Archive for April 25th, 2009

While RED has been pretty tight-lipped about its planned RED RAY product, some footage shown off at RED’s NAB party gave a sizable hint that RED RAY could be much more than meets the eye — specifically a $1,000 device that can play cinema-quality 4k video off of standard DVDs. At the party they played an uncompressed showreel of 4k footage on a Sony 4k projector, which clocked in at 1.3GB per second, and then showed that exact same footage under the “RED RAY” codec at a mere 10Mb/s (megabits, not bytes; about half the bitrate of SD DV), at a compression rate of 700:1. Attendees claimed they could see zero visible compression, though a projector in a ballroom isn’t exactly the best case scenario to test that sort of thing. Unfortunately, there’s little other info about how they’re achieving this (we hear “wavelets” come into the equation at some point), or to what nefarious aims, but with compression like this the implications for content distribution are pretty stunning: 1080p+ streaming for all. Naturally, the down side of all of this is probably some pretty hefty processing power on the consumer end, but we’ll cross that I/O bridge when we come to it.

[Thanks, Ben H]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

RED blows away small room of videophiles with 4k RED RAY footage at half the bitrate of MiniDV originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Cowon’s S9 going 32GB a couple of weeks ago, and the iPod touch doing 32GB for eons, Samsung’s finally matching its touchscreen brethren with the 32GB P3. Unfortunately, it’s only available in Korea at the moment, for the quite reasonable price of 389,000 won — about $291 US. On an unrelated note: we hear it’s nice over there this time of year.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Samsung plays catch-up with 32GB P3 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some scientists at the University of East Anglia in England, with aims only for the betterment of humanity, we’re sure, have developed lip-reading software that can not only pick up words based on mouth shapes, but can even figure out what language you’re speaking — always a handy thing when understanding speech, we’ve found. Languages it can identify include English, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Polish, and Russian, and recognition is based on telltale “articulators” of tongue, jaw and lip movement. The software statistically analyzed the face movements of bilingual and trilingual speakers to draw out the specific defining characteristics, and could by used by the deaf, military and police organizations, or by on-board ship computers that fear for their safety and the integrity of the mission.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Lip-reading software can identify multiple languages, has big plans for Jupiter originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have developed an extremely small microfluidic chip that simulates chemical reactions commonplace in the human body, for testing drug reactions. The device is around a thousand times smaller than the usual electrochemical cell (the volume of the chip’s main fluid channel is a mere 9.6 nanoliters) and uses electrodes to control the chemical reactions. It’s already been used to conduct tests on Amodiaquine, an anti-malarial drug, with more studies sure to follow. While this is great news for medical science, we have to wonder what the small army of slackers, malingerers, and college students are going to do when they’re no longer able to make money as human guinea pigs. Become bloggers?

[Via PhysOrg]

Filed under: Science

Researchers in the Netherlands develop a microfluidic chip for testing drug reactions originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We already knew that Daimler was looking to Tesla for its battery know-how within the electric Smart, and evidently the two have already put together a working prototype. Our best buds over at AutoblogGreen have hosted up a video and photo gallery of a Tesla-powered Smart fortwo which was recently spotted at a heretofore unnamed automotive show. Amazingly, the vehicle was actually outfitted with the motor and gear box (version 1.0) from an original Roadster, though the incommodious nature of the show floor made it impossible to peel out and really cause a scene. Check the read link for all the multimedia goodies.

Filed under: Transportation

Tesla-powered Smart fortwo gives rides, ignites imaginations originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aw, how timely. Shortly after the Pleo lineage fell victim to economic pressures, an all-too-cute video has surfaced showing a remaining creature being controlled by a Wii Nunchuk. In reality, the underlying abuse here is quite sad — for those unaware, Pleo was designed to be entirely autonomous, and the first step to regaining control over it is to implement a “Pleo Stunner” in order to shock him into silence. From there, an XBee-based solution is used to tap into his control system and override every single instinct the poor sap ever had. If you’re into this type of sadistic torture (or you’re just an aspiring dictator), check the read link for all the instructions you need to fulfill your own evil desires. For those just interested in a good chuckle, the vid’s after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Video: surviving Pleo loses remaining autonomy, gets controlled by Wii Nunchuk

