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Monday, February 6, 2012

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Lenovo confirms ICS for ThinkPad Tablet, gives us more reason to look forward to spring

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:48 AM PST

Love your ThinkPad Tablet, but hate staring at its somewhat outdated operating system? Great news! Your stylus-friendly slate will be getting a heaping helping of Ice Cream Sandwich come spring, according to Lenovo. As part of the company's commitment to "future proofing" its devices, the update will begin hitting the tablet over-the-air in May. The Android upgrade will bring with it browser enhancements, voice input, face unlock and general frozen deliciousness.

Russian carrier gives $5,000 vacation to its most data hungry customer

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:37 AM PST

Use more data, win more prizes. It may sound counterintuitive, but that's exactly what Russian operator MegaFon is offering to its subscribers, as part of a curious 3G promotion. It all began back in November, when the provider announced a rather straightforward contest: customers who downloaded the most data with their 3G modems would be awarded prizes worth up to one million rubles (about $33,000), including a $5,000 vacation. According to Russian news site C News, MegaFon launched the campaign in order to showcase the expanse of its data network, which apparently covers more than 80 percent of northwestern Russia and offers speeds of up to 21Mbps. The promotion came to an official close on January 31st, with the coronation of a lucky winner who, over the course of a single week, managed to scarf down 419GB of data on the company's 3G network. MegaFon didn't offer usage statistics on the second and third place winners, nor did it say what they won for their efforts, if you wanna call them that.

Adafruit's Circuit Playground app deciphers resistor codes, helps you remember Ohm's Law

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:16 AM PST

If the names Phillip Torrone, Limor Fried and Collin Cunningham don't ring a bell then you probably need to hand over your geek badge. If, on the other hand, those names immediately make you sit up and pay attention, you maybe excited to hear the trio have just released the first Adafruit-branded app for iOS. Circuit Playground is a reference app for makers, hackers and tinkerers that helps you decipher resistor and capacitor values; calculate resistance, current or voltage; convert decimal, hexadecimal and binary values; and store PDF data sheets for ICs. The app is $2.99, but it comes with a $3 credit at the Adafruit shop, so it's kinda-sorta free. It's available for iPad and iPhone only, but an Android version is in the works. If you're an impatient Google fan, they suggest you check out ElectroDroid which performs many of the same functions and we can confirm is awesome. Check out the video after the break and hit up the source link to get Circuit Playground now.
Circuit Playground

Sprint shows you where and when it's disabling Nextel's iDEN legacy network

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 09:54 AM PST

Clue's in the title, really. If you head on over to Sprint's website, you'll find a page explaining the forthcoming changes to the service for legacy iDEN customers. Nextel users can enter in their zip code to find out which cellphone towers will be decommissioned and the due dates for each one. The program's beginning in New Orleans this month as the towers are thinned out to a reasonable number. Whilst it isn't (yet) the death-knell for the standard, given the network's push-to-talk service now works over CDMA and, you know, LTE, we'd start looking at replacement phones pretty soon.

Motorola wants 2.25 percent of Apple sales, in exchange for patent license

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 09:33 AM PST

New details have emerged about the ongoing Apple-Motorola drama in Germany, courtesy of a court document uncovered by FOSS Patents. The two companies have been engaged in a patent battle of swelling proportion these past few months, with the most recent wrinkle unfolding on Friday, when Apple promptly removed (and returned) its 3G / UMTS-enabled iPads and iPhone 4s from its online German store, in response to a court ruling. At issue in this particular case is a Motorola patent that Apple wants to use under FRAND obligations, but Moto apparently isn't willing to license its technology for free. According to a court filing, the handset maker is asking for 2.25 percent of Apple sales in return for the license, though it remains unclear whether this pertains to sales of all products or, more likely, the 3G-enabled devices under consideration in court. Either way, though, Motorola would stand to see quite a bit of extra revenue, especially considering that Apple's iPhone sales have totaled about $93 billion since 2007. Under Motorola's request, the company would have made about $2.1 billion from these sales alone -- not to mention the payments it'd see from iPad sales, as well. Apple, meanwhile, has filed motions to access Motorola's licensing agreements with Nokia, HTC and other manufacturers, in the hopes of exposing a double standard.

NPD: iPhones recover market share in Q4 2011, but Android draws the first-timer crowds

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 09:09 AM PST

According to the latest research from the NPD group, Apple has got its second wind in smartphone sales. In the same quarter that saw the iPhone 4S reinvent the wheel obey our every vocal whim, the trio of available models soaked up a total of 43 percent of the US smartphone market in Q4 2012, apparently knawing away at Android's market share of 53 percent held during the rest of 2011. However, Google's mobile OS appears to be the debutante smartphone of choice, cornering 57 percent of new purchases, with 34 percent going for Apple. The remaining 9 percent is distributed between the smartphone also-rans, with the likes of Windows Phone and BlackBerry languishing in that anonymous grey bar at the top. The top five handsets from NPD's Mobile Phone Track service is an Apple and Samsung love-in, with iOS devices claiming the three top spots, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S II (we assume collectively) and the Galaxy S 4G. NPD's blow-by-blow commentary on this increasingly two-horse race awaits below.
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The NPD Group: Apple Leads Mobile Handsets in Q4 2011, But Android Attracts More First-Time Smartphone Buyers
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, February 6, 2012 – According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, Apple leaped past Samsung and LG to become the best-selling U.S. handset brand in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2011. In a quarter that featured the launch of the iPhone 4S and the addition of Sprint, Apple's three available models combined to capture 43 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in Q4.

"Attracted by a faster processor, improved camera and the Siri speech-driven agent, most iPhone buyers paid a premium for the iPhone 4S, making it the top-selling handset in Q4," said Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group. "The iPhone 4S outsold the iPhone 4 by 75 percent, and outsold the iPhone 3GS, available for free on AT&T, five to one."

Together, Android and iPhone accounted for over 90 percent of smartphone sales, with Android holding on to 48 percent of the smartphone market during the quarter; however, Android devices performed better among first-time smartphone buyers. Based on the latest data from The NPD Group's monthly Smartphone Track service, among the first-time smartphone buyers in Q4, 57 percent purchased Android phones compared to just 34 percent who purchased iPhones.

"Android has been criticized for offering a more complex user experience than its competitors, but the company's wide carrier support and large app selection is appealing to new smartphone customers," Rubin said. "Android's support of LTE at Verizon has also made it the exclusive choice for customers who want to take advantage of that carrier's fastest network."

The overall share of mobile phone sales that are smartphones continued to climb in Q4 2011, reaching 68 percent of the total mobile phone market, which is an increase of 18 percentage points since Q4 2010. Based on the latest data from NPD's monthly Mobile Phone Track service, average selling prices for smartphones increased eight dollars over the prior quarter, reaching $143 in Q4 2011, which is still below average price of $149 in Q4 2010. Led by continued steady sales for Apple's iPhones, the top five best-selling mobile phone handsets in Q4 were as follows:

Apple iPhone 4S
Apple iPhone 4
Apple iPhone 3GS
Samsung GALAXY S II
Samsung GALAXY S 4G

Information in this press release is from Mobile Phone Track and Smartphone Track, both of which report on the activities of U.S. consumers, age 18 and older, who reported purchasing a mobile phone or smartphone. NPD does not track corporate/enterprise mobile phone purchases.

Lilyhammer (or: 'Silvio in Norway') now streaming on Netflix

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 08:48 AM PST

Lilyhammer, Netflix's first original series (shortly to be followed by the probably awful remake of House of Cards and Arrested Development season four) commenced streaming today. Little Steven (Van Zandt, of E-Street Band and Sopranos fame) plays wholly against type as a mafioso despatched by the witness protection program to Lillehammer. Unlike the HBOs and AMCs of this world, you'll be able to binge-watch the whole show as soon as you get in from work, just make sure the under-18s are in bed before you begin as freed from the network censors, it's a little coarse. Oh, and if you're wondering, those of us in the know have decided to nickname the show "Paulie Silvio in Norway," in the hopes that it'll catch on before the already confirmed season two begins filming.

Super Bowl 2012 Ad Roundup: Galaxy Note, Hulu Plus, Best Buy and more

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 08:21 AM PST

By now, we've become accustomed to the circus of elite advertising that takes place during America's biggest game, and this year was no exception. Last night's Super Bowl made room for over 50 commercials during its air time, some of which included the likes of Samsung's whopping Galaxy Note, the usual Go Daddy domain teasers, a bit of Best Buy "innovation" and the Hulu Plus Mushy Mush campaign, just to mention a few. Needless to say, we put together a small collection of some we believe you might enjoy, so take a virtual jump past the break to catch the big-ticket advertising in action. You can also find the rest of the ad pack at the source link below.

Sony patent sketches reveal Wii U-esque controller system, keeps it vague

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 07:54 AM PST

Sony patent sketches reveal Wii U-esque controller system, keeps it vague

While Nintendo is darn proud of its attempts to differentiate itself from other console manufacturers with its unusual hardware choices, it looks like Sony also had plenty of touchscreen-toting, TV-connected ideas way back in 2010. These patent sketches explain a handheld device that bares a foggy resemblance to Nintendo's incoming Wii U. The "position-dependent gaming, 3-D controller, and handheld as a remote," would act as the "input to a video game" -- or controller, as we technical types like to call it -- adding in some augmented reality functionality as an overlay to camera input on the device. The PS Vita is already capable of doing most of what's posited above, including the ability to hook up to its older (bigger) brother, the PS3 -- possibly that anonymous box you can see above. If such a mystery device device does appear, at least it looks like Sony's got its bases covered, again.

Rumor Mill: 7mm-thick Galaxy SIII coming in May?

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 07:31 AM PST

Korea's ETNews is betting its reputation upon this raft of rumored details concerning Samsung's Galaxy SIII. Since the only thing we know for certain is that it'll be announced "After MWC," lets take all of these tidbits with a strong pot of "We'll believe it when we see it," okay? According to the report, the handset's going to be 7mm thick, helped by the company shrinking down its PCB, connector and chip sizes by between 10 and 20 percent. The only thing that hasn't lost any weight is the camera, which may sit on a "protrusion" (like the Droid RAZR's hump). It'll be running a custom quad-core processor with HDMI and LTE baked-in, and rather obviously it'll be running Ice Cream Sandwich. Here's where things get a little confusing, either this is the first of a raft of models that will highlight different features (so we'll see subsequent GSIIIs with an S-Pen, 3D display or souped-up camera) or the above perks will come with the flagship as standard. Parts are reportedly gearing up to be shipped, but the only time we'll get confirmation is when that special event kicks off closer to the summer.

[Thanks, Erich]

Engadget Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, courtesy of MHL!

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 07:01 AM PST

We're well aware that you may be suffering from contest withdrawls, with our Holiday Blues-Buster far in our rear-view mirror. Fortunately we're bringing the opportunity to you in a big way, as the Engadget Giveaway is now becoming a regular series! Each and every Monday we'll be offering something new, and all you have to do is enter by leaving a comment. To get us started, the MHL Consortium (that's Mobile High-definition Link, not the Mississauga Hockey League) is happy to throw the honorary first pitch by offering a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, along with an MHL adapter and cable (all valued at $700). If you haven't heard of it before, MHL technology is an audio and video interface standard that allows you to connect your mobile device to an HDTV or other type of home entertainment while doubling as a charger at the same time.

Take a moment to review the rules under the break, and leave a comment to enter!
The rules:
  • Leave a comment below. Any comment will do.
  • You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
  • Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  • Winners will be chosen randomly. One winner will receive an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus, MHL adapter and MHL cable.
  • If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
  • This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. MHL Consortium and Engadget are not held liable to honor warranties or customer service.
  • Entries can be submitted until February 7, 2012 at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
  • Full rules can be found here.

HTC admits its bulky, quick-dying LTE phones kinda suck

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 06:32 AM PST

After a long streak of skyrocketing earnings, HTC's climb towards the stars seems to have stalled. Q4 was not kind to the company and CFO Winston Yung thinks he knows the reason why. During the today's earnings call Yung admitted that HTC "dropped the ball" with its selection of LTE devices. He conceded that the bulky handsets simply failed on a design and spec level -- especially when it came to battery life -- and were not selling nearly as well as expected. Unsurprisingly, the company promises to turn its fortunes around with the next product cycle, which is rumored to kick off at MWC with the Ville.

Mad Catz Cyborg M.M.O. 7 gaming mouse hands-on

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST

Mad Catz' Cyborg RAT series of adjustable computer mice has seen its fair share of minor revisions, and while wireless upgrades and whitewashed DPI tweaks have given consumers a hair of choice in transforming desktop pests, the differences between these devices has been modest, at best. Until now, at least. Enter the Cyborg M.M.O. 7, the outfit's latest addition to its aggressively styled line of gaming mice, minus the RAT moniker. Despite shedding the name of its predecessors, Mad Catz' latest point-and-clicker is as much of a RAT as the mice that came before it, but distinguishes itself with more buttons, more features and more color. Read on to see what's new, what's different and what should have stayed the same.
Mad Catz Cyborg M.M.O. 7 gaming mouse hands-on


The first thing we noticed about the M.M.O. 7 were its bright orange highlights -- with the exception of the standard left and right clickers and a dpi switch, every single button, scroll wheel and rocker on the mouse pops with vibrant color. The orange accents extend to the device's metal undercarriage, as well as to two of the unit's three swappable palm rests and one of its three pinkie grips.


The bright color almost acts as a "what's new" indicator, drawing attention to the seven new inputs available on the mouse's thumb rest. Here you'll find a familiar round nub that was once the RAT 7's precision aim toggle -- the M.M.O. 7's new five-directional rocker still does the "sniper button" trick, but it also offers four more inputs over its predecessor. Flanking the 5D's sides are two additional toggles, as well as one more skirting the edge of the thumb rest's bottom. Combined with the legacy buttons on the rest's top lip, these additions give a thumb access to ten toggles at any given time. A pair of ActionLock buttons hug either side of the mouse's horizontal scroll wheel, each toggling a constant input of their respective clicker when activated -- as well as a mode indicating LED color change on each button's edge.

Most of the new rodent's changes are welcome, but we couldn't help but notice a few minor tweaks that seem to detract from the device. The standard RAT 7 mouse features a DPI adjusting rocker just below the scroll wheel, allowing the user to kick the peripheral's sensitivity up or down with a north or south toggle -- the M.M.O 7 doesn't discard this feature, but instead swaps the bi-directional rocker for a standard button. This isn't a major inconvenience, as there are only four levels to switch between, but being able to step up and down was a bit more convenient than cycling through all four settings just to drop sensitivity down a notch. Still, the one-way rocker gets the job done; we didn't have any trouble hitting any of our pre-set configurations in the M.M.O. 7's 6,400 dpi range.


The M.M.O. seems to suffer a slight disadvantage on the customizability front as well -- although it features all of the same movable parts as its predecessor, the angle of the mouse's thumb rest can no longer be adjusted using the unit's included hex key. Although the mouse's pinkie guard and the thumb rest's sliding mechanism still use standard hex sockets, adjusting the thumb rest's pivot resistance now requires the use of a phillips screwdriver. This screw-swap is likely the device's largest fault, and while it's strange (and somewhat annoying), it's a minor inconvenience at best, though we have to wonder why the change was made in the first place. Update: We contacted Mad Catz about the change, and were told the mouse's pivot function was "removed" to lower the costs. We found the mouse was still capable of a pivoting the thumb rest with careful use of a screwdriver, however. Still, Mad Catz warns users not to remove this screw, so tweak at your own risk. The hex key still does its job everywhere else -- handily swapping out alternate components, tweaking the thumb rest's forward position and securing in the five six-gram weights in the rodent's belly.

Using the mouse is a predictably familiar affair -- its movable parts molded to our hand just as comfortably as Cyborg's earlier models, so much so that we almost had to remind ourselves we were playing with a new beast. New it is, though, exemplified by its bright colors and wild collection of new buttons. We downloaded Cyborg's pre-configured MMO profile pack and fired up some old game accounts, casting spells, firing phasers and looting our fallen foes with ease. With ten toggles within reach of our thumb, accessing inventory items, abilities and action slots was a breeze. Things got even easier when installed the M.M.O. 7's custom World of Warcraft plugin, a handy add-on that gave the mouse an in-game drag and drop interface for on-the-fly customization.


As great as the RAT / M.M.O. 7 hardware is, the peripheral owes a lot of its wonder to its companion software suite -- it allows users to load dozens of well crafted, freely available game profiles, or build their own custom control setup complete with keyboard mapping and macros. All of Mad Catz' Cyborg mice use the same program to customize their three "cyborg modes," or profile configurations that users can switch between on the fly. The M.M.O. 7 takes this a step further, adding a "mode shift" button just above the pinkie guard, effectively adding three additional profile configurations that can be toggled at any time. This gives the mouse up to 78 programable commands. Yowza. The M.M.O. 7 has enough room to program in all your major skills, and then some -- just knowing that competitive PVPers have access to this kind of technology makes us tremble with fear.

Suffice to say, hardcore MMO gamers won't have any problem finding a place to bind their favorite macro. Just because you can bind anything to the mouse's 13 programmable buttons six times over doesn't mean you should, however -- when using the MMO mouse for not-so massively multiplayer games, the temptation to over-customize got in our way, leading us to accidentally open a menu when we only wanted to activate precision aim. The software can do almost anything, but there's no accounting for bad profiles. A carefully crafted control scheme, however, is a beautiful thing.


The M.M.O. 7 holds the distinction of being the most different of the Cyborg mice. Although it shares the familiar customizable chassis of the RAT 7 and 9, it augments the original design with a host of new buttons, new features and a new programmable mode. It adds more than it takes away, and it takes very little. Although FPS-minded gamers familiar with the RAT series of mice may be put off by the 5D precession aim rocker's new position, this is ultimately a device built specifically for massively multiplayer online games, and it fits the bill. The plethora of programmable buttons and swappable profiles make managing the overwhelming options that MMO games offer a breeze, and manages to pack a lot of easily accessible functionality into a relatively small space. Like its predecessors, it's a premium mouse -- one with an MMO bent. It just leaves one question: is it worth the premium price? At $130, it's no snap decision -- but let's put it another way, hardcore gamer. How much have you spent on World of Warcraft over the last seven years? That's what we thought. Enjoy your new mouse.

Nokia Lumia 800 White hands-on

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 05:40 AM PST

Nokia Lumia 800 White hands-on

Today's been all about the white phones, and Nokia's new Lumia matches that glossy finish we saw on its near-identical twin, the white N9. Here, opposing the matte goodness of the rest of Lumia 800 family, the unibody shell has an almost-enamel feel on what we've heard is still polycarbonate material. From our brief play with the device, it's looking to be a pretty pervasive color choice to go alongside that pitch-black AMOLED screen. We know the phone is set to arrive later this month, blessing fans of blanc in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and another handful of European countries. See how its good looks stack up against the rest of the Lumia rainbow in our hands-on gallery below.

Nokia Lumia 800 White hands-on

Google's mysterious 'Solve for X' launching today? (video)

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 05:39 AM PST

Google's X Lab is the search giant's top-secret facility even its own employees didn't know about. It's believed to be working on driverless cars, internet connected appliances and Majel: a Star Trek-inspired rebuttal to Siri. It's also apparently behind the Solve for X website, which hints at a TED-style public-presentation site featuring the great and the good talking about "redefining problems into challenges." The video (embedded below) and the site's background seem to agree, given one of the big box-outs reads "What is a Solve for X talk." Richard DeVaul (a member of the "[X] Rapid Evaluation team") mentioned on his Google+ page that the videos would be launching at some point today. Presumably we can expect to see innovative new solutions on dealing with Climate Change, new Cancer Treatments and awkward silence if anyone mentions a Canadian super-soldier program.

Verizon and Redbox team up to launch streaming and physical media service later this year

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 05:10 AM PST

It once was a rumor but now it's real: Verizon and Redbox are joining forces on what is said to be the "best of both worlds" -- a service that will offer both physical media and streaming content for subscribers. Details are slim at this point but the supposed "Project Zoetrope" will offer DVD and Blu-ray media in addition to on-demand streaming plus downloadable content. The Netflix-like service will be launching in the second half of this year and, while "multi-platform" support for "devices" is mentioned, it's not stated whether any of those will be non-Verizon. Though, Big Reds' claims that it will "erase all technological boundaries" does make us slightly optimistic. Still, we'll have to wait a few more months to know for sure.

[Thanks, Kevin]

Show full PR text
Verizon and Coinstar's Redbox Form Joint Venture to Create New Consumer Choice for Video Entertainment

Joint Venture Will Offer the Best of Both Worlds - Physical and Digital - to All Consumers Nationwide

NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon and Coinstar, Inc. today announced the formation of a joint venture that will create a new choice for quality- and value-conscious consumers seeking a simple and affordable way to access the video entertainment they crave. The venture's services will offer all of the convenience, simplicity and value of Redbox® new release DVD and Blu-ray Disc® rentals combined with a new content-rich video on-demand streaming and download service from Verizon.

The joint venture plans to introduce the product portfolio in the second half of 2012. It will offer subscription services and more in an easy-to-use, flexible and affordable service that will allow all consumers across the U.S. to enjoy the new and popular entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the media and devices they prefer. Additional brand and product information will be revealed in the coming months.

"When you consider the core elements the parties bring to this venture – our powerful brands; our national rental kiosk footprint; our anytime, anywhere network presence; and our mutual commitment to customer-focused innovation – it's clear that Verizon and Redbox are a powerful entertainment team," said Bob Mudge, president of Verizon consumer and mass business markets.

"Consumers rely on Redbox for the latest new release movies at a great value, and our joint venture with Verizon will enable us to bring them even more value by offering expanded content offerings and greater flexibility for how and when they enjoy entertainment," said Paul Davis, chief executive officer of Coinstar, Inc. "This alliance is the result of a deliberate and strategic process to identify a partner who shares our commitment to delivering innovative solutions to consumers. We look forward to rolling out the shared benefits this venture will bring to consumers, retailers, and shareholders."

This venture between Verizon and Redbox will create the kind of national multi-platform product that customers are demanding from video entertainment service providers. It will leverage Verizon's industry-wide relationships with entertainment content providers, its advanced cloud computing technologies and state-of-the-art IP network infrastructure to distribute video on-demand content to its customers.

"The joint venture will combine the accessibility and value of Redbox with Verizon's vision for a borderless lifestyle – where consumers easily accomplish what they want or need to do, on their terms, through the power of the network," said Mudge. "Together, we are erasing old technology boundaries, freeing people to spontaneously enjoy the entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the devices and media they prefer, at home or away."

By offering instantly available online and mobile content with immediate access to physical media through rental kiosks, Verizon and Redbox will be uniquely positioned to deliver the best of both worlds – digital and physical – to consumers across the country.

The joint venture is a limited liability company with Verizon holding a 65 percent ownership share and Redbox holding a 35 percent ownership share at the outset.

Sony announces firmware update for PS Vita, maps and video apps coming this week

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:54 AM PST

Sony announced a pretty significant firmware update for the PlayStation Vita today, bringing mapping, video and added Mac support to its new console. Perhaps the most notable feature of the version 1.6 update is its new Map app, featured on the Vita's home screen. The application offers much of the functionality you'd expect to find in similar tools, including walking and driving directions, as well as satellite imagery. Previously capable of taking only static shots, the Vita's camera app will now support video as well, which seems only logical. Alongside this update is a new Content Manager app for Mac OS, which had previously been available for Windows only. The update will begin rolling out on February 8th, but you can get a preview of some screenshots at the source link below.

Cryoscope gadget simulates tomorrow's weather today (video)

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:28 AM PST

This multi-layered device can't shower you with hail or tan your outdoor-deprived complexion, regrettably. What it can do though, is deliver a direct haptic sensation of how warm or cold it'll be tomorrow, just in case you decide to venture out of your bedroom. An Arduino controller pulls in forecast data from the web and uses it to adjust a Peltier element and a cooling fan, which are housed along with a heat sink inside a neat and tactile aluminum box. The Cryoscope is the handiwork of industrial design student Robb Godshaw, and it's the reason he already knew he'd be wearing a skinny t-shirt and stripey socks in the video after the break.

Report: Google hires Apple exec to work on 'secret project'

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:44 AM PST

Google appears to have scored another coup in its ongoing rivalry with Apple, having reportedly lured one of the company's senior directors to its Mountain View headquarters. Simon Prakash, pictured above, has worked at Apple for more than eight years, most recently serving as the firm's senior director of product integrity. According to VentureBeat, however, that tenure has come to a close, now that Google has hired Prakesh to work on a "secret project." The report speculates that this project could be helmed by co-founder Sergey Brin, and that it may be mobile-related, though declarative statements were few and far between. Prior to arriving at Apple, Prakash served as director of engineering design validation at Cielo Communications, and held managerial positions at 3Com. VentureBeat claims he'll be starting work at Google today, though the company has yet to issue any statement on the matter. Once finalized, though, the hiring could help dispel some of those "no poach" accusations flying around federal courts.

Nokia confirms white Lumia 800, shipping without pigment this month

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:11 AM PST

Nokia does love teasing us with its albino-hued special editions, and so it did with the white Lumia 800 back in December. Now that phone is following the color-free road to retail later this month. Other than the eye-pleasing lack of color the phone looks to be identical to its rather more chromatic predecessors, with a 3.7-inch AMOLED display up front and a 1.4GHz processor inside. It looks good, but it just leaves us with one question: how long will we have to wait for a white Lumia 900?

Update: According to Nokia's Conversations blog, the phone will launch first in these countries: UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and Switzerland.
Nokia Lumia 800 in white


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White Nokia Lumia 800 available this February

Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced today that the Nokia Lumia 800 will be available in white, beginning later this month.

With Windows ® Phone 7.5 software on board, the white Nokia Lumia 800 features head-turning design and the best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. It features a 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design, and a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on leading Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music.

Lumia smartphones include signature Nokia experiences optimized for Windows Phone, including Nokia Drive, which delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device (PND) with free, turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated in-car-user-interface; and Nokia Music introducing MixRadio*, a free mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally-relevant music. Windows Marketplace also gives Lumia users more than 55 000 apps to choose from.

"Since we began selling it late last year, the Nokia Lumia 800 has received rave reviews around the world," said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President of Product Marketing, Nokia. "Now in white, the Lumia 800 brings with it an even more premium look and feel with its gloss finish, but packed with power and performance underneath its sleek body."

More information about the Nokia Lumia 800 can be found at www.nokia.com/lumia800.

*Availability of Mix Radio varies market by market

Samsung confirms Galaxy Nexus White arriving in UK mid-February, misses the snow

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:53 AM PST

Well, we thought it would already be here, but it looks like Samsung had other ideas. It's confirmed that the HSPA+ version of its premier Android 4.0 phone will be available across UK retailers from February 13th -- that's next week. The suitably snowy smartphone packs all the specifications of the original and, well, it just suits that Ice Cream Sandwich OS a little bit better, doesn't it?
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SAMSUNG LAUNCHES THE GALAXY NEXUS WHITE

Samsung's latest Android device coming to UK shores 13th February


6th February 2012, London, UK – Samsung has today confirmed the availability of a white variant of the Galaxy Nexus in the UK. The first smartphone to feature Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy Nexus White can be bought in a range of stores across the country from 13th February.

Simon Stanford, UK & IRE Telecommunications & Networks Division said: "After much speculation, we are pleased to announce the availability of the Galaxy Nexus White which follows the great reception the phone has received since it was launched back in November. One of the things we at Samsung pride ourselves on is the choice we offer customers, and we've enjoyed huge success to date by introducing white variants of our most popular models to our product portfolio."

The Galaxy Nexus™ White offers customers all the features found in the original Galaxy Nexus, from the 4.65'' HD Super AMOLED display which boasts a market-leading resolution of 720p (1280x720), to the 5 megapixel camera and super-fast 1.2GHz dual core processor and HSPA+ connectivity so owners can connect to and browse the internet quickly and easily when they're out and about.



As the first smartphone to run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy Nexus White offers customers an entirely new look and feel, including a redesigned user interface with improved multi-tasking, notifications, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC support and a full web browsing experience. In addition to a rounded slim design, the Galaxy Nexus White also introduces new innovations such as 'Face Unlock', which uses facial recognition to unlock the phone. Whilst integration with Google+™ means owners can easily stay in touch with friends and family and talk over Google+ Messenger.

Crytek's Gface hits beta, wants you to stream your games, life

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:25 AM PST

Facebook games just not doing it for you anymore? Than put on your gameface -- or log into it, rather. Gface is an upcoming social network, powered by Crytek, that seems to be gunning for OnLive (or maybe Gaikai)'s cloud gaming foothold. Yes, streaming's the name of the game here -- Gface is powered by Crytek's new Seed Engine, a cloud technology platform that lets users share context aware game sessions, video seeds and personal media. Details are hazy at the moment, but if the network's new beta subscription page is anything to go by, Gface will allow friends to socialize, share live video feeds and stream casual and high-performance games in both single player and cross-platform multiplayer modes. This real-time sharing setup is designed to be a hardware independent, cross-platform network that runs in your browser, powered by the GFace experience plug-in; imagery on the teaser page suggests you'll be able to seamlessly pick up a game of "Warface" on your PC, smartphone or tablet. There are plenty of questions left to ponder about the budding social network, but one picks our brain: will it run Crytek's Crysis? Hit the source link below to sign up for the beta, and if you get in -- let us know.

83-year old woman gets replacement 3D printed titanium jaw, makes her the coolest member of the bridge club

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 01:34 AM PST

3D printers are continuing to force their way into medical circles and the latest beneficiary is an 83-year old woman. She's the first to receive a titanium jaw crafted by those not-so dimensionally-challenged printers. The method was developed by the BIOMED Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium and creates the lower jaw replacement from layer-upon-layer of titanium dust. A computer-controlled laser then ensures that the correct molecules are fused together. The technique, the first to replace the entire jaw, takes mere hours to make the substitute choppers, while previous options would take several days. Although the final product weighs a bit more than its natural predecessor, but that didn't stop the patient returning close to "normal speaking and swallowing" the day after the operation.

(Photo credit: ZDNET.de)

HTC's 2011 Q4: good summer, bad winter

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:33 AM PST

HTC's big 2011 was limited to those warm summer months, when everyone wanted a smartphone for the beach. Now the accountants have confirmed HTC's initial statement: fourth quarter revenues were down 2.49 percent (year on year). It made 101.42 billion Taiwanese dollars (just under $3.5 billion) in the last three months of the year, which looks worse than it is because of the blockbuster 135.8 Taiwanese dollar takings in Q3. Overall year on year revenue was up by 67.09 percent, but profits were down 11.88 percent, with the company saying the outlook won't get any better in the first quarter, but should pick up when it begins the process of shedding a few pounds phones.

Director of Xbox Live policy and enforcement to leave Microsoft after 17 happy years

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:15 AM PST


Stephen Toulouse, the man responsible for policing the not-so Wild West that we like to call Xbox Live is calling it a day. Announcing the news on his personal site, he told readers that the split was amicable, adding that he had no particular plans beyond visiting his family and taking it easy. Microsoft has declined to comment on any eventual successor just yet, but released a statement saying that "the Xbox Live Enforcement Squad will continue their work to help ensure a safer and more secure experience on Xbox Live for our nearly 40 million members." Admittedly, the online squad's had more luck than a certain competitor.

iBooks Author gets new EULA, aims to clear writer's block

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 10:03 PM PST

We've waxed lyrical about iBooks Author at the technological level, but a good self-publishing platform counts for nothing if authors are put off by its terms and conditions. A particular source of antagonism so far has been the notion that, if an author decides to charge a fee for their iBook, then Apple will claim exclusive distribution rights and prevent them from publishing their work anywhere else. Check out the More Coverage links below and you'll see that a number of writers tore up Apple's licensing agreement and flung it into the proverbial overflowing trash can. Now though, Cupertino has done some re-writing of its own and come up with a new EULA. It clarifies that Apple will only demand exclusive distribution rights over .ibooks files that are created with iBooks Author, rather than the book's content itself. It states that "this restriction will not apply to the content of the work when distributed in [another] form." So, there it is -- writers everywhere can happily go back to tearing up their own work again.

Server outage turns Harmony Link into a paperweight

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 07:42 PM PST

Harmony Link Error
The Cloud is great place right? It's all puppy dogs and ice cream, until it isn't. We'd suspect that's what Harmony Link users who ditched their old school remotes for an iOS device are thinking right about now. You see while typical Harmony remotes are only programmed via MyHarmony.com, the Harmony Link apparently requires a quick phone home to work at all. That's according to a number of users at Logitech's forums starting yesterday morning claiming their Harmony Link is now a "very nice and sleek paperweight," only showing an error when they try to turn on the TV for their not-so-super Super Bowl party tonight. While we're sure this is a temporary problem and the servers will be restored before too long, it does make you wonder why Logitech would design a solution that wouldn't work at all when a server can't be contacted.

[Thanks, Kevin]

How would you change the Motorola Droid RAZR?

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 06:26 PM PST

Phones, phones, phones: the burden of autumnal launches for a raft of handsets is that it makes our post-mortem strand a little repetitive. This week's cellular telephone du-jour is Motorola's Droid RAZR, a "7.1mm thick" slab that hopes you neither notice nor mention that 10.6mm hump on the top end. Ludicrous claims about its waistline aside, it oozes materials quality, built from Gorilla Glass, Kevlar and diamond-cut aluminum. It wasn't the most comfortable to hold in our fleshy palm, but it compensated for that with great performance and LTE. Of course, that battery could have been bigger, but where would you stick it? What would you sacrifice (and you do have to sacrifice something) in order to improve this handset? Ladies and gentlemen, it's over to you.

Inhabitat's Week in Green: electric taxis, paper robots and a cathedral of 55,000 LEDs

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 04:30 PM PST

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

This week Inhabitat saw the light as we reported on several spellbinding new projects around the world -- including an incredible cathedral made from 55,000 LEDs and a glowing prefab pod building modeled after the genetic structure of plankton. We also showcased a luminous forest of thousands of "Frozen Trees" and a high-flying F-Light made from a recycled airplane, and also reported on Toshiba expanding its line of LEDs. Meanwhile, as the lights fire up Lucas Oil Stadium we shared seven ways Super Bowl 46 is going green, took a look at the first organic concessions ever to offered at a Super Bowl, and got things cooking with six delicious recipes for game time snacks

Eco transportation also blasted off from the starting line as London's first zero-emission electric taxis hit the streets, and Stanford unveiled plans for electrified roads that automatically charge EVs. We also saw Scotland launch the world's first hybrid sea-going ferries, while Agence 360 did cyclists a favor by designing a nifty ultra-compact foldable bike helmet. Meanwhile, Chevrolet announced plans to put environmental impact stickers on all of their cars by 2013, the sun-powered solarGT car set off on a race across the United States, and we brought you a gorgeous set of long-exposure photos that make speeding trains look like laser beams.

In other news, renewable energy was a hot topic this week as researchers at MIT found a way to make solar panels from grass clippings, another team of scientists developed a hip-hop powered biomedical sensor and Britain mulled plans to install a new breed of radioactive waste-recycling nuclear reactors that could power the UK for 500 years. We also brought you several fun designs for aspiring little builders - a set of awesome paper robots and an industrial workbench for tots. Finally, since Valentine's day is around the corner we shared 10 red-hot gifts, along with 14 sexy sustainable skivvies.

DASH promises stutter free streaming video over LTE, hopes you don't care about quality

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 03:19 PM PST

We've all been there: fire up a clip from YouTube or a movie on Netflix and things start out great. But, then, after just a few moments, that LTE connection starts to give up the ghost and suddenly you're faced with unbearable stuttering or a video that just dies mid stream. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications are looking to solve that conundrum with DASH, or Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP. The idea is actually surprisingly simple -- files of different sizes and qualities will be available depending on signal strength and network load, and the stream will be able to seamlessly switch between them as these variables change. While this sounds like a win for both consumer and carriers, we're sure there are a few of you out there who just want the highest quality possible, even if that means waiting forever for that HD clip of the all accordion cover of Take On Me to buffer. Full PR is after the break.


Show full PR text
Judder-free videos on the smartphone

Press Release Feb 03, 2012

Overloaded cellular networks can get annoying – especially when you want to watch a video on your smartphone. An optimised Radio Resource Manager will soon be able to help network operators accommodate heavy network traffic. Researchers will present their solution at the GSMA Mobile World Congress from 27 February to 1 March, 2012 in Barcelona (Hall 2, Booth E41).

The journey for the family holiday can be a long one. To avoid the incessant "Are we there yet?", stressed parents gladly hand their smartphones to the back seat – so the kids can watch videos or movies on the internet. While modern technology provides for entertainment, it occasionally reaches its limits and then the whining returns: The movies sometimes judder, or are completely interrupted. The cause may be twofold: If the user is standing at the basin of a valley and has poor reception, the data stream transmission rate is inadequate and the cellphone cannot download the data fast enough. Another cause may be network overload – if too many users download massive data volumes simultaneously, then the mobile radio cell becomes congested.

The standard Radio Resource Managers in use today, installed in every network cell, are designed to prevent this: They check which user needs what data, and how much capacity their transmission requires – and are supposed to ensure that each user swiftly obtains the requested data. However, as the Internet is increasingly being used to watch videos, things can get a bit "haywire", and function only moderately, or not at all. This is because videos are beyond the grasp of the cellular networks; they don't "know" how large the downloaded data volumes are and what requirements the video stream has. Is the mobile device just loading a densely compressed mini-sequence, or a 90 minute video at the highest quality?

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI in Berlin have recently optimised these Radio Resource Managers. "To do so, we combined Long Term Evolution, or LTE, the new cellular standard that is replacing UMTS, with a format for web streaming called Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, or 'DASH' for short," says Dr. Thomas Schierl, group manager, Multimedia Communications at HHI. Among other things, the DASH standard makes videos and images available in various qualities, or in other words, it allows different file sizes. This means the user can select different video qualities and define how quickly websites are established or videos are loaded.

"Soon, the DASH standard can play to its full strength, even on cellular networks," says Thomas Wirth, group manager at HHI. If the user clicks on the preview in order to start a video, the transmitting stations and the mobile end device automatically check reception and the volume of traffic on the network. The advantage: If reception is poor or the network is overloaded, then the transmitting stations and the mobile receiver device adjust the quality of the video in a manner that allows the user to see the film without judders. Poor reception or an overloaded network will slightly diminish just the image quality of the video. As soon as the connection improves, the image quality also increases again.

Network operators also benefit from optimised Radio Resource Managers: They can exploit the resources of a network cell better than before. "With our mechanism, resources can be optimally distributed, and hence saved," says Wirth. "The saved resources can then be allocated to others. This means we can increase the number of users that can be serviced." Researchers have already completed a prototype of the optimised Radio Resource Manager.

