Archive for May 5th, 2009

James Dyson, the man who single-handedly transformed the vacuum cleaner from a symbol of domestic oppression to an object of techno-lust, is back on the scene with not one, but a whole coterie of kitchen appliances designed to save space — by sticking ‘em in a box. No longer must Americans stand for tea kettles shaped like tea kettles, toasters shaped like toasters, or for juicers… you get the idea. What’s more, these guys are all designed to work together: controls are uniformly placed on the top or front panels, with devices sharing common power supplies. As it stands, this is all currently little more than a story dreamt up on the basis of a patent, fodder for a slow news day, and something which neither Dyson nor his colleagues commit to actually making a real reality — even if patent US 2009/0095729 tells us a different story. But what the hell? A guy can dream, right?

[Via Core77]

Filed under: Household

Domestic visionary Dyson’s totally square kitchen originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 16:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a month after dropping the 750MB/s G-Monster PCIe SSD RAID card on us, PhotoFast is back with the G-Monster Promise, which jacks read / write speeds to 1000MB/s. Not the fastest we’ve ever seen, but we’ll take it. It’ll be available sometime this month in Japan in sizes from 128GB to 1TB — just make sure you’ve save a lot of pennies, cause it ain’t gonna be cheap.

Update: Our friends at Engadget Japan have chimed in to tell us they’re on sale in the Akihabara district to the tune of USD $1,600 for 128GB, $2,000 for 512GB, and a whopping $4,500 for the 1TB model.

[Via PCLaunches]

Filed under: Storage

PhotoFast G-Monster-Promise PCIe SSD does 1000MB/s read and writes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GH1 certainly has a lot going for it. It’s smaller than a DSLR, boasts some interchangeable lenses, and it’s apparently more than up to the task when it comes to shooting video. Unfortunately, all of that doesn’t come cheap, with the camera now up for pre-order from J&R for the not so low price of $1,499.99, which puts it well above a number of more-than-capable DSLRs. Of course, that price does include a 14-140mm lens, and it could come down slightly once some other retailers get in on the discounting action, but it’s pretty clear that anyone simply looking for a low-cost alternative to a DSLR (or a low-cost DSLR, for that matter) will want to look elsewhere.

[Via Crave]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 goes up for pre-order, for $1,499 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not usually very enthused by flash drives, though occasionally they’re cute enough to cause a flutter of interest. These, however, are hair-raisingly, insanely awesome. Designed with the modern musician in mind, these two bad boys are convincingly modeled on the AKAI MPC2000XL sampler and the EMU SP1200 drum machine. And by “convincingly modeled” we mean that they look pretty much exact to their original counterparts. They have a 4GB capacity and are going to run you $39.95 each, and you can pre-order them now. We strongly suggest that you look into doing just that. Several more shots after the break.

[Via Crate King; thanks George]

Continue reading Mini MPC 2000XL / SP1200 flash drives let you take a little Kanye with you

Filed under: Storage

Mini MPC 2000XL / SP1200 flash drives let you take a little Kanye with you originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already gotten a pretty thorough rundown of the motion-sensing Xbox 360 add-on that Microsoft supposedly has in store for this year’s E3, and it looks like the folks at Ars Technica have now pieced together a few more of the pieces and figured out exactly where the device might have came from. Apparently, the device has been around in some form as far back as CES 2008, where little-known upstart 3DV was showing off its own ZCam system which, according to Ars, was able to perform just about all of the functions that Microsoft’s device is able to. That didn’t exactly cause a huge stir at the time, but it was apparently enough to attract the interest of Microsoft, which reportedly went after the company shortly thereafter and seems to have finally gone through with the acquisition earlier this year. Coincidence? Maybe. But Microsoft’s history is certainly pushing this one into the more-likely-than-not column.

Filed under: Gaming

Microsoft’s motion-sensing Xbox 360 add-on a result of 3DV acquisition? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Considering that we’re holding a Japanese unit in our hands, our impressions of Sony’s OLED Walkman will be somewhat limited. That said, we figured it prudent to pass along our initial judgments until the US model shows up sometime between tomorrow and next century. After giving the flashy PMP a photo shoot yesterday, we spent the rest of the day (and night, we won’t even front) toying with Sony’s most hyped Walkman in quite some time. Eager to hear just how fantastic / horrible this critter is? Follow us past the break for our two pennies.

Continue reading Sony OLED Walkman impressions

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Sony OLED Walkman impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may not have heard of the Celery fax-to-email service for the elderly in the past, but now that the company’s rolling out Twitter and Facebook integration we’d bet it’s the hottest ticket on the 4PM dinner scene — Nanna’s always had a thing for Ashton, after all. Built around a Lexmark fax machine (or your own, if you have one) the Celery service allows the computer-illiterate to send and receive emails, tweets, and Facebook status messages by simply writing down messages and faxing ‘em out — incoming messages can be printed out individually or in digest form to cope with volume. Add in a dash of RSS integration and hell, you’ve basically got the world’s clunkiest netbook on your hands. Yep, interesting, but we’d almost rather pay the $14 / month service fee to make sure Nan never, ever sees our Facebook or Twitter pages.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Celery lets Gran tweet from the fax machine originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 13:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile’s Sidekicks have been cult favorites stretching all the way back to the original grayscale model — a device with a design only a mother could love, may we add — when it launched nearly seven years ago. Though the unusual form factor with the addictive spring-loaded pivoting swivel has largely prevented it from attracting a mainstream audience, the countless teens and twenty-somethings who’ve latched on to the Hiptop ecosystem have cited many of the same reasons for loving it since day one: an easy, foolproof UI, push email, high-quality customizability, decent web browsing capabilities, and a stellar messaging-optimized layout (remember that QWERTY was little more than a twinkle in most manufacturers’ eyes back in 2002).

At its launch, the first-generation Sidekick LX represented a new high end for the franchise — big shoes to fill for the 2009 model of the same name. Does it live up to the hype? More importantly, could this be the first Sidekick complete enough and robust enough to reach new audiences? Head on over to Engadget Mobile’s review to find out.

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Storage

DDRdrive’s RAM-based SSD is snappy, costly originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re like us, you’re literally counting down the days until The Beatles: Rock Band is released (127). So, the news that it’s now available for pre-order is, shall we say… exciting to us. Even more enthralling is confirmation of our wildest dreams: there will be two custom guitars available for purchase on top of the Special Edition bundle (the game itself, Höfner bass and Ludwig drums microphone and mike stand). The guitars — a Gretsch Duo-Jet and a Rickenbacker 325 — will retail for $99.00 each when the game arrives on September 9th. Until then, may we suggest you use the video after the break to work on your harmonies.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Gallery: Rock Band: Beatles guitars

Continue reading Beatles Rock Band pre-order is on, custom guitars are a go

Filed under: Gaming

Beatles Rock Band pre-order is on, custom guitars are a go originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 12:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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