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• AT&T completes acquisition of Qualcomm's FLO TV spectrum
• Engadget Primed: What is aperture, and how does it affect my photos?
• Quad-core Meizu MX may arrive in May with revamped UI, says company founder
• China launches high-speed test train capable of 310 mph, shaped like an ancient sword
• Toshiba Thrive 7" review
• China begins trial operations of home grown Beidou GPS system
• Visualized: IBM's 1956 HDD packs 5MB of storage, requires forklift for installation
• Air Dictate app brings Siri's voice control to Macs, makes you feel just a little more important
• Italian anti-trust body fines Apple for misleading customers on product guarantees
• Hacker builds allegedly pointless data network out of Lego train set
• ASUS Eee PC 1225B proves netbooks will still be kicking around in 2012
• Nokia's diagnostics app secretly contains CDMA, AT&T LTE test screens
• Untethered jailbreak now available for pre-A5 iPhones, iPads and Touches
• PS Vita gets second firmware update, nixes software bugs
• Drone Station lets you pilot an AR.Drone with your Mac
• Fisker Karma battery poses 'potential safety issue' for about 50 autos, fix already in tow
• NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Samsung and more team up to take on Qualcomm over cellphone chips
• JXD releases S7100 Android-based gaming tablet, manages to steal from everyone
• Harrods reportedly nabs Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry as UK exclusive, costs a princely £1,275
• Spire installer brings Siri to any jailbroken iOS 5 device, legally -- proxy still required
• LG unveils new 3D glasses, hopes lighter and better looking spectacles drive adoption
• T-Platforms to build ten petaflop supercomputer for Moscow State University
• Must See HDTV (December 26th - January 1st)
• Bit-tech's Mod of the Year contest underway: finally, something you're comfortable voting on
• Join the Engadget HD Podcast live on Ustream at 5:30PM
• MESM Soviet computer project marks 60 years
• WindowBreak Project seeks universal developer unlock tool for Windows Phone (video)

