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- Verizon goes to bat for Samsung in patent war with Apple
- T-Mobile's FlexPay plan to be eliminated as soon as December?
- Giant wall console lets you Game & Watch while you wait
- Mobile Miscellany: week of September 19, 2011
- ZTE Skate launches worldwide, attempts to stick landing in the US
- Magnetic Cello almost makes it cool to play the cello (video)
- Sony Reader WiFi almost ready to let you (multi)touch it, up for pre-order now
- Sezmi's cable / satellite alternative TV service to shut down Monday, won't be missed
- Is this the Motorola Xoom 2?
- Sony offers 'adjustment' for NEX-5N camera to reduce clicking sound while recording video
- Philips' Android-based GoGear Connect PMP now available for pre-order
- Czech electric scooter company covers 706 miles in 24-hours, claims world record
- Lenovo BT820 wireless speaker triggers impromptu rave at the FCC
- Comcast close to releasing AnyPlay box for in-home live TV streaming to tablets
- Growing Up Geek: Zachary Lutz
- The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET!
- The Engadget Show - 025: We ride an electric bike, check out the new Keepon and get serenaded by Jonathan Coulton
- Angelbird's Wings PCIe-based SSD preview and benchmarks
- US government to beat back botnets with a cybersecurity code of conduct
| Verizon goes to bat for Samsung in patent war with Apple Posted: 24 Sep 2011 11:14 AM PDT  |
| T-Mobile's FlexPay plan to be eliminated as soon as December? Posted: 24 Sep 2011 09:54 AM PDT  |
| Giant wall console lets you Game & Watch while you wait Posted: 24 Sep 2011 07:44 AM PDT  |
| Mobile Miscellany: week of September 19, 2011 Posted: 24 Sep 2011 06:00 AM PDT 
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| ZTE Skate launches worldwide, attempts to stick landing in the US Posted: 24 Sep 2011 03:52 AM PDT The ZTE Skate -- spiritual sucessor to the Blade and current flagship -- is pushing on with its global roll-out and it looks like it may reach the US. Now on sale in Hong Kong, Brazil and Spain, the Skate is rolling down the French Alps and into France and the UK, where the Orange-branded Monte Carlo (a Skate in phone network clothing) is already available. With a different ZTE device set to arrive on Cricket soon, the electronics giant also intends to bring this 4.3-inch phone to the US in the near future, though there's nothing concrete on dates and prices just yet. According to ZTE's executive VP He Shiyou, the company is set to launch "a total of 30 smartphone models" by the end of the year. We fear the company may run out of flat-shaped names before the end of November. Head on over to our Chinese site for some hands-on shots. ZTE Officially Launches Skate 4.3-Inch Smartphone Globally SHENZHEN, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ZTE Corporation ("ZTE") (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, announced today it has completed the first phase of the global rollout of its new flagship smartphone, the Skate, in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong rollout is the first Skate launch in Asia-Pacific. The competitively priced Skate is a slim 11.35 mm thick, has a large 4.3 inch TFT (thin film transistor) capacitive display with a resolution of 480 x 800 and weighs just 148g. Its design style is inspired by the skateboard and it runs on Android 2.3. The Skate provides a user-friendly interface with practical and powerful multimedia capabilities. The Skate was first launched Sept. 12 in Brazil in partnership with Brazilian operator Vivo. It was later launched in Spain on Sept. 16, as part of Madrid Fashion week, in association with local operator Telefonica. The global rollout of the Skate will continue this year in European countries including the U.K. and France, in Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and China, and in the United States. "We at ZTE are extremely enthusiastic about the global launch of the Skate smartphone," said ZTE Executive Vice President and Head of the Terminal Division He Shiyou. "The Skate is a building block upon the success of our Blade model and is an important step forward for ZTE's entry into the middle-to-high end smartphone market." "We are committed to developing smartphone products and will launch a total of 30 smartphone models before the end of 2011," he added. ZTE's strategic move into the smartphone market in 2011 has played a major part in the company achieving the No. 5 position among the world's handset manufacturers. Smart terminal products sales in the same period were 400 percent up on the first half of 2011, with U.S. sales up 300 percent. The ZTE Skate is expected to build on the success of the ZTE Blade smartphone, which has been the company's flagship product for the last 12 months. Over three million Blade handsets have been sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. The Blade has recently become the biggest-selling Android smartphone in China, averaging more than 17,000 units per day. About ZTE ZTE is a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions with the most comprehensive product range covering virtually every sector of the wireline, wireless, service