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Saturday, February 19, 2011

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Motorola Atrix 4G already rooted, and it's not even out yet

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 09:40 AM PST

If you thought the lack of root on the Atrix 4G was going to save you a couple hundred bucks next week... well, we hate to break the bad news, but you're going to need to find another excuse not to buy it (more on that in a second). Long story short, the phone's already been rooted by a gentleman over on the ever-resourceful xda-developers forums, which means you can do all the normal things that require root access like enabling the standard Froyo mobile hotspot feature, using root apps like Titanium Backup (pictured above), and generally looking 1337 compared to your friends locked up in their walled gardens. Now, the bad news: the bootloader remains firmly locked and encrypted, so custom kernels are still just a dream -- but hey, where there's a will, there's a way. Keep the faith!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

GAEMS Xbox 360 traveling case gets sleek redesign, still won't help you spell correctly

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 08:34 AM PST

The last rendition we saw of the GAEMS console-carrying case looked more like a giant lunch box than a solution to your portable gaming needs. If you're still interested in bringing your Xbox 360 on the road, the company has redesigned the case and it now supports the fat and slim versions of the 360 and even the PS3-skinny. What's new in this compact carrying case is the fact there's actually room to store the console, controllers and power brick. It comes bundled with a remote, HDMI cable and power supply to power the speakers and LED screen. If you're road trippin' any time soon and want this beast, you can save yourself 20 bones by pre-ordering before April 20th and you'll receive the $300 case come June.

Meka's M-1 Mobile Manipulator, a cuter Cody the spit bath robot (video)

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 06:21 AM PST

Remember Cody? The robot from Georgia Tech designed to give spit baths to the elderly and crippled? Well, Cody's got an attractive younger cousin named M-1, and for $340,000 this fine piece of machinery could be all yours. Built by San Francisco-based Meka Robotics, the M-1 Mobile Manipulator (based on Cody) runs on a combination of ROS and proprietary software and sports a Kinect-compatible head with a five megapixel Ethernet camera, arms with six-axis force-torque sensors at the wrist, force controlled grippers, and an omnidirectional mobile base. If the standard features don't fit your needs, Meka offers various upgrades, including four-fingered hands and humanoid heads, complete with expressive eyelids (à la Meka's Dreamer), ears, and additional sensor compatibility. These add-ons will of course cost you, but we think its worth it to have those big translucent eyes staring back at you. A rather touching demo after the jump.

Google Social Search update makes your friends more relevant, difficult to ignore

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 04:10 AM PST

Google's been talking up its Social Search function for sometime, but up until now your friends' tweets probably haven't made it to the top of your search results -- unless of course you're besties with TMZ, and you've been searching the Miley Cyrus bong salvia rip again. Thankfully, it looks as if that could change with El Goog's latest update to the socially minded search function, which now mixes updates from your contacts' various online accounts, like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, in with the standard search fare -- pulling them up from their previous position at the bottom of your results. Google's also included a photo and annotation to show the origins of relevant links, and given you the ability to manage how you connect your accounts -- either publicly through your profile or privately through your account. The new functions started rolling out yesterday, which means you could be seeing a whole lot more from those contacts you regretted friending in the first place. Isn't social media a wonderful / disastrous thing?

Intel CEO Paul Otellini flip-flops, says he 'would've gone Android' if he were Elop

Posted: 19 Feb 2011 02:01 AM PST

It's hard to say if Intel CEO Paul Otellini was simply misquoted the first go 'round, or if he really had a change of heart in the course of 48 hours. Either way, the most recent quotes coming from the highest of highs at Chipzilla paints a very different story than the one we first heard, and it's beginning to look like Intel and Microsoft may eventually wage some sort of war -- even if it's one that remains strictly at the software level. Reuters is reporting that Otellini had this to say when questioned about Stephen Elop's decision to select Windows Phone 7 as the future of Nokia's handset business:
"I wouldn't have made the decision he made, I would probably have gone to Android if I were him. MeeGo would have been the best strategy but he concluded he couldn't afford it."
That contrasts starkly with comments made just days ago, where he was quoted as saying that he would've made "the same or a similar call" if found in Elop's shoes. Continuing on the topic of differentiation, Otellini noted that "it would have been less hard on Android, [but] on MeeGo he could have done it." That said, he's confident that Intel "will find another partner," noting that carriers "still want a third ecosystem and the carriers want an open ecosystem, and that's the thing that drives our motivation." Now, the real question: which Paul can be believed?

WowWee's Light Strike makes laser tag look more like Paper Jamz

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 11:45 PM PST

WowWee, the same folks who brought you Paper Jamz, are giving yet another American leisure-time institution a makeover, and this time they've set their sights on laser tag. Carrying over the Paper Jamz aesthetic, Light Strike aims to "bring video game action into the real-world" with a set of laser tag guns and accessories that sport fingerprint ID, long-range LED targeting, built-in health and ammo meters, and the ability to play with up to four teams of unlimited size. The game's stable of weapons includes Light Strike's signature gun, the Assault Striker, a machine gun bipod with recoil action, a scope attachment with 100-foot range, and a grenade launcher that can shoot groups of enemies down in a single shot. Now, who's going to lead the campaign to make the Assault Striker the official gun of the 2012 Olympic Pentathalon? Light Strike is set for an August 2011 launch with guns starting at about $40, but you can get a very dramatic preview after the jump.

Samsung wants to sell 10 million 3D TVs this year, LG plans on 5 million

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 09:59 PM PST

Here's one way to solve a chicken-and-egg dilemma: crank out 15 million chickens. That's seem to be the plan for Samsung and LG, anyway -- Samsung plans to sell 10 million 3D TVs this year, up five times from the two million it sold last year, while LG plans to sell some 5 million. Now, it's unclear whether this increase in sales will come as a result of consumer demand for 3D or simply because almost all new TVs will be 3D-capable, but we're hoping that pesky 3D content problem will get a lot better once more people can actually view it -- assuming anyone actually wants to wear the glasses, that is.

TwelveSouth Magic Wand brings your keyboard and Magic Trackpad closer together

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 08:31 PM PST

Kind of crazy that we haven't seen more accessories that combine the Apple Bluetooth keyboard with the Magic Trackpad yet, but TwelveSouth has it covered with the Magic Wand, a simple aluminum half-tube that takes your two Apple wireless peripherals and joins them as one. Cute. Of course you're still stuck with duplicate sets of batteries, and you'll have to somehow deal with the fact that you just spent $30 on a piece of metal that creates a godless keyboard chimera monster, but if you can get past that the Magic Wand is shipping now. Video after the break.