AT&T completes acquisition of Qualcomm's FLO TV spectrum Posted: 27 Dec 2011 10:49 AM PST It's only been five days since it's gotten the official go ahead, but AT&T's wasted no time in completing its acquisition of a swath of 700MHz spectrum from Qualcomm. Those airwaves, which formerly powered FLO TV, were purchased for a cool $1.9 billion and will now be repurposed to bolster Ma Bell's LTE network. It might not have been everything the carrier had hoped for, but additional spectrum is better than none, right? Possibly the shortest press release you'll ever see awaits after the break. Show full PR text AT&T Completes Purchase of Wireless Spectrum from Qualcomm DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AT&T* announced today that it has completed its acquisition of spectrum from Qualcomm. AT&T purchased 700 MHz spectrum licenses covering more than 300 million people for approximately $1.9 billion. *AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. About AT&T AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T | DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Engadget Primed: What is aperture, and how does it affect my photos? Posted: 27 Dec 2011 10:00 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. Last week I wrote a piece for Engadget Primed on image sensors, a critical device of any digital camera you own, one that affects final image quality. In a completely different way, another component that controls and changes the look of your photographs is the aperture. To create amazing photos with impact takes much more than the will to capture them; and simply being Ashton Kutcher at a party overrun with models doesn't always work, either. It's a multifaceted process; to have the desire to work for a shot, to make the effort to put yourself into position, and to know how to utilize the equipment you have in the best way possible. None of these skills are easy to master, yet similar to a painter who knows how to use their brush, learning the photographic tool that is your camera increases the opportunities to plaster your Google+ page with shots you're proud of. In this Primed installment, we'll define the mechanism, explain the concepts, and share ways toward conveying better messages in two-dimensional still images. Ready to dive in? It's all after the break. Table of Contents Aperture defined Bringing it all into focus The Art of exposure Other fun facts about aperture Gaining focus from the future Wrap-up Aperture defined Return to top In photographic terms, aperture is defined as an adjustable iris (circle, hole, opening, or entrance pupil) inside your lens that changes depending to your setting (called the f-stop or f-number); not too far from the way the human eye operates. The first temporary images were created over a thousand years ago when Ibn al-Haytham, a Muslim Persian scientist born in southern Iraq in 965, invented the camera obscura (also known as the pinhole camera). Inverted images were cast onto a dark wall through a small opening, and even though the recordings could not be archived until certain chemical processes and technologies were later invented, it was the first known method of photography, and the first use of an aperture to project images. Aperture controls two aspects – one for focus, the other for exposure: The depth of field in the scene, measured in inches, feet, or meters. This is the range of distance over which the image is not unacceptably less sharp than the sharpest part of the image. The amount of light entering the camera through the lens. The f-stop is the measurement used for the size of the lens opening; the larger the aperture or opening, the more light; the smaller the aperture, the less light. Table 1-1 A diagram of various apertures and their f-stop settings, in two-stop increments, from f/2 to f/22. Some photographers refer to a largest aperture available on your lens as wide open or maximum and the smallest as closed down or minimum. Many loosely interchange the words aperture and f-stop since it's the same function for the camera, even though one is the lens opening and the other is the measurement of said opening. Throughout this article, we will refer to apertures as larger or smaller. Please note, when we talk about a large or small aperture, we're not referring to a literal size comparison between different lenses. If this were the case, you'd say, "That NASA telescope has a much bigger aperture than my smartphone camera", simply because it's physically larger, which isn't an accurate definition of aperture in photography. We are referring to the ratio of a focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture – a mathematical equation that determines the f-stop number. Some like this technical information, helping them understand the reasoning behind the odd f-stop numbering system, to others the list of numbers seems arbitrary, but personally we feel it's best to know what these numbers actually represent, and how they alter the scene in front of you. Table 1-2 lists f-stops ranging from f/1 (the largest opening, very rare to ever find in a consumer lens) to f/180 (the smallest opening most cameras or lenses do not possess, by possibly found on something like a pinhole camera). Not easily memorized, f-stops offered in most consumer lenses generally ranges from f/1.4 to f/32 – as with anything, this varies depending on the lens model you own. Table 1-2 F-stops in 1/3 stop increments (also known as 1/3 step EV values), the largest aperture at top left, left to right in rows, to smallest aperture at bottom right (1 stop increments in bold) – see "The Art of Exposure" later in this article to explain "stops of light." f/1 f/1.1 f/1.3 f/1.4 f/1.6 f/1.8 f/2 f/2.2 f/2.5 f/2.8 f/3.2 f/3.5 f/4 f/4.5 f/5 f/5.6 f/6.3 f/7.1 f/8 f/9 f/10 f/11 f/13 f/14 f/16 f/18 f/20 f/22 f/25 f/28 f/32 f/36 f/39 f/45 f/50 f/55 f/64 f/90 f/125 f/180 It is also good to be aware that despite the aperture being located inside the lens, most DSLRs control the change in f-stop from a knob near your LCD screen, on the front or back of your camera depending on the model. F-stop Comparisons "Faster" lenses are those with larger apertures (smaller f-stop numbers); considered faster because a larger opening gives you more light, which in turn transfers to a faster shutter speed - great for freezing moving subjects, sports, action, and low light situations. They usually cost more due to the lens design and quality of glass – sometimes a lot more. Prime lenses (lenses with fixed focal lengths) tend to be faster than zooms, and can offer crisper renditions due to a faster exposure and glass quality, but more lenses are needed to cover the range of one zoom lens. Jump into a zoom lens and you may find it comes with a variable f-stop. What this means is your largest aperture changes depending on the focal length set. For example, if it's a 70-200mm f/3.5-4.5, this means at 70mm, the largest opening is f/3.5, but zoom in to 200mm, and your largest aperture is f/4.5 – this not only affects depth of field, but exposure as well, through light loss resulting from a change to a smaller aperture. Higher-priced zooms have fixed apertures regardless of focal length; the largest aperture remaining constant as you zoom in and out, the benefit being no exposure change or difference as you zoom. Bringing it all into focus Return to top Depth of field is the first of two characteristics aperture controls, affected by the size of your aperture, the lens you choose, the distance from your subject, and the size of your image sensor. The larger your aperture (the lower the f-stop number), the less depth of field you have. The smaller your aperture (the higher the f-stop number), the more depth of field retained. The parameters also change among different focal lengths, wide-angle lenses having the ability to obtain greater depth of field, on the contrary, telephoto lenses having limited amount of depth of field, when both are set at the same f-stop. One example of this is f/22 on a 24mm lens - you may get everything from two feet to infinity in focus, where as f/22 on a 200mm lens will only produce a depth of field from 25 feet to infinity. In contrast, telephoto lenses tend to compact a scene by drawing the eye to a single spot, and since the distance between focal points are much farther than on shorter or wide-angle lenses, the opposite occurs with depth of field, as proven in figure 1-1. Deal with distance and the closer you are to your subject, the less depth of field you have to work with. A similar effect occurs with macro lenses; the closer you are to your subject, the extremely limited your depth of field becomes, from feet to inches to millimeters. And finally, dealing with image sensors, the smaller the size the more depth of field you get, the larger the size the less depth of field you have yet the more control as well (there are a variety of comparisons between sensor size, camera, and lens used, but in general depth of field is inversely proportional to format size). This is evident when you test a compact camera next to a full frame DSLR; the compacts have such a large depth of field it's a big reason why it's nearly impossible to get a blurred background when using them, even if you zoom to a longer lens. Table 1-3 Here's an example of a large aperture (on the left) bringing little into focus, and a smaller aperture (on the right) obtaining more depth of field. It's a numbers game When in comes to numbers and photography, figures have a tendency to read backwards or contradict one another – one of the big reasons exposure can be so confusing. Such is the case for f-stops. Slightly different than maximum aperture (which is the largest opening), maximum depth of field is obtained through a smaller opening or a higher number f-stop. Minimum depth of field is created doing the opposite, using a larger opening or smaller f-stop number. More on this later. Choosing wisely Picking the right aperture can help direct the viewer, give the image a certain feel or mood, and can creatively edit elements in your composition. Minimum depth of field can help eliminate backgrounds or foregrounds through the blurring of an area, creating a less distracting image through the bokeh (the visual or aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photograph as rendered by a particular lens). This is nice to utilize when you want to lessen the impact of specific subject matter within a scene. Minimum depth of field can also direct the viewer's eye to a specific place within the frame because our eyes are often first drawn to the parts of an image in focus. Depth and dimension through the perception of distance also occurs as objects drop out of focus. Maximum depth of field can bring more into focus, creating sharp, detailed scenes, which works well for subjects like landscapes. In addition, a smaller aperture creates less dimension, producing a flatter-appearing scene by blending subject matter in the foreground and background. One example of using minimal depth of field with a low number f-stop is this scene of a Belding ground squirrel. By using a large aperture with a long lens, I was able to soften the foreground and background, blades of grass just millimeters from its head, drawing focus to the animal and creating a slight three-dimensional affect in a two-dimensional medium. A second example of maximum depth of field is of a shot captured along the California coast. Set to f/22, this wide-angle lens held edge-to-edge sharpness, from the closest rocks and incoming waves to the distance outcropping. The scene feels flatter since the foreground and background comes into focus, therefore dimension is obtained through the placement of these elements, the angle chosen, and the direction of light. My boots and legs got soaked too, but the final rendition was worth the bath. NOTE: When it comes to depth of field and looking through your viewfinder, regardless of the lens or f-stop used, you always see through your camera at largest aperture setting of the lens. Try adjusting your f-stop from f/4 to f/16 and the view will look the same before the shutter is fired. This is set up by manufacturers to allow you to see through your camera with the most available light. In order to review your f-stop setting, you must use a depth of field preview button on your camera (if your camera has one). When you pull the preview button back, the scene through your viewfinder may get dark, depending on your f-stop, due to the decrease in the amount of light entering the camera. However this depth of field button helps you see what your final image will look like as far as elements in focus. Hyperfocal Distance The purpose of hyperfocal distance is to maximize your depth of field, guaranteeing sharpness throughout a scene, using your f-stop and focusing ring set to a certain distance. In theory, it can be used with any lens and at any f-stop, but is mostly applied to wide-angle lenses since they offer the most depth of field coverage. Landscape photographers often use hyperfocal distance since it's one way to guarantee focus throughout a scene. On almost all SLR lenses the focusing ring shows you the distance at which your lens is focused. If you are shooting a scene, focused at infinity (basically referring to the farthest thing away such as a distant mountain, the horizon, the Moon) attempt to use the smallest aperture to have everything in focus (say f/22), yet you will not be making the most of your lens' depth of field capability. The furthest spot will be in focus, but the closest distance that's sharp might only be five feet. Set your focal point to two feet, possibly on a foreground flower, and at f/22 everything from just below two feet to 20 feet will be in focus (losing sharpness on your distant mountain). To attain hyperfocal distance, instead of focusing at the furthest distance of infinity or the closest distance (the minimal focal point of the lens) set your lens to a certain distance where the depth of field extends from half of that distance to infinity. This means your focus may not be on your main subject at first, but once hyperfocal distance is applied, that subject will come into focus in the final image. Table 1-4 Hyperfocal distance / Lens comparison for 35mm camera systems. Scale is in feet, a place to focus giving you 1/2 that distance, to infinity, in focus. Lens (length) f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 f/32 14mm 3.2' 2.4' 1.6' 1.2' 0.8' 16mm 4.3' 3.0' 2.1' 1.5' 1.0' 18mm 5.5' 4.0' 2.8' 2.0' 1.4' 20mm 7.0' 5.0' 3.5' 2.5' 1.7' 24mm 10' 7.0' 5.0' 3.5' 2.5' 28mm 13' 10' 0.7' 0.5' 4.0' 35mm 20' 15' 10' 8.0' 5.0' How do you determine the hyperfocal distance of a particular lens? Table 1-4 illustrates the optimal distances to obtain for a range of lenses at specific f/stop settings. It also proves that shorter lenses offer more depth of field than longer ones. In the past, lenses showed the range of depth-of-field on the outside of the focusing ring, making it easier to determine hyperfocal distance, but that went away for some reason. What's up with that, camera manufacturers? Today, either you have to guesstimate from experience, carry a chart, or download an easy-to-use $1.99 app like OptimumCS to get a hyperfocal distance/ depth of field chart at your fingertips. There are a number of apps in this category, and as with most, there are often free versions and pro versions charging a nominal fee. Table 1-5 OptimumCS iPhone app Documenting the California coast near La Jolla at sunrise, I set my hyperfocal distance on my 20mm lens to 2.5 feet in order to maximize my depth of field and insure sharpness from the closest to the furthest object. The Art of exposure Return to top Now having an understanding of what aperture is, it is important to note that it's just one of three main components of exposure; shutter speed and ISO being the other two. As with any aspect of exposure, adjusting your f-stop come with trade-offs, so the one you chose not only plays a huge part in metering, but your decision also affects the message you may be attempting to convey via your exposure settings. By controlling the amount of light entering the camera, your aperture affects your shutter speed, and visa versa. This can control part of your decision-making depending on the amount of available light, in combination with the subject you are capturing. Questions arise, like "am I dealing with a moving subject?" or "do I need to use a tripod?" and so on. Chose a larger aperture (f/2.8, f/4, etc) for minimal depth of field and more light filters into the lens causing your shutter speed to increase. This can be to your benefit, but on occasion you may not prefer a fast shutter speed, hence the trade-off and decision you must make when exposing the scene. If you need a fast shutter speed, deciding on more depth of field may not be an option. Obtaining more depth of field requires a smaller aperture (higher f-stop number, f/16, f/22, etc.), but also limits the amount of light traveling through the lens. Consequently, an f/stop like f/16 causes you to use a slower shutter speed; something to consider when shooting subjects that may move during your exposure, or, when you're camera isn't mounted on a tripod. And then there's ISO. Some feel they can simply bump their ISOs up sky high to obtain depth of field and a fast shutter speed, but the trade-off here is tons of digital noise. So the key with every scene is to choose the most optimal settings for the conditions, and the aperture you desire may not be the best to dial in. Figure 1-6 A comparison of a large ("wide open") aperture (on the left) allowing more light in but less depth of field, and a small ("closed down") aperture (on the right) forcing less light but producing more depth of field. Back to the numbers For photographers thinking in mathematical as well as metering terms, as numbers increase (f/8, f/11, f/16), the aperture diameter gets smaller, thus allowing in less light. Yet the first inclination of a photographer learning exposures is to increase the number for more light given that in the term "increase is usually synonymous with the word "more." However, this makes your aperture smaller causing a darker exposure. The other problem with apertures is they are described as larger and smaller (going from more light to less light), yet when you talk about f-stop numbers it's smaller to larger (again going from more light to less light). The same happens with shutter speed – a higher fraction number seemingly meaning more light but it's actually less. Whether an error is made with the shutter speed or aperture, both are common mistakes made by beginning or experienced photographers. A better way to think about settings when adjusting f-stops and shutter speeds is to imagine what actually occurs when you alter one or the other. For f-stops, you can either remove your lens from the camera and dial the f-stop higher watching the aperture get smaller (as in figure 1-4), or, you can simply remember as the f-stop number increases, less light enters your camera. Stop signs Since aperture plays a part in exposure, it's important to understand "stops of light," a measurement of the amount of light entering the camera. If we assume you have the correct exposure setting for a given scene, and you wish to change the aperture, you must also make a change to the shutter speed or ISO to compensate for the increase or loss of light. This is measured in stops. Similar to shutter speeds and ISOs, f-stops run in 1-stop, 1/2-stop, or 1/3-stop increments, often depending on what EV steps are set in your camera's menu. EV steps set your aperture increments and coordinate with your shutter speed and ISO increments, so if you set it for one, it is usually set for all three. Not all camera systems offer all three increments – some may offer 1/2-stop and 1/3-stop increments only, others only 1-stop increments depending on the component. One stop of light is usually defined as halving or doubling the amount of light entering the camera, depending on the shutter speed, aperture, or ISO changes made. With shutter speeds and ISO, the change is easy to remember since the number usually halves or doubles every one stop (from 1/1000 to 1/500 second or from ISO 200 to 400 is doubling the amount of light, for example). Apertures are more confusing since f-stop numbers half or double every 2 stops; f/4 to f/8 is 2 stops less light, f/32 to f/16 is 2 stops more. However, the amount of light halves or doubles every 1 stop-f/4 to f/5.6 is 1 stop less light, f/32 to f/22 is 1 stop more -so memorizing the 1-stop increments with f-stops can help in this process. A common mistake made by many is to assume one click of their aperture or shutter dial is one stop, but again, if your EV steps are set to 1/3-stop increments, then it's going to be three clicks for one stop. Stops of light at first seems confusing and not as important to those who don't understand exposure, but if you ever plan to tackle this most important topic of photography, stops become your friend. Aperture Priority (Av) An automatic exposure mode, aperture priority allows you to set your f-stop while the camera calculates the appropriate shutter speed to expose the image correctly. Usually abbreviated with Av or A, it's a nice option when depth of field is central to the photograph, great for a hurried situation or fast moving event that does not allow time to manually meter. This helps you determine your aperture alone, giving you the freedom to concentrate on the scene at hand. But with freedom comes a price, and whenever you wholeheartedly trust your camera to meter a scene using an automatic exposure mode, you have little say as far as the final exposure. Nevertheless, it's a great mode to practice in when learning more about how your f-stops and depth of field. Head out one day or even one week and only use Aperture priority - when you eliminate more variables and are able to concentrate on one aspect of your camera at a time, you can learn about that feature much easier. Other fun facts about aperture Return to top Changing your plane of focus Another aspect of aperture involving depth of field is plane of focus. Determined by the angle of the film plane or image sensor as compare to the lens, most cameras' plane of focus moves out in an imaginary invisible wall, parallel to the back of the camera – but this can be altered in a number of ways, from the bellows movement of a large format camera, to funky effects of a Lensbaby. By simply tilting the front lens element on a Lensbaby, or the back of a large format camera, your plane of focus is shifted depending on the angle you have moved it to. How to cheat with depth of field An additional difference between lenses is the perception of depth of field. When using a wide-angle lens, you can get away with setting your low number f-stop (large aperture) yet still have the appearance of decent depth of field. This is due to the shorter distance the focusing ring has to travel from its closest to its farthest focal point. As shown in figure 1-7, most of my subject matter was more than 10 feet away, allowing me to use a larger aperture, thus letting in more light to chose a faster shutter speed, yet the entire scene has the appearance of being in focus. However, because of this, if you decide to blur the background, giving the appearance of less depth of field, your subject has to be extremely close to your wide-angle lens. The difference between technical and practical When it comes to the optimal quality of a lens, the general rule of thumb is that any lens is usually sharpest at f/8. In past workshops, students have asked if using f/8 is then a better way to retain sharp images, but my answer is always the same. I make the analogy of driving a stick shift – a certain gear may be best as far as gas mileage or torque, but you can't drive a car in one gear- nor can you only use one aperture. Throughout my career, in reviewing hundreds of thousands of images, I have yet to see an image suffer due to the fact it was captured using anything other than f/8. We have many choices when it comes to f-stops, and they are there to be used. Gaining focus from the future Return to top Apertures have remained fairly the same since the first cameras were built in the early 1800s. However, earlier this year a company called Lytro announced a new way to photograph; a light field camera allowing you to determine focus in post-capture editing. After processing the image in your computer, Built from technology perfected at Stanford University back in the mid-90s, the camera captures the color, intensity, and direction of all the light, giving you the capability to focus and re-focus after the moment, anywhere in the composition; whether in the foreground, middle area, or background. I imagine this trend will continue with cameras or software, maybe even offering the chance to alter depth of field after the initial capture. Most likely post-capture editing time will increase with these new options, but the technology will open more creative doors on how you document any given scene. Wrap-up Return to top Lytro camera hands-on (video) Engadget Primed: Why your camera's sensor size matters LiveLens MFT adapter brings aperture control to Canon EF lenses So there you have it. Who knew holes would be so fun to discuss. Time to grab your camera and go to town, putting your newfound knowledge to the test, understanding how the choice of the aperture used could make or break your shot. And when you find yourself struggling to become the next Henri Cartier-Bresson or Richard Avedon, just remember, if it were easy it wouldn't be as fun. Stay tuned for more in this series -- we're just getting started! [Image credit: OptimumCS: The Optimum Camera Settings Calculator] Sean is a commercial photographer, author of The Complete Guide to Nature Photography, photo expert, and all around nice dude.

