| Scientists build double-floating-gate FET, believe it could revolutionize computer memory Posted: 23 Jan 2011 09:20 AM PST  Look, we get it, you want DRAM that behaves like flash, flash that behaves like DRAM, and everything in between -- speedy computer memory that doesn't lose its data when the power goes off, and lasts for years on end. Well, it looks there's a new challenger about to enter that ring -- double floating-gate field effect transistors, currently in prototype form at North Carolina State University. Whereas the single floating-gate variety is currently responsible for the flash memory in your USB keys and SSDs, the second floating gate lets bits of data stay in an active, ready state, but the computer can also apply a higher voltage to "freeze" them in place. Since the memory can switch between static and dynamic modes in a single cycle and the data never disappears in between, researchers imagine the new tech could lead to instant-on computers and power-saving techniques that shut down idle memory banks. That's the consumer take, at least -- find the technical deep dive at our more coverage link. |
| The Engadget Podcast, live at 12:00PM EST! Posted: 23 Jan 2011 07:41 AM PST Podcast? On a Sunday? And they said it couldn't be done! Join the full team of podcasters as we throw touchdown after touchdown of tech analysis down the field and through the uprights. You can intercept it all live on Ustream, which is embedded after the break. P.S. And don't forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone clients as well, if you're out and about and you can't join in on the Flash-based fun below.
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| LG Optimus 2X goes on sale in Korea, teases white version for February Posted: 23 Jan 2011 06:31 AM PST No big surprises here, unless you count that snowy white number up above. Yep, LG's not only stolen a march on Motorola in introducing the world's first dual-core smartphone, it's also about to beat Apple to the white handset punch as well. The 1080p-recording, Tegra 2-wielding Optimus 2X is now available in its home market of South Korea and, if LG stays true to its roadmap, should be filtering through into Europe before this month is out. We don't know if its white variant will ever escape the clutches of Korea (and we sure hope it does), but it should be making its bodacious debut over there in February. |
| Gorenje iChef oven brings the touchscreen paradigm to all your baking needs Posted: 23 Jan 2011 05:08 AM PST We've no doubt that Gorenje's iChef oven can bake, and bake well -- but as you've probably guessed, we're more interested in the appliance's finger-friendly controls. Kitchens of the future often come complete with touchscreen panels and home automation settings, but you aren't just keying in the time and temperature here -- it's got sixty-five preset dishes it can cook autonomously, 150 slots for you to program your own, and a option that lets you bake in three separate stages for perfection (or bitter disappointment, depending on your choices) inside and out. It's all controlled through a colorful filled with pictures of loving-prepared food, and though we're afraid we can't find a video of it in action, you'll find screencaps and descriptions at our source link below. The oven launches in Europe this spring and if you have to ask how much it costs, you probably won't have enough left over to afford a robotic manservant anyhow. |
| Nuance opens Dragon Mobile SDK to app developers, we see end to embarrassing dictation Posted: 23 Jan 2011 03:05 AM PST There are some messages that are just too embarrassing to dictate to a human being. Lucky for us and the retired circus contortionist we hired to type up our missives, Nuance is expanding the reach of its transcription software by making its Dragon Mobile SDK available to developers for use in iOS and Android applications. The SDK, which is free to members of the Nuance Mobile Developer Program, sports speech-to-text capabilities in eight languages and text-to-speech in 35. There are already apps out there that can do the job, including Nuance's own Dragon Dictation, but we welcome new advances in automated transcription. You know, it's not exactly a walk in the park dictating an entire Clay Aiken Fan Club newsletter to a guy named Sid the Human Pretzel. |
| LG G-Slate spotted in Korean music video, 3D cameras and all? Posted: 22 Jan 2011 11:52 PM PST Oh LG, did you really think you could slip an entire tablet past the eagle-eyed gadget obsessives of Korea? The G-Slate has been one of the more mysterious devices launched at CES this year, but it now appears to have shaken off some of its shyness and made a cameo appearance on K-Pop star Seungri's latest music vid. Our Korean correspondents inform us that Seungri's band Big Bang has had a relationship with LG since the introduction of the cheap and cheerful Lollipop handset (video evidence after the break), so it's not unreasonable to believe this young chap has an inside line on LG's upcoming hardware. His video shows an LG-branded slate at 0.53 and 1.52, and although we get only brief glimpses, one of them suggests a dual-camera array on the back, which seemingly corroborates earlier rumors of the G-Slate bringing some 3D voodoo to the market. Skip the break and see for yourself. [Thanks, Alan Yi] |
