Archive for August 5th, 2009

Now that the cat’s out of the bag on Creative’s Android-powered Zii EGG, the FCC has gone ahead and released its full report on the touchscreen handheld, after giving us a teaser early last month. Now online are external and internal photos, for the gadget fiend who likes to see products gutted, and a user guide that conspicuously fails to mention its “Android” or “Plaszma” platforms at any point in the guide. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but we’ve got hope someone can cram a 3G chipset in that array of circuitry. Hop on through the read link to peruse the expanded report for yourself.

[Via epiZENter]

Filed under: Handhelds

Creative Zii EGG gutted for expanded FCC report originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At our Real-Time Stream CrunchUp event last month, one of the most interesting things that was demoed was PubSubHubbub, a new protocol made by a few Googlers in their spare time to improve the speed at which Atom and RSS items travel around the web. As expected, they have a big player on their side now: Google Reader.

The Reader team notes today that it has begun the adoption of PubSubHubbub, starting with the publishing of Shared Items. As you can see in the demo video below, with PubSubHubbub support, when you share an item in Google Reader, it instantaneously shows up on services like FriendFeed (which pull in Reader Shared Items).

This afternoon Facebook’s Open Stream API, which launched in late April, will be getting a few new additions that make the API significantly more robust and easier for developers to integrate.

One feature that will be familiar to Twitter and FriendFeed users is a new ‘via’ attribution, pointing out to your friends how you submitted your latest update. This can add to the virality of applications like Seesmic and web services like Yelp — if you start seeing that many of your friends are using a certain app, you’re probably more likely to check it out for yourself. Before now Facebook had shown the icon of whatever application or site was posting to your profile, but it didn’t actually name it.

Apple’s just unleashed its latest 10.5 update on an unsuspecting (well, totally suspecting, actually) crowd, so go ahead and fire up Software Update and see if Cupertino’s left you any 10.5.8-flavored presents under the tree. We bet you didn’t expect Wednesday to be this amazingly, incredibly awesome, now, did you? Follow the break for the full changelog.

Continue reading Mac OS X 10.5.8 now available, way less than 0.1 away from Snow Leopard

Filed under: Software

Mac OS X 10.5.8 now available, way less than 0.1 away from Snow Leopard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long time going, but it looks like the invisible divide between the iPhone and the Wii remote has finally been bridged through the magic of Bluetooth. That was apparently made possible thanks to the portable Bluetooth stack from the BTStack project, which got paired with some custom OpenGL-ES code to allow the Wiimote to control a virtual representation of itself on the iPhone. Practical? Of course not. But it’s a Wiimote controlling an iPhone. Video after the break.

[Via MAKE]

Continue reading iPhone and Wiimote brought together by Bluetooth

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Peripherals

iPhone and Wiimote brought together by Bluetooth originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like the rest of America, we’ve gotten some serious LOLs out of Radio Shack’s current bid for relevance. But, as you know, rebranding comes at a price — all those new signs excising the word “Radio” from the chain’s storefronts aren’t exactly cheap, you know. That said, we were equally amused and annoyed by today’s email blast urging consumers to carry around little pieces of paper with the word “THE” printed on it. That way, you can obscure the offending noun whenever you find yourself within close proximity of one of these signs — saving the company money on signage and increasing brand recognition in one bold move. Still unclear of the concept? Get yourself detailed instructions after the break, or hit up that read link to catch some rockin’ videos on the company’s Facebook page… and prepare to be underwhelmed.

Continue reading The Shack, short on money for new signs, asks for your help

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The Shack, short on money for new signs, asks for your help originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has just pushed out the newest update to its OS X Leopard (10.5) operating system, with 10.5.8. This could potentially be the last Leopard update we see before Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is released to the public sometime in the next couple of months.

Amazon already has Snow Leopard available for pre-order, with a ship date expected sometime in September, though it warns that date is not set in stone: “Official release date has not been announced by Apple, though they have indicated this product will be released sometime in September.”

The new OS seems to be getting more buzz for its price (29.99) than its features. The emphasis with Snow Leopard is optimizing Leopard, to make OS X run smoother and faster. Remarkably, it will also have a smaller footprint than its predecessor, saving over 6 GB of hard disk space (though that does likely have a lot to do with the fact that it will only run on Intel processors).

Last month at The Europas – TechCrunch Europe’s version of the Crunchies – a lot of impressive start-ups were honored. But one was clearly cleaning up: Spotify, the sexy online music app that has music lovers in Europe swooning.

Each time the company won, you heard two reactions from the crowd: fan boys screaming with joy and other companies’ founders groaning. “Too big for their boots,” was a phrase heard muttered a lot.

But player hating is just part of life as a hot start-up right? Of course – but Spotify is living in a particular dual reality. It’s caught between the rapture of music lovers who say it’s the site they always dreamed could exist and the cruel reality of the online music business.

And that meant there was a lot more drama than immediately meets the eye behind that reported $50 million funding and $250 million valuation. As one investor who ultimately passed on the deal told us, “This was one of those where you hold your nose and just pay up. Before you’ve done anything the majority of the economics are right out the door to the labels. You need huge scale to pay for all that, and then you’re still in bed with a bunch of numb nuts.”

Someone in the comments of our previous Spotify story said it was Europe’s YouTube. We don’t know if they meant that in a good way or a bad way—but we agree on both. The problem with the comparison? YouTube found Google; a deep-pocketed public company that was also trying to build a video offering online and was willing to pay top dollar for YouTube’s streams, and their associated business model challenges.

Several VCs we talked to used the words “leap of faith” over-and-over again in describing the decision to invest in Spotify or not. In reality an investor has to make multiple leaps of faith to do this deal, especially at a $250 million valuation. Looking at those leaps explains why so many VCs who were awed by the product ultimately passed – and yet why a few ballsy investors saw the elusive upside worth the role of the dice.

And then there were two? After Microsoft got all cute with us and introduced its current lineup of three concurrent Xbox versions, we thought we’d never get that portion of our limited brain matter back for storing more important things — like the complicated political structures of Frank Herbert’s Dune, for instance. Well, if this recently leaked photo of a revised Xbox 360 Arcade box is any indication, the regular “Xbox 360″ SKU is on the outs, to make room for just the Arcade and Elite configurations on each end of the spectrum. Hopefully this means the Elite is also going to shuffle on down to the middle SKU’s $300 pricepoint, but we’ll have to wait and see. Naturally, Microsoft might just want that third slot for a Project Natal-packing Xbox edition next year, or perhaps this whole different box situation is just a Excel spreadsheet mishap that’s gotten way out of hand.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Gaming

Leaked back-of-box chart shows Xbox line winnowing down to Arcade and Elite SKUs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The folks over at CNET got a quick look at a recent build of the Zune HD, and the player seems to be getting rather close to a final product. Among praise for the hardware, video playback and a quite refined music player and music discovery experience, they found the Zune HD’s browser to be particularly excellent. It’s been built by the IE team, which bodes well for prospective Windows Mobile 6.5 users, and it’s apparently very comparable to the iPhone in features and speed. There’s pinch to zoom, accelerometer-based reorientation, and a good onscreen keyboard — no Flash, but from the pain it’s inflicting on the Android browsing experience, perhaps that’s a good thing.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Zune HD’s browser previewed, sounds just as sexy as the hardware originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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