Quad-core Meizu MX may arrive in May with revamped UI, says company founder Posted: 27 Dec 2011 09:28 AM PST We already knew that the dual-core Meizu MX will eventually meet its quad-core variant, but the question is when? Well, the ever elusive Jack Wong (who's actually taken a step back from the CEO position while acting as some sort of chairman) told fans on his forum that the new Android phone will probably arrive around May next year -- almost half way through the current one-year product cycle. Additionally, the Flyme OS's UI will see some big changes to accommodate Android 4.0. Can't say we're surprised, but we sure would be if the chip turns out to be something other than the leaked Samsung Exynos 4412 SoC from last month.

China launches high-speed test train capable of 310 mph, shaped like an ancient sword Posted: 27 Dec 2011 08:59 AM PST According to an old "Simpsons" quote, there's nary a thing that can outrun a greased Scotsman. That's no longer the case, as Chinese train manufacturer CSR Corp Ltd. unveiled a 500 km/h (310 mph) high-speed test train over the weekend. The train, which consists of six cars, is shaped to look like an ancient sword, reinforced with carbon fiber, and has a maximum tractive power of 22,800 kilowatts. Similar (if not identical in terms of proposed speeds) projects currently under construction include the 310 mph maglev train planned by Southwest Jiaotong University, the Tokyo to Osaka bullet train planned for 2045 and the proposed 269 mph maglev train from Anaheim to Las Vegas. The test unit is part of China's trillion dollar effort effort to build 13,000 km (8,078 miles) of high-speed rail network by 2012, and about 20,000 km (12,427 miles) by 2020. This new launch comes after a series of high-speed train-related troubles throughout 2011 in which the former Railways Ministry chief, Liu Zhijun, was accused of pocketing $122 million and subsequently terminated from his position; this was followed by a July collision between two high-speed trains in Wenzhou, which killed at least 40 people and injured another 210. Still, the new test train tops out at 310 miles per hour and is shaped like an ancient sword, so past snafus can probably be forgiven.

