September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
What does it take to make an addictive game? Not much — just throw in some super simple controls, cute graphics, and basic physics. Rovio Mobile’s Angry Birds is one such game that includes all these elements, and today the studio’s just released a public Android beta to cater those without an iOS or Ovi-enabled device. In case you’re not already familiar with the popular title, the backstory is that a gang of hungry pigs snatched away some eggs from the birds, forcing the feathered creatures to embark on a rescue mission for the sake of their survival. The gameplay on the Android version is just as simple as before: in each level you use a fixed slingshot to fling the birds — one at a time — into the forts, in order to kill all the pigs inside. As a secondary challenge, you must also attempt to get a three-star rating depending on the amount of structural material you destroy, so the key is to perfect your shooting angle.
At the beginning you’re only given one type of bird that does nothing more than just headbutting, but throughout the game you’ll come across six more birds, each possessing one special power: multiply, explode, accelerate, dropping egg bombs, boomerang, and extra strength. Don’t worry, the instructions are pretty clear when you first meet these enhanced kamikaze birds — most involve just a single tap anywhere to trigger their special abilities mid-flight. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll soon [...]
September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / Laptop News / No Comments
Panasonic’s gone on a real tear here, releasing two new Toughbook models at once. While you grapple with the implications of such a thing, let’s get down to details. The new 31 and 19 Series Toughbooks are 13.1-inch and 10.4-inch models, respectively, and as far as specs go, they both pack in a 160GB hard drive, up to 6GB of DDR3 SDRAM (with 2GB coming standard), and Intel QM57 Express chipset, and 1024 x 768 resolution displays. Both come with Windows 7 Professional pre-installed, and the Toughbook 31 has a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, the 19’s go a 1.2 GHZ inside. Other than that they’ve both got Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, an HDMI slot, four USB ports, and an SD card slot. Of course, they’re also drop resistant in addition to being dust and waterproof. They’ll be available starting in mid-September in Japan.
Panasonic cranks out new 31 and 19 Series Toughbooks for Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / 1 Comment
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A software update for Apple’s mobile operating system is due for release next week, and Wired.com has had hands-on time with a major new feature of the OS: high-dynamic range photography.
HDR, an automated processing feature aiming to deliver a “dummy-proof” photography method, will be included with the camera app on all iPhones running iOS 4.1 when it ships next week. When you take a picture, HDR processes three versions of the image: an underexposed version, a normally exposed version, and an overexposed version. Then it combines these three images into one to increase the dynamic range (the intensity of the light) to give you a more accurate representation of the scene you’re shooting.
In iOS 4.1, when you launch your camera there will be an option to toggle HDR on or off. When toggled on, the iPhone will take a few seconds to process a photo in HDR after snapping it. By default, your iPhone will save both a normal, unedited version of your photograph along with an HDR-processed version. (You can tweak the save mode in your settings.)
I ventured outside with Wired.com photo editor Jon Snyder to put an iPhone 4 to the test with HDR photos, and [...]
September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
MeeGo’s official user interface guidelines could easily end up determining whether the platform sinks or swims — no one wants a phone whose UI looks like junk, after all. The minions at Nokia and Intel’s little pet project have posted new OS shots as examples of how to properly implement the interface in third-party apps, and we’ve got to admit — things are looking a lot cleaner, prettier, and generally more modern than the first round of pictures we saw back in June, thanks in part to a demonstration of the platform’s comprehensive theming capability that can totally revamp how UI elements look. We’re definitely seeing shades of webOS in the task switcher (pictured above), but then again, Nokia’s no stranger to borrowing ideas it likes. That’s all well and good as long as it makes for a great platform… and obviously, we’d need some hardware to do that. O N9, where art thou?
New official MeeGo screenshots show promise, influence originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / HDTV News / No Comments
Confirming earlier rumors and despite Fox’s denials Panasonic representatives told TWICE and CNET we can expect a n exclusive offering of Avatar on the Blu-ray 3D format in “early December.” Naturally, the 3D blockbuster is expected to push more than a few to make the jump, but this is nothing but bad news to those with televisions from other manufacturers like Samsung and Sony. There aren’t many other details available yet, like if equipment outside of 3DTVs qualifies, or how much it might cost, so for now we’ll just let the disappointment of yet another 3D exclusive wash over us.
Panasonic locks up Avatar Blu-ray 3D release for 2010 originally appeared on Engadget HD on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / 1 Comment
While winding down from Wednesday’s iPod announcements, Apple CEO Steve Jobs appears to have taken some time to respond to an e-mail criticizing the new look of the iTunes icon.
Joshua Kopac, who oversees design work for advertising firm ValuLeads, sent Jobs an e-mail blasting the new iTunes icon (right) — a blue bubble containing a music note, ditching the old icon of a music note floating above a compact disc.
Jobs said on Wednesday that iTunes was ditching its old icon (pictured above) because iTunes digital music was poised to outpace sales of physical CD albums by next year.
