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Tuesday, August 2, 2011

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iPhone app makes learning to read music even less appealing (video)

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 10:41 AM PDT

From Paul McCartney to Irving Berling, the list of songwriters who famously never learned to read music before hitting it big is a long one indeed. Why? Because it's a hard, mostly. Of course, they've managed to have successful careers as songwriters, even without the aid of an iPhone app that could read music for them. Surely they could have found some use for the new app from Kawai, which scans music notes from sheet paper and plays them back in real-time or with a delay, should you so choose. The app is available in the Japanese App Store ¥350 ($4.50). Japanese language video of the app in action after the break.

T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide review

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:57 AM PDT

Not too long ago, things were pretty simple in T-Mobile's Android land. For us (the nerds, geeks, power users, early adopters, and other misbegotten social deviants) there was the G series of phones with plain Android, culminating recently with LG's delightful G2x. If you wanted to buy your mom an Android smartphone, you'd point her at the myTouch series of handsets with custom HTC Sense-based skins, like last winter's myTouch 4G. Life got a bit more complicated with the introduction of LG's Optimus T, Samsung's Galaxy S 4G, and other devices that don't neatly fit into the carrier's grand branding scheme. Well, fear not! T-Mobile and HTC went ahead and refreshed last summer's lovely myTouch 3G Slide with a dash of dual-core tech lifted right from the HTC's Sensation flagship and a bespoke 8 megapixel shooter said to be "the most advanced camera of any smartphone". Those are fighting words... so does the myTouch 4G Slide (as it's called) beat the likes of Samsung's Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc, and Nokia's N8 in terms of imaging performance? Is the sliding keyboard as pleasant to use as its predecessor? And most importantly, is this your mom's next phone? Read on for our full review.
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide review



Hardware

It's easy to mistake the myTouch 4G Slide for the myTouch 4G when seeing it for the the first time. Both phones look almost identical from the front -- at 3.7 inches, the Slide's glass-covered WVGA capacitive touchscreen is only 0.1 inches smaller than its slate cousin. It features the same baroque earpiece and chrome rim around the screen. Like other myTouch devices, it comes with a row of four bona fide physical buttons (home, menu, back, and "Genius") plus an oh-so-retro optical trackpad above the signature chin. The silver ring around the front-facing camera lives on, along with the myTouch logo and notification LED. Flip the Slide over and it's a much more cohesive design. Gone is the myTouch 4G's mishmash of surfaces and textures, replaced instead by a silver accent along the edges of handset and a matte, off-white "khaki" battery door / back cover with a large, slick, machined aluminum pod incorporating the camera (the phone is also available in a more austere gunmetal and black color scheme). The words "8.0 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA" are prominently etched on the pod, which is flanked by a dual LED flash and a secondary microphone. A molded HTC logo and the speaker grille populate the other half of the back. On the sides of the Slide you'll find a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and power / lock key on top, a volume rocker and micro-USB connector on the left, the primary microphone, a slot to pry the cover, plus a lanyard attachment at the bottom, and finally, a dedicated two-stage camera button on the right.

The myTouch 4G Slide is as pleasant to handle as it is to look at. It's a solid, well-made device with a heft that inspires confidence despite the extensive use of plastics. Both the weight (184g / 6.5oz) and thickness (13.2mm / 0.52in) are on par with other sliders (HTC's G2 comes to mind). Still, it can feel somewhat bulky if you're accustomed to slates like the myTouch 4G. Pop the back cover and you're greeted by a 1520mAh battery that's also compatible with the Sensation, SIM slot, and microSD card reader (a 8GB card is supplied). There's an interesting design touch here: the camera is mounted in a machined aluminum cylinder which is partially anodized in a beautiful shade of apple green. Sadly this is most obvious when the battery door is removed, and will likely go unnoticed by the casual observer. Sliding the handset open reveals a staggered four-row QWERTY keyboard with black keys on a silver faux-aluminum background. While the mechanism (which is not spring loaded) is adequately smooth and sturdy, the keys themselves feel mushy compared to the myTouch 3G Slide. We'd have preferred keys with better defined tactile feedback. The other problem is the backlight, which only turns on when it's pitch dark, making it difficult to read the keys in low light. In practice, we ended up using the onscreen virtual keyboard (we installed SwiftKey X) more often than the physical QWERTY keyboard. So if you're considering the Slide for its keyboard, try before you buy -- you've been warned.

Under the hood, the myTouch 4G Slide is almost a dead ringer for the Sensation. You'll find the same Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon SoC with its 1.2GHz dual-core CPU and Adreno 220 GPU, 768MB RAM, and a combination quadband GSM / EDGE plus tri-band UMTS / HSPA+ "4G" radio -- the latter supporting Band IV (AWS) and Bands I / VII (world). Other specs include the usual suspects: at least half the sensors known to human kind (compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, proximity, and ambient light) along with a full complement of radios (WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+EDR, GPS / AGPS, and FM). The Slide lacks a qHD display, making due instead with a more pedestrian 3.7-inch WVGA (800x480 pixels) Super LCD panel. We'd gloss over this if the screen was of the same caliber as HTC's Incredible 2, but the Slide's display quality is just average at best. The screen looks fine indoors, but falls apart in direct sunlight, and generally exhibits mediocre contrast and viewing angles.

Calls sounded acceptable, and we didn't have any issues with reception, but our tests showed more variability in HSPA+ performance than other devices on T-Mobile's network. It's nothing to be concerned about, but it's worth a mention. As for battery life, we recorded a rather paltry four hours and 43 minutes on our newly minted battery rundown test (which basically involves starting with a full charge and looping the same video until the phone shuts down). Our battery usage test -- which attempts to replicate a light day's use (making a few minutes' worth of calls, reading email, checking social networks, and occasionally responding, texting, surfing the web, or uploading some pictures) with plenty of idle time -- scored 15 hours and 35 minutes, which puts the myTouch 4G Slide somewhere in the middle of the Android pack. One time, we even managed to squeeze a full 24 hours from the battery, but that included six hours of sleep. Just don't leave your charger at home, OK?

Camera

Judging from all the buzz, T-Mobile and HTC are very proud of the my Touch 4G Slide's camera. Is it justified? Yes, absolutely. We'd rank the Slide's camera at number three in the current crop of cameraphones, beating devices like the iPhone 4 and Xperia Arc, trailing closely behind the second place Galaxy S II, with the N8 taking the number one spot by a wide margin. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's see what the Slide's camera is capable of, how it shines, and where it falls short. We'd also like to dispel the claim that it's "the most advanced camera of any smartphone" since it mostly combines features already available on other handsets.
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide sample shots

What makes the myTouch 4G Slide's camera unique is a combination of custom hardware and software. HTC designed a completely new camera module using a backside-illuminated 8 megapixel sensor combined with a quality 3.69mm 1:2.2 wide-angle autofocus lens. At the time of writing the Slide is the only device in HTC's lineup equipped with this module -- sorry, Sensation owners. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that this camera is a serious piece of kit. The lens opening is massive for a phone and the sensor is extremely sensitive, something that we noticed immediately the first time we shot in low light. The only missing ingredient in this tiger blood recipe is the apparent lack of mechanical shutter, something you'll find on every single one of Nokia's imaging handsets from the N8 all the way back to the legendary N95 (and on Motorola's Droid X, incidentally). While the Slide features a dual-LED flash, it's not being used as an autofocus-assist light (like on the Xperia Arc), and doesn't hold a candle to the N8's xenon unit. That being said, we're pretty excited about the dedicated two-stage machined aluminum shutter key, which feels wonderful and provides just the right amount of resistance -- it's better than the N8's. Of course, if you prefer leaving fingerprints all over the viewfinder the camera also includes touch-to-focus along with an onscreen shutter key.

It's by using special software that the myTouch 4G Slide's camera really stands out. The premise is simple: pull out the phone, press the camera button to activate the app (à la Windows Phone), and press it again to take a shot -- bypass the lock screen, collect quality photos, don't go to jail. It's not the first cameraphone that's easy to use (the iPhone 4 is a fast, intuitive, and confident shooter as well), but T-Mobile and HTC wanted to bring the dedicated point-and-shoot digital camera experience to the smartphone, and that's what the Slide delivers most of the time. To achieve this, it uses tricks like continuous autofocus and zero shutter lag (wherein the camera is continuously sampling images and storing them in a circular buffer in order to minimize the delay between pressing / tapping the shutter key and capturing the moment). Unfortunately, while the concept is sound, the implementation is far from perfect. The Slide also provides easy access to scene modes, unlike other cameraphones which tend to bury the setting somewhere deep within the UI -- we're looking at you, N8 and Galaxy S II. As such, the camera features a simple interface with four onscreen buttons to switch between stills and video, select between the front and the back camera, control the flash, and change scene modes as follows:
  • Auto, which detects and adjusts settings to achieve the best results in most situations. This actually works quite well.
  • SweepShot, a panorama mode similar to what's available on most Samsung and Motorola handsets. The Slide stitches fewer images together but the resulting panoramas, while shorter, are of higher resolution.
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide panorama samples
  • ClearShot HDR, a high dynamic range mode similar to what's available on the iPhone 4. There's a noticeable loss of detail in this mode, even when holding the camera still.
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide HDR samples
  • BurstShot, which takes five pictures in rapid succession. It's similar to the BestPic feature that was available a few years ago on Sony Ericsson's K850i.
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide burst mode samples
  • Night, which optimizes settings for night shots.
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide night mode samples
  • Action, a shutter priority mode which adjusts settings for capturing moving subjects.
  • Macro, which optimizes settings for close-up shots.
  • Portrait, a shallow depth of field mode for portraits. This allows you to specify the diameter and position of a circular area on the viewfinder outside which the picture will be artificially blurred. It's similar to Instagram's tilt-shift feature on the iPhone, but not nearly as polished. There's no gradient between the area that's in focus and the outside that's blurred, just a sharp transition.
  • Manual, which provides the following settings (among others) via the menu key: timer, color effects (black & white, sepia, etc...), exposure, white balance, ISO, resolution, review duration, and geo-tagging, face / smile / blink detection.
There's no doubt that the myTouch 4G Slide takes beautiful pictures. Still, as we mentioned above, the Galaxy S II usually performs better and the N8 still plays in a league of its own. The Slide manages to gather a lot of information, but that's no match for the massive amounts of detail captured through the N8's impeccable Zeiss optics. It also exhibits more noise in normal light than the Galaxy S II, despite both phones using similarly sensitive sensors. We didn't experience any problems with exposure but white balance was sometimes a little off. We also noticed what looks like chroma aberrations or JPEG compression artifacts in shots. Low light performance is impressive -- like the N8, the Slide preserves detail at the expense of some noise, thus leaving the door open for post-processing. In addition to the above gallery, here is a ZIP file containing the original photos along with matching samples taken with the N8, Galaxy S II, Xperia Arc, and Canon's s95.


The myTouch 4G Slide captures 1080p (HD) video at 30fps with initial autofocus and touch-to-focus functionality. Audio is recorded in mono using what sounds like a less than stellar microphone. The resulting videos are reasonably sharp and smooth, but we noticed some dropped frame here and there, something that's rather unexpected for a dual-core handset. It looks like the Slide's camera was optimized for stills, and while video recording is definitely serviceable, it's not this device's forte. Hopefully these issues will be addressed in a future software update, along with the introduction of continuous autofocus and stereo sound.

Software

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the myTouch 4G Slide not only ships with Gingerbread out of the gate, but comes with one of the most recent versions (Android 2.3.4). Like many of HTC's recent Android devices, it runs Sense 3.0, something that we'd normally be moaning and groaning about, yet somehow really fits here. The Slide follows in the footsteps of the other myTouch handsets by using a customized version of HTC's UI that suits it perfectly -- especially when you consider T-Mobile's target audience (the first-time smartphone buyer). Some things are missing compared to "stock" Sense 3.0, such as the ability to place four shortcuts right on the lock screen, but T-Mobile chose to add some potentially useful features like group texting (powered by Bobsled) and the aforementioned Genius button (courtesy of Nuance), which adds full voice control to the phone. Sadly, there's nothing smart about the Genius button -- it looks impressive on paper but works poorly in practice.