Toshiba Thrive 7" review Posted: 27 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST As 2011 draws to a close, it's fun to look back and think about how we began the year testing the first Honeycomb tablet, and are now ending it elbow-deep in me-too slates, many of them cut down to smaller sizes. So it should surprise no one, then, that Toshiba released the Thrive 7", a mini (and aptly named) version of the original Thrive, which went on sale last summer. But in Toshiba's case, shrinking a tablet and calling it a day is a dicey proposition. After all, the 10-inch Thrive had some baggage -- namely, middling battery life, a chunky, toy-like design and a bug that initially kept it from waking after recharging. Indeed, the Thrive 7" looks near-identical, and even packs the same Tegra 2 chip, 16GB of storage and vanilla take on Honeycomb. Still, it brings an LED flash, keeps its big brother's 1280 x 800 display and costs less than the original did when it first came out. So are these improvements enough to make this smaller Thrive stand out? And how does it stack up against all those other 7-inch slates we've been testing lately? Let's find out. Toshiba Thrive 7" review Hardware There's a reason this, too, is called the Thrive: it's very much a scaled-down version of the original 10-inch model we reviewed over the summer. For better and worse, all of the key design flourishes have returned: that textured, plastic back, the metal piece housing the twin 2MP / 5MP cameras and the hollow-feeling materials. The only differences (aside from the lack of any full-sized ports) are that the back cover and battery aren't removable, and the rear camera is now paired with an LED flash. As always, the ridging on the lid makes it easy to cradle the tablet in either landscape or portrait mode. Still, more than ever it feels chintzy, especially compared to devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus or T-Mobile Springboard (aka Huawei MediaPad). This shouldn't be surprising, we suppose, given that the original Thrive felt also had a plasticky feel, but this time around it's up against the likes of the Kindle Fire, which feels better-made even though it costs almost two hundred bucks less. At least the 7-inch Thrive makes amends for its big brother's chunky design: at 0.83 pounds (377g) and 0.47 inches (11.9mm) thick, it's as slim as (and slightly lighter than) the Fire and a shade thinner than the 0.48-inch-thick Nook Tablet (the two weigh the same). In every regard, it's denser than the 0.76-pound (345-gram) Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, which measures 0.39 inches (9.96mm) thick, but that's clearly an exception, not the rule. All told, it's a delightfully perfect size for a tablet, though to be fair, we say that about every 7-inch slate. Between the dimensions and easy-to-grip backing, we found typing in portrait and landscape easy -- unless you have toddler-sized hands you should enjoy plenty of leeway in your thumbs for adjusting the volume, tapping on spelling suggestions and other conveniences. Now that those full-sized ports are gone, we're left with a proprietary docking connector on the bottom portrait side, whose accompanying cable you can use to charge the tablet over USB or using the bundled AC adapter. Staying on the bottom edge for a moment, the connector's flanked by the twin speakers. On the opposite side, up near the 2MP front-facing camera sits the requisite 3.5mm headphone jack. Meanwhile, the left side is home to the power / lock button, a volume rocker, a switch for locking the screen orientation and a door covering the micro-HDMI socket, mini-USB port and microSD slot. Display and sound Thanks to its 1280 x 800 pixel count, the Thrive 7" has the most densely packed display we've seen on a tablet this size. Additionally, it packs the same upscaling Resolution+ technology as the 10-inch Thrive and laptops like the Portege Z835. Of course, neither of these specs will make much of a difference when you're watching other people's home video videos on YouTube, but they'll make HD movies sing. While watching the video for "Marry the Night" (all bizarre 14 minutes of it), we caught all sorts of fine details: greasy skin, ink on skin, Ms. Gaga's natural hair color peeking out amid her bleached eyebrows. It's undoubtedly one of, if not the, crispest display you'll see on a 7-inch slate, though the Kindle Fire's IPS panel is brighter and offers wider viewing angles. In fact, the viewing angles on the Thrive are pretty narrow, even when you step indoors, away from direct sunlight. We weren't satisfied with the contrast levels when we placed the tablet on a table in front of us, so we ended up cradling it in landscape, in as close to an upright position as possible. The problem is, when you hold the tablet this way your fingers are likely to obscure the small speakers on the left side. It's ironic, in a way, because as much as we dismiss the audio on most tablets as being too tinny, the sound here is actually quite balanced and pleasant -- when you can remember to rest your digits in the right place, anyway. Performance Toshiba Thrive 7" T-Mobile Springboard Acer Iconia Tab A100 Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Quadrant Would not run 1,871 Would not run 2,700 Linpack Single-thread (MFLOPS) 31.37 46.22 28.38 28.98 Linpack Multi-thread (MFLOPS) 57.08 58.81 55.36 69.47 NenaMark 1 (fps) 43.07 43.2 57 59.3 NenaMark 2 (fps) 19.2 27.9 24.5 41.8 Vellamo 1,045 1,161 1,057 1,198 SunSpider 9.1 (ms, lower numbers are better) 2,303 2,471 N/A 1,679 With NVIDIA's dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 SoC, a vanilla Honeycomb build and 1GB of RAM, the Thrive doesn't present many surprises as far as performance goes. The screen responded briskly to our various taps and swipes, and apps launched quickly enough. The tab also kept up with us while we played Need for Speed Shift, serving up smooth graphics even as we made desperately abrupt turns to avoid that concrete wall on Tokyo's fourth track. Nonetheless, brace yourself for some lag, even in the most rudimentary scenarios. Throughout testing, we found ourselves numbly tapping the settings shortcut multiple times before the tablet finally woke up and opened the menu. Other times, the Thrive came to a standstill while we searched for apps in Android Market. Look closely and you might notice a slight pause when you tap the home button to minimize an app. The benchmarks tell a similar story: for twenty dollars more, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus creams the Thrive in almost every benchmark, including SunSpider, where it chewed through code in a brisk 1,679 ms (versus the Thrive's 2,303 ms). Still, we want to be careful not to overstate these hiccups: the Thrive 7" is eminently usable, and if our brief experience with Tegra 3 is any indication, even that isn't yet a silver bullet for this kind of mundane sluggishness. (Ice Cream Sandwich, on the other hand..) Battery life Tablet Battery Life Toshiba Thrive 7" 4:42 Apple iPad 2 10:26 ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime 10:17 Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 9:55 Apple iPad 9:33 Motorola Xoom 2 8:57 HP TouchPad 8:33 Lenovo IdeaPad K1 8:20 Motorola Xoom 8:20 T-Mobile G-Slate 8:18 Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus 8:09 Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 8:00 Archos 101 7:20 Archos 80 G9 7:06 RIM BlackBerry PlayBook 7:01 Acer Iconia Tab A500 6:55 T-Mobile Springboard (Huawei MediaPad) 6:34 Toshiba Thrive 6:25 Samsung Galaxy Tab 6:09 Motorola Xyboard 8.2 5:25 Velocity Micro Cruz T408 5:10 Acer Iconia Tab A100 4:54 Toshiba still hasn't found the secret to jaw-dropping (or even acceptable) longevity. If you'll recall, battery life was one of multiple pain points for the original Thrive: it couldn't make up for its extra heft with superior runtime. Well, it looks like Toshiba still hasn't found the secret to jaw-dropping (or even acceptable) longevity. Despite its nine-hour rating, the Thrive lasted just four hours and 42 minutes in our standard battery test (video looping, WiFi on), making it the poorest showing we've seen to date. Even apart from our rundown test, we noticed the battery rating plummeting as we played with it. After just a few minutes of gaming, for example, our remaining capacity dropped eight percent. After 15 minutes of streaming YouTube clips at full-screen, it fell another eight percentage points. If you plan on taking this thing outside the living room, you best ration your time wisely. And let's be clear on this point too: this is poor runtime even for a 7-inch tablet, whose battery would naturally be smaller than what you'd find inside a 10-incher. The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus exceeds eight hours, for instance, and still manages to be thinner and lighter than the Thrive. Meanwhile, the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet both come within about 20 minutes of the 7.0 Plus. Even a discounted BlackBerry PlayBook or first-gen Galaxy Tab would serve you better in this regard. You should also know that for whatever reason, the Thrive charges over USB using the proprietary connector, but not a standard mini-USB cable. (In fact, there's not even a mini-USB cable included in the box.) Now, it's true, plenty of tablets don't charge via USB at all, but if you're likely to misplace a proprietary cable (guilty) it's frustrating to not be able to make use of any of the umpteen mini-USB cables you might have lying around. Camera It's hard to appreciate the Thrive 7" new LED flash, just because the act of taking photos on this device is such a royal pain in the derriere. Regardless of the lighting conditions, the camera is slow to focus, and even slower to take the shot once you tap the shutter button. Be prepared to stand still for several seconds before moving on, and hope that in the interim none of your subjects move or that no one happens to walk into the frame. When you can manage that, though, the camera is at least capable of some pleasant, balanced colors. Toshiba Thrive 7" sample shots Software As with the original Thrive, Toshiba loaded the 7-inch version with stock Honeycomb (in this case, version 3.2.1). You will find one discreet widget, though: a carousel with two columns of thumbnails, which you can scroll through to find things like recently visited websites and a browser shortcut to download Toshiba's App Place. Like other widgets you'll see in Android 3.1 and higher, it's resizeable, so you can expand it from a from 2 x 2 grid to 4 x 2 if you so choose. And if this smells like bloatware, you can just chuck it as you would any other widget or shortcut. You'll be happy to know the list of pre-installed apps is also brief, and those that made the cut are actually useful. These include Toshiba's handy File Manager, which we first saw on the original Thrive. Also present: Swype (not enabled by default), Toshiba Media Player, Netflix, Quickoffice, a 30-day trial of Kaspersky Tablet Security, NFS Shift and the intuitive PrinterShare for printing emails, photos, webpages and the like over a printer on the same WiFi network. So even as is, the Thrive 7" is refreshingly devoid of crapware and annoying customizations, but it'll no doubt be even better when Toshiba updates it with Ice Cream Sandwich. Unfortunately, the company hasn't given any hints as to when that might happen, but it's still reassuring to know that your $380 investment will eventually pay off with a slicker UI and likely performance boost. Configuration options and the competition It's hard to say where the Thrive 7" fits in, or if it belongs at all. The Thrive 7" starts at $380 for the 16GB version, with a $430 32GB number and $40 docking stand also available. That makes it slightly less expensive than other full-fledged tablets (whatever that means these days), but it's still a marked premium over the $200 you'll pay for the Kindle Fire. Starting at the low end, neither the Fire nor the Nook Tablet will remedy the Thrive's sluggish performance, but both are about as thin and light, and offer arguably better build quality (not to mention, unequivocally longer battery life). Head back into the $400 range, and your standards should rise. The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is thinner, lighter, faster and about 40 percent more longevous, and its screen is more brilliant, too (even if the pixel count is lower). The T-Mobile Springboard ($430 off contract) doesn't last nearly as Sammy's new 7-incher, but it's similarly fast, sports a lovely IPS display and gives you the option of buying pay-as-you-go HSPA+ service. Either way, for nearly the same price as the Thrive, you can get something faster and longer-lasting with more awe-inspiring build quality. Wrap-up Toshiba Thrive review Toshiba announces 7-inch Thrive tablet, we go hands-on Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus review It's hard to say where the Thrive 7" fits in, or if it belongs at all. On the one hand, it's $130 to $180 more expensive than budget tabs like the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, and yet it offers little to justify its higher price: it isn't significantly thinner or lighter, its battery life craps out hours earlier and the build quality feels flimsier. The biggest advantage, so far as we're concerned, is that it runs Honeycomb and is ICS-ready. Even then, you may as well resign yourself to spending an additional $20 on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, which is slimmer, lighter, faster, longer-lasting and better-made. Regardless of what you're willing to spend, though, the Thrive 7" has issues, and that high-res display isn't nearly enough to make up for them.

