Long Time Archive

  • TOPIO Dio: Meet Vietnam’s first service robot

    TOPIO Dio: Meet Vietnam’s first service robot

    Posted on June 18, 2010 | No Comments
    Tosy (warning: the site takes a long time to load), Vietnam's first - and only - robot venture, has been flying under the radar since the debut of TOPIO, their table tennis-playing humanoid, in 2007. The company was established as early as 2002 and has been mainly manufacturing toy robots since. But it seems as if their first "life-sized" service robot, dubbed TOPIO Dio, is a pretty cool humanoid.

    Full Story

  • Behind the scenes with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 team: ‘I think about this really as a first release’

    Behind the scenes with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 team: ‘I think about this really as a first release’

    Posted on June 17, 2010 | No Comments
    CNET had a chance recently to get embedded deep within Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 engineering group, listening in on meetings with OEMs, arguments, celebrations, and all the other drama that comes with trying to ship a huge product that's new from the ground up in just a couple years' time. There aren't any blockbuster revelations in here -- no launch devices, ship dates, or prices -- but it's an interesting look at the project from Windows Phone engineering VP Terry Myerson's perspective, who acknowledges that it'll take a long time and several releases to catch up to the competition but still thinks they'll "actually have a lot of happy customers" with version one.

    On a related note, some existing Windows Marketplace devs have started getting notifications that Microsoft wants to send them loaner Windows Phone 7 devices -- yes, loaners, meaning they'll need to be returned to the mother ship at some point down the road. They're apparently set up for delivery in July, which should give publishers plenty of time to stock up the Marketplace in time for that planned holiday launch.

    Behind the scenes with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team: 'I think about this really as a first release' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Starbucks moving to free, no-registration-needed WiFi on July 1st

    Starbucks moving to free, no-registration-needed WiFi on July 1st

    Posted on June 14, 2010 | No Comments
    This isn’t so much mobile news as it is news that mobile users should probably know about. That coffee company, Starbucks.. maybe you’ve heard of them? If not, open the blinds at whatever location you’re currently sitting at, and look across the street (or, at most, down to the corner). Surprise! It’s a Starbucks! Well, [...]

    Full Story

  • The Kindle will soon be available at Target locations nationwide

    The Kindle will soon be available at Target locations nationwide

    Posted on June 2, 2010 | No Comments
    This has been a long time coming. The Kindle has slowly been creeping into Target retail outlets but the company just issued a presser stating that the most popular ebook reader on the planet will be available nationwide on June 6th. This officially makes Target Amazon's first brick and mortar retail partner, although Target isn't new to the ebook game.

    Full Story

  • Eric Schmidt Presides Over The Marriage Of The 50-Year-Old TV And The Teenage Web

    Eric Schmidt Presides Over The Marriage Of The 50-Year-Old TV And The Teenage Web

    Posted on May 20, 2010 | No Comments
    "We've been waiting a long time for today," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who is presiding over a power panel of CEOs helping to make Google TV possible. The panel, at Google I/O, includes the CEOs of Sony, Best Buy, Echostar, Adobe, Logitech, and, of course, Google. He needs all of them, as well as developers, to make his new Google TV a hit. Google TV will be built into a new Sony TV coming out this fall in time for the holiday shopping season, as well a Logitech TV companion box which can be hooked up to existing TVs with an HDMI port. It is Google's attempt to bring together the 50-year-old TV-watching experience with the Web. It does that in a variety of ways,from a universal search box which searches both TV and the Web to opening up the TV as an application platform for developers and media companies to enhance their video offerings. Its ambition is to bring the Web into the TV in a new way.

    Full Story

  • India’s 3G auction draws to a close

    India’s 3G auction draws to a close

    Posted on May 19, 2010 | No Comments
    It's been a long time coming, but after countless delays in getting the auction underway, bidding on nationwide 3G spectrum in the world's second most populous market has ended -- and four companies appear to have come out on top. Most of the Indian markets only had three licenses available, so you'll likely be doing some roaming if you travel much, but Reliance, Bharti, Aircel, and Tata have all come away with significant swaths of airspace. And how much did it end up costing for the privilege of delivering high-speed wireless 'round these parts? After kicking off India-wide bidding for one slot at 35 billion rupees (about $773 million), the auction wrapped up at 167.51 billion rupees ($3.7 billion) after some 183 rounds of bidding in just over a month. Now, the hard part: actually building those 3G networks. Chop chop, guys!

    India's 3G auction draws to a close originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Apple doesn’t accept cash at the Apple Store, not even for an iPad

    Apple doesn’t accept cash at the Apple Store, not even for an iPad

    Posted on May 18, 2010 | No Comments
    A human interest story, brought to us by the fine people at KGO-TV in San Francisco. It goes something like this: a woman had saved up for a very long time to buy an Apple iPad. So goes into an Apple Store, tells the clerk that she'd like to buy an iPad, then whips out the requisite $600. Six-hundred in cash, mind you. Then the Apple clerk drops a bombshell: sorry, but we don't accept cash here.

