Archive for August 30th, 2009

Patel Institute of Engineering and Technology’s A.K. Mittra and associates have devised a clever and inexpensive early warning detection system for monitoring the fetal heart rate of that bun months-long in the oven. With two microphones — one placed on the pregnant soon-to-be mother’s abdomen and one inside the bedroom — hooked up to a nearby computer, the two audio feeds are used to estimate and subtract the ambient room noise for a better read on the baby’s vitals just before the woman goes to bed. Converted to a wav file, if anomalies are detected it’s immediately compressed to MP3 and sent to the doctor for further testing. An efficient plan, to be sure, and we can only hope the baby is healthy and hyper-intelligent enough to give normal heartbeats and start recording his or her first LP.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Two-mic system detects fetal heart rate anomalies, prenatal beat sampling originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG bared the fruits of its OLED labor last week with a new set of photos of its gorgeous 15-inch screen, and now comes word from Reuters that it’s gearing up to become consumer reality. The company will be showing off the model at next week’s IFA trade show, and then expects to start selling it in Korea this November, followed by overseas sometime next year. Excited? You bet. Affordable? Price unknown, with Sony’s two-year old 11-inch XEL-1 still retailing for $2,500 in the US — and worse elsewhere — you can expect to be sacrificing a pretty penny for small-screen bliss. LG also plans to show off a 40-inch OLED in the “not too distant future,” but don’t expect to be seeing that hit retail shelves for a good long time to come.

[Via OLED-Info]

Filed under: HDTV

LG’s 15-inch OLED TV on sale in Korea this November, overseas in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like smartbooks really are the new netbooks, after all. Aptly exemplifying déjà vu, German company Smartbook AG has issued a cease-and-desist to Netbooknews.de, claiming it owns the trademark and copyright on the term “smartbook” and that its use on the news site is damaging to the company’s reputation and credibility. The letter demands that within two weeks all instances of the word be stricken from both the German and English-language versions, despite the latter being hosted in the US, outside of German jurisdiction. Of course, the logical thing would be to go after a company like Qualcomm who’s been using the designation all along, and not the outlets who report on it, but why let a little common sense get in the way of some good ol’ fashioned internet drama, eh Smartbook? By our count, it was almost exactly six months between Psion sending out its first cease-and-desist on “netbook” to media outlets and its eventual acquiescence and settlement with Intel, so consider the clock here officially ticking.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Filed under: Laptops

Smartbook AG (the company) follows in Psion’s footsteps, issues cease and desist letter to website using the term ‘smartbook’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tempting though it may be, shipments of HP and Compaq (another HP brand) laptops sent to various US state governments have been sent either back to the manufacturer or to local investigators with nary even a game of Spider Solitaire in its account logs. As it turns out, the packages of three to five machines sent to each state — West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming, and Washington — were never ordered, and in at least three of the cases were purchased with fraudulent credit cards of unknown origin. Even with the shipments apparently coming from HP directly, officials are playing it safe and working under the guise of the machines possibly having malicious code running through its circuitry. You know who the biggest victim in all this is? That guy in Human Resources who legitimately bought a Mini 1000 and had it shipped to the state’s office for pickup. Worst. Timing. Ever.

Filed under: Laptops

Unsolicited laptops sent to state governments never get used, now under investigation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it’s no GameGun, but we hear this “PlayStation motion controller” thing from Sony is going to be “kind of a big deal.” The SCEA R&D team was kind enough to put together some behind the scenes footage detailing a bit of the genesis of the controller and some of its technical prowess, and according to Sony this should be just enough of a calculated tease to get us excited for TGS in late September. We feel so manipulated. Video is after the break.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Continue reading Sony R&D explains some background on the PlayStation motion controller

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Sony R&D explains some background on the PlayStation motion controller originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After years of shunning that most common of headphone styles, the earbud, Grado has at last taken a break from its over-the-ear, vented diaphragm purism (if you don’t count the China-built iGrado) and created an in-ear pair for the kiddies. The GR8 doesn’t really look like anything special, but the couple of reviews that have trickled in sound promising. The headphones are being built in Japan, but have some proprietary Grado magic in there to at least make them interesting — and it certainly should, at $300 a pop.

Read – Grado GR8 unboxing
Read – Grado GR8 product page

Filed under: Portable Audio

Grado takes on the earbud with the GR8 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We hate concept cars. Year after year we see new concept cars more fantastical and amazing than the last, and year after year we see cars hit the market that have had all the magic ripped out of them by safety regulations and market realities. The newly unveiled Vision EfficientDynamics car from BMW is mainly here to show us BMW’s new diesel-based plug-in hybrid drive system. But it’s also here to annoy us. Video is after the break.

Continue reading BMW’s Vision EfficientDynamics concept won’t look a tenth this wild when it hits the streets

Filed under: Transportation

BMW’s Vision EfficientDynamics concept won’t look a tenth this wild when it hits the streets originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that RedneckTechie and his insanely great GameGun idea? Well, he’s back with another “slick” demo video, along with some news for us: he’s putting together a retail version that will be ready by Christmas. The gun will also be compatible with Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Windows and a plug-and-play device. We’re incredibly short on details, and the pre-order page isn’t live just yet, but if Mr. Redneck can pull this off, we’re gonna fall all over ourselves to nab one no matter what the price is. New vid is after the break.

Continue reading GameGun going to be ready for retail by Christmas, will be console compatible

Filed under: Displays, Gaming, Peripherals

GameGun going to be ready for retail by Christmas, will be console compatible originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We saw the top, we saw the poster, and now it looks like we’ve got more or less the whole deal: Canon’s EOS 7D has been leaked in (most of) its gory detail. At the heart there’s an 18 megapixel sensor and dual DIGIC 4 processors, which shoots stills at 8 FPS with ISO from 100 to 6400 and a special 12800 ISO mode. The 3-inch LCD has a 920,000 dot resolution, while the viewfinder offers 100% coverage and a built-in digital level. Naturally the camera picks up the HD movie capabilities of the 5D, but no word on how it might expand upon them just yet. All this info has been gleaned from a Chinese forum, so we’re still obviously awaiting on official word from Canon — but if the rapid leakage rate is any indication, it can’t be too far off.

[Thanks, Darko]

Read – Spec breakdown
Read – Forum source

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon EOS 7D pics and specs leak out originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Medion has never really been our go-to manufacturer for new hotness, but we’re really digging this new X9613 all-in-one model it’s showing off. Even better than the sexy, the computer is fronting a 24-inch multitouch display, a miniature SideShow screen, a gloriously large physical volume knob, and a bunch of convenient media controls along the bottom. Internals aren’t bad either, with a Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor and GeForce GT240M graphics. The price range, unfortunately, is rather steep at 1,499 to 1,900 Euro (about $2,142 to $2,714 US). Lucky for us, US prices are usually quite a bit lower than straight-up conversion, though there’s no promised roll-out just yet to bank on. Video hands-on is after the break.

Continue reading Medion’s 24-inch X9613 multitouch all-in-one PC actually looks pretty hot

Filed under: Desktops

Medion’s 24-inch X9613 multitouch all-in-one PC actually looks pretty hot originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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