Nikon's geotagging GP-1 dongle now available

When we asked how you'd change Nikon's 720p-recording D90 DSLR, many of you globe-trotting photogs let out wistful sighs, gazed at the brightest star, and wished with all your might for automatic geotagging of photos. Like some trickster genie, Nikon is granting your wishes, but we're not sure the GP-1 GPS add-on is exactly what you had in mind. It slots into the hot-shoe on most cameras (clipping onto the strap for a few) and uses an unwieldy looking cable to connect to the body of your D200, D3, D700, D90, D300, or D3X. We can't say that we're particularly fond of the device's means of indicating status, either: red blinky light = no satellites; green blinky = three satellites; green solid = four satellites or more. C'mon Nikon, for $240 you couldn't integrate that cable into a hand strap and put more than two LEDs up in there?

[Via Gadget Lab]

engadget.com

Bel Canto's USB Link 24/96 converts USB audio to S/PDIF

Wait just a second there, vaquero. We know you're invigorated, but you should probably attempt to digest the price tag here before blowing a gasket in excitement. Bel Canto -- not known for trickling out low-end gear -- has just introduced the $495 USB Link 24/96, which presumably does an impeccable job at converting high quality USB audio (up to 24-bits and 96kHz) to S/PDIF via a single 75-ohm BNC cable. The unit works natively in both Windows and OS X, comes bundled with a Stereovox XV2 BNC / BNC S/PDIF cable (with RCA adapter) and gets all the juice it needs from your powered USB socket. Now, if only five unclaimed bills weren't so difficult to obtain...

engadget.com

Emotiv's Epoc mind-controlled device delayed till next year

Not so long ago, in the cold, frosty month of February, we heard about mysterious headgear (an update of Project Epoc) that, if worn, could be used to do stuff like play insanely simple video games (emphasis on insanely). We also heard that this USB unicorn of the gaming universe would be ready by "Christmas" -- whatever that is. Well, according to Big Download, who spoke with a PR rep from Emotiv, the device has been delayed until "sometime" in 2009. The reason for the delay? The company wants to "make sure" the device works "as planned." Glad to hear it -- since we weren't interested in it as a fashion statement alone.

engadget.com

Meizu M8 reviewed, worth the wait?

Can you believe it? It's been over two years since we first got wind of what would become Meizu's high-end iPhone clone, the M8. Okay, we admit to being somewhat dubious at first, and won't be entirely won over until we get one to play with, but just a few days away from its Chinese release the handset seems to live up to its promises according to IT168's full review. Other than a few faults, including an "ear-piercing" integrated speaker and issues running third-party Windows CE applications, things sound surprisingly good. The 480 x 720 3.4-inch screen received high marks, performance was rated as very speedy, and the integrated 3 megapixel camera looks to be able to take great looking pics -- assuming you turn a few lights on. It does sound like a solid device, but is it a proper iPhone competitor? In China, where the iPhone still isn't officially available, we wonder if it isn't the iPhone that's the underdog now (cue raised eyebrow).

engadget.com

VideoMan Rig Turns You Into the Most Annoying Guy Around Instantly

In theory, the VideoMan suit is designed to allow you to create public protest art on the go. In practice, it'll get you beat up and robbed of all the fancy gear you have strapped to your back.

The rig consists of a video camera, projector, large portable battery pack, power inverters, amplifiers and other noise generators. It looks supremely annoying to wear and even more annoying to be subjected to. I don't know, but something about this thing rubs me the wrong way. Like, who says what you have to say is so important that you have the right to annoy everyone around you with what I can only assume are mediocre art videos with vague, uninformed politics behind them? Stick to message boards, please. [Fernando Llanos via Make]

gizmodo.com

Atheros lets open source devs in on the WiFi party

In a move that will undoubtedly increase its street cred among technophiles and tinkerers alike, Atheros announced that it's releasing the specs to allow open source drivers for its ATH5K and ATH9K chip families. The move comes after Atheros first released some open source drivers for newer 802.11n chipsets and now the company is finally opening up its HAL (hardware abstraction layer) to developers, even using Linux as the reference public code base. No word on when any of this stuff will be released, but rest assured, we'll be on the lookout for more info -- we're sure the hackers out there are champing at the bit.

engadget.com

Xbox 360 Outsells PS3 3:1 on Black Friday

Each passing holiday season has become a critical, missed chance for Sony to catch up with the Xbox 360, and it's starting to become silly to say "maybe next year."

According to Microsoft reported retailer data, the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 3:1 in the US on Black Friday. Needless to say, aside from sales on that particular day, it's probably an indicator of complete 2008 holiday sales for these two competitors.

