Archive for June 9th, 2009

Brando may be best known for some of its slightly off the wall products, but it also carries plenty of less fanciful gadgets, like this HTPC-minded keyboard with a still relatively uncommon built-in multitouch trackpad. As you can sorta see above, that also doubles as the numeric keypad, and you can switch between the two functions at the press of a button, but not a swipe, apparently. Otherwise, you’ll get a 2.4GHz RF USB transmitter that can be tucked into the keyboard itself if you don’t feel like actually using it, along with 18 presumably customizable hotkeys, and support for Windows XP and Vista, but not Macs. $69 and it’s yours.

Filed under: Peripherals

Brando offers up wireless HTPC keyboard with multitouch trackpad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like a page torn right out of the government’s top secret files on Nikola Tesla, a Nokia research team is working on a wireless energy harvesting mechanism, which sucks up all that cancer-giving RF floating through the air and turns it into electrical current. Their goal is about to capture about 50 milliwatts of power for “ambient charging” — which would at least be enough to top off the battery while the phone is off. Unfortunately, right now their current prototypes are only pulling down 3 to 5 milliwatts, and many in the industry are convinced it can’t be done (don’t worry, Nokia, that’s just The Man, keeping you down). To be honest, we’re not totally sure were comfortable with the thought that there’s enough RF floating around to make this even theoretically possible, but as we slowly come to grips with our own mortality, we imagine we’d gladly pay an extra $70 or so for the privilege of never having to charge our phone again. Nokia itself isn’t over promising: they plan on supplementing this juice with solar power, and thinks it’ll be three or four years until it makes its way into a handset — probably around the time your existing iPhone contract dries up.

[Thanks, CanisMinor]

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

Nokia hopes to one-up Touchstone, harness wireless power for “ambient” phone charging originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey old man, with your “sensible shoes” and your “401(K)” and your “Mr. Acker Bilk,” we don’t need your boring old Logitech mouse. Your scene is so yesterday, man! We just got an eyeful of the new V220 notebook mice and we gotta say — these bad boys are outtasight! They feature the same RF-based USB wireless dongle action of its boring gray brethren, but now the three-button peripheral comes in several psychedelic hues, including blue, pink, purple and red. If that weren’t enough, three new patterns are also available — sure to blow the minds of any squares who might accidentally wander in to your hip pad. Ships today for $30, and we got one more pic for you after the break. Now, where did we put that Moby Grape album?

[Via Electronista]

Continue reading Logitech V220 notebook mice now features colors, patterns, psychedelia

Filed under: Peripherals

Logitech V220 notebook mice now features colors, patterns, psychedelia originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E-paper displays capable of playing video aren’t exactly a completely new development, but Samsung seems to be particularly proud of its latest prototype, which makes use of some new, slightly mysterious technology to let you switch between e-paper and video modes. That’s apparently possible in part thanks to an active matrix panel that uses “a kind of cholesteric liquid crystal” which, oddly enough, has so far been primarily used in displays on flash drives. Given that history, the 10.2-inch panel itself is expectedly a little lackluster when it comes to the core specs, with it packing a mere 320 x 240 resolution, 64 colors, and a response time of 25 ms “or less.” Of course, it is still just a prototype, and Samsung seems confident that it’ll be able to make the necessary improvements before it tuns into an actual product.

Filed under: Displays

Samsung shows off video-capable e-paper prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba’s added a couple new Satellite laptops into the mix, with options for both the road warrior and the stay-at-home multimedia user. First, the A500: this guy sports a 16-inch, 16:9 format display (1366 x 768), a TV-tuner for both analog and digital DVB-T programming, Harman Kardon speakers and HDMI ports with REGZA LINK technology. Under the hood, this guy packs an Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB memory, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD GPU (up to 1GB DDR3 VRAM), and either a 500GB HDD or 64GB SSD. For those of you on the ultra-portable tip, the U500 is a 13.3-inch (16:10 format, 1280 x 800) ultraportable that weighs in at just under 4.5 pounds. With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8 GB memory, a hard disk capacity of up to 500GB, and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 GPU, this bad boy is available in Brown Luxe, with either chrome or silver accents. Claimed battery life is over 3.5 hours. Both lappies feature a DVD Super Multi drive, wide format HD webcam, multi-touch trackpad, and the usual host of connectivity options (WLAN, Bluetooth 2.1, 5-in-1 media card slot). Both will be available in Europe sometime this July for €699 (approx. $975).

