You may have gifts for every family member under your Yuletide tree, but we're willing to bet you haven't given much thought to your trusty media center PC. Thankfully, the open-source community once again has a ready-made present, ready to be loaded right now -- the 10.0 release of XBMC, filled with goodies and toys. It's available for Windows, Linux, Mac and even the original Apple TV, and brings a brand-new add-on manager that lets you extend functionality and improve appearance right from the UI. There's also hardware acceleration for every platform, including special consideration for nettops sporting NVIDIA ION 2 or Broadcom Crystal HD chips, and even the underpinnings of support for Windows 7 touchscreens, ARM processors and OpenGL ES 2.0. The catalog of improvements is honestly rather staggering, so rather than read them all here, you can follow our source links to the full changelog and download pages, while we try to spread the Christmahanukwanzaakah cheer.
So here's the deal: the UK Meningitis Trust wants to help raise awareness about the disease it's dedicated to battling and has a 30-strong male voice choir at its disposal to do it with. How does it reach the widest possible audience? If your ideas include namedropping every major social media site set up over the last decade, a nod to the iPhone versus Android dichotomy, and the use of Yahoo as a bad pun, then you must be the guy responsible for putting together the video after the break. Congratulations, it's awesome. The behind-the-scenes footage with these old crooners isn't too terrible either.
The UK price for the Nexus S just became a whole lot (nearly 22 percent) more attractive, thanks to the Carphone Warehouse slashing the SIM-free purchase option to a sweet £429.99 ($668). Contract-saddled pricing has also taken a tumble, as the Nexus S can now be had for free on two-year agreements costing £30 ($47) per month. Good news all around, then, but be aware that the handset is now listed as being on back order, having been "in stock" earlier in the week. Speaking of delays, we're also hearing Best Buy's guaranteed Christmas delivery -- something proudly signposted on the Nexus S online order page -- might very well miss Santa's delivery window. A couple of our readers have received emails from the retailer advising them that their Gingerbread packages will be shipped "within the next 1-2 weeks," but might not get there by December 24th. So happy holidays and best of luck!
Those crazy cats at Google have been tinkerin' with the search results quite a bit lately: in addition to the old standbys (malware notifications, updated image search), the company has recently rolled out Instant Search, Instant Preview... and now? That's right: hacked site notifications in the search results. According to the Webmaster Central blog, the company uses "a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of a hacked site," and if you have a Webmaster Tools account you'll even be notified of the breach. Hit the source link for more info.
Panasonic's plasma sets get most of the attention, and perhaps rightfully so, but it's actually the company's new LCD lineup for Japan that can help you make use of your woefully neglected SDXC cards. In addition to compiling terrestrial HDTV footage on a standard external hard drive, the Panasonic Viera G3 and X3 can record to a new SD card slot as well, archiving up to five hours of 1080p footage on a 'standard' 64GB SDXC card. We put 'standard' in quotes because while that's presently the typical capacity for that particular designation of flash, it'll still cost you upwards of $200 to get in on the ground floor, and that's a pittance compared to what Panasonic's charging for its own. Who said magnetic storage was dead? If Tokyo's where you hang your hat, expect both the G3 and X3 series to hit stores near you in February of next year.
We know all about the great woes that can befall a company when it tries to integrate an antenna into the body of its product, so we couldn't resist covering Chevrolet's latest attempt to do the same -- but on a larger scale. Early versions of the 2011 drop-top Camaro found themselves rolling out and about with a rather unsightly appendage hanging off the rear, a big whip antenna that was a little too genuinely retro to go with the machine's throwback styling cues. On hardtop Camaros the antenna is integrated into the rear windshield but, given the disappearing nature of this car's roof, that wasn't possible here. For help GM turned to two dedicated Antenna Engineers, Don Hibbard and Gregg Kittinger, who managed to find a way to bury the unsightly thing inside the svelte spoiler perched on the rear deck lid. Problem solved -- well, except that XM and OnStar require a separate shark fin that can sadly still be seen hanging out on the trunk. Maybe the 2012 model will be totally fresh and clean.