Of course, the notably absent data was regarding the Nintendo Wii's sales on Black Friday. But our guess is that if Microsoft toppled that giant, even for a day, they would have mentioned it (at the top of their lungs from the tallest mountain they could find). [Kotaku]

gizmodo.com

MacBook Air Rev. B mini-review

We've spent a bit of quality time with the new MacBook Air, and while there's little on the surface to denote a change, Apple did quite a bit under the hood to turn this into a serious laptop -- of sorts. Full disclosure: we (meaning a certain Paul Miller, specifically) have been using a Rev. A MacBook Air for the better part of a year as a primary machine, to very much frustration, so we had some pretty big bones to pick with whatever revision Apple might toss into our laps. Luckily, our fears were unfounded; read on for all the gory, romantic details.

[Images courtesy of Sam]

Caveats
So, before you get the wrong idea, you might want to read the MacBook Air review we did the first time around: almost all those caveats still stand. There's still one measly USB port, no FireWire, no Ethernet, a non-standard display plug (mini-DisplayPort instead of the equally obscure micro-DVI) a non-replaceable battery, an external-only disc drive with some odd power requirements and no internal 3G option or ExpressCard slot -- this is still a far cry from your standard, "full featured" laptop. Still, there's something about the MacBook Air, especially as a daily machine, that really shines through -- it's just so dang thin and light that you end up taking it everywhere and using it anywhere, and its shape is perfectly suited for slipping into a messenger bag almost unnoticed. It's the sort of portability that lends itself to lounging around the house, or boosting Starbucks cred, and it's a testament to that form factor that we've put up with the incredibly sluggish and fickle Rev. A for so long.

What's changed is that the frustratingly, mind-numbingly slow internals have been almost entirely chucked, to be replaced by a real grown-up processor, great NVIDIA integrated graphics, faster memory and a faster system bus for a dramatic speed boost -- Apple calls it 4x faster, and we can't really argue with that.

The dark ages...
We could comb over specs all we want, but what's really telling is usage scenarios. The primary problem with the original Air is that when put under strain -- especially video card-related strain -- it'd overheat to a point that it would shut down or at least severely throttle its weakling processor cores. At the start this led to completely-unacceptable stop-start freezing as the computer choked under even mild strain, but after a few firmware updates Apple got things down to just kind-of-unnacceptable -- though never managed to do as good a job of throttling and undervolting the processor as a certain 3rd party utility.

In daily use this usually meant that by your third or fourth YouTube video you were getting stuttered playback, and a bit more strain would result in slowdowns system-wide. Hulu or iTunes TV shows could rarely keep things going strong for more than five minutes, 3D games (even World of Warcraft dialed way back in quality) were out of the question and even significantly glitchy. Things would get exponentially worse if you were using the laptop away from a cold, hard surface, and instead plugged up the vents by using it on your -- gasp -- lap. Plugging into an external monitor was a particularly effective recipe for slowing the machine down to the point of unsuitability, and a day with the Air was a constant struggle to keep the right balance of tasks and locale to keep the temperature under crisis levels.

A coming dawn...
With Rev. B? Not so much. In fact, we've only managed to get the computer to stutter once, doing some particularly hefty HD flash video, after running on our lap (and destroying our reproductive chances) for the past hour or two. This also opens the laptop up to new possibilities like light iMovie editing -- out of the question with the original -- decent Garage Band multitracking, or a quick jaunt across Azeroth. Boot times are incredibly snappy (we're testing the SSD version, don't hate us), and the computer is generally a joy to use.

Since we're crazy enough to rarely use Ethernet, physical media or multiple USB peripherals, our two biggest remaining drawbacks are the fixed battery and the lack of internal 3G. With a shrinking chip and plenty of hollow aluminum, we're sure Apple could squeeze in some 3G if it tried, and it'd save us from using up that single USB plug so frequently with a horrifically awkward dongle affair. The battery is perhaps more serious. We'd say the average battery life with mild use -- about three hours, very much on par with the previous version -- is plenty acceptable, but for a laptop that so encourages portability, the inability to replace the battery means you can never be more than three hours away from an outlet, less if you want cellular internet. Lenovo, Voodoo and just about everyone else has figured this out, Apple needs to step up on both fronts if it really wants to get taken seriously by true road warriors, instead of some namby pamby bloggers (Paul Miller) looking to save their backs as they make the daily ten yard trek to the coffee shop -- or to the couch, if the weather's no good.

Wrap-up
Overall, we'd say we highly recommend the MacBook Air to that particular sort of person who can deal with all the remaining caveats, but we really wish Apple had gotten some of this overheating stuff under control the first time around -- and that the firmware updates and compassionate Genius Bar shoulder shrugs wouldn't halt just because there's a new, trouble-free revision making the rounds.

engadget.com

Laptop Cooler Features Slot-Loading Hard Drive Dock

One look at this conglomeration and you pretty much know it's from Brando. Their latest clunky tech masterpiece is officially named a USB Notebook Cooling Pad + 3-Port Hub + 2.5" HDD.

