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Engadget News |
- Google becomes the Clark Griswold of the internet with 'Jingle Bells' doodle
- DirecTV HDUI is rolling out across the land, iPad app adds 12 more live streaming channels
- Best Buy rewards your procrastination with buy-one-get-one iPhone 4 deal
- Mobile Miscellany: week of December 19, 2011
- Option XYfi mobile hotspot tours the FCC, HSUPA in tow
- iMAME app gets pulled from iTunes
- Chinese hackers target U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sensitive data stolen
- LogMeIn remote desktop app goes free on iPhone and iPad
- LG Fantasy Windows Phone meets Mr. Blurrycam for the first time, hit it off
- HP Envy Spectre arrives at FCC, next year's model probably called HP Envy SMERSH
- Ainovo's bargain Novo 7 ICS tablet ready to tickle US pockets?
- Nokia N9 gets unofficial UI tweak, makes MeeGo lie down and play landscape
- Hajime Research is assembling a robot taller than you, Mr. Stark couldn't be more proud (video)
- Kindle Fire root reignited, beats 6.2.1 update
- Nokia Lumia 800 likes to taste the rainbow, wants to try a splash of white and yellow?
- VT nears completion of HokieSpeed, world's 96th most powerful supercomputer
- MIT's got a way of using encrypted data without decrypting it, next stop, traveling without moving
- Twonky Beam Browser hands-on
- Nabaztag robotic rabbits rise from the ashes at midnight
- Engadget Primed: ports, connectors and the future of your TV's backside
| Google becomes the Clark Griswold of the internet with 'Jingle Bells' doodle Posted: 24 Dec 2011 10:05 AM PST  Having conquered so many aspects of the software world, it's time for Google to take the next logical step in its evolution: becoming that annoying neighbor who always goes a bit overboard each year with the Christmas display. This time out, Google's doodle lets you play five bars of "Jingle Bells" manually, bringing down the lights and finishing up the song with a full-on holiday light show. Check it out, but don't blame us if your computer blows a fuse. | ||||||||||||||||||
| DirecTV HDUI is rolling out across the land, iPad app adds 12 more live streaming channels Posted: 24 Dec 2011 09:14 AM PST  [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] 254 - AMC 281 - Velocity 306 - HD Net 362 - The Weather Channel 426 - GolTV 561 - HD Net Movies 562 - MGM 563 - Sony Movie Channel 564 - Universal 565 - Smithsonian 566 - Crime & Investigation 618 - Fuel TV | ||||||||||||||||||
| Best Buy rewards your procrastination with buy-one-get-one iPhone 4 deal Posted: 24 Dec 2011 08:07 AM PST  [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Mobile Miscellany: week of December 19, 2011 Posted: 24 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST  Motorola Droid 4 delayed until February? According to a memo leaked to VZBuzz, it appears that the Motorola Droid 4 -- the LTE-enabled successor to Verizon's top-tier QWERTY slider -- may be taking too many lessons from the Galaxy Nexus. From the looks of it, the phone won't see the inside of a Verizon store until early February. If this is the case, we'll likely see it at CES. [VZBuzz] Sprint removing discounts from secondary lines? The Now Network is making some more changes to its policy, according to a screenshot leaked by SprintFeed, and once again it's not for the better. As of February 1st, service discounts will only be applied to the primary lines on each account, whereas it's currently available to secondary lines as well. This adjustment in the policy would align Sprint's discount procedure much more closely to AT&T and Verizon, which both offer the same discounting policy. [SprintFeed] Page Plus Cellular launches a $12 monthly prepaid plan Page Plus, a Verizon MVNO based out of Toledo, OH, just announced a new low-end monthly plan to its prepaid service. The plan, called "the 12," will offer 250 minutes, 250 messages and 10MB of data for $12 per month. It's definitely not going to be a reasonable for everybody, but it's certainly ideal if you don't use your phone for much besides actually making a few occasional calls. [PRNewsWire] White San Francisco II is coming to Orange Listed on Orange UK's "coming soon" page is the white version of the ZTE-made San Francisco II. No release date has been set, but if you like the idea of a entry-level device in white with a 3.5-inch display, 800MHz CPU, 5MP camera and Android 2.3, you may not have to wait much longer. [Unwired View] C Spire launches the Sonim XP3400 Armor C Spire, the carrier formerly known as Cellular South, introduced a rugged phone called the Sonim XP3400 Armor (seen above) to its lineup. Sonim has been around for a long time, but its phones are typically sold as unlocked GSM devices and rarely get picked up by US carriers. It's available online and in stores for $50 after a two-year commitment and mail-in rebate. C SPIRE WIRELESS AND SONIM TECHNOLOGIES TEAM UP TO OFFER THE TOUGHEST MOBILE PHONE IN THE WORLD Ultra-Rugged Sonim XP 3400 Armor Combines Toughness and Reliability to form the Ultimate Lifeline For People Who Need a Dependable Connection on the Nation's First Personalized Network Ridgeland, Miss. - (December 15, 2011) – C Spire Wireless, the only U.S. wireless provider that offers consumers a full suite of personalized wireless services, is introducing the perfect personalized gift for workers in challenging outdoor and industrial environments – the Sonim XP 3400 Armor ultra-rugged mobile phone. The Sonim XP 3400 Armor combines ultra-rugged features with the speed and reliability of mobile broadband to offer a highly reliable lifeline for users who work in some of the harshest environments anywhere like farmers, oil rig, construction and utility workers, law enforcement, fire protection and other service industry employees. Based on feedback from over 500,000 users who perform difficult jobs in some of the most challenging conditions in the world, the phone is engineered to exceed military-grade specifications for toughness. Completely dust-proof, water submersible to 6.5 feet for 1 hour, the phone is drop tested up to 6.5 feet onto concrete and features a 1.5mm thick scratch and shock resistant Corning Gorilla glass lens on a bright, two-inch high-resolution display. "As a company committed to offering the ultimate personalized wireless experience, we're pleased to carry the Sonim XP 3400 Armor mobile phone," said Terrell Knight, director of business and government sales for C Spire Wireless. "The Sonim XP 3400 Armor sets a new standard for ruggedness and reliability," he added. "This phone is a fast, powerful communications tool