Show full PR text
Chevy Turns to Ham Radio Geek for Antenna Solution
Camaro Convertible is on his wavelength
2010-12-17
DETROIT – When spy shots surfaced of the pre-production version of the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible, an outcry went up among Camaro enthusiasts over the AM/FM whip antenna positioned on the rear deck lid.
Quite simply, they hated it.
Chevrolet was quick to respond, commissioning a self-described antenna freak named Don Hibbard to find a way to fix it. "Antennas are a beautiful thing to me," says Hibbard, an antenna test performance engineer.
Engineers working on Camaro are passionate to drive perfection into every aspect of the vehicle. Hibbard and colleague Gregg Kittinger had to do what some thought was impossible: conceal the AM/FM antenna without sacrificing radio reception, while not putting it inside the Camaro's windows. The two, who share three other patents, happily accepted the challenge.
"We weren't sure that it would be possible," said Kittinger. "Typically antennas are hidden in a vehicle's rear window, but with a retractable soft-top roof, that's not an option."
So they came up with a novel approach – hide the antenna inside the rear spoiler. No one had tried that on a Chevrolet before because of the hit to radio reception.
"We responded to a legitimate criticism from devoted Chevrolet Camaro enthusiasts and in 10 months found an innovative way to improve the overall aesthetics of the vehicle without sacrificing performance and quality," said Kittinger.
While the shark fin antenna that transmits XM Satellite Radio, OnStar and cellular signals is still present on the car's deck lid, the built-in spoiler antenna eliminates the need for a longer, separate whip antenna to receive AM and FM radio signals.
Hibbard, a lifelong Ham radio enthusiast, says the unorthodox placement of the antenna within the body of the vehicle created a number of technical challenges, such as balancing form by preserving the car's styling and function of unimpeded audio reception.
"Where other automakers have tried and failed, Chevy succeeded," said Hibbard. "We hope to take what we've learned with the Camaro Convertible, build on it and apply it to future vehicles."
The 2011 Camaro Convertible arrives in dealer showrooms this February.
About Chevrolet
Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers "gas-friendly" solutions, such as Chevrolet Cruze Eco with an EPA-estimated 42 miles per gallon highway, and the Chevrolet Volt offering 35 miles of electric driving and an additional 344 miles of extended gasoline range, according to EPA estimates. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
CES is no stranger to larger-than-life display installations, but as this whole "social networking" thing continues to blossom, it looks as if next year's megawall will be integrating with none other than Twitter. Designed by Finland's own MultiTouch, the Multitouch Twitter Wall will consist of "at least" six MultiTouch Cell 46 displays, each of which checks in at 46-inches wide. The whole shebang will offer onlookers at the show the ability to open tweets, move them around and give them a perfect opportunity to blow off steam while having their minds blitzed by the sheer quantity of news associated with the #CES tag. We'll be sure to give it a look once we touch down in the great southwest next month, but till then, you can get a taste by mashing play below.
[Thanks, André]
Show full PR text
MULTITOUCH LTD. DEVELOPS FIRST MULTITOUCH TWITTER WALL
MultiTouch to Produce Official 2011 International CES Twitter Wall; Visual, Moving Twitter Spheres Display Tweets in Real Time; Users Can Access Photos; Positional Speakers Deliver High-Quality Audio
FOR RELEASE ON: MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2010
HELSINKI –MultiTouch, Ltd., developer of the world's first modular multi-touch LCD screen for large-scale displays, today announced the release of the industry's first large-scale multitouch, multi-user Twitter wall application. The MultiTouch Twitter Wall consists of at least six MultiTouch Cell 46 Advanced displays, 46 inches wide, in a 3 x 2 (three long, two high) configuration that visually displays tweets from selected hashtags and keywords. Users of the MultiTouch Twitter Wall can open tweets, represented on a rotating sphere, by touching a profile image and moving, or resizing, the tweet on the display. The MultiTouch Twitter Wall offers alternate views on the spheres that enable images from Flickr to be displayed, searchable with a keyword, as well. Using Panphonics Sound Shower® directional loudspeakers, the MultiTouch Twitter Wall can further engage users with positional audio from tweets and other content displayed.
