|  |  |  | | | | | Engadget | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  QR codes and RFID tags aren't uncommon when it comes to automated payment applications, and now Colorado-based ShelfX has purposed them for its new wireless-equipped Vending Fridges. Eliminating the need for a cashier -- or cash, for that matter -- each unit allows you to purchase any items packed inside by scanning a QR code with your phone (using the company's app) or an RFID badge. Upon presenting either method to the machine, it's able to tell who you are and unlocks its door. From there, you can grab whatever you'd like, while ShelfX automatically pulls funds your account for what's been removed. The system is also smart enough to know when goods are put back, so you won't have to worry about being charged while making up your mind. All of the money goes through ShelfX, allowing it to take "a small percentage" for itself before sending a monthly payment to owners. The Vending Fridge is currently on sale for $600, and a retrofitting kit for your own fridge is also available for half that amount -- no word on whether it has kid-blocking or crab-proofing options, though. You'll find more information in the press release just after the break. Continue reading ShelfX's Vending Fridge nixes the cashier, uses QR codes, RFID to 'know what you took' ShelfX's Vending Fridge nixes the cashier, uses QR codes, RFID to 'know what you took' originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  ShelfX | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Want to get from New York to Perth in under 4 hours, or maybe just head to outer space on a lark? Reaction Engines' "Skylon" mach 5 spaceplane might be your chariot -- or not. Its scheme of ingesting oxygen from the atmosphere instead of stowing it like a 50-year old modern multi-stage rocket sounds good, but the project's fate may hang on critical new tests. Failure is still a possibility, but if the high-speed, superhot gases can be cooled enough for the hybrid Sabre engines to work, and if Reaction Engines Limited can secure another round of funding, punching your space-ticket could soon be a very real possibility. Space travel coming to an airport near you? Maybe, if Skylon keeps its cool originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | BBC News | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Looks like our friends over at TMoNews have unearthed a roadmap with some tasty morsels of info about what's coming down the pipe from T-Mobile USA in the next few months. Of course, none of this is set in stone or even confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt. Most interesting is a pair of dates for Ice Cream sandwich updates, with Magenta's Galaxy S II slated to receive Android 4.0 on May 14th, followed by the Sensation 4G and Amaze 4G getting ICS (with Sense 3.6, presumably) on June 16th. A bunch of device launches from Samsung and Huawei round up the list of dates, with no sign of HTC's One X, Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S III, or T-Mobile's rumored Galaxy Note variant. Sadness. Check out the entire bounty below. - May 9th: Huawei Astor (low-end phone for 7-Eleven)
- July 11th: Huawei Buddy and Phoenix (myTouch QWERTY and slate, respectively)
- July 11th: Samsung Gravity TXT (new color)
- Aug 1st: Samsung T159 Cacao (low-end handset)
- Aug 15th: Samsung Apex Q (mystery device)
Leaked T-Mobile roadmap outlines Ice Cream Sandwich updates, new myTouch devices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | TMoNews | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Skipping on the LTE, HD IPS screen or dual-processor is usually not a recipe that will land your phone on the pages of Engadget. But, these LG-LU2700Ss are not just any unspectacular flip phone. The handset has been specially modified for use by the blind and visually impaired. The manual is printed in braille and, rather than require the constant mashing of buttons, the phone is controlled primarily through voice commands. 2,000 of the devices were given away as part of the company's donation program. Now if only they would mass produce them, LG would earn some serious cred. LG gives away 2,000 specially modified phones for the blind originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  Recombu | LG (Facebook) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  There are those in the general aviation community who think electric planes are the future for private aircraft, but regulatory hurdles are in place preventing them from proliferating in our skies. You see, current FAA requirements for light sport aircraft (LSA) -- planes that can be flown by anyone with a pilot's license -- preclude electric powerplants, and that makes such planes unavailable to most private pilots. Well, today at the CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium, FAA analyst Tom Gunnarson delivered some good news for flying EV advocates, stating that the FAA has completed its regulatory study on electric aircraft, and the rulemaking process will begin soon. Once those rules have been written, electrically-propelled aircraft will be available for use as LSA by the public, which isn't possible today given their current status as experimental craft. The bad news? Governmental wheels spin slowly, and Gunnarson said that incorporating those new rules into the current regulatory framework will take five years if we're lucky, but ten years is a more likely time frame for the FAA to finish. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for air shows or terrestrial transport to get your EV fix. FAA writing rules for electric aircraft, to allow public to fly them in the next decade originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Time Warner Cable's TWC TV streaming TV service has already arrived on iOS and Android 4.0, so what's next? According to information we've received, the next stop should be connected TV platforms, starting with the popular Roku media streaming boxes. We already got a glimpse of TWC TV on an HDTV during CES 2012 when it was being demonstrated at the Panasonic and Samsung booths, and were told at the time that it could launch on "multiple platforms" later this year. While company personnel are currently being briefed on compatibility with Roku the launch could still be some time off, as previous preparations for rollouts like streaming to PCs came months ahead. We contacted reps for the company about the plan and received a "no comment" in response, so there's nothing in the way of official word just yet. Either way, if all you want to do is ditch the bulky cable box for a diminutive hockey puck, it seems like 2012 could finally be the year.
[Thanks, Anonymous] Time Warner Cable is preparing for TWC TV IPTV streaming on Roku boxes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Collision detection for cars? Yeah, scientists are on that. But whenever we read about concepts like this, the accompanying literature is often curiously light on details pertaining to real-life driving conditions; it's often unclear how well the tech will fare if you dredge it up on a foggy day, or in the middle of torrential storm. But in that press release you seen down there, low visibility and poorly lit roads are all Panasonic wants to talk about. The company just unveiled its new crash-avoidance system, which, like other concepts we've seen, uses millimeter-wave radar technology to detect pedestrians and bicyclists. Since humans tend to reflect weaker radar signals than cars, Panasonic has designed a new pulse radar code sequence that allows pedestrians to leave a bigger footprint. It's so effective, the company claims, that it can detect bystanders up to 40 meters (131 feet) away, and will work at night and through rain, fog, snow and blinding sunlight. That all sounds promising, of course, but as with other concepts, it's not clear, when, exactly we'll see this system put to good use in the real world. Continue reading Panasonic details radar-based technology that can detect collisions in low light Panasonic details radar-based technology that can detect collisions in low light originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Want a 2.1GHz Ivy Bridge Core i7 in your next media laptop? Mmm, yes please. And a 1080p LED backlit display to devour movies on? Well, of course. Then keep looking, because the Acer Aspire V3 maxes out at just 1366 x 768 -- despite being equipped with a Blu-ray spinner and Dolby Theater v4, and also despite the eye-popping competition. Then again, at 15.6-inches that resolution might not be a total deal-breaker, plus our hands-on taster at CeBIT (before we even knew about the Ivy Bridge internals) wasn't totally unpleasant. The HD 4000 graphics should give you the odd gaming snack, even if not a full meal, while a 750GB HDD, up to 8GB RAM and a ton of I/O options take care of the back room. The V3 will hit Japanese shelves on April 29th for around $1,100 -- but watch out for a 17-incher too (which will do 1080p) plus cheaper Core i5 variants coming later. Acer Aspire V3 coming to Japan for $1,100 with right processor, wrong ppi originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Electronista | PCLaunches | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  It may not be as sleek as its S kin, or even as powerful as that mid-level U, but this recently leaked Xperia ST21i might just have enough goodies to lure a handful of you in. According to Techblog, this thick, 3.2-inch unit packs some pretty run-of-the-mill features, including an 800MHz Qualcomm chip paired with 512MB of RAM, a 3-megapixel shooter to help with those Instagram shots and a bland 640 x 480 screen res. Unlike a few of the other Xperias still waiting to be served, though, the ST21i has already been filled with a portion of Google's famous ICS. No word yet on when the pudgy device will see a legit introduction, but until then you can peek at some extra photos at the source link below. Sony Xperia ST21i with ICS leaks out, shows off its chunky physique originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Techblog | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's the Engadget Podcast, the only podcast in the multiverse that tried to change its name to "My Podcast Beat Up Your NPR's Science Friday." Host: Brian Heater, Dana Wollman, Terrence O'Brien