At its core, the system is a dual-fan USB-powered laptop cooler with extra USB ports. Enter Brando, and this simple device gets injected with a rear-loaded 2.5" SATA hard drive dock to add extra storage. It's hard to believe that the average laptop USB port can power two fans, a SATA drive and three additional USB devices, but it looks like there's AC power to back up the system (the product description was a bit light on this point).

The USB Notebook Cooling Pad + 3-Port Hub + 2.5" HDD is available now for $33. Live it up. [Brando]

gizmodo.com

AMD Phenom II CPU roadmap foreshadows potent Spring

Not that AMD's being overly secretive about its forthcoming Phenom II processor, but it hasn't exactly been forthcoming with model names / estimated ship dates, either. And that folks, is why we look to leaks. A recent writeup over on Chinese site HKEPC details the impending chip family by listing over a dozen new CPUs (including two Phenom II X3s and seven Phenom II X4s) that are destined to be announced between CES and June 2009. Not surprisingly, some of the model names aren't -- shall we way, completely original -- with the 3GHz Phenom II X4 940 and 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 920 sharing eerily similar naming schemes with Intel's fresh Core i7. Of course, we're not sticklers for silly things like that -- we just want to see a few slabs of silicon get out the door on time. Is that really too much to ask, AMD?

[Via CNET]

engadget.com

New 400GB Optical Disc Readable in Blu-Ray Players, Pioneer Says

If true, I love this: According to Pioneer, this 16-layer 400GB optical disc can be read in any normal Blu-ray player. And it's only the beginning, because they have planned 1TB for 2013.

The technology of the super multi-layer read-only disc is based on Blu-ray Disc (BD) with a breakthrough in material of reflective layers, according to Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan. The specifications of the pick-up head (PUH) of the disc is the same as those for the PUH of blank BD discs, and therefore the Pioneer discs can be read on BD players.

How is this possible, you ask? I don't know for sure. In theory, it may be compatible, since they both use 405 nanometer heads, but then again, the track pitch is different (10 and 14 nanometer in the Pioneer super-disc versus 25 nanometer in a Blu-ray disc). But Pioneer seems pretty adamant about it in their statement. Maybe existing Blu-ray players would only need a firmware update? We will have to wait and see when it's released during the next year. [Digitimes]

gizmodo.com

Obama Looking for Ways to Hold onto His Blackberry

It looks like President-Elect Obama isn't going to give up his beloved BlackBerry this January without some sort of fight. In an interview with Barbara Walters, he revealed that he was working to find a solution to that whole surrender-your-cellphones-and-email-accounts at the door policy.

"One of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation, the bubble that exists around the president," Obama said. "And I'm in the process of negotiating with the Secret Service, with lawyers, with White House staff ... to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House. Because one of the worst things I think that can happen to a president is losing touch with the struggles that people are going through every day."

Interesting spin! Never knew the BlackBerry provided a way to get in touch with the common folk that newspapers and say... a White House blog or something... don't. Still, all the luck to Obama and his changing the Presidential Records Act to be more tech-savvy. I wasn't that convinced open official correspondence and using BlackBerries were mutually exclusive in the first place. [Gearlog]

gizmodo.com

Intel VP says netbook are "fine for an hour"

Intel's never made a secret of the fact that it developed the now-ubiquitous Atom chipset primarily for mobile devices and low-powered netbooks for at emerging markets, so it's not totally surprising to hear Intel sales VP Stu Pann say the company doesn't see netbooks as potentially cannibalizing sales of its existing processors -- but we are a bit intrigued by his seeming dismissal of netbooks as everyday machines. According to Stu, a netbook with a 10-inch screen is "fine for an hour. It's not something you're going to use day in and day out." That's probably true, of course, but it's harsher language than we've heard from Intel in the past -- and it's more or less in line with AMD's recent decision to ignore netbooks entirely in favor of more capable machines "above that form factor." Of course, Intel execs can pretty much say whatever they want as long as the company is basically the only player in the netbook game, but we think a lot of people actually are willing to use a netbook as their primary machine, especially in this economy. Could you handle a netbook as your daily driver? The comment box awaits.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

engadget.com

PS3, Wii users get Psyclone TouchCharge pads, too

We caught sight of Psyclone's WildCharger-based TouchCharge kit for the Xbox 360 a few weeks ago but, in case you missed it, the company is also offering similar kits for the PlayStation 3 and Wii. At $49.99 the PS3 version is actually the cheapest of the lot, due to the fact that it's able to use the controller's own rechargeable battery, while the $59.99 Wii version and $69.99 Xbox 360 version each include some rechargeable batteries of their own courtesy of Psyclone. The charging pads themselves are, of course, interchangeable, and you can even charge more than one device on a single pad, although finding the necessary controller adapters separately seems to be another matter.