and terminals markets. The company delivers innovative, custom-made products and services to over 500 operators in more than 140 countries, helping them to meet the changing needs of their customers while achieving continued revenue growth. ZTE's 2010 revenue led the industry with a 21% increase to USD10.609 billion. ZTE commits 10 percent of its revenue to research and development and takes a leading role in a wide range of international bodies developing emerging telecoms standards. A company with sound corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, ZTE is a member of the UN Global Compact. ZTE is China's only listed telecom manufacturer, publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ). For more information, please visit www.zte.com.cn. |
| Magnetic Cello almost makes it cool to play the cello (video) Posted: 24 Sep 2011 01:46 AM PDT  Say hello to the Magnetic Cello, the perfect companion to your magnetic drum kit. Crafted by college student David Levi (AKA "Magnetovore"), the instrument vaguely represents a traditional cello in structure, but the similarities pretty much end right there. To play it, for example, musicians use not a horsehair bow, but a magnetic rod that produces a voltage within an attached coil (the "bridge," in this case). Its "strings," meanwhile, consist of resistive ribbons connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator, allowing users to manipulate volume with the magnet-bow. The result sounds surprisingly cello-like, though Levi says he's still tinkering with its tone and playability. Waltz past the break to see the beast in action for yourself, or find more details in Levi's provisional patent application at the link below. |
| Sony Reader WiFi almost ready to let you (multi)touch it, up for pre-order now Posted: 23 Sep 2011 11:37 PM PDT  [Thanks, knowmadd] |
| Sezmi's cable / satellite alternative TV service to shut down Monday, won't be missed Posted: 23 Sep 2011 09:46 PM PDT  [Thanks, John] Dear Sezmi Customer, We regret to inform you that Sezmi is discontinuing its consumer service. As of Monday, September 26, 2011, you will no longer be able to view or record broadcast TV programming through your Sezmi System. However, you will still be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your Sezmi media recorder. To help ease the transition, you may also rent movies and shows at no charge from Sezmi's On Demand catalog through November 1, 2011. Please visit our website www.sezmi.com/support/news for more details. Why do you have to discontinue your consumer service? Sezmi has changed its business focus to providing our product and technology platform to service providers, internationally and in the U.S., who are interested in providing broadband video services to their customers. As a result, we are no longer supporting our direct-to-consumer service. What does this mean for me? You will no longer be billed for Sezmi service. As of September 26th, you will no longer be able to utilize the programming guide and your digital media recorder will no longer operate as a recorder. You will be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your Sezmi system and YouTube access will not be affected. Between now and November 1st, you may rent any movies or shows at no charge to you. After November 1, Sezmi's On Demand catalog will no longer be available but you will still be able to use your Sezmi system to view all programming you have saved to the media recorder. Detailed information is on our website, www.sezmi.com/support/news. Thank you for having allowed us to serve you We sincerely appreciate the enthusiasm and loyalty our customers have always shown. Sezmi was launched to provide customers a new video entertainment choice that provides a premium video experience at a more affordable price. With our new company focus, we will continue to deliver on the promise of providing a premium and cost effective TV alternative; however, we will do so through partnerships with our broadband service customers. For questions If you have questions, please go to www.sezmi.com/support/news. Thank you again for having been a Sezmi customer. The Sezmi Team |
| Posted: 23 Sep 2011 08:33 PM PDT   |
| Sony offers 'adjustment' for NEX-5N camera to reduce clicking sound while recording video Posted: 23 Sep 2011 06:42 PM PDT  |
| Philips' Android-based GoGear Connect PMP now available for pre-order Posted: 23 Sep 2011 05:14 PM PDT  [Thanks, Peter] |
| Czech electric scooter company covers 706 miles in 24-hours, claims world record Posted: 23 Sep 2011 04:39 PM PDT  |
| Lenovo BT820 wireless speaker triggers impromptu rave at the FCC Posted: 23 Sep 2011 03:47 PM PDT  |
| Comcast close to releasing AnyPlay box for in-home live TV streaming to tablets Posted: 23 Sep 2011 02:32 PM PDT  |