    Full Story

  • Hands-on with the WiFiSync app

    Hands-on with the WiFiSync app

    Posted on May 14, 2010 | No Comments
    WiFiSync should have existed a long time ago. Created by Greg Hughes, it uses two programs - desktop app and an iPhone app - to sync your iPhone wirelessly. I was able to sync music, movies, and info quickly and easy, just by pressing "Sync" in iTunes. The app costs $9.99 on the Cydia store. The Cydia Store appears when you jailbreak your phone and it's sort of a Bizarro App Store unsanctioned by Apple.

    Full Story

  • Clearwire sticking with WiMAX until at least 2012

    Clearwire sticking with WiMAX until at least 2012

    Posted on May 10, 2010 | No Comments
    Clearwire always seems to have commitment issue. Despite going steady with WiMAX, the company keeps saying that they might eventually part ways for different pastures -- namely LTE, should WiMAX turn out to be a dead end (talk about relationship pressure). That's still ongoing, as CEO Bill Morrow recently explained to CNET that its contract with Intel has been amended so that "either party can terminate the technology agreement within 30 days" but later adding that it definitely wouldn't hop on the LTE bandwagon before 2012. He strikes down some false hope a question later: "we won't be upgrading to LTE, if we do that, for a long time." Granted, time is a relative construct, and two years may be a "long time" to Bill. Oh, why do you keep stringing 'em both along?

    Clearwire sticking with WiMAX until at least 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 21:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Keepin’ it real fake: GiPhone F98 is the KIRFiest next gen iPhone KIRF to ever KIRF

    Keepin’ it real fake: GiPhone F98 is the KIRFiest next gen iPhone KIRF to ever KIRF

    Posted on May 5, 2010 | No Comments
    It's been nearly a month since a China Grabber employee drunkenly left his experimental prototype next gen GiPhone at a Sushi Bar in Shenzhen, where it was found and sold to Shanzai.com for several thousand Yuan -- and the gadget world hasn't been the same since. The GiPhone F98 features, as all of these KIRFs do, dual SIM cards, an FM Radio, an "iPhone style" UI, WiFi, Bluetooth, and compatibility with 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz GSM. And it's one of the thickest phones we've seen in a long time! (See for yourself after the break.) Available now for $150, if you dare.

    [Thanks, Jessica]

    Continue reading Keepin' it real fake: GiPhone F98 is the KIRFiest next gen iPhone KIRF to ever KIRF

    Keepin' it real fake: GiPhone F98 is the KIRFiest next gen iPhone KIRF to ever KIRF originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Hands-on with the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide

    Hands-on with the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide

    Posted on May 3, 2010 | No Comments
    In a perfect world, every phone would be like the T-Mobile MyTouch Slide. It's small, it's light, it has a keyboard, and it's easy enough for almost everyone to use even if it's running one of the most powerful mobile OSes out there. Built by HTC to T-Mobile's specifications, the MyTouch Slide with full QWERTY keyboard is, in actuallity, one of the best feature phones I've seen in a long time.

    Full Story

  • Plex for Mac OS X adds hardware h.264 video decoding

    Plex for Mac OS X adds hardware h.264 video decoding

    Posted on April 28, 2010 | No Comments
    Exciting news from Plex, the media center for Mac OS X that won my heart a long time ago. The devs have announced that they've integrated Apple's new video decode acceleration framework into the latest build. In English, that means all h.264-encoded video—and there's a lot of it out there—can be sent to your GPU for decoding, giving your CPU a bit more breathing room. It should make for significantly better 1080p video performance.

    Full Story

  • World of Warcraft movie still in way pre-production

    World of Warcraft movie still in way pre-production

    Posted on April 28, 2010 | No Comments
    Waiting for the World of Warcraft movie? Prepare to keep waiting. A recent interview revealed that the movie is still in the super early stages of pre-production. They're still going over the story at meetings, still trying to figure out how to adapt the entire Warcraft universe to the big screen. Movies take a long time to create.

    Full Story

  • Boost Mobile gussies up their selection with the Sanyo Juno

    Boost Mobile gussies up their selection with the Sanyo Juno

    Posted on April 27, 2010 | No Comments
    For a long time, if you wanted to take advantage of Boost Mobile’s $50 Monthly Unlimited plan, you had to put up with a few disadvantages. The biggest, of course, was the fact that you were stuck using their sketchy iDEN network. Not only that, you had to do it with a handset that was [...]

    Full Story

  • Thanko’s USB-powered foot switch pedal

    Thanko’s USB-powered foot switch pedal

    Posted on April 23, 2010 | No Comments
    Long time no hear from Tokyo-based USB gadget maker Thanko. The company today announced foot switch pedals [JP] for use with Windows XP, 7 or Vista machines (I am aware this isn't a world's first, but the last Thanko post was too long ago). Just assign any key on your keyboard to one of the pedals, and you won't need your fingers to press that key ever again.

    Full Story

« Older Entries