In terms of perceived performance, the myTouch 4G Slide just doesn't live up to its dual-core pedigree. It's certainly no slouch, but it's no match for the Sensation, despite having to render 35 percent fewer pixels -- in fact, even our single-core Nexus S feels snappier. Our benchmarks partially confirm these impressions, with slightly lower scores than its sibling for Quadrant (1800 vs. 2000) and for Linpack (43 vs. 47 MFLOPS for single-thread). Linpack (multi-thread) returned 57 MFLOPS, Nenamark 41fps, Nenamark2 24.7fps, Neocore 59fps, and Sunspider completed in 4817ms (when it worked). Other than the lackluster Quadrant results (and occasional problems running Sunspider), these numbers are in line with what we've observed on several other dual-core smartphones. Still, there's no denying that there's a price to pay for T-Mobile and HTC's UI customizations. The Galaxy S II, which features a lighter skin (TouchWiz) but similar specs, just runs circles around the Slide.

Like most carrier-sanctioned smartphones, the myTouch 4G Slide includes some bundled software, and while none of the pre-installed apps can be removed, several of them are actually somewhat useful. Beyond HTC's Sense apps (such as Friend Stream), you'll find Adobe Reader, Bejeweled 2 (PopCap's popular game), Netflix, Polaris Office, Slacker Radio, T-Mobile TV (for carrier-billed live and on-demand TV), TeleNav, Qik Video Chat, and Zinio Reader. Other familiar apps include the Swype keyboard, WiFi calling, and Screen Share (for DLNA support). T-Mobile rounds things off with its in-house My Account, My Device, AppPack, KidZone, Highlight, and T-Mobile Mail apps. It's worth noting that for some reason the music, video, FM radio, and Screen Share apps must be launched via something called Media Room in the app tray -- but otherwise there are no surprises here.

Wrap up

The myTouch 4G Slide is certainly a worthy contender in the race for best cameraphone, but it takes more than hardware and software wizardry to make "the most advanced camera of any smartphone." When it comes to mobile photography, Nokia still reigns supreme with the N8 (which is a far better shooter than it is a phone), and Samsung continues to flex its imaging muscle with the Galaxy S II. It's surprising that despite packing the same processor and battery as HTC's Sensation flagship, the Slide performed worse in our speed and endurance tests. There's also room for improvement in the display and keyboard departments, which don't quite live up to our standards. Ultimately though, none of this really matters -- the Slide is pleasant and easy to use, looks and feels great, and takes gorgeous pictures. As such, your mom won't be disappointed. If you want a qHD display, and can live with less camera, the Sensation is a viable alternative to the Slide for the same $200 (on contract). Still, we think the recently updated G2x remains the best device in T-Mobile's lineup thanks to its top-notch camera and a slightly better display than the Slide for $50 less. Well, what are you waiting for? Go out there and buy your mom a phone already!

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Autodesk adds DIY site Instructables to its stable

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:35 AM PDT

InstructablesAutodesk has really decided to embrace the DIY community recently. First the company launched 123D, a free design tool for hobbyists, now it's snatched up Instructables, an online repository for everything from quadrocopter plans to bruschetta recipes. There's no need for amateur inventors out there to worry about the acquisition, though -- it doesn't sound like much will be changing at the site. Makers will still own the copyright to their creations and the brand will be keeping its focus on user submitted projects, but the site's blog does promise that improvements are on the way thanks to the deeper pockets of its new owner. Most of the finer details of the purchase are still unclear, but there's some more info in the PR after the break.


Show full PR text
Autodesk Acquires Instructables

Vibrant Online DIY Community Extends Autodesk's Maker Ecosystem

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, announced today that it has acquired San Francisco-based Instructables, a popular online community for people who want to discover, share and be inspired by DIY project ideas and how-to information. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Instructables.com is a destination where passionate, creative people come to share their most innovative projects and ideas on everything from technology and home renovation to crafts. Autodesk believes that the acquisition will assist makers of all types by linking Instructables' vibrant online community to Autodesk software tools and services, such as SketchBook, 123D and Homestyler that allow anyone to explore design ideas and bring them to life.

Millions of Autodesk customers around the world are passionate about making things – whether in their professional lives or their personal lives. Instructables will introduce Autodesk customers to a thriving community of like-minded, smart individuals, with whom they can learn and share their personal inspiration or hobbies. Instructables members will benefit from Autodesk's scale and powerful design tools, enabling the community to grow and share their ideas with a wider audience.

"Passionate, creative people want communities to support and encourage their endeavors," said Samir Hanna, vice president of Consumer Products at Autodesk. "As a result of this acquisition, Autodesk will host a unique ecosystem that combines inspiration, accessible 3D software tools and fabrication services so anyone can be empowered to express themselves creatively."

"Joining Autodesk will help us reach even more smart, engaged individuals and make Instructables an even better place to share projects and ideas," said Eric Wilhelm, founder and CEO of Instructables. "Autodesk is a great cultural fit for Instructables, and I can't wait to start changing the world together."

Instructables members are at the forefront of the Maker Movement. They celebrate designing, personalizing and creating art objects, personal inventions and home ideas. Autodesk intends to retain the Instructables brand and will continue to operate Instructables.com following the acquisition, preserving the elements that make the Instructables community so authentic and successful today. Visit the Instructables blog for more information.

Business Outlook

This transaction is expected to have no impact on guidance issued on June 29, 2011.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including the impact of the acquisition on Autodesk's financial results, business performance, product and service offerings and user experiences and benefits; planned operation of Instructables.com; and Autodesk's commitment to Instructables' advertisers, contributors and users. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include the following: difficulties integrating Instructables' business, employees, users, technology, advertisers and vendors; difficulty further developing Instructables' technology and platform; costs related to integrating and further developing Instructables' business and technology; whether certain market segments grow as anticipated; the competitive environment in the software industry and competitive responses to the acquisition; whether Autodesk can successfully develop new products and services or modify existing products and services and the degree to which these gain market acceptance; changes in the timing of product and services releases and retirements; failure to achieve continued success in technology advancements; and unanticipated impact of accounting for acquisitions.

Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Autodesk are included in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2011, and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 30, 2011, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Autodesk does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries – including the last 16 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects– use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD and Instructables are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

Engadget's back to school 2011 sweepstakes: we're giving away $3,000 worth of gear... 15 times!

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:00 AM PDT


Back when many of us were gearing up to go back to school, the shopping list was filled with notebooks (the kind without a battery), pens (read: not a stylus), and a few dozen pencils (old-school #2s that required manual sharpening). Maybe, just maybe, we would have a new graphing calculator to look forward to, but if we ever saw 'smart' and 'phone' in the same sentence, it was probably in a handwritten note from mom begging us to stop making long-distance calls on the landline.

Now, back to school means picking up extra shifts at work to pay for new computers, cameras, smartphones, e-readers, and tablets -- not to mention those still-sky-high prices publishers are commanding for textbooks at the college store. We want to relieve some of that burden -- for a few of you, at least. This year, we've partnered with top manufacturers in nearly every category to bring you one epic giveaway, complete with all of the products we mentioned above, plus a whole lot more! Lucky winners will receive an Engadget-branded messenger bag, overflowing with the latest tech gear. Jump past the break for the full rundown of prizes, along with instructions for entering our back to school giveaway.

Oh, and one more thing: We won't be giving away just one of these loaded messenger bags -- we have 15! All of the giveaways will be identical, so feel free to enter by leaving a comment at each of our back to school posts (not including the back to school hub), including yesterday's digital cameras guide (note: you'll only be allowed to win once and multiple comments on a single post will not increase your chances of winning).

Laptop


HP Pavilion dm1-3020us

Sure, Apple's 11.6-inch MacBook Air is sleek, sexy and powerful, but it starts at $999, and, well, you'd probably rather spend that money on ramen. The HP Pavilion dm1 gets the job done for less than $500, offering great performance, over five hours of battery life, and a compact design to boot.

Key specs: 1.6GHz Dual-Core AMD processor, 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display, 3GB RAM, 3.5 lbs.

Price: $430

Digital Camera


Sony NEX-C3

You'd be hard-pressed to find an interchangeable lens camera that offers more bang for your buck than the Sony NEX-C3. With the same size sensor found in many full-size DSLRs, this compact sports excellent image quality, 720p video, and a slick tilt-enabled high-res display.

Key specs: 16 megapixel stills, 720p video, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, 3-inch articulating display.

Price: $650


Tablet


Samsung 7-inch Galaxy Tab

Samsung's Android 2.2 Froyo-powered 7-inch Galaxy Tab lets you stay connected when you don't want to haul around a laptop. This WiFi-only model won't be hopping on T-Mobile or Verizon, but you can use your university's wireless network to check exam scores, poke cute girls on Facebook, or fire off an email to your professor -- assuming you go to school anywhere but here.

Key specs: Seven-inch, 600 x 1024 display, front and rear cameras, 16GB storage, 1GHz processor.

Price: $350

Smartphone


Motorola Photon 4G (Sprint)

What sports a 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, HDMI connectivity, and a 540 x 960-pixel display? Well, it's not a tablet. Motorola's Photon 4G is the first Sprint smartphone to include both WiMAX and GSM connectivity, letting you make calls and surf the web while studying in the US, and during your semester abroad.

Key specs: 4.3-inch qHD display, 1GB RAM, 16GB built-in memory, Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Price: $200



Speaker dock


Altec Lansing Octiv 650

Your HP notebook can do a fine job of pumping out quality tunes when you consider its size, but it won't be filling your dorm room with crisp, distortion-free sound. For that, you'll need Altec Lansing's new Octiv 650, which also lets you output video from a connected iPhone or iPod touch, or connect any other musical device using the auxiliary input.

Key specs: iPhone and iPod touch connectivity, aux input, built-in subwoofer, video output.

Price: $200

Headphones


Bowers & Wilkins C5

Perhaps best known for its football-shaped Zeppelin series of speaker docks, Bowers & Wilkins' C5 in-ear headphones will come in handy when you need to listen to music as your roommate sleeps in the dorm room, or when you want to tune out in the lecture hall. These bullet-shaped 'buds also include an inline mic, letting you chat on your Photon without skipping a beat.

Key specs: Aluminum construction, built in mic and remote, noise-isolating design.

Price: $180


E-reader


All-New Nook by Barnes & Noble

There's not a whole lot we can do to help with those $200 textbooks, but you can save some money by purchasing the rest of your required reading materials in digital form on your All-New Nook by Barnes & Noble. You can also send book quotes and recommendations to Facebook and Twitter using the e-reader's built-in WiFi.

Key specs: Six-inch, 800 x 600 display, 16-level grayscale, 2GB storage, 800MHz processor.

Price: $139

Laptop bag


Timbuk2 Command Messenger

You can't have an overstuffed messenger bag without the bag itself, and Timbuk2's durable, airport-friendly Command Messenger fit the bill. Your bag will arrive custom-embroidered with the Engadget logo, and will have plenty of pockets to contain all of your new tech toys as you trek around campus.

Price: $130




Accessories



Elgato HDHomeRun
We tried to squeeze an HDTV into the bag, but to no avail. This dual-network TV tuner is the next best thing, streaming HD content to your PC or Mac over WiFi.

$180


Kingston Wi-Drive
This 16GB portable media streamer is a good solution for expanding storage on your iOS device, or sharing content with friends.

$130



Spotify Premium (1-Year)
Spotify's streaming music service has finally landed in the US. Use this subscription to stream music to your laptop, tablet, or a variety of other connected devices for a full year.

$120


Scosche: goBAT II
You'll be good to go for hours of computing on your Galaxy Tab, but then what? If you can't get any sleep during an all-nighter, neither should your gadgets.

$80


iMainGo: X
It may look like a cassette, but it's definitely not. This Walkman-like portable speaker doubles as a case, and may just be the star of the show at your next power hour.

$70

G-Form 13-inch Extreme Sleeve
Want to protect your HP notebook? This should do the trick. Just... keep it away from six-foot bowling ball drops. Because we said so.

$80



Canon X Mark I Mouse Lite
Canon may be best known for its cameras, but the Japanese company also makes calculators, including this new hybrid mouse.

$60


Skype
Do you make calls to phones in the US and Canada? This 12-month Skype Premium subscription will let you do it for free, along with free group video calls and screen sharing for Mac.

$54


Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock
Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

$40

Red Swingline Stapler
We can't help you get a job with Milton at Initech, but you can have his stapler, thanks to our friends at ThinkGeek.

$23



Toddy Smart Cloth
Is that a smudge we see on your laptop? And tablet? And e-reader? And smartphone? You get the idea, and you need three of these.