BMW puts a range-extending ICE in its Megacity EV, provides tonic for your range anxiety

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 07:44 PM PST

When we first left the safe confines of our parents' home, many of us experienced separation anxiety. As we grow older, we suffer from disconnection anxiety -- and no, iPhone owners, that doesn't refer to your fear of dropped calls. Now, BMW is combating our range anxiety, or fear of being stranded when your car's batteries run out of juice, by putting an internal combustion range extender in its Megacity EV. BMW is taking a page out of the Chevy Volt's playbook by placing a small ICE in its EV that doubles the range of the vehicle from 50 to 100 miles -- all in an effort to assuage the (irrational?) fears of its potential US customers. The gasoline generator will be an option for those who wish to venture beyond the city limits, so if you want to keep it totally green you can still do so. Our Bavarian friends won't be bringing the Megacity to market until 2013, so that should give you enough time to decide if you want to hasten the death of the ICE or prolong its life a bit longer.

Masdar City's driverless pods now whisking students around on a limited basis (video)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 06:59 PM PST

Oh, sure -- Masdar City's driverless pods may not make nearly as many stops as your average metro, but it essentially matches the usefulness of the subway station in Pyongyang. And with a lot less energy waste, to boot. If you'll recall, these driverless pods were planned years ago, and while the ambitions have been quelled somewhat thanks to the economic crunch, that hasn't stopped students and engineers from using 2GetThere's pods, magnets and a fiber optic system to create a two-stop transfer system at the university. For now, they're whisking students between a pair of drop points that are 800 meters apart, traveling 15 miles per hour and instilling fear into everyone who dares step inside. As for the future? Only The Jetsons truly know, but you can take a glimpse in the video just past the break.

How would you change D-Link's Boxee Box?

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 06:31 PM PST

Yeah, Boxee just gave you all what you've been asking for, but here's the real question: what else does your little heart desire? D-Link's Boxee Box has most certainly shaken up the industry, providing a killer UI and a not-so-AV-cabinet-friendly design. You've got more media streamer options than ever before, and if you held out to buy the D-Link-built box, you've a right to throw your opinions in comments below. Would you have made the chassis a bit more typical? Changed any of the outputs? Added any hardware features? The floor's wide open, so don't let this chance go to waste. You know what Lee Ann Womack says about getting the chance to dance... don't you?

Land Rover develops Range_e hybrid, will show it off at the Geneva Motor Show

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 05:42 PM PST

You know electric cars are in the ascendancy when even the fearsome 4x4s start looking to add an extra little spark to their energy production and storage. Land Rover has just announced it'll demo one -- there are multiple working versions -- of its development prototypes at the Geneva Motor Show next month, treating us to an exhibition of what a diesel engine can do when augmented with some electric firepower. The Range_e's design is based on the Range Rover Sport and its 3.0-liter TDV6 core, however the new vehicle is capable of going a full 20 miles purely on its electric charge and touts a whopping 690-mile range altogether. Let's hope Geneva shows enough interest in the Range_e to compel Land Rover to turn it into a commercial reality.

Idapt's $40 i2+ universal charging dock now shipping, patching over divides

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 04:40 PM PST

Fancy a way to charge his and her phones with a single dock? Idapt's i2+ has you covered -- the multifaceted mobile charging machine that launched at CES is now shipping directly from the company, with Walmart, Crutchfield, Costco and loads of others slated to pick it up in the coming weeks. It'll set you back $39.99 (or €34.99 across the way), with that tally netting you six of the most popular charging tips: miniUSB, microUSB, iPod / iPhone, Samsung 4, Nokia 2 and Sony Ericsson 2. Head on down to the source link if you're anxious to drive one more faction out of your current domestic situation.
Show full PR text
Charge up to 4,000 different mobile electronic devices in one simple solution

Barcelona, Spain – February 16, 2011 – IDAPT, a leading mobile technology leader, is excited to announce the availability of the new IDAPT i2+ universal charger. The new charger, announced originally at CES, allows users to charge up to 3 different mobile devices simultaneously while eliminating cord clutter.

The IDAPT i2+ has 2 charging ports and a bonus USB connection to meet all mobile electronic charging needs. The new i2+ also features IDAPT's unique interchangeable tips system, making it compatible with over 4,000 different devices including iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, Nintendo PSP, XBOX controllers, GPS systems and Bluetooth products. Additionally, the "quick release" button allows for safe and easy ejection of the interchangeable tips.

The IDAPT i2+ is available now for $39.99 at IDAPTweb.com and soon at PC Richard, Batteries Plus, BiMart, Costco.com, Walmart.com, Crutchfield.com and Frontgate.com with other IDAPT branded products. The packaging includes 6 of the most popular tips – miniUSB, microUSB, iPod/iPhone, Samsung 4, Nokia 2 and Sony Ericcson 2. Additional tips can be purchased at IDAPTweb.com.

Qualcomm fends off Smartbook AG, can legally write 'smartbook' on the platform's tombstone

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 03:39 PM PST

Qualcomm fends of Smartbook AG legal action, can now write
It's perhaps a little too little and a little too late, but Qualcomm can now use the word "smartbook" to describe low end smartphone/laptop hybrids -- the sort of machine the company's CEO says have been all but killed off by tablets. The unfortunate legal action initiated by Smartbook AG way back in 2009 has now been deemed invalid by the German Patent and Trademark Office. The combination of the words word "smart" and "book" are no longer covered by German trademark law, which seemingly leaves Smartbook AG in a rather more vulnerable position than it was in before. Not as vulnerable as the poor smartbook platform, though.

DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird spybot takes flight (video)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 03:10 PM PST

We were plenty impressed when we saw the initial tests of AeroVironment's robo-hummingbird -- now officially dubbed the Nano Hummingbird -- but we can't say they quite prepared us for the final product that the DARPA-funded company is now showing off. Not only does the bot look and fly like a real hummingbird (at least if you don't look too closely), but it packs a built-in camera and a downlink of some sort that's capable of transmitting live video. According to the company, the hummingbird's also able to hover for up to eight minutes, reach speeds of eleven miles per hour in forward flight, and remain stable in wind gusts of five miles per hour -- not to mention make a perfect landing. Head on past the break to check it out in action -- it may well be one of the few chances you're actually able to see one in the wild.




Show full PR text
AeroVironment Develops World's First Fully Operational Life-Size Hummingbird-Like Unmanned Aircraft for DARPA

• Two-wing, Flapping Aircraft Hovers and Flies in Any Direction
• Total Weight of Two-thirds of an Ounce Includes Batteries and Video Camera

WASHINGTON, at AAAS Conference, Feb. 17, 2011 – AeroVironment, Inc. (AV)(NASDAQ: AVAV) today announced it has accomplished a technical milestone never before achieved -- controlled precision hovering and fast-forward flight of a two-wing, flapping wing aircraft that carries its own energy source, and uses only the flapping wings for propulsion and control.

The milestone was part of the Phase II contract awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to AV to design and build a flying prototype "hummingbird-like" aircraft for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program.