for the pros who do the tough jobs every day and will keep them safe and in touch no matter what conditions they encounter." The XP 3400 Armor features a combination of hardened rubber molded into a reinforced fiberglass casing to give users the confidence to truly take the device anywhere. The phone is certified against salt, fog, humidity, transport shock, thermal shock and operates in temperatures ranging from -5° F to 130° F. "This strategic partnership with C Spire brings Sonim's legendary ruggedness to the nation's first personalized network, meeting the growing demand among users for a reliable phone in the enterprise segment," said Bob Plaschke, CEO of Sonim Technologies. "The ultra-ruggedness of the Sonim XP 3400 Armor coupled with the dependability, reliability and coverage of the C Spire network make this a must-have device for workers in demanding jobs within the enterprise." With the XP 3400 Armor, companies with mobile workforces can reduce operating costs, increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and ensure employee safety. The handset has professional-grade assisted-GPS that delivers highly accurate locations and faster location fixes due to superior signal sensitivity. With up to 9.5 hours of talk time or 850 hours of standby time, the XP 3400 Armor has the power to handle long work days. The phone is Brew-enabled so it offers certified third party applications such as workforce management solutions. The mobile resource management applications in the XP 3400 Armor offer workforce location monitoring, fleet tracking, monitoring, timecard reporting, real-time work order updates, alerts, job scheduling, event confirmation, data collection and reports. Additional Features • 2 MP camera with extra bright LED flash and video recording • Omni-directional, noise-cancelling microphone to improve worker safety • 23 mm diameter, water-resistant speaker specially designed for higher volume transmission and reception • LED flashlight • MicroSD card slot (up to 8 GB card) • FM radio • Media player • Native email client and HTML web browser • Widely spaced keys for ease of use with gloved hands or other protective gear • Comprehensive three year warranty – best in wireless industry and even covers accidental damage Pricing and Availability The Sonim XP 3400 Armor is available online at www.cspire.com, in all retail stores and through its telesales group at 1-855-277- 4734 or its Assist for Business Support Center at 1-855-277-4732 for $49.99 after a $50 reward card and a new two-year customer agreement. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Option XYfi mobile hotspot tours the FCC, HSUPA in tow Posted: 24 Dec 2011 05:19 AM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||
| iMAME app gets pulled from iTunes Posted: 24 Dec 2011 04:17 AM PST In barely enough time to get out of the app store and into the hearts of retro gamers everywhere, the iMAME emulator on iOS has already been erased from iTunes -- just days since its release. Alas, that lack of any official endorsement may have reared its ugly head. Well, it was good while it lasted. Guess we'll carry on saving up for that Vita purchase... | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese hackers target U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sensitive data stolen Posted: 24 Dec 2011 02:28 AM PST  According to sources close to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese hackers are at it again, this time hitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and capturing information from three million members. Those familiar with the matter told the WSJ that hackers stole around six weeks worth of emails regarding Asian policy, but may have had access to sensitive correspondences for as long as a year. The Chamber only learned it was under attack when the FBI sent an alert that servers in China were stealing information, although the exact amount of data stolen is unknown. After confirming the breach, the Chamber shut down and destroyed parts of its computer network, proceeding to revamp its security system over a 36-hour period. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the U.S. of A has fallen victim to Chinese hackers, as both Google and NASA have experienced breaches over the past few years. The Chamber is currently investigating the attack, hoping to find some digital clues that might reveal the details of who done it and why. | ||||||||||||||||||
| LogMeIn remote desktop app goes free on iPhone and iPad Posted: 24 Dec 2011 12:53 AM PST  Looks like LogMeIn Inc. has suddenly cottoned on to the freemium business model, deciding to offer its basic remote desktop app for iPhone and iPad entirely gratis. Previously, you had to hand over $29.99 for the simple pleasure of accessing your PC and Mac desktops via LogMeIn Ignition, but the new free version (simply 'LogMeIn') amply provides for that barebones service, while bells and whistles are reserved for those who buy an in-app subscription to LogMeIn Pro at $40 per year -- including things like HD video and sound streaming, file transferring and integration with cloud storage services . Confusing matters slightly, the old Ignition app won't die. It'll live on in the App Store with a massively inflated price to support old Ignition customers and -- most importantly -- give them grandfather rights to Pro features, so they don't feel left out and start sniffing around the competition. There's a full PR after the break, and it also mentions that Android update is on its way in 2012. LogMeIn Brings Free Remote Access to the iPad and iPhone 100 Percent Free Anytime, Anywhere Access Now Available From Premier App Developer WOBURN, Mass., Dec. 22, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LogMeIn (Nasdaq:LOGM) just unveiled a free mobile app to bring its signature remote desktop capabilities to even more iPads and iPhones. Featuring the same remote access experience that made LogMeIn Ignition the top grossing 3rd party iPad app of 20101, the new app lets any iOS owner remotely view, access and control their PCs or Macs from their iPad or iPhone. It works with LogMeIn's flagship free remote access offering, LogMeIn Free, giving iOS users unlimited free mobile access to their remote computers, anywhere with an internet connection. Building on the success of its highly popular mobile app, LogMeIn Ignition, the new LogMeIn for iPad/iPhone app is the latest move by LogMeIn to bring its cloud-based, essential remote services to new audiences through feature-rich free offerings. "Mobile devices, most notably the iPad, have given rise to an entirely