Archive for February, 2010
February 28, 2010
This one slipped under our radar this week, but it’s interesting nonetheless: Apple’s filed for a “Magic Trackpad” trademark, which would seemingly indicate that there’s a companion to the Magic Mouse in the works. That’s all we know for now, but recall that John Gruber at Daring Fireball hinted that Apple was working on a “multi-touch trackpad gadget for desktop Macs” back in October just before the revised white MacBook was released. Obviously nothing’s come of that yet, but it all seems to fit — either that, or Apple’s trademark attorneys are just trying to cover their bases. We’ll see what happens.
Apple files for Magic Trackpad trademark originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MacRumors | 
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February 28, 2010
What’s better than one hands-on report to whet your appetite ahead of the release of a new gadget? Why, two of them, of course, and it’s the convertible ASUS T101MT getting the stereo impressions. The machine has netbook specs (1.6GHz Atom N450 CPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, etc. etc.) combined with a 10.1-inch multitouch screen, which both of the sites giving early impressions rated poorly. Responsiveness is said to be less than stellar, and while one of these previewers was able to improve it with some extra calibration, precision near the top of the screen still sounds bad. Build quality looks good (for an Eee) and the form factor certainly looks nice, but we’re losing a little faith in this entrant after watching the video below. Check it out for yourself and see what you think, but don’t write it off just yet: these are still pre-production models and a little firmware magic could whip this tablet into shape before its release — whenever that will be.
Continue reading ASUS Eee PC T101MT convertible gets handled twice (video)
ASUS Eee PC T101MT convertible gets handled twice (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Touchscreen Tablet, netbooklive.net | Email this | Comments
What’s cute, cuddly, and makes all sorts of bizarro noises when it senses wireless waves? Yoshi Akai’s Wireless Catcher, of course! This analog synth contraption is simplistic in nature and complex in design, utilizing an onboard antenna to sense WiFi signals and then alter the sounds being outputted depending on signal strength and direction. It’s not exactly the symphony that Bach forgot to write, but it’s certainly beautiful in its own nerdy way. Have a look at the video past the break, won’t you?
Continue reading Yoshi Akai’s Wireless Catcher senses nearby wireless waves, makes music (video)
Yoshi Akai’s Wireless Catcher senses nearby wireless waves, makes music (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Engadget German, MAKE | Yoshi AKAI | Email this | Comments
Apple’s famous desire for total control over its operations seems to have extended to its manufacturing facilities as we’ve come across Cupertino’s Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report, which details audits the American company has done of its overseas suppliers and the failures identified therein. The findings are pretty damning on the whole, with more than half (54 percent) of all factories failing to meet Apple’s already inflated maximum 60-hour work week, 24 percent paying less than the minimum wage, 37 percent failing to respect anti-discrimination rules, and three facilities holding records of employing a total of eleven 15-year olds (who were over the legal age of 16 or had left by the time of the audit). Apple is, predictably, not jazzed about the situation, and has taken action through train-the-trainer schemes, threats of business termination with recidivist plants, and — most notably — the recovery of $2.2 million in recruitment fees that international contract workers should not have had to pay.
It should come as no shock to learn that cheaper overseas factories are cutting illegal corners, but it’s disappointing to hear Apple’s note that most of the 102 audited manufacturers said Cupertino was the only vendor to perform such rigorous compliance checks. Still, we’ll take what we can get and the very existence of this report — which can be savagely skewed to defame Apple’s efforts (as demonstrated expertly by The Daily Telegraph below) — is an encouraging sign that corporate responsibility is being taken seriously. We hope, wherever your geek loyalties and fervor may lie, that you’ll agree Apple’s leading in the right direction and that its competitors should at the very least have matching monitoring schemes. They may have to swallow some bad PR at first, but sweeping up the dirty details of where gadgets come from is juvenile and has no place in a civilized world. Hit the source link for the full report.
