Closest Thing Archive

  • On the Xbox 360 Kinect experiment and the future of motion controls

    On the Xbox 360 Kinect experiment and the future of motion controls

    Posted on June 14, 2010 | No Comments
    Microsoft has been busy over the last year. It was during E3 2009 that Microsoft blew everyone away with what was then dubbed Project Natal. It promised to bring full body motion control to the 360. We’re getting our first real look at the system at E3 today after last night’s theatrical reveal and, well, [...]

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  • Sic semper tyrannis: motion control in video games

    Sic semper tyrannis: motion control in video games

    Posted on March 11, 2010 | No Comments
    Let the record show: I think motion controllers, like the Wii, Sony Move, or Microsoft's Project Natal, are sorta dumb. They simply don't seem to be precise enough for my tastes—I'm far too used to a mouse and keyboard to give that up for the "thrill" of flailing my arms in the arm like the robot from Lost In Space. But it wasn't always like that.

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  • Xachi Pets fuse iPhones and Stuffed Animals into one Cute and Cuddly iToy

    Xachi Pets fuse iPhones and Stuffed Animals into one Cute and Cuddly iToy

    Posted on March 8, 2010 | No Comments
    What do you get when you mix a Unicorn and a Nexus One? I’ve got no idea – but if you put an iPhone and Furby together, you get a Xachi pet. Announced last week at the American International Toy Fair, a Xachi (pronounced “ZAH-chee”) Pet is an iPhone-controlled toy. It looks kind of like [...]

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  • Android Market grows up, hits 20,000 apps milestone

    Android Market grows up, hits 20,000 apps milestone

    Posted on December 15, 2009 | No Comments
    Rest assured that 2010 is going to be a big year for the Android operating system, with many new handsets finding their way to stores around the world (including Google's own phone) and an increasing amount of developers building tools, games and the likes for the fast-growing platform. One way of noticing that the OS is poised for a big breakthrough at the expense of Windows Mobile, Symbian and other operating systems designed to run on various mobile devices, is the number of applications already available for download in the platform's own application store, Android Market. Lo and behold, that number hit the 20,000 milestone just moments ago, a little over 5 months since it reached 10,000 apps.

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  • Nokia N900 quick hands-on

    Nokia N900 quick hands-on

    Posted on November 16, 2009 | No Comments

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    We've finally had a chance to play around at length with a very late pre-production version of Nokia's N900 (retail units are already shipping, but not to our neck of the woods just yet) and we wanted to scribble out a few notes for you before taking delivery of a final build for a full review hopefully in the next week or two. Here are some highlights we've noticed so far:
    • Processor, processor, processor. Oh, and did we mention the processor? The N900's Cortex A8-based core yields significant improvements in day-to-day usability over the N810's ARM11 unit.
    • Though it's still quite raw and feature-incomplete, Maemo 5 is by far the most user-friendly version of the platform to date, if for no other reason than the fact that it's very pretty. Screen transitions are smooth and look great, the home screen is as attractive and versatile as any widget-based home screen on the market today, and the Expose-style task switcher is a welcome addition.
    • The N900 may very well offer the best browsing experience of any smartphone on the market today (yes, including the iPhone). What little ground it gives up in user friendliness is more than countered by the fact that you have the closest thing you can get to a desktop-class browser in a device of this size and form factor; it's straight-up Mozilla, after all, and everything renders faithfully. Flash doesn't blaze, but at least the Cortex A8 makes it usable.
    Follow the break for more impressions and a quick rundown on video!

    Continue reading Nokia N900 quick hands-on

    Nokia N900 quick hands-on originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Fever Pitch: It’s Droid Day, Enjoy The Moment.

    Fever Pitch: It’s Droid Day, Enjoy The Moment.

    Posted on November 6, 2009 | No Comments
    If you are a tech lover, there is nothing quite like the launch day of a much hyped new gadget. Expectations run high. And since those expectations are rarely satisfied once you have the special little device in hand, it’s a moment to savor. In the hours before you own it, that device is perfect in every way. It will make you happier, a better person. There are no bugs, there are only features. It is whatever you want it to be. Launch day of a new cool gadget is the closest thing to being a kid again on Christmas day (or whatever your winter solstice holiday of choice). You’ve anticipated the day. You’ve called in sick to work. And you are standing out in the freezing cold at 7 in the morning, hoping your place in line assures you a device before the carefully-planned sell out occurs. You’ve worked yourself into…a Fever Pitch. I’ve always been let down with the real world gadget after that high of anticipation. But that’s ok. It’s part of the cycle of tech. Today is Droid day. In just a few hours Verizon stores will open and the first customers will get their hands on their very own Droid. And I promise you, if you are one of the people waiting in line, you will have a much lower than average amount of letdown. That’s because, in my humble opinion, the Droid is the coolest mobile phone to exist to date. It is as close as we’ve come to the Platonic ideal of a smartphone. It’s very existence ensures that the next iPhone will be even better than it otherwise would have been. Competition is good. Yes, this is an unabashed love letter to the Droid. If you want the dispassionate reviews, we’ve got em. And then some. That isn’t what this post is about.

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  • App Turns iPhone into Star Trek Communicator

    App Turns iPhone into Star Trek Communicator

    Posted on June 11, 2009 | No Comments
    The Star Trek communicator was arguably the original cellphone, and clearly the model for Motorola’s Startac (even the name was a thinly disguised homage). The iPhone, in turn, is obviously the closest thing us 21st century humans have to the technology of the future. It fits, then, that there should be an application which turns [...]

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  • Sony Ericsson’s Satio and Aino get handled, Remote Play makes the Aino PSP-like — minus the games

    Sony Ericsson’s Satio and Aino get handled, Remote Play makes the Aino PSP-like — minus the games

    Posted on May 28, 2009 | No Comments

    Folks are already starting to get a look at production versions (well, closer to production than at MWC, anyhow) of the Sony Ericsson Satio and its baby sister, the Aino -- and even if you're not a fan of the joint venture's wares, it's hard not to appreciate what it's brought to the table here. The Satio looks identical to its Idou doppelganger -- albeit now in three colors instead of two -- but the real news here is inside, where we're finally getting a look at Sony Ericsson's interpretation of Symbian^1 with a unique UI. Overall, it's looking "chunky" (and we mean that in a good way) with an entirely finger-friendly presentation -- a sharp, healthy departure from the UIQ platform that it just threw in the dumpster a few months back.

    Though the Satio's higher end, it's actually the Aino that intrigues us more; in a way, this is the closest thing to a "PSP phone" that Sony Ericsson has ever produced, largely on account of its support for Sony Remote Play which funnels PlayStation 3-stored media content down over WiFi or your cellular connection. Sadly though, "media content" doesn't include games; Sony Ericsson is billing the phone strictly as a multimedia-heavy non-gaming phone, so calling it a PSP phone in practice would be a huge frickin' misnomer. The phone includes a dock that syncs media wirelessly to your PC when connected -- hot -- and from a distance, it seems to be just about the sexiest phone Sony Ericsson's ever made. It's not clear what carriers will be offering either of these, but as usual, we've got to bet against the North Americans.

    Read - Satio hands-on
    Read - Aino hands-on

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    Sony Ericsson's Satio and Aino get handled, Remote Play makes the Aino PSP-like -- minus the games originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 May 2009 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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