new audience looking to remotely access their computer files and applications on the go. Not surprisingly, mobile has become an increasingly important driver for introducing new people to LogMeIn's services, and we believe we're just scratching the surface of this growing demand," said Michael Simon, president and CEO of LogMeIn. "By combining our mobile and free service strengths, we can bring the benefits of top-shelf remote access to virtually anyone and everyone with an iPhone or iPad." iPad and iPhone owners can take advantage of the remote access capabilities by simply downloading the free app from the Apple App Store and then installing LogMeIn Free on any PC or Mac which they wish to access. Users also have the option of upgrading to an all new version of LogMeIn Pro, LogMeIn's premium remote access software, and enjoy additional remote access capabilities. LogMeIn Free users can: Access an unlimited number of PCs and Macs from their iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) through a highly secure yet simple connection (AES 256-bit encryption, SSL/TLS intrusion detection) Remotely view and control their PCs and Macs as if the device were in their hands Run their computer-based business applications like Salesforce, Microsoft Office, Quickbooks, etc. on their iOS device View important files and other important information stored on a remote computer from anywhere with a WiFi or 3G connection LogMeIn Pro users get all the benefits and capabilities of LogMeIn Free, plus: NEW: High Definition (HD) remote control, optimized for streaming video and audio content from their PCs to their iOS devices (Mac HD streaming is planned for early 2012) Cloud storage integration to quickly and seamlessly view, copy, transfer and save files between iOS devices, personal or work computers, and popular cloud services (e.g. Dropbox, Google Docs) File Management: Copy, move, and save files or folders from remote computers directly onto the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch for offline viewing A version of the new LogMeIn app for Android smartphones and tablets is planned for 2012. For Ignition Customers: LogMeIn will keep Ignition for iPad/iPhone in the Apple App Store to support existing Ignition customers, and has updated the app to include HD remote control (and HD streaming) from their computers to their iOS device. These new capabilities, as well as the app's existing premium features are available to Ignition users at no additional cost and do not require LogMeIn Pro subscriptions. Additional information on the new LogMeIn for iPad/iPhone: Availability: Apple App Store Pricing: App is free, LogMeIn Free is free, LogMeIn Pro is available for $39.99/year through in-app introductory pricing Images: Screen grabs, app icon Video: demonstration of the app and remote access capabilities available on LogMeIn's product blog, B.LogMe.In About LogMeIn, Inc. LogMeIn (Nasdaq:LOGM) provides cloud-based remote access, support and collaboration solutions to quickly, simply and securely connect millions of internet-enabled devices across the globe - computers, smartphones, iPad™ and Android™ tablets, and digital displays. Designed for consumers, mobile professionals and IT organizations, LogMeIn's solutions empower more than 13 million users to connect over 100 million devices. LogMeIn is based in Woburn, Massachusetts, USA, with offices in Australia, Hungary, India, Japan, the Netherlands, and the UK. | ||||||||||||||||||
| LG Fantasy Windows Phone meets Mr. Blurrycam for the first time, hit it off Posted: 23 Dec 2011 11:39 PM PST  Sometimes the story behind the Blurrycam images are more interesting than the photos themselves. In this case, a member of XDA-Dev purchased an early model of the LG Fantasy -- an upcoming Windows Phone likely to launch early next year -- from a tester in Romania. The only spec given from the lucky buyer so far is a 4-inch IPS display. From outward appearance we're expecting the Fantasy to be a midrange device, but there's no way of telling what kinds of secrets lay beneath yet. Chances are we'll learn more secrets in just a couple weeks at CES. | ||||||||||||||||||
| HP Envy Spectre arrives at FCC, next year's model probably called HP Envy SMERSH Posted: 23 Dec 2011 10:12 PM PST  Even in the FCC's secret Washington bunker, our boys in lab-coats like to spread a little festive cheer. When this new HP Envy 14 Spectre was released into the streets, we found it wrapped in tinsel. We'll expect to learn more about this dual-band Wireless-N packing laptop in January, where we figure it'll be the last model to carry Intel's Sandy Bridge, since successor Ivy Bridge isn't due to arrive at OEMs for another couple of months. We're not sure about naming your laptop after a James Bond villain organization, but it wouldn't be the first questionable decision to come from the House of Meg this year, would it? | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ainovo's bargain Novo 7 ICS tablet ready to tickle US pockets? Posted: 23 Dec 2011 07:54 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nokia N9 gets unofficial UI tweak, makes MeeGo lie down and play landscape Posted: 23 Dec 2011 06:03 PM PST Nokia's MeeGo'd pillowcase smartphone has been given a 90-degree twist. This new landscape mode works across the three main navigation screens and can be accessed through N9Tweak, an unofficial mod that can be downloaded through the phone's web browser. Any compatible apps will also launch lengthways, all of which should help alleviate those N900 pangs. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hajime Research is assembling a robot taller than you, Mr. Stark couldn't be more proud (video) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 05:13 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kindle Fire root reignited, beats 6.2.1 update Posted: 23 Dec 2011 04:23 PM PST Amazon's latest attempt to lock down root access on its Kindle Fire has been, well, routed. It took the tinkerers mere days to catch up and the new root file is now up for grabs, courtesy of Android Police and a few good devs. The method is app-based and looks to be disarmingly simple, but the usual warnings apply; mess up those software internals and bam, you've voided your warranty. Those still willing to dabble can find the full details at the source link below. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nokia Lumia 800 likes to taste the rainbow, wants to try a splash of white and yellow? Posted: 23 Dec 2011 03:33 PM PST Cyan and Magenta were a good start, but Nokia hasn't finished plucking eye-catching colors for its smartphone flagship. Alongside a not-exactly-unexpected white model, these leaked renders suggest that our favorite polycarbonate Windows Phone will net a zesty yellow (possibly lime green) wardrobe at some point in the future. According to MonWindowsPhone, details on timeframes and launch regions remain foggy and will depend on customer demand. If the phone fares well in certain locales, Nokia will likely be more willing to offer up some spicier colors. | ||||||||||||||||||