The final concept demonstrator is called the 'Nano Hummingbird' and is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, flying forward and backward, as well as rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise, under remote control and carrying a video camera payload. During the demonstration the Nano Hummingbird flew in and out of a building through a normal-size doorway.

"The historic achievement made by the Nano Hummingbird is an example of the leading-edge innovations introduced and deployed almost routinely by the AeroVironment UAS team," said Tom Herring, AV senior vice president and general manager of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. "From the battle-proven Raven, Wasp and Puma small UAS to the tiny Nano Hummingbird to Global Observer, the largest, highest and longest flying UAS, AeroVironment continues to define the future of unmanned aircraft systems. Our mission in doing so is to provide our customers with advanced tools that help them succeed."

The hand-made prototype aircraft has a wingspan of 16 centimeters (6.5 inches) tip-to-tip and has a total flying weight of 19 grams (2/3 ounce), which is less than the weight of a common AA battery. This includes all the systems required for flight; batteries, motors, communications systems and video camera. The aircraft can be fitted with a removable body fairing, which is shaped to have the appearance of a real hummingbird. The aircraft is larger and heavier than an average hummingbird, but is smaller and lighter than the largest hummingbird currently found in nature.

"The success of the Nano Hummingbird was highly dependent on the intense combination of creative, scientific, and artistic problem-solving skills from the many AV team members, aided by a philosophy of continuous learning, which we feel was only possible due to the unique R&D environment here at AV," said Matt Keennon, AV's project manager and principal investigator on the NAV project.

The technical goals for the Phase II effort were set out by DARPA as flight test milestones for the aircraft to achieve by the end of the contract effort. The Nano Hummingbird met all, and exceeded many, of the milestones:

1. Demonstrate precision hover flight within a virtual two-meter diameter sphere for one minute.
2. Demonstrate hover stability in a wind gust flight which required the aircraft to hover and tolerate a two-meter per second (five miles per hour) wind gust from the side, without drifting downwind more than one meter.
3. Demonstrate a continuous hover endurance of eight minutes with no external power source.
4. Fly and demonstrate controlled, transition flight from hover to 11 miles per hour fast forward flight and back to hover flight.
5. Demonstrate flying from outdoors to indoors, and back outdoors through a normal-size doorway.
6. Demonstrate flying indoors 'heads-down' where the pilot operates the aircraft only looking at the live video image stream from the aircraft, without looking at or hearing the aircraft directly.
7. Fly the aircraft in hover and fast forward flight with bird-shaped body and bird-shaped wings.



# # #

About AeroVironment, Inc. (AV)
AV is a technology solutions provider that designs, develops, produces and supports an advanced portfolio of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and electric transportation solutions. Agencies of the U.S. Department of Defense and allied military services use the company's battery-powered, hand-launched unmanned aircraft systems extensively to provide situational awareness to tactical operating units through real-time, airborne reconnaissance, surveillance and communication. Switchblade is a small UAS designed to provide a rapid, lethal, pinpoint precision strike capability with minimal collateral damage. AV's electric transportation solutions include a comprehensive suite of electric vehicle (EV) charging systems and installation services for consumers, automakers, utilities and government agencies, power cycling and test systems for EV developers and industrial electric vehicle charging systems for commercial fleets. More information about AV is available at www.avinc.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are made on the basis of current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors outside of our control, that may cause our business, strategy or actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our ability to perform under existing contracts and obtain additional contracts; changes in the regulatory environment; the activities of competitors; failure of the markets in which we operate to grow; failure to expand into new markets; failure to develop new products or integrate new technology with current products; and general economic and business conditions in the United States and elsewhere in the world. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

##

Ken Jennings talks about losing to Watson, being human after all

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 02:48 PM PST

In a piece for Slate titled "My Puny Human Brain," former-Jeopardy-greatest Ken Jennings talks briefly through his experience playing against IBM's Watson. If you were hoping for some sour grapes, you won't find it here, but Ken gives a great insight into what it feels like to be an underdog human up against a PR darling supercomputer. "Watson has lots in common with a top-ranked human Jeopardy! player: It's very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman." Ken wraps it up on an uplifting, humans-are-going-to-be-alright-after-all note, and we seem to have something in our eye...

My So-Called Cellphone

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 02:26 PM PST

My So-Called Cellphone is part of a series of retrospectives where the editors of Engadget detail their first brushes with technology. Join them, won't you?

The first laptop was a major life change for the nerds among us, but the first cellphone has become a milestone in life that nearly all of humanity can share. It seems like every year kids are getting phones at a younger age, racking up bigger SMS bills than ever, and generally just getting up to no good with this awesome, ubiquitous technology. Follow after the break as Engadget editors step into the mental Wayback Machine and walk through those happy, simpler times when getting their very first cellphone was greatest thing ever. Then hit up the comments and regale us with your own story. And yes, we do want to know your Snake high score.

Tim Stevens: Motorola MicroTAC DPC-550, Cellular One

Bought in 1995 for some amount of money at Cellular One. Specs included a retractable antenna, seven-character LED display, buttons that glow and beep when you push them.

This one goes back a ways, to a time when I was still in high school and my mother was a customer service rep for Cellular One. As such she got access to some hot (at the time) cellular technology and was kind enough to let her fledgling geek of a son use it and, gasp, even bring it to school. Despite being in a class of about 400 kids I was the only student with a phone. In fact, none of the faculty even owned them at that point. These days teachers ban kids from taking phones into classrooms, but back then my classmates passed it around the room because it was such a novelty. One girl tried dialing Jenny at 867-5309 in the middle of physics class. No answer.

Enough of reliving former glory, on to the device itself. Really all that you need to know about the 550 is that it was a phone. Just a phone. Games? E-mail? Texting? Address book? Get outta here. With a seven-character LED display you couldn't even call long-distance without the area code getting bumped off to the left. People complain today about the iPhone 4 signal bars dropping. This thing didn't even have signal bars, just a little red "NoSvc" light that popped on should you happen to stumble out of a metropolitan area -- or forget to raise that antenna.

As just a phone it worked well enough. I still remember the squishy, glowing keypad and the unfortunately small red send button in the lower-right, so tiny Motorola couldn't afford a vowel. Thus it was the SND button, kitty-corner from the PWR button. This was the phone that got me through high school -- at least I think it was. My memory isn't quite what it used to be. For college I was given a Sanyo SCP-4000, a model light-years beyond the Moto. It had a D-pad, an LCD screen, and not a even hint of coverage anywhere on campus. Those were the days.

Joshua Topolsky: Nokia 21X0, Sprint PCS (or AT&T)

Purchased sometime in 1995. Specs included a grayscale screen, protruding antenna, and possibly Snake.