Filed under: Robots

Video: surviving Pleo loses remaining autonomy, gets controlled by Wii Nunchuk originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some researchers at UC San Diego, teamed up with Microsoft Research, have a novel new method in the works to let your computer save on power in sleep mode while still keeping up with IMs and whatever other network activity you pesky folks might be up to. Dubbed “Somniloquy,” the USB dongle acts as an external networking card, and takes over most of the communication duties, with its own embedded OS and flash memory (similar to the Killer NIC). When the computer goes to sleep, Somniloquy maintains IM connections, ongoing downloads and torrents, and keeps your computer present on the local network and wireless LAN. If an activity arrives that needs the full computer, Somniloquy wakes up the computer and patches it through — going so far as to buffer downloads into flash memory, and then dump it periodically on to the hard drive. The wake-on network activity concept is nothing new, but Somniloquy really runs with it, and boasts up to 60 to 80 percent overall energy savings based on the person’s usage habits. The device is currently in prototype stage, and in the future all its functionality could be integrated into a PC’s network card — and hopefully won’t just be for the pros this time.

Filed under: Networking

Somniloquy external networking card lets PCS “sleep talk” essential connectivity functions originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia’s first ever full touchscreen S60 phone has had quite the bumpy ride into reality. After launching here in North America, it was on the receiving end of heavy pounding from early adopters who couldn’t adequately take advantage of 3G services. Now that those issues are ironed out (and you’ve had five minutes to cool your jets), we’re wondering how you’d tweak / change / overhaul the 5800 XpressMusic. Needless to say, our own personal list would likely span a few pages (collated, double-spaced, 1-inch margins), but this post isn’t for us. In fact, it has been specially crafted just for you, so feel free to let off some steam in comments below. Just keep it constructive, okay?

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They’re still pretty hard to come by ’round these parts, but it looks like the folks at UMPC Fever have managed to track down one of MSI’s shiny new X-Slim X340 ultraportables and, like any good citizen of the internet, they’ve promptly gone and ripped it apart. As you might expect, there aren’t exactly a ton of surprises, but it looks like anyone hoping to do a quick and easy 3G upgrade is out of luck, unless, as SlashGear points out, they’re willing to ditch the built-in WiFi to free up a PCI-E slot. Hit up the read link below for the complete, not always pretty breakdown.

[Via Slash Gear]

Filed under: Laptops

MSI X-Slim X340 gets dissected originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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	Windows 7 RC 7100 making its way to OEMs, a torrent tracker near you It seems a little early in the game to be talking Windows 7 release candidates, but that’s just the way we like it.		Nikon’s D5000 DSLR (and its articulating display) shipping April 27th Oh, goodie goodie! Merely ten days after the D5000 was formally introduced to the world, we’re now being told that Nikon’s first DSLR with an articulating display will be shipping in three short days.
	Microsoft Surface setup impressions: “filled with mind-bogglingly frustrating usability issues” Microsoft’s Surface has been shipping out to corporate customers for a year now, but we haven’t heard much about the backend setup of the $17,000 table.	Other news of import Video: Blade Runner starring the iPod shuffle and Kindle 2 Redrock Micro Hybrid Cinema Rigs turn DSLRs into filmmakers Army’s multimode death ray knocks out IEDs, vehicles, whiners
	China Blue HD players revealed, second stage of the format war is officially on China’s alternative to Blu-ray finally has some hardware to show off, with players from TCL and Shinco making their debut this week.		T-Mobile Germany website indicates May launch for Cupcake It’s not exactly a huge surprise considering that the Cupcake-powered HTC Magic is confirmed to be coming out May 5th.
Myvu Crystal review Philips Prestigo SRT9320 color touchscreen remote ready for preorders, shipping someday		Finland ready to rock LTE at “lower cost” 1800MHz Ericsson ready to shell out heroic Sony Ericsson cash infusion if necessary HTC Touch Pro2 gets thoroughly handled overseas

The Daily Roundup: here’s what you might’ve missed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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