$20

Pogo Sketch
Want to sketch with precision on your tablet's touchscreen display? The Pogo Sketch can make it happen.

$15

Do we have your attention? Now, assuming you're a legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec), and you're over 18, all you need to do is read through our official rules (down below) and leave a comment. Make sure the email address on your Disqus account is correct, since that's how we'll be getting in touch. And again, don't worry if you don't win this time around, as we'll be hosting a total of 15 identical giveaways over the next month -- yes, that really does mean complete back to school kits for 15 of you! You'll be able to enter in the comments section on each of our back to school posts, including those from earlier this week. Good luck!


Engadget's Back to School Giveaway
Official Rules
No Purchase Required to Enter or Win

Eligibility: Engadget's Back to School Giveaway (the "Giveaway") is open only to individuals who are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States (including the District of Columbia) and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 years of age or older. Employees of Weblogs Inc. LLC, AOL Inc., their advertising or promotion agencies, those involved in the production, development, implementation or handling of Giveaways, any agents acting for, or on behalf of the above entities, their respective parent companies, officers, directors, subsidiaries, affiliates, licensees, service providers, prize suppliers any other person or entity associated with the Giveaways (collectively "Giveaway Entities") and/or the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings and children) and household members (whether related or not) of each such employee, are not eligible. All U.S., federal, state and local and Canadian federal, provincial, and municipal laws and regulations apply. Void in Quebec, Puerto Rico and where prohibited by law.

Sponsor: The Giveaway is sponsored by Weblogs Inc. LLC, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 ("Sponsor").

Agreement to Official Rules: Participation in the Giveaway constitutes entrant's full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein.

Giveaway Period: The Giveaway begins at 12PM ET on August 2, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011 (the "Giveaway Period"). The Giveaway Period shall be divided into fifteen (15) separate Entry Periods:

Entry Period 1 begins at 12PM ET on August 2, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 2 begins at 12PM ET on August 2, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 3 begins at 12PM ET on August 3, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 4 begins at 12PM ET on August 5, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 5 begins at 12PM ET on August 8, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 6 begins at 12PM ET on August 10, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 7 begins at 12PM ET on August 12, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 8 begins at 12PM ET on August 15, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 9 begins at 12PM ET on August 17, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 10 begins at 12PM ET on August 19, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 11 begins at 12PM ET on August 22, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 12 begins at 12PM ET on August 24, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 13 begins at 12PM ET on August 26, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 14 begins at 12PM ET on August 31, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.
Entry Period 15 begins at 12PM ET on September 2, 2011 and ends at 12PM ET on September 9, 2011.

Entry: During the Giveaway Period, go to http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/02/engadgets-back-to-school-2011-sweepstakes-were-giving-away-3/ and follow the instructions to submit your entry. The use of any agencies or automated software to submit entries will void all entries submitted by that person.

Drawing: At the conclusion of the Giveaway Period, Sponsor will select the name of one (1) Grand Prize Winner from each of the fifteen (15) Entry Periods in a random drawing of all eligible entries received during each Entry Period. The odds of being selected as a potential winner depend on the number of eligible entries received during the applicable Entry Period. Potential Winners will be contacted via email and asked to provide their full name, age and mailing address within a specified time period. If a potential winner does not respond within the timeframe stated in the notification email, the Sponsor may select an alternate potential winner in his/her place at random from all entries received during the Entry Period. Non-winning entries from one Entry Period do not carry over into subsequent Entry Periods.

Requirements of the Potential Winners: Except where prohibited, the potential winners will be required to complete and return an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release (the "Affidavit/Release") and IRS W-9 form within seven (7) days of being notified. If a potential winner fails to sign and return the Affidavit/Release and W-9 form within the required time period, an alternate entrant may be selected in his/her place in a random drawing of all entries received. Acceptance of a prize constitutes consent to use winner's name and likeness for editorial, advertising and publicity purposes without additional compensation, except where prohibited by law. In the event the potential winner of any prize is a Canadian resident, he/she will also be required to correctly answer a time-limited mathematical question to be administered by email, mail or phone to receive the prize. Limit one (1) prize per household.

Prizes: Fifteen (15) Grand Prize Winners will each receive a Back to School Prize Pack containing the following items: HP Pavilion dm1z laptop, Sony NEX-C3 digital camera, Samsung 7" Galaxy Tab, Motorola Photon 4G (Sprint) smartphone, Altec Lansing Octiv 650 speaker doc, Bowers & Wilkins C5 headphones, Nook E-reader, Timbuk2 Command Messenger bag, Elgato HDHomeRun TV tuner, Kingston Wi-Drive, 1-year Premium Spotify subscription, Scosche: goBAT II, iMainGo: X, G-Form 11" Extreme Sleeve, Canon X Mark I Mouse Lite, 1-year Premium Skype subscription, Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock, Red Swingline Stapler, Toddy Smart Cloth and Pogo Sketch. Approximate Retail Value of each Prize Pack is $3,151. Subscriptions are subject to issuer's terms and conditions. Activation fees and monthly service fees not included with any smartphone/digital devices. No cash or other substitution may be made, except by the Sponsor, who reserves the right to substitute a prize or portion of a prize with another prize of equal or greater value if the prize is not available for any reason as determined by the Sponsor in its sole discretion. Winners are responsible for any taxes and fees associated with receipt or use of a prize.

General Conditions: In the event that the operation, security, or administration of the Giveaway is impaired in any way for any reason, including, but not limited to fraud, virus, or other technical problem, the Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, either: (a) suspend the Giveaway to address the impairment and then resume the Giveaway in a manner that best conforms to the spirit of these Official Rules; or (b) award the prizes at random from among the eligible entries received up to the time of the impairment. The Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Giveaway or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to undermine the legitimate operation of the Giveaway may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, the Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. The Sponsor's failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. In case of a dispute as to the owner of an entry, entry will be deemed to have been submitted by the authorized account holder of the screen name from which the entry is made. The authorized account holder is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, or other organization responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address.

Release and Limitations of Liability: By participating in the Giveaway, entrants agree to release, defend indemnify and hold harmless the Giveaway Entities from and against any claim or cause of action, including without limitation, any third party claim, arising out of participation in the Giveaway or receipt, use or misuse of any prize, including, but not limited to: (a) unauthorized human intervention in the Giveaway; (b) technical errors related to computers, servers, providers, or telephone or network lines; (c) printing errors; (d) lost, late, postage-due, misdirected, or undeliverable mail; (e) errors in the administration of the Giveaway or the processing of entries; or (f) injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant's participation in the Giveaway or receipt, use or misuse of any prize. Entrant further agrees that in any cause of action, the Giveaway Entities' liability will be limited to the cost of entering and participating in the Giveaway, and in no event shall the Giveaway Entities be liable for attorney's fees. Entrant waives the right to claim any damages whatsoever, including, but not limited to, punitive, consequential, direct, or indirect damages.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE PRIZES AND ALL ELEMENTS THEREOF ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. SPONSOR DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND/OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of implied warranties. In such jurisdictions, some of the foregoing disclaimers may not apply to you insofar as they relate to implied warranties.

Disputes: Except where prohibited, entrant agrees that any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of, or connected with, the Giveaway or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the appropriate court located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, entrant's rights and obligations, or the rights and obligations of the Sponsor in connection with the Giveaway, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the Commonwealth of Virginia or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Giveaway Results: To request the names of the winners, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Engadget Back to School Giveaway Winners, Zach Honig, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. Requests must be received by September 30, 2011.

New Android trojan can record phone calls, expose your embarrassing fantasy baseball talk

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:41 AM PDT

Malware PermissionsMobile malware is nothing new, especially for Android users who have trained themselves to navigate the sometimes shady back alleys of the Market. The fine folks at CA Technologies came across an interesting new trojan though, that does something slightly more unnerving than max out your credit cards -- it records your conversations. There's no evidence that this has actually found its way into the wild yet, but it's entirely possible that some nefarious developer could capture your calls and upload them to a remote server. Obviously, this wouldn't hold much interest for your traditional cyber crook, but suspicious significant others and corporate spies could have a field day with such capabilities. All we can do is suggest you remain vigilant and maintain a healthy dose of paranoia about any apps on your phone.

Verizon LTE-packing HP Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr hitting the retail cloud on August 4th

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:21 AM PDT

It's the not the first laptop to sport Verizon Wireless's LTE -- the HP Pavilion dm1-3010nr grabbed that title about a week ago -- but the Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr is being touted by VZW as its first netbook to pack the technology. The 10-inch system, which was first announced back in January, packs 250GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, and a multicard reader into a three-pound frame. Oh, and you also get access to HP's Cloud Drive -- you don't want that 4G technology to go to waste, do you? The netbook will go on sale via Verizon's site on August 4th for $450.
Show full PR text
Verizon Wireless Introduces First Netbook To Use Verizon's 4G LTE Network

BASKING RIDGE, NJ - Verizon Wireless today announced the Compaq™ Mini CQ10-688nr with built-in 4G LTE will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com on August 4.

Previously announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show and powered by Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network, the Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr is the ideal balance of performance and size. Customers can stream videos; video chat; and download music, photos and videos on a slim and stylish netbook. Customers can also stay connected using 4G LTE and access digital files on HP Cloud Drive, a digital filing cabinet to download or upload files while mobile.

Small business customers can take advantage of the 4G LTE speeds to quickly download and send email attachments and utilize word processing and Web browsing on-the-go. The ultraportable Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr is designed to help business owners and frequent travelers get their work done fast and efficiently.

Key features:

4G LTE – customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage areas
Windows® 7 Home Starter 32-bit
10.1" WSVGA Anti-glare LED Display (1024 x 600)
1.66 GHz Intel® Atom™ Processor N455
250 GB hard drive
Memory: 1 GB DDR3 RAM
VGA webcam with integrated digital microphone
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Multi-format digital media card reader for SD cards, multimedia cards, memory stick and memory stick pro
Weight: 3.10 lbs

Pricing and availability:

The Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com on August 4 for $449.99.
Customers will be able to choose one of the following Mobile Broadband plans:
$30 monthly access for 2 GB monthly allowance
$50 monthly access for 5 GB monthly allowance
$80 monthly access for 10 GB monthly allowance

LG launches Nano LED backlit LW9800 HDTVs

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:01 AM PDT

While LG's 2011 HDTV lineup has been largely a success so far -- we found a lot to like in the LW5600 we reviewed and quarterly earnings seem to justify its 3D and LED technology -- some wouldn't be satisfied without an LED backlit (rather than edge lit) option. That issue is solved now with the new LW9800 series, shown off here in Korea as the LW980S. Announced in two sizes, 55- and 47-inches, both feature "Nano LED" local dimming with as many as 2,300 sources in the larger one and 480Hz motion technology. They also include other LG standard features like Cinema 3D, Magic Motion gesture remote control and its Smart TV menus as well as built-in WiFi, but the big draw here is the deep blacks and a claim of the industry's highest 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Check the press release after the break for a few more details while we wait to get our eyes on the new models in September at IFA 2011.
Show full PR text
LG TAKES 3D TVS TO NEW HEIGHTS WITH NANO FULL BACKLIT LED, SMARTER FUNCTIONS
Share

Next Generation CINEMA 3D TVs from LG get Smarter with
Instant Connectivity, Superior Picture Quality

SEOUL, Aug. 2, 2011 -– Today in Seoul, Korea, LG Electronics (LG) took the wraps off its newest development in home entertainment, the LW980S. The LW980S is a topof-the-class TV that combines LG's advanced CINEMA 3D technology, Smart TV functions and NANO FULL LED all in one sleek package.

"The LW980S is the crown jewel of TVs as it includes the most advanced technologies and features we've developed at LG over the years," said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. "We've set a new benchmark in connectivity, picture quality and sheer viewing enjoyment."

Addressing one of the big sticking points of conventional 3D TVs, the LW980S comes with comfortable, lightweight glasses that don't need to be recharged and are easily replaceable. The LW980S tackles the thorny issue of not enough content with a proprietary 2D to 3D conversion technology that guarantees a ready supply of shows and movies in high quality 3D.

CINEMA 3D, the world's first 3D display technology to receive "Flicker-Free" certification from TÜV and Intertek, two of Europe's most reputable testing agencies, means that viewers no longer have to worry about the dizziness or disorientation they might experience watching other 3D TVs. Also, Wide Viewing Angle ensures they can watch the TV from practically any position in front of the TV, whether sitting, leaning back or lying down. Together with the affordable glasses, this makes the LW980S perfect for watching in larger groups.