The year was 1995. I had just gotten my driver's license -- late to the game at the age of 18 -- and the roughest looking Volkswagen that $1000 could buy (a navy blue, 1985 Golf for those playing along at home). I'd also just discovered techno music, raves, moved out of my parent's house, and the VW was prone to breakdowns. Naturally my already-nervous mother and father feared the worst. I had a pager (as was the rage back in the heady, embarrassing days of the 90's), but that didn't seem to sufficiently allay my folks' fears.

The solution? Force me to get to the nearest big box retailer and sign up for a cellphone contract, lest I be stranded on a desolate highway while traveling to or from an illegal warehouse party. In Pittsburgh -- my hometown -- there were really only two options for electronics (outside of the smaller mom and pop shops): Sun or Silo. This was well before the dawn of Circuit City and Best Buy, and abstract concepts like choosing a carrier (or even knowing what a carrier was) were not in play. Silo was a little more high-falutin' than Sun which meant the choice was simple.

So, off I went to pick out the finest cellular communications device money could buy. Actually, what did I know? Nothing really -- I was amazed that I would own a phone that you could use outside of your house. Today, I can't remember a lot of the details, but I'm nearly certain I walked out of the store with a Nokia 2120 (or at least some version of the 21X0 -- the company made duplicates on all kinds of carriers for years), with a calling plan of something ludicrous like 50 minutes a month.

The idea was that it would only be for emergencies -- and if the emergency was calling my friends to see if they wanted to have lunch and hit a record store, I had a lot of emergencies. The truth is, I was already addicted to constant connectivity and owning a phone I could use nearly anywhere just fed my growing problem. Without that phone, my early rave years would have never been the same, and who knows... I might never have found Engadget either.

Chris Ziegler: Motorola Lifestyle, Ameritech

Bought somewhere around 1996 from a Circuit City Express (yes, Express) in suburban Detroit, Michigan. AMPS radio, 8-character LED display, classic and perfectly tasteful forest green shell.

Just check out the gallery below -- look at all those fun-loving Saved By The Bell-generation young people enjoying life! Of course, what those wholesome teens and twentysomethings aren't telling you is that they can't afford the service on their brightly-colored Motorola Lifestyles without significant underwriting from their parental units.

I'll be honest, I can't remember what the terms of my Lifestyle's service plan were, but I very specifically recall being warned not to use it unless I was being chased by the Russian mafia, lost in a war zone, or caught up in some other dire circumstance that would inevitably lead to my untimely death if I didn't send out a distress signal. If memory serves me correctly, my parents were reluctant to let me have it from the get-go, and consented only with the understanding that I'd have no monthly minute allowance and would pay some per-minute rate tantamount to extortion for the privilege of bombarding my skull with some hilariously high level of radiation that would undoubtedly be banned by modern standards.

Of course, considering the Lifestyle's meager feature set, I wasn't missing much. The handset had a one-line dot matrix LED display; I remember that many competing phones from other manufacturers at the time had really cheap-looking backlit monochrome segmented LCDs, so I really thought I was the big man on campus. After all, my phone (which, again, I wasn't allowed to use) could show numbers and letters! It also had a 99-number contact directory, which was great for storing the names of all my friends that I didn't have the money to call.

What made the Lifestyle interesting was that it was among the first phones -- in fact, the first that I can think of -- that put any serious effort into making a cellphone a lifestyle accessory (hence the name, I suppose) by offering it in a variety of bright colors and patterns. Nokia would go on to really popularize the concept with the Xpress-on series of devices and exchangeable faceplates, but it was the little ol' Lifestyle that introduced it to me at a time when the pure-business MicroTAC series was considered the gold standard in cellphone design. I opted for a lovely shade of forest green, which frankly may have been the only one that Circuit City had for sale at the time.

Though I frequently powered it on to enjoy the techno glow of its LEDs, I think I maybe ended up using the Lifestyle once or twice in the entire time I had it -- always for a call to my parents, of course. I ended up moving on to a Sony Zuma Z100 with Sprint PCS around the time I went off to college, an awesome phone whose oddball form factor has yet to be duplicated to this day. Shame, really.

Thanks to Motorola for digging the Lifestyle brochure out of its archives!
Motorola Lifestyle Series brochure


Thomas Ricker: Nokia 6110, Vodafone UK

Given to me by my employer in mid 1997 under a corporate account. It featured an Infra-red port and was the first Nokia phone to ship with Snake.

As cellphones were becoming popular in the US in the late 90s, I was living in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco -- an oddball mix of homeless hipsters holding ironic signs of homage to the poor-is-cool notion, aging hippies unable to move on, and art-school brat-pack wannabes more concerned with mixology than gadgets. For all their eccentricities, each of these groups had one thing in common: technology was the enemy, a weapon to be wielded by Ayn Rand herself at the end of days. As such, the only people who had cellphones were rich trust funders who could afford one for personal use, or corporate suits who begged their management for this ultimate symbol of upward mobility. I was neither.

That changed when I left the US for London (and a more mature perspective) back in 1997. As a new hire of a young startup, the first device given to me wasn't a laptop, but a cellphone. A Nokia 6110. A phone based on the consumer-oriented 5110 but with a more advanced user interface. A device that made US cellphones appear clumsy and brickish by comparison with its beautiful iridescent finish and icon-based UI that was intuitive even for a first time mobile (pronounced mo-Biyl) phone owner. Oh, and it had an infra-red port and Snake. It was glorious, I had arrived.

I was fired 3 months later when our startup was purchased by a larger competitor. I kept the 6110, later replacing it with the Ericsson T28s and the world's first Bluetooth headset, the £199.99 Ericsson HBH-10.

Laura June - Nokia 6110 - VoiceStream Wireless

Bought somewhere in the space between 1997 and 1998, for who knows how much money, the Nokia 6110 had a max contact count of 50, and no camera, but it had Snake and made calls, and really, nothing else mattered.

In late 1997 or early 1998, despite the fact that almost no one I knew had a cellphone, I decided to buy one, simply for the fact that, having bought my first car, I was afraid of being stranded somewhere alone on the side of the road. The only people I knew that had cellphones at the time were my younger brother (who also had an intense series of pagers), and my cousin, who also went to college with me, so she, I thought, could serve as my guide into this mysteriously uncool territory I was wandering into.

My first cellphone began my long love affair with Nokias, and though I was at pains to determine which model was actually the first one I had, I've nailed it down to the Nokia 6110, on VoiceStream Wireless. I have to admit, it was the commercials featuring Jamie Lee Curtis that ultimately decided what carrier I would go with. I went to a mall kiosk, set myself up with my new phone, and headed home. It wasn't snowing, but it was freezing cold and there was plenty of snow on the ground. After parking my car outside my apartment (also my first), I gathered together my various items -- purse, gloves, school books (one, I remember, was the 10 or 15-pound Riverside Shakespeare that I hauled around for years), and my brand new cellphone, and tore into my house.

