Archive for October 8th, 2009

Well, this isn’t a huge surprise, since we’ve seen the rough outline of a nondescript, details-scarce reader from Barnes & Noble tucked away in FCCland, but the Wall Street Journal has “people briefed on the matter” who are saying the reader will be out possibly as early as next month. Word is the reader will have a six-inch E-Ink screen, with a touchscreen interface and virtual keyboard, and it will also have a wireless internet hookup to that great bookstore in the sky. With an IREX wireless reader already featuring the B&N ebook store, and a Plastic Logic device doing B&N exclusively, we’d say Barnes & Noble is certainly working this from a number of potentially redundant angles. It’s unclear what particular innovation or distinction a Barnes & Noble-branded reader would bring, or who might build it, but our fingers are crossed for one particular avenue of one-upmanship: price.

[Via Reuters; thanks Tom]

Filed under: Handhelds

WSJ: Barnes & Noble planning its own touchscreen ebook reader originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of an institutional virus outbreak — even the crew of the International Space Station had a neat little scare not too long ago — and now various outlets in Australia are reporting that Integral Energy, which supplies energy to homes and businesses in New South Wales and Queensland, has suffered a particularly nasty visit by the W32.Virut.CF virus. When all was said and done, the company had to repair all 1000 of the facility’s desktops. Furthermore, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the company’s anti-virus software hadn’t been updated since at least February. Between the lack of anti-virus updates and the fact that segregation between the company’s main network and the grid was “typically none at all” this story has all the makings of a disaster. Luckily, the grid itself runs on Sun Solaris — and when control systems became infected, how did they fix the mess? That’s right: by replacing them with Linux machines. A word to the wise: they do make anti-virus auto-updates for a reason.

[Via The PC Report]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Australian power grid attacked by virus, Linux saves the day originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry Messenger: it’s the holy grail of the BlackBerry platform, and, for many, the only real reason why they don’t make the jump to another smartphone. Well, RIM has finally gone ahead and released the latest and greatest version upon the world (in an official capacity at least), and we’re definitely pleased with the added functionality and other updates that they’ve cooked in to the app to make it even more useful and better. Be sure to check out Engadget Mobile for a review of what’s hot, what’s new, and what we think of it all.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

BlackBerry Messenger 5 now available, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like the Tesla Roadster but think it’s just not expensive enough for you? Then fear not, person we’d like to get to know, ’cause the Tesla Roadster Sport is here complete with a $19,500 premium over its less sporty counterpart. Thankfully, according to the lucky folks at Autoblog Green, you will get quite a few bonuses for that extra cash, including an improved 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds, a new suspension that can be set to one of ten different settings and, perhaps most importantly, a new set of black-finish forged wheels (paired with some Yokohama ADVAN A048 tires) that’ll ensure no one mistakes it for a “low end” Tesla. Be sure to hit up the read link below for Autoblog Green’s full report, not to mention plenty of pics inside and out.

Filed under: Transportation

Tesla Roadster Sport gets taken for a test drive, photo shoot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Considering the tablet rumors swirling lately, we find it rather funny that Archos calls the new Android-based Archos5 an “Internet Tablet,” but they’ve been doing it for so long we suppose they’re allowed to cash in on the hype a little, right? In any event, the 5-inch PMP is now on sale at Amazon for in both 160GB ($390) and 32GB ($370) sizes — yep, you can finally buy a non-phone Android device, and it’s a pretty capable media player too boot, even if the usual Archos resistive touchscreen issues get in the way. Still, we know quite a few of you have been waiting for this — anyone throwing down?

[Via Pocketables]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos5 Android PMP now on sale at Amazon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, this is interesting: we’d been under the impression that Telefonica had pretty much wrapped up a global exclusive on the GSM Palm Pre under the O2 and Movistar brands, but here we are, looking at two videos which claim that the Pre will launch in Mexico under rival América Móvil’s Telcel label. That’s certainly interesting — and even more intriguingly, we’re told that the gentlemen in this video are discussing storage expansion slots on the Pre, which is basically like having a conversation about Santa winning the Super Bowl in terms of Things That Are Real. Did Telcel just manage to pull the rug out from under Movistar and land what could be the best Pre of them all? We’re on pins and needles, here. Videos after the break — and if anyone wants to leave a better translation for us in comments, we’re all ears.

Continue reading GSM Palm Pre to launch on Telcel in Mexico, feature storage expansion?

Filed under: Cellphones

GSM Palm Pre to launch on Telcel in Mexico, feature storage expansion? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s just posted up iPhone OS 3.1.2, which purports to fix some of iPhone OS 3.1′s Greatest Bug Hits, including: Don’t Wake (From Sleep), Lost Network Access, and everyone’s all-time favorite, Video Stream Crash Dance. We’re updating now, let us know how it goes for you in comments — and there’s an iPod touch update too, we’re sure it’s just as fun.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone OS 3.1.2 update now live, fixes sleep, network issues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no question that Windows 7 promises plenty of improvements over Vista, with one of the biggest being faster boot times. While that’s certainly been the experience for some, Iolo Technologies (a maker of PC tune-up software) found some significantly different results in their long term tests, which they say show that Windows 7 isn’t faster than Vista at all in real world use. Specifically, they found that while Windows 7 actually got to the desktop fairly quickly, it took a full minute and 34 seconds to actually become usable, compared to a minute and 6 seconds with Vista. They also unsurprisingly found that things got worse over time, with a three-month old Windows 7 install adding a full minute to the boot time, although in that case it did actually fare somewhat better than Vista. Of course, we are talking about complete reboots here, and it’s a different story when Windows 7 is simply coming in and out of sleep mode. Details on the tests are otherwise a bit light, but Iolo is promising to release its complete findings next week.

Filed under: Software

Software firm finds Windows 7 doesn’t boot faster than Vista originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been about two months since NVIDIA called rumors that it was leaving the chipset business “groundless,” so perhaps it’s no big shock that PC Magazine is now reporting that the company is putting its nForce chipset line “on hiatus.” On hiatus, that is, until the company gets a few sticky legal questions out of the way, including whether or not its four-year deal with Intel covers Core i7 processors. Thus we have the delicate line that NVIDIA walks with Intel: for the time being, the two companies need each other, but they don’t have to like each other, and as the latter continues to pursue graphics integration with the CPU, manufacturers are going to be increasingly pushed towards all-Intel solutions. All this leads us to wonder if NVIDIA might decide chipsets in general are more trouble than they’re worth, especially considering Intel’s general attitude about them — and whether ION might be the next on the block.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA halting chipset development after all originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We might have to wait until next year to score the HTC HD2 Stateside, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all enjoy this jazzy little promo video showing off the highlights of Sense. But is the music more reminiscent of Donkey Kong Country or Iko Iko by the Belle Stars? We ask the hard-hitting questions here at Engadget. Video after the break, website at the read link.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC HD2 gets itself a promo video and a website

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC HD2 gets itself a promo video and a website originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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