Archive for May 28th, 2009

The avoirdupois of the world rests on your shoulders as you await the mind-numbing riffs of Painkiller. You wonder how you’ll prevent yourself from engaging in overdrive prematurely as your locks bang to and fro. Then you look down and see EHX’s Overdrive pedal a stone’s throw from your left foot. Exhale.

[Via Boing Boing]

Continue reading Electro-Harmonix Overdrive pedal just became a Rock Band 2 necessity

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Electro-Harmonix Overdrive pedal just became a Rock Band 2 necessity originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 16:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We got a quick look at Dell’s new Studio 14z thin-and-light, budget-friendly laptop, and were mildly impressed. The thing is lighter than it looks, has a great blend of performance, price, inputs and outputs, and doesn’t even look too frumpy to boot. The chiclet-ish keyboard is fine, though not great, and while the lack of Studio XPS-style leather frills and capacitive touch controls might be seen as a drawback to some, we actually like the no-nonsense approach. The inclusion of HDMI, eSATA and an ExpressCard 34 slot are pretty clutch for this form factor and price, and while a cheap external drive might be necessary for occasional use at the desk, the removal of it makes total sense for the target audience of students. Perhaps most astonishing, however, is that Dell has finally figured out that people care what the bottom of their computer looks and feels like — and this one feels great. It’s a whole new world, people.

Filed under: Laptops

Dell Studio 14z hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 16:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been announced today that the Symbian-powered Idou unveiled at Mobile World Congress earlier this year will be coming to market as the “Satio.” The full 640 x 350 3.5-inch touchscreen device features a whopping 12.1 megapixel camera, dual-band HSPA, microSD expansion (yes, microSD, not Memory Stick Micro), and a xenon flash. It’ll be available in three colors — black, silver, and bordeaux — this October.

[Via SEMC Blog]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Sony Ericsson Satio is Idou’s final name, ships in October originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Launch details for the Satio was the 800-pound news gorilla out of Sony Ericsson today, but slotting in right underneath that set are another couple of phones that are still very much in the higher end of the range — the Yari and Aino. The Yari slider (pictured left) is being billed as a gaming device, featuring gesture-controlled actions in the same vein as the Wii (and for the record, that’s Sony Ericsson’s comparison as much as it is ours). It features a 2.4-inch display, GPS, and support for the company’s PlayNow services; it’ll be available in the fourth quarter for about €400 ($558) unlocked. Next up, the Aino takes some cues from the Satio with a relatively large 3-inch touchscreen — but also tosses in a numeric slider for good measure. It’s got an 8.1 megapixel cam, Sony Remote Play support, GPS, HSPA, and a scratch-resistant mineral glass display; it’ll be ready to rock in the same timeframe as the Yari in black and white, though we don’t have pricing stats just yet — needless to say, it’ll be more than the Yari.

[Via SEMC Blog]

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds

Sony Ericsson adds Yari and Aino to its multimedia line originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 16:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s already been a crazy day for Palm news — so who knows what Palm’s Jon Rubinstein and Elevation Partner’s Roger McNamee have in store (well, we have a few ideas). We’re live at their D7 session and the fun is set to begin any moment, so stay tuned.

Thanks to our editor-at-large and gdgt co-founder Ryan Block for handling photo duties during the show!

Continue reading Palm live from D7

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm live from D7 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 15:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The ever-quotable, perennially unkempt Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners fame indulged in a bit of self-parody in a mock-commercial screened at D7 before he and Jon Rubinstein took the stage. While incredibly entertaining, the video also acts as a bit of damage control for Roger, who infamously stated that there would be a massive and sudden exodus from the iPhone to the Pre once those original iPhone contracts are up. Palm naturally distanced itself and “clarified” the comments, but that doesn’t seem to have dampened McNamee’s spirit: in the video he calls the Pre, among other things, “better than Viagra.” Unfortunately for McNamee, he might’ve been better served by a damage control video after his time on stage with Walt and Kara: his semi-sexist “It has a mirror on the back… there’s never been a phone like this for women before” line — not to mention a general disregard for sane conversation — isn’t winning him many points with the crowd. Video is after the break.