When I got inside, I could hear someone leaving a message for me on my answering machine, and as I made my way from my carpeted living room into the linoleum floored kitchen, I wiped out because my feet were soaking wet from all the snow. Though I tried valiantly to keep my new gadget from flying out of my hands, I failed, and as I lay there, face down on the kitchen floor, embarrassed for myself, I saw it, in several (possibly just two) pieces. As I recall, I set those pieces on the table carefully, and just looked at them for a good half hour, not really having the courage to reassemble the phone. Sure, it looked like it would just snap back together (in fact, it was really just the rather giant battery pack that had flown off the back), but I was afraid that I would find, once reassembled, that the phone simply didn't work anymore. And then, there were the stories my brother had told me about how if there were signs that your phone had been wet, well, you'd never get a replacement from the carrier, and yes, my phone had had some telltale signs of snow on it when I picked it up -- don't ask me how that came to be. Anyway, I did snap it back together, and it did work just fine.

My fondest memories of the phone, of course, are the hours I spent mastering Snake. My most embarrassing memory of the phone? Well, the fact that I simply didn't understand the technology itself, or didn't think about it -- and kept my phone turned off unless I wanted to make a call -- for the first few months that I had it. In retrospect, it sounds silly, but then again, nobody ever called the darn thing back then anyway, and when it did ring, it was inevitably at the bottom of my giant purse, and scared me half to death, so foreign was the sound of its ring to me. Of course, I quickly got over my incessant, near obsessive need to conserve battery power, and these days, roughly 8 Nokias, 1 BlackJack, 1 BlackBerry and 3 iPhones later, you'll find me, like the cool kids, with my cellphone always on. The sound of the ring however, still scares me to death because you know, nobody calls.

Ross Miller: Nokia 5120, BellSouth Mobility

Bought in 1999, probably free on contract. Specs included a 47 x 84 black and white screen and the game Snake.. what else really matters?

Back in 8th grade, I was busy doing things I figured most kids my age were supposed to do -- namely, work. I was giving guitar and bass lessons to 6th graders and making a business out of it. To be honest, I really can't recall a time since then where I haven't been working, with the exception of maybe a couple months here or there, but I digress. It was at that point where my parents decided it'd be best if I got my own cellphone, instead of just constantly stealing my dad's nondescript Nokia flip for when I wanted to catch a movie or hang out at Wendy's (hey now, don't judge). And make no mistake, we were a Nokia family; if you can believe it's possible to have company loyalty at a time consumer cellular devices were in such a state of infancy, well, In Espoo We Trusted. So that was that.

The carrier was BellSouth Mobility, which would later become Cingular, which would later become AT&T. And being from Atlanta, we always kept with the company regardless of its name and / or ownership. Of course, reception never really sucked when you live in the backyard of the carrier's headquarters. Now, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, dear reader. I loathed writing this contribution. Not because it isn't interesting and not because I didn't want to write it, but frankly because I couldn't for the life of me remember what model I had. And it's been killing me... but I've now given up, and my best guess, based on gut reaction to image search and some matching details (candybar, screw-on antenna, Snake) is the ultra-successful Nokia 5110 or some variant thereof, maybe the 5120. Or the 5125. Or the 5160. Or the 5165. Whatever.

I guess I could've made phone calls or sent text messages, but to me, it just some device for playing Snake all day long. It's the sole reason I kept with Nokia, and I'd later pick my next phone based on having the original Snake (Bonus: that second phone had an awesome ringtone composer I used to recreate the main riff of Blur's "Music is My Radar.") Say what you will about Nokia, but you know what? Those candybars never had bad reception and would run for days without a charge. I haven't been able to say that about another phone since.

Nilay Patel: Sony D-Wave Zuma CM-Z200, Ameritech

Bought in 1999 / 2000 for an unknown amount of money on a 2-year Ameritech contract. Specs included an 800MHz CDMA radio, a four-line monochrome display, a texting function that wasn't properly supported by the network, a 99-entry address book, and -- most importantly -- a flip-out microphone.

How cool was my Sony D-Wave Zuma CM-Z200? I passed up my mother's hand-me-down StarTAC to grab the Zuma, and that was serious business at the tail end of 1999. Sprint carried the black CM-Z100 at the time, but I signed with Ameritech to get the silver Z200 -- presaging a lifetime of being kicked in the ass by carrier exclusivity. But oh man -- the Zuma was so hot, I didn't care. The software underneath was the same Qualcomm CMDA platform everyone else got, but the hardware itself was a classic piece of insane Sony engineering, built before the Ericsson linkup and the shift to "fashion" phones. Remember when Sony put Jog Dials on everything? The Zuma's Jog Dial combined with the flip-out microphone, so you could pull off a maneuver my friend Kyle dubbed "the scroll and flip" when you wanted to make a call. You could also answer and end calls by flipping the mic -- heaven.

Sadly, It wasn't the incessant flipping of the fragile mic stalk that ended my time with the Zuma, nor even Ameritech's eventual merger into SBC and then Cingular and AT&T and GSM over CDMA with it. Nope, it was something much, much dumber -- the external antenna. It was a pull-out piece, the last of the old school, and the base was just one unreinforced chunk of weak plastic. I snapped at least four of 'em over the course of my time with the Zuma, each time furtively trying to superglue things back together before sadly heading back to the store for a replacement. Eventually the hassle of having to return to Wisconsin from college in Chicago to find an Ameritech store became too much, and I abandoned the Zuma for a Sony Ericsson T616i on AT&T. It was a great phone, that T616i -- I was well on my path to Sony Ericsson fanboydom. But nothing has even quite been as sweet as that silver Zuma. I keep trying to find one on eBay -- I'll even take the lame black Sprint version -- but they seem to have been memory-wiped from existence, and Sony couldn't even help us find a high-quality press photo. But I'll never forget you, Zuma. In my heart, we're still scrolling and flipping forever.

Joanna Stern: Nokia 3390, Cingular

Bought in 2000 for some amount of money at Cingular. Specs included GSM 900/1800, 84 x 48 monochrome display, vibrate and predictive text input. Nope, no camera or speakerphone here.

I wish the story of my first cellphone was more exciting, but like many of my talented colleagues, my mobile journey began with a Nokia handset. As I remember it, I was in tenth grade and I convinced my parents that I needed my very own cell -- to, you know, call them if I was getting out of school early or forgot my cheese sandwich at home. Up until then I had always taken the family Nokia 5190 when I needed to be "in touch," but for whatever reason my dad agreed to buy me a phone to call my own. So, I set my eyes on Nokia's more petite 3390, and I was forever changed. Okay, that's a bit dramatic, considering I used the phone like any teenage girl -- to get in touch with my girlfriends at the mall and wait for the older cute boy to call. Yes, I was that cliche -- I can actually still remember getting excited when I'd see his name pop-up on the monochrome screen. I'm fairly certain somewhere in between all those calls there were some major fights with my father regarding going over my monthly minutes, but I believe I paid them off by picking up some added household chores and babysitting jobs. I actually think he thought the phone was a total waste of money until he called me on it on September 11, 2001 to let me know what had happened to the Twin Towers and that he'd be picking me up from school immediately.

