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Friday, March 13, 2009

Pentax's $399.95 X70 megazoom up for pre-order

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 7:41PM


Oh sure, you've got plenty of options when it comes to selecting a shooter with zoom for days, but what's the harm in having one more option to comb over? The X70, which we saw peek out ahead of PMA, is finally up for pre-order on the outfit's own site. In case you've forgotten, this 12 megapixeler boasts a stupendous 24x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD monitor and an SDHC card slot. Worth four Benjamins? Depends on how bad you want to see that blade of grass way over there on the 30 yard line.

Gallery: Pentax's $399.95 X70 megazoom up for pre-order

HP Mini 1000 six-cell battery now available to order, for real

by Donald Melanson, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 6:28PM


You may still not be able to get that VGA adapter, but it looks like HP Mini 1000 users can now finally get their hands on the six-cell battery for the netbook, which should provide a significant boost over the stock three-cell battery. As you may recall, this follows a brief spat of seeming availability in January but, judging from some of the responses on the HP Mini forums, it looks like HP has since canceled the few orders that got through before the battery was pulled from its site. Those folks may not be too disappointed any longer, however, as the battery now has a price tag of $95.99 (after a $20 instate rebate), which is quite a bit easier to swallow than the $153.90 that HP was originally asking.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

The Web turns 20, FidoNet suffers abandonment issues

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 5:40PM


Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Sir Tim Berners-Lee's submission to CERN titled "Information Management: A proposal." Over roughly the next year and a half he had built HTTP, HTML, WorldWideWeb (the first web browser), CERN httpd (the first server software), and the first web server (http://info.cern.ch), paving the way for an unprecedented era of human communication and interconnectivity. We're not entirely sure how 4chan, Bert Is Evil, or Tila Tequila fit into all of this, but we'd sure miss them if they weren't here (well, not Tila Tequila -- definitely not Tila Tequila). The visionary chats about cyberspace past, present, and future after the break.

[Via Daily Wireless]

Continue reading The Web turns 20, FidoNet suffers abandonment issues

Symbian Foundation's release schedule is a five-version juggling act

by Chris Ziegler, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 5:07PM


The Symbian Foundation's platform plans have mostly been a black box since its inception last year, with S60 seemingly forming the de facto base for development -- a reality that ultimately accelerated UIQ's demise. Symbian executive VP David Wood has shed some light on how the roadmap's going to play out (in theory, anyway), and it's shaping up to be a little more complicated than anyone would've anticipated. Turns out that the Foundation intends to have no fewer than five -- yes, five -- versions of the platform in development at any one time: two in the "stable phase" where they'll presumably be subject to minor updates, one in the "hardening phase," one having new features submitted, and one getting very early builds. What's more, releases even beyond that will be getting their roadmaps finalized at the same time. Ultimately, they'd like to have two platform releases a year, with the first -- Symbian^2, based on the upcoming S60 5th Edition Feature Pack 1 -- hitting at the end of this year if everything goes well, and that's presumably what we'd be seeing in Sony Ericsson's Idou. Look, if Symbian seriously wants to innovate this rapidly and mercilessly, we're all for it -- it's just a question of whether it can deliver.

[Via All About Symbian, thanks Pdexter]

Amazon using DMCA to restrict Kindle content sources

by Nilay Patel, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 4:48PM


Oh, Amazon. Just a couple weeks after the Authors Guild's overzealous copyright-maximalist stance forced the bookseller to modify the Kindle 2's text to speech feature, the company's lawyers have had a fit of irony and sent out a DMCA takedown request to MobileRead, claiming that the site's links to a Python script that enables Kindle owners to shop at Mobipocket-format ebook sites constitutes circumvention of the Kindle's DRM. There's all kinds of corporate-lawyer idiocy at play here: MobileRead was just linking out to another site hosting the script, which can't actually be used to break Kindle DRM, and the only people using it are the people who want to buy more books -- not exactly the sort of customers you'd want to piss off. Amazon's sole motivation here seems to be the fear that people might buy Kindle content from somewhere besides Amazon, and it appears to be using copyright law to try and prevent that. Another corporation driven mad with DRM power? Say it ain't so.

[Via TechDirt]

Toshiba Camileo S10 pocketcam: the $200 1080p Flip-killer?

by Nilay Patel, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 4:44PM


It's been a while since we first caught wind of the mysterious Toshiba Camileo S10, but the pocket camcorder has finally broken loose, and it's looking like a pretty solid competitor to the Flip Mino HD and the Kodak Zi6 -- it amps up the video resolution to 1080p and also takes five megapixel stills. That's pretty impressive for a pocketcam spec sheet, but the best part is the price -- if this thing lands Stateside for close to the £130 ($181) UK pricetag, we'd have to find reasons not to snap one up. Pocket-lint got a few hands-ons photos of the little bugger, check 'em out at the read link.

