Archive for September 7th, 2009

It’s not every day that someone attempts to redesign the humble laptop cushion, but Philips has done just that with its new CushionSpeaker which, somehow, someway manages to combine a cushion and a speaker. As our pals at Engadget Spanish found out first-hand at IFA, that combination actually delivers mostly as promised, but not without a few trade-offs. The good news is that speaker does seem to be of reasonable quality, and should be an improvement over most laptop speakers (the retractable USB cord is also a nice touch). On the downside, while the cushion is apparently suitably cushiony, the hard plastic surface isn’t exactly the most conductive to keeping your laptop in place — such are the perils of innovation. Hit up the link below for a closer look, and look for the CushionSpeaker to be available sometime soon (in Europe, at least) for €69, or just under $100.

Filed under: Peripherals

Philips CushionSpeaker examined, found to be ok cushion, decent speaker originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Portable Audio

Headphone shocker! Lady Gaga, Beats by Dr. Dre and Monster Cable join forces originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well, looks like LG’s got more in its Android bag than just that GW880 for China Mobile. Vodafone was casually displaying the Android-based Etna at its IFA booth, and while we don’t know too much about the QWERTY slider, we do have some basic specs — you’re looking at 3-inch touchscreen, a five megapixel camera, and what looks like a pretty stock Android install. No word on price or release date, but LG is supposedly launching three Android sets this year, so we’re hoping we’ll find out more real soon.

Update: LG tells us that the Etna will be available in Germany “before Christmas.”

[Via MobileTechWorld; thanks Whois]

Filed under: Cellphones

LG Etna Android phone sneaks onto the scene at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All-in-one computers never die, they just keep getting wider — and touchier, in this case. MSI’s latest is the AE2400, a 24-inch, 1920 x 1080 panel with an integrated Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics, doing all it can to make use of the multi-touch support in Windows 7. The machine is set to hit retail sometime in the months contained within the year 2010 at a price of roughly $1,000, which seems like a good enough deal to us, but you may think differently after watching the smudge-riddled video after the break.

[Via Cloned in China]

Continue reading MSI’s 24-inch, 1080p AE2400 enables multitouch identification of barnyard animals

Filed under: Desktops, Displays

MSI’s 24-inch, 1080p AE2400 enables multitouch identification of barnyard animals originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it’s almost certainly not a signal that Apple is opening the door to emulators of all sorts on the iPhone, but the newly (and finally) approved Commodore 64 emulator is still a fairly notable first for the platform — representing not only the first officially-available emulator, but perhaps the first app that actually runs code (even if it is a couple of decades old). In this case, that first bit apparently wasn’t too big a point of contention for Apple, considering that the app had all the necessary licensing rights lined up, but the second issue was, and ran right up against a clause in the iPhone 2.0 SDK that prevented apps from containing their own executable runtimes. As it happens, the key to bridging that divide around that was none other than iPhone 3.0, which contains a new feature for in-app purchases that the C64 emulator will take advantage of to let folks purchase additional games, rather than load arbitrary game code downloads. Interestingly, while this newly-approved version of the emulator also no longer exposes a BASIC interpreter, Manomio has added a note to the app that it “should be resolved in a future update,” although it’s not quite clear if that’s just wishful thinking or not. In the meantime, you can grab the app right now with five bundled games for $4.99.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Software

Apple approves officially-licensed Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We told you when we unveiled our back to school guide that we’d be giving away a bunch of gear, remember that? Well, here we are, ready to deliver. So what do we have in our bag of goodies this time? Let’s just say our winner is going to be one happy camper. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 team have graciously handed over some gear for one lucky reader, including an Xbox 360 Pro, and Xbox LIVE Gold Membership, 1600 MS Points, XBLA Codes, a Chatpad, and a Trial Netflix Membership. Sounds great, right? So read the rules after the break (seriously, they’ve changed — read them!) and submit a comment to be entered! Good luck.

Huge thanks to Microsoft for providing the gear!

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school giveaway part 2: win an Xbox 360 prize pack!