Yes, Nokia lived up to its "connecting people" marketing slogan, but it also connected me to a monochrome line that inched across the screen. I, too, was a Snake addict, and I seriously couldn't get enough of the game. Actually, the 3390 was one of the first phones to come with Snake II. So while everyone else was controlling the old, stick-like digital image, my snake had a small animated mouth! I actually tried to replace the keypad at some point because the 2, 4, 6, 8 keys were so worn. Sadly, I can't remember my high score -- it disappeared when I gave up the phone in 2002 for the much cooler looking Motorola V60i flip phone. I guess I thought I was done with the high school games and ready for a fresh college look.

Richard Lai: Panasonic G-520, unlocked

Procured in 2001 or 2002 while rummaging through the shelves at home -- was probably a raffle prize that my father won at a company banquet (I never dared to ask). Specs included GSM 900, low-res monochrome LCD, 650mAh battery, and polyphonic ringtones!

I was only 13, and at the time, parents were only starting to equip their kids with cellphones. Even after my supposedly lucky find in my Hong Kong apartment, it was only my cautious self that brought the G-520 back to my British boarding school as a "just in case" measure -- I would've happily avoided this hideous phone had there been other options. For instance, back then many of my schoolmates were carrying a Nokia 3310 (not far off from Joanna's phone above), which sported a built-in antenna and the legendary Snake game; my G-520 had neither. Oh, and it didn't have an infrared port, so I could only -- with much jealousy -- observe others beaming virtual cards across their trendy handsets.

With the little usage I had on my G-520, I struggle to recall what other features the phone might have had (Google isn't helping much, either) -- all I know is that back then I lacked the technical brain power (and potentially phone credit) to set up WAP, plus the weak signal in the English countryside meant pigeon mail would've been more reliable than SMS. Consequently, most of the time the phone was left inside a dedicated compartment in my school bag, yet the paintwork around the corners still managed to slowly fade away. Needless to say, the arrival of my second-ever phone -- a Sony Ericsson T630 -- the following year was a great relief.

Vlad Savov: Nokia 6510, T-Mobile UK

Obtained in 2002 via my mother's free contract upgrade (yeah, that's how I roll). Specs included GSM 900/1800, 60 x 96 5-line monochromatic panel, FM radio, vibration alert, and yes, Snake II.

It's impossible for me to reminisce about this phone with anything but the happiest of feelings. Just look at those sharp, aggressive lines -- that's molded plastic at its absolute best! One of the biggest adaptations for me, having spent a lot of time hijacking a family-owned 5110, was to the switcheroo Nokia pulled with the arrow keys coming to the middle and shifting the OK key out to the side. A second upheaval was the fact that Snake II was a pale shadow of its predecessor, which I still consider the best damn mobile game ever made. Perhaps the Snake to Snake II transition was a sign of the N-Gaging things to come.

Trifling flaws aside, the 6510 continues to represent the ideal pure phone for me. It withstood scrapes and drops like a champion, had the endurance of a marathon runner, and its reliability was unquestionable. Which is something you can say about a lot of Nokia phones from that era.

Ultimately, my experience mirrors Darren's below. In a world where calls were priced by the minute and my student budget allowed for few luxuries, my trusty Nokia was mostly used as a texting device, receiving the occasional call now and again. It did make meeting my girlfriend a whole lot less complicated an affair, but my life never did manage to turn into the happy, sunny people on Nokia's ads. For shame.

Sean Hollister: Kyocera QCP-6035, Sprint PCS

Bought in 2002 for an incredible rebate-packed discount of the long-forgotten kind at CompUSA. Discovered only afterwards that the phone was locked to Sprint. Specs included a 16MHz processor, 8MB of memory, CDMA 850 / 1900... and a Palm Pilot!

Eight years ago, I was more concerned with whether my parents could track me down than the ability to make calls, so I was among the last of my high school friends to carry a cellphone. But when I did finally embrace my mobile calling, I like to think I did it well, with Kyocera's QCP-6035 - a genuine smartphone at a time when the BlackBerry was a pager that did email. Mind you, back then the definition of a smartphone didn't require app stores or Google Maps, and the QCP-6035 didn't have anything remotely resembling a camera, much less a front-facing one. It was simply a flip phone that turned into a tiny greyscale Palm Pilot when you opened its door, and the then-ingenious ability to dial contacts directly from the Palm's address book.

Months before the Treo popularized integrated connectivity (and added a QWERTY keyboard on top) I was kicking butt and taking names at 10WPM using Graffiti shorthand on the 160 x 160 resistive touchscreen -- or occasionally, beaming them over the infrared data port. I'll admit I never paid Sprint extra to use the primitive web browser, nor got the chance to tether my laptop at 14.4 Kbps dialup speeds -- another mildly amazing feature at the time -- but I did go to school every day with freshly cached Slashdot articles to read at lunch thanks to AvantGo, played loads of Bejeweled, Space Trader and Zap!2000 and every once in a blue moon, made a fairly clear CDMA PCS telephone call. By today's standards, the Kyocera Smartphone is a cheap, flimsy brick at which even today's cheapest featurephones would thumb their nose, but I loved my QCP-6035's handy jog dial, retractable antenna and literally-split personality... until the day I got my Danger Hiptop in 2004.

Darren Murph: Motorola 120T, U.S. Cellular

Bought in 2002 for $100 on contract. Specs included TDMA, 2-way SMS, voice dialing, 5.5 hours of talk time, WAP 1.1 internet, and a black and white 96 x 64 resolution display.

Dare I say it, but I was one of the last Americans to actually have a driver license before a cellphone. Bizarre, right? Of course, I was also one of the first in my grade to procure said license, but I digress. Motorola's 120t was the first cellie I was able to call my own, and while I had toted my mother's mobile around on occasion (trendy, I know), there was just nothing quite like having a 10-digit string of numbers to call my own.

Truth be told, I never really used my first cellphone all that much. Minutes were pricey back in those days, and I mostly used it just to phone home or dial up my ladyfriend (who I've since married, I'll have you know). Texting was a foreign topic, and I never sent nor received a single SMS on the 120t. Shock and horror aside, my first cellphone definitely made an impact on my life. It was the first occasion where I could actually call ahead and ensure plans were still on track, and it gave me the golden opportunity to ring my mum on the road and let her know I'd be a little late and to not worry. These sound like such small things now, but coming from a mobile-less world, the little things actually amounted to a lot.

In many ways, it wasn't the 120T that changed my life -- it was that blasted Snake game on my girlfriend's Nokia. But it's safe to say this gem sparked my desire to never roam without a cellphone, and for that, I'm eternally grateful. And indebted to a carrier.