| Posted: 23 Sep 2011 01:37 PM PDT Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our very own Contributing Mobile Editor, Zachary Lutz.  Few would know it, but I greeted the world on a relatively important day in computing history. Just 150 miles away in Twin Falls, Idaho, Apple's 1984 commercial -- the very ad famous for being broadcast only once, during Super Bowl XVIII -- aired for the first time on December 15th, 1983. As a little industry trick, the company purchased a 30-second slot at 1:00 AM so that the commercial would be eligible for that year's advertising awards. You could argue the tactic was a bit devious, but I'd like to think that magic was in the air on that cold winter day.  Of course, this alignment of the stars has relegated me to serve as my family's go-to tech guru ever since. This began when I was two years old and was coaxed to program the time on the VCR to stop the clock from blinking. Admittedly, my family wasn't very forward-thinking when it came to technology, but all that began to change when I contributed part of my savings so that we could buy our first computer, the Commodore 64C, from a local elementary school that had upgraded its lab to IBM PCs. The C64 remained our only computer until 1996, but during that time, my passion for technology was born -- even if I didn't realize it. You see, like many, I treated the Commodore as a gaming platform, and while the command "LOAD "*",8,1" may be forever ingrained into my memory, I still didn't learn much from the experience.  Let's fast forward in time a bit to '96, with the purchase of our first PC, a 133MHz Pentium from Packard Bell that ran Windows 95. Like many computers of that era, it featured a customized UI, here known as Navigator, which provided a house metaphor for completing tasks, accessing applications and so on. These interfaces were presumably intended to save novices from the horrors of the Start Menu, which was obviously meant for pros only. Fortunately, there was an Exit sign that brought the user to the proper Windows desktop. I relate this experience to the current landscape of Android phones and tablets, where custom UIs are largely the norm, except now, there's no Exit sign -- no way to access a proper home screen. Perhaps I find the current situation so frustrating because looking back, had I not been able to exit Navigator, I wouldn't have learned much at all. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Combined with my obsession with viewing full motion video in Encarta '96, hand-coding web pages with as much bling and animated GIFs as possible and building up my metropolis in SimCity 2000, I spent ample time playing with alternative window managers, dabbling in Linux and more or less breaking the computer while forcing myself to fix it before my parents could find out. Then, everything changed for me again. I discovered the PBS documentary titled Triumph of the Nerds, which taught me the history of computing and inspired my fondness for the Macintosh.  I'll admit it, I was under Steve Jobs' mind-control abilities at the time. Apple was the company that built tools for people who'd change the world. I was convinced that once I owned a Mac, my entire computing experience -- and hence, my entire life as I knew it -- would change for the better. There was nothing I wanted more than a Bondi Blue iMac for Christmas. So, I created a teal-and-white paper chain to represent the countdown, and would tear off a link each day. When December 25th, 1998 finally came, I was overjoyed for sure, yet humbled by how much I still had to learn. (I'd originally thought the CD-ROM drive was broken, because the eject button wouldn't work. Turns out, as you know, discs are ejected by dragging them to the trash.) Still, I loved Apple so much, I was convinced I should join the company. I've never thought of myself as an engineer, be it of the hardware or software persuasion, and hence I decided the only meaningful way I could go to work in Cupertino was as part of Apple's marketing division. I majored in the subject while at the University of Idaho (Go Vandals!) and while there, served as the Apple Certified Hardware Technician for the campus and local residents. At a particularly low point in the company's quality control, it seemed that I was replacing the logic board on one-in-three iMac G5s the bookstore sold. I even began timing myself and, at my best, was able to do a full repair, from non-functional to good-as-new, in less than 13 minutes. Later, I served as the Apple Campus Rep, where I ran promotions, set up demos and got to meet many talented people across the northwest. My sales figures were consistently among the best, and it seemed as if the path was being laid for my pilgrimage to Cupertino. Yet somewhere along the way, I fell out of love with the company. I graduated without much fanfare, unsure that marketing was for me.  My next few years could be analogized as wandering the desert, where everything I'd been working toward was no more. I eventually found myself in a small Boise law office, where -- surprise, surprise -- I became (among other things), the resident tech expert and helped drag the attorneys slightly more into the digital age. Let's just say I didn't get along with paper calendars...  