June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / HDTV News / No Comments
After a public beta spanning a couple months, Sling is rolling out the latest piece of its expanding SlingPlayer Mobile portfolio this week — this time for Android, plugging the biggest coverage gap it currently has. This is the same app we recently had an opportunity to check out, but since that preview, we’re happy to report that it’s been massaged into a more stable, more usable setup — gone are the disconnect crashes we’d had before. Furthermore, Sling claims they’ve specifically worked to improve load and response times with this version, and we have to say that the effort is noticeable — this definitely feels like the fastest SlingPlayer Mobile we’ve used to date. It’s officially available starting tomorrow from the Market in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US for $29.99. Follow the break for the full press release.
Continue reading SlingPlayer Mobile for Android ready to entertain you for $30 starting tomorrow
SlingPlayer Mobile for Android ready to entertain you for $30 starting tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
When 20 robots wave their mechanical hands and bend their knees in harmony to French composer Maurice Ravel’s masterpiece Bolero, it is a sight worth seeing.
A troupe of Nao fully programmable robots developed by a French company are doing an impressive song-and-dance routine at the ongoing Shanghai World Expo. On Monday, which is the France Pavilion Day at the Expo, the robots put on a 10-minute performance to a three-part music compilation.
It’s awesome and a little cute to see the robots move together in sync to the music and the choreography. Priced at about 10,000 Euros each, that’s almost $250,000 worth of dancing robots there.
Check out this 8-minute long YouTube video for a look at the robots grooving to the music:
The Nao robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics weighs about 9.5 lbs and is about 23 inches tall. The robot comes with x86 AMD Geocode 500 Mhz CPU, 2 GB flash memory, two speakers, vision processing capabilities, Wi-fi connectivity and ethernet port. It has 25 degrees of freedom, which means it can do a lot more than just tilt is head, look right, left and take a few steps –which is the ability being showcased with the dancing.
The Nao robots are also playing at Robocup, the annual humanoid robots soccer game, that will be held in Singapore later this week. Hopefully, they will do better than France’s national team at the World Cup. The robots are currently available only to universities though a [...]
June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_3G_iOS_4_and_you_what_s_missing’; While iOS 4 is delivering on every promise for the iPhone 3GS users out there, as we were all told up front, the iPhone 3G would be missing some of those touted new features. Granted, we knew such disparities would exist but were never given the finer details. Now that the final build is percolating through the internet, we decided to take a look at what features are and aren’t working on the earlier year’s model.
What works
Folders
Threaded mail
iTunes playlist creation / editing
5x digital zoom: just tap on the display near the capture button, but be warned, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture
iBooks: we were having issues with the earlier build, but it seems to be running fine after today’s official download — PDFs work, too.
Photos: you can now sort by albums, events, faces, and places
Game center: the icon is present, but as of this writing we’re unable to connect to the servers.
Spell check has been updated
What doesn’t work
Multitasking: this is the big one. Double-tapping the home button doesn’t give you the handy menu, there’s no fast app switching, and background use is missing in action.
Screen lock: normally in the multitasking menu (which isn’t available on 3G), it’s nowhere to be found, even under Settings. Bummer.
Home screen wallpaper: you’d think this simple addition would make the cut, but sadly no. The dock has been given a visual upgrade, though.
Bluetooth Keyboard support: we haven’t tried this ourselves, but an influx of reports from Twitter suggest this [...]
June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / HDTV News / No Comments
It’s Monday, and we know that getting the week started can be tough. We’re here to help by letting you peek into the recording booth when the Engadget HD podcast goes to tape at 5:30 pm. Think of it as a kind of time machine that will help you power through your day by reviewing what happened in the week HD-wise. Embedded Ustream tools and a list of topics after the break.
Continue reading Join the Engadget HD podcast live on Ustream at 5:30 PM
Join the Engadget HD podcast live on Ustream at 5:30 PM originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
The unlimited data plan party could end soon. Verizon Wireless has hinted it is likely to follow AT&T and restrict the amount of data consumers can suck in through their phones.
“We will probably need to change the design of our pricing where it will not be totally unlimited, flat rate,” Verizon’s chief financial officer John Killian told Bloomberg.
For nearly 90 percent of smartphone users, new pricing plans are unlikely to make a big difference in how they use their phones, says Chetan Sharma, who runs a consulting firm focusing on telecom issues. But for super-users, this could signal a change in how smartphones and apps are designed.
It could force developers and entrepreneurs to take a second look at how data is delivered and optimized.
“So far, the ecosystem hasn’t paid attention to delivery efficiency,” says Sharma. “Content developers rarely care how much data is being transferred over their app. Now there’s room for technology that can help change that.”
Wireless service providers’ decision to do away with unlimited data plans plans runs orthogonal to what smartphones makers are doing. Smartphones today are in a race to offer more storage, along with the ability to shoot high-definition videos and photos. And they encourage you to share, uploading those files to YouTube and Flickr. Add to that video chat capability, especially over cellular networks, and there’s more stress than ever on the network.
“It was unsustainable,” says Sharma. “It couldn’t have gone [...]
