Archive for December, 2008
December 26, 2008
We first caught wind of Mercedes Benz’s Attention Assist system just over a year ago, but new details have emerged that pin the E-Class as the first model to bring the innovative tech to well-heeled buyers. By monitoring brainwaves, Mercedes’ engineers were able to identify approximately 70 parameters that can be used to judge fatigue. The whole system, however, depends upon a much more accurate steering sensor that can pick up on sluggishness or other behaviors which could indicate drowsiness or distraction. When the system deems you to be sufficiently distracted or sleepy, it beeps loudly and displays a coffee cup in the dashboard, indicating that a little caffeine is the only thing standing between you and a safe journey. We’re not sure how this will effect our plans to plow our $60,000 car into a snow drift because we were listening to Music for Airports, but we figure we’ll find out soon enough.
Filed under: Transportation
Mercedes’ E-Class to get Attention Assist, still won’t need assistance in getting your attention originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 01:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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December 25, 2008
A nasty rumor had been making the rounds about Intel, something along the lines of it wouldn’t sell its Atom CPUs to netbook vendors without its 945 chipset in tow. If true, the move would essentially act to block graphical entrants such as NVIDIA from making a move into the netbook GPU space. An unnamed Intel spokesman chimed in on the whispers today by outrightly denying the claims, telling InternetNews that “there is nothing preventing vendors from using [NVIDIA's] Ion platform; [Intel] sells Atom as a standalone processor, or as a package with chipset.” ‘Course, it’s not like Intel hasn’t pulled similar tricks before, and to say that the chip maker’s relationship with NVIDIA has been dysphoric is understating things dramatically. Still, it sounds as if the company’s in the clear here, but we’re still waiting to see a wicked Atom + Ion combo in a shipping product before we believe the hatchet is entirely buried.
Filed under: Laptops
Intel put the kibosh on anti-Ion hubbub, welcomes standalone Atom sales originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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December 25, 2008
We hope that when you awoke today and made your bleary-eyed trip to the tree, you ended up unwrapping some of the fine, fine gadgets that we’re always showing off. Sure, you’re happy to be spending time with your family, and you’re just enjoying the season of giving for it’s totally non-commercial, traditional reasons — but we’d like to know if you made out like a bandit or not. Tell us what you did (or didn’t) get in the comments below, and one more time… enjoy those 50 kids freaking the hell out over getting a Wii.
When you’re done, check out what people got excited about in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.
Continue reading So, what’d you get?
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
So, what’d you get? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
December 25, 2008
Starting early next year, Nintendo will be joining the ranks of its fellow console makers in offering a video distribution service through the Wii. According to Nikkei business daily, The House of Mario will team up with Dentsu, Inc. to offer cartoons and other programs created specifically for the service, and since they’re using the phrase “new revenue stream,” we doubt it’s gonna be offered gratis. Videophiles shouldn’t expect much magic, either, given the console’s 512MB memory limit and 480p max resolution. The service will launch first in Japan and head overseas later. Hey Nintendo, if you really want to emulate your competition, how about an online social network that doesn’t require long strings of integers?
Filed under: Gaming
Video distribution coming to Japan Wiis early 2009, overseas later originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 06:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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December 25, 2008
It wouldn’t be as much of an icebreaker as saying you have a bionic eye, but University of Colorado Hospital’s Jeffrey Olson has developed a procedure for improving eyesight that involves injecting nano-sized semiconductors called “quantum dots” into the retina. These dots stimulate electrical activity in working parts of the eye and slows degradation in the rest, and early tests on rats have been shown to successfully increase perception. Although intended for those with damaged vision, this might be just the thing for watching your neighbors’ HBO from the comforts of your windowsill — hey, we won’t judge you.
[Via New Scientist]
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
New nanotechnology augments vision, optic blasts not included originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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December 24, 2008
This year, all I really wanted for the holidays was the perfect smartphone. Not too much to ask for, right? You’d think, but all I ended up with was constant swapping between 3 (or more) devices, hoping to find some balance of features that worked for me. Instead of one “go to” phone, I juggled the iPhone 3G, T-Mobile G1, and BlackBerry Bold for the last few months, desperately wishing I could merge them into one perfect device. I shall now break down my hopes for the upcoming year, with a prayer in my little old heart that manufacturers are listening.
Continue reading Editorial: All I wanted this year was the best smartphone ever
Filed under: Cellphones
Editorial: All I wanted this year was the best smartphone ever originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Having already seen it run Crysis, we’ve been itching to know if Fujitsu Siemens’ AMILO Sa 3650 laptop and GraphicBooster had any other tricks up their sleeves. The Notebookcheck crew ran the dynamic duo through some tests and found it to be an impressive pairing, although the laptop itself takes a few jabs for shoddy case design, stiff touchpad keys and an underperforming AMD processor. By its lonesome, the integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU is better than the usual Intel GMA fare, but the GraphicBooster and an external monitor puts this machine nearly on par with a decent desktop rig. Without that external monitor, however, the GraphicBooster only provides marginal improvements to the laptop’s performance, due to limitations in the bandwidth connecting the add-on to the port. The second display is connected directly to the booster via DVI-I or HDMI. An asking price of 1300 Euros (US $1,810) seems a bit steep to us, but they say it’s worth the premium, calling it an “unprecedented fusion of performance and mobility.” Hit up the read link for a full analysis.
[Thanks, Jamil]
FSC Amilo Sa 3650 laptop and GraphicBooster tested, deemed flawed but synergistic originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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December 24, 2008
Maintain your traction this winter with these MICROspikes slip-on spikes for your shoes. Unlike your hard-core crampons which have to be strapped and tightened to your shoes, the MICROspikes slip on easily over your boots or running shoes and will improve your grip on ice, snow or even wet rocks, concrete and scree. The [...]
December 23, 2008
Shazam is a mobile music application provider that has recently included 2G iPod touch support to its iPhone application, and to date the existing Shazam application has already seen action in over 3 million iPhones. Some of the new features available in this copy of Shazam will include artist information, discographies, biographies, track and album reviews. Nice to see developers take pains to make their software compatible across a wide range of devices.
Permalink: Shazam Offers iPod touch Support from Ubergizmo (US, FR) | Good deals | Hot: CES 2009, Jan 6-11
December 23, 2008
Ever since Sony’s XEL-1 hit the market, pundits have pointed to the (comparatively) short-lived blue OLED material as its biggest hamstring. Researchers have been toiling around the clock in order to bring the blue lifepsan in line with its green and red siblings, and now it seems like a team of Gators are that much closer to the promise land. Reportedly, a gaggle of whiz-kids from the University of Florida have “achieved a new record in efficiency of blue organic light-emitting diodes, and because blue is essential to white light, the advance helps overcome a hurdle to lighting that is much more efficient than compact fluorescents.” Franky So (pictured) and his diligent crew were able to reach a peak blue OLED efficiency of 50 lumens per watt, which is halfway to his goal of at least 100 lumens per watt. Hurry it up, folks — CES is just around the corner.
[Via Physorg]
Researchers achieve new efficiency record of blue OLEDs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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