Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after the official Skype application finally landed in the Android Market, along comes an .apk that’s far more salacious for Americans. Thanks to xeudoxus over at Droid Forums , a tweaked version of the app is now available to download and sideload (sorry, Aria owners), promising the same functionality but without that nasty 3G block. It’s really as simple as that — hit those source links to get the unquestionably superior version, and feel free to let us know how your carrier’s network holds up in a test call. [Thanks, Gardo] Skype’s Android shackles are broken, 3G calling hacked into reality originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Mirror mirror on the wall, who has the highest arterial palpation of them all? If you went to MIT you might be able to answer that question thanks to the work of grad student Ming-Zher Poh, who has found a way to tell your pulse with just a simple webcam and some software. By looking at minute changes in the brightness of the face, the system can find the beating of your heart even at a low resolution, comparable to the results of a traditional FDA-approved pulse monitor. Right now the mirror above is just a proof of concept, but the idea is that the hospital beds or surgery rooms of tomorrow might be able to monitor a patient’s pulse without requiring any wires or physical contact, encouraging news for anyone who has ever tried to sleep whilst wearing a heart monitor. Continue reading MIT Medical Lab Mirror tells your pulse with a webcam (video) MIT Medical Lab Mirror tells your pulse with a webcam (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …PS Move SMG accessory is not a rifle, it is a gun, it is not for fighting, it is for fun
October 7, 2010 No Comment
When Sony announced its PlayStation Move it went ahead and threw out a bunch of accessories at the same time — a charging stand and even a cheesy light gun attachment. The intent was obvious, trying to get ahead of those third parties who’ve filled whole aisles at your local Target and Walmart with cheap plastic Wii clip-ons, but you just had to know they’d catch up. CTA Digital , who earlier brought us the classy Wii bowling ball controller , is coming out shooting with a submachine gun peripheral that it aptly calls “Submachine Gun.” Clip your glowy Move baton up front, slide the nunchuck thing in the grip, and start huntin’ Helgath. The stock and scope are removable (shown after the break), in case you’re fighting in the close confines of a dorm or studio apartment, while the “quasi-futuristic styling” is perfect for your faux-military tastes. Shipping in late November, this can be yours for $29.99. Oh, and don’t worry, we won’t cover every junky Move accessory that comes along. We predict a flood of the things. Continue reading PS Move SMG accessory is not a rifle, it is a gun, it is not for fighting, it is for fun PS Move SMG accessory is not a rifle, it is a gun, it is not for fighting, it is for fun originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Let’s say you’re a mobile phone maker. Now, what’s the first thing you do after raking in $360 million in a quarter ? We’re guessing that “launching a new backup / remote wipe portal” wasn’t the first thing that came to mind, but that’s precisely what HTC has done. HTCSense.com was officially introduced alongside the Desire HD and Desire Z in London last month, promising to one day allow registered owners to use the web in order to locate a lost handset, remotely wipe a lost handset and maintain a backup of your contacts, texts, customizations, etc. in the cloud. Looks like “one day” is “today,” with the portal finally opening its doors to registrants. Unfortunately, the only two phones supported at the moment are the two it was introduced alongside of (neither of which are publicly available), so it looks like you’ll spend most of your time at the source link ingesting what it can offer you in the future. But hey, who said a little schooling was a bad thing? [Thanks, Marcus] HTCSense.com goes live, only Desire HD and Desire Z supported at launch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …AT&T goes live with Encrypted Mobile Voice, kills your dreams of breaking into Pelosi’s social circle
October 7, 2010 No Comment
AT&T told us back in July that it was fixing to launch the first carrier-provided two factor encryption service, and it seems that today’s the day. The day it goes live, we mean. At any rate, the company’s Encrypted Mobile Voice service is reportedly active, and it’s already providing “high-level security features for calls on the AT&T wireless network.” Of course, none of this fancy security is meant for simpletons like us — instead, it’s targeting government agencies, law enforcement organizations, financial services institutions and international businesses. We’re told that the tech combines KoolSpan’s TrustChip and SRA International’s One Vault Voice, with the former being a microSD card and the latter being a software layer. Currently, it only plays nice with BlackBerry and Windows Phones, but until we see Biden bust out a Bravo , we’ll assume the lack of Android support isn’t “a big flipping deal.” Continue reading AT&T goes live with Encrypted Mobile Voice, kills your dreams of breaking into Pelosi’s social circle AT&T goes live with Encrypted Mobile Voice, kills your dreams of breaking into Pelosi’s social circle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Displax Overlay Multitouch turns your LCD or plasma into a touchscreen, demands a pretty penny
October 7, 2010 No CommentRemember when Displax teased us earlier in the year with a polymer film that could take any conventional LCD, plasma or RPTV and turn it into a touchscreen? Yeah, well now that very technology is shipping to Average Joes and Janes like yourself your good pal Jim. Starting nowish, the outfit’s customizable Overlay Multitouch will be heading out to screens ranging from 32- to 103-inches in size in order to add multitouch capabilities to a screen that previously hated even the thought of being groped. Of course, with a starting tag of €1,300 ($1,805), we get the impression that most of the orders (at least initially) will be coming from corporations looking to jazz up their boardrooms. In related news, the company is also debuting a 42-inch Windows 7-based multitouch table that can detect up to four independent touches at once. The Oqtopus uses a specific kind of optical technology that allows bare fingers, styluses and even gloved hands to operate it, but with a starting price of €4,500 ($6,250), we’re guessing your own personal Santa is already signaling “no.” Gallery: Displax Oqtopus and Overlay Multitouch Displax Overlay Multitouch turns your LCD or plasma into a touchscreen, demands a pretty penny originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Western Digital debuts My Book Live NAS / media streamer, revamped My Photos app