And with 3D Video-on-Demand – available through LG Apps – viewers will never be short of exciting, top-quality content to watch at home. Using the Magic Motion Remote Control, LW980S users get access to all the Premium Content they could want with just a couple of clicks on the mouse-like control. Moreover, Smart Share makes it a cinch to share content between the user's TV, mobile phone and other digital devices.

The LW980S's viewing experience is further enhanced by LG's unique NANO FULL LED lighting technology. Via an extremely thin film printed with minuscule dots, NANO FULL LED disperses light more evenly across the screen, to create brighter, clearer and smoother pictures. TruMotion 400Hz ensures those pictures stay silky smooth, no matter how fast the action.

LG's LW980S will be shown to international audiences for the first time at Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA Berlin), the global trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances taking place from September 2-7 in Germany.



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Cosmo For Guys viral marketing video is a head-turner (video)

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 07:41 AM PDT

We don't know iPad Head Girl's name, or what she really looks like under that clever environment-reflecting helmet. What we do know, however, is that our mama didn't raise us to go stroking people's faces in the street -- which is exactly what one unseemly chap eventually does in the viral marketing video after the break. Is he an actor on Hearst's payroll, remitted an hourly rate to feign fascination with their new Cosmo For Guys iPad magazine, which magically appears on the poor girl's face? By all means, analyze his forward behavior and make up your own mind. But if you're only into couture, darling, you'd better look away now.

Toshiba unveils MQ01ABD HDD series, packs 1TB on a 9.5mm frame

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 07:10 AM PDT

It's been barely four months since Toshiba introduced its MK7559GSXP -- a tightly-packed, 750GB hard drive that, believe it or not, has already been eclipsed by the MQ01ABD series. Unveiled yesterday, the company's new lineup of 2.5-inch HDDs offers up to 1TB of storage capacity, thanks to an architecture that squeezes 500GB out of every platter. Standing at 9.5mm tall, the 5,400RPM drives also boast an areal density of 744Gb per square inch, and are designed to maximize energy efficiency, burning just 0.55 watts in idle mode. Gamers and entertainment gurus, meanwhile, would benefit from the MQ01ABD's enhanced acoustics, which max out at 19dB in idle, and 24dB while seeking. No word yet on pricing, but the beasts are scheduled to go into mass production by the middle of this month. For more of the nitty gritty, gallop past the break for the full press release.
Show full PR text
Toshiba Boosts Performance with Industry-Leading Areal Density on 1TB 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drive for PC and Consumer Electronics Applications

Industry-Leading Recording Density Delivers the Best Combination of Capacity, Performance, and Reliability in the Standard 9.5mmH Form Factor

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Toshiba today announced its first 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) featuring capacity up to 1TB*using 500GB*/platter technology in the industry-standard 9.5mm high form factor. With an industry-leading areal density of 744Gb/in2, Toshiba has increased the quantity of data stored per square inch by over 37 percent compared to prior 2.5-inch models, enabling a significant boost in data transfer speed. Available in capacities ranging from 1TB to 250GB, the MQ01ABD series provides the capacity, performance, and power efficiency necessary for even the most data-intensive and energy-sensitive mainstream storage applications.

The MQ01ABD drives are ideal for high-end notebook and desktop PCs, mobile workstations, gaming consoles, DVR set-top boxes, external storage solutions, and other applications requiring high-capacity and cost-effective storage. In addition to delivering best-in-class storage density, which contributes directly to increased performance, Toshiba's MQ01ABD series HDDs have been engineered for superior energy efficiency - the series HDDs consume only 0.55watts during idle mode. The MQ01ABD drives also offer improved acoustic performance, emitting a maximum of 19dB at idle and 24dB during seek operations. This combination of areal density, power utilization, and acoustic performance enables PC and consumer electronics makers to build differentiated systems based on capacity, performance, heat dissipation, and power efficiency.

"Hard disk drives offer the best value for digital data storage by providing the highest combination of capacity, performance, cost and data reliability," said Joel Hagberg, vice president of product marketing, Storage Device Division of TAIS. "The creation of rich content by consumers and businesses continues to push the demand for storage capacity. The Toshiba MQ01ABD series provides not only the capacity and performance required by notebook and PC manufacturers, multimedia professionals, multi-room set-top-box and other power users, but also the benefits of a low-power, environmentally friendly drive."
The MQ01ABD series drives continue Toshiba Corporation's global commitment to design, develop, manufacture, and distribute Environmentally Conscious Products (ECPs) with minimal environmental impact.

ECPs are products that are designed to be environmentally conscious in all stages of their life cycle, including the procurement of materials, manufacturing, distribution, use, disposal, and recycling. The environmentally conscious product design has three aspects: mitigation of global warming, efficient use of resources, and management of chemicals. Toshiba Group will continue to create ECPs designed to be environmentally conscious in all these aspects through all stages of their life cycle by setting independent environmental standards (ECP standards) for each product.** As a result of this voluntary initiative, Toshiba has eliminated or reduced multiple hazardous substances from all components in the MQ01ABD series drives.***

Mass production of the MQ01ABD series will start in the middle of August. For more information on the Toshiba line of industry-leading small form factor HDDs, visit www.toshibastorage.com.

US Army wants thermally adaptive shirts, less of that nasty B-O

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 06:39 AM PDT

War-making apparel is about functionality just as much as fashion. That's why the US Army is offering a cool $1million in research funds to anyone who can help realize its dream of "thermally responsive textiles." The ultimate goal is clothing that automatically tailors itself to rapid changes in ambient and body temperature, thereby removing the need for alternative garments and reducing the weight and 'cube' of a soldier's payload. So-called smart fabrics have already been demonstrated by army scientists, based on comfy-sounding metallic fibers that curl up when it's cold and straighten out when it's warm. That sort of technology just needs to be reworked to make it practical and laundry-safe. We don't want those strong colors bleeding out in the wash, because as the line goes: if you're going to fight, you might as well clash.

WIMM Labs introduces tiny wearable computer platform, we go hands-on

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT

Tablets and smartphones might rule the present, but if you ask the folks at WIMM Labs, the future of data consumption is a one-inch by one-inch square. The Los Altos startup just revealed its new, wearable computing platform, developed, in part, through a partnership with Foxconn, that it hopes will change the way we look at computers. Currently known as the WIMM wearable platform, this new modular device packs a full-color 160 x 160 touchscreen, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, an accelerometer and magnetometer, and runs on good old Android. What's more, it's waterproof. Basically, it's a tiny, multifunctional computer, packed with "micro apps" that can make it anything from a smart watch to a health monitor, from a mobile payment device to an all-in-one remote. As of now, the company doesn't have plans to market it direct to consumers, but says it has a few partnerships in the works that could bring a WIMM-powered something to market by year's end; a developer kit will go on sale in the next few weeks for an undisclosed price. If you're itching to ditch that tired old diamond-encrusted nano watch, check out the galleries below and hop on past the break for our first impressions, video, and full PR.
WIMM wearable platform concepts
WIMM wearable platform hands-on


On first sight, the WIMM wearable platform looks like the love child of an iPod nano and Sifteo's Cubits. We got a chance to slide our greasy fingers across two different flavors: one made with a shiny ceramic shell that resembled onyx and the other outfitted in white plastic. As of now, the company only has a handful of developers working on dedicated apps for the platform that will be sold in partner-branded app stores, hosted by WIMM Labs. Users will be able to download apps from a separate device, and sync them to their module via WiFi. We flipped through a series of watch faces, a weather app, and a calendar, but its creators see it as potential competition for everything from the Nike+ SportWatch to the universal remote. Also on hand, were a USB charger, a couple of different wristbands that house the mini computer like a nano watch, and a travel dock that apparently provides up to five days of juice. Of course, there are limitations to what you can do on a one-inch screen, and WIMM seems to realize those limitations; it's pushing RSS preview apps, instead of fully featured readers, and while there is a text input feature, they haven't outfitted the thing to send text messages or e-mails.

Since WIMM Labs has chosen to license its technology, the platforms future is anyone's guess -- we were told the little guys could sell for anywhere from $200 to $2000 -- but we're hoping some brave boffin will trick one of these puppies out and finally make us a real-deal go-go-gadget watch.


Show full PR text
WIMM WEARABLE PLATFORM UNVEILED TO USHER IN NEW ERA OF INNOVATION

Platform Offers Small Form Factor, Color Touch Screen, Internet Connectivity, and Custom App Store to Enable a Wide Range of New Wearable Devices

LOS ALTOS, Calif. – August 2, 2011 – WIMM Labs® today announced details of its wearable platform as well as the upcoming availability of a limited number of WIMM One Developer Preview Kits. The platform will usher in a new era of innovation for wearable technology with the support of WIMM investors and partners, a network of independent developers and the imagination of brand licensees.

"There's an increasing demand for digital experiences that are faster, easier and more relevant. WIMM Labs integrates information into your daily life in the form of useful, subtle glances," said Dave Mooring, WIMM Labs Chief Executive Officer.

"To achieve that, we've created an incredibly powerful, yet small, modular device that can be embedded into a wide variety of consumer products. Combined with customizable applications and a branded web interface, the WIMM Labs Platform give licensees the ability to create more personal, intuitive and valuable connections with customers," concluded Mooring.

The WIMM Platform
Fundamental to the WIMM Platform is an elegant, simple touch screen interface that hides the complexity and power of the underlying technology. The WIMM Module can be loaded with a variety of Android-based Micro Apps created by using an open SDK. In addition, it works seamlessly with Android, Blackberry and iOS devices. For the partner, it offers an open platform that's easily customizable; for the consumer, it offers always-on information at a glance.

"Mobile devices are proliferating, but there's still an unmet need for convenient and immediate access to information as part of the flow of daily life on the go," commented William Stofega at IDC. "The WIMM Labs team has put together a thoughtful approach to address this need and ultimately grow the wearable technology category. With a strong development and manufacturing partner, a ready-to-go Micro App store, and having key developers on-board early, they are poised to capitalize on where their predecessors have tripped up in the past."

The WIMM Module features:
• Always-On Access – Dynamic activity feeds and alerts on a 1.4 inch display
• Full-Color Touch Screen – Rich visual experiences and effortless navigation
• Robust Connectivity – Connects to Internet via Wi-Fi; Bluetooth pairing
• Accelerometer and Magnetometer – Built in sensors for accurate motion tracking
• Web-based Management – Manage device and add applications through any desktop or mobile device

The module will come pre-loaded with a library of custom watch faces and core Micro Apps, including: Caller ID, SMS Preview, Lost Phone Warning, Calendar, Weather, World Clock and more.

With the WIMM Platform, the possibilities for licensees are nearly endless. Early scenarios include an ultimate athlete watch, business command and control devices, payment automation, and advanced health monitoring.

A turnkey solution for licensees
The WIMM Platform integrates hardware, app tools and web services into a highly scalable product development model. WIMM Labs can quickly take licensees from product incubation and testing to full-scale manufacturing and sales.

Opportunity for developers
The WIMM Platform offers developers an opportunity to work with familiar Android tools to develop WIMM Micro Apps and generate new revenue streams. While the public SDK will be available later in Q3, the company is already collaborating with a handpicked set of developers on core applications as well as applications specific to key categories.

Interested developers with game-changing ideas should apply for entry in the WIMM Innovators Program and early access to the WIMM One Developer Preview Kit here.

"Working on the WIMM Platform allows us to attack a new market segment," said Gligor Dacevski of CreationPal, developer of SportyPal. "Because the WIMM device is always on and always attached to the body, our fitness app on the WIMM Platform helps athletes in the gym or on the field, giving them immediate guidance and feedback on their workout."

"Our application on the WIMM Platform controls presentations and music more easily and conveniently than single-function remote controls or smartphone apps. With the swipe of a finger or flick of a wrist, the device is simultaneously intuitive and sophisticated," said Philip Bergqvist of Unified Remote, who is developing a WIMM Micro App to control PowerPoint, iTunes, Windows Media Player and more on Windows computers.

Kingston HyperX SSDs now shipping, SandForce-equipped for Hyperspeed

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 05:15 AM PDT

Brace yourselves speed freaks -- Kingston Digital is now shipping its latest 2.5-inch HyperX SSD drives, equipped with 6Gb/sec SATA Rev 3.0 and everyone's favorite SandForce SF-2281 controller. You want fast? You'll get fast, alright. This SSD's read / write speeds top out at 555MB/sec and 510MB/sec, which is surely enough to keep your rig zipping through those intense gaming marathons office workloads. You'll be able to pick up the drive itself with 120GB of storage for $270 or 240GB for $520, while the install kit -- which includes such goodies as a SATA cable, desktop mount, torque screws and more -- tacks on an extra $15 and $20, respectively. That pricing is only for a limited time though, so be sure to check the PR and hyper-edited video past the break for all the details.

Show full PR text
Kingston Digital Ships SandForce-based HyperX SSD

Fountain Valley, CA -- (August 1, 2011) -- Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shipping the HyperX® SSD, its first SATA Rev. 3.0 6Gb/s solid-state drive. The Kingston® HyperX SSD features the latest SandForce® controller and is designed for enthusiasts, gamers and performance users.

Kingston HyperX SSD highlights include:

120GB and 240GB capacities*. Ships as a standalone SSD (includes HyperX branded 2.5" to 3.5" desktop mounting plate); or as a bundle with the HyperX Upgrade Kit for easy installation (includes Acronis® True Image™ HD migration software, desktop mounting plate, external drive bay, multi-head screwdriver, SATA data cable.

· Incredible sequential read/write throughputs of 555 / 510MB/s1.

SandForce SF-2281 controller featuring SATA Rev 3.0 (6GB/s).

· Max 4KB random read/write of 95,000 / 70,000 IOPS2 (120GB).

· Premium Intel 25nm Compute NAND (P/E 5K).

Kingston HyperX SSD

Part number

Capacity and features

Street Pricing3 Amazon.com, Buy.com, Newegg.com, TigerDirect.com

(U.S. only)

SH100S3/120G

120GB Stand-alone SSD

$ 269.99

SH100S3B/120G

120GB HyperX Bundle Kit

$ 284.99

SH100S3/240G

240GB HyperX Stand-alone SSD

$ 519.99

SH100S3B/240G

240GB HyperX Bundle Kit

$ 539.99

* Some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and thus is not available for data storage. For more information, please consult Kingston's Flash Memory Guide at Kingston.com/Flash_Memory_Guide.

1 Based on internal testing. Performance may vary based on system settings.

2 Based on "out-of-box performance with IOMeter08.

3 Limited time at launch.

About Kingston Digital, Inc.

Kingston Digital, Inc. ("KDI") is the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the world's largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Established in 2008, KDI is headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, USA. For more information, please visit www.kingston.com or call 800-337-8410.

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Kingston and the Kingston logo are registered trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. All other marks may be the property of their respective titleholders.

Google I/O Galaxy Tabs get Google Movies update, VIP treatment

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 04:30 AM PDT

Lucky enough to snag one of those coveted white Galaxy Tab 10.1s from Google I/O? If so, tablet life is about to get a little bit sweeter. Google Movies is now an update away, making video rentals from The Goog mere moments from reality on your slate. Don't get your hopes up though... this isn't an update to Android 3.2, nor is it the TouchWiz UX update that will be rolling out at a NYC event later this week. Keep in mind these Google-fied Galaxy Tabs are Wifi-only devices, which typically receive updates like this far later than their 3G brethren -- making this download a bit peculiar. Regardless of its irregularity, those with the limited edition tablet can now catch up on all those Harry Potter flicks on the go, before their jealous pals with the standard model can.

Canalys: Android rules the smartphone world, Samsung could've done better

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 03:26 AM PDT

Thought Android was killing it in the US? Try the rest of planet Earth, bud. The latest from our friends at Canalys has Google's mobile OS on 48 percent of smartphones worldwide, or nearly one out of every two sold. Mountain View's stratospheric rise came at someone's expense, and it looks like Nokia's the loser here folks, which corroborates the data from last week's IDC report. Espoo's foibles are troublesome in a market that grew 73 percent year over year, especially when Samsung shipped 421 percent more handsets than it did a year ago. As a result, the Korean company has surpassed Nokia in smartphone marketshare, just like its rival in Cupertino. Despite the rampant growth, the research firm suspects Sammy could have done better, noting that it had failed to capitalize on Nokia's "weakened state around the world" with its "global scale and channel reach." We'll see if Samsung takes Canalys' constructive criticism to heart in Q3, but while you wait, you can read the full report after the jump.
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Android takes almost 50% share of worldwide smart phone market

iOS becomes second largest smart phone platform

Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Monday, 1 August 2011

Canalys today published its final worldwide country-level Q2 2011 smart phone market estimates, showing substantial market growth in all regions. Globally, the market grew 73% year-on-year, with in excess of 107.7 million units shipping in the second quarter of 2011. Of the 56 countries Canalys tracks around the world, Android led in 35 of them and achieved a global market share of 48%. Asia Pacific (APAC) remained the largest regional market, with 39.8 million units shipping there, compared with 35.0 million in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and 32.9 million in the Americas.

Android, the number one platform by shipments since Q4 2010, was also the strongest growth driver this quarter, with Android-based smart phone shipments up 379% over a year ago to 51.9 million units. Growth was bolstered by strong Android product performances from a number of vendors, including Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, ZTE and Huawei. The final country-level data delivered to clients today shows there were particularly strong performances from Android devices in APAC countries, such as South Korea, where Android holds an 85% platform share, and Taiwan, where it has 71%.

With shipments of 20.3 million iPhones and a market share of 19%, iOS overtook Nokia's Symbian platform during the quarter to take second place worldwide. In doing so, Apple also became the world's leading individual smart phone vendor, stripping Nokia of its long-held leadership position.

'The iPhone has been a phenomenal success story for Apple and a watershed product for the market,' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. 'It's an impressive success story, given that Apple has only been in the smart phone market for four years. With the next-generation iPhone anticipated in Q3, it's likely that Apple's position will grow even stronger in the second half of the year.'

Samsung also moved ahead of Nokia, with its flagship Galaxy S II product performing well, but its overall performance was underwhelming, considering the opportunities offered by the upheaval at Nokia.

'Samsung has failed to fully capitalize on Nokia's weakened state around the world, as the Finnish company rides out a challenging transitional period,' said Jones. 'It's the best placed vendor to grow at Nokia's expense, taking advantage of its global scale and channel reach, but it hasn't yet done enough to capitalize on this, particularly in emerging markets.'

Samsung was the largest Android device vendor and the number two vendor overall in the market with shipments of its own-branded devices at 17.0 million units. Its year-on-year growth of 421% was helped by significant growth of 355% in its bada smart phone shipments. Samsung also acts as an ODM for the Google Nexus S and T-Mobile Sidekick 4G, collectively estimated to have shipped 0.7 million units.

Nokia's leadership position has proved most resilient in key emerging markets, and it still leads in the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. 'The problem for Nokia is that demand for its Symbian-based smart phones has dissipated very rapidly, particularly in operator-led markets, such as Western Europe, where it's been strong in the past,' said Canalys Principal Analyst Pete Cunningham. 'It badly needs the first of its Windows Phone devices to launch as soon as possible to arrest a decline and, hopefully, silence its critics.'

'While it is committed to launching a device before the end of the year, we do not expect to see it until mid-to-late Q4, and it will be much longer before a portfolio of Nokia Windows Phone smart phones drives volumes. Nokia is set to have several more difficult quarters before a possible reversal of fortunes,' added Cunningham.

Microsoft is also eager to see Nokia's first Windows Phone products, along with those from its other OEM partners, ship with its Mango update. 'A fresh crop of products is certainly needed,' said Jones. Fewer than 1.5 million Microsoft-based smart phones shipped during the quarter, equating to a mere 1% share of the global market, down 52% against shipments a year ago.

Windows Phone OEM partner HTC saw Android driving the vast majority of its portfolio, but Canalys expects it to continue to be a leading provider of Windows Phone products. HTC achieved particular success in North America this quarter, climbing to a 21% share and consolidating its second place position, while Apple's North American share dropped from 31% last quarter to 25% this quarter.

RIM had a challenging quarter in North America, with its market share slipping to 12%, down from 33% a year ago, leading to negative press coverage in the United States. But RIM's global shipments grew 11% year on year, keeping it the number one vendor in Latin America with a 28% share.

'It's easy to be negative about BlackBerry in the US, but it's important to remember that in other markets, particularly emerging markets, it continues to see significant interest and uptake of its devices, for example in Indonesia and South Africa where it is the leading smart phone vendor,' said Jones. 'Nonetheless, it must continue to innovative and recapture lost momentum. It's critical that the next-generation BlackBerry OS 7-based products launch ahead of the upcoming holiday season to compete in the market.'

Pandigital's Nova Android tablet hits Best Buy, explodes for $170

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:33 AM PDT

Pandigital has added a new star to its growing galaxy of e-readers, with the Nova Digital Reader -- a seven-inch, Android 2.3-powered slate that looks awfully similar to that eight-inch Super Nova we recently spotted at the FCC. The tablet, which just popped up at Best Buy, is powered by an 800MHz processor, offers 4GB of internal storage, and features an ActiveTouch display with 800x600 resolution. Much like its forerunners, the Novel and the Planet, the Nova also connects directly to the Barnes and Noble bookstore, and sports a pair of front- and rear-facing cameras. Aside from that, you'll find the usual 802.11 b/g/n wireless capabilities, a built-in microSD card slot, and a micro HDMI port, all packed within a frame that's half-an-inch thick. Persuaded? Grab your 'scope and zoom in on the source link to purchase.

[Thanks, Charlie]

Samsung will release Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia despite Apple complaint

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 01:27 AM PDT

Samsung has put out a distinctly unafraid-looking statement declaring that a "Galaxy Tab 10.1 for the Australian market will be released in the near future," despite Apple's attempt to halt sales through the Aussie Federal Court. It explains that Apple's underlying patent complaints only relate to the US variant of the tablet, which Samsung had no plans to sell Down Under anyway. In a particularly emboldened finale, the missive adds that "Samsung will continue to actively defend and protect our intellectual property." That's the croc-fighting spirit.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

GameStop brings digital download purchases to stores, thus completing the retail circle

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 12:35 AM PDT

In some weird alternative universe, this is how retail is done: you walk into a store, buy a voucher for a digital product, and then download it. It's a model that GameStop is embracing by offering digital PC game purchases through its retail locations. There are certain benefits to buying from a brick and mortar location -- for one thing, customers can use trade-in credits for their purchases. And those who pre-order a digital copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution -- the first game being offered through this model -- will receive some extras including downloads of earlier entries in the series. Just be mindful of pop-ups -- they're way worse in real life.
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GameStop Launches New In-Store Digital PC Game Purchase Method

GameStop (NYSE: GME), the world's largest multichannel video game retailer, is making it easier for PC gamers to get their hands on hot new releases. Exclusively at GameStop, customers can now use any accepted form of payment, including trade credit and GameStop gift cards, to purchase digital PC games at their local store and access the titles immediately at launch. Deus Ex(R): Human Revolution(TM) is the first of what will soon be many titles to support this new purchase method.

"This is a great illustration of how the digital distribution model and in-store experience really complement one another," said Steve Nix, GameStop's general manager of digital distribution. "We have seen great success selling DLC for console titles in our stores, so expanding on that model and helping customers discover digitally distributed PC games in stores is a natural fit."

In addition to immediate access to the game at launch, customers who pre-purchase the digital PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution at GameStop will also receive:

A digital version of Deus Ex(TM): Game of the Year Edition and Deus Ex: Invisible War(TM)
The Explosive Mission DLC Pack for in-game use in Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Double points for GameStop(R) PowerUp Rewards(TM) members

As an added bonus, PowerUp Rewards(TM) members who pre-order and purchase Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be entered to win a decked out living room in the Augment Your Living Room Sweepstakes. Visit www.poweruprewards.com/PUR/Index/Augment for complete details on the Augment Your Living Room Sweepstakes.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which launches Aug. 23, 2011, is available for pre-order now in GameStop stores nationwide and online at www.GameStop.com.

Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are registered trademarks or trademarks of Square Enix Ltd.

Honeycomb beta update now available for Logitech Revue, only the intrepid need apply

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 11:49 PM PDT

Logitech Revue users are waking up to some exciting news today, because they can finally run Honeycomb on their TVs -- if they're brave enough to try. As expected, the folks over at GTVHacker have leaked their Android 3.1 beta update for the recently discounted set-top box, now available for download and flash without even requiring a root. You can find all the requisite details and downloads at the source link, though you'll have to register with the site to do so. It's also worth noting that the update is still in a buggy, beta phase of development, and that once you upgrade, you may not be able to go back. If you're willing to dance with danger, let us know how you fare.