Let me confess to you, I've never written professionally before. After finally deciding that I had little interest in pursuing a legal career, I began formulating my next step, where I'd combine my two primary passions: writing and tech. I figured I'd start my own site, and while I didn't have the means or access to a litany of mobile phones, nothing was going to stop me from going into retail outlets and crafting reviews of the experience. Maybe, just maybe, Engadget would one day take notice. As fate goes, that never came to be. Instead, I learned my favorite tech site was hiring for the first time in years, and knew I'd forever regret not taking the chance. The review I submitted was of my aging BlackBerry Tour, which was perfect for having a little fun. Then, Tim called. Then Darren. Then Tim, again. Before I knew it, I was reading my own stories on this incredible site. Sure, I look back and wince at some of the early articles, but I will be forever thankful to this team of talented writers and experts for showing me the ropes and bringing me up to speed. Just like the technology world, life moves pretty fast sometimes, and if there's anything I've learned, you've got to be ready for when that moment comes. No matter what your interest or passion, I firmly believe these moments happen in all our lives. Just be ready, and when the time comes for you, don't be afraid to let your inner geek shine.Zachary Lutz can be found on Twitter (@zacharylutz). Sure, he's not the most outspoken of the bunch, but he'd love if you dropped by and said, "Hi," or "What the hell??" once in a while. His ultimate man cave might just look something like this -- although, with a bit more diversity. |
| The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET! Posted: 23 Sep 2011 12:58 PM PDT  This week, we're back to the normal bat time and bat channel, with no crazy late-night shenanigans. We're also happy to have on another special guest, Christopher Trout, as he makes his Mobcast debut. Listen in as he joins Myriam Joire and Brad Molen to wax poetic about another wacky week in wireless. Catch us at the Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET (2PM PT, 9PM UK)! |
| Posted: 23 Sep 2011 12:30 PM PDT We've got a whole lot of show coming at you this month! Tim and Brian start things off by unveiling Distro, Engadget's new weekly greatest hits magazine for the iPad. We also take a look at Sony's new 3D-enabled video headset and the purse-friendly HTC Rhyme. Next up, Tim takes a spin around New York City on the Grace One electric bicycle, and we try to figure out whether it's worth the rather steep price tag. Brian pays a visit to the folks at Frog to discuss the company's long history and take a look at some of its industry shaping designs. Keepon co-creator Marek Michalowski stops by the studio to discuss the creation of his little yellow robot and explain how the dancing 'bot made the journey from research tool to retail toy. We swing by the Maker Faire in New York to check out 3D printers, a life-size game of Mouse Trap and get stuck in the (Polaroid) Matrix. And Make: Live co-hosts Becky Stern and Matt Richardson join us in the studio to talk about some of their own favorite DIY projects. We close the show with an interview and a few songs from Jonathan Coulton. (Spoiler: he plays the song from Portal.) Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater Special guests: Becky Stern, Matt Richardson, Marek Michalowski Producer: Guy Streit Director: Michelle Stahl Executive Producers: Joshua Fruhlinger, Brian Heater and Michael Rubens Music by: Jonathan Coulton Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 025 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 025 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show - 025 (Small) Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (MP4). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (MP4). [RSS MP4] Add the Engadget Show feed (MP4) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically. [HD RSS] Get the Engadget Show delivered automatically in HD. [iPad RSS] Get the Engadget Show in iPad-friendly adaptive format. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Angelbird's Wings PCIe-based SSD preview and benchmarks Posted: 23 Sep 2011 12:00 PM PDT  As it stands today, consumers have but a smattering of options when it comes to PCIe-based SSDs. Without spending a few thousand bucks on an enterprise solution, there's the ioXtreme, RevoDrive and PhotoFast's PowerDrive-LSI. The thing is, none of these are "expandable." Angelbird has quite the unique offering -- rather than simply selling a few different cards with a few different amounts of NAND stacked on 'em, prospective consumers have three Wings board options. There's a €161 "Lite" board that offers no onboard storage at all, a €201 model with 16GB built-in and a 32GB edition that sells for €241. From there, you'll have access to four expansion slots, each of which can be filled with Crest 60GB (€115 each) or 115GB (€171) pop-in modules. And they genuinely do pop right in. Better still, third-party SSDs are supported (sans casing), so you could theoretically put four of your favorite low-cost drives into a blank Angelbird board for an even more economical end result. In our test scenario, we had a 32GB base board along with four 60GB modules. Grand total? €725, or around $975. Compared to even five years ago, that's a steal for 240GB of RAID 0 speed (with 32GB leftover for good