| VT nears completion of HokieSpeed, world's 96th most powerful supercomputer Posted: 23 Dec 2011 02:43 PM PST  Virginia Tech's Wu Feng unveils HokieSpeed, a new powerful supercomputer for the masses Virginia Tech crashed the supercomputing arena in 2003 with System X, a machine that placed the university among the world's top computational research facilities. Now comes HokieSpeed, a new supercomputer that is up to 22 times faster and yet a quarter of the size of X, boasting a single-precision peak of 455 teraflops, or 455 trillion operations per second, and a double-precision peak of 240 teraflops, or 240 trillion operations per second. That's enough computational capability to place HokieSpeed at No. 96 on the most recent Top500 List (http://www.top500.org/), the industry-standard ranking of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers. More intriguing is HokieSpeed's energy efficiency, which ranks it at No. 11 in the world on the November 2011 Green500 List (http://www.green500.org/), a compilation of supercomputers that excel at using less energy to do more. On the Green500 List, HokieSpeed is the highest-ranked commodity supercomputer in the United States. Located at Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center (http://www.vtcrc.com/), HokieSpeed – the word "Hokie" originating from an old Virginia Tech sports cheer – contains 209 nodes, or separate computers, connected to one another in and across large metal racks, each roughly 6.5 feet tall, to create a single supercomputer that occupies half a row of racks in a vast university computer machine room. X took three times the rack space. Each HokieSpeed node contains two 2.40-gigahertz Intel Xeon E5645 6-core central processing units, commonly called CPUs, and two NVIDIA M2050/C2050 448-core graphics processor units, or GPUs, which reside on a Supermicro 2026GT0TRF motherboard. That gives HokieSpeed more than 2,500 central processing unit cores and more than 185,000 graphics processor unit cores to compute with. "HokieSpeed is a versatile heterogeneous supercomputing instrument, where each compute node consists of energy-efficient central-processing units and high-end graphics-processing units," said Wu Feng (http://people.cs.vt.edu/~feng/), associate professor with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering's computer science and electrical and computer engineering departments. "This instrument will empower faculty members, students, and staff across disciplines to tackle problems previously viewed as intractable or that required heroic efforts and significant domain-specific expertise to solve." Still in the final stages of acceptance testing, Feng envisions HokieSpeed as Virginia Tech's next war horse in research. As researchers from around the world have used System X to crack riddles of the blood system and further DNA research, Feng said HokieSpeed will be a next-generation research tool for engineers, scientists, and others. HokieSpeed was built for $1.4 million, a small fraction -- one-tenth of a percent of the cost -- of the Top500's current No. 1 supercomputer, the K Computer from Japan. The majority of funding for HokieSpeed came from a $2 million National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grant. With federal and state budget crunches here to stay, Feng said HokieSpeed carries another plus: It can attract more international research projects to Virginia Tech, adding more to the College of Engineering's income. Among the vendors working with Feng on HokieSpeed are Seneca Data Inc. and Super Micro Computer Inc., who were the driving force behind the project, as well as NVIDIA Corp., for their technical support. Feng has worked with NVIDIA before, with the Silicon Valley-based technology firm naming Virginia Tech as a research center and the NVIDIA Foundation's first worldwide research award for computing the cure for cancer being awarded to Feng. In addition to HokieSpeed's compute nodes, a visualization wall – eight 46-inch, 3-D Samsung high-definition flat-screen televisions – will provide a 14-foot wide by 4-foot tall display for end-users to be immersed in their data. Still under construction, the visualization wall will be hooked-up to special visualization nodes built into HokieSpeed and allow researchers to perform in-situ visualization. This way, researchers can see in real-time if their computational experiment is turning out as expected, or if corrections or on-the-fly adjustments must be made, said Feng. Previously, weeks could pass by before all the data from a computational experiment was generated and then rendered as a video for viewing and analysis. "What we want to do with HokieSpeed is to enable scientists to routinely do 'what-if' scenarios that they would not have been able to do or think of doing in the past," Feng said. "It will facilitate the discovery process or accelerate the time to discovery. " For now, high-tech universities, government research labs, and major corporations use supercomputers on a regular basis, major organizations from the MIT to the Pentagon to Hollywood movie companies. As supercomputers such as HokieSpeed grow in brain size and diversity, and yet shrink in space, they will become more readily available to the public at large, said Feng. That is his ultimate goal. "Look at what Apple has done with the smartphone and iPad. They have taken general-purpose computing and commoditized it and made it easy to use for the masses," said Feng. "The next frontier is to take high-performance computing, in particular supercomputers such as HokieSpeed, and personalize it for the masses." Such access to supercomputers could help small businesses that do not have multi-billion budgets for cyberinfrastructure, to better design their products or the process in which their products are produced on the assembly line in the factory. Scientists at smaller universities could use supercomputers for their own research efforts. "The possibilities are endless as we invent the future at Virginia Tech," said Feng. | ||||||||||||||||||