China begins trial operations of home grown Beidou GPS system Posted: 27 Dec 2011 07:28 AM PST The Russians have GLONASS, and the EU will eventually have Galileo, so China's probably been feeling left out of the GPS party so far. Not for much longer though, as the switch for its home grown Beidou system has just been flicked on, providing location and timing data to its home turf. There are ten satellites already in place and six more to follow next year, by which time, most of the Asia Pacific will be covered. The rest of the globe will be taken care of by 2020, once all of the planned 35 satellites are sent up. So, while we may not see something like iPhone support right away, it might be handy to study the Interface Control Document the Chinese government's put online anyway, y'know, just in case. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Visualized: IBM's 1956 HDD packs 5MB of storage, requires forklift for installation Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:54 AM PST Check out IBM's 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) hard disk and those gripes about dragging around that USB thumb drive soon evaporate. This 1956 HDD was composed of 50 24-inch discs, stacked together and taking up 16 sq ft of real estate. The once-cutting-edge monstrosity was capable of commanding an annual fee of $35,000 and stored up to 5MB of data. Sure, by modern standards it's a pretty modest capacity, but the RAMAC still weighed in at just shy of a ton. Our technological forefathers could have done with that exoskeleton prototype.

Air Dictate app brings Siri's voice control to Macs, makes you feel just a little more important Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:28 AM PST Well, this was probably inevitable. Given that we've already seen Siri respond to custom commands, replace your remote and adjust the temperature in your house, it shouldn't come as a surprise that someone, somewhere has figured out how to make her control Macs. That's what's going on with Air Dictate by Avatron, a new app that allows you to dictate memos and other Very Important Business so that it appears in your text editor, without you having to type it yourself. Once you download the $1 app, you'll need to visit Avatron's website, download the Air Dictate Receiver software for your Mac and make sure the two devices are connected to the same WiFi network. So far as we can tell, it should work with any application that accepts text input, though for now it's only compatible with Macs and the iPhone 4S (sorry, jailbreakers).

Italian anti-trust body fines Apple for misleading customers on product guarantees Posted: 27 Dec 2011 05:54 AM PST Apple Italia has been fined a total of 900,000 euros for failing to inform its customers that products purchased were already covered by two years of free assistance under national law. It appears that Apple employees encouraged the extra purchase of its own AppleCare plans. With the European court's continued investigation of possible e-book price-fixing and ongoing legal jousting with Samsung unlikely to end any time soon, it looks like Apple will be busy in the courts next year too. [Thanks Giulio]

Hacker builds allegedly pointless data network out of Lego train set Posted: 27 Dec 2011 05:19 AM PST How can we appreciate bullet-quick SSDs and fiber networks without pausing -- at the year's end -- to appreciate where it all came from? We should think back to before the birth of modern computing, even before the telegraph, to a time when bits of data were forced to travel everywhere by train. A hacker named Maximilien has now recreated that locomotive golden era using Lego, Arduino and Linux, and what his system lacks in bandwidth it more than makes up for in historical relevance. A USB flash key is borne by miniature railway carriage from station to station, stopping at each one to unload or pickup information and thus creating its own barebones networking protocol. Click the source link to appreciate the full museum piece.

ASUS Eee PC 1225B proves netbooks will still be kicking around in 2012 Posted: 27 Dec 2011 04:44 AM PST The death of the netbook has been greatly exaggerated -- at least that's what ASUS is praying holds true for next year. Its latest addition, the Eee PC 1225B, refreshes the spec sheet seen on the 1215B. You'll find it's still based on AMD's Brazos chipset -- thus the B -- and will apparently arrive on two different gear speeds; one with an AMD C60 dual-core 1GHz processor and another toting AMD's dual-core 1.65GHz E450 APU. Up to 4GBs of DDR3 RAM and storage options starting at 320GB should ensure a respectable bang for your buck. On top of that, there's an 11.6-inch 1,366 x 768 display, integrated webcam, a smattering of USB ports (both 2.0 and 3.0) and the same VGA and HDMI outputs found on its predecessor. Notebook Italia reckons that these new netbooks will start at €349 ($455). If you're not ready just yet for the heady specs (and prices) of an Ultrabook, you can visit ASUS' official site at the source for the full spec breakdown. [Thanks Marco]

Nokia's diagnostics app secretly contains CDMA, AT&T LTE test screens Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:59 AM PST A bit of detective work can certainly go a long way. Some little-known sections of Nokia's Windows Phone diagnostics app were found by Nanapho as it analyzed its XAP file, lending credence to rumors that AT&T-branded Lumia phones are being tested at present time. The site uncovered screens dealing with "LTE TX" and "LTE Band Lock," with the latter adding references to Band 4 and Band 17 -- AT&T-specific radios. The last interesting piece of evidence was dug up in the MMS settings tool, which offers code that refers to CDMA. We've heard past rumors suggesting Verizon would be getting a Lumia as well, but there were no indications that LTE Band 13 is in testing here; Big Red is reportedly hesitant to launch new Windows Phones without 4G connectivity now, so choosing to go without it would suggest the carrier is willing to make a few compromises in the hopes of adding the Lumia to its ranks. Hopefully we'll find more clues in the days leading up to CES.

Untethered jailbreak now available for pre-A5 iPhones, iPads and Touches Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:01 AM PST It's just a few weeks since pod2g revealed his untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 and -- boom -- all of a sudden it's up for the DL. The exploit has been incorporated into redsn0w 0.9.10, the Pwnage Tool and Chronic Devteam's Cydia package, and it works on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (including the CDMA version), iPad 1, iPod Touch 3G and iPod Touch 4G, so long as they've been updated to iOS 5.0.1. Meanwhile, pod2g is reportedly now looking for a way to snap the shackles on A5-based devices too, but hopefully only after he's taken some rest -- a burned-out jailbreaker is no good to anybody. Full instructions are at the source link. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

PS Vita gets second firmware update, nixes software bugs Posted: 27 Dec 2011 02:08 AM PST There's not many things worse than when your new imported tech toy is hobbled by teething issues. Just over a week since its launch and Sony's great portable hope has been gifted its second firmware update. Version 1.51 can be grabbed through your PC, PS3 or the Vita itself and promises to fix issues with "game progress" -- mentioning launch title Dynasty Warriors: Next in particular. However, gamers have already figured out that playing through the title offline side-steps the software hiccups that this patch hopes to remedy. Early adopters can hit up the system update option to ensure their machines remain in peak condition or hit up the source for the PC link. [Thanks Adam]

Drone Station lets you pilot an AR.Drone with your Mac Posted: 27 Dec 2011 12:41 AM PST Drone Station won't actually have you tilting your MacBook to pilot the recreational quadrocopter around your hood but, when neither the little, small, wee smartphone nor the great, huge Surface will do -- a mid-sized laptop may be just right. The on screen HUD displays all the information you'll need to accurately fly the AR.Drone and the app is compatible with a broad array of external controllers, including the Wii Nunchuk and Balance Board. While you're using a game pad to soar through the sky, your computer can actually record video from the UAV's on-board cameras, so you can document your hijinks or perform some reconnaissance on that shady neighbor kid. Hit up the source link for more info and check out the Mac App Store to download it now for $10.