[Via The Gadgets Weblog]

engadget.com

Earth Trek offers up VGA webcam with 2-port USB hub

It's not often that you find a webcam that's multifaceted, but Earth Trek's webcam is just that. Dubbed the "hottest webcam" this world has ever seen (um, no), this unit packs a 1.3-megapixel camera, VGA capture abilities, auto focus / auto brightness and the real kicker, a 2-port USB hub. Probably still a ripoff at $45, but if you need those extra peripheral ports bad enough, who knows what you'd be willing to do.

[Via Pocket-lint]

engadget.com

Medion launches 5-inch GoPal P5430 GPS in Europe

It's been a nice little while since we've seen any new navigators from Medion, but the outfit's hitting back with its relatively forgettable GoPal P5430. The European PND sports a 5-inch touchscreen display, integrated TMC antenna, fingerprint sensor, text-to-speech functionality, an inbuilt FM transmitter and pre-installed NAVTEQ maps of Western and Eastern Europe. Like we said, forgettable -- but you should know it's priced at £175 ($269) just in case you're tempted.

[Via NaviGadget]

engadget.com

T-Mobile G1 Now Out In White

In case black just isn't your gadget spirit color, T-Mobile has now released a white version of its Googlephone, the G1. The white G1 will cost the same $180 with a two-year contract as its black (and bronze) counterpart(s), and is available both online and in stores. I might be in a minority opinion here, but I like it! I'll admit that one of the reasons I was hemming and hawing on getting the G1 to begin with was because I thought it looked like a big clunky brick. Now that it's received a more pearly polish, which incidentally matches half the other gadgets I have, I might consider picking one up. [Cnet]

gizmodo.com

Porsche P'9522 Cellphone Lacks 3G, Has GPS For Navigating Your Porsche

Porsche has kicked out cellphones before: but none so capable as the upcoming P'9522. It's a butch but sweetly-minimal design flip phone, with a rotating screen, and it's just got its FCC pass so it should be on the way here soon. Among its many features, it sadly lacks 3G connectivity, but the rest—including on-board GPS—almost make up for that.

• Quad-band GSM, with GPRS and EDGE
• 2.8-inch touchscreen display, 400 x 240 pixels
• 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash
• Internal GPS
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Media player functions
• FM radio
• 2GB memory card included in the package
• Talk time: up to 240 minutes
• Stand by time: up to 300 hours
• 115 grams
• 112 x 49 x 12 mmOh, and it does have a fingerprint sensor aboard too, so you can protect your data in the case of casual theft. All that tech, design and the Porsche name means it carries a bigish price, though: somewhere between $750 to $800, apparently. Still, if you can afford a "real" Porsche, this is just a drop in the ocean, right? [Unwiredview via Navigadget]

engadget.com

Nintendo plays dress up with two new DS Lite bundles, DSi mocks from afar

If you haven't succumbed to the DS Lite's embrace by now, we're not sure this pair of bundles will do the trick, and if you already have a DS Lite in your posse you're probably waiting impatiently for the DSi to traipse on over Stateside. Still, we can't begrudge Nintendo's God-given right to bundle, and this Ice Blue Brain Age set (with custom carrying case!) and Mario Red New Super Mario Bros set (pictured, with emblazoned "M" logo!) aren't exactly unattractive. Both are being released this Friday -- that Friday -- for $150. The Brain Age bundle is pictured after the break.

gizmodo.com

10-inch Acer Aspire One Arriving Next Year

As of right now, the Aspire One netbook includes an 8.9-inch screen. But Acer has announced plans to release a 10-inch version by either February or March 2009. Yes, that's right in time for everyone to have purchased the original Aspire One for the holidays. It's still unclear as to whether or not the upcoming model will be shipped straight to the States and, if it does, whether or not we'll see an integrated 3G chip as is the trend in Taiwan. [DigiTimes]

gizmodo.com

RED's Digital Still and Motion Camera System now official

After a morning of drip-fed images, RED just went official with its DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) System. The system starts with your choice of the professional Scarlet or "master professional" EPIC brains which can then be bunged into about 2,251,799,813,685,248 possible camera configurations, RED only half-jokingly chides. The brains are built upon Mysterium-X and Mysterium Monstro sensors which start at 2/3-inch and end at a whopping 6x17-cm -- when a new sensor comes out you just upgrade the brain. Scarlet will launch in 4 choices ranging from $2,500 (and possibly less) to $12,000 with a variety of lens mounts (yes, Canon and Nikon) capable of shooting 3K @120fps on up to 6K @30fps. Epic will offer similar mounts with capabilities spanning 5K @100fps ($28k) to 9K @50fps ($45k) -- a 28K system hitting 25fps is expected in 2010 for $55k. Still image resolutions will range from 4.9 megapixels to a freakish 261 megapixels. The first Scarlet systems could come as early as Spring of 2009 while EPIC should arrive by summer. Of course, the brain is just the beginning of the costs. RED also introduced a 3D camera configuration today in true, "one more thing" fashion. See all the details in the gallery below, 3D camera after the break.