June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
We can’t even imagine the uproar that AT&T and Apple would be dealing with if FaceTime calls — which travel over WiFi alone — siphoned minutes out of your cell plan’s voice bucket, but fortunately, that’s a doomsday scenario we’ll never need to worry about because it’s now been confirmed that they’re totally minute-free. What’s more, when you start by initiating a voice call, it ends as soon as you switch from voice to FaceTime — so you won’t be charged for the portion of the call that’s conducted over FaceTime in that case, either. Of course, as long as FaceTime is an iPhone 4 exclusive, it’s going to be pretty limited in scope — but once other vendors start getting in on the open standard (if “standard” is an appropriate term here) it’ll get a lot juicier, we suspect.
PSA: iPhone 4’s FaceTime won’t use your voice minutes originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / HDTV News / 1 Comment
What we’re watching tonight:
Fox (720p) has Lie to Me at 8 p.m. and The Good Guys at 9 p.m.
ABC (720p) airs The Bachelorette at 8 p.m.
TLC (1080i) has Cake Boss at 9 & 9:30 p.m. and the series premiere of Inedible to Incredible at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
ABC Family (720p) has The Secret Life of the American Teenager at 8 p.m.
NBC (1080i) has Last Comic Standing at 9 p.m. and Persons Unknown at 10 p.m.
USA (1080i) presents WWE: Raw at 9 p.m.
TNT (1080i) has the series finale of Saving Grace at 9 p.m.
History (720p) has American Pickers at 9 p.m. and Pawn $tars at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
TBS (1080i) has Neighbors from Hell at 10 p.m.
MTV (1080i) airs The Hard Times of RJ Berger at 10 p.m. and Warren the Ape at 10:30 p.m.
Discovery (1080i) has the series premieres of Ultimate Car Build Off at 9 p.m. and Heartland Thunder at 10 p.m.
Travel (1080i) has the season finales of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmer at 10 p.m. and Dhani Tackles the Globe at 11 p.m.
HBO (1080i) presents Gasland at 9 p.m.
ESPN (720p) has World Cup Primetime at 7:30 p.m. and Yankees/Diamondbacks baseball at 10 p.m.
ESPN2 (720p) has 2010 College World Series action at 9 p.m.
HDTV Listings for June 21, 2010 originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
The e-reader price wars is on. Amazon has cut the price of its Kindle e-book reader to $190 from $260 earlier. Amazon’s move comes in response to Barnes & Noble’s price cut on the Nook earlier Monday.
The Kindle will still be slightly more expensive than the basic version of the Nook. A Wi-Fi only version of the Nook is now available for $150, while a 3G model will cost $200.
With the latest round of price wars, the distinction between e-readers and tablets is also becoming clear. Tablets and E Ink-based reading devices are likely to co-exist by targeting different groups of consumers based on their purchasing power, the extent of interactivity they need and their reading patterns.
That means two sets of products: Tablets with color displays and lots of features that cost $400 or more, and inexpensive black-and-white E Ink-powered e-readers that will soon be available for $150 or less.
Despite the launch of tablets such as Apple’s iPad, e-book readers continue to be popular among consumers. About seven million e-readers will be sold this year, estimates Forrester. A recent poll by consumer electronics search website Retrevo showed 45 percent of casual readers–those who read one book every few months–say they plan to buy an iPad now instead of an e-reader. But among avid readers–those who read more than five books a month–only 14 percent say they will go for an iPad over an e-reader.
“In [...]
June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Of course, seeing how Verizon was one of the earliest and most staunch supporters of LTE in the mobile operator world, it comes as no huge shocker that Big Red has earned itself a seat on the GSM Association’s 26 member- and 13 carrier-strong board of directors — especially now that it’s a full, card-carrying member of the GSMA as a whole — but still, feels a bit weird, doesn’t it? From a PR perspective, we’re figuring Verizon wanted to have this wrapped up before it stages its first commercial 4G launches later this year, but at any rate, it’s official: you’re now welcome to call Verizon “a GSM carrier.” Et tu, Sprint? Follow the break for the full press release.
Continue reading Hell freezes over: Verizon CTO Dick Lynch joins GSMA’s board
Hell freezes over: Verizon CTO Dick Lynch joins GSMA’s board originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 21st, 2010 / Gadget-News / HDTV News / No Comments
It’s time to add another 3D sporting event to your calendar, now that NASCAR and Turner Sports have gone public with plans for a 3D broadcast of the Coke Zero 400 July 3. Viewers can watch on DirecTV or online via TNT RaceBuddy. The hardware requirements for PC viewing are similar to those from the Masters broadcast, and we don’t expect to hear DirecTV is in a more sharing mood than cable companies were then, so it will probably be the only option to watch this on TV. NASCAR is promising two custom feeds for the 3D broadcast, with one consisting of strategically placed track side cameras, and another focused on pit road. We’re really waiting for a 3D Gopher Cam, in wall cam, and roof mounted cameras, but those can probably wait for the second race that airs in 3D.
Continue reading NASCAR upgrades Coke Zero 400 to 3D July 3 on PC and DirecTV
NASCAR upgrades Coke Zero 400 to 3D July 3 on PC and DirecTV originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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