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Orbital - Never
00:01:44 - Reminder: Webby Award voting ends tomorrow, give the Engadget Show some love
00:02:30 - The Engadget Show 32: ASUS, Huawei and a trip to Asia's gadget markets
00:05:00 - Google Drive official: 5GB of free storage, Chrome web apps, Wave-like sharing and editing (video)
00:18:33 - Apple's WWDC hitting San Francisco on June 11th
00:23:22 - Apple Q2 2012 earnings: $39.2 billion in revenue, net profit of $11.6 billion
00:28:10 - ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 review
00:35:00 - Tim Cook: Apple focusing more on iPad for enterprise
00:37:09 - Nintendo posts first annual loss of $460 million, predicts turnaround next year
00:38:45 - Nintendo confirms that it's selling 3DS at a loss, expects that to change
00:43:15 - Facebook updates S-1, adds Q1 earnings, revenue up 45% over last year
00:46:48 - Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight review
00:52:45 - DIY Cellphone has the footprint of an ice cream sandwich, definitely doesn't run ICS (hands-on)
00:58:00 - Star Wars Arcade gets fan-made mini-me, weeps tears of joy (video)
01:00:00 - Listener questions
Hear the podcast
Subscribe to the podcast [ iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC). [ RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [ RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator. [ Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace. Filed under: Podcasts Engadget Podcast 291 - 04.27.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Quick quiz: which consumes more power, an "energy-efficient" 55-inch LED TV, or the 90-foot "Patterned by Nature" video installation at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences? It's actually a trick question, because the sculpture does eat less power -- just 75 watts -- but then it only has a fraction of the TV's pixels. Each of its 3600 "dots" is in fact a 6-inch glass pane which can vary its transparency, a decidedly more lo-fi approach than similar tech we've seen before, but no less arresting as a result. As the video shows, it combines an eight channel soundtrack with twenty Mario-like animations on its serpentine skin -- ranging from bacteria to flocking geese -- to bring mother nature to the viewer without sapping her energy. Patterned by Nature: it's big, blocky and earth-approved (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink The Verge | Prosthetic Knowledge | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Around these parts, we're generally suckers for all things related to racing simulators. As such, we're excited to learn that Fanatec has unveiled its next generation of the Clubsport pedals that we reviewed over a year ago. Dubbed as the Clubsport pedals V2, the company refers to the peripheral as an "evolutionary" update to original, offering a trio of improvements. The clutch has been re-tooled to have a "regressive feel" that's said to be similar to a real automobile, while the brake is now of the hydraulic variety, featuring user replaceable synthetic oil -- naturally, it still has an adjustable spring and load cell pressure sensor for the utmost customizability. The final touch is merely some visual spice in the way of black anodization. Notably, there won't be any tuning kit available initially, and V1 owners might be disappointed to know that the company has opted not to offer an upgrade kit, citing costs and potentially complicated installation. Fanatec is aiming to have the Clubsport pedals V2 out by June, bundled alongside its Clubsport wheel, with pricing set at $250 for the US (€250 in the UK). Pre-orders won't begin until May, so in the meantime, shift over to the source link below and the video past the break for all the details. Continue reading Fanatec's Clubsport pedals V2 bring improved brake and clutch feel to the virtual speedway (video) Fanatec's Clubsport pedals V2 bring improved brake and clutch feel to the virtual speedway (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | The 911 Wheel Club | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  On the list of nerd pastimes, miniaturization ranks pretty high. So, we're not exactly surprised to see a tiny N64 controller, but we're kind of amazed that this rather extreme hack managed to avoid detection since January. The itty bitty controller isn't a mod, but an original construction built around a PIC microcontroller. You might notice that the yellow C buttons are absent, instead Kirren (the creator) went with a tiny four way switch, which you'll see above the blue and green A and B buttons. The design skips the L key, but you'll find R and Z on the rear face. For a