Hasta La Gadget!

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The first thing worth noting about Sifteo Cubes — which recently became available for pre-order at $149 for a starter pack of three that should start shipping this month — is that they are not geometrically true to their name. Their square surfaces sit atop depths that are less than half their side length, so even stacking two Cubes won’t produce three-dimensional symmetry. They are a little smaller than the game pieces from the much more limited and less expensive Scrabble Flash digital letter-arranging game that was a hit last holiday season.

The pieces fit comfortably between two fingers for easy gripping, flipping and rearranging, which you’ll need to do a lot of in their various games. They are also a good size to substitute for many handheld playthings, reminding one of overstuffed Mahjongg tiles but also akin to shrunken toddlers’ alphabet blocks or playing cards. The sides and back are otherwise nondescript except for a set of contacts on their rear used for charging. Sifteo Cubes are charged via their tray, which showcases them through a translucent plastic top with room for three more Cubes at $45 each. Different games derive different levels of benefit from having more than three tiles, but most work fine with the starter set.

Continue reading Switched On: A toy for the smartphone gaming generation

Switched On: A toy for the smartphone gaming generation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Belkin today unveiled a handful of new products aimed at making your TV a bit more streamy. The ScreenCast AV 4 lets you stream content from devices like Blu-ray players to an HDTV without the need for an HDMI cable. The transmitter plugs into the source device and the receiver plugs into the TV, making it possible to watch 1080p video wirelessly. The ScreenCast AV 4 will run $249.99 when it hits next month. The company’s Universal HDTV Adapter and Universal Wireless AV Adapter, meanwhile, offer up wireless for TVs, making it possible to stream content with dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The Universal Wireless HDTV Adapter offers up streaming for a single Internet-ready set, while the Universal Wireless AV Adapter works with up to four AV devices. Both are available this month, and will run you $79.99 and $99.99, respectively. More info on all three after the break.

Continue reading Belkin announces a trio of new products to help your HDTV get its stream on

Belkin announces a trio of new products to help your HDTV get its stream on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in February researchers at Stanford first taunted us with the possibility of simultaneous, two-way data transmission on the same frequency. Now some folks at Rice University are edging full-duplex communication closer to reality. By the time carriers get around to rolling out 4.5G networks, engineers could potentially double throughput without adding more cell towers and using only existing mobile hardware. With an extra antenna and some fancy software tricks, which allow the device to ignore locally produced signals, the Rice team was able to produce a connection ten-times stronger than previously published studies. Since the technology is based on existing MIMO setups, it may also prove the shortest route to asynchronous full-duplex transmissions. That means you’ll be able to upload ill advised videos of your drunken antics (and suffer the consequences) that much faster, without having to pause the latest Maru clip. Check out the PR after the break.

[Image credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University]

Continue reading Researchers demo full-duplex wireless: double the throughput with no new towers

Researchers demo full-duplex wireless: double the throughput with no new towers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally, a HomeShare speaker with built-in AirPlay for wireless streaming from your iThing or Apple TV. It’ll cost you though: when the NS500 arrives in stores around late October or early November you can expect to see a booming $399 price tag strapped around its logarithmic neck. Sony assures us you’ll get some heavyweight audio for that money, thanks to four drivers and a sub-woofer positioned in a “unilateral manner” to pump David Guetta into every nook and cranny. We’ll hold out for some proper review time to tell you just how good he sounds.

Sony SA-NS500 HomeShare speaker knows how to work a room originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uncle Sam says no to AT&T eating up T-Mobile: The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust suit against AT&T, Bloomberg reports. Things just got real. More »