Archive for December 21st, 2009

The NookDevs team hasn’t wasted any time poring over the recently-released Nook 1.1 update, and there’s good news: 1.1 can still be rooted, and rooted 1.0 devices will stay that way after the update. In other news, nookdevs team member robbiet480 just sat down with Nookaholic for an interview, and he dished a few tidbits: the Nook’s Android build is called “Bravo,” the internal WiFi had to be tweaked to stop turning itself off every three hours, and Bravo itself is basically Android 1.5. Nothing major, but we’re definitely getting the feeling the Nook is going to be leading a double life as both a mom-friendly ebook reader and a happy-hacker hardware playground from here on out, you know?

[Thanks, Cameron]

Nook 1.1 doesn’t affect hacks, root still possible originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This one’s been the subject of rumors for months now, but it looks like Samsung’s NX10 “hybrid” DSLR (not to be confused with Samsung’s NX-10 desktop PC) has finally shown itself — assuming these shots are indeed the real thing, that is. That “hybrid” bit comes from the fact that this one fits in somewhere between a DSLR and a Micro Four Thirds camera, but there’s unfortunately little else known about it apart from what you can see on the camera itself. It will apparently come bundled with an 18-55 mm lens, however, and it’ll apparently be able to shoot up to 7 frames per second. Hit up the link below for a few more pics to get a better idea of its size.

First shots of Samsung’s NX10 ‘hybrid’ DSLR surface originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like we’re going to see a steady trickle of Pine Trail Atom N450-based netbooks before the dam bursts wide at CES 2010, and next up today is Fujitsu, which just officially announced the MH380 that hit the FCC last month. Basic specs are slightly better than usual, with 2GB of RAM, a 250GB drive, built-in Bluetooth and a standard six-cell battery under a 10.1-inch 1366×768 screen, but we’re most intrigued by that little divot next to the trackpad, which functions as a scroll wheel. We’ll definitely have to check that out in person when we get to Vegas — hopefully Fujitsu will have some pricing and availability details for us then as well.

Fujitsu MH380 netbook features Pine Trail, secondary scrolling trackpad originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Right on schedule, the Barnes and Noble Nook is kicking out a software update (we rebooted to get the download to start). We’ve heard this will fix some of the issues we had with the unit in our review — but we’ll update you once we’ve had a little time to play around with it.

Nook 1.1 update hitting now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, you could go the easy route and pick up a MiFi, but if you’re serious about your on-the-road wireless broadband, you should probably buy an entire car. Ford’s next generation of Sync systems will have built-in WiFi and the capability of sharing a 3G connection with the car’s driver-defined white list of approved devices. It’s a bring-your-own-3G-card affair (you jack into the Sync’s USB plug), and sounds like a nice way for Ford to get you to pay for a 3G connection that could theoretically fuel some of those upcoming Sync apps. The second generation of Sync is due to launch next year, and we should be seeing plenty of it at CES in January: Ford’s CEO has the opening keynote.

Next-gen Ford Sync adding WiFi hotspot capabilities, you provide the 3G modem originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re gearing up for CES 2010, which means the race to show off an even thinner “worlds thinnest” LCD TV panel is heating up — and it looks like LG’s taking an early lead by announcing a new 42-inch 1080p panel that’s just 2.6mm (.1 inch) thin. The prototype LED-backlit 120Hz display weighs just under 8.8 pounds , but we don’t have any other specs on it just yet — but we’re sure we’ll find out far more 17 days from now in Vegas. Press release below.

Continue reading LG announces “world’s thinnest” 42-inch LCD panel

LG announces “world’s thinnest” 42-inch LCD panel originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The de facto place to buy Kindle books is, of course, Amazon. Given how tightly this allows Bezos & Co. to manage things we’re guessing this is how the company would like to keep it, but there may be direct-to-kindle competition brewing from an unlikely source: Scribd. The site, which started off as a place to dump and share random documents, has been following the YouTube path and is now and selling access to fully copyrighted works. Many of those works are downloadable as text, Word, or PDF documents, meaning Kindle users can already work some conversion magic and get them on their devices. But, according to Scribd CEO Trip Adler, straight to Kindle distribution is next. The question is: will they be for-pay titles, or only the billions of pages of free content the site offers? Places like Feedbooks and Gutenberg.org let you download free content direct to the Kindle already, but we’re not aware of anyone selling content straight-to-Kindle yet — other than Amazon, of course.

Scribd positioning self to become Amazon competitor, sell books on Kindle? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It would seem that the Fusion Garage lawyers have become so embroiled in the Michael Arrington litigation that they’ve neglected to read the PayPal User Agreement. There in section II, subsection 4, dubbed “Prohibited Transactions,” it states that the seller agrees “not to use [his] PayPal account to sell goods with delivery dates delayed more than 20 days from the date of payment.” Why does that matter — well, because the sole means to purchase the Joojoo at present is by placing an 8 to 10 week pre-order, payable exclusively through PayPal. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions though — maybe Fusion Garage freed itself from the pesky rules by offering to sell a few special edition PayPads?

Joojoo terms of sale violate PayPal rules originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Among the seemingly thousands of Android-powered HTC handsets rumored for the first half of 2010, little is known of the mysterious Espresso — the codename was found in a 2.1 ROM and a sketchy report claims that it’ll have a QWERTY keyboard for an MWC announcement, but other than that, we’re in the dark. Anyhow, Italian site hdblog.it now claims to have some shots ripped off the Espresso’s display, and at a glance, you can tell this isn’t quite the Sense we’re used to from the Hero. The bar along the bottom now features direct access to People — a feature we’d already heard would be revised for HTC’s next round of Android phones — and app icons have apparently been graced with translucent surrounds that are… well, not exactly pretty. We’ve got to keep our opinions in check until we actually see a shipping ROM, of course, so hopefully those talks of an MWC unveiling in February pan out.

HTC Espresso’s revised Sense UI spotted? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We really can’t get enough of these humanoid robots. Researchers collaborating from the Nippon Institute of Technology, Harada Vehicle Design, ZMP and ZNUG Design have just taken the wraps off another addition to the crew. The newest version of the e-NUVO walk bot stands about 4 feet tall, making it roughly the size of an elementary school aged child, and will be incorporated into classes to teach children about humanoid robots in a hands-on environment. We’ll admit that after seeing a video of the bot in action (it’s after the break), we’re pretty jealous of those school children.

Continue reading Nippon Institute of Technology unveils educational humanoid robot

Nippon Institute of Technology unveils educational humanoid robot originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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