short clip of it in action head on after the break and, if you want to build one yourself, hit up the source. Continue reading Tiny N64 controller guaranteed to cause serious crampage Tiny N64 controller guaranteed to cause serious crampage originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Hack a Day | Micro-64-controller | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Solar cells are becoming more viable sources of energy -- and as they become more efficient, they're only getting smaller and cheaper to produce. Liquid nanocrystal cells are traditionally inefficient at converting sunlight into electricity, but by adding a synthetic ligand to help transmit currents, researchers at USC have improved their effectiveness. The advantage of these liquid solar cells? They're cheaper than single-crystal silicon wafer solutions, and they're also a shockingly minuscule four nanometers in size, meaning more than 250 billion could fit on the head of a pin. Moreover, they can be printed onto surfaces -- even plastic -- without melting. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to pave the way for ultra-flexible solar panels. However, the scientists are still experimenting with materials for constructing the nanocrystals, since the semiconductor cadmium selenide they've used thus far is too toxic for commercial use. USC develops printable liquid solar cells for flexible, low-cost panels originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | USC | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Different strokes for different folks. While Darren may have long since sworn off tablets as productivity machines, our very own Billy Steele (a designer by trade, don'tcha know) has been using one to workshop projects with clients. For Darren, anyway, productivity means having a laptop with a discrete GPU at the ready -- except for when the GPU drains his battery life, which is where an app called gfxCardStatus comes in. Rounding things out, we've got Jason Hidalgo talking up the different ways he's attempted to charge his needy PS3 controllers. All that and more after the break. Continue reading IRL: gfxCardStatus, Nyko Charge Base 3 for PS3 and the OG iPad IRL: gfxCardStatus, Nyko Charge Base 3 for PS3 and the OG iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  This one is still very much unconfirmed, but a "trusted source" recently provided Neowin.net with the image you see above, which purports to be a mockup of a forthcoming business-minded tablet from HP dubbed the Slate 8. That's obviously a Windows 8 tablet and, if the details are to be believed, you can expect a 10.1-inch display, eight to ten hours of battery life, optional pen-based input, a docking station of some sort, an outdoor viewing option and a number of business-friendly security measures -- all in a package that's 9.2mm thick about 1.5 pounds. Adding some weight to leak is ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, who hasn't been able to confirm it outright, but says that after a bit of investigation she is "inclined to believe this is a real mock-up and is part of HP's line up of business desktops and laptops it will be touting this year." Business-minded HP 'Slate 8' tablet surfaces in leaked image originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Neowin.net | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Hear any mention of retro-styled cameras with exorbitant price tags and it's hard not to get suspicious. That kind of talk brings to mind Leica's incessant re-branding of Panasonic Lumix models, or those unicorn limited editions out of Japan that just leave us baffled. But it's okay, you can relax with the Fujifilm X-Pro1. At $1,700 for the body only it's crazily expensive, sure, but not when you compare to an $8,000 Leica M9-P. Besides, it's a legitimate heir to a strong line of Fuji shooters that includes the much-loved X100 and the more accessible X10. That's a strong pedigree, and no matter how deeply you peer into its mirrorless aperture, the X-Pro1 should offer up enough technology to stop you being cynical. Like what, you ask? Well, a genuinely surprising bespoke 16-megapixel APS-C sensor, for starters, plus a hybrid viewfinder designed to keep everyone happy all of the time, and a Fuji X lens mount that already has a Leica M9 adapter available (plus others, like Nikon, if you scan eBay). It all adds up to something special, but before you go tweeting this article to whimsical rich uncles, there are also some complicating factors you ought to be aware of. Even in a utopian paradise where everyone could afford this sip of photographic luxury, it's far from certain whether everyone would choose it over other interchangeable lens cameras. Read on past the break and we'll explain why. Continue reading Fujifilm X-Pro1 mirrorless camera review Fujifilm X-Pro1 mirrorless camera review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  All eyes are on Nintendo, now that it has revealed losses of $460 million. Buried in all of the