Finally, at long last, after so much waiting , Skype has made its debut as a full-fledged Android app. There are no Verizon-related limitations anymore, but Android Police reports that calling through the app is only available via WiFi, you can’t use your mobile’s data connection — not yet, anyway. Another note they make is that Skype is using quite a few processing cycles to do its job, so much so that it introduced crackling on a call carried out with the EVO . You’ll need to have Android 2.1 installed to run this thing, but if you do, why aren’t you downloading it already? Let us know how your own ‘droid fares in the comments below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] P.S. — Skype’s press release and video after the break have confirmed that 3G Skype calls will be available to all outside the US. Wow. Also, Skype’s acknowledged there are some incompatibilities with Samsung Galaxy S phones and is working to iron those out. Gallery: Skype for Android hands-on Continue reading Skype app arrives in Android Market, WiFi-only in the US Skype app arrives in Android Market, WiFi-only in the US originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It might not share the Galaxy S’ vibrant Super AMOLED display, but there is one way in which the Galaxy Tab’s visage is identical to its elder smartphone sibling: both are protected by Gorilla Glass . Corning has just dropped a quickie press release to announce that Samsung’s upcoming 7-inch tablet will benefit from its scratch- and impact -resistant alkali-aluminosilicate goodness. Guess now Samsung’s ad advising us to stuff this slate into our pants pockets makes a lot more sense. [Thanks, Olivier] Continue reading Samsung’s Galaxy Tab will come with Gorilla Glass screen Samsung’s Galaxy Tab will come with Gorilla Glass screen originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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There you have it, boys and girls. Exactly as promised , Orange and T-Mobile have flipped the switch in the UK, allowing subscribers to one carrier to roam onto the network of the other for free. This really is the most important consumer-facing aspect of the Everything Everywhere merger, at least until they figure out how to mix orange and magenta without charring our eyes with the resulting shade of crazy. Don’t forget to let us know how your newly expanded network affects your phone’s utility — better, worse, no difference? [Thanks, Lewis] Orange and T-Mobile complete UK network merger originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …WeTab boss Helmut Hoffer caught posting five-star Amazon reviews under fake name, resigns
October 5, 2010 No Comment
Uh oh. WeTab’s Managing Director, Helmut Hoffer, has just resigned his position after being caught using a fake identity to post positive, five-star reviews for his little MeeGo tablet. Hoffer, who originally faked the WeTab’s (then known as the WePad) UI when introducing the tablet to the press, posted a review on Amazon’s German site under the name Peter Glaser, a popular member of the Chaos Computer Club. A second glowing review was posted under the name Claudia Kaden — an account apparently registered to Hoffer’s wife. Of course, now that he’s been outed, Hoffer admits that it was a mistake not using his own name and says he posted the reviews without the knowledge of the company. Naturally, this isn’t the first case of egregious astroturfing that we’ve seen — eh hem, Belkin — and it certainly won’t be the last. This guy’s just the latest to get caught. Gallery: WeTab boss Helmut Hoffer caught posting five-star Amazon reviews under fake name, resigns WeTab boss Helmut Hoffer caught posting five-star Amazon reviews under fake name, resigns originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …CineXPlayer adds iPhone and iPod touch to its Xvid party list, still won’t cook your popcorn
October 5, 2010 No Comment
Remember how NXP Software surprised the world with its CineXPlayer iPad app just two months ago? Well, the gang is back to give our iPhone (3GS and 4) and iPod touch (3rd and 4th gen) the same dose of Xvid goodness. Like its older sibling, this $1.99 CineXPlayer utilizes the same method for easily sideloading your AVI files via iTunes (under the iDevice’s Apps tab), and you’ll also find a familiar-looking interface topped with an extra rotation-lock button — much more useful than iOS’ native lock that only lets you watch in portrait mode. Alas, video files other than of Xvid and DivX nature aren’t currently supported, but hopefully it won’t be long before the VLC iPad app gets a smaller variant as well. Gallery: CineXPlayer for iPhone and iPod touch CineXPlayer adds iPhone and iPod touch to its Xvid party list, still won’t cook your popcorn originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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OnLive’s cloud gaming service has just become exponentially more appealing with one simple move: monthly fees for its use have been scrapped. Company CEO Steve Perlman has gleefully dished the good news, garnishing them with the explication that such was the plan all along — though it couldn’t be announced in advance as there was uncertainty about whether the economics of the nascent on-demand service would work out to support its fee-free operation. So now that the beans have been counted, Perlman and co have done the best thing possible by under-promising and over-delivering — all an OnLive user will need to pay for now are PlayPasses, which offer you three- or five-day access to a game, or you can buy the game in full, which comes with a minimum three-year guarantee of support after its release on OnLive. Paying only for the content you want to use? Now that truly is a revolutionary idea. [Thanks, Kevin S.] OnLive ditches monthly fees altogether, makes the world a freer place originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Hitachi intros Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 mobile hard drives: 750GB at 9.5mm
October 5, 2010 No Comment