Windows Phone changes logo, officially hip to be square

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 11:24 PM PDT

What's in a logo? These days, it's everything -- it's one of the most recognizable symbols a company can have, and it appears Microsoft isn't taking its emblems lightly. Over the course of the past week we've noticed an interesting trend: the Windows Phone branding has shed the circle-based icon in exchange for a square-shaped variant, appropriately reflecting the platform's "tile" look and minimalist theme. We first thought this was a fluke when we peered at the new logo at Fujitsu's IS12T event last week, as though it were a localized version made for Japan; as it turns out, however, this is indeed an official change across the board. If you need more proof than the source link below, yesterday's press invite for Nokia's Gamescom party features the new squared variant as well. We're still holding out for a green robot-shaped logo, but this will have to do for now.

HP TouchPad gets its first OTA update: webOS 3.0.2 brings performance enhancements, untold joy

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 10:40 PM PDT

It's hitting the airwaves a few hours later than promised, but HP's TouchPad finally has the long-awaited webOS update that early adopters have been clamoring for. Wondering what webOS 3.0.2 brings to the multi-touch table? Aside from performance and reliability enhancements, it also adds "improved functionality to several core webOS apps," most of which are direct responses to user feedback. Indeed, "hundreds" of improvements are promised, including bolstered scrolling within the email app, the ability to set your wallpaper from photos in the Photos app, Just Type searching within Calendar and improved autocorrection of contractions. Yeah, seriously. A more detailed changelog awaits you after the break, and you can let us know if your bell has been rung down in comments below.

webOS 3.0.2

HP webOS system update 3.0.2 provides increased system performance and stability and addresses a number of bugs.

HP webOS system update 3.0.2 offers improvements in the following areas.
Core applications
Calendar

* Quicker Just Type event search and event creation
* Improved handling of meeting cancellations

Email

* Faster scrolling
* Improved message content and image display
* Improved management of multiple emails in Draft and Outbox views

Music

* Reduced audio skipping when the device is running other applications
* Better display of album art

Photos & Videos

* Added ability to set wallpapers
* Faster and more reliable handling of individual photos and albums

Text Assist

* Improved speed and accuracy of auto-corrections

Web

* Increased scrolling support compatibility within web pages
* Improved performance of remote HTML5 video playback
* Improved responsiveness of auto correction within the browser

webOS System

* Fixed issues with oversensitive screen rotation

Security

This release addresses a number of security issues with HP webOS software.

Individuals interested in contacting HP to report suspected security issues can find more information at hpwebos.com/security .

Evatran's Plugless Power wireless EV charger gets smaller, conscripts Chevy Volts for testing

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 08:57 PM PDT

Evatran's Plugless Power EV charger gets smaller
When it comes to technology, the old adage of "bigger is better" died a long time ago, so it's not a surprise to see "smaller is smarter" thinking apply to products and prototypes across the board. Today's (relatively) tiny wonder is Evatran's Plugless Power electric vehicle charging system: now smaller, more efficient, and primed for its first trial phase. The last time we saw Plugless Power, the system's wireless charging "station block" stretched nearly the length of a full vehicle and charged at 80 percent efficiency. Today the charge block is only slightly larger than an average hubcap, boasts a 97 percent charging efficiency, and is less picky about your car missing the wireless charger's "sweet spot." Evatran is now working on launching a test fleet of up to 12 Chevy Volts to put the system through its paces, and hopes to expand the tests to as many as 30 vehicles by January. Ready to ditch pumps and plugs forever? Start saving: a complete Plugless Power system (including vehicle retrofitting) will set you back as much as $5000 after production starts sometime in 2012. Don't be too surprised, cool stuff rarely comes cheap -- besides, that old adage has to apply to something, doesn't it?

Skype for iPad is finally out (hands-on!)

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 08:22 PM PDT

A native Skype app for the iPad has finally appeared, opening up your Apple slate for voice and video chatting with others on Macs, PCs or even TVs. It's not listed as an update to the existing iOS app, but as a separate Skype for iPad download that's only shown up in certain countries so far -- at first we couldn't find it on the US iTunes but it finally appeared after some searching. Just like Skype for iPhone, everything works over both WiFi and 3G, but one key difference is the ability to instant message during video calls. Check after the break for the full release notes and the demo video that leaked in June.

Update: So, we've just taken the app for a quick spin via a 3G to WiFi call and it's laid out very nicely -- maintaining the familiarity of its desktop client. Getting a video chat started was quick with acceptably clean audio and mostly consistent video streaming (aside from an occasional freeze-frame). Whether you're in landscape or portrait mode there's access to recent conversations, and you can even start conversations within your current chat; we'd say that the former works out better for getting around, although it does make it hard to stay in frame. Overall it feels like a souped-up version of the iPhone release, and impressions aside, the gallery down below should give you a better look at what to expect.

Update 2: Just as suddenly as it appeared, it has now been yanked from iTunes stores everywhere. A Tweet from the official account says it went live "prematurely" -- your guess is as good as ours as to when it will return.

Update 3: Aaaaand... she's back! Or, at least it sure looks like it. Hopefully for good this time!
Skype for iPad hands-on


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Description

Skype for iPad

Bring your Skype contacts closer with full screen video at your fingertips.
Beautiful and simple, this is Skype built especially for the iPad. Call, video call, or instant message anyone on Skype. Plus, if you add a little Skype Credit, call landlines and mobiles at really low rates.

Simple to use:
• Join Skype on your iPad in a few moments or just sign straight in to your account.
• If you already have a Skype account, your Skype contacts will automatically be there on your iPad.
• We've made adding new Skype contacts really easy.
• Once they're in your Contact list, call, video or instant message them in one touch.
• Flick through recent calls and instant messages in your Skype for iPad history.
• Skype for iPad works over Wi-Fi or 3G (operator data charges may apply). Call Skype contacts on their iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, PC, Mac and even Skype enabled TVs.

Access free Skype features:
• Talk face-to-face or show what you're seeing with front and back-facing cameras.
• Use Skype for iPad to call anyone else on Skype – and enjoy near CD quality (SILK) sound.
• Instant message and add emoticons to personalize your messages.

Then unlock even more features when you pay a little:
• Make cheap calls to landlines or mobiles from your iPad.
• Get an Online Number from Skype so people can call you on your iPad.

If you want to unlock these extra features, you can pay in a way that suits you.
• Pay As You Go with Skype Credit - great for when you're using Skype every now and again.
• Pay monthly with a subscription – best if you use Skype a lot.

System requirements:
• Skype video calling requires iOS 4.0 or above.
• Send and receive video using front or back camera on iPhone 4, iPad 2nd Generation, and iPod touch 4th Generation.
• Send and receive video using rear camera on iPhone 3GS.
• Receive video only on iPad 1st Generation and iPod touch 3rd Generation.
• Works with any H264 compatible devices, including TVs.

Internet Archive founder wants to collect every book ever published

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 07:50 PM PDT

Not depressed enough yet about the impending death of print? This might help: Brewster Kahle, the fellow behind the Internet Archive, is in the process of gathering together every book ever published for safe storage against a future where the prevalence of digital media has utterly devalued physical texts -- it's a perhaps unreachable goal, he admits, but Kahle's warehouse is currently at 500,000 books and growing fast. The Associated Press describes the undertaking as something more akin to The Svalbard Global Seed Vault than the Library of Congress -- these books aren't being saved for lending, they're being stored for the future. If you're reading this Brewster, we recommend signing up for an Amazon Prime account. Those shipping fees can really add up fast.

Sony's TV reform to begin 'immediately,' could involve partnering with other firms

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 07:01 PM PDT

It's been a year. Particularly if you're Sony. The same company that's staring at a $171 million price tag due to an unforgettable PSN breach and a gamut of bad news detailed in its most recent earnings report is now facing the daunting task of reforming its flagging TV division. 'Course, Sony's still moving gobs of panels, but according to Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato, "markets are maturing and price competition is stiff" in advanced nations. Mr. Kato recently spoke candidly with The Nikkei (linked below; subscription required), noting that the company is aiming to turn its TV business "into one that can be profitable even if we do not pursue volume." In order to do so, the entire platform is being looked at -- "no stone will be left unturned" -- and he even mentioned that partnerships with other companies will be considered. Oh, and if you thought you'd have to wait a quarter or two to see any changes, have a listen at this: "Even though we haven't yet decided how to announce the plans, they'll be implemented immediately." Attaboy!

Apple launches iCloud and iWork betas, confirms pricing for extra capacity

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 06:04 PM PDT

MobileMe's impending demise just got one step closer, folks. Apple's updated iCloud.com to now sport an official login page with what we're assuming is Cupertino's rendition of a CNC-machined aluminum unibody badge. It looks like those of you rocking iOS 5 or OS X 10.7.2 and who've also created an iCloud account are probably already busy frolicking through email, editing contacts and slinging calendar events all from the comfort of your browser. Those services already existed under its predecessor, but it looks as if Cupertino has spruced 'em up with fresh paint jobs. A screenshot from MacRumors also shows the addition of an iWork section, which we'd surmise means the previously siloed iWork beta now has a new place to call home. We couldn't get past the migration step with our trusty MobileMe account (disappointing proof is after the break), but you're more than welcome to tap the more coverage link and have a go yourself.

Oh, and if you're wondering how much it'll cost you to claim more than those 5GB that Apple's tossing in gratis, the folks over at Electronista have confirmed that an extra 10GB will cost $20 per year, while an extra 20GB runs $40 / year and an extra 50GB will demand $100 per annum.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Getting to know you: Comex, the boy behind iOS' JailbreakMe

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 05:23 PM PDT

See that kid above? That's Nicholas Allegra. He's the hackdom Harry Potter to Apple's Ye-Who-Shall-Not-Jailbreak-Our-Wares, and Forbes managed to sniff him out for a little bold-faced exposé. The 19-year old hero of the iOS community, better known as Comex, got his self-taught start with Visual Basic when he was still in single digits. After graduating through a venerable online forum education, the precocious coding lad set his smarts to homebrew Wii development, and the rest is JailbreakMe history. The self-described Apple fanboy admits his background is atyipcal of the cybersecurity industry, but with a former National Security Agency analyst praising his work as years ahead of his time, we don't think he should worry. For all the trouble his code has caused Cupertino, Allegra's not trying to be the embedded thorn in Jobs' side. Rather, the iPhone hacker claims "it's just about the challenge" and plans to keep on keeping ol' Steve on his billion dollar toes.

Wireless Power Consortium launches Qi certification lab, cuts power cords for approved devices

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 04:43 PM PDT

The power of Qi has grown and grown since the wireless charging standard was finalized. With cord cutting becoming more desirable -- and dare we say, de rigeur, for many mobile devices -- the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has launched an independent lab to certify gadgets wanting on its induction charging bandwagon. TÜV Rheinland's providing the speedy certification services at its Taiwanese testing facility, so we should see the legion of Qi-powered devices continue to grow at an ever-increasing rate. Guess Power Matt made the right move joining the WPC superfriends. Qi's up, cords down, playa.
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Wireless Power Consortium Announces First Independent Test Lab for Qi Wireless Charging Certification

New testing center to help meet increased demand for Qi product certification.

Qi: The global standard for wireless charging
Taipei, Taiwan (PRWEB) July 28, 2011

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and TÜV Rheinland, a global leader in independent certification services, today announced the launch of a new independent compliance testing lab in Taiwan to meet the growing demand for Qi (pronounced "chee") certification of wireless charging devices and products.

Qi, the global standard for wireless charging, allows devices to be charged just by placing them on any Qi charging surface without connecting cords or wires. Qi offers simplicity, convenience, and flexibility by ensuring wireless charging interoperability between any Qi-enabled device and any Qi charger, regardless of manufacturer or brand.

"We're excited to work with TÜV Rheinland to help quickly certify more Qi products, speeding their time to market," said WPC Chairman Menno Treffers. "The need for a facility such as this is a testament to growing demand for Qi-compatible devices and a reflection of the many companies racing to compete in the expanding wireless charging industry."

TÜV Rheinland's Taiwan facility will offer assistance for companies wishing to have their products certified Qi-compatible. Qi compliance testing as well as all necessary regulatory testing is now available at TÜV Rheinland Taiwan for interested companies.