Read - S10 announcement
Read - Pocket-lint hands-on

Engadget Podcast 137 - 03.13.2009

by Trent Wolbe, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 4:20PM



When not hobnobbing with Jimmy Fallon and unreleased Palm devices, Joshua likes to sit down with salt-of-the-earth folks like Nilay and Paul to chat up the week's gadget news and recount the tales from his jet-setting lifestyle. It was a fairly slow week overall, so the guys got some time to answer a reader question and let their indomitable personalities shine through. We're not going to lie, it's some pretty awesome stuff.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: What You Know / Gold Digger

01:09 - In case you missed 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' last night
18:58 - iPhone OS 3.0 is coming, preview on March 17th
Subscribe to the podcast

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Download the podcast

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Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

AgfaPhoto announces "world's first" HD photo frames

by Donald Melanson, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 3:51PM


The "world's first" claim may be a tad on the dubious side, but AgfaPhoto's new 10-inch AF5105MS and 13-inch AF5135MS HD photo frames certainly seem to deliver where it counts, with each packing a 1,280 x 800 resolution and all the usual multimedia-related features you'd expect from a high-res frame. At just 22mm thick, they're also pretty slim by photo frame standards and, in addition to being available in black or white, they each come with a set of interchangeable frames to suit your decor. No word on a price just yet, but you'll likely want to factor in the cost of a memory card, as each come equipped with just 256MB of internal memory.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Buffalo's external 32GB and 64GB SSDs can swap insides with your Eee PC's original drive

by Paul Miller, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 3:18PM


Sure, you could look at it as crass commercialism, but we choose to see the softer, gentler side of Buffalo in this act of kindness: buy a new SSD upgrade for your ASUS Eee PC 901-16G and Buffalo will toss in a free chassis to hold your existing 16GB drive. The 32GB and 64GB drives will run you $129 and $228, respectively, and actually ship inside the external drive -- you don't have to swap SSDs if you don't want to, but we like the option. We would, anyways, if we lived in Japan.

[Via PortableMonkey]

Gallery: Buffalo's external 32GB and 64GB SSDs for Eee PC

CyberPower rolls out Gamer Xtreme 3D desktops

by Donald Melanson, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 2:47PM


Well, it looks like high-end gaming PC manufacturers are now well and truly on board the 3D bandwagon, with CyberPower only the latest to toss out a couple of systems bundled with some 3D glasses and the necessary hardware to back 'em up. As is their nature, CyberPower is offering both Intel and AMD-based options in the form of the Gamer Xtreme 3D 1000 and Gamer Xtreme 3D 2000, the former of which packs a 2.66GHz Core i7-920 processor, while the later opts for a Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition triple-core CPU. Otherwise, you can expect to get NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 graphics on each, along with a bundled 22-inch Samsung Syncmaster 2233RZ 120Hz LCD monitor, 3D Vision stereoscopic glasses, and some expectedly high-end specs across the board, with the Core i7 rig edging out the AMD in most respects. That also includes price, of course, with the Intel-based system running $1,839, while the AMD-based rig will set you back a more reasonable $1,299.

Windows 7 bug fixes to include multitouch zoom for Explorer

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 2:15PM


After hearing of the thousands (hell, two thousands!) of bug fixes and enhancements that Windows 7 users will be seeing as they make the journey from Beta to Release Candidate, you'd have thought that we'd heard the last of all that for a bit. But not so! It seems that Microsoft's own Engineering Windows 7 blog will be letting the improvements trickle out as they are addressed. So brace yourself for some exciting plot twists, such as improvements to the taskbar thumbnail overflow and various jump lists, the trimming of sound schemes to enhance system performance, and our personal favorite, the addition of multitouch zoom to Windows Explorer. How cool is that? But there's plenty more to this saga -- hit the read link for all the saucy deets.

Vivitar goes retro with new ViviCam 8027

by Donald Melanson, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 1:53PM


Vivitar is hardly the only camera manufacturer to go back to its roots with some of its digital offerings, but that's hardly a trend we're going to complain about, especially when the cameras in question are such a marked improved over the company's standard fare. Of course, there's a decidedly less substantial difference once you move beyond the appearance, with this new ViviCam 8027 packing the same 8 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and 2.4-inch LCD as its blander 8025 counterpart, plus the usual anti-shake measures, a basic movie mode, red eye reduction, and a recharchable lithium ion battery. No word on a price just yet, but it looks like you'll be able to snag this one in your choice of black or yellow in addition to the red.

[Via Chip Chick]

Toshiba's ApriAttenda makes for one cute kill-bot

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 1:22PM


As you're no doubt aware, it's the cute ones that can cause the most trouble. For instance, consider Toshiba's newest: ApriAttenda, pictured here at a press event at the company's lab in Kasawaki, Kanagawa prefecture, suburban Tokyo, is one meter tall, has three fingers and small CCD cameras in the palm of each hand, and can rise an additional 0.3 meters if the need should present itself. Sure, the device's ability to open refrigerator doors and lift boxes is impressive, but can we realistically believe that things will end there? Or does the permanently astonished look on its slightly Wall-E-esque visage disguise more sinister motives? You've been warned.