It’s a common story, really. Your puny 120GB mobile hard drive has been overflowing for months, and you’ve been waiting for what feels like an eternity for an affordable, capacious SSD . It’s about time to give up the fantasy and get real, and thankfully Hitachi GST is making said pill a touch easier to swallow. The company’s new Travelstar 5K750 (5400RPM; 8MB buffer) and 7K750 (7200RPM; 16MB buffer) have been announced this morning, and they’re the company’s first to feature Advanced Format . In other news, they’re also the industry’s largest drives in a standard-height form factor, cramming up to 750GB (375GB per platter) into a conventional 9.5mm shell that’ll slip into just about any laptop made in the last decade. Yeah, WD managed to stuff 1TB into a laptop drive earlier in the year, but you’ll need a machine that’s beefy enough to handle a 12mm height drive in order to take advantage. At any rate, the drives will also be available in 500GB and 640GB sizes for those who can’t handle three-quarters of a terabyte, and while the 5K750 family is already shipping in volume with a starting tag of $129.99, the speedier 7K750 crew won’t be out until Q1 2011. Continue reading Hitachi intros Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 mobile hard drives: 750GB at 9.5mm Hitachi intros Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 mobile hard drives: 750GB at 9.5mm originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Fujitsu’s social robot bear is the supertoy of Kubrick’s dreams, almost (video)
October 5, 2010 No Comment
Ah, the Fujitsu bear cub social robot. What child or elderly person should go without a “people-friendly terminal” with snuggly-soft fur and a camera in lieu of the ever-popular button nose? The little guy made the rounds briefly earlier this year , but this is our first time making acquaintances. The duo waved at us, waved with us, laughed with (at?) us, and then at some point, decided to arbitrarily fall asleep and ignore us — just like our actual friends! The representative told us this prototype — with a reported 300 actions from 12 actuators (three face, three neck, and six in the body), 13 skin touch sensors, hand grip sensors, a tilt sensor, and a microphone — is a ways off from hitting the childcare / nursing home market. For now, enjoy the pictures below and footage after the break… and if all this seems eerily familiar, hey, we’re with you. A wink and a nod in that direction can be found via the second video. Gallery: Fujitsu bear cub social robot hands-on Continue reading Fujitsu’s social robot bear is the supertoy of Kubrick’s dreams, almost (video) Fujitsu’s social robot bear is the supertoy of Kubrick’s dreams, almost (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Remember the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness ? At a list price of $1,000, it’d be hard to forget — but with a monochrome see-through display, the whole transparency thing was little more than a novelty on a phone that served little practical purpose. TDK might have the solution with its new transparent QVGA OLEDs , available now to manufacturers in monochrome and in a lovely color variant by the end of the year. At two inches, they offer 200ppi pixel density and are more secure than you might think: the light only shines in one direction, so you actually can’t see any data from the back even though you can still see through the display. At a glance, the display’s didn’t see as vibrant as the best AMOLEDs on the market, but then again, these are passive matrix — and you can really tell in our videos after the break where the refresh scans stand out. Guess that’s the price you pay for transparency, right? We’ve also got some video of the 3.5-inch flexible OLED screens TDK’s got on hand; they’re not transparent, but considering the long, narrow resolution, we can’t help but think they’d make for amazing wristwatches (or high-tech glowstick replacements at raves). Gallery: TDK’s see-through and curved OLED display eyes-on Continue reading TDK’s see-through and curved OLED display eyes-on (video) TDK’s see-through and curved OLED display eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Data Robotics debuts 8-bay DroboPro FS with automatic offsite backup option
October 5, 2010 No Comment
It was inevitable, really. First comes the business-oriented DroboPro , then comes the network-savvy Drobo FS . Mash the two together, and out pops the DroboPro FS. Design wise, it’s the same 3U form factor that DroboPro users will recognize, but internally, Data Robotics has bumped the CPU speed from 800MHz in the Drobo FS to 1GHz here. There are eight total bays within, and a pair of gigabit Ethernet jacks around back; by default, the second port is used to connect to a different subnet (possibly for offsite file replication), while users can opt for a protection mode during setup if they’d rather it act as a fail-safe (in case the primary port kicks the bucket). More important than all of that, though, is the new Drobo Sync feature, which will be exclusive to the DroboPro FS for at least the time being. During setup, users simply input the IP address of another DroboPro FS; once that’s plugged in, they can schedule automatic offsite backups as often as each hour or as infrequently as once per day. Here’s the thing: this automatic offsite sync only works with a pair of DroboPro FS devices, so you’ll need to pick up two from the start and have ‘em shipped to different addresses if you’re interested in taking advantage. The good news, however, is that an intelligent syncing system specifically scans for minute file changes, so if you only change two cells in a 105MB Excel chart, only a few chunks of data will have to fly over your network rather than resending and overwriting the entire 105MB file. As for pricing? Given that these are meant for small biz, it’s up there — the empty base unit goes for $1,999, while at 8TB model (2TB x 4) lists for $2,699 and a 16TB behemoth (2TB x 8) sells for $3,299. The company also has plans to sell a two-device bundle (8TB units) for $6,399, aiming this at folks who want an offsite solution from the get-go. The box itself is available today from CDW, B&H and a few other e-tailers, and even if you’re not feeling spendy, you can hit that More Coverage link for a chance to win yourself a gratis Drobo FS . It’s a win-win, we tell ya. Continue reading Data Robotics debuts 8-bay DroboPro FS with automatic offsite backup option Data Robotics debuts 8-bay DroboPro FS with automatic offsite backup option originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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