Fisker Karma battery poses 'potential safety issue' for about 50 autos, fix already in tow Posted: 26 Dec 2011 11:38 PM PST Fisker has seen its fair share of delays on its Karma EV in the past, and now ''fewer than 50" of the vehicles -- which if you'll recall, cost over $100K -- are at risk for battery malfunction. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, A123 (the company which supplies the car's power pack) has issued a memo to customers and stakeholders, noting that "in rare circumstances" the car's batts could short-circuit due to coolant leakage from "misaligned hose clamps." A123 further explained that's already begun repairing the Karma's in question, and doesn't expect to experience to strain its relationship with Fisker due to the problem. Notably, Bloomberg also reports that 25 of the automobiles get assembled daily, with about 225 currently en-route to showroom floors -- a far cry from the company's earlier estimates for the 2011 production year. You'll find A123's full PDF memo at the source link below.

NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Samsung and more team up to take on Qualcomm over cellphone chips Posted: 26 Dec 2011 10:02 PM PST Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo just announced it's forming a joint venture with five partners -- Samsung, Panasonic, Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Semiconductor and NEC -- to develop and sell chips for mobile devices. According to the press release the fabless JV will get started once all involved finish hammering out the details and focus on creating LTE-connected products for the global market. NTT Docomo is investing $5.8 million to create a subsidiary, Communication Platform Planning Co., in preparation with one of its executives as CEO. Currently Qualcomm makes the majority of chips found in smartphones, but it appears to have some high-powered competition on the way soon. Show full PR text DOCOMO and Five Companies to Set Up Communication Platform Joint Venture Company TOKYO, JAPAN, December 27, 2011 --- NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced today that it has reached a basic agreement with five companies - Fujitsu Ltd., Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd., NEC Corporation, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. - to establish a fabless joint venture company by the end of March 2012 to develop and sell semiconductor products for mobile devices. The joint venture company, leveraging the six investing companies' strong backgrounds in cellular communication technology and vast experience in application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) design and foundry manufacturing, will develop feature-rich, small-size, low-power-consumption semiconductor products equipped with modem functionality. The joint venture company will focus on developing products for LTE and LTE-Advanced mobile communication standards. The products will be sold in markets globally. The envisioned joint venture company will be formed once all parties agree on the details, which are now being worked out through consultation. Following the basic agreement announced today, and as part of preparing to form the joint venture company, DOCOMO plans to invest 450 million Japanese yen, or about 5.8 million USD*, to establish a wholly owned subsidiary, called Communication Platform Planning Co., Ltd. and headed by CEO Mitsunobu Komori, concurrently an executive vice president and Chief Technical Officer of DOCOMO, by the middle of January. * USD = 78.13 yen as of November 30, 2011 About NTT DOCOMO NTT DOCOMO is a world-leading mobile operator that is in transition into an Integrated Service Company placing mobility at the core. The company serves over 59 million customers in Japan via advanced wireless networks, including a nationwide 3G network and one of the world's first commercial LTE networks. Leveraging its unique capabilities as a mobile operator, DOCOMO is a leading developer of cutting-edge technologies for NFC mobile payments, mobile GPS, mobile TV, intuitive mobile assistance, environmental monitoring, smart grids and much more. Overseas, the company provides technical and operational expertise to eight mobile operators and other partner companies. NTT DOCOMO is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. Please visit www.nttdocomo.com for more information.

JXD releases S7100 Android-based gaming tablet, manages to steal from everyone Posted: 26 Dec 2011 08:54 PM PST If you're going to steal, steal from the best. JXD has just released its S7100, a fairly conspicuous 7-inch Android-powered gaming tablet marketed towards playing old-school arcade games. The device features a D-pad, face buttons, an 800 x 480 capacitive touchsceen, ARM Cortex A9 CPU, Mali 400 GPU, 512MB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 0.3 megapixel front camera, 2.0 megapixel rear camera and HDMI-out. A video trailer shows the unit playing a variety of touchscreen games and classic ROMs including Metal Slug, Mario Kart 64, Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies and Fruit Ninja HD. Not to be undone, the device also features the actual PlayStation button icons on its own buttons (sound familiar?), while the marketing website for the device sports icons from Apple, Google, Microsoft and others. If you're thus far undeterred, there's a must-watch promotional vid hosted just after the break -- nothing justifies a $140 price tag like Bieber, right? This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Harrods reportedly nabs Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry as UK exclusive, costs a princely £1,275 Posted: 26 Dec 2011 07:39 PM PST The department store Harrods is no stranger to exposing Londoners to some of the finer -- and more eccentric -- things in life, and so after learning that it'd be bringing RIM's Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry to its shelves as a UK exclusive, we couldn't help but smile with curiosity. While we've yet to see anything official come across the wires, it's reported that this sexy slab of unlocked goodness will retail for £1,275 and hit stores before the month's end. We've attempted to confirm these details with RIM's UK group but, as it turns out, Brits like going home early on Friday, too.

Spire installer brings Siri to any jailbroken iOS 5 device, legally -- proxy still required Posted: 26 Dec 2011 06:03 PM PST A few months of work by iOS hackers Grant Paul (aka chpwn), Steven Troughton-Smith and Ryan Petrich has culminated in the release of Spire, a new installer that will easily set up Siri on your jailbroken iOS 5 device. While Apple has kept its little helper exclusively constrained to the iPhone 4S, it now runs on iPads, iPhone 4, iPod touches and the iPhone 3GS, and while that's been done before they claim the other new trick is that it's legal, avoiding the copyright infringement inherent in previous hacks. When installed it will initiate a 100MB download of Siri directly from Apple so watch your bandwidth limits, and also be prepared to set up your own proxy server with donated info from an iPhone 4S to hold the line between Apple's backend and yourself. It's available on Cydia now so if you've been waiting for a way to get this feature for yourself it's not far away, however Troughton-Smith tells 9to5 Mac that the next major step may not come until the iPhone 4S is jailbroken and they can avoid the proxy server issues altogether.

