Archive for June 15th, 2009

Sure, a few still photos of the sushi-making Chef Robot now on display at the International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition in Tokyo are all well and good, but there’s nothing quite like a high def video to really bring all that creepiness home, and one has now surfaced courtesy of the brave folks at DigInfo. In case you missed it, the robot itself is actually just a standard issue FANUC M-430iA robot arm with a way too realistic hand attached to it, which apparently not only helps it prepare sushi, but some tasty desserts as well. Head on past the break for the must-see video, you’ve nothing to lose but your ability to unsee it.

Continue reading Chef Robot makes its video debut, nightmares forthcoming

Filed under: Robots

Chef Robot makes its video debut, nightmares forthcoming originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A BlackBerry 8520 bound for T-Mobile? Really, we’re not surprised, having heard whispers not too long ago, and while not yet official, some gung ho Crackberry forum members have posted some shots of the branded phone in the wild, with just a dash of Mr. Blurrycam stylings for good effect. No indication of a release date here, but if you’re really jonesing for a new 2.5G BlackBerry, last we heard it was coming fourth quarter of this year.

Update: That white trackpad isn’t quite what it seems. According to the original poster, it’s just a plastic covering. We hate to disappoint anyone who actually dug the new shade.

Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry Curve 8520 with T-Mobile branding walks in front of a camera originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Haven’t managed to get your hands on an Ion just yet? Hang tight, because a branded myTouch 3G has found its way into the wilds today, which we take to mean that a launch can’t be that far off. Actually, it can — who are we kidding — but the hopeless optimist in us wants to believe that this is about to happen. The poster over on Android Forums says that this particular device was handed out by someone at Google, not T-Mobile; there’s no telling what that really means to us, other than the fact that this is most definitely a “Google experience” Android device just like its older G1 brother (as the “with Google” badge on the back would also suggest). Exchange users, yeah, sorry about that.

[Via TmoNews]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

T-Mobile myTouch 3G spotted in the wild, G1 starting to feel unloved originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news, 3D fanboys and girls, looks like Viewsonic’s back on the scene with a clutch of 120Hz 3D-enabled projectors. The first new model, the PJD6381, looks to be aimed at schools and businesses, with an extremely short throw ratios (around .68) for reducing shadowing effects, and a number of interactive whiteboard options. Available in August, this guy has 1024 x 768 XGA resolution, 2,500 ANSI lumens, a 2,500:1 contrast ratio, 120Hz refresh rate, and is compatible with the both Texas Instruments’ DLP Link and NVIDIA’s 3D-Vision 3D technology — expect it to have an MSRP of $1,249. The PJD6211 and PJD6221 ($849 and $899, respectively) also sport 1024 x 768 XGA resolution, as well as up to 2,700 lumens, a 2,800:1 contrast ratio and both DLP Link and 3D-Vision compatibility. These two should hit the stores some time in July.

Filed under: Displays

Viewsonic announces three new 3D projectors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, there’s not exactly a whole lot to go on with this one, but Mintpass looks to have just recently launched an English version of its Mintpad website, which could well be yet another a sign that the MID / PMP is finally nearing a release outside of South Korea. Of course, that’s still not quite a sure thing, especially since the previously rumored April / May release date has now come and gone, and there’s unfortunately not so much as a price on the website to further back things up. There are plenty of specs, however, including the same 400MHz ARM processor, 128MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and built-in WiFi as before, plus no shortage of pics in case you’ve yet to get an up close look at the device.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Mintpass launches English Mintpad website, sign of things to come? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, that was fast. Just a couple hours after we noted Palm warning against hacking webOS to allow data tethering on the Pre, the first set of instructions has popped up. It’s not the cleanest hack we’ve ever seen — you need to root your phone, enable SSH, and then configure your browser to run through a SOCKS proxy — but it’ll certainly get the job done in a pinch. Just don’t go crazy, alright? We’ve got a feeling Sprint’s watching Pre accounts with an eagle eye.