| Hackers disguise phone as keyboard, use it to attack PCs via USB Posted: 22 Jan 2011 10:02 PM PST We've seen hackers use keyboards to deliver malicious code to computers, and we've seen smartphones used as remote controls for cars and TV -- but we've never seen a smartphone disguised as a keyboard used to control a computer, until now. A couple folks at this year's Black Hat DC conference have devised a clever bit of code that allows a rooted smartphone -- connected to a PC through USB -- to pose as a keyboard or mouse in order to attack and control the computer. The hack takes advantage of USB's inability to authenticate connected devices coupled with operating systems' inability to filter USB packets, which would enable users to thwart such an attack. While utilizing a digital costume to hack a computer is a nifty idea, it doesn't pose much additional risk to users because the method still requires physical access to a USB port to work -- and most of us would probably notice someone plugging a smartphone into our laptop while we're using it. [Image Credit: Angelos Stavrou / CNET] |
| Samsung Forte is the SCH-R910, brings TouchWiz LTE action to MetroPCS (video) Posted: 22 Jan 2011 07:59 PM PST Look familiar? You've actually seen it twice before, once as a QWERTY slider and once as an unidentified LTE smartphone. Well, it just so happens that a new batch of eighteen pictures have surfaced, and the two phones are are actually one -- this is the Samsung Forte for MetroPCS, which is presently running a recent build of Android 2.2.1. While we still don't know if it's got the 1GHz processor and 5 megapixel camera that lovingly accompanied the original rumor, it appears to have Samsung's custom TouchWiz UI on board, lending extra credence to the possibility that the handset might receive Galaxy S branding when it materializes in stores. We've got just one last note here, and that's this whole reveal feels rather... planted to us. Watch the video after the break to see what we mean, and find plenty more pictures at the link below. |
| Motorola Xoom launching February 17th at Best Buy (update: priced at $700) Posted: 22 Jan 2011 06:54 PM PST When we stumbled upon an $800 price for the Motorola Xoom yesterday, our instinctive reaction was to leap forward to the next obvious question: when? Well, that call has now been answered by an internal Best Buy document that's just dropped into our inbox, which explicitly pinpoints February 17th as the launch date for Moto's highly touted, Honeycomb-equipped tablet. Stock is expected to land at the big box retailer on February 16th, with the big party going down the day after. There's a note confirming that the Xoom will come with its promised 32GB of onboard storage, but anyone looking for confirmation or denial of the earlier pricing leak will be left disappointed. Guess we'll all have to set our calendar alerts for about a month from now and exercise patience in the mean time. [Thanks, dajarbot] Update: Our tipster has also uncovered a price: $699.99. That's a hundred green leaves south of Verizon's supposed pricing and should soothe a few agitated souls. |
| MotionX-GPS Drive exports full-screen nav on Pioneer and JVC head units, has love only for iOS (video) Posted: 22 Jan 2011 06:03 PM PST MotionX-GPS has been a solid choice in the iPhone and iPad navigation game for some time now, but only recently has started to stretch its legs a bit. The app now has compatibility with a series of JVC and Pioneer head units (listed out below) that enables full-screen 3D navigation. In this mode the mobile device basically turns in to a remote control with a simplified interface, with POI searching and of course media playback. Connectivity is not using the Terminal Mode standard, this works exclusively with the iPhone and iPad, and we're told that sadly the company has no plans on supporting any other platforms going forward. So, if you're not on iOS you'll just have to find your own way to wherever you're going. Compatible devices include: - Pioneer AVH-P3300BT
- Pioneer AVH-P4300DVD
- Pioneer AVH-P6300BT
- Pioneer SmartCradle
- JVC KW-AVX640
- JVC KW-AVX740
- JVC KW-ADV794
- JVC KW-AVX840
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| Art Lebedev's Optimus Popularis delayed, but new Optimus Mini Six is on the way Posted: 22 Jan 2011 04:51 PM PST We've always taken Art Lebedev's product launch forecasts with a grain handful of salt, so this doesn't come as a surprise: the firm's sub-$1,000 OLED keyboard won't be out anytime soon. However, the second thing the indie peripheral design house revealed today makes us giddy despite our misgivings -- before the full-sized Optimus Popularis comes to market, it's planning to release a new miniature keypad like the Optimus mini three (pictured above) but with six keys inside. Still... is it bad if all we really want is an Optimus Aux prototype? |
| Apple brings AT&T and Verizon together for a happy dance in latest iPhone commercial (video) Posted: 22 Jan 2011 03:57 PM PST The unthinkable has happened. After spending 99 percent of their recent marketing budgets figuring out ways to sling mud at each other, AT&T and Verizon have now come together to dance a merry waltz -- all in the name of Apple's hallowed iPhone. The latest commercial for the phone that really doesn't need advertising shows that you can FaceTime, read iBooks, navigate maps, and do everything else on the Verizon iPhone just as well as you could do it on the AT&T-friendly GSM variant of the device. As if you didn't already know. Still, it's fun to see these guys trying to turn their lack of competitive diversity into some sort of an advantage. Video after the break.