Filed under: Announcements

Engadget’s back to school giveaway part 2: win an Xbox 360 prize pack! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you like having a plethora of navigation choices, Jefe? You’ll love NAVIGON‘s offerings unveiled at last week’s IFA, then, a suite of devices that spans from the low end to the high, all featuring pedestrian navigation — in case you don’t already look enough like a tourist. The most affluently wealthy sightseers will be nervously clutching the 8410 or 8450 Live models, both of which offer 5-inch capacitive displays made of honest to gosh glass, Real City3D offering “photo-realistic” navigation, and optional DVB-T reception to catch some Simpsons re-runs when you get lost. On the next step down are the 4.3-inch 6310 and 6350 Live, which lose the glass screen, fancy rendering (though certain landscapes and buildings are still 3D), and digital tuner. Next are the 3.5-inch 2400 and 2410, which sport up to four hours of battery life when wandering untethered around the city, while the 1400 and 1410 models round out the lineup on the low-end. The two Live models, the 8450 and the 6350, offer wireless traffic, weather, and even speed camera updates across 32 nations in Europe; a tidy bundle for those exploring the continent, but at €79.95 ($115) per year you’re certainly paying for it. On the hardware side prices start at €129 ($185) for the 1400, then run all the way up to €499 ($715) for the 8450 Live.

Filed under: GPS

NAVIGON dizzies with navigation options, then gets us pointed in the right direction again originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eager HP fans have been doing some digging around and have uncovered details on the company’s Fall updates. Heading the pack will be the 18.4-inch dv8, set to feature a quad-core Core i7 720QM CPU, 640GB of storage and 4GB of memory. The processor formerly known as Clarksfield has 6MB of onboard cache and can be Turbo Boosted to 2.8GHz, which should do justice to the gargantuan screen size and included Blu-ray drive. If, on the other hand, you want to be able to move your laptop, there’s the CULV-powered 11.6-inch dm1 or 13.3-inch dm3 (pictured). Both will come with 1366 x 768 glossy displays, while the dm3 will also offer a cheaper AMD Neo flavor. Another three models, a TM2 tablet and Mini 210 and 311 netbooks, are also known by name if not spec. While the usual pinch of salt is advisable, a Dutch website already has the new laptops listed in its price comparison engine, corroborating the specs and the expected arrival alongside Windows 7‘s October 22 release.

Update: We’ve also come across the specs for the Mini 311. Apparently, it’ll be an 11.6-inch NVIDIA ION machine, with the Microsoft-mandated Atom N270, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD spec and a six cell battery. See it in the flesh after the break.

[Via Liliputing and Notebook Spot]

Read – HP Softpaq update reveals new models
Read – Pavilion dv8 listing – €1,426.81 / $2,040
Read – Pavilion dm3 listing – €677.11 / $968
Read – Pavilion dm1 listing – €481.89 / $689
Read – Mini 311 specs

Continue reading HP dm1 and dm3 ultraportables leaked, Pavilion dv8 to pack Core i7? Update: Mini 311 has ION!

Filed under: Laptops

HP dm1 and dm3 ultraportables leaked, Pavilion dv8 to pack Core i7? Update: Mini 311 has ION! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peoples’ pants must be getting smaller, because so too are pocket camcorders shrinking down. Despite not making any dubious “world’s smallest” claims, Aiptek’s latest is one of the most slender we’ve seen that’s able to shoot high-def video, and quite possibly the first with a 1.1-inch OLED screen on the back for previewing what your footage might look like on a First Class Forever stamp. It’ll shoot video at 720p30, capture 5 megapixel stills, and record them both to 4GB of internal memory — good for about two hours’ worth of footage. You can upload to YouTube straight from the camera’s (Windows-only) software, or spin it to your TV through the integrated HDMI port. It sounds like quite a nice little package, and while we wouldn’t expect the video quality to knock anyone’s proverbial socks off, given the brand we wouldn’t expect a shockingly high price, either. But, that we can’t say for sure, nor when these will be available.

[Via OLED-Display.net]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Aiptek’s tiny PenCam HD Trio camcorder looks more like a highlighter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With a few external hard drive outfits pushing out 640GB models this past week, a simple half-terabyte edition now seems mildly inadequate. That said, Buffalo‘s latest gets brownie points for being almost impossibly thin. The HD-PVU2 lineup is barely thicker than the 2.5-inch HDD within, with 320GB and 500GB versions available. Both black and white flavors will be shipped out to stores, and as expected, they’ll get all the juice they need through USB 2.0. Check ‘em out soon (assuming you can locate one) in Japan for ¥10,500 ($112) and ¥15,330 ($164), respectively.

[Via Impress]

Continue reading Buffalo stuffs 500GB into ultraslim HD-PVU2 portable hard drive

Filed under: Storage

Buffalo stuffs 500GB into ultraslim HD-PVU2 portable hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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