Kopac provided the e-mail exchange to Wired.com:
Steve,
Enjoyed the presentation today. But…this new iTunes logo really sucks. You’re taking 10+ years of instant product recognition and replacing it with an unknown. Let’s both cross our fingers on this…
Jobs’ reply, terse as usual, was such:
We disagree.
Sent from my iPhone
Jobs this past year has been exceptionally chatty with customers, many of whom have reported receiving e-mail responses from the famous CEO. Wired.com reviewed Kopac’s e-mail for its authenticity, and we believe it’s real.
“It’s hideous, don’t you think?” Kodac said of the new iTunes icon in a phone interview with Wired.com. “Essentially it’s just a music note. the CD previously showed what they were about — how they were connected to music.”
Kopac isn’t alone, as the new iTunes icon has already inspired a Twitter account dubbed @itunes10icon — a fake persona defending itself against critics who [...]
September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Verizon’s teaser site for the Droid 2 R2-D2 edition has been teasing a series of locked spokes, accessible by all as soon as anyone in the community solves the “puzzle.” We don’t know exactly what the magic code was, but regardless, thanks to David H. yesterday, we’ve got a new gallery of devices pics and — oh, lookie — a special edition Droid R2-D2 dock. We don’t see room for a hyperdrive anywhere, nor wings, photon torpedos, or a cockpit for future Jedis to blast orbital space stations. So, let’s just call it a vacation home for astromechs needing a respite.
Droid R2-D2 gets docked — not in a X-Wing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
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This week’s episode of the Gadget Lab podcast is heavy on fruits. High on vitamin A, Dylan Tweney gushes over the pluot, a plum-apricot hybrid, while yours truly dishes out this week’s announcements of brand new Apple gear.
Apple’s iPod family all scored major upgrades. The iPod Nano has become a puny touchscreen badge with a built-in clip that should be ideal for athletes, and the iPod Touch is now up to par with the iPhone 4. The iPod Shuffle was refreshed as well — also a badge-like clippable form factor, but with the traditional click wheel rather than a touchscreen.
Apple also announced a brand new Apple TV that’s about a quarter of the size of its predecessor. It streams movie and television rentals, but it faces one major limitation: only two television networks (Fox and ABC) are on board to offer programs for the device. For now, it’s not an adequate replacement for cable TV.
However, in a future software update, iOS devices will be able to wirelessly stream their iTunes videos and music onto the Apple TV by using a feature called “AirPlay.” We ponder on the potential for Apple to reshape the TV industry if the company eventually allows you to beam content from third-party iOS apps (such as Hulu) onto the Apple TV. It’s wishful thinking, but not an impossibility.
Finally, Samsung has officially launched a tablet to compete with Apple’s iPad. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a 7-inch touchscreen tablet powered by Android OS 2.2, meaning it supports Adobe Flash. We [...]
September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Mobile broadband has come a long way since the early (and expensive) attempts at integrating 3G modules into laptops; today, cubicle dwellers are liberated by cheaper mobile data, along with the abundance of 3G dongles and the emerging mobile WiFi (ergo “MiFi”) hotspot devices. It’s no secret that Huawei’s been flirting with both Three and Vodafone for some time, but it was only recently that the manufacturer also made a MiFi — the R201 — for Vodafone (the carrier’s lesser-known MiFI 2352 in Spain is from Novatel). The question is: does this new HSPA MiFi have enough meat to steal the limelight from Three? Read on to find out.
Gallery: Vodafone R201 mobile WiFi hotspot review
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Vodafone R201 mobile WiFi hotspot review originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 3rd, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Kindle DX Promotional Photo from Amazon.com
It’s easy to figure out why e-readers and tablets are the size that they are: They’re all about the size of paperback books, whether trade (iPad) or mass-market (the Kindle 3). Some oversized models, like the Kindle DX, are closer to big hardcovers. But why are books the size that they are? It turns out it’s because of sheep. Sheepskin, to be exact.
Carl Pyrdum, who writes the blog Get Medieval while he finishes his PhD in Literature at Yale, has the skinny on book sizes. You see, before Europeans learned how to make paper from the Arabs (who’d learned it from the Chinese), books were made from parchment, which was usually made from sheepskin. Sometimes, they’d use calfskin, too; if it was really primo stuff, it was called vellum. Like reading a whole book made out of veal.
We eventually mostly gave up on parchment, because it was expensive, and hard to work with. (There’s a reason medieval monks wrote manuscripts; preparing the parchment was penance.) But all of today’s book sizes (and by proxy, most of our gadget sizes) were established in the Middle Ages, and printers and papermakers carried them over. Booksellers and publishers still use these terms today:
Fold a sheet of parchment once (two pages per sheet) for a folio; if you fold sheets of paper once without a cover, you’ve got a tabloid.
Twice for a quarto (4pp/s), the size of a big dictionary or big laptop;
Three times [...]
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