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| Acer Aspire One 522 with AMD Ontario shows up on Amazon Posted: 22 Jan 2011 03:43 PM PST  Sure, we had known a few bits and pieces about Acer's forthcoming AMD Fusion-powered netbook but you can always count on Amazon to dish out the spec and pricing details we've been waiting for. Unlike the Fusion HP Pavilion dm1 we just reviewed, which packs a higher-end AMD Zacate E-350 APU, the Aspire One 522 is powered by AMD's netbook-class 1GHz C-50 Ontario processor. The 10.1-inch laptop still melds that CPU with Radeon HD 6250 graphics so it should be able to handle full HD video and some light gaming, and for $330 we're certainly expecting it to trounce Atom netbooks in both price and graphics prowess. Other than that, the 2.8-pound Aspire One 522 seems to be a lot like the previous AMD Neo-powered Aspire One 521 -- it looks to have a similar chassis and has 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, HDMI port, Windows 7 Starter, and a 4400mAh battery, which apparently provides six hours of battery life. No word on when the 522 will actually come out of the pre-order stage and start shipping, but our guess is that it shouldn't be too long of a wait. |
| IBM looks back on 100 years of history, finds plenty to be proud of (video) Posted: 22 Jan 2011 02:19 PM PST Want to know who the self-confessed "mother of the motherboard" is? Or why every piece of organically farmed, tenderly loved food at your local Trader Joe's has a barcode on it? Or perhaps you're curious to learn more about how millions of airline reservations can be made around the world with unfailing reliability? All those queries have their answers in IBM's self-congratulating videos after the break. Commissioned as a celebration of the company's upcoming 100th birthday, they chronicle some of its more notable moments in the global spotlight. Our favorite little nugget of discovery was finding out that testing for the IBM Personal Computer included the question, "would it run Pac-Man?" -- conclusively proving that the foremost reason for the PC's existence is, and has always been, gaming.
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| Nexus One gets tiny update to Android 2.2.2, fixes SMS routing issues Posted: 22 Jan 2011 01:18 PM PST Not to be outdone by its Samsung successor, the Nexus One's getting a miniature over-the-air update as well, sending users on a mind-bending ride from Android 2.2.1 (version FRG83D) to the FRG83G build of Android 2.2.2. When they emerge thoroughly dazzled and confused on the other side, what will they find? We spoke to Google and it's just a few bug fixes, but one of them's rather important -- this update will go down in the annals of history as the one that doesn't inadvertently send humorous texts intended for your co-workers to your deathly serious boss. Oh, and if that sounds like something you'd like to have immediately, rather than waiting for a formal rollout, you can find the file you need at Google's servers right now. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] |
| BMW working on electric 5-series sedan for China, we still can't get a diesel Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:16 PM PST Surely it'll come elsewhere eventually, but for now an electric version of BMW's generously proportioned 5-series sedan looks destined exclusively for China. As part of the company's partnership with Brilliance China Automotive, BMW Brilliance Automotive is planning to create a pure EV 5-series and to show it off this year -- at some point. No further details are known about the car, though we're quite sure why this is happening. EVs are becoming more and more popular there as China struggles to shrug off a massive foreign oil dependency and BMW saw a similarly massive 87 percent jump in growth of its sales in China in 2010. So, there's your motive, but we'll still have to wait a bit for the rest of the details. |
| Visualized: the state of the smartphone wars Posted: 22 Jan 2011 11:02 AM PST As AT&T's iPhone exclusivity reluctantly teeters on the brink of oblivion, it seems a good time to take one last look at the smartphone playground, the way it is before V-Day. The New York Times has handily done that job for us with the above chart, which simultaneously gives us a sense of scale when comparing US carriers and lays out the concentration of Android devices across those networks. It also shows a big fat bump of iOS on AT&T, making it the biggest carrier in terms of combined iPhone and Android users -- nothing shocking there, but the real fun will be in taking a look at this same data a few months from now. Will the iPhone fragment itself all over the four major networks? Will AT&T's Android stable ever be respectable? Tune in to your next installment of "fun, but mostly irrelevant statistics" to find out. |
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