Read – Toshiba Satellite U500 with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
Read – Toshiba Satellite A500 by 16 inches

Filed under: Laptops

New Toshiba Satellite laptops land in Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Getting an Xbox 360 RROD was never any fun, but at least getting it fixed was easy, since a quick phone call would get you a pre-paid “coffin” in which to send the broken console back for repairs. Not anymore — although Redmond will still pay for return shipping, the company’s beancounters have decided to axe the expense of sending custom packaging out to people who need repairs, meaning anyone who gets an RROD will need to pack things themselves. Not the end of the world, but we share Joystiq’s take: just send it however you can, since MS is fixing it anyway, and then save the return carton in case something else goes wrong — knowing the 360, it very well might.

Filed under: Gaming

Microsoft ends Xbox 360 RROD “coffin” program, still paying for shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A final spec has been promised for over a year now, but the PCMCIA folks have just now finally settled on the long-awaited ExpressCard 2.0 standard which, among other things, incorporates the new SuperSpeed USB spec to allow for faster transfer rates. In real world use, that should translate to transfer rates up to 5Gbps, or roughly 10 times faster than the previous ExpressCard 1.2 standard. Otherwise, you can naturally expect full backwards compatibility with existing ExpressCards and, as PCMCIA hopes, even more products using the format in the future now that it has all that extra bandwidth, although it seems Apple didn’t get that memo.

Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals

ExpressCard 2.0 standard finally finalized, faster than ever originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS might have launched the netbook era with the original Eee PC and followed up on that with wave after wave of successfully more innovative designs like the Seashell, but that’s not enough for vice chairman Jonathan Tsang, who says the company’s goal is “to provide products that are better than Apple’s.” No pulling punches here! According to Tsang, ASUS spends very little on marketing, instead preferring to spend the majority of its budget in engineering products so innovative consumers are forced to take notice. We don’t know if that strategy will actually work — especially since true competition with Apple would have to involve software, not just hardware — but we will say that it’s clear ASUS is doing everything it can to drive the industry forward, not just lying back and copying rivals like MSI and Acer. That’s all thought-provoking enough, but there’s more: Tsang also says ASUS has a motion-controlled game console that provides better tracking than the Wii sitting on the shelf because content deals are “complicated.” Same with an ebook reader. “We don’t have the chicken, so cannot have the egg.” Well damn — and we really like eggs, too. Hit the read link for the full interview.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

ASUS: “Our goal is to provide products that are better than Apple’s” originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See that player right there? It looks really familiar, doesn’t it? Aside from a power adapter that’s suited for use in the United States of America, it’s essentially the BDP 10 sans a zero. Shortly after announcing its first Blu-ray deck overseas, Harman Kardon has seen fit to offer up a model here in the States, with BD-Live functionality, a USB socket, HDMI 1.3a, Ethernet, IR-remote in / out jacks, optical / coaxial digital audio outputs and support for all the major audio formats. The pain? $499, and it should start filtering into retailers as early as this month.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Harman Kardon brings Blu-ray to America with BDP 1 deck originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/09/engadget-cruises-with-the-brammo-enertia-electric-motorcycle-wi/’; Little more than a month after getting our sweaty, gloveless mitts on the Zero Motorcycles Zero S we received an offer to ride yet another high-tech wunderbike: the Brammo Enertia. Naturally our first reaction was excitement — excitement only slightly dampened by news that we’d again be using the gridlocked NYC streets as our test track. But, we risked life, limb, and the ire of many a taxi driver to get some impressions of the latest electric motorcycle to hit the streets, and grabbed some video action of it all too. Read on for the lot.

Continue reading Engadget cruises with the Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle (with video!)

Filed under: Transportation

Engadget cruises with the Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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