financial paperwork were the revelations that it sells the 3DS at a loss, its plans for digital distribution and its projected sales figures for this year. It aims to flog 18.5 million 3DS handhelds and 10.5 million Wii consoles by March 31st 2013. But wait, what about the Wii U? That figure actually encompasses both old and new hardware, so it is either hoping for a sharp fall in Wii sales or a tough opening for the new baby. It's a bold pair of figures that relies upon how well New Super Mario Bros 2, Animal Crossing and the new hardware capture the public's imagination in a time when people are tightening their belts (especially if they've been using Wii Fit). Continue reading Nintendo aims to flog 18 million 3DS, up to 10.5 million home consoles this fiscal year Nintendo aims to flog 18 million 3DS, up to 10.5 million home consoles this fiscal year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Joystiq, Joystiq | Nintendo, (2) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Aside from a brief video ad to show off its own motion-capture chops, it's gone a little quiet on Nokia's 808 PureView. The imposing 41-megapixel cameraphone, or phone-camera, is Nokia's latest Symbian device so why not run it (almost) side-by-side with the Nokia N8? The screen looks substantially more impressive on the 808 PureView, which is 0.5 inches larger than its older relative, but that brighter showing probably has more to do with the new phone's placement center-stage in exx10sive's hands-on video. Arguably Nokia's last Symbian big-hitter, the 808 PureView seems far more responsive to touch; apps appear to launch almost immediately, while the Belle UI also seems better suited to the newer device, with larger menu text and icons in view. The camera app has also been given a more modern flavor, in line with other smartphone camera UIs. A full-fat eight-minute comparison lies in wait after the break. Hopefully, those hints at a May launch will hold true -- we're waiting for the camera, not the Symbian. Continue reading Nokia 808 Pureview goes up against Nokia N8, should probably pick on someone its own age (video) Nokia 808 Pureview goes up against Nokia N8, should probably pick on someone its own age (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink MyNokiaBlog | Exx10sive (Youtube) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Ah, yes. The end of the week is upon us. Of course, this means that the latest installment of our tablet publication has arrived. Stepping up to the plate this time around, Brian Heater takes a look inside LASR, the Navy's Robotics Lab, and Richard Lai chats with MSI's Jeans Huang. After a strong debut last week, Ludwig Kietzmann is back with Reaction Time and his take on Journey. Our brand spankin' new hands-on section looks back at Spotify's Android preview, Alexandre Herchovitch's HP Pavilion DM1, MIT's Arduino-powered DrumTop and Google Drive. We spend some quality time with the T-Mobile HTC One S, LG Viper, ASUS TF300 and MSI GT70 while Switched On tackles Kickstarter project funding. Looking for something more? IRL reveals our personal gadget stash, the Stat takes a look at tech jobs, Tapbots co-creator Mark Jardine handles the Q&A and Box Brown offers the Last Word on Facebook's recent purchase. Go ahead and hit your favorite link below to snag your copy of this week's e-magazine. Distro Issue 38 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro APK (For sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter Distro Issue 38: a peek at the Navy's Robotics Laboratory and an interview with MSI's Jeans Huang originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | iTunes, Google Play | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Zerg Rush is Google's latest easter egg and it's admittedly a little late for the holiday itself. Search for the term (it's a Starcraft 2 thing), and you'll be welcomed by a point-and-shoot mini-game where your enemy is an infinite number of color-coded, marauding o's. These will proceed to decimate your search results, which is currently a bizarre meta view of people explaining the game's existence. Get your trigger finger ready -- the internet needs you. (You also can publish your final score with pride on Google Plus.) [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Google Zerg Rush: That was an order, soldier originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Zerg Rush | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  JFK may be a place that many, many people have gone to before, but it's safe to say that the Space Shuttle Enterprise will be going there boldly. Much like the Space Shuttle Discovery turned heads in DC last week, Space Shuttle Enterprise will be stopping traffic in New York City today. NASA has confirmed that today's 747-100 ferry flight across Manhattan is a "Go" and that the duo will "fly at a relatively low altitude over various parts of the New York City metropolitan area on Friday" before landing at JFK. The Shuttle will then, in the coming weeks, be put on a ferry of a floating variety and brought to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Today's flying tour is scheduled to take place between 9:30 and 11:30 am and... oh look, at the time, we must be going. PSA: Space Shuttle Enterprise flying over NYC this morning originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | NASA | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  We thought the 8K 85-inch Super Hi-Vision LCD we saw during CES was impressive, but Japanese broadcaster NHK is already looking to surpass that by going even bigger. To that end it worked with Panasonic (above: that's Panasonic's Keishi Kubota on the left, Yoshio Ito of NHK on the right) to create this 145-inch prototype plasma, unveiled today as an example of the kind of displays we can expect to see once broadcasts jump to the higher resolution some day. The world's first self-illuminating Super Hi-Vision TV, it features every pixel of its expected 8K resolution -- 7,680 x 4,320. After working for months on smaller (only 85- or 103-inch) 4K plasmas, the two companies had to come up with an entirely new drive method for the display that works by scanning the pixels vertically to achieve a uniform picture quality. The NHK plans to show off the new display at its open house in May, although we're a bit more interested to see if we can watch the Olympics on it this summer. Check the gallery below for a few more pictures from DigInfo.TV's Don Kennedy, or hit the more coverage link for a breakdown of the difficulties encountered in building a high resolution display that's this massive.
[Image Credit: Don Kennedy, DigInfo.TV] Panasonic teams up with NHK on 145-inch 8K Super Hi-Vision plasma TV originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Panasonic Japan | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  While there are already vague Android update plans for Verizon-connected Samsung devices, a leaked screen from somewhere within the Big Red bunker has offered up some more details. It looks like the Rezound, Droid RAZR and RAZR Maxx are closest to the upgrade finish-line with testing likely to finish by May 7th for the HTC model and May 17th for the Motorola duo. According to Droid Life, Verizon's Motorola Xoom (you know, the Android tablet) is getting its update direct from Google, but it hasn't been deigned worthy of a concrete release date. A handful of software updates are also pegged for the likes of the Bionic, Thunderbolt, Revolution, Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Xperia Play, but they look likely to be more incremental than outright OS upgrades. For those interested in some new firmware numbers, we've included those update details after the break. Continue reading Verizon ICS update schedule leaks: Rezound, RAZR and Xoom being tested now Verizon ICS update schedule leaks: Rezound, RAZR and Xoom being tested now originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Droid Life | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Fujitsu Laboratories has developed technology that will let any phone grab pictures and video with some of that third-dimension spice. Using a small attachment with cleverly positioned mirrors, the widget sits atop your phone's plain old 2D camera and breaks the incoming image into two. Once the data has been grabbed, you then send it off to Fujitsu's servers, whereupon it'll be converted into a 3D format. This isn't the first 2D-to-3D idea, but the main advantage, of course, is that your poor phone doesn't have to do all the leg-work -- but it undoubtedly comes at the expense of some quality. The gadget will get properly announced at the IEEE ISCE conference in Harrisburg on June the 4th along with pricing and availability. In the meantime you can step into the Japanese dimension -- i.e. the press release -- below for more info. Fujitsu Laboratories wants to take your mobile's 2D videos to another dimension originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Fujitsu (Japanese) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Dropbox isn't short of aficionados, but it's undoubtedly lost some of its gleam since Google drove the cloud war into a frenzy. In response, Dropbox's devs have been at the squat rack pumping up their multimedia credentials, recently adding auto photo and video uploads to their Android app and now extending that feature to any camera, tablet, smartphone or SD card via the Mac or Windows utility -- an add-on that was previously beta-only. Access the web interface and you'll see your stills arranged in a handy new Photos page, which displays them as large thumbnails bunched together by month. There's a blunter enticement too: your first auto upload will secure 500MB in extra storage, with subsequent efforts also rewarded up to 3GB. Perhaps that cardboard isn't looking so soggy after all. Dropbox adds automatic photo uploads for Windows and Mac, up to 3GB just for using it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink VentureBeat | Dropbox | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Okay, so maybe physical keyboards were a bigger deal back in 2010 when this thing was filed, or maybe -- just maybe -- we'll one day see an Xperia Play smartphone with both a gamepad and a full QWERTY counterpart. A patent for such a contraption was just granted to Sony by the USPTO, which stakes its claim for a device with two sliding mechanisms in addition to the display. When the primary sliding mechanism is engaged, the second will come along for the ride -- and for those curious, it seems the default option is the keyboard. Once both are open, the sliding units may be disengaged from one another, so that when one of the units retracts, the other will remain accessible. It all sounds quite feasible, and if the mechanism works well enough, what's a few extra millimeters among friends? Sony patent suggests Xperia Play with dual keyboards, it's slidingly slidable originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | USPTO | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Google fellow, founder of Project X and self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun became the latest to publicly rock a Project Glass prototype (after company co-founder Sergey Brin) on a recent episode of Charlie Rose, and managed to show off a whole new side of the project in the process. While the 19-minute interview was mostly unremarkable product-wise with a focus on higher education and his Udacity project, we did get to see him take a picture of the host (about a minute in) by tapping it, then posting it on Google+ by nodding twice. Also, as Electronista points out, in a brief reverse shot (17:20) of Thrun we see for the first time what appears to be a small battery pack / transmitter portion lodged behind his ear. Of course, we're still not any closer to rocking the latest in bionic man-chic ourselves, but at least we can start getting fitted for one now. Project Glass makes a TV appearance on Charlie Rose, flashes its rear for the cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Charlie Rose, Sebastian Thrun (Google+) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Halo may have made its way to the Atari 2600, but wouldn't porting a retro game to this '70s-era console be more appropriate? MAKE Magazine has the skinny on former Atari dev Scott Williamson's port of the Cinematronics shooter Star Castle. Though Atari execs decided the title was too complicated to bring over in the '80s, Williamson took it upon himself to make that transition possible. The result of some serious coding is 8K of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM's worth of good ol' space war. But he didn't stop there -- he redesigned the cartridge with a transparent casing and LEDs that flash during gameplay. Click through to the source link for the full step-by-step. Star Castle finally finds a home on the Atari 2600, gets a redesigned cartridge originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink MAKE Magazine | Star Castle 2600 | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  If you're prone to hitting the road in a trailer or camper, you probably know that the road isn't exactly made to accommodate to your less-than-dainty vehicle. In a bid to express its deepest sympathies (and, you know, make money), TomTom is unveiling a device made specifically for caravan owners. In addition to offering the standard TomTom Live features for keeping up to date with traffic and weather reports, the Go Live Camper and Caravan includes warnings for narrow roads, low bridges and the like, and it also highlights the nearest rest stops and other points of interest for road trippers. And because you probably trade in that motorhome for a smaller set of wheels on occasion, TomTom lets you switch to a different profile, complete with customizable specifications for size, weight and speed. The Go Live Camper and Caravan will set you back £349.99, and as the price indicates, it's currently only set up to handle roads across the pond. TomTom's new sat nav: perfect for your van down by the river originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Pocket Lint | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Leave it to photography buffs to leak product shots that are decidedly unblurry, if poorly framed. Dpreview forum goer Bibogue outed a sneak peek at the Sony NEX-F3, a mirrorless shooter that seems to be poised to replace the NEX-C3. The leaked picture appears to reveal a 16.1 megapixel sensor, a built in flash and a 180-degree tilting screen, and Bibogue says the unit sports a new peaking level feature to help fine-tune manually focused shots. The new unit seems to retain its predecessor's proprietary accessory connector as well, so prospective buyers should choose their peripherals wisely.
[Thanks, Sjoer] First image of Sony NEX-F3 leaked, outs 16.1 MP sensor originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Dpreview | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