measure), slapped directly onto one's motherboard, but here's the rub. OCZ's 240GB RevoDrive 3 X2 offers similar throughput for less -- a lot less if you're in the States. That guy's selling for $578 on Amazon as we speak, and while it's obviously not upgradable, you can nearly buy a pair of 'em for the price that Angelbird's selling this single solution for. Of course, some folks will claim that OCZ's reliability isn't exactly world-class, but the very nature of using NAND as a boot drive should cause you to break into hives if you aren't doing daily backups already. So, where's the value? It ought to be fairly obvious to technophiles, particularly those craving an SSD solution for a multi-boot setup. Based on our conversations with the company, this guy is "designed to be a multipurpose drive used especially in mixed OS environments," with the (admittedly optional) onboard storage useful for storing a third-party bootloader to handle Windows, OS X and Ubuntu on your Mac Pro. Meanwhile, the expansion module storage would carry out your OS duties, and in rapid fashion, too. An extreme case, sure, but those dabbling in the superweird would undoubtedly see the utility. The other upside here is the flexibility. If you've only got the outlay for two 60GB modules now, you can start with that. Down the road, another pair of 60 giggers would allow you to run a mirrored combo of 120GB striped RAID arrangements, or you could rebuild the entire thing to double your storage and increase your speed potential. Granted, there's no telling how long the company will continue making its existing 60GB / 240GB modules (the world of NAND moves fast), but at least the option exists for now. In our test, we utilized a 2009 Mac Pro (OS X 10.6.7) with a 2.66GHz quad-core Xeon CPU, 6GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 memory, NVIDIA's GeForce GT 120 and the aforesaid Angelbird / Hitachi hard drives. In our initial install, we attempted to raid two 60GB cards -- based on SandForce's SF-1222, by the way -- into a striped 120GB array (and then repeat it on the other two), in order to create a RAID set with 120GB of mirrored storage. Pricey redundancy, sure, but it was worth a shot; turns out, the initial drivers we were sent weren't tailored to handle such a setup, forcing numerous crashes and plenty of tears. Eventually, we were given a new driver package that addressed the issue, so those looking to do likewise will benefit from our early misfortune.  For our actual benchmarking, however, we striped all four modules into a 240GB RAID 0 array, with 32GB leftover for -- well, whatever else. Our bootup time improved from around 105 seconds to 70 seconds, while launching applications took but a fraction of the time. As an example, launching Google Chrome after a fresh reboot took around four "Dock bounces" on the HDD; with the Wings solution, it was fired up on the first downbeat. Firefox, Photoshop, Excel, Word and every other application we loaded saw similarly impressive improvements. Given our consumer focus here, we didn't put the drive through any insane enterprise-level stress testing. Instead, we simply used the device and ran it through a number of calculated file transfers while also putting it up against our DiskTester benchmarking suite. For smaller reads and writes, we routinely saw measurable transfer rates approaching 200MB/sec. On larger groups of files -- between 1GB and 8GB -- those speeds averaged between 230MB/sec and 260MB/sec. To be perfectly clear, this is us copying files on the Wings RAID set with a precision clock, and then calculating the actual transfer rate that was realized on our machine. Compare that to the 45MB/sec - 65MB/sec that we saw on our Hitachi magnetic drive, and it's pretty clear which is more enjoyable to use.  DiskTester's Sequential Read Test: Wings PCIe SSD (4x60GB RAID 0) In test scenarios, the company claims that a four-drive arrangement can approach 750MB/sec, and with monolithic video exports relocating themselves, perhaps that's accurate. In the Sequential Read test within DiskTester, we saw average speeds of 538MB/sec to 730MB/sec -- just about what was claimed. In the full Sequential Suite, the drive clocked ~138MB/sec whilst handling diminutive 32KB files, but soared to 825MB/sec when transferring 256MB chunks. But even still, OCZ's RevoDrive can hit similar speeds at a lower price point, leaving Wings without a pedestal to stand on outside of its flexibility. What we're left with is a clever design and solid execution, but a price point that simply has to come down if it hopes to compete for consumer dollars in this space. Thankfully, that's in the cards. We're told that a proper US store and distribution channel are nearly done, and hopefully that'll provide the pricing necessary to have folks truly consider the upstart. Make no mistake -- the real-world speed gains here will truly change the way you compute, but is the form factor worth the premium? Depends on how many SSDs you've got sitting around, now doesn't it? |
| US government to beat back botnets with a cybersecurity code of conduct Posted: 23 Sep 2011 11:34 AM PDT  |
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