Archive for August 19th, 2009

See that up there? That’s the all-new, not-yet-on-sale PlayStation 3 Slim’s stand. It works by laying flat on whatever surface you deem fit, and then it holds your new gaming console upright. We get the impression that it’ll do its job fairly well, but the $24 retail price is borderline insulting. Or, it’s just the motivation you needed to craft one on your own and prove that you were indeed born with a few DIY genes — it’s all about perspective, folks.

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Sony’s PlayStation 3 Slim stand gets pictured… all $24 of it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who says MMO gamers are alienated by everyone accessory makers? Across the pond in Germany, Razer has stepped up to serve the needs of basement-dwelling World of Warcraft players with its first dedicated MMO mouse. The Naga, as it’s so beautifully called, gives users a dozen customizable buttons on the side in order to take some of those keyboard macros (or just the 1 – 12 number keys) and put them within thumb’s reach. The mouse (shown in video after the break) also ships with a robust software suite that can save unlimited profiles and program “thousands of different in-game commands for each character you choose to play.” In case that’s not enough to get your juices flowing, the company also outed an all new gaming surface (the Megasoma) that can be rolled up and tucked away for easy transport between LAN parties. Check the read link for all the nitty-gritty details, and get ready to hand over $79.99 for the critter and $49.99 for the mouse when they ship worldwide later this year.

Continue reading Razer adds a dozen keys to Naga MMO mouse, intros rollable gaming surface

Filed under: Peripherals

Razer adds a dozen keys to Naga MMO mouse, intros rollable gaming surface originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve wanted a PlayStation 3 since forever. It plays Blu-ray movies, it has some great exclusive titles, and it looks like it could beat somebody up without breaking a sweat across its glossy matte brow. But it’s always seemed out of reach price-wise. As my desire grew stronger over recent months, I found myself unable to pull the trigger: I just didn’t want to pay $400 for a video game console that came out in 2006. The fact that I could get a lot more for my $400 than $500 would’ve gotten me at launch was hardly consolation, given that the PS3′s main competition, the Xbox 360, has been available in a “full fledged” edition for $300 for a while. Luckily, the PS3 Slim has come at last to save me from all this heartache. Follow along, as I journey from the mire of indecision to the glories of console love… but really, it’s all about the price drop.

Continue reading Editorial: A slimmer, cheaper, better PS3. Was that so hard?

Filed under: Gaming

Editorial: A slimmer, cheaper, better PS3. Was that so hard? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s never a great feeling to get an expensive new gadget only to have it promptly ripped from your hands by a mandatory recall, but those that have gone through such an ordeal can consider themselves somewhat lucky, as Nikon has now issued a statement explaining its second recall of some already recalled D5000 DSLRs. That second go-round thankfully only affects only a “small number” of D5000 customers in Europe, who were apparently unfortunate enough to not have their cameras treated with a new “enhanced procedure” that’s designed to provide an additional preventative measure. From the sound of it, those affected should have already heard directly from Nikon, and will apparently have to only wait a “short time” to get their camera repaired, hopefully for the last time.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Nikon issues statement on second D5000 recall originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eldar Murtazin at mobile-review teased us with that shot of Nokia’s RX-51 / N900 Maemo 5 tablet earlier today, and now he’s back in force with a detailed preview. We’re talking tons of hardware pictures and screenshots of what stands to be the standard-bearer for all Nokia devices going forward, and while we’d love to tell you all about how impressed we are with what we’re seeing of Maemo 5 and how disappointed we are in the Rover’s resistive touchscreen, we won’t hold you back — hit the read link and dive right in.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia’s Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Electronic_tongue_identifies_sweeteners_so_you_don_t_have_to’; The tongue, besides being creepy, offers plenty in the way of research opportunities, as you know if you’re a regular visitor to this space. In the past we’ve seen a tongue-based computer interface or two, the BrainPort sight-via-papillae solution, and this week, at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign introduced a sensor about the size of a business card that detects and identifies fourteen common sweeteners — including Splenda, Sugar in the Raw, and Sweet’n'Low. The product of a decade of research in colorimetric sensor arrays, it works when dipped into the substance, and takes about two minutes to get results. The team, led by a Professor Suslick (really!), hopes that this leads to a low-cost solution for anyone who needs to monitor their blood glucose levels, and eventually a way to monitor contaminants in food or in the environment at large. We recommend using with D+caf caffeine testing strips to ensure that you get nothing out of your morning coffee whatsoever.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Science