Caustic Graphics develops ray tracing at gaming speeds

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 12:57PM


The ray-tracing technique for generating 3D images is an extremely processor-intensive proposition that doesn't lend itself to gaming (or real-time anything, for that matter), but all of that may be about to change. Caustic Graphics, a San Francisco-based start-up founded by former Apple employee James McCombe, claims that its dedicated ray tracing card will produce photorealistic graphics at a rate 20 times faster than products currently available. And if that weren't enough, their new CausticRT platform has the potential to perform the operations a whopping 200 times faster -- possibly fast enough for a photorealistic gaming platform. The second generation technology should be unleashed sometime in mid-2010, while the CausticOne card will get its official announcement on April 23 of this year.

[Via Business 2.0 Press]

Dexim's Shu-Lip turns your new iPod shuffle into the thumb drive it's dying to be

by Paul Miller, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 12:36PM


With the promising intro of "when a shuffle kisses a Mac..." we were hoping for something a bit more exciting, but we suppose Dexim's new Shu-Lip will have to do. In completely straightforward and boring fashion, the Shu-Lip is designed to plug into the end of the new iPod shuffle and transform it from miniscule DAP to completely run-of-the-mill thumb drive, replacing that clunky audio-jack-to-USB dongle that the shuffle comes with. Naturally, with such short notice from Apple, it seems like Dexim merely has the renders and a price locked down so far -- the Shu-Lip will ship for $10 whenever it's ready.

[Via iLounge]

Engadget's recession antidote: win a set of Razer Moray earbuds!

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 12:05PM


This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We'll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we've got a set of Razer Moray noise isolating earphones (in black) on offer, able to adequately replace those lackluster stock 'buds that came with your current media player. Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting!

Special thanks to Razer for providing the gear!

The rules:
  • Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for "fixing" the world economy, that'd be sweet too.
  • You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
  • If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  • Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 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.
  • Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one Razer Moray earphones set. Approximate value is $39.99.
  • If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
  • Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 13th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
  • Full rules can be found here.

VIA's VX855 Media System Processor handles the 1080p

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 11:48AM


Big news, folks -- 1008p is about to hit the minuscule PC market, and VIA's making darn sure it doesn't miss the boat. Hot on the heels of HABEY's BIS-6550HD announcement, VIA has stepped in to formally introduce its VX855 Media System Processor, which aims to bring hardware-based 1080p decoding to VIA-based rigs. The highly integrated single chip package sucks down just 2.3 watts and provides hardware H.264 video acceleration when snapped in alongside a VIA Nano, C7 or Eden processor. Other specs include a 400 to 800MHz FSB speed, support for up to DDR2 800 memory (4GB maximum), six USB 2.0 ports and the company's own Chrome9 graphics set. There's no mention of when this bugger will find its way into shelf-bound rigs, but we're hoping Computex sheds some light on the situation.

[Via HotHardware]

Gallery: VIA's VX855 Media System Processor handles the 1080p

Zypad mil-spec wrist PC gets a refresh

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 11:26AM


Looks like the Parvus wrist computer we last saw almost three years ago has received an upgrade. The Zypad WR1100 is a 3.5-inch color touchscreen device aimed at the defense industries, soldiers of fortune (who, surprisingly enough, make a large part of our readership), futuristic Boy Scouts, and anyone else who needs a Linux device strapped to their wrist. Aside from a high strength / low weight fiberglass-reinforced nylon-magnesium alloy housing designed to take a licking in the field, this wrist-worn bad boy rocks 256MB memory, 128MB flash storage, various connectivity options (including WiFi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee), a GPS, a compass, biometric fingerprint sensor, and an accelerometer that puts the system in standby when the arm is hanging down beside the body. Let us take a moment to ponder the irony of the inevitable Quake mod this device will certainly see at some point in the near future.

[Via CNet]

Continue reading Zypad mil-spec wrist PC gets a refresh

iriver's Dicple D35 and D31 remind us of just how much we'll never understand

by Paul Miller, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 11:02AM


For a company that pretty much just makes PMPs, iriver manages to pull off an incredible quantity of surprising product moves and design choices. Its new Dicple D35 and D31, for instance, square off any of the sexiness and sleekitude of previous iterations, like 2007's D5. The devices seem to be getting inexplicably thicker, the screen bezel has become more prominent, and iriver just doesn't seem to care. However, the software has certainly come a long way from those electronic dictionary days, with widgets, advanced multimedia features (like DMB and radio recording), handwriting recognition and PIM functions -- all of which we have little idea as to the functionality, since the spec list is in Korean, and we don't imagine iriver plans on shipping this sort of stuff to the States any time soon. Still, we can dream.

[Thanks, Alex]

Read - iriver D31
Read - iriver D35

Gallery: iriver's new Dicple D35 and D31

Disney's latest LCD TV gets mauled by Stitch

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 10:40AM


Somehow or another, Lilo was completely left out of this arrangement, but as you can tell, there's no room beside Stitch anyway. Disney's latest 20-inch LCD TV has been decidedly commandeered by one of its (er, only?) most popular blue alien characters, and if you can look past that gaping mouth up top, you'll notice a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, HDMI and VGA inputs, a built-in TV tuner, dual five watt speakers and a bundled remote. Oddly, we're told that this royalty-laced set will be priced at an amazing ¥100,000 ($1,015), so you best be sure 1) your kid is a true, hardcore fan and 2) money ain't a thang.
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