| MIT's got a way of using encrypted data without decrypting it, next stop, traveling without moving Posted: 23 Dec 2011 01:51 PM PST  Excepting Jersey Shore participants, people generally value privacy and it's a bigger issue when so much data is stored online. Ethical data controllers will keep it encrypted, but much like leaving food in a fridge, you have to take it out if you wanna use it, which is when it's most at risk. A team from MIT, thinks it's found a solution: a database that allows you to ask it questions without taking it out of the fridge... wait, what? CryptDB works by turning data into "homomorphic" information: strings of numbers, which you can then calculate against one another to get the answers you require. The frankensoftware is comprised of other encryption services, layered like an onion -- but capable of switching between processes instantly. The project was funded by Google and Citigroup and has been so successful that DARPA might be rolling some tanks up Massachusetts Avenue to offer the team a $20 million bounty. Head on down to our source link to read the paper that's so complex it made our eyes go cross-eyed. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 23 Dec 2011 01:00 PM PST  Showing your friends the latest viral video traditionally requires huddling around a smartphone or tablet, which is odd when you're sat in a room with a 40-inch flat-screen. Web connected TVs or media units like the Apple TV will let you watch YouTube as long as you spend five minutes tediously inputting the search term on your remote. For those of us who can't afford a unified Airplay setup, there's PacketVideo's Twonky Beam Browser, which lets you push mobile content to your TV as fast as your wireless router can handle it. Does it work as well as advertised? Is it the answer to your prayers? Read on to find out, dear reader, read on.  Beam's essentially a browser overlay -- only differing from your regular web portal thanks to six buttons on the bottom frame that control your media: On/Off, Device Selection, Play, Stop, Volume control and a queue for your videos. The home screen lists officially compatible channels you can use the browser with, including YouTube, Vimeo and Funny or Die. Any HTML5 video you surf over will have a "BEAM" logo slapped on it (pictured), which you just need to tap and a few moments later, it'll start playing on your TV. While you surf, you can then queue up subsequent videos without stopping the one you're watching. In theory, setup should be instantaneous as long as everything's connected to the same wireless network. In our case, it took a little coaxing to get the iPad and Apple TV to recognize one another. Once it works, it'll behave the same as any Airplay-enabled device, so Flash videos won't work here. Android devices, sorry to say, come with the same limitations, so no late-night Google-video MST3K marathons for you.  Beam Browser does nothing revolutionary, but the freedom it offers you is welcoming. Fundamentally, it'll span any HTML5 video on the internet, whereas your Apple TV is limited to the iTunes store, YouTube and Vimeo. Most web-connected TVs are tied to premium options like Netflix and Hulu, but Twonky offers you the ability to vault over the walled garden. As Flash video dies out, you'll find this app's utility increasing and what's more, it's free -- so you really don't have any excuse not to keep it around. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nabaztag robotic rabbits rise from the ashes at midnight Posted: 23 Dec 2011 12:14 PM PST  Twas a sad day when Mindscape was forced to shutter the online service used by its collection of Nabaztag robotic rabbits -- as the tale goes, the domain's demise left the tiny, Linux-running hares inanimate, mute and nearly useless. But just five short months later, things are starting to look up. Via email, the company has confirmed that nabaztag.com will come (back) alive on midnight of December 24th (a timezone was not specified), allowing Nabaztag users to communicate with their coney comrades. "At midnight you can turn your rabbits on without changing anything," writes the bunny builder. That's not all. The company is promising to "enrich" the devic's modules with "community contributions." If you're a Nabaztag owner, step away from that eggnog and put on a pot of coffee... Christmas is coming a full 24-hours early. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Engadget Primed: ports, connectors and the future of your TV's backside Posted: 23 Dec 2011 11:30 AM PST Primed goes in-depth on the technobabble you hear on Engadget every day -- we dig deep into each topic's history and how it benefits our lives. You can follow the series here. Looking to suggest a piece of technology for us to break down? Drop us a line at primed *at* engadget *dawt* com.  In this installment of Primed, we'll examine the best and the bogus when it comes to TV connectors, and spend some time tracing the arc of how we got to where we are in this particular moment of television evolution. The narrative on television and home entertainment remains a work in progress. But we'll endeavor to get you caught up to date, and as an added bonus offer a glimpse of what the future of your TV's backside will likely look like. |
Antenna | Return to top |
The flat twin-lead wire housed two thin-gauge wires inside a single plastic ribbon. The wires ran from different parts of the antenna -- a left side and right side in the case of the aforementioned rabbit ears -- and ended with two u-shaped connectors that slid under the heads of the aforementioned screws on the backs of TVs.
The twin-lead 300 ohm wire was flexible and robust enough for the primitive job at hand. An ohm is a unit in the International System of Units or SI (abbreviated from the French Système international d'unités) to measure resistance. Represented by the Greek letter omega, an ohm is equal to one volt creating one ampere in a device, with an ampere or amp defined as a measure of current equal to a specific amount of force between a pair of infinite conductors in a vacuum. Ohm isn't an acronym. It's in honor of renowned early 19th century German physicist, Georg Ohm.
Early post-war TV signals were transmitted in the very high frequency or VHF band, offering TV channels 2 to 13 in the frequency range generally between 30MHz and 225MHz. In the early days of television broadcasting, a thin pair of wires connected to an indoor or outdoor aerial antenna was all you needed to accommodate the bandwidth -- even with the advent of color broadcasts -- of those few channels.Turns out TV was a pretty popular technology, and a dozen channels weren't enough to satisfy demand.