MultiTouch will produce the Official 2011 International CES Twitter Wall in Las Vegas, January 6-9, in the North Hall lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center, with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which will incorporate Twitter feeds from CES – including the official #CES tag – as well as 2011 CES news from show attendees, bloggers, and exhibitors, and will curate stills and video content from the show as well. Photos and videos of the MultiTouch Twitter Wall are available, respectively, at http://multitouch.fi/about-2/photos/ and http://multitouch.fi/about-2/videos/.
Ideally suited for large public events, the MultiTouch Twitter Wall automatically pools together and visualizes the "buzz" of an event, offering a real-time collaboration platform which engages users tweeting from mobile devices. The MultiTouch Twitter Wall was originally developed as a complementary application for the MultiTouch Cell 46 Advanced product, which is the first multitouch display designed for retail and digital signage applications.
As many users as can physically fit simultaneously in front of the MultiTouch Twitter Wall can use the wall. The MultiTouch Twitter Wall complements the existing MultiTouch Cell system, which can display text, video, and interactive drawing applications.
"We have created the first large-scale display application for Twitter, which is ideal for a public multitouch, multi-user display system," said Petri Martikainen, CEO of MultiTouch Ltd. "Social media and user-generated content are as much a part of the multitouch display experience as archival content, and the MultiTouch Twitter Wall enables greater access to the curated real-time media stream, in a tactile and enlightening way."
The MultiTouch Cell 46 Advanced is a 46-inch display that, at only 30 cm (12 inches) deep, and 37 kg (82 pounds), is designed for standard VESA mounting for more flexible public installation. The product's improved brightness and smooth borders offer aesthetically appealing and flexible configurations, including MultiTouch's unique asymmetric table or wall display patterns.
"Digital signage networks need to live in the same space as the consumers to which they convey information; iPhone, iPad, and other multitouch devices are in the hands of millions of consumers, and public displays need to complement these activities with more sophisticated multitouch applications," said Hannu Anttila, vice president of sales for MultiTouch. "Our system enables customers to complement their own application suites, and we expect to see further developments along the social media multitouch front going forward."
The MultiTouch Cell 46 Advanced is designed for high-resolution HD applications, and can be programmed for sophisticated augmented reality applications, including 2D barcode, tag, and marker readers.
MultiTouch's patented computer vision system, which reads up to 100 frames per second in bright daylight or dark environments, is complemented by software that elegantly translates touch into the programming experience, creating multitouch displays that can read unlimited touch points, including hands, fingers, fingertips and 2D Markers. MultiTouch Cornerstone software allows for flexible multi-platform application development.
Introduced to the global market in 2009, the MultiTouch Cell product family has been sold in more than 30 countries, and installed in some of the most prominent international venues, including the recent Wall of Chile installation at the Chilean Pavilion at the Expo 2010 Shanghai China. The Cell products are used for broadcast, retail, advertising, exhibitions, museums, education and design.
For more information, please visit www.multitouch.fi, as well as the MultiTouch YouTube channel at youtube.com/multitouchfi and twitter.com/multitouchfi for further MultiTouch updates.
As promised, Notion Ink has just released a video of the Adam tablet in action, complete with that snazzy new Eden UI -- the first anyone's seen of the device since its first working prototype. While the footage itself is of disappointingly low quality, it seems to show a device somewhat worthy of the hype, with a responsive screen, a multitask-friendly interface and plug 'n play peripherals -- though we're holding out for Pixel Qi screen tests and some closeup shots before we place any orders ourselves. Notion Ink singled out vocal critic AndroidPolice to launch the (seemingly incomplete) video and gave the publication an exclusive interview too, so take your lingering doubts about the tablet's capabilities and head on down to our source links.