LG unveils new 3D glasses, hopes lighter and better looking spectacles drive adoption Posted: 26 Dec 2011 05:13 PM PST LG's FPR 3DTVs already featured lighter, cheaper passive 3D glasses than their active shutter competition, but next year the company will push its advantage even further with these new models. The three options available include the F310 (at right, above) which it says weighs 20 percent less than last year's default and are curved more for a better fit, the F320 (left) clip-on design for glasses-wearers and Alain Mikli-designed (the guy who made Kanye's shutter shades, among other high-end eyeglasses) F360 half-rim frames (middle). It also rolled out a press release trumpeting new Smart TV features for 2012, but beyond the updated remote and confirmation of Intel WiDi integration, it's pretty short on details. We're not seeing any Google TV tie-ins here, LG is focusing on its homegrown ecosystem which it says now offers 1,200 apps (of course, that probably includes the thousand or so recently added via its deal with Chumby). There's no word on pricing for the glasses, but after this and announcing a 55-inch OLED prototype, we're wondering what else the Lucky Goldstar folks will have up their sleeves at CES. LG 2012 3D Glasses and Smart TV menu Show full PR text LG UNVEILS STYLISH NEW 3D GLASSES FOR 2012 New CINEMA 3D TV Glasses Will Convince More Consumers That 3D Doesn't Have to Be Uncomfortable or Ugly SEOUL, Dec. 26, 2011 -– LG Electronics (LG) announced today that its newest collection of 3D glasses, including a pair designed by renowned eyewear designer Alain Mikli, will be introduced in the first quarter of 2012. The new 3D glasses -- the F310, the clip-on F320 and the Alain Mikli F360 -- are lighter and more comfortable to wear while upgraded design features such as curved lenses and clean frame structure have transitioned 3D glasses from burdensome requirements to stylish fashion accessories. "Compared to active shutter glasses, LG's 3D glasses are far more comfortable to wear and much more affordable, making it possible for large groups and entire families to watch 3D programs and movies together," said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of the LG Home Entertainment Company. "LG is addressing two of the biggest barriers to 3D acceptance head-on and we're confident consumers will react favorably to our strategy in the coming year." The F310 is characterized by a distinctive design that combines soft lines within a slim frame. Unlike many previous 3D glasses, the lenses have been curved to better accommodate the shape of the wearer's face, as well as to improve the overall CINEMA 3D viewing experience. The F310 weighs a mere 13.5 grams, making it 20 percent lighter than LG's previous design. Another new item for 2012 includes the clip-on F320. Clip-on 3D glasses are unique to 3D TVs based on Film Patterned Retarder (FPR) technology, which is at the heart of CINEMA 3D TV. Compared to the previous generation clip-on 3D glasses, the F320 weighs 25 percent less at 5.5 grams. Developed in collaboration with Alain Mikli, the F360's half-rim frame design is sportier and only weighs 16 grams. The lenses of the F360 have been curved and cover most of the wearer's face, deepening the immersive CINEMA 3D experience. The stylish F360, as well as all 3D glasses from LG, can also worn in theaters showing 3D movies since both CINEMA 3D and theaters utilize the same FPR and RealD technologies. LG's share of the global 3D TV market increased from 7.6 percent during the first quarter of 2011 to 14 percent by September. FPR's unobtrusive technology played a key role in the company's success in 3D TVs, as uncomfortable and expensive glasses have been identified in numerous studies as being the number one reason consumers have been reluctant to adopt 3D in the home. LG plans to continue the success it saw this year by sponsoring a series of 3D film and gaming events in 2012 in order to introduce the CINEMA 3D experience to thousands of participants and visitors. Show full PR text LG UNVEILS NEW SMART TV FEATURES FOR 2012 FOCUSING ON RICH CONTENT AND EASE OF USE Now With Over 1,200 Apps and New Magic Remote, LG's Smart TV Significantly Upgrades User Experience and Convenience SEOUL, Dec. 27, 2011 –- LG Electronics (LG) will unveil its newest Smart TV features at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month. Imbedded in the new CINEMA 3D Smart TV line-up for 2012, LG is aiming to provide CINEMA 3D Smart TV owners with the most comprehensive yet easy-to-use home entertainment experience possible, as evidenced by the over 1,200 apps, growing quantity of premium content services and the new Magic Remote. "Even thought the Smart TV market is in its infancy, LG is constantly introducing new features and upgrading existing ones in order to deliver the richest, most convenient Smart TV experience in the market today," said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of LG Home Entertainment Company. "The features and functionality we'll be introducing in 2012 are, I believe, second to none when it comes to showing consumers how a Smart TV can improve their TV viewing experience." LG's Smart TV ecosystem has experienced enormous growth over the past year, having launched over 1,200 Smart TV apps. In addition to access to more movies and TV programs, user can access social networking services (SNS) on their LG Smart TVs, make donations to charities and even browse famous art collections. LG's 3D Zone offers a growing collection of 3D movies and TV shows, while existing 2D movies can be converted to 3D via LG's enhanced 3D conversion engine. Due to the use of Film Patterned Retarder (FPR) technology, LG's 3D glasses are battery-free, lightweight and inexpensive, making them ideal for watching 3D content in large groups and comfortably for longer periods of time. And even though LG's Smart TV ecosystem is growing in features and choices, using the TV is simpler than ever, thanks to the new Magic Remote. The new Voice Recognition mode lets users enter text -- such as search terms -- by making voice commands. Wheel enables users to swiftly scroll up and down various menus and apps, allowing for quicker selections. Magic Gesture makes it possible to communicate physical movements as commands. And lastly, Pointing lets users make on-screen selections quickly and easily without having to scroll or push direction keys repeatedly. The new CINEMA 3D Smart TVs offer a variety of connectivity features. The newest among them is Intel's Wireless Display (WiDi) technology, which enables easy and quick connection between TVs and PCs without the need for cables or Internet access. Through Smart Share Plus, users can access content stored on external devices such as PCs, tablets and smartphones. Smart Share Plus also offers the Screen Share function which streams TV content to external viewing devices using a Wi-Fi connection. The quantity of content is further expanded through premium content services available through the Smart TV function. While content availability constantly grows, they remain easy to access, thanks to the upgraded Home Dashboard, which allows for quick browsing. And the shortcuts displayed on the Home Dashboard can be customized, giving users the option to handpick their favorite content and apps for instant access.

T-Platforms to build ten petaflop supercomputer for Moscow State University Posted: 26 Dec 2011 03:48 PM PST In post-Soviet Russia, massive supercomputer programs you. (Sorry, we had to.) Recently, Russia's Moscow State University contracted with high-performance computing company T-Platforms to create a ten petaflop cluster that'll be operational in 2013. The computer would fall just short of the fastest supercomputer on Earth (the Japanese K Computer, which is rated at 10.51 petaflops) and will incorporate a mixture of different node types to achieve the ten petaflops. T-Platforms will reportedly build the nodes from Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge Xeon processors and NVIDIA's next-generation Kepler GPU coprocessors, and Intel's Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture could also be included if it's available during construction. The reason for the project? Unknown officially, but we're guessing it's just another reason for Putin to rip his shirt off and celebrate. T-Platforms to Build 10-Petaflop Supercomputer for Moscow State University MOSCOW, Dec. 21 – T-Platforms, a global developer and supplier of supercomputers and a full range of solutions and services for high-performance computing, today announced an agreement to design a computer cluster capable of 10 PFlops (10^15 floating point operations per second) for M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University. Under the terms of the agreement, the company will develop a complete computing system incorporating the necessary supercomputer and engineering infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted job processing. Currently, two computing systems from T-Platforms are functioning at M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. The MSU Cebyšev Supercomputer was built in 2008. At that time it held the 36th position on the Top500 global list of the most powerful computing clusters and was seventh among all supercomputers used in the world's education system. Following the commissioning of this system, the need for additional capacity and capability soon became evident when this cluster's resources became fully allocated. With steadily increasing scientific issues and challenges to be addressed, an objective need for scaling in computing power appeared. University leadership decided on the acquisition of a new, more powerful supercomputer complex which would provide high-end resources for more scientific teams and allow for conducting more research. This cluster, the Lomonosov Supercomputer, was designed and built by T-Platforms. Today, the performance of the Lomonosov system has set a record for Russia and CIS at 1.3 PFlops, allowing it to hold the leadership position among the Top50 – a list of the most powerful supercomputers in Russia and CIS, as well as being ranked 13th on the Top500 rating. The MSU computing systems support fundamental scientific and application research in aerospace, nuclear, biomedical, oil and gas, and many other industries. However, due to the computational demands and increased need to scale these applications, the existing computing power is no longer adequate to meet reasonable turn-around time. With this consideration, MSU decided to seek the development of a new computing cluster capable of 10 PFlops. "We have enjoyed close cooperation with M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University for many years, and it is appropriate to describe MSU as a strategic partner for our company," said Vsevolod Opanasenko, CEO of T-Platforms. "We consider this selection a competitive victory, and we are honored to design a new generation computer system with record-breaking performance for our country. This is a strong confirmation of the highest expertise of our engineers and developers by the largest Russian Scientific Centre. Creating this system will mark a new stage in development of a domestic supercomputing industry and provide fundamental new possibilities for Russian science." The following quote is from the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, November 12, 2009: "Russia needs to make full use of the potential of supercomputers and supercomputer systems linked by high-speed data exchange channels. With their help, within five years we could start designing new planes and spacecrafts, cars and nuclear reactors. Sophisticated technology that has not gone through supercomputer simulation and not been digitalized, so to speak, will find itself without demand on the market within a few years." About T-Platforms: T-Platforms (www.t-platforms.ru) is a global supercomputer developer and a supplier of the full range of solutions and services for the high performance computing. Founded in 2002, T-Platforms maintains headquarters in Moscow (Russia) and regional offices in Hanover (Germany), Kiev (Ukraine), Taipei (Taiwan), and Hong Kong (China). The company has implemented more than 200 integrated projects, six of which are included in the Top500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers. T-Platforms owns patents on a number of supercomputer technologies and electronic components. Solutions from T-Platforms are used for academic and applied research in various fields of science, including life sciences, nuclear physics, chemistry, mathematics, as well as for highly calculation-intensive tasks in engineering, computer graphics and much more. In 2011, the supercomputing industry publication, HPCWire, named Vsevolod Opanasenko, CEO of T-Platforms, one of 12 most famous and respected people of the HPC global community.

