We really like Fujifilm’s X100 — it’s a solidly-built camera, with an APS-C sensor, f/2 lens, and a rather unique hybrid optical / electronic viewfinder. But the X100 carries a $1,400 sticker price, and that 23mm lens — as sharp as it may be — is permanently fixed to the mount. That’s why we were rather exited when Fuji announced its X10 earlier this week. Would this be a much more capable (and affordable) replacement for the X100? Turns out it’s not — well, not exactly — though this latest model is certainly a better fit for the consumer market. We had a chance to go hands-on with an early prototype on display at the company’s IFA booth, and while some features (notably the pop-up flash) weren’t yet functional, we’re told it’s a rather accurate representation of what we’ll see when the X10 hits stores in late October, priced within the €499-599 range (about $715-860). The first thing you’ll notice with the X10 is that, well, there’s nary a power button in sight. Instead, you’ll rotate the 28-112mm f/2-2.8 manual zoom lens to fire it up. There’s also no aperture ring, unlike its more powerful sibling, and manual focus is handled electronically, instead of directly on the lens. Upon closer inspection, you’ll find that the X100′s slick hybrid viewfinder has been replaced with a strictly electronic one. And what about image quality? We weren’t able to take away any sample pics, but with a much smaller 2/3-inch sensor, we haven’t a doubt that images won’t look nearly as good as those shot with Fuji’s better-equipped model. To compensate for that, the camera’s EXR mode can bump the resolution down from 12 megapixels to six, in turn capturing higher quality images in low light. We’re looking forward to checking out a production version sometime this fall, but in the meantime, thumb through the images below, or jump past the break for a video overview. Gallery: Fujifilm X10 hands-on Continue reading Fujifilm X10 hands-on (video) Fujifilm X10 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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After seeing the screenshots and the video walkthrough of Sense 3.5 , do you feel like you’re missing out? Us too. Well, lucky folks in possession of HTC’s Desire HD don’t have to wait another minute, provided they’re comfortable flashing custom ROMs. The crafty folks over at the XDA-Developers forums have taken a leaked version of the software from the upcoming Bliss and ported it over to the Desire HD. As to be expected, there are some bugs with this 2.3.4-based ROM — Bluetooth doesn’t work at all, reportedly — but that seems like a small price to pay for living on the cutting edge of Android skins. Hit up the source link or fire up ROM Manager to download now. After all, why should some anonymous woman with silver fingernails have all the fun? Sense 3.5 comes to the HTC Desire HD, unofficially originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 11:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It looks like the folks at Archos are keeping our friends at the FCC busy this summer. Following in the footsteps of the mysterious A70S2 tablet and the coy A80S , the A100S internet tablet is now making its way through the regulatory gatekeeper. Like its predecessors, this filing hasn’t given us much to go on; it comes with the typical confidentiality requests, which means we won’t get any of the juicy bits until the FCC lifts the curtain on October 15th. Until then, we’ll keep our Ice Cream Sandwich dreams afloat. If FCC test reports are your thing, feel free to hop on over to the source link below. Archos A100S tablet hits the FCC, does the opposite of a full reveal originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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This week, as always, was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011: More rumors are circulating about the upcoming Sony Ericsson Nozumi, originally leaked two weeks ago. The new specs getting floated around are even better than we previously thought, which include a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution for a PPI of 342, and NFC. (Thanks, David) [via XperiaBlog ] The Motorola Milestone 3 — the GSM twin of the Droid 3 , essentially — was released in Brazil this week and will be available in select Latin American countries later this month. [via AndroidCentral ] Just as we’re getting used to the idea of a white HTC EVO 3D at Radio Shack, it’s now reported that a purple version will soon be available exclusively at Best Buy. [via PocketNow ] The BlackBerry Torch 9860 has two new Canadian homes, as it launched this week on Telus for $100 and SaskTel for $130. Both carriers involve setting up a three-year commitment. [via MobileSyrup(1) and (2) ] Did someone mention SaskTel? Yes, the carrier is jumping on the 4G bandwagon by announcing its intent to deploy LTE by the fall of 2012. [via MobileSyrup ] AT&T’s LG Thrill 4G is finally getting released tomorrow after several weeks of delays. While the phone will be offered for $100 by the carrier itself, you’ll be able to get it at Costco for $30. [via PhoneArena ] Alongside the Kyocera Milano , Sprint will also launch a new feature phone called the Kyocera Brio. The Brio will offer a QWERTY keyboard, a 192MHz CPU and will run Java. [via Electronista and AndroidCentral ] At HTC’s Windows Phone launch this week, reps confirmed that all of its new Windows Phones will indeed have the mobile hotspot feature included, though it won’t be a part of the software update to the company’s existing lineup. It’s likely to be added with a future refresh, but apparently the feature was added too late in the process to get thrown into the initial rollout. (Thanks, Gilles) [via Pocket-Lint ] Mobile Miscellany: week of August 29, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Much ink has been spilled in the rumor mill about a coming Amazonian tablet, and now those rumors look to be confirmed. TechCrunch has apparently gotten some time with Amazon’s forthcoming slate, and reports that it has a 7-inch, backlit color capacitive screen and is bereft of physical buttons. Word on the web is that the hardware is already good to go, and Amazon is making the last few software tweaks before it goes on sale this November. The tablet is running a heavily skinned version of Android that was developed without any help from the folks in Mountain View. It apparently has a Cover Flow-esque UI , and is deeply integrated with all of Amazon’s services (Cloud Player, Instant Video Player, Appstore, and of course the Kindle app). Best of all, it will reportedly cost a scant $250 — not quite TouchPad territory, but well underneath the iPad’s $500 price. Let the next great tablet war begin. Amazon tablet coming in November for $250? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The box looks more like Zotac’s VIA-powered mini-PC , but inside the AD10 falls right in line with rest of the AD series , packing an AMD E-350 APU alongside a Radeon HD 6310 chip. You’re also looking at integrated 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and a pair of USB 3.0 ports — not bad for something that’s (just barely) palm-sized. The AD10 Plus model comes pre-stocked with a 320GB hard drive and 2GB of DDR3 RAM for only $276. The barebones model doesn’t seem to have been priced yet, but we wouldn’t expect it to be too much less considering how cheap memory and hard disks are these days. Check out the gallery below and the PR after the break. Gallery: Zotac ZBOX nano AD10 Continue reading Zotac unveils palm-sized ZBOX nano AD10, packing AMD Brazos APU Zotac unveils palm-sized ZBOX nano AD10, packing AMD Brazos APU originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 07:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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One of the biggest knocks against the HTC Flyer when it launched (besides the extra $80 the stylus would cost you ) was that it shipped with a Sensed-up version of Gingerbread, instead of the more tablet-appropriate Honeycomb. But, with the Android 3.1-packing Puccini now official, the Taiwanese manufacturer is working to bring the rest of its inbetweeners up to speed and, as usual, the devs appear to have sprung a leak. There’s not much information about the early Flyer Honeycomb beta that just dropped on MoDaCo, courtesy of Paul O’Brien, but it’s already packaged up in RUU form and ready for flashing. It goes without saying, this is not for the faint of heart. If you cherish things like stability and reliability (you know, if you’re a wimp) it’s probably best to hold out for an official release. The bold can download it now at the source link. HTC Flyer Honeycomb ROM leaks, not for the timid tableter originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Don’t speak. Princeton researchers know just what you’re saying — kind of. Alright, so the Ivy league team of neuroscientists, led by Prof. Matthew Botvinick, can’t yet read your minds without the help of a functional MRI , but one day the group hopes to take your silent pauses and broadcast them for public consumption. By mapping highlighted areas of brain activity to words meditated upon by subjects, the group was able to create “semantic threads” based on “emotions, plans or socially oriented thoughts” associated with select neural activity. So, what good’ll these high-brow word association experiments do for us? For one, it could pave the way for automatic translation machines, extending a silicon-assisted grok into our nonverbal inner worlds that churns out computer-generated chatter; giving a voice to those incapable of speech. And if it’s used for bad? More terrifically horrific psychobabble poetry penned by Jewel’s unencumbered mind. Actually, wait. We might be into that. Princeton neuroscientists map your brain, play words with subjects originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Doom may run on just about everything these days, but one place it hasn’t been very accessible during the past 17 years — regardless of the device — is in Germany. That finally changed this week, however, with both Doom and Doom 2 receiving a USK-16 rating that allows them to be made available wherever video games are sold. Both games had previously been “indexed” by the country’s Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons, which has effectively confined them to the underground market since their debut. According to the BBC , the ban was lifted because the agency now considers Doom to be “mainly of historical interest,” although it notes that Germany is maintaining the ban on one particular version of Doom II that contains levels from Wolfenstein with Nazi imagery. As for Doom publisher Bethesda Softworks, it tells Joystiq that it’s “obviously very pleased” with the decision, and that it will let folks know when it plans to actually makes the game available in Germany. Doom now approved for sale in Germany, 17 years later originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …DirecTV adds AMC-HD next week, too bad Mad Men is still six months away
September 3, 2011 No Comment
After slowing its pace of adding HD channels dramatically as of late, DirecTV has finally satisfied one of the loudest and longest running customer requests by announcing AMC-HD will come to its satellites starting September 9th. There’s still a pretty long list of channels it’s not offering yet, but if you’re on contract and just want to enjoy some Breaking Bad , The Walking Dead and Mad Men (when it returns in March) in HD then today’s Facebook posting (just hours after it was dug up by the satellite sleuths at DBSTalk ) is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. [Thanks, Joe & Casey] DirecTV adds AMC-HD next week, too bad Mad Men is still six months away originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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