Paul Miller: Sony Ericsson T616, Cingular

Bought in 2003 for about $100 on contract. Specs included GSM / 128 x 160 16-bit color LCD, 2MB Memory, 319 x 288 camera, custom themes, and a ringtone composer.

Having already bared my soul on Growing Up Geek, I guess I can't be too embarrassed... alright, so I was hanging out at Best Buy this one day, bugging the cellphone rep. (A general impression of my activity can be obtained from Ross Rubin's classic poem: "The Maven"). Some customer came up and was looking at the options, and I kept interrupting to the Best Buy rep with my own opinion, particularly with my high concept thoughts on Bluetooth. See, I thought Bluetooth was going to change everything. I imagined a Foursquare-style service, where you could see who else was at a party or a bar, then swap music, interests, or phone numbers with them without having to, you know, converse. All over the magic of Bluetooth.

The only decent phone that had Bluetooth on this Best Buy rack was the Sony Ericsson T616, so I was pushing it hard on this hapless would-be customer, and eventually the Best Buy rep got fed up with me: "Why don't you buy the T616, if you love it so much?" So I did. I didn't have a Bluetooth Mac at the time, so I couldn't use the excellent Salling Clicker software, and while I bought a Bluetooth headset early on, I lost it quickly enough to make me wary of splurging on another. So I just used the phone like a phone and I loved it. It was simple enough to be usable for a first timer like me, but fancy enough to let me feel superior over my friends with their ultra simplistic Nokias and Motorolas.

I still hardly use Bluetooth for anything but my computer's Bluetooth keyboard, but the I feel like the dream is more or less alive and well in some vague amalgamation of Zune, Foursquare, Facebook, and this strange new art I'm learning of actually talking to people at parties.

Videogame hardware and software sales declining, time to roll out some new consoles?

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 02:03 PM PST

Videogame hardware and software sales declining, maybe it's time for some new consoles
There was a time when you couldn't go three years without having to shell out $300 for the latest and greatest videogame console, something with mind-blowing graphics and slight refreshes of the games you'd already bought twice before. Those days are past, with the Xbox 360 over five years old and the PlayStation 3 four, yet neither having any replacements in the wings. Perhaps this is partly why videogame hardware sales are declining, down eight percent in January compared to this time last year according to NPD. Software sales are meanwhile down five percent and we're hearing reports that Mario is falling behind on payments for his Mediterranean villa. Maybe it's'a time to downsize, big guy.

HTC Incredible S auto-rotating buttons explained? (video)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 01:43 PM PST

We were quite bedazzled by the HTC Incredible S after our hands-on at MWC, but it's the auto-rotating icons for the capacitive buttons that left us most intrigued. So we went back to the HTC booth to try to make sense of it all. From what we were able to observe, there's some optical trickery happening here: the icons appear to be glittering and shimmering depending on viewing angle as if lit through a prism, half-mirror or grate of some kind. We think that a pair of LEDs are used to project the intended icon onto the glass surface via either a combination of prisms and half-mirrors, or via horizontally and vertically polarized grates. Watch our video after the break, and let us know in the comments how you think this actually works.

The Engadget Show - 018: GM's Micky Bly, Watson researcher David Gondek, EN-V demo, Atrix 4G

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 01:34 PM PST

Humans, allow us to present the latest episode of The Engadget Show -- you won't want to miss it. First up, Josh and Tim Stevens sit down with GM's chief electrical engineer Micky Bly for a frank conversation on the future of automotive technology, chatting about everything from networked vehicles (with a surprise visit from the unmistakable EN-V prototype), electric cars, advancing smartphone integration, and a world without stoplights. Then, Micky announces and demos Chevy's new MyLink infotainment system, in a world-first, Engadget Show-exclusive look at the new technology.

Fresh off a resounding victory over mankind, IBM's Watson researcher David Gondek joins Josh and Paul for a breakdown of Watson's Jeopardy domination and an in-depth conversation about machine-learning, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and the meaning of love. Last up, Josh, Paul, and Nilay bust out the Motorola Atrix 4G and break down the week in news, including Nokia's Windows Phone announcement, the rise of Honeycomb tablets, and everything worth talking about from Mobile World Congress.

This is one you absolutely should not miss. What are you waiting for? Watch it now! Hit up the video stream after the break or download the show in HD below!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Special guests: Micky Bly, David Gondek
Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm
Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger
Edited by: Danny Madden
Music by: Note!
Visuals by: Batsly Adams
Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec


Taped live at SIR Stage37
Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 018 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 018 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show - 018 (Small)

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CE-Oh no he didn't!: INQ chief says Android is too geeky for 'pretty girls'

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 01:21 PM PST

Take one dose of improper generalization, mix it in with a heaping of condescension, and then add a pinch of good old sexism. What do you get? This quote, coming from Frank Meehan, CEO of the Android handset-making INQ:
"If you go to a nightclub in any city in the world, the pretty girl has an iPhone or a BlackBerry. She doesn't have an Android phone. She has no emotional attachment to an Android phone. It's too complicated. It's a geek device, it's all wrong."
Now, before you go emailing him photos of the Android tattoo girl, there is undeniably some smidgen of truth to the man's words. Android is a geek's dream ecosystem and it's not necessarily the most accessible platform in the world, but to completely write it off for the nightclub-going lady demographic doesn't strike us -- or Justin Timberlake, or Chad Ochocinco -- as the most astute idea in the world.

[Thanks, AC]

Motorola: 28 percent of 2010 revenue came from Verizon

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 01:02 PM PST

Think the Atrix 4G might be a critical launch for Motorola right now? A fresh regulatory filing by Motorola today revealed that the company got a whopping 28 percent of its cash from Verizon last year -- up from 17 percent in 2009 -- a pretty powerful testament to the "Droid effect." The company goes on to say that "the loss of, or a significant reduction in revenue from, one or more of these customers could have a negative impact on [its] business," and it's pretty clear that the launch of the iPhone on Verizon will have at least some impact this year. Question is, can they make up for the loss with a harder push on other carriers like AT&T?

MacBook Pros may be in for an imminent refresh, about time too

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 12:37 PM PST

Welcome back to our annual tradition of speculating on just when and how Apple will freshen up its laptop range. AppleInsider is citing multiple sources today in support of its assertion that the MacBook Pro line will be getting upgraded by Apple, potentially as soon as next week. The Mac OS vendor is reportedly briefing folks to be ready for a "significant product launch" soon, which is narrowed down to its laptop division by a couple more pieces of circumstantial evidence. Apple's Asian online stores have shifted their promised MBP delivery times from 24 hours to "one to five days," indicating potentially lower stock quantities, while Italian blog iSpazio has dug up five new product SKUs that could be the markers for new laptop models. None of that sets anything in stone, of course, but we're also hearing the expected upgrade to Sandy Bridge won't afflict Apple's new machines with that Cougar Point chipset flaw, so whenever Apple deigns to bring us this upgrade it should be nice and pristine.

