonstration prototype where the list of messages is displayed on one screen with the body of the selected message displayed on the other. Maps, we’re told, will display the map graphic on one display with the detailed turn-by-turn instructions or Streetview displayed on the other. Likewise, the S2 will display a video and picture navigation menu on one half of the clamshell with the selected content blown-up to fill the screen of the other. We’re also told that these apps will work in a variety of orientations. Sounds interesting, to say the least. Regrettably, our sources are less than enthusiastic. Click through to find out why.

Continue reading Exclusive: Sony ‘S2’ dual-screen Android clamshell and 9.4-inch Windows 7 VAIO slider due this year

Exclusive: Sony ‘S2’ dual-screen Android clamshell and 9.4-inch Windows 7 VAIO slider due this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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