Turns out TV was a pretty popular technology, and a dozen channels weren't enough to satisfy demand. The powers that be at the time couldn't possibly have foreseen the emergence of Snooki, the Kardashians and other "must-see" TV fare -- and if they had, they might have had good reason to impose Draconian measures to keep a cork on the TV technology bottle. But it was a simpler, slightly more innocent era. For good or ill, they expanded the TV menu. In 1952 the Federal Communications Commission allocated 70 more channels above the VHF band, this time in the ultra high frequency or UHF band delivering channels 14 through 83. You needed a better antenna – preferably an outdoor rig – to capture UHF signals. UHF signals collide more with atmospheric and environmental forces, and as a result UHF channels suffer more from visual "snow" -- grainy picture -- and "ghosts," multiple images caused by a signal arriving from two or more directions simultaneously bounced off buildings, hills, trees and what have you.
In any case, twin lead-in antenna wires, with their thin insulation and construction, often had trouble with signal degradation, particularly when exposed to the elements. Sun, salt, moisture and Father Time tended to take their collective toll on this species of TV connection. We needed something better.
Coaxial/RF | Return to top |
"Coax is basic," notes Geek Squad Agent Ismael Matos, "but it's still capable of quite a lot."
Coaxial (also known as radio frequency or RF) cable has two conductors -- a center core wire and a mesh or braid of copper or aluminum -- and a foil sheath separated by a dielectric (plastic) material all housed in a single outer plastic jacket. The wire attaches to televisions and other electronic devices with a single jack -- most often with an F screw connector, sometimes a Bayonet Neill-Concelman or BNC slip-on connector or even RCA plugs (more on those in a bit). Coax can ferry more video and audio bandwidth with less signal loss or leakage than twin-lead wires. How much loss depends on the quality and length of the coax.
Most coax cables geared for today's electronics are designated RG, followed by a number. RG stands for radio guide and was a unit indicator for bulk RF cable used by the military. Numbers were assigned sequentially to RG coax as materials improved to keep in step with increasing bandwidth demand. RG 59, for instance, was the standard for cable television installations beginning in the '70s. RG 59 still often comes standard issue with retail electronics. It's thinner, cheaper and more flexible than better breeds of coax and can bend around sharp corners and slip inside tighter spaces. It has a diameter of 0.242 inches, about as thick as a pencil. But what it makes up for in slithering ability, it loses in signal degradation compared to RG 6 coax, today's typical coax cable of choice. For every 100 feet, RG 59 loses 12 dB of signal when measured at 1,000MHz or 1GHz.
But you should know that not all RG 6 coax cables are created equal. RG 6 is more or less a generic term for coax cables that typically have aluminum (rather than copper) foil sheaths and an 18 American wire gauge or AWG copper center conductor with a 75 ohm characteristic or surge impedance. (By the way, the lower the gauge number, the thicker the wire.) Some RG 6 coax cables have thin, flimsy aluminum conductor mesh and an 18 AWG copper-coated steel center conductor -- not all that awesome. Or, you could have an RG 6 coax with so-called quad shield mesh -- better, but not the best. Or you could have a precision serial digital video coax, something with a dense mesh and twin-foil shield, a solid copper 18 AWG center conductor and what the folks at Blue Jeans Cable note has a "nitrogen-injected PE foam dielectric, and extremely broad bandwidth and tight impedance tolerance." They're fond of the Belden 1694A 4.5GHz precision coax cable, by the way -- it's the preferred coax for broadcast studios and high-performance home theater applications, according to Belden, and "provides large head-room for future high-bandwidth cable TV, satellite and HDTV." You can buy it bulk in lengths of 500 and 1,000 feet, or pre-cut lengths of 6, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150 feet.
And, no, we're not forgetting RG 11, another 75 ohm coax cable. It's just that at a whopping 0.405 inches in diameter, RG 11 is practically an unbendable rod, thus impractical for home theater use. It's good for when you have to connect, say, a satellite antenna that's more than 100 feet away on a run without a lot of bends. For the record, RG 11 loses 5.6 dB for every 100 feet when measured at 1 GHz -- not that great of an improvement over RG 6, really.Don't use coax to connect your TV to disc players, game consoles and other peripherals. Coax offers the lowest resolution among today's connectors.
Composite | Return to top |
What's yellow, red and white and delivers ho-hum video quality and so-so audio? Why, analog video composite connectors and their analog audio lines, of course. You'll likely find as many of these yellow, red and white RCA jacks -- if not more -- than any other type of slot on some TVs, and they're one of the main culprits of cable cluster. RCA jacks are named after the Radio Corporation of America company, which introduced the technology in the 1940s to connect phonographs (record players) to amplifiers. That's why they're also known as phono plugs -- not to be confused with phone plugs that use TRS (tip, ring, sleeve) connectors. We'll leave aside for the purposes of this discussion TRS connectors, typically used for audio.
More often than not, yellow composite video lines are coupled with red and white lines for right and left audio jacks, respectively. The ubiquitous cables are noted for their single male pins and colored collars and the color-matching jacks. Because we mentioned audio, we should note that while high-definition TVs excel with visual, they often want for better sound. Home theater buffs may find it worth their while to invest in a digital audio system. But as in the case with TRS, we'll leave the digital audio topic for another day.
The max video resolution of composite video is 480i, which is 720 x 480 pixels at 59.94Hz. The "i" in 480i stands for interlaced, where TVs draw every other horizontal picture line and then loop back and draw the remaining lines -- 1, 3, 5, 7 ... then lines 2, 4, 6, 8, and so on. Most cable and satellite TV providers transmit high-definition digital signals at 720p, with the "p" defined as progressive scan, with each horizontal line drawn sequentially at about 60 Hz. Progressive scan is generally crisper than its interlaced counterpart. As of June 12, 2009, over-the-air analog TV transmissions ceased in the United States and broadcasters switched to digital. Composite connectors aren't really up to the task of today's bandwidth loads. Unlike better types of connectors, composite video doesn't separate colors and brightness into distinct channels.
