Archive for September, 2009
September 30, 2009
Sony Japan has unveiled a new product page for their upcoming Sony Vaio X series notebook, where the Vaio X will be a thin and light notebook that won’t be more than 0.55″ thin, tipping the scales at a mere 1.5 pounds courtesy of its carbon fiber chassis. Be prepared to fork out much more compared to a netbook though, considering this is a Sony product. We heard that the Vaio X will rely on the Intel Atom processor to keep things running from within, and judging by how thin it is, it could possibly run on a fanless design.
Permalink: Sony Vaio X prepped for Japan launch from Ubergizmo | Hot: iPhone 3GS Review
September 30, 2009
LaCie isn’t exactly the first name that comes to mind when you think “sound,” but it’s definitely near the top in the design department. Neil Poulton, the same fellow responsible for designing the outfit’s line of sleek, sexy hard drives, has placed his touch on the speakers you see above. The simplistic Sound2 setup boasts 30 total watts of peak power, and all it requires to function is a free USB port, an open AC outlet and an Earthling kind enough to connect it all. If you just know these would look sound great on your desk, get ready to fork out $99.99 for the privilege.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
LaCie’s Sound2 PC speakers look good… real good originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 30, 2009
Mmm, pancakes. While moms might be responsible for giving us our first taste, it’s the humble robot that makes these golden-brown discs of battered splendor available for mass market binging. A promotional video from ABB Robotics shows how its FlexPicker robots installed at a HoneyTop foods facility can accelerate production while simultaneously improving hygienic conditions. Four gigabit Ethernet cameras are mounted in front of each robot to locate the pancakes running down the conveyor belt. Software allows the bots to recognize and grab overlapping pancakes and then stack the ‘cakes for easy packing. A software reconfig allows for quick production changes from pancakes to pretty much anything the robot can grasp including Soylent Green ration wafers. The video starts slow, but delivers with an impressive 400 pancakes per minute sorting routine — see it after the break.
[Via Make:]
Continue reading Video: ABB FlexPicker replaces human pancake pickers with amazing effect
Filed under: Robots
Video: ABB FlexPicker replaces human pancake pickers with amazing effect originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 29, 2009
It sure took ‘em long enough, but QNAP has finally come around and delivered its NMP-1000 Network Multimedia Player here in the States. If you’ll recall, we actually toyed around with one way back at CeBIT, and while those camped out in Osaka have been enjoying the spoils for months now, the Yanks in attendance have been forced to wait. According to QNAP, the DLNA-compliant media streamer is now shipping in America, though a quick look around our favorite web stores has turned up nothing. We’re sure that’ll be remedied in short order, though.
[Via HotHardware]
Filed under: Home Entertainment
QNAP ships NMP-1000 Network Multimedia Player originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 29, 2009
[Via DailyTech]
Filed under: Software
Windows 7 OEM pricing revealed by Newegg originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 29, 2009
Remember that time when you were just totally stumped for ideas on a new Nike Dunk SB color scheme? Well, if you had a Microsoft Courier — whose interface concepts have now been detailed extensively in a new video on Gizmodo — you’d have little trouble recalling the incident, thanks to fancy tools like an “infinite journal,” “grid” and “search” to keep your little virtual scrapbook in order. On display are new gestures that use both the pen and fingers, and seem a little more obvious and common sense than last time around. Copying and “tucking” an image for instance (clipping it to the black binding in the center) is done with a finger, as is a swipe gesture that pulls up the browser, and another swipe that pulls up the home screen of sorts. The pen is more reserved for annotation and sketching, which seems logical. Your journals of stuff can be shared with browser-bound friends, and even packaged up into a customizable virtual Moleskine, elastic band and all. There are still plenty of missing pieces, like a virtual keyboard or pretty much any apps outside of scrapbooking and web browsing, but this iteration certainly looks a lot less theoretical and complicated than what we’ve seen so far.
Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs
New Microsoft Courier video details tablet interface, exciting life of a shoe designer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 29, 2009
[Via Best Tablet Review]
Continue reading Lighthouse SQ7 MID brings voice recognition to Facebook, Twitter
Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs
Lighthouse SQ7 MID brings voice recognition to Facebook, Twitter originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 28, 2009
Let’s just be brutally honest here: Garmin-Asus’ nuvifone G60 is basically the Duke Nukem of phones. We’ve been following it since before Garmin and ASUS formed their joint venture, since before we we had an inkling of what carriers might pick it up, and before other models running other platforms got thrown under the nuvifone branding umbrella. It’s been a heck of a ride — a ride that seemed exciting for the first year or so, but at this point, the phone’s stretched our patience to the breaking point and set expectations so unrealistically high that it seems virtually impossible that a US launch could quench our thirst for awesomeness. The world will never know with certainty what took so long — maybe it was met with a lukewarm response from carriers, maybe the formation of the joint venture set everything back a bunch of months — but whatever the case, it looks like we’ll finally be able to navigate the G60 right into our hands come October 4 on AT&T. With triband HSDPA, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and microSD expansion, the phone really doesn’t scream “high end,” but AT&T must think that the promise of an authentic Garmin nav experience is enough to command a hefty premium because a two-year deal is going to run $299.99 with a required $30 data plan — and that’s after $100 mail-in rebate. Follow the break for a gander at AT&T’s G60 FAQs for salesfolk.
[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Continue reading Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 finally ready for AT&T: $300 on October 4?
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Handhelds
Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 finally ready for AT&T: $300 on October 4? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We’ve never thought the Kindle DX was ideal for serious studying, and it sounds like the students and teachers in Princeton’s pilot program agree with us — after two weeks of use in three classes, the Daily Princetonian reports many are “dissatisfied and uncomfortable” with their e-readers, with one student calling it “a poor excuse of an academic tool.” Most of the criticisms center around the Kindle’s poor annotation features, which make simple things like highlighting and margin notes almost impossible to use, but even a simple thing like the lack of true page numbers has caused problems, since allowing students to cite the Kindle’s location numbers in their papers is “meaningless for anyone working from analog books.” That’s all led to word that Princeton won’t be bringing the Kindle back to school next year, but we’ll see if Amazon — or anyone else — can address all these complaints before that decision is made final.
[Thanks, Tom]
Filed under: Handhelds
Kindle DX called “poor excuse of an academic tool” in Princeton pilot program originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 28, 2009
In a welcome reversal of trends, Samsung just stuffed a 3G cellphone into a 12 megapixel camera making this M8920 / SCH-W880 more of a camera than most 12 megapixel cameraphones can claim. While this presumed follow-up to Samsung’s Pixon 12 (M8910) isn’t official, the announcement looks imminent based on the leaked collateral above and the spyshots that emerged over the weekend. What’s impressive here is that extending 3x optical zoom — something carried over from the SCH-B600 — and dedicated camera controls like a mode dial, shutter and zoom, and 3.3-inch WVGA AMOLED display. Rounding out the specs are HD (720p presumably) video, HSDPA data, WiFi, GPS, Blueototh, microSD slot, and DMB mobile television; that latter spec making this Korea-only whenever it does launch. See her in the wild after the break.
[Via HDBlog.IT]
Continue reading Samsung’s SCH-W880 12 megapixel phonecamera with 3x optical zoom
Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras
Samsung’s SCH-W880 12 megapixel phonecamera with 3x optical zoom originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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