Continue reading Roger McNamee self-parodies his Palm Pre superlatives: “it eats iPhones for breakfast”

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Roger McNamee self-parodies his Palm Pre superlatives: “it eats iPhones for breakfast” originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 15:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d already heard through the gravevine that iTunes support would be baked into Palm’s forthcoming Pre, but now it’s official. During Palm’s D7 keynote today in Carlsbad, Paul Cousino showed attendees that non-DRM music, photos and videos could be synced with the Pre via iTunes (on Mac and Windows, naturally). In his words: “It shows up in iTunes just like a regular device.”

Update: So, Palm has issued an official press release detailing the new webOS features shown today at All Things Digital. The so-called media sync feature is straight up designed to “synchronize seamlessly with iTunes,” giving users the ability to use Apple’s media management software for transferring all non-DRM media. Furthermore, the Pre is engineered to act as a “mass storage drive,” letting users side-load content on the fly. The full release also details the App Catalog and Twitter in Universal Search.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

iTunes support confirmed for Palm Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 15:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that Wistron PurseBook we peeked back in early April? Yeah, that’s not just some one-off creation to wow folks on a show floor. We just sat down with Qualcomm to hear all about the newest small form factor machine that it has a hand in, and while we’re still unsure if the market can handle it, smartbooks are coming. The machines are currently in development by a handful of Qualcomm partners, and while exact specifications have yet to be disclosed, here’s what we do know. These devices will be marketed as companions to smartphones and bona fide laptops, and honestly, they kind of look like a stripped down version of Sony’s VAIO P. Within the Snapdragon-based rigs, you’ll find a 1GHz CPU, a battery good for eight to ten hours of use, WWAN, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, built-in GPS, HD video encoding capabilities and screen resolutions as high as WXGA (1,280 x 768). As with NVIDIA’s Tegra, this chip also promises pretty awesome 3D graphics considering the low power draw. Click on for more.

Continue reading Snapdragon-powered Smartbooks: in case your smartphone / netbook ain’t cutting it

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Laptops

Snapdragon-powered Smartbooks: in case your smartphone / netbook ain’t cutting it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 14:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We tell ya, some proud folks work at InvenSense. After boasting last year about its Wii MotionPlus-powering IDG-600 motion sensor, the company is set to gloat once more at E3 this year. The cause for celebration? Its 6-axis motion processing solution, which it’s calling a world’s first. Said solution weds its IME-3000 3-axis accelerometer with its IDG dual-axis family of gyros in order to produce a wicked small 6-axis motion sensor. In theory, at least, this creation is small enough to add MotionPlus-like capabilities to smartphones and other ridiculously small devices, with even TV remotes holding the promise of one day letting you “roll through” the EPG. Currently, the only big-name devices utilizing 5- or 6-axis motion functionality is Logitech’s MX Air Mouse and the aforementioned MotionPlus accessory, but obviously InvenSense is hungry for more. Too bad that DSi already launched, right?

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

InvenSense gloats about world’s first 6-axis MEMS-based motion sensing solution originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As with Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GH1, a few lucky folks who have managed to spend a few moments with Pentax’s new 14.6 megapixel K-7 have stopped to host up the results for us to drool over. Early stills are rather impressive, with images being sharp, crisp and generally delightful to stare at. As for video, it’s tough to judge the real quality based on a YouTube rendition, but feel free to glean what you can just after the break. So, if you weren’t sold already, are you now?

Read – Pentax Forums
Read – DPReview

Continue reading Sample shots and video emerge from Pentax’s K-7 DSLR

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Sample shots and video emerge from Pentax’s K-7 DSLR originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 13:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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