Colors and brightness or luminance are shoved through one hose, so they tend to run together and lack that hi-def visual snap, crackle and pop of high-end digital transmissions. Composite video also is notorious for dot crawl, the checkerboard pattern that afflicts images when color and brightness are muddled due to imprecise multiplexing or blending of signals through a single medium.
You'd like to think TV manufacturers would have phased out composite video by now. But PlayStation 3, Wii, some disc players and other electronics still support this connector.
You'd like to think TV manufacturers would have phased out composite video by now. But PlayStation 3, Wii, some disc players and other electronics still support this connector. Even devices that accommodate HDMI (we'll get to this soon) often come packaged with composite cables, sometimes making them tempting to use for the cost-conscious. So we expect this techno-holdover to linger. Sigh.
Of note, don't use coax to connect your TV to disc players, game consoles and other peripherals. Coax offers the lowest resolution among today's connectors. Coax connections should only be used to connect your audio / visual system from an outside source such as antenna, cable or satellite.
S-Video | Return to top |
S-Video cables are multiwire analog connectors. They encode and synchronize video information in Y or luminance and C or color transmissions. They typically come with four pins for the Y and the C signals, each with their own ground. Packing S-Video color information in one signal requires encoding that data, and not all S-Video compatible devices encode S-Video video in the same way. Another S-Video bummer: it offers 120 horizontal lines of resolution; a commercial DVD has up to 540 horizontal lines of resolution. You do the math.
VGA | Return to top |
Video Graphics Array or VGA connectors are great for turning your high-def, flat-screen TV into a giant, over-priced computer monitor. VGA cables, easily identified by their three-row, 15-pin connector, carry analog component red, green, blue and horizontal and vertical video signals. These cables typically connect a computer's video card to a monitor. For those using VGA on TVs, you'll have to get your audio elsewhere -- again adding to cable clutter.
We saw these connectors on brand new sets on sale this holiday season, including the Sony Bravia 54.6-inch LED EX720 Internet and 3D capable television. You'll also see this type of connection labeled "RGB" on some TVs. You can get high-definition analog video up to 2,048 × 1,536 pixels @ 85Hz (388 MHz) transmitted at 1080p through VGA cables on your TV screen. For this reason, VGA hookups can be a better alternative than high-definition component video connectors (addressed below) because of anti-piracy technology Hollywood studios are able to embed in Blu-ray Discs. By using High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) technology, studios can insert Image Constraint Token flags into Blu-ray Discs, though these require a logo on the packaging and to date have yet to be used in the mass market. Hollywood studios maintain that analog video is easier to pirate than digital video. When a Blu-ray Disc player detects an analog component video connection that doesn't support high-bandwidth protection technology, it can downgrade a video's 1080p all the way down to 540p -- still higher than 480p, which is DVD-quality video. The thinking goes that the lower the video quality, the less incentive to pirate. The truly motivated and ambitious usually always find ways to crack digital rights management and anti-piracy codes, and, indeed, the high-bandwidth protection technology already has. VGA cables present a hardware work-around to Hollywood.
Yet other than TVs, desktop and laptop computers, you may have to search high and low to find other types of electronic devices with VGA jacks. You can fight "the man" with VGA / component video converter cables -- attach the VGA (or RGB) end into your TV and plug the component video ends into your Blu-ray Disc player (or whatever else).
Component | Return to top |
This is common knowledge in A/V circles, but of the three main consumer analog video connection formats, component video is better than composite and S-Video. Component video separates and synchronizes the colors and brightness levels, resulting in far less signal loss and delivering better image quality than composite and S-Video. High-end component video cables are designed for extreme bandwidth, in some cases 100 times the bandwidth required for 1080i high-definition component video. While component video is capable of a max resolution of 1080p, many devices as indicated above will top out at 1080i when using component video connectors. Again, interlaced, with its alternating, non-sequential horizontal line display may appear a little choppy compared to images displayed at 1080p. If you can tell the difference, we'll take you at your word.
Component video connectors are green, blue and red; the cables often are bundled with red and white audio lines; and they use RCA male ends and female slots. We know there are other types of component video, but the green / blue / red type with the RCA connectors are what most of us think of when we hear "component video." In the patois of TV, component video cables sometimes are called yippers after the YPBPR color space in video electronics. It's the analog version of YCBCR. for digital video. Some TVs list both designations under each colored jack. YPBPR is converted from the red, green and blue or RGB color model -- the primary colors in video display -- used to create the vast catalog of other visible colors. The Y is the green connector, which carries brightness or luminance (luma, for short) and color synchronization data. The math looks like this: Y = 0.2126 R (red) + 0.7152 G (green) + 0.0722 B (blue). PB/CB is the blue connector that ferries the difference between blue and luma or B – Y. And PRCR hauls the difference between red and luma or R – Y. There's no need to send green because the blue, red and the brightness can create that hue.
You're still talking three analog cables and connection ports, when you could be using just one digital cable for video and audio.
HDMI | Return to top |
At the outset of the 21st century, the industry consortium known as the Digital Display Working Group rolled out digital video interface, or DVI, as the heir apparent to VGA and the preferred means to transmit high-definition analog and uncompressed digital video among devices. It didn't take long (May 3, 2006) before another industry body, the Video Electronics Standards Association, unleashed DisplayPort, designed to replace DVI and capable of transiting both audio and digital video. We'll skip the tech specs on both DVI and DisplayPort because in the HDTV market, they're mostly irrelevant. Another connection technology, high-definition multimedia interface (or HDMI) launched in 2002 and has become the de-facto standard connection for high-definition digital video and audio. Single HDMI cables and ports are now used with set-top boxes, Blu-ray and DVD players, laptops, desktops, tablet computers, computer monitors, game consoles, camcorders, cellphones and, of course, digital televisions. With an adapter, the 19-pin HDMI connection is backward compatible with DVI with no signal conversion and, thus, no loss in video quality.
