|  |  |  | | | | | Engadget | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Remember when the amalgamation of Super Mario Bros and a Portal gun seemed like the most amazing, yet impossibly lucid pipe dream? As it turns out, the cake named "Mari0" by developer-house Stabyourself actually wasn't a lie. But lest you thought this just a redo of Super Mario Bros with a skosh of Aperture science thrown in, you'd be oh-so-wrong. How's about four-player co-op, in addition to a level editor and a bevy of hilarious modes that'll put a new twist on an old favorite. And could it get any better than available for the sweet sweet price of free? If that's not a ringing endorsement, we don't know what is. If you're still reading this, we're unsure why you're still here -- get your game on at the source link below. World's collide as Super Mario Bros and Portal become Mari0 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  Joystiq |  Stabyourself | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The Kindle Fire is less a tablet and more a $200 window into Amazon's storefront. The 7-inch slate that shares its DNA with the BlackBerry PlayBook lacks any physical features bar a micro-USB port, headphone jack and speaker. Internally, that 1GHz CPU is paired up with 512MB of RAM and 8GB storage, with no option for increased size, Bluetooth, 5GHz WiFi or 3G. Performance was fine inside the company's carousel sandbox, but step outside and things became outrageously herky-jerky, especially in the Silk browser, which didn't live up to its name. We found that there was plenty we'd like to change to make it more of a useful tablet, but did we miss the point? You probably had one bought for you in the Holidays and it's had three or four months solid use since then, so what do you think? Is it a good companion on your daily commute, did it justify winning our E-Reader of the year prize and if Jeff Bezos was reading all of your comments in anticipation for version two, what would you demand he changes? How would you change Amazon's Kindle Fire? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of February 27th, 2012 Refresh Roundup: week of February 27th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's not often that folks want to hide the fact that they're driving a Mercedes, what with plenty of them being among of the finest motorcars on the road. However, as part of a marketing plan to call attention to its zero-emissions F-Cell model, the German marque swathed a side of one in LEDs to give it the ultimate in camouflage. You see, in addition to that makeshift display, a Canon 5D Mark II was mounted on the other side of the car so that video of its surroundings could be shown on the LED bodywork -- rendering the car all but invisible to onlookers, as long as they're staring at the left side, of course. Go ahead, head on down to see the magic of digital camo for yourself in the video after the break. Continue reading Mercedes slaps sheet of LEDs on the side of an F-Cell, turns car into a chameleon Mercedes slaps sheet of LEDs on the side of an F-Cell, turns car into a chameleon originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Mashable | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week epic green transportation initiatives kicked off around the world as Inhabitat reported that Shenzhen, China launched the world's largest electric vehicle fleet and London's brand new Eco-Routemaster hybrid bus hit the streets for the first time.  We also showcased an earthquake-proof Japanese building system capable of levitating an entire house, and we brought you sneak peeks at the hottest eco vehicles that will be unveiled at next week's Geneva Motor Show, including Hyundai's sexy i-oniq hybrid and Infiniti's Emerg-E plug-in. Audi also turned heads with its souped-up R18 E-Tron Quattro hybrid Le Mans racer, and Perave's 350 MPGe MonoTracer electric motorcycle hit the market.
It was also a bright week for renewable energy with a revolutionary spherical solar cell capable of capturing light from all directions, and Austria Solar sending out a "sun-powered" annual report that only appears when exposed to sunlight. Meanwhile, we said goodbye to the polluting energy technology of the past as Midwest utilities shuttered 10 fossil fuel-powered plants and  the world's oldest nuclear reactor closed up shop in the UK. Brilliant designers also chased away dark winter days with a sunflower-shaped heliostat that can flood any house with natural light and a cheap, photovoltaic Little Sun lamp for the developing world.