"We've been impressed by the strong demand for Qi product certification," said Uwe Halstenbach, general manager of TÜV Rheinland Taiwan. "We look forward to ramping up our testing to help companies quickly usher in a new wave of Qi-enabled electronics to even more consumers."
For more information about Qi and the WPC, please visit the Wireless Power Consortium website.

Carnegie Mellon researchers use photo-tagging to violate privacy, prove nothing social is sacred

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 04:07 PM PDT

Some people never forget a face and the same, it seems, can be said for the internet. With some off-the-shelf facial recognition software, a connection to the cloud and access to social networking data, Carnegie Mellon University researchers have proved tagging can be the everyman's gateway to privacy violation. Using a specially-designed, AR-capable mobile app, Prof. Alessandro Acquisti and his team conducted three real-world trials of the personal info mining tech, successfully identifying pseudonymed online daters and campus strolling college students via Facebook. In some cases, the application was even able to dredge up the students' social security digits and personal interests -- from their MySpace pages, we assume. Sure, the study's findings could have you running for the off-the-grid hills (not to mention the plastic surgeon), but it's probably best you just pay careful attention to that digital second life. Full PR after the break.
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Face Recognition Software, Social Media Sites Increase Privacy Risks, Says New Carnegie Mellon Study

Researchers Demonstrate Ability To Predict Social Security Numbers from People's Faces

PITTSBURGH-It is possible to identify strangers and gain their personal information - perhaps even their social security numbers - by using face recognition software and social media profiles, according to a new study by Carnegie Mellon University's Alessandro Acquisti and his research team. The results of the study will be presented Aug. 4 at Black Hat, a security conference in Las Vegas.

"A person's face is the veritable link between her offline and online identities," said Acquisti, associate professor of information technology and public policy at the Heinz College and a Carnegie Mellon CyLab researcher. "When we share tagged photos of ourselves online, it becomes possible for others to link our face to our names in situations where we would normally expect anonymity."

Acquisti said his research team, which included CMU postdoctoral fellows Ralph Gross and Fred Stutzman, combined three technologies - an off-the-shelf face recognizer, cloud computing and publicly available information from social network sites - to identify individuals online and offline in the physical world. Since these technologies are also accessible by end-users, the results foreshadow a future when we all may be recognizable on the street - not just by friends or government agencies using sophisticated devices, but by anyone with a smartphone and Internet connection.

The team ran three experiments and developed one mobile phone application.

In one experiment, Acquisti's team identified individuals on a popular online dating site where members protect their privacy through pseudonyms. In a second experiment, they identified students walking on campus - based on their profile photos on Facebook. In a third experiment, the research team predicted personal interests and, in some cases, even the Social Security numbers of the students, beginning with only a photo of their faces.

Carnegie Mellon researchers also built a smartphone application to demonstrate the ability of making the same sensitive inferences in real-time. In an example of "augmented reality," the application uses offline and online data to overlay personal and private information over the target's face on the device's screen.

"The seamless merging of online and offline data that face recognition and social media make possible raises the issue of what privacy will mean in an augmented reality world," Acquisti said.

Cloud computing will continue to improve performance times at cheaper prices, and online people-tagging and face recognition software will continue to provide more means of identification.

"Ultimately, all this access is going to force us to reconsider our notions of privacy," Acquisti said. "It may also affect how we interact with each other. Through natural evolution, human beings have evolved mechanisms to assign and manage trust in face-to-face interactions. Will we rely on our instincts or on our devices, when mobile phones can predict personal and sensitive information about a person?"

Herschel telescope finds first evidence of oxygen molecules in space

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 03:35 PM PDT

It's not every day that scientists get to say they've found something in space for the first time ever, but astronomers working with the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory announced just such a discovery today, and it's a big one. They've made the first confirmed finding of oxygen molecules in space (found hiding in the Orion nebula), and suggest that the oxygen is likely released when the water ice surrounding dust grains is melted by the heat from nearby stars forming. Of course, one discovery only leads to more questions, and the scientists note that they still haven't found large amounts of oxygen, and "still don't understand what is so special about the spots where we find it."

Nokia and Microsoft hosting special event August 17th (update: no new hardware)

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 02:46 PM PDT

Between the "accidental" unveiling of the Sea Ray, the announcement of Fujitsu's Mango device, and the less-than-stellar Q2 Nokia had, it doesn't take a lot of crazy speculation to surmise that Stephen Elop's quite the eager beaver in ensuring it'll get the most out of its newfound marriage with Microsoft as soon as possible. Thus, hearing word of a special event being thrown at the beginning of Gamescom, an annual gaming conference in Germany, is definitely a good sign; according to press invites sent out today, the party -- to be held on August 17th -- promises "exciting actions and surprises," and we're pretty sure they don't mean a free t-shirt. So join with us in determining what these surprises are, but please... don't try that hard.

Update: Well, don't ever say we told you to temper your excitement. We just heard from Nokia itself that this is nothing more than a "local developer event," and to not expect any new devices that we haven't heard of before. But hey, at least the fall edition of CTIA isn't too far out...

Sonos Play:3 review

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 02:14 PM PDT

Sonos Play:3
Sonos may not inspire the sort of high-end audio lust that a company like Polk can, but it doesn't draw the ire of serious audiophiles the way Bose does either. It straddles a fine line between respectability and gimmicky, and rightfully so -- Sonos isn't really an audio company in the purest sense of the term. Rather than loading up its components with vacuum tubes and gold-plated connectors, units like the recently launched Play:3 make their mark by incorporating wireless streaming -- a feature that's actually painless to setup. They're for people who have embraced the digital music revolution, but don't want to be stuck sitting in front of the computer or tethered to an iPod when the mood to groove strikes. The Play:3 also happens to be the first accelerometer-packing speaker we've ever tested that dynamically changes the EQ based on its orientation. As usual all the details -- from connecting and controlling the player to whether or not it produces the sound quality to justify its somewhat lofty $299 price tag -- are after the break.
Sonos Play:3 review

Hardware and setup

Sonos Play:3 Setup

The Play:3 itself is pretty nondescript, as you'd expect most home audio equipment to be. The slightly curved speaker grille up front is emblazoned with a small Sonos logo and masks the trio of speakers inside. Most of the body is covered in smooth black or white plastic (your choice) that tapers off slightly towards the rear and is only interrupted by the volume rocker and mute buttons. Around back is another grille, which protects the rear-firing bass radiator, an Ethernet jack, and a power cord. The Bridge, which connects to a router and serves as the wireless hub of a multi-Sonos speaker setup, is just as unassuming. Roughly the size of an Apple TV, its glossy white plastic body sports a logo and a "join" button, while around back is a pair of Ethernet ports and the jack for the power adapter. There's nothing that makes either unit stand out visually, which is generally what you want from your home entertainment devices.

Sonos has always prided itself on ease of use, and we're happy to report that nothing has changed in that department. Getting a Sonos Bridge connected and firing up a pair of Play:3s at either end of our apartment took only a matter of minutes, and most of that was spent waiting for the Sonos Controller software to install. Once that was done it walked us through the setup process, which involved pressing the "join" button on the bridge, then the mute and volume up buttons on the two wireless speaker units. Seriously -- that's it. From there it was just a matter of pointing it to our music folder and punching in our Pandora and Spotify credentials. From zero to M83 in five minutes flat.

Software

Sonos Software

When it comes to actually picking out tunes, Sonos is a little less intuitive. Now, that's not to say the Controller software or mobile apps are useless, but they do have a number of niggling little quirks that make them occasionally frustrating. Since you can't simply beam your iTunes to the speakers, you have to use the Sonos software as a music manager. Look, the last thing we need is yet another program to contend with, much less one that makes iTunes seem like an absolute dream come true. The left pane of the Sonos Controller shows your connected devices, while the middle is dedicated to your queue, the player controls, and a now playing panel. That leaves all of your music selection options jammed in a single column on the right-hand side. You can scroll through an alphabetical list of your tunes organized by track name, album, artist, or genre which, with our 280GB library, was overwhelming no matter how you sliced it. There is a search option, but it's not search-as-you-type, a trick even the Android music player can pull off.

Strangely, the mobile Sonos remote app does have search-as-you-type, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. The Android version is easily confused by things like spaces in an artist name or it simply doesn't show results that we knew for a fact were there. Sonos must know how lackluster the search performance is -- it's the only thing that can explain why the company has made it so cumbersome to use. Depending on where you start from in the app, searching for an artist is a minimum four-tap affair. From the "now playing" screen first you have to tap the music button in top right-hand corner, then select music library, then search, then artists. That's right, searching for artists, albums, and songs are three distinctly different actions in Sonos. And you can press the search button on your phone all you want, it doesn't do a darn thing. Things are slightly better on the iPhone front, where the buried search feature actually works, but it still suffers from the same strange design issues (read: lack of a progress bar) as its Android counterpart.

Selecting music in both the mobile app and on the desktop is also slightly jarring. All music is added to your queue, so you're not actually navigating from artist to artist or album to album. This is particularly confusing when you select a track from an album and, when it's over, you're greeted with only silence. It doesn't automatically move on to the next song. On the desktop app selecting an entire album requires you to either select the album title then move down to the "play now" button (double clicking just expands the entry to show individual tracks) or right click to select the entire collection.

It's not all bad news, though. For one, the desktop indexed our rather sizable library in less than half the time it took iTunes, and didn't even screw up any of the metadata either. We also love that your queue and Sonos playlists are source agnostic. You can easily switch back and forth between music stored on a NAS box, your PC, and streaming selections from the likes of Spotify without missing a beat -- a great feature for building that perfect party mix without dropping tons of cash on iTunes.

Sound

Sonos Play:3 Sound

Even if the software components were the easiest-to-use music management tools ever, it wouldn't mean diddly squat if the speakers sounded like those two-watt jobs built into your LCD. Thankfully, if you can cope with the cumbersome controller applications, you'll be treated to some surprisingly rich sound for something so small. At less than six inches tall and under six pounds you wouldn't think that the Play:3 could get so loud, but it could easily be heard throughout an approximately 700 square-foot apartment. In fact, the two blanketed our place with the forlorn notes of Clarence Clemons' solo on Jungleland without having to be cranked all the way up.

It's better that we didn't have to turn it up all the way too. While the clarity of the sound was impressive at lower volumes, the bass does get a little muddy when the slider is pushed all the way to the right. This is primarily due to the fact that, unlike its big brother, the Play:3 lacks a dedicated subwoofer. But, its pair of three-inch mid-range drivers and tweeter delivered sound that's a step above your average iPod dock or all-in-one stereo system. The default EQ is a little bassy for our tastes (a trick usually used to cover up lackluster sound quality), but turning it down a notch or two produced a much more balanced tone.

Obviously, with three speakers jammed into a roughly six-inch wide enclosure there isn't much in the way of stereo separation. Some clever sound processing can compensate a bit, but for true two-channel audio you'll have to team up a pair of Play:3s. It's actually pretty easy to do -- just select "Create Stereo Pair" from the ZonePlayer settings menu. The improvement in sound with the two connected was dramatic to say the least, especially after they're turned on their sides. Thanks to the built-in accelerometer, flipping the units triggers an EQ change that's more appropriate for delivering right and left channels individually. Of course, at $299 each, you'd be spending quite a lot of money for a system that sounds good, but not $600 good. Ultimately, creating a stereo pair is a neat trick, but not really a selling point. Even if you purchased two Play:3s, chances are you wouldn't waste your cash by placing them in the same room. Sonos is all about wireless streaming, and there's no point to being able to access your tunes anywhere in your home if all your speakers are within six feet of each other.

Wrap-up

Sonos Play:3 Wrap-Up

If you can stomach the price -- the pair of Play:3s and Bridge we tested add up to a $650 receipt -- it's hard to argue with the combination of sound quality and simple installation a Sonos system provides. The Play:3 is more than adequate for casual listening. It's clear, loud, and punchy enough to start up a small dance party if need be. And, unless the units unpacked themselves, sprouted legs, and walked to where we wanted them, setting them up couldn't have been any easier. The software controls did leave us scratching our heads, and occasionally swearing through gritted teeth. Which is a shame because if they felt a tad more polished, we'd probably be more than willing to overlook the somewhat inflated sticker price.