engadget.com

HTC MAX 4G officially announced, world's first GSM / WiMAX phone

Hey Sprint, you listening? Granted, GSM doesn't do Sprint a whole lot of good in the States, but swapping a CDMA radio into HTC's first WiMAX effort here would make for a downright mighty response to the Touch HD. The previously-seen T8920 has turned out to be the MAX 4G, an 800 x 480 monster with 8GB of Flash on board, two cameras, an FM radio, GPS, WiFi, triband EDGE, and -- most importantly -- WiMAX support, making it the first GSM / WiMAX handset anywhere in the world. It'll be launching on Scartel's Yota network in Russia, and if you have friends cool enough to have a MAX 4G of their own, calls between the two of y'all will automatically be routed over the WiMAX airwaves using VoIP. A launch date hasn't been announced, but unless you're in Russia, there's probably not much point in even bothering to lust after this one. If you insist, though, you can check out a couple additional shots of the phone over at Engadget Mobile.

engadget.com

Nokia N96 Bruce Lee Edition: the only thing tougher than Chuck Norris

OMG OMG OMG... sorry, but our inner Japanese school-girl was just unleashed with the arrival of the Nokia N96 Bruce Lee Edition. If Nokia had any sense, they'd expand the action-doll bundle to the world beyond Hong Kong. Even for 8,788 Chinese Yuan (about $1,286) we're seriously tempted. Watch Bruce clean up at ping pong in the Nokia video posted after the break -- no, really.

[Via Unwired View, Thanks Robin oL]

engadget.com

BlackBerry Storm now available on Verizon

You've read the review, now Verizon's BlackBerry Storm is available for purchase for $200 on two-year contract. Really, what's left to say -- you're either ready to pull the trigger or not.

[Thanks, JR]

engadget.com

MacBook and MacBook Pro Take a Performance Dive While On AC Power Alone

Laptop batteries aren't the exactly the tortoises of the gadget world: they start out strong, then get weaker and weaker until eventually you can't even make it through an episode of 30 Rock on a full charge. So some users have taken up the practice of popping out their batteries while on AC power to try to eke out a few more months of juice. But the guys over at Gearlog tested performance on their new MacBook Pro with and without the battery, and here's the lesson: leave that battery in the computer where it belongs.

While benchmarking some memory, Gearlog found that processor performance is a whopping 37% lower on a MacBook Pro running on AC alone. Cinebench R10's multiprocessor test got a battery-less Pro a score of only 3,504, while with the battery it scored 5,549. They contacted Apple to find out what's going on, and Apple admitted that the performance difference is intentional, explaining that it "prevents the computer from shutting down if it demands more power than the A/C adapter alone can provide." Sounds a little fishy to me, but it doesn't really matter: Apple took a lot of care with that battery, and if you know what's good for you, you'll leave it be. [Gearlog]

gizmodo.com

Samsung Omnia makes official Verizon appearance

Not that we've any reason to be shocked here, but Samsung's Omnia is indeed coming to Verizon Wireless. 'Course, most everyone with any remote affiliation to Big Red is frenzied over that other phone today, but those with a soft spot for Windows Mobile 6.1 may want to give this one a bit of attention. You know the highlight specs by now -- a 5-megapixel camera / camcorder, full HTML browser and an expansive touchscreen -- but the nitty-gritty details are still being withheld. As of now, the link on Samsung's website tunnels straight to an error page, forcing us to be content with the knowledge that somehow, someday, this phone is destined for a life on VZW's shelves. Enlarged screengrab is after the jump.

engadget.com

Switched On: Writers on the Storm

What happens when the efficient menu-driven user experience of the BlackBerry meets the discoverable new user experience of finger-driven touch? The answer for the BlackBerry Storm has been that the BlackBerry experience wins, and who loses depends on what you were expecting from RIM's first departure from a physical keyboard. While adorned with a few on-screen buttons and simple gesture support, the Storm is much less of an iPhone-like experience than, say, the T-Mobile G1.

The Storm's main advantage over other BlackBerry devices is that it has a larger screen, not necessarily one that is controlled by touch. However, to accommodate the removal of its trademark keyboard, RIM has taken touch-screens into a literal new dimension by requiring users to depress the screen to activate a button on the screen, which lowers and springs back like a giant keyboard key.