Must See HDTV (December 26th - January 1st) Posted: 26 Dec 2011 02:32 PM PST Football Collegiate or pro, even with NBA action back on the schedule it's all about football this week. The big time bowls aren't until 2012, but there's still a few interesting matchups to be had this week including Air Force/Toledo (guaranteed shootout), FSU/Notre Dame, Tulsa BYU, and Oklahoma/Iowa. For the pros, the playoffs start Sunday night when the Cowboys face the Giants, with the winner moving on as NFC East champion and the loser going home. New Year's Eve So who are you rolling with, the Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest combo, Carson Daly, MTV's stream of performers or are you tuning in to some other station to watch the ball drop Saturday night? Sure, Fox's "American Country" theme may be more your style, but after seeing the shape Dick Clark was in last year, we might actually leave the screen off for once this time around. Archer We'll have to wait a few more weeks for the show to return to FX, but Archer fans can catch up with season two hitting shelves for the first time, and season one is no longer a Best Buy exclusive. Check out the promo trailer after the break if you're not already familiar with ISIS' best agent, and turn up some Kenny Loggins because you're about to enter the Dangr Zone. (December 27th, $25 on Amazon) Blu-ray & Games Archer (S1 & S2) Final Destination 5 Apollo 18 The Borgias Shameless (S1) Monday Falcons/Saints Monday Night Football (season finale), ESPN, 8:30PM Storm Chasers: Behind the Storms 2011 (special presentation), Discovery, 8PM The Year The Earth Went Wild (special presentation), Discovery, 9PM Raw Alaska (special presentation), Discovery, 10PM Who's Still Standing, NBC, 8PM The Closer (winter finale), TNT, 9PM WWE Raw, USA, 9PM You Deserve It (season finale), ABC, 9PM Rizzoli & Isles (season finale), TNT, 10PM Rock Center with Brian Williams, NBC, 10PM Tuesday The 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors (special presentation), CBS, 9PM Western Michigan/Purdue in Little Caesars Bowl, ESPN, 4:30PM NC State/Louisville in Belk Bowl, 8PM, ESPN Dirty Jobs, Discovery, 9PM Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan (season finale), G4, 10PM Wednesday Air Force/Toledo in Military Bowl, ESPN, 4:30PM Texas/Cal in Holiday Bowl, ESPN, 9PM Inside The NFL, Showtime, 9PM Sons of Guns, Discovery, 9PM State of Play, BBC America, 10PM Moonshiners, Discovery, 10PM 24/7: Flyers/Rangers, HBO, 10PM Thursday FSU/Notre Dame in Champs Sports Bowl, ESPN, 5:30PM Baylor/Washington in Alamo Bowl, ESPN, 9PM Mavericks/Thunder, TNT, 8PM Knicks/Lakers, TNT, 10:30PM NY Ink (season premiere), TLC, 9PM Less Than Kind, DirecTV 101, 9PM Call Me Fitz, DirecTV 101, 9:30PM Beavis & Butt-head (season finale), MTV, 10PM Big Shrimpin', History, 10PM Good Vibes, MTV (season finale), 10:30 & 11PM Friday Tulsa/BYU in Armed Forces Bowl, ESPN, 12PM Rutgers/Iowa State in Pinstripe Bowl, ESPN, 3:20PM Mississippi St/Wake Forest in Music City Bowl, ESPN, 6:40PM Oklahoma/Iowa in Insight Bowl, ESPN, 10PM Chuck, NBC, 8PM WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM The Life & Times of Tim, HBO, 9PM Sanctuary (season finale), Syfy, 10PM X-Men Anime, G4, 11PM Saturday Texas A&M/Northwestern in Meineke Car Care Bowl, ESPN, 12PM Georgia Tech/Utah in Sun Bowl, CBS, 2PM UCLA/Illinois in Fight Hunger Bowl, ESPN, 3:30PM Vanderbilt/Cincinnati in Liberty Bowl, ABC, 3:30PM Virginia/Auburn in Chick-fil-A Bowl, ESPN, 7:30PM Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2012, ABC, 10PM New Year's Eve with Carson Daly 2011, NBC, 10PM American Country New Year's Eve Live, Fox, 11PM NYE in NYC 2012 Live, MTV, 11PM Sunday Angry Boys (series premiere), HBO, 10 & 10:30PM Cowboys/Giants football, NBC, 8:15PM All-American Muslim, TLC, 10PM Leverage, TNT, 9PM Hell on Wheels, AMC, 10PM

Bit-tech's Mod of the Year contest underway: finally, something you're comfortable voting on Posted: 26 Dec 2011 02:02 PM PST Like ponies to little girls, we always have a soft spot for mods here at Engadget. Who could forget Angel OD's liquid-cooled Wii, for example? Or Peter Brands' Frankendesk of a PC, the L3p D3sk? Well, it seems like we're not the only ones whose fancies got tickled by these things, as both made the list of nominees for bit-tech's Mod of the Year 2011 competition. The contest is serving up its biggest field to date with 25 projects. Entries include a PC that doubles as a mini Warhammer Dreadnought and another computer encased in a Star Trek Intrepid Mark II Class starship replica. If your tastes lean more toward the older than old school kind, Jeffrey Stephenson's got one of his wooden mods included in the bunch, as well. Naturally, you can check out the rest of the entries (and cast your votes) at the source below. [Thanks, Antony]

Join the Engadget HD Podcast live on Ustream at 5:30PM Posted: 26 Dec 2011 01:00 PM PST It's Monday, and almost as regular an occurrence as the day itself, we're here to help by letting you listen into the recording booth when the Engadget HD podcast goes to mp3 at 5:30PM. Please be a part of it by reviewing the list of topics after the break, then participating in the live chat as you listen in. So, what'd you get? DirecTV HDUI is rolling out across the land, iPad app adds 12 more live streaming channels Verizon FiOS TV's new media server scheduled for late 2012 It's not TV, it's HBO Go, and it's finally coming to Cablevision Super Bowl to be streamed online and to Verizon phones for the first time Boxee 1.5 nears release, will be final desktop version Roku brings v3.1 software update to first-gen boxes, Amazon Instant Video channel gets refaced WD TV Live, Live Hub get an official iOS remote app, Vudu streaming and more Logitech Harmony Link app gets customization-focused iPhone, Android update Control4 MyHome app takes up residence on Android while Android@Home is out of town Are You Watching This?! sports tracker for Android adds remote control for DirecTV, TiVo, Google TV Myriad Alien Vue brings Google TV apps to existing HDTVs, set-top boxes (video) LG's Magic Remote enables voice control for its smart TVs LG's 55-inch 'world's largest' OLED HDTV panel is official, coming to CES 2012 Sony divisions to elope in Vegas, celebrate the marriage of Television and Internet at CES 2012 Sony sells its stake in Samsung LCD team-up for $939 million Samsung releases CES 2012 teaser, hints at upcoming Smart TV products (video) Engadget Primed: ports, connectors and the future of your TV's backside Must See HDTV (December 26th - January 1st) Live broadcasting by Ustream This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

MESM Soviet computer project marks 60 years Posted: 26 Dec 2011 12:44 PM PST Before you go complaining about your job, take a moment to remember the MESM project, which just marked the 60th anniversary of its formal recognition by the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The project, headed by Institute of Electrical Engineering director Sergey Lebedev, was born in a laboratory built from scratch amongst the post-World War II ruins of Ukrainian capital city, Kyiv, by a team of 20 people, many of whom took up residence above the lab. Work on MESM -- that's from the Russian for Small Electronic Calculating Machine -- began toward the end of 1948. By November 1950, the computer was running its first program. The following year, it was up and running full-time. The machine has since come to be considered the first fully operation electronic computer in continental Europe, according to a Google retrospective. Check out a video interview with a MESM team member, after the break -- and make sure you click on that handy caption button for some English subtitles.

WindowBreak Project seeks universal developer unlock tool for Windows Phone (video) Posted: 26 Dec 2011 11:59 AM PST The developer known as Jaxbot is becoming quite familiar around these parts, who's known for bringing instant app resuming and multitasking to Windows Phone -- long before these features had gone mainstream. Now, he's back at it with WindowBreak, a project that seeks to deliver an interop unlock tool that can be used on any Windows Phone. As you can see in the video after the break, his tool already works on Samsung phones, and now, Jaxbot needs the help of like-minded hackers to perform similar feats with HTC and Nokia handsets. If you're willing to give 'er a go during the holiday weekend, just check the source links below.

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