Apple supplier audit reveals sub-minimum wage pay and records of underage labor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink The Daily Telegraph | Apple (PDF) | Email this | Comments
Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman just pulled off a little surprise here at The Engadget Show: he brought out LG’s Windows Phone 7 Series early prototype! The QWERTY slider is the first branded Windows Phone 7 Series device the world’s ever seen, and while the hardware and software are both obviously early, we can tell you a few things about it: it’s just a hair thicker than an iPhone or Nexus One, there are dedicated hardware camera, volume, and power buttons in addition to the back, home, and search buttons dictated by Windows Phone 7 Series, and we noticed a five megapixel camera with a flash on the back, along with a headphone jack. Can’t say much apart from that right now, since things are so early and everything is subject to change, but things are certainly moving along. It’s all going down on the show right now — see it on video after the break!
Continue reading Exclusive: LG’s Windows Phone 7 Series early prototype unveiled (with video!)
Exclusive: LG’s Windows Phone 7 Series early prototype unveiled (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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February 27, 2010
What better way to start your Saturday afternoon than with another Nexus One release rumor. Without further ado, today we’ve got whispers care of Neowin that the recently-FCC’d CDMA device is launching on Verizon’s network March 23rd, perfect timing for the beginning of CTIA. And while that fits pretty neatly into that initial “Spring 2010″ launch window, there’s really no way for us to corroborate at this point other than just taking their word for it. You can wait diligently, can’t ya?
Nexus One coming to Verizon March 23rd? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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February 27, 2010
No leaks or release date rumors this time, a mere 39mb download is all that separates your Sprint, O2 or Movistar connected Pre from video recording, Flash, enhanced message notifications and much-desired performance and battery life improvements. Verizon, Bell and Telcel customers are unfortunately still waiting for their day in the sun, only specified by the official Palm blog as “soon.” Check out Palm’s trailer for the new features and the full webOS 1.4 changelog after the break, after queueing up the download of course.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading Palm’s webOS 1.4 update now available for Sprint, O2 and Movistar phones
Palm’s webOS 1.4 update now available for Sprint, O2 and Movistar phones originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You might have the vaguest of memories seeing this piece before — it made a cameo in an Engadget Show segment — but here we are with a much clearer picture of Adafruit Industries’ Monochron clock, now also on sale! As is its modus operandi, the timepiece is open source… but should you plan on sticking to default, you’ll be gifted with a great retro-style Table Tennis for two. The best part? The time changes whenever the clock “loses” — something tells us that gives one side at least a 59-to-1 advantage. See for yourself after the break.
Continue reading Adafruit’s Monochron retro clock now on sale, changes time with every match point
Adafruit’s Monochron retro clock now on sale, changes time with every match point originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 26, 2010
The same Adobe employee who mentioned on Adobe’s official forums that Flash 10.1 would be blowing right past Windows Mobile 6.5 made another notable comment, too: on Android, they’ll be conveniently overlooking devices that aren’t based on an ARMv7 core like a Snapdragon or OMAP3 — in other words, pretty much every device of consequence except the Nexus One, HTC Desire, Acer Liquid, Motorola Droid / Milestone, and Sony Ericsson X10. At this point, we’re starting to get a little suspicious — this is the same company that proudly demoed the Hero’s custom-rolled Flash support last year, after all, and there’ll be no shortage of devices using Qualcomm’s MSM7×27 line of chipsets in 2010 — so we’re holding out for some additional verification on this. Granted, forum mod Jochem van Dieten refers to the commenter specifically as an Adobe employee and he’s got a Plaxo profile identifying him as a product manager, but this is pretty wild news if accurate. We’ll update you as we know more.
Flash 10.1 snubbing non-ARMv7 Android devices, too? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
February 26, 2010
These days you wouldn’t jump behind the controls of a real plane without logging a few hours on the simulator, and so we’re glad to hear that doctors no longer have to grab the controls of a da Vinci surgical robot without performing some virtual surgeries first. The Center for Robotic Surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the University of Buffalo School of Engineering have collaborated to create RoSS, the Robotic Surgical Simulator. Unlike our Ross, who works odd hours and covers fuel cell unveils with innate skill, this RoSS allows doctors to slice and dice virtual patients without worrying about any messy cleanups — or messy lawsuits. We’re guessing it’ll be awhile before consumer versions hit the market, but just in case we’ve gone ahead and put our pre-orders in for the prostate expansion to Microsoft Cutting Sim 2014[TM].
Robotic Surgical Simulator lets doctors sharpen their skills by operating on polygons originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