Update: Now in 720p!
Update 2: There's a brand-new video after the break, showing off more Eden UI, a speedy PDF reader, and the Adam's virtual keyboard -- and reportedly all shot in daylight to boot.
With Gingerbread freely distributed to the open-source masses, it probably won't surprise you to hear there already a custom ROM for Google's darling Nexus One. But what if we told you Android 2.3 is now available for the HTC HD2 as well? That's right, the Windows Mobile 6.5 powerhouse can now snap off a sugary piece of the same Android code, and from what we hear in the XDA-developers forums, it works pretty decently, too. Like the Samsung Galaxy S we saw getting the green tie treatment this morning, the HTC HD2 and Nexus One don't exactly have stable, fully functional builds, but as long as you know what you're doing and don't need petty luxuries like cameras, GPS receivers and official Google apps, you'll probably be just fine. Find files and a modicum of instruction at our source links below.
This RED EPIC belongs to Mark Pederson -- the head of studio OffHollywood -- who was apparently the very first one to drop $58,000 for the pre-production 5K camera, not to mention the first to lay down money for the original one. In case you've arranged to find yourself with a similarly jawdropping Christmas present in the mail, you can find pictures of what to expect at our source links below. The links will also do quite nicely if you haven't experienced that feeling called "jealousy" in a while and would like a refresher course.
We have no idea why Samsung's having such a hard time delivering its overdue promised Froyo upgrades worldwide for the Galaxy S series, but it's not looking any easier for them this weekend: the only Canadian Galaxy S to get upgraded so far, Bell's Vibrant, has just had its update pulled. Seems a healthy number of users attempting the upgrade using Sammy's Kies desktop software ended up with inaccessible internal storage, which sucks for a variety of obvious reasons -- and that would be the apparent reason for the removal of the update. Here's the official statement:
"There have been intermittent issues reported during the firmware upgrade process with Kies for the Samsung Galaxy S i9000M series of phones. Samsung's development team is currently aware of this issue and working towards a solution. Accordingly, The firmware update feature, which affects the ability to upgrade to Android 2.2, is temporarily disabled until a solution is released. We apologize for the inconvenience."
You might have heard how careless some third-party apps can be with your personal data, but it may not yet have hit home -- offenders can include must-have programs like MySpace and Pandora, too. The Wall Street Journal tested 101 popular apps for iPhone and Android and discovered that over half transmitted unique device identifiers (UDID) to a flock of advertisers without so much as a prompt, and that some (including Pandora) even transmitted a user's age, gender and location to better target their marks. Now, before you boycott your favorite music apps, you might want to hear the other side of the story, which is that all this data is typically processed in batches and anonymized so that advertisers can't necessarily separate you from the crowd. However, the worry is that there may be little stopping nefarious individuals from creating a database that links your UDID to all this other data you send out. It's a juicy proposition for targeted advertising, sure, but also potentially real-world crime, so we doubt this will be the last we hear of UDID privacy scares.
Though it's standing firm on the definition of its original 4G specification -- IMT-Advanced -- which only WiMAX 2 and LTE-Advanced are currently capable of meeting, the ITU is easing off its earlier rhetroic, admitting that the term "4G" realistically could apply "to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMAX, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed." The whole dust-up started when carriers around the world deploying LTE and WiMAX networks (ahem, Sprint and Verizon) were throwing the "4G" term around very, very loosely -- and to their credit, the networks are indisputably a generation beyond CDMA2000 and UMTS / HSPA, so if anything, we'd fault the ITU for leaving today's modern networks without a generation to call their own. The "evolved 3G technologies" verbiage in the ITU's statement would seemingly even leave room for T-Mobile USA's claim that its 21Mbps HSPA+ network constitutes 4G... so yeah, score one for marketing campaigns. Of course, none of these carriers had ever planned to bow to the ITU's recommendations anyway, so the ruling has little practical relevance -- just know that the true 4G speeds are still a few years off.