HDMI cables and ports are now used with set-top boxes, Blu-ray and DVD players, laptops, desktops, tablet computers, computer monitors, game consoles, camcorders, cell phones and, of course, digital televisions. With an adapter, the 19-pin HDMI connection is backward compatible with DVI with no signal conversion and, thus, no loss in video quality.
There are five HDMI connector types. Type A/B are defined in the HDMI 1.0 specification; Type C is the HDMI 1.3 specification; Type D/E are HDMI 1.4 specification. All the HDMI connectors (including mini HDMI connectors for portable devices) used in today's HDTVs have 19 pins; Type B has 29 pins and can carry double the video bandwidth of type A HDMI connectors. Type B connectors may find use in super-high resolution displays such as those with 3,840 x 2,400 pixels, but it hasn't been plumbed into commercial electronics... yet.
All told, there have been some half-dozen iterations of HDMI, with the latest being HDMI 1.4b released in October 2011. This one packs a lot of punch. Let's run through some of the specs. HDMI 1.4b allows a maximum resolution to 4K × 2K, such as 3,840 × 2,160p (Quad HD) at 24Hz / 25Hz / 30Hz or the digital theater resolution of 4,096 × 2,160p at 24Hz. So that 4K x 2K broadcast from the London Olympics you may have heard about? HDMI 1.4b will be up to the task. It has a maximum clock rate of 340MHz with a maximum transition-minimized differential signaling throughput per channel of 3.4 gigabits per second with 8b / 10b overhead, with a total maximum throughput of 10.2Gbps. Max audio throughput is 36.86 megabits per second, complemented with a maximum color depth of 48 bits per pixel. It also supports audio return channel and a variety of 3D display formats -- 720p50 and 1080p24 or 720p60 and 1080p24 -- as well as Ethernet Channel capable of a 100 Mbit/s Ethernet connection between devices hooked to the Internet.
All iterations of HDMI 1.4 accommodate sRGB, YCbCr, eight channel linear pulse-code modulation 192 kHz, 24-bit audio, Blu-ray disc and high-definition DVD video and audio at full resolution and Consumer Electronic Control. Latter versions of HDMI support Super Audio CD, Deep Color, xvYCC, auto lip-sync, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
And all of this in a single cable.
"HDMI is the key connector," says Ismael Matos, the Geek Squad Agent. "It simplifies everything. You can have three components, Blu-ray, a game console and a set-top box, and it's only going to take three cables. If you go the component (video) route, you can go from three cables to 15 very quickly. And because component video connections are analog, you can still get a digital signal with crosstalk interference."
HDMI Founders developed and successfully evangelized this format. Its members are Hitachi, Matsushita, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson and Toshiba. The HDMI Licensing LLC group oversees the HDMI standard -- any HDMI cable from any manufacturer can work on any HDMI-supported device without signal-loss issues. HDMI, and it's HDCP protection, has the full blessing of Hollywood -- Disney, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. support it -- as well as system operators CableLabs, DirecTV and Dish.In short, HDMI hits all the right notes: industry support, ease of manufacture and installation, and consumer acceptance.
In short, HDMI hits all the right notes: industry support, ease of manufacture and installation, and consumer acceptance. The only downside to HDMI may be the fragility of the 19 male-end pins – bend one of those and you'll have to buy a new cable -- and the sometimes hassle of aligning the male and female ends, particularly with wall-mounted TVs with jacks on the back. Furthermore, HDMI has been lambasted for "falling out" and has been prone to retailers overcharging for cables, but the latter can certainly be avoided by shopping at places like Monoprice.
Look ahead | Return to top |
Despite our love affair with HDMI, we still long for something even better, something more in keeping with our always connected, location-obsessed culture. We'd love for all our electronic devices to be networked via wireless. No cables at all. Many new TVs support the IEEE 802.11a/b/g and n communication protocols, with IEEE 802.11n often the preferred format -- video over IEEE 802.11b/g connections may not play as smoothly. What about security? There's WEP, WPAPSK and WPA2PSK authentication modes, with WEP, TKIP and AE encryption types. We do this for public WiFi, certainly we can do it for home theaters. And bandwidth? Ah, bandwidth. Modern hardwire connectors can transmit up to 10.2Gbps. Cable modem speeds vary widely, but conventional home connections are currently capable of hitting speeds of around 105Mbps. The WiFi connection speed from a cable modem in one of our homes exceeded 10Mbps. Like the goldfish that grows to the size of its bowl, bandwidth has a way of growing to the size of its medium. The wireless bandwidth gap can be closed. And it will, eventually.
Wrap-up | Return to to |
Despite the proliferation of jacks and ports behind and on the sides of new TVs, it doesn't take a genius to figure which cables go with which connectors. Some TVs even color outline and label "Best," "Better" and "Good" jacks and ports, with HDMI always earning the "Best" designation. From a single input -- the UF antenna -- to a population explosion of TV connector formats, we may be headed back to simpler times. HDMI handles digital, hi-def duties for video and audio.
The double duty HDMI performs in a single, precision-performing, thin and pliable cable reduces the number of jacks and ports needed on TVs. Why did they have to make HDMI ports so awkward? Hard to say. The male and female ends never seem to want to align initially and it usually takes some fiddling to get everything snug. But once HDMI's snapped into place, you have entrée to the best digital video and audio current HDTVs have to offer.
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