Green tech also wired the world in exciting new ways as the Smithonian Institute announced plans to replicate and share its collection with the world using 3D printing tech and a 14-year-old boy invented an incredible LEGO printer. We also watched HP launch an all-in-one workstation that pops open for easy DIY upgrades and repairs, while Huawei unveiled a soaring Pegasus sculpture made from 3,500 smartphones. Last but not least we brought you a look at Google's new Terminator-style augmented vision goggles, and we shared a fun tutorial on geocaching with your children. Inhabitat's Week in Green: i-oniq hybrid, spherical solar cell and a incredible LEGO printer originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hollywood's latest digital ecosystem offers lots of promise, but in the five months since its release, it couldn't be further from delivering on it. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Walmart will finally make use of its membership to the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem by offering in-store disc to digital UltraViolet upgrade opportunities, for a small price of course. No doubt UltraViolet can use all the help it can get, but this is far from what we were hoping for when we learned Walmart would be in the mix -- we were hoping for the ability to buy and watch UltraViolet movies via Walmart's Vudu. Beyond our personal wishes, this no where near the big revelation that most consumers would actually find interesting: the release of the Common File Format which promises universal offline playback of our movie collection. WSJ: Walmart to offer in-store disc to digital UltraViolet service originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Wall Street Journal | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | We don't think there is such a thing as Racing stripes "2.0", but if there was, this is what it might look like. Audi's "Visions" project brings the OLEDs we know and love to the outside of the not-so-humble automobile. Like something out of Tron, the fancy light array in the concept we see here hints at how external lighting on cars might look in the near future. Stephan Berlitz, Head of Lighting Electronics for the car maker, states that we're still some way out from OLED surfaces replacing front and brake lights, due to low currents and the temperature ranges the diodes can presently operate under. We might, however, see it replacing tail and side lights before too long. If you watch the video after the break, you may have a few ideas for those pseudo-screens of your own. Continue reading Audi's 'Visions' will pimp your ride, light up the neighborhood (video) Audi's 'Visions' will pimp your ride, light up the neighborhood (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink SlashGear | Euro Car News | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Not to be outdone by the Nokia 808's appearance at MWC, HTC has released sample shots taken using the ImageSense camera module that comes in its One X and One S phones. In many ways they're normal-looking stills, with nothing like PureView's 41-megapixel oversampling (which is claimed to result in a superior 5-megapixel still), and certainly no over-sized 1/1.2-inch sensor. However, if you look closely, you can see the benefits of some of HTC's improvements. Top among those is the faster f/2.0 lens, which will allow for shorter exposures and clearer moving subjects -- like the skateboarders above. Such images will also likely benefit from the 0.7-second time window for capturing an image and the 0.2-second auto-focus when shooting continuously. Whatever you make of the sample shots in the gallery below, HTC can also claim one key advantage over PureView: camera technology that still fits into a regular-sized smartphone.
HTC may not have PureView, but it does have ImageSense originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 10:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink TmoNews, AndroidandMe | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Look who just beat Nokia, ZTE and Lenovo to launching the first official Windows Phone in China? At the opening of HTC's first Chinese flagship store in Beijing yesterday (pictured after the break), Sina Tech's Zāng Zhì Yuān noticed that the company's already accepting pre-orders for the 4.7-inch Titan, which is priced at ¥4,399 or about $700 sans contract -- very much in the high-end of the market, surprisingly enough. In fact, we had already heard HTC's managers claiming to have the first Chinese Windows Phone at MWC last week, except they couldn't comment on the actual timing.
Judging by the sign above, the only noticeable difference here -- depending on your Chinese literacy -- is that the phone's dubbed Triumph locally; but additionally, HTC informed us that its first Chinese Windows Phone will be powered by WP7.5 Tango, with its Facebook and Twitter integration replaced by the likes of Sina Weibo, Tencent Weixin and SkyDrive to play the local rules. If you'll recall, such localization is very much what Nokia's Stephen Elop had confirmed in our Engadget Show interview back in November. So, any bets on who's next in line to climb over the Great Wall? Continue reading HTC Titan aka Triumph to become China's first official Windows Phone HTC Titan aka Triumph to become China's first official Windows Phone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 09:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Engadget Chinese | Zāng Zhì Yuān (Sina Weibo), HTC (Sina Weibo) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's good to see a special edition that may actually deserve its name, for once. When the silver version of the popular K-5 came out last year, it was priced at $1,700 body-only. This new kit, which will be limited to 1,500 units worldwide and available from April, will cost just $1,600 including the bundled lens. And it's decent glass: an ultra-thin, Marc Newson designed beauty with a 40mm fixed focal length and f/2.8 aperture -- just like on the mirrorless K-01. The only thing missing? There's no sign of a "Limited Edition" stamp anywhere on it, but luckily we're too modest to notice. Continue reading Pentax offers 'special edition' K-5 DSLR kit: silver body, 40mm slimline lens, $1,600 Pentax offers 'special edition' K-5 DSLR kit: silver body, 40mm slimline lens, $1,600 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink DPReview | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