It's like a Cruz Tablet, but with a T301 thrown into the mix. All jesting aside, we'd wager that the vast majority of simpletons wouldn't spot the differences between the existing Cruz Tablet and the T301 at a glance, and honestly, we wish Velocity Micro would've done a little work to remedy that. For whatever reason, the 7-inch slate is shipping with Android 2.0, and while the 800 x 600 capacitive touchpanel sounds lovely indeed, it's hard to get riled up for such a stale operating system. For those unconcerned with the luxuries present in Eclair and Froyo, there's an 802.11n WiFi radio, built-in Kindle app and a user replaceable Li-Ion battery that could last up to ten hours on a good day... or so the company says. Without question, the highlight here is the price -- at just $249.99, it's definitely creeping down into LCD e-reader territory, with a lot of bells and whistles to boot. She's shipping today if you're so inclined.
Been waiting to order an ExoPC here in the US of A? Well, today is your day -- ExoPC has just announced that it's teamed up with Microsoft's very own store to bring you the 11.6-inch Windows 7 tablet. There's only one configuration at the moment, but $699 buys you a rather thin 0.5-inch slate with 64GB of flash storage, an Intel Atom N450 processor, 2GB of RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium with ExoPC's unique UI layer, and a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera. As for that UI, ExoPC just told us that a major update should be coming next week and that it'll amend a number of issues we had with our early review unit. The slate is currently up for pre-order on the Microsoft Store website, but we're told it will start shipping out early next week. And if you're waiting to check it out in person before pulling out the plastic, we hear they should be arriving in all those Microsoft retail locations soon -- apparently, San Diego and Scottsdale already have 'em in stock. Hey, looks like Mr. Ballmer was right, we will have Win 7 tablets this "crucial holiday season."
With Gingerbread freely distributed to the open-source masses, it probably won't surprise you to hear there already a custom ROM for Google's darling Nexus One. But what if we told you Android 2.3 is now available for the HTC HD2 as well? That's right, the Windows Mobile 6.5 powerhouse can now snap off a sugary piece of the same Android code, and from what we hear in the XDA-developers forums, it works pretty decently, too. Like the Samsung Galaxy S we saw getting the green tie treatment this morning, the HTC HD2 and Nexus One don't exactly have stable, fully functional builds, but as long as you know what you're doing and don't need petty luxuries like cameras, GPS receivers and official Google apps, you'll probably be just fine. Find files and a modicum of instruction at our source links below.
We have no idea why Samsung's having such a hard time delivering its overdue promised Froyo upgrades worldwide for the Galaxy S series, but it's not looking any easier for them this weekend: the only Canadian Galaxy S to get upgraded so far, Bell's Vibrant, has just had its update pulled. Seems a healthy number of users attempting the upgrade using Sammy's Kies desktop software ended up with inaccessible internal storage, which sucks for a variety of obvious reasons -- and that would be the apparent reason for the removal of the update. Here's the official statement:
Though it's standing firm on the definition of its original 4G specification -- IMT-Advanced -- which only WiMAX 2 and LTE-Advanced are currently capable of meeting, the ITU is easing off its earlier rhetroic, admitting that the term "4G" realistically could apply "to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMAX, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed." The whole dust-up started when carriers around the world deploying LTE and WiMAX networks (ahem, Sprint and Verizon) were throwing the "4G" term around very, very loosely -- and to their credit, the networks are indisputably a generation beyond CDMA2000 and UMTS / HSPA, so if anything, we'd fault the ITU for leaving today's modern networks without a generation to call their own. The "evolved 3G technologies" verbiage in the ITU's statement would seemingly even leave room for T-Mobile USA's claim that its 21Mbps HSPA+ network constitutes 4G... so yeah, score one for marketing campaigns. Of course, none of these carriers had ever planned to bow to the ITU's recommendations anyway, so the ruling has little practical relevance -- just know that the true 4G speeds are still a few years off.
No comments:
Post a Comment