October 7, 2010 No Comment
The My Book Live definitely doesn’t mark Western Digital’s first foray into the world of connected storage , but the devil’s in the details on this one. The company’s newly released network drive falls into the budget-friendly My Book line, but promises access to files at up 100Mbps, or triple the speed of standard USB 2.0 units. Additionally, Apple Time Machine support comes baked in from the factory, and there’s also an integrated DLNA-compatible media server that can stream photos, videos and audio through any number of devices (WD TV Live Plus HD, Xbox 360, your Blu-ray player, a PlayStation 3, etc.). It’ll also double (triple?) as an iTunes music server, and when paired with the company’s refreshed WD Photos app — which is now optimized for iPad and iPhone 4 — users can flip through their photo albums remotely. The My Book Live is now available for $169.99 (1TB) / $229.99 (2TB), and the aforementioned app can be sucked down as we speak from the action-packed App Store. Gallery: Western Digital debuts My Book Live NAS / media streamer, revamped My Photos app Western Digital debuts My Book Live NAS / media streamer, revamped My Photos app originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
While Nokia remains mum about the status of its first MeeGo handset, Doug Fisher, Vice President of Intel’s Software and Solutions Group and General Manager of Systems Software Division, is being decidedly more talkative. According to an interview published by Forbes , MeeGo phones and tablets are in the works but we’ll have to wait until 2011 to handle them. Specifically, Fisher says that MeeGo based cellphones won’t debut until the first half of next year, possibly at a large industry trade show. Hmm, could that be Mobile World Congress by any chance, scheduled for February 2011? It’s also worth noting that Fisher’s timeline coincides with plans for a MeeGo 1.2 release tentatively scheduled for sometime around the end of April. This is of course disappointing — especially after seeing Nokia’s amazing looking MeeGo-based N9 (pictured) in that supposed leak. Though it’s hardly unexpected given all the executive level changes at Nokia. Remember, back in December Nokia had promised to “deliver” a Maemo 6 powered mobile computer in the second half of 2010 . That promise was then seemingly reiterated when the joint MeeGo initiative was announced in February (MeeGo being the union Maemo and Intel’s Moblin). It was during that announcement that Intel and Nokia promised to “launch” MeeGo devices from Nokia and other manufactures in 2010. We took that to mean retail delivery, not just a product annoucement. In fact, we’ve already seen the first MeeGo tablet — the WeTab — ship in Germany. And Fisher says that other MeeGo devices like netbooks and Internet Connected TVs are still on track to ship this year. Regardless of the semantics, we just want to see Nokia get this right, especially as MeeGo looks to be Nokia’s big play to win back the US market . If they don’t get this right, well, Nokia might not get a second chance — not with Android rapidly maturing, Windows Phone 7 set to launch, and HP getting ready to put its muscle behind webOS. Let’s give Skillman some time to perfect the user experience , shall we? Intel says no MeeGo phones until first half of 2011, Nokia just shrugs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 08:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Hitachi’s 6.6-inch / 302ppi IPS panel gets eyes-on treatment, locks eyes with iPhone 4′s retina display
October 7, 2010 No Comment
Perhaps our eyes are just too untrained for such tasks, but we didn’t much miss the 24ppi or so difference between the iPhone 4′s retina display (326 ppi) and Hitachi’s 6.6-inch IPS panel (302 ppi). The CEATEC prototype panel is just gorgeous and crystal clear (as much as Shakespeare and Kanji-laden articles can be, at least). Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anyone to answer our questions as to when it might hit mass production, so for now, just enjoy the view. Gallery: Hitachi 6.6-inch / 302ppi IPS panel eyes-on Hitachi’s 6.6-inch / 302ppi IPS panel gets eyes-on treatment, locks eyes with iPhone 4′s retina display originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Redemption credit card puts points toward purchases, is destined to frustrate
October 7, 2010 No Comment
Look up. That credit card right there is a brilliant concept that’ll likely cause quite a few headaches in practice. Dynamics, which makes its ends by coming up with new ways to get the general populace into more debt, has just made public its Redemption payment device — a newfangled card with a few LEDs, selectors and the ability to let users put their earned points toward any given purchase. The idea goes a little something like this: you roll up to the Old Navy checkout counter, remember that you have 4,300 points logged, and decide that you’d like to cash ‘em in towards the purchase of your new threads. You tap the “Request Rewards” side of your card, swipe it and watch as your points balance and total monies owed dwindles. Currently, Citi is trialing these with a small group of consumers, with a larger US trial expected to get going next month. There’s no mention of how the LEDs stay lit (or how the battery stays charged), nor any indication of how long these selector buttons will hold up over time. We also have no idea how you’ll be able to easily check your point balance or split payments between points and dollars, but hey, at least there’s a beautiful opportunity here for an accompanying mobile app. Gallery: Dynamics Redemption credit card Continue reading Redemption credit card puts points toward purchases, is destined to frustrate Redemption credit card puts points toward purchases, is destined to frustrate originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …