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- Diamond hones DOE X-ray laser howitzer to razor-sharp precision
- ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A Ultrabook review: a high-res display, and a much-improved keyboard
- Inhabitat's Week in Green: Eindhoven's Evoluon Center, folding compact cars and the best of 3D printing
- Crackle brings its movie-streaming party to Windows Phone
- Fisker Karma hybrid EV ignites in parking space as owner returns from grocery run
- Barnes & Noble cuts prices across its Nook lineup, vies for your budget tablet affection
- Disney researchers can now digitally shave your face, clone it for animatronics (video)
- Lenovo reportedly prepping Intel and ARM versions of IdeaPad Yoga transforming tablet
- Mobile Miscellany: week of August 6th, 2012
- Ask Engadget: best 'Find my Phone' app for Android?
- Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Student Edition let loose at Best Buy ahead of schedule, gets unboxed on video
- NASA's Curiosity rover receives long-distance OTA update, 'brain transplant' on Mars
- MIT researchers develop highly agile autonomous plane (video)
- Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art
- DARPA's Captive Air Amphibious Transporter can drive on water, help during disaster relief (video)
- Researchers make unsuitable parts work as solar cells, could lead to cheaper panels
- Spotify Radio gets thumbs up, thumbs down on desktop
- Researchers propose à la carte internet services, overhaul for web infrastructure
- Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video)
- Audi R8 e-tron to feature digital AMOLED rear-view mirror
- Apple details 2010 presentation to Samsung on Android patent infringement, licensing offer
- Eurocom intros powerhouse Scorpius laptop, touts more video memory than most desktops
- FCC Fridays: August 10, 2012
- Sony LT25i Tsubasa pops up in benchmarks, may swell the high-speed Xperia ranks
- Census Bureau releases first mobile app, offers real-time stats on the US economy
- Motorola starts Android 4.0 upgrades for international RAZR owners
- LG Eclipse (LS970) pops up in FCC docs, ready to prop up Sprint's LTE network
- NPD: Xbox 360 ruled a steadily declining video game empire in July
- Vizio Thin + Light review (14-inch, 2012): how do the company's first laptops measure up?
- Crysis 3 trailer shows off Crytek's CryENGINE 3, blows your mind in the process (video)
- Adidas Social Media Barricade shoe concept moves tweets to the track (video)
- DirecTV quietly updates iPad app, HR34 DVR
| Diamond hones DOE X-ray laser howitzer to razor-sharp precision Posted: 12 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT The US Department of Energy's SLAC accelerator lab already has a pretty useful X-ray laser -- the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). But, recent modifications to the device have scientists drooling over its new found potential. Using a thin wafer of diamond, the Stanford-run lab filtered the beam to a lone frequency, then amplified it in a process called "self-seeding." That's given the world's most powerful X-ray laser even more punch by tossing out unneeded wavelengths which were reducing its intensity. The tweaks allow scientists across many fields to finesse and image matter at the atomic level, giving them more power to study and change it. According to the lab, researchers who came to observe the experiment from other X-ray laser facilities "were grinning from ear to ear" at the possibility of integrating the tech into their own labs. The SLAC team claims they could still add 10 times more punch to the LCLS with further optimization, putting the laser in a class by itself -- X-ray-wise, anyway. WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL X-RAY LASER BEAM REFINED TO SCALPEL PRECISION "Self-seeding" promises to speed discoveries, add new scientific capabilities Menlo Park, Calif. - With a thin sliver of diamond, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have transformed the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) into an even more precise tool for exploring the nanoworld. The improvements yield laser pulses focused to higher intensity in a much narrower band of X-ray wavelengths, and may enable experiments that have never before been possible. In a process called "self-seeding," the diamond filters the laser beam to a single X-ray color, which is then amplified. Like trading a hatchet for a scalpel, the advance will give researchers more control in studying and manipulating matter at the atomic level and will deliver sharper images of materials, molecules and chemical reactions. "The more control you have, the finer the details you can see," said Jerry Hastings, a SLAC scientist and co-author on the research, published this week in Nature Photonics. "People have been talking about self-seeding for nearly 15 years. The method we incorporated at SLAC was proposed in 2010 byGianluca Geloni, Vitali Kocharyan and Evgeni Saldin of the European XFEL and DESY research centers in Germany. When our team from SLAC and Argonne National Laboratory built it, we were surprised by how simple, robust and cost-effective the engineering turned out to be." Hastings added that laboratories around the world are already planning to incorporate this important advance into their own X-ray laser facilities. Self-seeding has the potential to produceX-ray pulses with significantly higher intensity than the current LCLS performance. The increased intensity in each pulse could be used to probe deep into complex materials to help answer questions about exotic substances like high-temperature superconductors or intricate electronic states like those found in topological insulators. The LCLS generates its laser beam by accelerating bunches of electrons to nearly the speed of light and setting them on a zig-zag path with a series of magnets. This forces the electrons to emit X-rays, which are gathered into laser pulses that are a billion times brighter than any available before, and fast enough to scan samples in quadrillionths of a second. Without self-seeding these X-ray laser pulses contain a range of wavelengths (or colors) in an unpredictable pattern, not all of which experimenters can use. Until now, creating a narrower wavelength band at LCLS meant subtracting the unwanted wavelengths, resulting in a substantial loss of intensity. To create a precise X-ray wavelength band and make the LCLS even more "laser-like," researchers installed a slice of diamond crystal halfway down the 130-meter bank of magnets where the X-rays are generated. Producing the narrower wavelength band is just the beginning. "The resulting pulses could pack up to 10 times more intensity when we finish optimizing the system and add more undulators," said Zhirong Huang, a SLAC accelerator physicist and co-author, who has been a major contributor to the project. LCLS has already begun accepting proposals to use self-seeding for future experiments. The first tests of the LCLS self-seeding system have generated intense excitement among scientists the world over. Representatives from other X-ray laser facilities, including Swiss FEL, SACLA in Japan and the European XFEL, came to help, and also learn how to implement it at their own sites. According to Paul Emma, a co-author who was a key figure in the original commissioning of the LCLS and in implementing self-seeding, "the entire group of observers was smiling from ear to ear." Emma, now working at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, has a history of making tough jobs look easy, but hewould only say, "I was very happy to see it work." The team included collaborators from the Technical Institute for Superhard and Novel CarbonMaterials in Troitsk, Russia, which supplied the diamond filter, and Argonne National Laboratory, which designed the vacuum chamber to house it and the precision motion controls to adjust it. The research was supported by the DOE's Office of Science. SLAC is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research. Located in Menlo Park, California, SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. To learn more, please visit www.slac.stanford.edu . DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Formore information, please visit science.energy.gov . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A Ultrabook review: a high-res display, and a much-improved keyboard Posted: 12 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT More InfoASUS made a grand entrance into the Ultrabook race with the Zenbook Prime UX31E, which brought a sleek design and lovely, high-res screen. That machine was one of our favorites in what was still a budding category, though we took issue with the shallow keyboard and uncomfortable touchpad. The company recently started shipping its new Zenbook Prime series, including the 11-inch UX21A we checked out a few months ago. But there's also a follow-up to the 13-inch UX31E on the market: the ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A. This laptop offers a retooled keyboard, Ivy Bridge chips and a 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display, starting at $1,069. So how does the new 13-inch Zenbook stack up in a crowded field of high-end ultraportables? Join us past the break for the full report. Look and feel At first glance, the UX31A looks very similar to its predecessor. This Ultrabook sports the Zenbook line's signature spun metal lid, all-metal chassis and wafer-thin profile. The laptop feels pretty sturdy, though the lid is a bit wobbly, and the machine picks up scratches quite easily.
While ASUS stuck with the original Zenbook design for the UX31A's chassis, open the lid and you'll notice that the keyboard is a horse of a different color. Rather than the white metal keys on the original UX31, this layout is black -- and ASUS added in backlighting. As always, though, we'll address the feel of the keyboard a bit later. At 2.9 pounds and 0.3 inches thick, the UX31A is super light and quite manageable for jaunts on the road. Those vital stats compare favorably to other 13-inch Ultrabooks: even lightweights like the Acer Aspire S3 (three pounds, 0.5 inches) and the MacBook Air (2.96 pounds, 0.11 to 0.68 inches) are slightly heftier. Of course, the 13-inch Samsung Series 9 is always there to make perfectly thin systems feel chubby; at 2.55 pounds and 0.5 inches thick, it's still the gold standard in svelteness. Unlike the 11-inch UX21A, the UX31A has room for an SD card reader, which sits on the left edge of the machine along with a USB 3.0 port and the combo audio jack. The right side of the system is home to another USB 3.0 connection, plus a mini-VGA port and a micro-HDMI port. Keyboard and touchpad As we mentioned, ASUS gave the UX31's keyboard a complete overhaul, swapping the flat metal keys for a slightly rounded layout (with black buttons this time). The change isn't just cosmetic -- it offers 12 percent more travel and provides a much more comfortable typing experience than the previous-gen Zenbooks. We typed much of this review on the laptop, with the keys only rarely failing to register a press. ASUS also added backlighting, which is a welcome change. You can toggle the lighting on and off by pressing F3 and F4 (these are secondary functions, so you'll have to hit Fn as well).
Spoiler alert: the trackpad is one of the main things holding us back from giving the UX31A a resounding two thumbs up. We were unimpressed by the one on the UX31E, and though ASUS made some tweaks with the UX31A, it's still not great. When you click on a tab or an icon, for example, the trackpad will often open the adjacent item or simply not register the click at all. Scrolling isn't a problem, though other gestures like pinch-to-zoom stutter too much. ASUS seems to be aware of these issues, and has already released several updates to remedy them, but even with the latest drivers installed we still found the trackpad pretty unreliable. That said, the hardware itself feels nice; the touchpad's integrated touch button is neither too stiff nor too mushy. Display and soundThe UX31A boasts a 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display, and it's truly one of the best panels we've seen on an Ultrabook. Viewing angles are wide, with images only washing out when you tip the screen ridiculously far forward or back. The matte finish is partly to thank for that, and it means glare isn't a huge issue. Colors look crisp and vivid, which makes watching movies and paging through websites a treat. That said, you may feel the need to zoom in on web pages and text-heavy documents, as the high pixel count makes everything appear smaller than usual. The UX31A is also available with a 1,600 x 900 screen, though we strongly recommend going for the higher-res option.
We weren't impressed by the UX31A's built-in speakers, which use Bang & Olufsen's ICEpower technology but fail to pack enough power for more than one or two people to enjoy music or movies. More than just being on the quiet side, though, sound on the UX31A sounds tinny and canned. Sure, that's not unusual for Ultrabooks, but we've seen several systems, such as the Toshiba Satellite U845W, provide more impressive audio oomph given their slim sizes, and it would be great if ASUS matched this laptop's top-notch display with a better listening experience. Performance
The UX31A's 1.7GHz Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB ADATA SSD pave the way to a solid showing in benchmark tests. Its score of 12,494 in PCMark Vantage is not only significantly higher than the last-gen UX31's 10,508, it's also better than the numbers notched by other premium 13-inchers like the Samsung Series 9. Still, the Acer Aspire S5, with a Core i7 CPU and dual 128GB SSDs, outpaced the UX31A by a slim margin. On 3DMark06, the UX31A came in at 4,989. Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 is the name of the game for most Ultrabooks these days -- unless you step up to an NVIDIA-equipped configuration, that is -- and in general it offers good enough performance for casual gaming. Still, the UX31A's result is a tad lower than the Samsung Series 9's, while the MacBook Air beats it by nearly 1,000 points, but many other 13-inchers have scored even lower. While playing through Batman: Arkham City, we saw frame rates in the 45 to 60 fps range, and World of Warcraft ran at 40 fps with graphics set to "Good." And the UX31A was no slowpoke in everyday use, taking a reasonable 20 seconds to boot, and swiftly handling our multitasking workload across two browsers and several programs. Battery life
The UX31A'S 50Wh battery logged six hours and five minutes on our video rundown test, which, as you most probably know, involves playing a video on loop with WiFi on and display brightness set to 65 percent. That's hardly a poor showing, but it doesn't quite take the cake from the 13-inch Samsung Series 9, whose seven-hour runtime is the longest we've recorded for a laptop in this class. Software and warrantyThis machine has its fair share of bloatware, including a trial of McAfee Internet Security (you'll want to disable the pop-ups) and a suite of ASUS-branded applications such as Vibe Fun Center for finding music, games, apps and books. The laptop also includes the standard Windows utilities, including Media Center, DVD Maker and XPS Viewer, while Internet Explorer comes with a heap of distracting toolbars. We enjoyed using the UX31A a lot more once we pruned away these unnecessary programs. ASUS offers a one-year warranty with the UX31A, and that includes 24-hour phone support and accidental damage coverage. Configuration options and the competition The laptop we reviewed, the UX31A-DB51, ships with a 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and Intel HD Graphics. That model will cost $1,099. For $1,399, you get a Core i7 processor and $1,599 gets you a Core i7 CPU along with 256GB of solid-state storage. In addition to the UX31A, ASUS is selling the Zenbook Prime UX32A, which starts at $769 with a Core i3 CPU, a 320GB hard drive / 24GB SSD and a 1,366 x 768 display. There's also the $1,299 UX32VD, which is similar to the UX31A reviewed here, except it has an NVIDIA GT620M GPU and a hybrid hard drive. Starting at $1,300, this year's 13-inch Samsung Series 9 is one of the best premium Ultrabooks you can buy right now. The impossibly slim, sub-three-pound design is a huge boon, as is its long battery life and fast performance. You're looking at a Core i7 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, and its matte, 1,600 x 900 screen is second only to the UX31A's IPS display. You'll have to settle for a standard-res 1,366 x 768 display, but HP's Envy Spectre XT, starting at $1,099, offers comparable specs in a 3.1-pound chassis. The CPU, SSD and Intel HD Graphics 4000 are exactly what you'll find on the UX31A, but its software selection is more generous, as it ships with full editions of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. For $1,199 and up, the 13-inch MacBook Air offers a 1.8GHz Core i5 CPU, the same 128GB of solid-state storage and a 1,440 x 900 display. Though that panel can't compete with the UX31A's IPS technology and higher pixel density, the Air does offer a superior keyboard and touchpad. Wrap-up When ASUS first released the UX31E last fall, we found plenty to like in its striking design, high-quality display and brisk performance. The addition of backlighting and a more comfortable keyboard -- not to mention the step up to Ivy Bridge and Intel HD Graphics 4000 -- makes the whole package considerably better. But that doesn't mean the Zenbook Prime UX31A is now the best. To claim that title, it needs a more usable trackpad, above all else. We still think the MacBook Air is a better all-around ultraportable, as it offers a more comfortable touchpad and keyboard in a similarly attractive package, though we we wish it packed an IPS, 1080p display like the one on the UX31A. And though it's considerably more expensive, you might also be happier with the Samsung Series 9, which lasts longer on a charge, rocks an impressive display of its own and sports a more reliable trackpad. Still, given all the UX31A has to offer, chances are you'll be pleased with your purchase. Just evaluate your patience for temperamental touchpads before you pull the trigger. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 12 Aug 2012 07:23 AM PDT 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. As we enter mid-August, millions of people will load up the car and head out to the beach for summer vacation. But no matter how much energy you put into building a sandcastle, it's unlikely to be as impressive as the structures produced by Stone Spray, a solar-powered, robotic 3D printer that can create entire buildings out of sand. It's hard to deny that 3D printing has the ability to change the world -- especially after learning about a two-year-old girl who gained the use of her arms with the aid of a 3D-printed robotic exoskeleton (she calls them her "magic arms"). We're excited about 3D printing's potential to build sculptural, eco-friendly forms, but that isn't the only type of green building we've been monitoring over at Inhabitat. Over in Europe and Egypt, architecture students are putting the final touches on their Solar Decathlon 2012 projects. One of our early favorites is the University of Porto's Casa em Movimento, a modular home that's almost entirely covered in solar panels. Over in the Netherlands we spotted Eindhoven's Evoluon Center, which looks like a massive flying saucer that's about to take flight. And here in the US, we were excited to peep some beautiful new renderings of One World Trade Center, showing New York City's tallest new building from a number of different vantage points. Green technology isn't limited to architecture and design, though. For many of us, the iPhone has become an indispensable communication device -- and now a new app developed by Lapka can measure environmental radiation and whether or not your food is organic, turning your smartphone into a tool for good health as well. "Constrvct," another nifty app produced by Continuum Clothing, will enable you to turn a favorite photo into a piece of clothing. America watched with bated breath as the Curiosity Rover touched down on Mars, inspiring a few enterprising geeks at BattleBricks to immortalize the rover in miniature Lego form. One of the most anticipated new green cars, MIT's Hiriko Fold city car -- an ultra compact car that folds into an upright position -- is set to hit the market next year for the reasonable price of $16,000. For high rollers, Aston Martin has teamed up with Factor Bikes to create a two-wheeled version of its iconic One-77 Coupe that will cost a whopping $39,000. It was also a big week for lighting news as we learned that compact fluorescent light bulbs emit potentially harmful UV radiation -- another good reason to make the switch to LEDs. In one of the most innovative new uses of LEDs, Zoon Designs has created LED handrails that light the way while transforming any common stairwell into something out of the movie Tron. And in another equally interesting use of light emitting diodes, German designer Viktor Alexander Kolbig has developed a living lamp that can be controlled by lightly touching its petals and leaves. But some of our favorite designs are the ones that do social good, like Olafur Eliasson's Little Sun -- a portable solar-powered lamp that's being distributed to people who live without electricity worldwide. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crackle brings its movie-streaming party to Windows Phone Posted: 12 Aug 2012 05:31 AM PDT Popular video app Crackle has wormed its way on to an impressive number of platforms, and now we can add Windows Phone to that list. The ad-supported streaming service offers access to films such as Pineapple Express, Layer Cake as well as popular TV series' like Seinfeld. As always the app is free, and it's available from the Market Place, like, now. Point your phone at the source and as Crackle would say, "It's on." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fisker Karma hybrid EV ignites in parking space as owner returns from grocery run Posted: 12 Aug 2012 02:44 AM PDT Fisker Automotive can't seem to catch break -- because its Karma hybrid EV sedan has yet again become too hot. Similar to an incident last spring that left a model burnt to near smithereens and damaged its owner's house, the Karma above caught fire in a Woodside, CA parking lot while powered off. Jalopnik was to first to get word of the incident, noting that the damage remained reserved to the front left of the vehicle, near where an exhaust is located. As the story goes, the owner found the vehicle emitting smoke after returning from a grocery run, prompting a call to Fisker and then the local fire department, which arrived as it was already engulfed in flames. In a statement to Wired's Autopia, Fisker has been vehement to note that the damage appears to be far from where the car's battery and sensitive electrical components are located, and that it wasn't plugged in for a charge -- furthermore, it's already had correspondence with the owner and is actively investing the matter with plans to issue an update when there are findings to share. All that said, it remains to be seen whether the Karma's battery system, supplied by A123 Systems (and the focus of previous recalls), had any role in igniting the car. Thankfully there were no reports of injuries from the incident, but as you can tell from the photo, the car was essentially totaled. You'll find a video of the Karma in flames being quelled by firefighters after the break, along with the official statement by Fisker given to Autopia.
Fisker Automotive can confirm that one of its Karma models was involved in a vehicle fire during a roadside incident in Woodside, California. No injuries were reported; the vehicle was parked; and the fire was extinguished safely by the emergency services. Fisker understands damage was limited to the driver's side front corner of the car, away from the lithium ion battery and electric motors. The car was not being charged at the time. We have more than 1,000 Karmas on the road with a cumulative 2 million miles on them. There are more than 185,000 highway vehicle fires in the US every year. In an electric vehicle, immediate suspicion is focused on the battery and high voltage components. The location of the damage to the vehicle in this incident appears to rule out that suspicion. Fisker has not had any battery or high voltage fire incidents with any of its vehicles. Safety remains our primary concern at Fisker, and is integral to the design, engineering and technology of the Karma, a model in which we have absolute confidence. Fisker staff have been in contact with the customer and are investigating the cause of this incident. We are also employing an independent fire expert to assist the investigation. A further statement will be issued once the investigation has been completed and the cause determined." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Barnes & Noble cuts prices across its Nook lineup, vies for your budget tablet affection Posted: 12 Aug 2012 01:27 AM PDT In what could be seen as a response to the positive reaction that Google's $200 Nexus 7 has garnered, Barnes & Noble has just cut down the prices on all three of its Android-based, seven-inch Nook Tablets. The 16 and 8GB models have been respectively reduced to $199 (from $249) and $179 (from $199), while the Nook Color is priced 20 bones cheaper than before at $149. Not sure whether those prices too good to be true, even up against the likes of the Kindle Fire? Feel free to peruse our reviews of B&N's reading-focused slates before potentially taking the plunge at its webstore. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disney researchers can now digitally shave your face, clone it for animatronics (video) Posted: 12 Aug 2012 12:15 AM PDT The minds at Disney Research aren't only interested in tracking your face -- they want to map, shave and clone it, too. Through a pair of research projects, Walt's proteges have managed to create systems for not only mapping, digitally reconstructing and removing facial hair, but also for creating lifelike synthetic replicas of human faces for use in animatronics. Let's start with the beards, shall we? Facial hair is a big part of a person's physical identity, a quick shave can render a close friend unrecognizable -- but modern face-capture systems aren't really optimized for the stuff. Disney researchers attempted to address that issue by creating an algorithm that detects facial hair, reconstructs it in 3D and uses the information it gathers to suss out the shape of the skin underneath it. This produces a reconstruction of not only the skin episurface, but also of the subject's individual hairs, meaning the final product can be viewed with or without a clean shave. Another Disney team is also taking a careful look at the human face, but is working on more tangible reconstructions -- specifically for use on audio-animatronic robots. The team behind the Physical Face Cloning project hope to automate part of creating animatronics to speed up the task of replicating a human face for future Disney robots. This complicated process involves capturing a subjects face under a variety of conditions and using that data to optimize a composition of synthetic skin to best match the original. Fully bearded animatronic clones are still a ways off, of course, but isn't it comforting to know that Disney could one day
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| Lenovo reportedly prepping Intel and ARM versions of IdeaPad Yoga transforming tablet Posted: 11 Aug 2012 09:42 PM PDT We've known for a while that NVIDIA is working with Lenovo (and ASUS) on a Windows RT Tablet, but ABC News believes that we might already have seen the mystery device in action. Its sources have let slip that alongside the Intel-powered IdeaPad Yoga laptop / tablet hybrid (LapLet? TabTop?), the company will release a Tegra-powered version running Windows RT, combining the same sexy hardware with ARM's power-sipping technology. If true, then we might have a very tough purchasing decision on our hands when the gear arrives -- with the launch date still expected to be on October 26th. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mobile Miscellany: week of August 6th, 2012 Posted: 11 Aug 2012 07:35 PM PDT Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, Sprint began testing its LTE network in Boston and we've come across a QWERTY slider from LG that'll be hitting a convenience store near you. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of August 6th, 2012. Telus snaps up 4G mobile hotspot from Sierra Wireless Telus customers in need of data on the go will now find a new mobile hotspot from Sierra Wireless. The AirCard 763S 4G LTE runs $200 outright and $50 with a two-year contract. The mobile hotspot supports up to 10 simultaneous connections, and in addition to LTE connectivity, also brings the ability to connect to 42Mbps HSPA+ networks. [Mobile Syrup] Sprint LTE makes surprise appearance in Boston Testing. Testing. That's exactly what Sprint is doing in Boston (and San Francisco) right now, as reports are coming in of LTE connectivity within Beantown. Data speeds are said to average 6Mbps down and 8Mbps up, which is a bit on the slow side -- but then again, the network remains in testing phase. [PhoneArena] BlackBerry Curve 9320 arriving at O2 in red Just last week, we told you about the new blue and purple variants of the Curve 9320 over at Vodafone, but wouldn't you know it, O2 is looking to hog some of the attention with its announcement of the same phone in red. Those of you who are content to choose your smartphone based on its color will be able to pick one up later this month. Pricing has yet to be announced, but if it's anything like the other 9320's, you can expect it to run £130 without contract. [SoMobile] LG Optimus Zip aims low at TracFone, features Android 2.3 and sliding QWERTY keyboard New in the realm of gas station smartphones is the Optimus Zip from LG, and believe it or not, it's a QWERTY slider. The device packs an 800MHz CPU, a 3.2-inch display, a 3.2-megapixel camera and Android 2.3. Unfortunately, pricing from Tracfone has yet to be announced, but we're holding out hope that it'll be a good value proposition for those in a pinch. [Phandroid] Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile out two new promotional smartphone plans The pricing structure at both Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile are receiving a bit of a temporary makeover, as both providers are now offering two promotional smartphone plans that go for either $50 or $65 per month. Each is said to be available "until further notice" and provides 200 anytime minutes, unlimited evening and weekend calling after 6:00PM, unlimited messaging and unlimited calling to 10 select individuals. The less expensive plan brings a mere 100MB of data, whereas the more costly counterpart allows for 1GB of data usage. Specific to Bell, the $65/mo. plan also includes ten hours of mobile TV. [MobileSyrup] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ask Engadget: best 'Find my Phone' app for Android? Posted: 11 Aug 2012 06:19 PM PDT We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Jacob, who needs to ensure he can find his Android phone if it's lost. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
Actually, we had a look and we don't think it's available on any US Samsung handset without flashing your firmware. But let's imagine he doesn't want that level of hassle. What app should he be picking up? Where's my Droid? Plan B? Something else? What's worked for you -- share your wisdom. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Student Edition let loose at Best Buy ahead of schedule, gets unboxed on video Posted: 11 Aug 2012 05:14 PM PDT We'd originally been tipped that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7 2.0 Student Edition, a $250 bundle which comes with a keyboard dock and USB connector for peripherals, would officially hit Best Buy's shelves around August 19th, but asking nicely might score you one now. According to an email from tipster, Jason (who's also posted details over at Phandroid's forums), the unit was locked inside one of the store's cages and simply asking for a price check let him proceed to checkout with nary an issue (see the photo). Despite only having 8GB of storage, a dual-core 1GHz processor and the same 1024 x 600 screen resolution of its predecessors, the slate is a solid performer -- but unless you're hell-bent on having extras like a rear camera, we'd be remiss not to mention that the Jelly Bean- and Tegra 3-loaded 8GB Nexus 7 clocks in at $200 by its lonesome. That said, it may be worth trying your luck at your local Best Buy if you're not so concerned with top-tier specs and okay with Samsung's variety of ICS. You'll find the video unboxing after the break.
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| NASA's Curiosity rover receives long-distance OTA update, 'brain transplant' on Mars Posted: 11 Aug 2012 04:07 PM PDT Think it's nifty when your carrier deigns to provide your smartphone with that long awaited OTA update? That's nothing. Over the weekend, NASA's Curiosity rover will be receiving its first long-distance OTA update -- all the way out there on Mars. The goal is to transition both redundant main computers from software suited for landing the vehicle to software optimized for surface exploration -- such as driving, obstacle avoidance and using the robotic arm. NASA calls it a "brain transplant" and points out that the software was actually uploaded during the flight from Earth. Now can someone please enable OTA downloads for the human brain? We'd really like to know kung fu. PR after the break. NASA Curiosity Mars Rover Installing Smarts for Driving The rover's "brain transplant," which will occur during a series of steps Aug. 10 through Aug. 13, will install a new version of software on both of the rover's redundant main computers. This software for Mars surface operations was uploaded to the rover's memory during the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's flight from Earth. "We designed the mission from the start to be able to upgrade the software as needed for different phases of the mission," said Ben Cichy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chief software engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. "The flight software version Curiosity currently is using was really focused on landing the vehicle. It includes many capabilities we just don't need any more. It gives us basic capabilities for operating the rover on the surface, but we have planned all along to switch over after landing to a version of flight software that is really optimized for surface operations." A key capability in the new version is image processing to check for obstacles. This allows for longer drives by giving the rover more autonomy to identify and avoid potential hazards and drive along a safe path the rover identifies for itself. Other new capabilities facilitate use of the tools at the end of the rover's robotic arm. While Curiosity is completing the software transition, the mission's science team is continuing to analyze images that the rover has taken of its surroundings inside Gale Crater. Researchers are discussing which features in the scene to investigate after a few weeks of initial checkouts and observations to assess equipment on the rover and characteristics of the landing site. The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 10:31:45 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (1:31:45 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6), which includes the 13.8 minutes needed for confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light. Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments. To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site at 4.59 degrees south, 137.44 degrees east, places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.
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| MIT researchers develop highly agile autonomous plane (video) Posted: 11 Aug 2012 02:02 PM PDT If you're flying a robot indoors, chances are it's a quadrocopter. The ability hover and maneuver on a dime is essential to whipping around the confined spaces of a lab. Researchers have figured out a way to overcome such obstacles with a fixed-wing aircraft, using laser range finders, sensors and an Intel Atom processor to churn through all the data. To demonstrate just how accurate the on-board navigation systems are, the team of scientists took the autonomous plane to a parking garage with ceilings just 2.5 meters high. Why is that important? The vehicle has a wingspan of two meters -- leaving little room for error. To see the plane in action, check out the video after the break. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art Posted: 11 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. It's not like we're trying to out-weird ourselves, it just, somehow, keeps happening. At least one of this week's offerings (we'll leave it to you to figure out which) will possibly be the creepiest thing we post all year. As for the rest, well it's slightly more palatable. We'll get uncharacteristically pumped about cycling, meet some extra-terrestrial quasicrystals and enjoy some art with X-men credentials. This is alt-week. Think of what you could do with $5,000. You could upgrade your memory, your phone, or of course your tawdry -- and frankly outdated -- hillbilly band. Let's face it, it was getting a little embarrassing anyway. What -- to normal people at least -- might appear to be the stuff of nightmares, is actually a fully functioning animatronic hillbilly band for sale on eBay. If 5k isn't sounding like the bargain you'd hoped for, the singing and dancing troupe even comes with its own faux porch. Buyer collects though, obviously.
Worried you might never sleep again after seeing that? Don't worry, we've got the perfect antidote. You may have heard, there's some sorta sporting event going on in London. We've heard you can see it on TV somewhere. As you may have guessed, the only time we typically get close to breaking a sweat, is when there's some hacking involved. That's until we saw the following video. It's almost like the London Olympic Committee had us in mind when they cooked this up. Like a conspiracy to get sedentary tech writers excited about bikes. It's a bit of a slow starter, but by the time the Chemical Brothers' track fully kicks in, and the Tron-like visuals get going, we're practically banging down the door at Modell's for some hi-tech spandex.
If you're still with us after those two, then you're one of the hardy ones. Hardy enough to stomach the discovery of extra-terrestrial quasicrystals we imagine. Discovered in far eastern Russia, the quasiperiodic crystals (to give them their full name) were found in an environment that scientists claim would have been unable to foster them naturally, leading them to the conclusion that they were brought to this planet by a meteorite. The findings of the scientists indicate that it probably landed around 15,000 years ago in the last glacial period, but we know better. We're not sure if these alien rocks are radioactive, but if Kryptonite did come in art form, it'd probably resemble something like what we see below. Artists Ken and Julia Yonetani used radioactive uranium glass to create a collection of large and luminous sculptures. If you live in Sydney, Australia, then you can swing by the Centre for Contemporary Asian Art to see the collection for yourself, and don't worry, the artists claim that the glass is only 2 percent uranium by weight so you're perfectly safe. Probably. Seen any other far-out articles that you'd like considered for Alt-week? Working on a project or research that's too cool to keep to yourself? Drop us a line at alt [at] engadget [dot] com. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DARPA's Captive Air Amphibious Transporter can drive on water, help during disaster relief (video) Posted: 11 Aug 2012 10:42 AM PDT A couple of months back, DARPA announced it'd been working on developing technologies to help during natural or "man-made" disasters, and this TEMP plan (Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform) included the addition of four key modular systems -- one of which was sea-delivery vehicles such as that monstrous one pictured above. Dubbed Captive Air Amphibious Transporters, or CAAT for short, the rugged wheeler gets its drive-on-agua powers from air-filled pontoons, with its main purpose being to carry "containers over water and directly onto shore." However, according to DARPA's program manager, Scott Littlefield, it is more about the big picture, saying, "To allow military ships and aircraft to focus on unique military missions they alone can fulfill, it makes sense to develop technologies to leverage standard commercial container ships." Thanks to a vid uploaded by DARPA itself, you can now get a feel for what CAAT's all about, so head over past the break -- where you'll find a quick preview of the ATV carrier in action.
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| Researchers make unsuitable parts work as solar cells, could lead to cheaper panels Posted: 11 Aug 2012 08:34 AM PDT Harnessing the power of the sun is a tricky business, but even the past few weeks have seen some interesting developments in the field. In this latest installment, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California have figured out a way of making solar cells from any semiconductor, potentially reducing the cost of their production. You see, efficient solar cells require semiconductors to be chemically modified for the current they produce to flow in one direction. The process uses expensive materials and only works with a few types of semiconductors, but the team's looking at using ones which aren't normally suitable -- the magic is to apply an electrical field to them. This field requires energy, but what's consumed is said to be a tiny fraction of what the cell's capable of producing when active, and it means chemical modification isn't needed. The concept of using a field to standardize the flow of juice isn't a new one, but the team's work on the geometrical structure of the cells has made it a reality, with a couple of working prototypes to satisfy the skeptics. More of these are on the way, as their focus has shifted to which semiconductors can offer the best efficiency at the lowest cost. And when the researchers have answered that question, there's nothing left to do but get cracking on commercial production. For the full scientific explanation, hit up the links below. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spotify Radio gets thumbs up, thumbs down on desktop Posted: 11 Aug 2012 06:19 AM PDT Pretty much from day one, the mobile Spotify Radio feature outclassed its desktop counterpart, thanks to the presence of one feature -- thumbs up and thumbs down buttons. The ability to more finely tailor the music selection to your tastes is a pretty essential feature for any automatically generated playlist. Finally, Spotify is bringing the buttons to the Mac and Windows clients in an update rolling out today. Your likes and dislikes are synced across platforms and, best of all, the update finally lets you view radio stations you've created through the mobile app on your desktop. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Researchers propose à la carte internet services, overhaul for web infrastructure Posted: 11 Aug 2012 04:11 AM PDT A quintet of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation have envisioned a new internet architecture, one where features could be purchased à la carte. The proposed framework would allow users to fine tune their experience by choosing from a variety of connection services. Let's say, for example, that a customer's connection is fine for browsing the web, but it doesn't pass muster for streaming content -- a service dedicated to video delivery could be added to close the gap. "Ultimately, this should make the internet more flexible and efficient, and will drive innovation among service providers to cater to user needs," report co-author Rudra Dutta told The Abstract. A piecemeal next-gen web is no easy feat, however, as it would require revamping the web's infrastructure with new protocols for choosing particular features, completing payments and monitoring network performance. The group's rough blueprint will be presented at a conference next week, but you can thumb through their short paper at the source. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video) Posted: 11 Aug 2012 01:42 AM PDT
It's already considered a grind to produce stop-motion video -- imagine creating a clip using the spreadsheet app that many dread seeing at work every morning. Joe Penna, better known to the internet as Mystery Guitar Man, isn't afraid. He and his team recorded a performance against a greenscreen, gave the video a mosaic look in After Effects and proceeded to recreate 730 of the frames in OpenOffice (and occasionally Excel)... by hand. We don't want to know how long it took Penna and crew to wrap up their work, but the result is probably the liveliest you'll ever get out of an app meant for invoices and corporate expenses. The fully produced video is above; click past the story break if you want to smash illusions and see how the pixelated rumba came to be. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Audi R8 e-tron to feature digital AMOLED rear-view mirror Posted: 10 Aug 2012 11:17 PM PDT Audi's R18 racing car's been sporting this digital rear-view mirror for some time, and was most recently spotted with it at the renowned LeMans racing competition -- but now the German outfit's bringing the tech to a more consumer-friendly vehicle, the R8 e-tron. The luxurious automobile company announced that gorgeous 7.7-inch reflector is making its way from its speedy R18 to the stunning R8 e-tron, marking the first time any ride outside of the former will come loaded with such feature. In case you weren't aware, the AMOLED rear-view mirror helps automatically reduce headlights glare "during the hours of darkness," while also allowing drivers to dim or turn it off altogether if, you know, they're just not feeling the vibe. From motorsport to series production: the digital rear-view mirror - Intelligent camera/monitor system ensures an ideal view Ingolstadt, 2012-08-09 -- Audi is set to make driving even safer with a new technology: the digital rear-view mirror delivers brilliant images and is due to enter small-scale production in the Audi R8 e-tron at the end of this year. This model – like the current Le Mans winners – has no rear window and hence no conventional rear-view mirror. Its high-tech successor is the digital rear-view mirror – a camera/monitor system. A control unit produces a consistent high-contrast, brilliant image. During the hours of darkness the intelligent control system prevents dazzle from the headlights of other vehicles. The driver can dim or deactivate the display at any time. Audi is also working on incorporating additional information on the monitor in future. The small, ultra-lightweight camera is located in an aerodynamically optimized housing which is heated in cold temperatures. It uses a lens with a diameter of just a few millimeters and covers a much larger field of vision than a conventional rear-view mirror. A color monitor with a 7.7-inch screen diagonal mounted in place of a conventional rear-view mirror is used to display the digital image data from the camera. This AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) display, which comes from development partner Samsung Display Co., LTD, is making its debut in a passenger car. The organic materials used in the display are self-illuminating at a low voltage – i.e. they do not require backlighting. The AMOLED technology has already proved widely successful in cell phones and similar devices in the consumer segment. The new displays are more energy-efficient, thinner, and lighter than conventional LCD monitors. Switching times are just a few milliseconds irrespective of the ambient temperature. The digital rear-view mirror celebrated its dazzling premiere at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the R18 e-tron quattro and R18 ultra race cars which gave Audi a one-two-three win in the legendary race. The new system proved reliable even under the grueling race conditions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple details 2010 presentation to Samsung on Android patent infringement, licensing offer Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:10 PM PDT As the battle between Samsung and Apple closed out another week in US District Court, lawyers for the latter focused its argument on evidence and testimony covering a presentation Apple made to Samsung in 2010, and its offer to license the patents. AllThingsD has the deck of slides from the meeting (embedded after the break), specifying areas and specific patents Apple believes Android as an OS infringes or things Samsung specifically copied elements from, plus a report on testimony from Apple executive Boris Teksler. He testified today about the meeting with Samsung, calling it a "trusted partner" (should be, since Apple paid it paid $5.7 billion for parts that year) that both Tim Cook and Steve Jobs spoke to directly about the issue. While more information is expected from Teksler next week, he did have time to put a dollar amount on the licensing deal Apple subsequently offered, at about $30 per smartphone and $40 per tablet, as well as royalties also collected from phones running Symbian and Bada, with the possibility of a 20 percent discount if Samsung would cross license its own technology back to Apple. The companies are restricted by Judge Koh to 25 hours each to argue their points (Apple is at 11 and a half hours while Samsung has crossed over 12 with its own arguments yet to come) but we're sure there's enough time left for a few more revelations before any resolution is reached. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eurocom intros powerhouse Scorpius laptop, touts more video memory than most desktops Posted: 10 Aug 2012 06:38 PM PDT Eurocom has carved out a strange but soft spot in our hearts for its desktop replacement-level laptops -- the insistence on overkill hardware leaves even the vaguely ultraportable Monster packing the kind of power reserved for larger-screened (if also much thinner) counterparts. Nowhere is that too-much-is-never-enough attitude truer than in the just-launched, 17.3-inch Scorpius. While supporting up to 32GB of RAM isn't unique anymore, the Scorpius can optionally carry two of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680M graphics chips with the full 4GB of video RAM per piece. That's more graphics memory than the total system memory of some entire PCs, folks. Eurocom can optionally slot in two of AMD's Radeon HD 7970M or step down to a single graphics core, and the usual bevy of processor and storage choices culminates in as much as a quad 2.9GHz Core i7 and four drives. The lowest price that will net a fully functioning Scorpius is $1,793, although we'll admit that it's very tempting to pick that dual 680M option and come out with a $2,857 bill -- not to mention some serious bragging rights with the gamer crowd. Eurocom Launches The Scorpius With 8 GB Of Video Memory With Dual NVIDIA Geforce GTX 680M And Intel Core I7 – 3920XM, 4 Storage Drives And 32 GB DDR3-1600 RAM To Be The Greatest Notebook Of All Time Eurocom Corporation (www.eurocom.com), is now launching the EUROCOM Scorpius Ultra High Performance Notebook with support for dual graphics technology from NVIDIA GeForce, Quadro and AMD Radeon, powerful Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition, up to 32 GB of DDR3 1600 memory and three storage drives plus one mSATA drive. "The EUROCOM Scorpius is an out of this world High Performance Notebook Computer. Like the mythical creature that stung and killed Orion, the EUROCOM Scorpius will take down any competition standing in its way, while allowing gamers to do the same!" exclaims Mark Bialic, Eurocom President. "We have been getting out of this world benchmark results with the EUROCOM Scorpius. Simply put, this is the most powerful system of its kind on the planet." Featuring dual graphics technology including dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M GPUs featuring 1688 CUDA cores, 8 GB of DDR5 video memory, with the graphics clock running at 720MHz, as well as dual AMD Radeon HD 7970M featuring 1560 Stream Processors, 4GB GDDR5 video memory, with an 850 MHz engine clock allowing gamers to play the most demanding games on maximum settings. On the professional graphics front, the EUROCOM Scorpius supports the newest NVIDIA Quadro K5000M, K4000M and K3000M graphics for the ultimate in portable power, based on the 28nm Kepler architecture, the Quadro K5000M GPU packs 1344 CUDA cores and 4GB GDDR5 graphics memory. With no Optimus support the EUROCOM Scorpius is all about extreme graphics performance with no compromise! Driving the system is an optional Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition running at up to 3.8 GHz with 8MB of L3 cache, which delivers exceptional high-definition multimedia, multi-tasking and multi-threaded performance. These high-performance 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 Processors allow users to simultaneously run multiple applications at the same time -- all with increased performance. The EUROCOM Scorpius supports Intel's Extreme tuning Utility to allow users to tweak the performance of their system to whatever they choose. Up to 32GB of superfast DDR3 1600 SODIMM memory is also supported via four sockets. With such massive amounts of RAM available, the Scorpius becomes a great tool for virtualization and high performance computing. In the EUROCOM Scorpius, up to 3 storage drives (SSD, HDD, Hybrid HDD) are offered plus an mSATA drive. With these storage configurations, Intel Smart Response Technology is supported, it is designed to give users enhanced system performance and responsiveness. Smart Response Technology is an intelligent caching setup that monitors data reads and writes to your storage drive and caches the most used or frequently accessed data. The Scorpius supports RAID 0/1/5/10 for increased storage performance or redundancy. The EUROCOM Scorpius is the ultimate in Multimedia Entertainment system with support for Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ MB2, subwoofer, 2 watt speakers and external 7.1CH audio output support. Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ MB2 software suite is a powerful audio platform equipped with state of the art audio technology and THX TruStudio Pro along with a host of other software to enhance the audio of games, movies and music. The Scorpius has many connectivity options to allow users to connect the system to external displays for gaming for video streaming including: HDMI 1.4a, S/PDIF, Display Port 1.2. The EUROCOM Scorpius is built with an ultra heavy duty design for unintentional abuse while on the go. It is a fully upgradeable system with support for the best in mobile technology. The EUROCOM Scorpius can be customized based on graphics, processor, memory, storage, display and wireless technology. The EUROCOM Scorpius comes with an illuminate backlit full size keyboard with numeric keypad. The backlit keyboard helps to increase usability in dim lighting conditions, to ensure operators can see the keyboard in nearly any environment. EUROCOM Scorpius Benchmark Results with 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M, Intel Core i7-3920XM •3DMark Vantage (1280x1024): P32635 Full Benchmark Results and Configuration: EUROCOM Scorpius Specs: • Display: 17.3-inch FHD 1920-by-1080 pixels; Matte or Glossy Surface; | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 10 Aug 2012 04:43 PM PDT We here at Engadget tend to spend Phones
Tablets and peripherals
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| Sony LT25i Tsubasa pops up in benchmarks, may swell the high-speed Xperia ranks Posted: 10 Aug 2012 03:37 PM PDT Add another future Sony Xperia model to a rapidly growing pool. The LT25i Tsubasa (not to be confused with the ST25i/Xperia U) has been caught by Tencent in AnTuTu and NenaMark2 tests, seemingly running the same mix of a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4, a 720p screen and Android 4.0 that we've seen in the upcoming Xperia T (LT30p). So what's different? There's rumors of in-cell touch to keep the display thin and vivid, but even the unverified source isn't certain that it will become a reality. The crew at Xperia Blog also claims that there will be international LTE and HSPA+ models along with China- and Japan-specific editions. Assuming the details are at all consistent with the truth, having the Tsubasa arrive on the scene mostly hints that Sony might be readying a broader speed-up of its roster than we first thought. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Census Bureau releases first mobile app, offers real-time stats on the US economy Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:51 PM PDT The US Census Bureau just released its first public API last month, giving web and mobile app makers access to its vast stores of statistics, and it's now also gone the extra mile by releasing its first mobile app. Dubbed America's Economy, the app draws on data from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor to provide a real-time picture of the US economy, offering details on everything from the country's gross domestic product to housing sales to the unemployment rate (all presented with the requisite charts and graphs). That's available for Android smartphones and tablets right now, while an iOS app promised in the "coming weeks." It's also the first of three planned apps from the Bureau -- the others are said to be coming over the next several months (both of which will also be available for both Android and iOS). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Motorola starts Android 4.0 upgrades for international RAZR owners Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:20 PM PDT Motorola may have pushed some of its earliest Android 4.0 updates to the Verizon-centric Droid RAZR, but it hasn't forgotten those who call the international, HSPA-based RAZR (the XT910) their own: the phone's first wave of over-the-air upgrades to the new OS should be rolling out now, going by GSMArena's tips. Who exactly is getting the upgrade isn't obvious, although at least one owner on Tesco's network has the visual evidence to suggest the UK is part of the first batch. We can vouch that at least a few Canadian RAZRs are still making do with Android 2.3. Never mind the unconfirmed claims of carrier-related delays for the update, though -- we're just glad that both Americans and the rest of the world will likely be on the same page before too long. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LG Eclipse (LS970) pops up in FCC docs, ready to prop up Sprint's LTE network Posted: 10 Aug 2012 01:51 PM PDT Where there's smoke, there's fire and by the looks of this latest FCC filing, LG's LS970 is all but a lock for Sprint's LTE lineup. Rumored to bow on that carrier as the Eclipse, the heavyweight handset, allegedly outfitted with a quad-core Krait processor, companion Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB RAM, has already been the subject of several leaks, leaving little of its spec load to the imagination. And now with the outing of these Commission docs, we can confirm that this uberphone does indeed pack 3G/4G radios tailored for the Hesse-led operator (CDMA 820 / 850 / 1900; LTE Band 25), as well as support for NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi a/b/g/n, GPS and SVLTE (simultaneous voice and data). While we can't be exactly sure as to its actual screen size, that reported 4.67-inch figure does appear likely given its 5.2 x 2.8 inch (130.9 x 71.6mm) dimensions. That's about all we were able to glean from the spate of included tests, but if you call Big Yellow your wireless home and are itching for a GS III alternative, this could be your next. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NPD: Xbox 360 ruled a steadily declining video game empire in July Posted: 10 Aug 2012 01:26 PM PDT Microsoft must sometimes feel like its lead in the game market is a Pyrrhic victory. The Xbox 360 once again topped the NPD Group's hardware charts in July, claiming a near-majority 49 percent market share of consoles -- but the 203,000 units sold were a steep drop from the 257,000 units that traded hands in June, and a far cry from the glory days that would have given a victory more meaning. Nintendo and Sony haven't shared their own figures, although the analyst group notes that only Nintendo's 3DS and DSi had any kind of increase in the month. The industry as a whole was unmistakably feeling the combined effects of the pre-holiday doldrums and a console generation that's long in the tooth: hardware revenue was down 32 percent in the month to $150.7 million, while the games in question saw revenue dip 23 percent to $260.7 million. If you need a culprit, earlier reports for the second quarter had credited similar shifts to sales of physical game copies declining faster than digital sales could replace them. Hope remains in the usual fall spike; even so, the July figures suggest the big three platforms might be living on borrowed time. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vizio Thin + Light review (14-inch, 2012): how do the company's first laptops measure up? Posted: 10 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT More InfoNine months ago, Vizio didn't make laptops. Now, it's seemingly all our readers are writing in about. The company, best known for its value-priced TVs, is expanding into the PC market, with a collection of all-in-ones and thin-and-light notebooks. So why have we been getting so many emails asking when the heck we're going to publish a review? After all, it's not like shoppers have any shortage of choice when it comes to Windows computers. The answer: Vizio is taking the same approach with PCs that it does with televisions, which is to say it's offering impressive specs while undercutting its competitors. Case in point: all of Vizio's laptops have a full-metal design, solid-state drive, zero bloatware and a minimum screen resolution of 1,600 x 900. And yes, that even applies to the lowest-end notebook, which goes for $900. Can you see now where this would be a tempting deal for folks who'd like to avoid spending $1,100-plus on an Ultrabook? Well, for those of you who've been curious, we've been testing Vizio's 14-inch Thin + Light, and are now ready to unleash that review you've been waiting for. Meet us past the break to see if this rookie computer is as good as it looks on paper. Look and feel
For a company just entering the PC market, Vizio got a lot right on its first try. For starters, its Thin + Light notebooks are fashioned almost completely out of aluminum -- even on the bottom side, an area where other laptop makers often settle for plastic. What's more, that bottom surface has a rubbery, soft-touch coating that makes it comfortable to hold, and comfortable to rest on your legs (hey, it's shorts season). In general, too, Vizio went easy on the garish embellishments and used just a handful of subtle flourishes to give the laptop some personality. These include beveled edges on the lid and chassis, a glowing Vizio logo on the cover and a power adapter that glows green or orange, depending on the charging status. Pick it up and the system feels about as nice as it looks. There isn't any creak or hollowness in the palm rest, and when you set the laptop down, the lid doesn't wobble, as is the case with other notebooks we've tested. At 3.39 pounds, it's also fairly light, at least as far as 14-inch Ultrabooks go. (This might be a good time to clarify that Vizio is calling this a thin-and-light and not an Ultrabook, but if all we're talking about are thin, portable machines, then tomato, tomahto.) Our only request would have been for Vizio to squeeze a few more ports into the 0.67-inch-thick frame. On board, you'll find two USB 3.0 sockets, HDMI-out and a 3.5mm headphone jack. That's a good start, but on a machine this size we would've expected to see a few – namely, an Ethernet jack and an SD card reader. Keyboard and trackpad It's at this point that perhaps Vizio got carried away in its attempts to reinvent the PC. The Thin + Light's keyboard is an odd specimen, with flat-top keys that almost blend into one another. Were it not for some slight beveling between the keys, you'd have a hard time telling one key from the other without looking down at your fingers. Indeed, it took us a day or so to master the cramped layout, but eventually we started noticing fewer errors in our typing. Still, even once we got the hang of it, we noticed that the keys didn't always register our presses. We had this problem with the space bar a few times, and also with the arrow keys (it doesn't help that the up and down ones are especially tiny). If there's one saving grace, though, it's that the Enter, Backspace and Shift keys are pretty oversized, so it's at least easy to hit those buttons square on the nose. Hardly a dealbreaker, but it's worth noting that these keys aren't backlit. According to Vizio reps, the engineers were concerned that a backlit keyboard would increase the thickness of the laptop, and most backlit keyboard suffer from unsightly light bleed anyway. That said, the company is apparently considering backlighting for future models. The Thin + Light's touchpad is a little small compared to what you'll find on other modern laptops, but it's still sufficient for two-fingered scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. The problem is, the pad just doesn't work very reliably, even after some early driver updates. For one, the touchpad offers a good deal of resistance, and moving the cursor where you want it to go can be a challenge: sometimes it stops short on the screen, and occasionally it moves in a different direction entirely. There were a few vexing instances in which the cursor randomly jumped to a different part of the screen while we were typing, forcing us to backtrack and delete unwanted characters before carrying on. At other times, too, the pad mistook left clicks for right ones. For what it's worth, Vizio reps seem aware of the Thin + Light's early trackpad issues and promise a driver update is coming sometime in the next few weeks. Still, the pad is frustrating enough to use as is that we can't see ourselves giving this laptop a hearty recommendation until Vizio figures it out. Display and sound The amazing thing about using the Vizio Thin + Light for the first time is that if you thought you resigned yourself to a garden-variety 1,366 x 768 display, you'd think this was the best HD display you'd ever seen. In fact, Vizio's engineers were apparently as disgusted by these lower-resolution screens as you guys were, and decided that at the very least, its laptops would have a 1,600 x 900 pixel count. (The higher-end configurations have 1080p panels.) And while we've tested many a 1,366 x 768 laptop and survived, you really can tell the difference here. This is much crisper than what you'd typically get at this, or any price. Just keep in mind that We'll say this about the sound: the volume is appreciably loud. It's louder, certainly, than the ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A, which we happened to be testing at the same time. As for quality, though, the sound is almost indistinguishable from other laptops, which is to say it's tinny and constrained, but probably good enough for a listening party of one. Performance
