A New Jersey Transit spokesperson has announced that its seeking a company to install WiFi on its rail lines and at its train stations. The installation would make New Jersey one of the few major transit systems in the country to have WiFi on its 165 stations and 12 lines. The spokesperson also said they hope to get the installation under way quickly, and to have the hotspots available to riders by next year.
New Jersey transit looks to add WiFi to its rail lines and stations, New Yorkers to pretend they didn’t hear that originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Music identification app Shazam has announced big feature updates to its iPhone and iPod touch music discovery apps.
There are now customised settings for ‘tagging on start-up’ make the process of identifying a music track faster, a new UI, the ability to search for ringtones and videos on iTunes and better video. You can also share tunes you find via Facebook and Twitter. Shame it doesn’t own its name on Twitter then.
No surprise that iHome is first out of the gate with a speaker dock that’s compatible with Apple’s newly-open AirPlay music streaming system, but unfortunately the teaser page is maddeningly light on details — all we know is that it’ll have a rechargeable battery and be available for the holidays. We’re actually pretty stoked for AirPlay gear — the idea of setting up a quick mix-and-match whole-home audio system that can stream lossless audio straight from iTunes seems awfully hard to resist — so we’re eager to hear more about this thing, as well as the other third-party AirPlay devices like receivers and stereos that have been promised. We’ll keep digging for more, so stay tuned.
[Thanks, Fred]
iHome teases first AirPlay-compatible portable speaker dock originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Plex is about to get big. The offshoot of the XBMC project just announced that LG will be using its media platform in upcoming Netcast HDTVs and Blu-ray players, in turn, making these devices about the best media streamers imaginable — even better than the upcoming Boxee Box or just-refreshed Apple TV.
After all, Plex already works with Netflix, Hulu, BBC’s iPlayer, and supports playback of just about every media format ever created via the best interface in the business. There’s even an iOS remote viewing app coming soon. Forget about having an extra box sitting on your TV stand just to stream random content, it’s going to be built into your HDTV. Welcome to the future, ladies and gentleman.
There are no hard and fast rules in the gadget game, but there is one bit of wisdom we generally stand by: everything benefits by being ruggedized. Sure, we know this speaks to a deep-seated need to smash things, drown things, run ‘em over in a truck or shoot them — and we’re not making any excuses. Housed in vandal resistant stainless steel, the Stealth KYBX-400-DT-BL-TB-USB keyboard feature an optical trackball mouse, and NVIS-compliant red adjustable backlighting (just the thing for when you dig out the night vision goggles). If that weren’t enough, the whole thing is environmentally sealed to NEMA 4, 4X, IP65 specifications (whatever that means). Yours now for $695! Get a closer look below.
Stealth’s rugged USB keyboard is extremely badass, extremely pricey originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson fame may be too chicken to invest in WeedMaps (think Yelp for pot), but that isn’t stopping other companies from sniffing around the startup, looking to score.
In fact, a company called LC LUXURIES LIMITED, or rather its most recently established subsidiary, US Cannabis, is very close to buying WeedMaps. According to this press release, the Nevada corporation has entered into formal negotiations with the startup to acquire the domain name “weedmaps.com” as well as the current operating website.
Maybe we’re a bunch of idiots, but while the Flip and its ultra-simple camcorder ilk have certainly made shooting video simpler and more accessible for the masses, we still find many of these cameras surprisingly unintuitive or just “blah” at doing what they do (Kodak’s otherwise excellent Zi8 and PlaySport cameras come to mind) when it comes to UI. After playing with the horrendous Flip Slide HD, we were almost sure touchscreens would act as another obstacle to using these things, but of all people, Sony has come to the rescue. We found the original Bloggie line very unimpressive, but this new Bloggie Touch crop is exactly as easy to use as you’d imagine a one button device would be.
That big record button on the front? You press it, and it records stuff. The responsive touchscreen UI takes care of secondary issues, like playing back that stuff you recorded, swapping resolution (it shoots at up to 1080p), setting a timer, and more detailed settings, with four well placed icons, while a touch slider operates the digital zoom. If you hold the camera like a still camera and tap the camera shutter button now naturally placed on the top you can take 12.8 megapixel stills (okay, we lied, there are two buttons, three if you count the on / off button). Despite the slim, sexy design of the camera, Sony still worked in a pop-out USB plug and a full sized HDMI jack. Even the $180 / $200 price (for 4GB or 8GB of storage) is surprisingly good. Just a reminder, in case you’d forgotten: the Bloggie Touch is built by Sony. We’ll be looking forward to its October launch.
Sony Bloggie Touch preview: an actually simple ‘simple camcorder’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Remember how Samsung downsized the Wave to make the Wave 723 and killed off the pricey, fancy Super AMOLED display in the process? Yeah, well, the same rule applies to the Android-powered Galaxy line — so if you were hoping to see some mind-blowing contrast ratios on Sammy’s new PMP… well, you can just keep on hoping (and besides, even the mighty Tab has gone the TFT route for now). The Galaxy Player 50 is pretty cute in the flesh, featuring a 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD with multitouch capability, Android 2.1, and your choice of 8GB or 16GB worth of internal storage with microSD expansion up to 32GB. It’s also packing a 2 megapixel cam on back and support for 802.11n — and heck, like the Philips GoGear Connect it’s even got a mic, basically putting it just one spec sheet line item shy of being an actual smartphone.
For all intents and purposes, the PMP feels like a midrange Android smartphone when you’re holding and using it; it’s reasonably responsive, and we were happy to see that it has Google Maps Navigation on board (along with the Android Market and all the other standard “Google Experience” Android apps). We found the keyboard a bit cramped, but there’s only so much you can do with a portrait virtual QWERTY keyboard on a 3.2-inch display, and we imagine we could get used to it with time. Needless to say, the total package feels more put-together than the GoGear, and if we were rocking a dumbphone, wanted to keep our music compartmentalized, and couldn’t stand the thought of adding an iPod touch into our lives, we imagine the 50 would be on our short list. Follow the break for Samsung’s press release — and don’t forget to have a gander at the gallery!
Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Player 50 hands-on
Samsung Galaxy Player 50 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We all know Google Music is coming, it’s just a question of when – and what it’ll look like, of course. According to Reuters, Google hopes to launch the service as early as December 2010.
Citing unnamed ‘people familiar with the matter’, Reuters says Google’s VP of Engineering Andy Rubin (which we likened to a Steve Jobs-caliber product fanatic in the past) is spearheading talks with music labels on plans for a digital music download store and cloud-based song locker service, which he hopes will see the light of day before year’s end.
Only thing that could get in the way of a pre-Christmas debut: the company has yet to sign a single licensing deal with the music labels, those same sources told Reuters.
We’re excited about the Boxee Box, and the new-look Apple TV is intriguing, but no single box is as good as a box that doesn’t exist yet does the same stuff. Confused? Sit down, let us explain. That’s the point Plex is making in announcing its new partnership with LG, which will integrate Plex software into its 2011 Netcast HDTVs and Blu-ray players. Plex enables the same sort of functionality as those smart little boxes mentioned above, letting you serve content from a machine running OS X and push it to your TV or to a mobile device (iPhone and iPad right now, Android coming). Plex also supports all the major online streamers, like Netflix, Hulu, and even the BBC iPlayer. Lack of PC support is something of a bummer, but a Windows version is said to be coming, so even your beige box can soon get in on the box-free fun.
Continue reading Plex announces paternship with LG, pledges to beat Boxee Box and Apple TV for free
Plex announces paternship with LG, pledges to beat Boxee Box and Apple TV for free originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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