Electronic tongue tastes, identifies sweeteners so you don’t have to originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re dreaming of always plugging your future AC-friendly hybrid in during the wee hours of the morning in order to juice up for the lowest price, you’re certainly using your noodle. But what about instances where you can’t choose when exactly you’ll be plugging in? Fret not, as Bill Ford and Company has you covered. The automaker, in collaboration with a slew of utility partners, has today introduced an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications system that would theoretically enable vehicle owners to plug their ride in and tell it precisely when to begin and / or end charging via the navigation screen. Users could also define the completion time for charging or the desired rates in order to better control spending, though all that planning could be ruined by some random prankster who decides to yank your cable when you’re not looking. And really, who cares about saving a penny or two on charging when you can get two hundred and thirty miles per gallon? Oh, wait…

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Transportation

Ford’s vehicle-to-grid communications system charges plug-in whips on command originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has positioned Toshiba joining its membership as the epilogue in the company’s once pitched battle for high-definition disc domination. It could, however, merely be a new chapter in the broader story of home entertainment as it uses the players not only to fill some product-line gaps but takes advantage of their connectivity to move to a future beyond any disc standard.

Back when it was tending to its fresh format war wounds, Toshiba did not always see this potential. After it exited– and effectively ended– the HD DVD market, the March 3, 2008 edition of The Wall Street Journal ran an interview with Toshiba chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida that detailed ambitious plans for avoiding Blu-ray. On the low end, Toshiba would improve DVD playback to seek near-parity with Blu-ray quality at lower cost. That idea was productized in Toshiba’s XDE DVD players and televisions. XDE was met with mixed reviews, however, and the plummeting prices of Blu-ray hardware last holiday season cut its viability short.

Flirting with connectivity on the high-end, Nishida noted that it was now possible to bridge PCs and televisions better, and that he wanted to put “even more energy” into video downloading. He may have been considering Toshiba’s Qosmio multimedia powerhouse notebooks as an engine for driving high-definition content to the television. However, the long-lingering idea of bridging the PC and television, while indeed becoming easier technologically, still simply isn’t worth the effort for most consumers. At CES 2009 as Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung, LG and Vizio showed off connected televisions, Toshiba didn’t announce any broadband content partnerships for its premium Regza line of TVs.

Continue reading Switched On: Toshiba and the Blu-ray Trojan Horse

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Switched On: Toshiba and the Blu-ray Trojan Horse originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sounds like RIM’s trying to do more than just bring the woeful BlackBerry browser up to par with the competition — Boy Genius Report says Waterloo’s trying to leap way out in front by building in full Flash and Silverlight support. BGR says it’ll be full Flash, not Flash Lite or the Open Screen Project’s mobile Flash 10 implementation, but don’t get too excited: it’ll be next summer before RIM ships devices fast enough to handle it, and even then things may be delayed since they’ll need HSPA or LTE data speeds to pull it off. Hey, maybe in the meantime all those engineers could maybe work on things like properly rendering a text page? Just an idea.

Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry browser to get full Flash and Silverlight support? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it just us, or are these flash-only camcorders getting bigger? Or maybe we’re just shrinking. Canon’s new VIXIA HF S11 AVCHD flagship certainly seems beefy — both in size and build — but we suppose that comes with the territory. Canon was showing a demonstration of the new stabilization tech, which can help mitigate the nauseating effects of shooting while walking, and if it works as well in practice as it did in the demo (unlikely), it could be a real lifesaver for part 24 of our ongoing Blair Witch Project remake. It’s hard to argue with the shooting time built-in and SDHC expandability on offer, but we suppose the HF S11 serves as a reminder that the gulf between “real” camcorders and their pocket cam brethren is indeed a wide one.

Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV

Canon VIXIA HF S11 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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