For the purposes of this review, we tested Vizio's top-of-the-line configuration, with a 1.9GHz Core i7 processor, Intel HD 4000 graphics, 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD made by Toshiba. Particularly since we don't test many Core i7 Ultrabooks around here, it's not surprising that the Thin + Light delivers some of the fastest performance we've seen. Its score of 13,525 in PCMark Vantage is actually the highest we've seen in this class of computer, though it does seem a bit peculiar that it's almost the same score we got from a Core i5-powered MacBook Air. We would have expected the delta to be even bigger, any differences in SSDs notwithstanding. Still, we'll never complain about this kind of performance, which includes 553 MB/s read speeds, 530 MB/s writes and an 18-second startup time. Graphics-wise, the Thin + Light scored 5,443 in 3DMark06, which is at the high end of what we've been seeing from Ivy Bridge laptops with integrated graphics. Still, without a discrete GPU, even the best Ivy Bridge machines struggle with gaming -- this guy couldn't even break 30 frames per second in Call of Duty 4, and that was with the default settings (1,024 x 768 resolution). Battery life
Oh dear. It's never a good thing when a company promises its 14-inch laptop will last five and a half hours, tops. Indeed, the Thin + Light didn't make it nearly that long in our video rundown test, dying out after less than four hours. Granted, our particular battery life test is taxing, much more so than the MobileMark benchmark Vizio uses in its testing labs. Still, pretty much every 14-inch Ultrabook we've tested, from the HP Envy 14 Spectre to the Samsung Series 5 to the Acer Aspire M5, has lasted five hours, if not more. Suffice to say, that's not acceptable for a product that was built to be mobile, and that should have room for a larger battery. Software and warrantyEven more than that high-resolution display or all-metal chassis, this is how Vizio decided to one-up all those seasoned laptop makers. Every unit ships with Signature, a clean, crapware-free image of Windows that was approved by Microsoft (and obviously Microsoft doesn't want Windows to be known for its bloat, so it has a clear motivation to keep the junk out). Indeed, you won't find any third-party software other than Adobe Reader. Other than that, it's Microsoft Office Starter edition, which you'll find on every copy of Windows; Microsoft Security Essentials; and Skype, which is, of course, now a part of the Microsoft family as well. Naturally, even if there were a long list of third-party programs, we could've uninstalled each and every one of them. But there's something to be said for booting up a computer for the first time and loading up a near-blank desktop. It makes you wonder when Dell and HP and Acer and every other PC maker will get with the program. There is one unorthodox thing about Vizio's PCs, and that's that you can use a function key -- excuse us, the V-Key -- to launch certain multimedia sites, such as Netflix or Amazon Instant Video. That key is actually just the F1 button with Vizio's logo painted on it, and when you hit it for the first time you'll be taken to a browser-based setup. (See? Even Vizio's own application doesn't eat up precious megabytes on your hard drive.) All told, it's a harmless little gimmick, but it's also not terribly useful. It would seem that Vizio wanted to tie in these streaming services as a way of calling attention to its TV know-how, but if you ask us, the company already did that by including such a lovely display. The Thin + Light has a one-year warranty, which is typical for a consumer PC, regardless of the price. Configuration optionsThough the unit we tested would cost you $1,200 if you were to buy it off Vizio's website, the laptop actually starts at $900, with a Core i3 processor, four gigs of RAM and a 128GB SSD. For $950, you get a Core i5 CPU instead, but otherwise the specs are the same. That means if you want 256GB of storage, the $1,200 Core i7 model is your only option. Regardless of which one you pick, you'll get a 1,600 x 900 screen and Intel's HD 4000 graphics. It's a similar deal for the 15.6-inch Thin + Light, which starts at $950 and goes up to $1,250. Here, too, there's a Core i3, i5 and i7 configuration, and you'll need to go with the highest-end model to get those 256 gigs of storage. In the case of these 15-inch machines, though, the screen resolution is 1,920 x 1,080, not 1,600 x 900. The competition
A laptop with an all-metal design, SSD and a 1,600 x 900 screen begs comparison with other high-end thin-and-lights, don'tcha think? Spec-wise, at least, the Thin + Light is aggressively priced. Whereas the Core i5 version costs $950, for instance, the ASUS UX31A with a Core i5 CPU and 128GB SSD goes for about $1,100. Still, specs aren't everything, are they? Having tested both laptops, we can say that even though the UX31A also suffers from trackpad issues, it does have a more comfortable keyboard, and also lasts longer on a charge. Meanwhile, the performance is similar, the design is equally sharp and the IPS screen has a higher resolution, so there's an argument to be made that there's an upside to paying $150 more for it. Ditto for the MacBook Air, which costs $200 more, but offers a superior keyboard, trackpad and battery life. Sure, the pixel count is 1,440 x 900, but as we've tried to demonstrate, a higher-res screen isn't much consolation when the computer has some serious usability flaws. Wrap-up We wanted to love Vizio's underdog first laptop, and we did when we first took it out of the box. Despite having never made a PC before, the company managed to put out something truly beautiful, with a sharp screen, solid build quality, fast performance and a completely clean version of Windows. We applaud the implicit challenge to the HPs and Dells of the industry, which have gotten sloppy with some of their designs, and still load up computers with bloatware, thinking consumers won't put up a fight. Unfortunately, though, Vizio still has a good deal to learn about building PCs, and its inexperience shows in the jumpy trackpad, uncomfortable keyboard and wretchedly short battery life. We suspect the company will have plenty of fodder when it returns to the drawing board to plan its next generation of laptops. For now, though, we're hesitant to recommend the Thin + Light series based solely on looks, price or specs -- after all, a $900 MSRP doesn't make this thing any easier to use. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crysis 3 trailer shows off Crytek's CryENGINE 3, blows your mind in the process (video) Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:39 PM PDT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adidas Social Media Barricade shoe concept moves tweets to the track (video) Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:19 PM PDT Adidas is known for making connected shoes -- but never quite as linked-up as a Nash Money concept making its appearance late into the London Olympics. The Social Media Barricade weaves the guts of a phone and a basic two-line LCD into a running shoe, letting the footwear take Twitter updates very literally on the run through a public account. Even the signature Adidas stripes change their hue through remote control. Before anyone gets visions of athletes checking congratulatory tweets after the 100-meter sprint, just remember that it's an idea rather than a production blueprint: although Adidas is quick to call the Social Media Barriacade the "future of athlete connectivity," the only athletes putting eyes on a pair right now are those swinging by the Olympics' media lounge for interviews. Knowing this, we can still imagine some future shoes padding runners' egos at the finish line during the 2016 Rio games. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DirecTV quietly updates iPad app, HR34 DVR Posted: 10 Aug 2012 11:50 AM PDT DirecTV has quietly updated both its iPad app and HR34 DVR with a variety of new features for Satellite-loving customers. The application will now resume from where you left off, comes with a much improved search function and best of all, a direct line into the company's support forums. Meanwhile, the HR34 swallowed a software package that included Pandora, a YouTube landing page and more readable closed captions amongst a raft of other nips and tucks. The former will be available through the app store, while the latter should have arrived on your box overnight, well before you start on that CSI marathon. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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