Filed under: Cellphones, Networking

Palm Pre data tethering is a go, Sprint be damned originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple might have bumped the 13-inch unibody MacBook to Pro status at WWDC last week, but it looks like all the shuffling around to reduce costs has had an unfortunate side effect: new MacBook Pros that ship with HDDs only have a 1.5GBps SATA enabled, while SSD configs are apparently getting the full 3.0GBps SATA II experience that used to be standard. For most people this won’t make too much difference since traditional hard drives can’t move data that fast, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re hoping to buy an HDD unit and swap in a speedier SSD, since your max performance will be bottlenecked. We’ve verified that our review units with HDDs all have the slower settings, but we’ve put in a call to Apple to get some more answers on this — stay tuned.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Laptops

New MacBook Pros shipped with HDDs only have 1.5Gbps SATA enabled originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Editing documents? On a phone? We’re sure most iPhone users are a little taken aback by this prospect, but we assure you it’s completely safe and devoid of artificial preservatives. DataViz just launched its Documents To Go suite for the iPhone, which lets you edit and create Word documents, sync work files with a desktop over WiFi, and view other Office documents with the iPhone’s existing viewer — it’s not the first app to offer some of these functions for the device, but it’s the first with this level of street cred. An optional version of the app also includes a Exchange mail client with ActiveSync for accessing and editing Word documents from email, which seemingly flies in the face of Apple’s vague “don’t mess with Mail or any of our other built-in apps” policy. The basic Documents To Go app retails for a limited time at $4.99, while the Exchange version goes for $9.99 — and anyone who picks up the 1.0 version will get a free update to include Excel editing once it becomes available.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

DataViz brings Documents To Go to the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung just pulled a bit of a “Samsung” and completely blew out its Omnia lineup. We just got some face time with the new Omnia II, Omnia Pro, Omnia Lite and the Omnia-inspired Jet, along with the Pixon 12 — which runs the same in-house Samsung OS as the Jet, but packs a 12 megapixel camera. It’s hard not to notice the stunning AMOLED screens on these phones, especially up against the dull-by-comparison Omnia Lite with its petty LCD. Unfortunately, while the build quality is good and the specs are certainly all there, all the phones were fairly slow in regular operation. The Jet and Pixon were passable (and the Jet certainly ought to be, with an 800MHz “application processor”), but we can’t imagine anybody finding any pleasure in the molasses Windows Mobile 6.1 experiences on the Omnia trio. The Jet has a fun little 3D UI “cube” gimmick, which involves the pointless spinning of a cube to access different media apps, but most of what we saw was pretty standard TouchWiz. We did like the speed of Pixon’s camera, which does a Pre-style trick of sending photo processing duties to the background so you can snap another photo with little delay in between — it’s also pretty good at auto focus and color accuracy for a phone, but we won’t be trading in our regular point and shoot in the near term. None of the phones we looked at had network access, so we weren’t able to test out the WebKit browsers, but it sounds like a major win for the Jet and Pixon. Let’s just work on that Omnia responsiveness a bit, yeah Samsung? Perhaps Windows Mobile 6.5 (the Omnia II and Omnia Pro are 6.5-ready) will help.

Update: we added a video of the Omnia II and Omnia Pro after the break!

Continue reading Samsung’s Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Samsung’s Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apparently not one to be confined to the usual “netbook” considerations, Japan’s DosPara has now gone out and broken a few rules with its new Prime Note Cresion NA model, which not only packs a larger than usual 12-inch display, but a nettop-specific dual-core Atom 330 processor as well. That gets paired with NVIDIA’s Ion chipset, along with 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, your choice of built-in optical drive, a memory card reader, and an HDMI port, to name but a few less than standard netbook features. Of course, all of that comes with a fairly significant increase to the size and weight of the laptop, but at least the ¥59,980 price tag (or just about $600) isn’t too unreasonable.

[Via Netbooknews.com]

Filed under: Laptops

DosPara’s Prime Note Cresion NA “netbook” pairs Ion with Atom 330 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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