Blue Microphones Yeti Pro review

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 12:20 PM PST

USB microphones have come a long way in the past decade. We still remember our first experiences with them. Was it the 90's? It was the 90's, and it was a debacle: getting your drivers in line, wondering if the crappy plastic casing was going to snap off in your hand, and trying to figure out if you were going to be able to hear the audio through your Sound Blaster in the end anyway. We're happy to live in a 2011 that has the Yeti Pro, a seriously serious smooth operator that's likely to tickle grandma's fancy just as much as it will a jaded studio engineer's. Read on for the account of our engagement with the 3.4-pound beast.

Like all Blue products, the Yeti Pro is a looker. While attached to the included stand, it looms at almost a foot tall. Handsome textured black and silver metal encloses the body, and the massive grill and Blue logo up top gleam in a pleasing way. This guy would feel right at home on-camera.

But where some of Blue's lighter microphones left us wanting in the performance department, we've got no such issues with the Yeti Pro. It handled sampling rates all the way up to 24-bit / 192kHz with ease. We suspect that most folks who buy in this price range ($250) will be confused where they might be able to find a device that's even capable of playing back audio at that resolution. Smartly, Blue has answered that question in the form of a built-in 1/8" headphone output on the bottom of the mic. It lives a double life as a zero-latency monitoring device and a CoreAudio output (on a Mac; a custom driver will power I/O on a PC).


While it may seem silly to use a microphone as a headphone output (it is!), we now say don't knock it til ya tried it. Whatever's going on in the Yeti Pro's D/A department is super-slick: completely noiseless, utterly flat, and still somehow sweeter than even M-Audio's best offerings. We've been using it as a primary out for some time now, and switching back to our built-in Macbook headphone jack is a noticeable disappointment.

Underneath that grill is an array of three 14mm condenser capsules. What that means for the user is a choice of four switchable pickup patterns: stereo, cardioid, omni, and side-cancelling bidirectional that will probably handiest for interviews or two-person podcasting.

If you're looking to bypass the computer, you can also plug directly into any preamp that provides 48v phantom power via the included stereo XLR breakout cable. Once you remove the stand from the equation, the mic itself will only set you back 1.2 pounds, so it attaches easily to any standard threaded mount.


So. How does it it sound? It sounds awesome. In a variety of settings. Vocals with the cardioid: smooth, full-range, accurate, more Neumann than Shure. Instruments gathered loosely around the mic and captured in omni mode sounded great, and we can imagine this becoming a popular tool for documenting casual performances. The heavy stand not only makes for a great visual effect -- it also does a good job dampening vibration (thick foam insulation coats the bottom).

With such a reasonable price, we're imagining this will be a case where users have much more on their hands than they're used to, or capable of, testing the limits of. Sure, it didn't have the depth and tone of some single-use broadcast mics we've encountered, but that's not really the point.

Blue is on to something here, definitely, and we continue to wish them well. If consumers spent a little more money up front than they're used to for a standard Plantronics-style joint and had the Yeti Pro sitting around for casual recordings, we think the world might actually become a better place. Well, at least it will sound a little nicer, and that's something, right?

The Yeti Pro is out now at Apple stores, and will hit other shelves at the end of the month.

Xperia Play shows up in Verizon's inventory

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 11:58 AM PST

By now you should be doubt-free that the Xperia Play exists and is coming to Verizon, but if not, let this clear things up. A well-trusted tipster has just sent us the above screen shot of the Sony R800X (the 'x' here indicating CDMA as opposed to the model R800i we've been seeing), better known as the Xperia Play, hanging out in Verizon's system. We're bummed to not have a release date or price, but we're digging for more info. Head past the break for some exclusive product details straight from the depths of Verizon's backend.
Xperia Play product info

Myriad Alien Dalvik hands-on (video)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 11:52 AM PST

What if you could run Android apps on other platforms? That's exactly the question Benoit Shillings and his team at Myriad asked themselves before setting out to create Alien Dalvik. The resulting software provides a host environment for the (mostly Java-based) Android apps to run pretty much anywhere. Alien Dalvik behaves a lot like Wine on Linux, which allows Windows programs to run inside Linux without installing Windows or using a virtual machine. We stopped by the Myriad booth at MWC this week where Benoit was kind enough to give us a demo of Alien Dalvik running on a Nokia N900. Despite being in the early stages of development and still un-optimized, the software worked as expected. Benoit showed us Google Maps, a chess game, and the IMDb app all running as separate processes inside Maemo. This version of Alien Dalvik was written using Qt and should also be able to run on Symbian devices. You can't buy the product as an end user, but Myriad wants to make the technology available to carriers and device manufacturers to help streamline the deployment of apps across platforms. Watch our video after the break.

Motorola Atrix 4G pegged for February 21st pre-order delivery

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 11:27 AM PST

Current pre-orders appear to be looking at early March delivery, but AT&T has gone on record saying that folks that elected to pre-order the mighty Motorola Atrix 4G by the 17th will receive it on the 21st of February -- next Monday -- and if they chose to have their unit sent to a store, they'll be able to get it there on the 21st as well. The rest of us will need to check out the store on the 22nd and hope for the best. We've gotten confirmation from a tipster that his pre-order has shipped with a scheduled delivery on Monday, so it's looking like they're on time. Who's standing in line next Tuesday?

[Thanks, Shaun C.]

Obama talked R&D with tech industry CEOs, appoints Intel's Paul Otellini to advisory council

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 11:06 AM PST

Sure, there may have been some toasts and likely a bit of joking, but it looks like President Obama also got down to a bit of business during his meeting with some of the tech industry's top CEOs yesterday. While complete details are obviously light, White House press secretary Jay Carney has revealed that the president raised the issue of his recent proposals to invest in research and development with the group, and he's said to have also discussed ways to encourage kids to study math, science and engineering. What's more, as the Wall Street Journal points out, President Obama isn't done with the tech industry just yet -- he's moved on to Oregon today to tour one of Intel's semiconductor plants, where's expected to announce that Intel CEO Paul Otellini will be joining his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Samsung Epic 4G officially signed up for Froyo starting February 21st

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 10:44 AM PST

Weary Epic 4G owners, wonder no more about your phone's long-overdue update to Android 2.2, because the rumors were true: it's nearly here. Sprint has thrown up a support page detailing the build EB13 upgrade that will kick off on February 21st, saying that all customers "should" have it by the 25th through a phased over-the-air rollout. Besides the usual Android 2.2 goodies, the update promises "GPS enhancements," which is something that pretty much every Galaxy S owner around the world is always on the lookout for with every new firmware version. Of course, we'll believe this all when it actually starts happening -- but it's a good sign.
at 11:27 AM

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