Switched On: New World Recorder

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 02:00 PM PST

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.


When it comes to time-shifting television viewing, the conversation these days usually involves premium streaming services -- namely, Netflix and Hulu Plus. But consumers routinely shell out more than they do for either of these services -- in fact, sometimes more than for both of them combined -- simply to have more convenient access to the television from their existing cable or satellite subscriptions. Not only that, they're often willing to put up with a large, relatively noisy (and failure-prone!) box for this privilege. That box is the digital video recorder.

The market for retail boxes is dominated by pioneer TiVo.

Most of the DVRs in American homes come courtesy of cable providers; the market for retail boxes is dominated by TiVo, though a number of upstarts have challenged its supremacy over the years. Though Replay TV was the company's first serious rival, this list of competitors later expanded to include various niche and PC-related products like Archos TV, the Monsoon Vulkano, SnapStream, Home Theater PCs with Windows Media Center, or Sage TV (now lying in wait at Google). A decade ago, one of the more ambitious "TiVo-killers" debuted at CES: the Moxi Media Center. Having changed hands twice, it's still around, but the website offers no obvious way to purchase it -- only a phone number. Nonetheless, hope springs eternal at CES, where this year's show saw no less than four devices aimed at time-shifting programming already coming at your TV. None of them appear poised to topple the cable DVR hegemony, but they all bring something new to the party.

Fisher-Price Kid Tough Portable DVR


This brightly colored kid-proof video viewer is neither the first such recorder nor Mattel's foray into digital video players. Hasbro released the abysmal VuGo video player for kids back in 2005. Its chunky frame allowed for playback of even rougher video recorded from video sources or downloaded from a PC via USB. The VuGo was a response to Mattel's equally-crummy Juice Box, which was itself a response to Hasbro's once-thriving VideoNow disc-based player. Both products were commercial duds, but attracted some interest from the hacker community.

This Kid Tough Portable DVR, though, promises to offer higher resolution on its 3.5-inch display and even timing of recordings, making it more of a true DVR (albeit, one with all the scheduling sophistication of a VCR). When it arrives mid-year, Mattel intends to bundle it with headphones, a docking station, car charger and a case for about $150, which could be a tempting price for parents who want nothing more than to wrest their smartphones back from their toddlers' hands.

Simple.TV


The whole point of a DVR is to feast upon the choicest morsels in the banquet that is full-pay TV, is it not? Not for the $150 Simple.TV, which its makers describe as "a lovely little box that gobbles up oodles of TV" and then delivers it to a range of connected devices such as smartphones and tablets. Simple.TV is something of a cross between a SiliconDust HDHomeRun and a Monsoon Vulkano: a DVR aimed at cable cord-cutters and "cord-nevers."

In a twist, though, you'll need to pony up $5 per month if you want to make the most of Simple.TV's capabilities, which include remote streaming, an electronic programming guide and series recordings. And if you'd like to get a taste of the company's user interface chops, the outfit sells a $30 add-on for Windows Media Center that can convert recorded shows to podcasts and stream them to a browser on the local network.

Hopper


Dish's forthcoming multi-room DVR is named after its newly minted kangaroo mascot (preciously, its secondary room client boxes are called Joeys). However, there's no kid stuff behind this powerful new DVR solution from Dish. A new HD user interface tunes the service and provides access to shows on its two-terabyte hard drive, while SRS TruVolume helps prevent commercials from disturbing your couch potato-dom. The Hopper also ties in to other members of the larger Dish / Echostar family, with the ability to receive Blockbuster@Home titles even without a broadband connection. Additionally, it can send live TV and recorded shows to a host of mobile devices using Sling technology from Echostar.

The most intriguing feature, though, is Prime Time Anytime, which takes advantage of the Hopper's large hard drive by automatically recording all shows on the four most popular broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox) for a rolling eight days. The idea is that if someone recommends a show to you, you can check it out without having to record it in advance. Or if an episode is coming up, you can at least catch up on what happened the previous week to get a feel for the season's story arc or learn more about the characters. PrimeTime Anytime forms a partial bridge between the selection of a DVR and the convenience of an on-demand service like Hulu.

Given Dish's sizable customer base, it's a sure bet the Hopper will be the most popular of the new DVRs shown off at CES. But there's one other with an interesting enough backstory and proposition that it deserves its own attention in Switched On. And that it shall have, in the not-too-distant future.

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) is executive director and principal analyst of the NPD Connected Intelligence service at The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 shots orchestrally maneuvers out of the darkness

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 11:41 AM PST

Would you look at that? According to PhotoRumors, that chunk of retro beauty is purportedly a full-on snap of Olympus' new OM-D Micro Four Thirds shooter (from an Amazon Japan listing that's since been pulled) affixed with its optional battery grip (adding what appears to be a secondary shutter button). That, or someone knows exactly what makes us go "Oooh." The chunky '70s stylings make us fear we'd abandon our career to go become a war photographer if one of those was placed in our hands. 43Rumors believes the unit will hold a 16.1 megapixel EDR CMOS, beefier than the 12.3 sensor inside the PEN E-PL3, but we hope this new body (however beautiful it is) doesn't spell the end for the dinky PEN series. If that wasn't enough, that Amazon listing we mentioned also pointed out a 1.44-megapixel electronic viewfinder, a tiltable OLED display on back and a total weight of 454 grams with its kit lens attached. We've got a few more shots in the gallery below, with others rocking some serious cropping, but each is more deliciously teasing than the last.
Olympus OM-D E-M5 leak gallery


Joe Pollicino contributed to this report.
at 11:57 AM

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