The screen's ability to respond to presses as a physical button (like the trackpad in Apple's new MacBooks), helps provide a more natural feel to typing on the Storm; the feedback is certainly more satisfying than the solely visual feedback that the iPhone gives. Just because it feels good, though, doesn't mean you should do it.

While the screen's response may result in faster proficiency particularly as it (unlike the iPhone's keyboard) can be used in landscape mode while sending e-mails, fast typists may be frustrated to find that the screen sometimes cannot return to its "up" position fast enough to be ready for the next letter.

And then there is the issue of editing the inevitable typos that tapping out text on virtually any smartphone entails. It's unfortunate that RIM – while retrofitting a touch screen with so many of its user interface conventions -- decided to ignore a well-received BlackBerry navigation aid in the scroll ball that HTC has implemented well in conjunction with the T-Mobile G1's touch screen.

A scroll ball makes it easy to get between letters for editing. And with no iPhone-like magnifying glass user interface convention or other method for dynamically zooming in on small text, spot-editing on the Storm can be a frustrating tight squeeze. The Storm will usually provide a word or menu of words to replace the mistyped one, but navigating it too can be thorny in the limited on-screen real estate with the keyboard on-screen.

The classic BlackBerry form-factor represented by such handsets as the Curve, 8800 and now Bold was itself a screen upgrade from the first BlackBerry two-way pagers. With the rise of the Web and media demanding a bigger screen, though, there is potential for a BlackBerry with a side-sliding keyboard (similar to HTC's Touch Pro) that delivers an even more comfortable keyboard and the large screen while restoring the sense of proportion in the user interface at the expense of a little girth.

The typing feedback provided by the Storm represents an advance over those that offer only visual or haptic feedback, but for many of the BlackBerry's biggest fans -- even outside of Soviet Russia -- the clickable keyboard will depress you.

engadget.com

Marantz's IS301 wireless iPod dock elegantly cuts the cord

Wireless iPod docks were all the rage back in 2006 (seriously, we remember nerds camping out for them), but the trend sort of petered out as 2007 emerged and focus turned to more important matters. Now, Marantz is looking to bring it all back in style with the IS301, a Lucullan wireless iPod dock that transmits both audio and video sans cabling and includes a port-filled receiver for tight-knit home theater integration. Practically every dock-connecting iPod (no iPhones allowed, at least not officially) will work fine here, and there's also Bluetooth 2.1 support for receiving and beaming tunes from BT-enabled devices. Expect the bundle to storm Japan in January for ¥26,250 ($277), after which we Americans will drop down on bended knee and plead for a US version.

[Via Impress]

engadget.com

How would you change Apple's unibody MacBook / MacBook Pro?

Now that you've had well over a month to toy with Apple's latest MacBook and MacBook Pro, we're just dying to know what your impressions are. Has the glass trackpad turned you off (or just turned you off to every other trackpad on the planet)? Is the inability to order the MBP with a matte display still grating your nerves? Are you happy with the performance? Is your "S" key randomly popping off at the most inopportune times? You just spent a load of cash on what essentially amounts to a first-generation product -- you've every right to make your voice heard. Do just that in comments below.

engadget.com

AMD overclocks the snot out of Phenom II processors

No, you're not looking at some high-precision, multimeter-laden kegerator; the above is a picture from a recent AMD event in which things apparently got a little out of hand. The company started by talking up its upcoming Dragon platform (Phenom II X4, Radeon 4800 graphics, and 7-series chipset), took a few moments to discuss how its new 45nm chips will use 30-50 percent less power than their predecessors, and then threw all notions of sensibility out the window in an attempt to see just how fast the darned things could go. A Phenom II X4 managed 4GHz with air-cooling, 4.4GHz with a refrigerated setup, and finally a "stable" 5GHz on liquid nitrogen. That's mighty fast, but will the chips be quick enough to tackle Intel's mighty Core i7 when stripped of their fancy-pants cooling appendages? We'll see when they ship early next year.

[Image courtesy of Legit Reviews]

engadget.com

Apple's Approval of BdEmailer Proves App Approval Process is a Crapshoot

At first it seemed that the rules behind the approval process for new apps for the iPhone App Store were pretty cut and dry. You know, they can't duplicate the functionality of the on-board apps like Mail and iPod, they can't use too much bandwidth and they can't cause a security hazard. That first rule is why apps like MailWrangler and Podcaster were given the boot; they were too close to those built-in apps. But now, an app called BdEmailer, which is basically a straight-up email program, is available in the App Store. Just what the hell is going on?

Look, we think it's awesome that BdEmailer is available. The more choices, the better, which is why we wish MailWrangler and Podcaster were available. BdEmailer lets you type emails with the landscape keyboard, for god's sake. But at this point, it's completely unclear as to what keeps an app out of the store. Was this a deliberate move, or will it get yanked from the store in a matter of hours, the result of a sleepy gatekeeper letting it through accidentally?

We're hoping this is not an accident but a sign of more leniency from Apple in terms of what they'll allow in the App Store. But I doubt it. Get this one now while you still can, folks. [BdEmailer via Engadget]

engadget.com

The Week in iPhone Apps: Back to the Grind

Back to the usual review this week, after our 20 Essential Apps list last Friday. Thankfully, it's been a pretty good week in the store, with lots of actually useful apps—including a full-fledged four-track recorder and a couple of utilities that actually add some usable core features that I wish would have made it into the 2.2 software update today. Oh, and of course, something Japanese and crazy. Onward!

Four Track: Remember how Keith Richards always said he recorded the riff to Satisfaction on a hotel answering machine? Well, now, budding Keefs can multi-track their sudden inspirations for songs about not getting sufficiently laid. Four Track offers all the controls you would want for a basic deck, has no track length limit, and can sync via wi-fi to import you recordings into Garage Band or Pro Tools. Awesome. It's $10.

Save My Docs: Safari received some nice performance and UI tweaks in 2.2, but it still does one thing a mobile browser should never do—wipe out version of pages you've already loaded for no reason. Multiple times I've loaded a long Wikipedia article on something that I planned to read on the subway, only to find the page totally blank a few minutes later for no explicable reason. Save My Docs does one thing—saves any document loaded in Safari locally, complete with images, to be read at any time later. $2

CalToDo: I can't believe this isn't a native feature: CalToDo easily syncs your OS X to-do lists (found in Mail and iCal) via a lite server app that runs on your machine. Interface is nice, and so is the simplicity. $1

iMarimo: And iMarimo, what can I say? It's floating ball of algae in front of a few blurry pictures that you can spin via touch. Apparently, the Marimo algae is beloved in Japan for its freakish, perfectly spherical growth and its ultra-rarity—found only in a single lake in Hokkaido. Damn. That's about all I can say about this on a Friday, and it costs $1.

This week's app coverage on Giz:

• iPhone 2.2 Update Review: Go Get It Now

• Pocket Jockey iPhone Game Simulates Horse Racing In Most Suggestive Way Possible

• Numberkey Transforms iPhone Into Sweet Wireless Numberpad

• Google's iPhone Voice Search Mobile App Now Available

• OpenTable iPhone App: Easiest, Most Soulless Restaurant Reservations Ever

• iPhone's Gas Cubby Car Care Tracker Is Anal So You Don't Have To Be

• Hands-On With Newber, The Location-Aware Call Redirector For Your iPhone

• Even Google Gets Shafted By Apple's Ridiculous App-Approval Process

• iPhone's Puzzle Quest Hits December For $10 [Kotaku]

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

gizmodo.com

HP's Shanghai-packing xw9400 workstation available now

We caught a glimpse of the HP xw9400 quite a while back when it was first announced, but it's now available on HP's site and we've got the full details on the mammoth's innards. There are quite a few customizable options, including AMD's Dual-Core Shanghai Opteron CPUs (from 2.0GHz to 2.5GHz), up to 32GB MHz DDR SDRAM, NIVIDIA nForce Professional 3600 or 3050 chipsets, and available NVIDIA Quadro FX cards with up to 1GB of memory. There are also five internal and two external drive bays and eight USB 2.0 ports. The behemoth starts at $2,399 and runs as high as $6,299. Hit the read link for the widest array of specifications you can possibly ever imagine.

[Via Information Week]

engadget.com

Amazon Selling $199 PlayStation 3 Bundles to Lucky Shoppers

If you're in the market for a PlayStation 3, you aren't going to get a better deal than this: $199 for an 80GB PS3, bundled with a game such as LittleBigPlanet, The Force Unleashed or Far Cry 2. Also, a Blu-ray bundle, such as Firefly: The Complete Series, the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy or a James Bond Six-Pack. And hell, a PS3 remote tossed in for good measure. All for $199. But there's a catch, because there's always a catch.

These deals are a part of Amazon's yearly "Customer's Vote" promotion, in which you get to vote on which PS3 bundle you'd want to buy and then, if you're lucky, get a chance to race against everybody else for a limited quantity of said bundles. Here are how they're broken down:

PS3 Blu-ray Sci-Fi Bundle - $199.00 PlayStation 3 80GB, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Firefly: The Complete Series, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc remote

PS3 Blu-ray Action Bundle - $229.00 PlayStation 3 80GB, Far Cry 2, James Bond Collection 6-Pack, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc remote

PS3 Blu-ray Family Bundle - $199.00 PlayStation 3 80GB, LittleBigPlanet, Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc remote

You've got to vote on which bundle looks the best to you, but don't play it to chance: the family bundle is currently holding a solid lead. 500 of each bundle will be available on Friday, so once you vote make sure to check your email on Thursday night to see if you're in the running for them. The winning bundle will go on sale for the listed price, with the other two going up for a bit more, but still cheap. Good luck, y'all. [Amazon]

gizmodo.com

LG's fashionable Prada II (and watch) gets shown to the camera

Well, that didn't take long. Merely hours after LG's Prada II was treated to a dedicated microsite, along comes the hands-on photographs we've been expecting. CNET's UK branch was able to wrangle one in, and as predicted, the mobile didn't hesitate to pose for a few nice snapshots. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that it certainly put on a little heft since the first go 'round, but the slight downturn in attractivity is more than compensated by the inclusion of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Have a peek at the read link for more hands-on goodness, including a look at the matching Bluetooth wristwatch.

[Thanks, T.I.]

engadget.com

Japanese Milk-Carton-to-Jambox Resonance Speaker Conversion Kit: My Kind of Recycling

Resonance speakers that turn any hollow or low-density surface into a speaker are not new, but how many of said speaker kits come with their own nicely designed milk carton SOUND REVOLUTION speaker simulacrum? The Yoruzu audio kit does just that, via a Jony Ive-inspired stethoscope attachment. It will turn your hollow drywall into a two-watt boomer, much to the delight of your neighbors, for ¥4980 ($51). [Product Page (translated) via AV Watch (translated)]

gizmodo.com

Microsoft ratchets down pricing on flash-based Zunes

If you were this close to snapping up a new Zune after Microsoft pushed out its 3.1 software update, boy, are you glad you held off. At least, if you've been eying a Zune of the flash-based variety. Beginning today, the US Zunes are coming a little more in line with their Canadian brethren by falling from $129 to $99 (4GB), $149 to $139 (8GB) and $199 to $179 (16GB). The Car Pack / Dock Pack are also seeing a $10 decrease while the Home / AV pack is being reduced $20. You already purchased two in the time it took to read this, didn't you?

engadget.com

ASUS 15.6-inch touchscreen Eee Tops launching tomorrow -- $499?

by Thomas Ricker, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 8:02AM

Can you feel it? That dull sense of ennui isn't the result of the diminished hours of daylight, oh no, it's the sensation of the Eee Top's imminent launch in Taipei. ASUS has a news conference scheduled for Thursday to out the ET1602 and ET1603 XP PCs into the wonderfully erect world of all-in-ones. Something we've been expecting since January of this year when we first heard about ASUS' Eee branding promiscuity. We're still looking at 15.6-inches of touchscreen LCD, a 160GB hard disk, 802.11n WiFi, a pair of 4-watt speakers, and 1.3 megapixel webcam all propped up by a tepid 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor -- a CPU that ASUS knows a thing or two about. The ET1603 packs a better ATI HD3450 graphics card and battery for 4.4-kilograms (9.7-pounds) of luggable PC. We'll have to wait for the pricing and country details but we can speculate that it'll arrive in the US pronto after seeing its wireless (EK-C2) keyboard slip through the FCC yesterday. Could be a holiday winner if it hits for the $499 price rumored way back when.

engadget.com

Datel Lite Blue Tool Hacks the PSP 3000 With a Battery

The Datel Lite Blue Tool looks to be the best option we've got at the moment for hacking the PSP 3000. It's essentially a smart battery that clones Sony lab equipment to put the PSP 2000 and PSP 3000 into Service Mode. From this mode, users are approaching the PSP with the access of a Sony engineer and can load old, cracked firmware that's open to run homebrew. The Datel Lite Blue Tool will be available later this month for $30. So just how much are those SNES romz worth to you? [Maxconsole]

gizmodo.com

MSI unveils Neton all-in-one nettop models ranging from mild to somewhat less mild

MSI and Asus, having apparently found the bottom in the netbook race, are now working hard to find that magic point on the desktop. Asus has its B202 and all-in-one Eee Top nettops, the latter of which MSI is now countering with the new, all-inclusive Neton series. The smallest is the M16, starting at $400 and featuring a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 screen -- exactly the same size as Asus's impending offering (coincidence, surely). Then there's the slightly larger but otherwise identically spec'd $500 18.5-inch M19, and finally the range-topping $800 22-inch M22, offering an HD-loving 1920 x 1080 display fed by an optional Blu-ray drive. As you can see in pics after the break the guts of the M16 have been placed into an unsightly, over-sized stand, while on the M19 and M22 everything is tucked neatly behind the monitor itself, making for easy wall mounting (more room for Coke cans and miscellaneous clutter). No word on memory or disk space, but each will offer touch-screens and will come with XP or Vista depending on whether you opt for a single- or dual-core Atom processor. The M19 ships first in January, the M16 next in Feb, and the M22 last in March.

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