Tokyo Institute of Technology's SOINN robot teaches itself to serve humans (video)

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 01:45 PM PDT

Robots have been replacing more and more human workers for quite some time now, but in most instances they're still just being programmed to perform specific tasks. As evidenced by this bot developed by the Hasegawa Group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, however, there's also a growing number capable of teaching themselves some new tricks, and they're getting smarter every day. This particular one employs what's called a self-organizing incremental neural network (or SOINN), which lets it build up a base of knowledge that it can apply to new tasks and make educated guesses about how to proceed with them -- in this case, pouring a glass of water and then dropping an ice cube in it (or what's supposed to be water and an ice cube, at least). Head on past the break for a video.

German geniuses hit 800Mbps with light bulb WLAN

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 01:19 PM PDT

Light bulb WLAN
Last year, Chinese scientists showed off some new old-school tech, transmitting data with blue LEDs that flicker faster than the human eye can perceive. This throwback to the good ol' days of IR receivers was able to hit speeds of 2Mbps, but leave it to the fine folks at the Heinrich Hertz Institute to push the light bulb networking tech to the extremes. Earlier this year researchers hit 500Mbps with white LEDs; now, using a combination of white, green, blue, and red, the team ramped that up to 800Mbps, officially putting Ethernet on notice. The line-of-sight networking won't actually replace your standard Cat 5 line or WiFi router, but it could find a home in places like hospitals where radio-based wireless technology can cause problems for sensitive equipment. With any luck, we'll soon be bathing our homes in HD-streaming illumination.

Kyocera Echo Gingerbread update now rolling out, may brick (update: rollout pause)

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 12:55 PM PDT

Kyocera may have jumped the gun yesterday with word of the Echo's Gingerbread destiny, but today those Android 2.3.4 goods have been made official. Rolling out to users in the next few weeks, the OTA update adds Google's latest OS refinements to the dual-screened phone, as well as a new Downloads app, Swype 3.0 and power-saving Eco Mode. Impatient owners can always forego the wait for a carrier-pushed upgrade and pull it themselves, but a word of caution: commenters over on AndroidCentral's forums are claiming this update bricks phones. We've reached out to Sprint for comment on the matter and while the company is aware of the issue, no official statement has been made. So, go ahead and start downloading, or not?

Update: We've confirmed with Sprint that there is indeed an issue, and that its product team is "troubleshooting the issue and [has] suspended the update until further notice." Here's hoping things get going soon, with the sailing being a bit smoother the second go 'round.

Motorola Triumph review

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 12:20 PM PDT

Motorola Triumph review
When we first laid eyes and hands on Motorola's first Android offering for Virgin Mobile, we were pleasantly surprised. The Triumph proved to be one of the better looking and performing pre-paid handsets we'd had the pleasure of holding in our sweaty mitts, but we had one major hangup: the name. Call us old fashioned, but we're of the mind that it's unsportsmanlike to claim victory before the race has even begun. After all, we aren't looking at an iPhone killer here. To the contrary, the Triumph is a decently outfitted, Motoblur-free Froyo phone, with a suitable 4.1-inch WVGA screen, a workable 2GB of storage, and a fairly attractive (and contract-free) $300 price tag. So, after a week in our palms and pockets, did the Triumph really affirm its arrogant appellative or did it fail to live up to its name? The answers to this and other, less alliterative, questions await you after the break.
Motorola Triumph review

Hardware



At first glance, the Triumph is a rather grand looking phone. Its glossy, 4.1-inch WVGA touchscreen reaches to the very edge of its seemingly robust body, giving the feel of a much larger device. In reality, it measures 4.8 inches by 2.6 inches, slightly smaller than its cousin, the Photon 4G. A portion of the screen's real estate is taken up by Moto's logo, which sits just below the earpiece and front-facing VGA camera. Bright white haptic buttons line the bottom of the display, in typical Android fashion.

As we pointed out before, its body is otherwise sheathed in a nice, grip-able, black rubber finish, reminiscent of the Motorola Droid, Incredible, and other similarly appointed handsets. In the rear, a five megapixel camera and accompanying flash sit, horizontally centered, near the top margin, wile a shiny silver 'M' resides, dead center, above the carrier's own logo. The upper right-hand side plays host to an understated, shiny and receptive volume rocker, and the upper left is home to a small power / lock button of the same make. A 3.5mm headphone jack appears along the upper edge of the phone, and a micro-USB and mini-HDMI line the bottom.

For what seems to be such a substantial gadget, the Triumph is surprisingly light, but in no way flimsy. At five ounces, it weighs almost two ounces less than Dell's 4.1-inch Venue Pro, but about half an ounce more than our favorite pre-paid handset, the LG Optimus One. Despite being deceptively light, however, it proved incredibly difficult to carry; the Triumph spent most of its time taking the place of our shockingly under used pocket protector, as it was far too large to fit in our tightest jeans.
But when it comes to winning -- at least in the smartphone market -- a decent set of internals will almost always best a flashy exterior, and the Triumph isn't too shabby underneath all that glass and rubber. A section of the back panel slides off to expose a 1400mAh battery and a microSD card. Like the LG Revolution and HTC Thunderbolt, the Triumph sports a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8655, but falls behind the big boys with only 512MB of RAM and 2GB of onboard storage.

Back in June, when we got our first few minutes with the Triumph, we were impressed with its responsiveness, and while we don't have any big bones to pick about the 800 x 480 display's pickup, we did find it a little slow to catch up on occasion. We caught ourselves pressing some buttons more than once before we saw any results, but our major gripe here comes from a consistent lag in navigation. We scrolled easily across the home screens, but were met with slow app startups, especially when it came to the camera and camcorder. YouTube, similarly, took what felt like ages to load, and here is where the boasting catches up to this generally well-equipped phone.

The Triumph claims to be "The Ultimate Media Machine," but the things that make it a media machine, ultimate or otherwise, failed to keep up. We will, however, concede that this it performed well in terms of playback, both audio and visual. Colors were rich and vibrant, viewing angles were more than serviceable, and once loaded, Kanye West's Runaway played on without incident. As if its name and superlative media playing claims weren't enough to send us into a hyperbolic spasm, Motorola's also promised an "astounding audio experience" with "crystal clear speakers," sans headphones. Sure, Ike and Tina's River Deep, Mountain High came across loud and less muffled than we'd expected, but Phil Spector's wall of sound is much better suited -- as we'd expect most music is -- to a real-deal stereo system.

So it's not the Hulk of all media players, but when it comes to making calls, we'd say the Triumph delivered fairly well, if a bit inconsistently. Aside from a mildly annoying intermittent hissing that popped up during one call, and a complaint from a friend that we sounded distant in another, we gabbed without incident. Considering we could only get one to two bars in the entire city of Oakland, we were surprised to find that Virgin's network carried us through without a single dropped call.

When it came to testing network connectivity, however, pinning down an appropriate location -- one that provided more than two bars -- proved especially nerve racking. After roaming the whole of Oakland, and coming up with lackluster (and inconsistent) results, we made our way across the bay to a coffee shop in San Francisco's Mission District. Even under ideal conditions, the Triumph pulled in speed test scores far below what we'd expected. So we enlisted the LG Optimus V and Photon 4G, both running on the same 3G frequency, and found that while the Triumph sometimes scored half of what its counterparts pulled in, that network wasn't exactly doing any of the handsets justice. Ultimately, Moto's boastful offspring proved consistently inconsistent, jumping back and forth between 3G and 1X, while the other two phones maintained consistent signals. Keeping that in mind, under the very best circumstances, this particular device provided average speeds of 312 kbps down and 215 kbps up -- more like lukewarm than blazing hot.

Performance and battery life


As we mentioned before, the Triumph runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon MSM8655 processor -- the same chipset found in the Revolution, Thunderbolt, and Incredible 2. So how does a pre-paid smartphone stack up against its contract carrying counterparts? Well, in terms of performance metrics, the results are mixed, but it certainly didn't lose the race altogether. As you can see from the chart below, the Triumph wasn't the front runner, but it never fell too far behind its more generously specced competition.

Benchmark Motorola Triumph LG Revolution HTC Thunderbolt
Quadrant 1679 1913 1886
Linpack 38.4 39.6 40.1
Nenamark 34 39.2 32.7
Nenamark2 10 13.3 12.7
Neocore 60.9 65.1 59.5
Sunspider 4111 4591 6213

So, it fared reasonably well in a handful of benchmark sprints, but can this ambitious Android go the distance? We gave the Triumph the standard battery life run down, consisting of two very different tests. When left to run a movie on a continuous loop, it kept its charge for a full five hours and forty-eight minutes. Of course, that's not the sort of thing most folks are likely to do, so we tried out something a little more practical. During a day of light use -- checking email and Twitter about once an hour, snapping a handful of pictures, and making three short phone calls, the aspiring champion came up a tad short, losing its charge in 13 hours flat. That might be enough to float you through the workday, but it certainly won't carry you through to the morning after.

Camera


It may not rock an 8 megapixel shooter like the Incredible 2, and it won't deliver 1080p, but with 5 megapixel stills and 720p video, the Triumph's front-facing camera is prime competition for a handset like the LG Revolution. Unfortunately, we weren't terribly impressed with what it had to offer. It managed to do an alright job when the lighting was just right, and actually served up some nice, crisp photos when given a little bit of shade. This camera was clearly not built for low-light picture taking, but it proved equally ill suited for shooting in harsh lighting. Under the midday sun, we found a consistent halo effect accompanying our images, and when we took it inside and shot near a window, our kitchen seemed to undergo a soft focus makeover. When the lighting is just right, though, this camera is capable of producing photos fit for even the finest of Facebook profiles. If you're looking to get serious with your picture taking, there are a slew of settings to help the little guy along.
Motorola Triumph sample shots


So, how does "The Ultimate Media Machine" function as a camcorder? You can see for yourself in the video below. Dizzy? We certainly are. The Triumph's camcorder program functions well enough, there's a little bit of lag while loading, but other than that, we don't have much to gripe about in terms of a user experience. But the proof is in the pudding, and this pudding clearly had some issues keeping up. As you can see, when shot in 720p, the camera had some trouble tracking fast moving objects.


Software


You may have noticed our delight when we found that the Triumph was running without the ill-fated Motoblur, but in case you missed it, let us reiterate: we are thrilled! It's no secret that we prefer a bloat-free phone, and this particular handset is about as untainted as we expected. Sure, it's got a couple of pieces of Virgin-branded software, but their presence is by no means egregious. You'll find Virgin Mobile Live, the carrier's own musically minded social networking app -- which strangely asked us if we were at Jesus Christ Superstar the first time we logged in -- SCVNGR, Twidroyd, and two location-based apps called Poynt and WHERE. Additionally, the desktop contains a short cut to your account and a Virgin-branded download manager.

Bloatware aside, we found the Android 2.2 experience smooth and steady throughout our trial, despite a few of the apps taking their sweet time to load. The stock apps are all here, and from what we can tell, just how the little green robot intended them. Sure we'd prefer a completely clean Android experience, but we've come to expect a little something extra from carriers. If anyone at Moto is taking notes, this is what an Android should look like.

Wrap-up


So did the Triumph live up to the hyperbolic hype? In a word: yes. As far as mid-range, pre-paid Android phones go, it's definitely a winner. Motorola shot high with this one, and not just in terms of marketing. It not only shares a processor with a trio of higher-end phones (the aforementioned Thunderbolt, Revolution, and Incredible 2), but it also has the look and feel of a more expensive handset. At $300 and no contractual commitment, we're willing to overlook the sometimes-sluggish startup of apps, and inconsistent connectivity. It hasn't quite ousted the Optimus One from the top of our pre-paid list, but second place still wins a prize, right?

4.5 million fps microscope camera powered by ultra-fast X-ray flash

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 11:58 AM PDT

X-ray undulator
Remember those rugged gadgets we smashed to bits in super slow-mo? Well that spectacular footage was shot at around 1,500 frames per-second. A new camera system being built for the European XFEL (X-ray Free-Electron Laser) facility will record stunning clips of viruses and cells at an almost unimaginable 4.5 million fps. The camera is, in part, powered by a high speed flash created by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, that blasts its microscopic subjects with ultra-bright X-rays. The flashes themselves last as little as two femtoseconds, or 2x10^-15 seconds for you math nerds out there. When the whole apparatus is fired up in 2015 it could provide amazingly detailed, 3D images of individual molecules and answer some questions about the behavior of viruses and cells.
at 11:38 AM

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