That’s me above, on the left. I’m Robin, reaping all of the benefits of fighting supervillians on the mean streets of Gotham, without the whole thing about watching my parents brutally murdered by a mob boss. All things considered, life was pretty good, growing up in the East Bay in the ’80s, save for the fact that my cousin was somehow promoted to the role of Batman – most likely because he was visiting from afar (and maybe brought his own costume up from Southern California). And then there’s the whole holding hands thing — I can pretty much guarantee that ended the moment the photographer parent put the camera down. I mean, Arkham Asylum isn’t going to patrol itself. Despite early photographic evidence to the contrary — and a few select themed birthday parties — I was never really a DC Comics kid growing up. I’d chalk a fair amount of that up to the fact that, so far as these photo albums indicate, I didn’t arrive on a rocketship from an exploding homeland, and was never independently wealthy, as the poor tailoring job on the Robin suit can attest. Continue reading Growing Up Geek: Brian Heater Growing Up Geek: Brian Heater originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
You know what’s pleasing about this plastic drone, aside from the fact it flies? It took just a week to design and build from scratch , thanks to the labor-saving wonders of 3D printing . Each component was formed in ultra-thin layers by a laser beam trained on a bed of raw material — either plastic, steel or titanium powder depending on the required part. If designers at the University of Southampton wanted to experiment with elliptical wings, they simply printed them out. If they thought a particular brand of WWII nose cone might reduce drag, they pressed Ctrl-P. And if they reckoned they could invent a wingless flying steamroller… Er, too late . Anyway, as the video after the break reveals, there’s never been a better time for the work-shy to become aeronautical engineers. Continue reading 3D-printed plane takes to the skies, sounds like a Black & Decker (video) 3D-printed plane takes to the skies, sounds like a Black & Decker (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Fusion Garage’s Grid 10 tablet clears the FCC, begs us not to call it the ‘JooJoo 2′
July 29, 2011 No Comment
If at first you don’t succeed, discontinue your product, carry on a lawsuit, and then try again. That’s the story thus far for Fusion Garage , the company behind the failed JooJoo tablet , an overpriced, hard-to-use slate that proudly omitted all the things people like about tablets — you know, like apps . After the underwhelming sales figures started rolling in, Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan, the company’s founder, admitted that perhaps some people might sometimes be interested in doing things other than surf the web. That was the end of JooJoo , though he promised, ominously, that we hadn’t seen the last of Fusion Garage. Well, here we are: the troubled company just sent another tablet through the FCC, and no, it’s not called the “JooJoo 2.” Rather, this one’s dubbed the “Grid 10″ — a likely attempt on Fusion Garage’s part to distance itself as much as possible from its embarrassing (and messy ) entrance into the tablet market. For now, though, that’s near-impossible, especially given that this FCC report contains precious few details about what this thing will be capable of. No word either on when the JooJoo will rise from the grave as an Android-running zombie, but our guess is that apocalyptic day is nigh. Fusion Garage’s Grid 10 tablet clears the FCC, begs us not to call it the ‘JooJoo 2′ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Sony’s Qriocity video streaming service is going mobile. The on-demand pay-per-view offering (which is probably best known for its supporting role in the recent PSN outage debacle ) is making the jump from the living room to your pocket — provided said pocket is stuffed with a 2011 Xperia smartphone. Initially it will only be available to Mini and Mini Pro owners, but eventually it’ll be pushed to rest of the current lineup in nine markets, including the US, UK and Japan. Check out the source link for more details. Qriocity video streaming coming to Xperia packing pocket near you originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …ASUS EEE Pad Slider priced in Portuguese catalog, manhandled on camera (video)
July 29, 2011 No Comment
ASUS first showed off its EEE Pad Slider what seems forever ago. That was way, way back at CES , amongst the deluge of tablety announcements. The keyboard-hiding Honeycomb device is finally on its way, having been given an August release date in the UK and recently hitting the FCC in the States. The 10.1-inch tablet just popped up in the August catalog for the Phone House (the Carphone Warehouse’s brand outside the UK) catalog in Portugal, priced at €349 ($497) under contract with ZON — that’s down from €479 ($684) without contract. The forthcoming tablet also hammed it up for the camera recently — video of that after the break. [Thanks, Zack and Pedro] Continue reading ASUS EEE Pad Slider priced in Portuguese catalog, manhandled on camera (video) ASUS EEE Pad Slider priced in Portuguese catalog, manhandled on camera (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Good news DIYers, XBee now comes in WiFi flavors. The favorite wireless module of Arduino tinkerers everywhere is growing up and adding 802.11n to its normal compliment of RF and ZigBee options. Development kits are available now starting at $149 per board, with add-on modules like embedded or wire antennas and RF connectors clocking in at $49. It might not seem like a big deal to some of you out there, but anyone who’s contemplated building a Tweet-a-Watt or a Yarn Monster will appreciate being able skip adding a ZigBee adapter to their PC. Check out the PR after the break. Continue reading XBee grows up, delivers WiFi to DIYers and Arduino enthusiasts XBee grows up, delivers WiFi to DIYers and Arduino enthusiasts originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Think Geek’s Electric Guitar Bag holds your laptop, lets you ‘rock’ the commute
July 29, 2011 No Comment
ThinkGeek’s really letting the jams out this time. The company is no stranger to shirts emblazoned with playable instruments — but a messenger bag? Its new Electric Rock Guitar Bag features 14 buttons for a fretboard so you can strum any songs in a Major key, and a detachable amp that cranks all the way up to an obligatory 11 . You’ll also have room for a 17-inch laptop, while its eight pockets can hold your Green Day and Blink-182 chord-charts. Come August 28th, 50 bucks is all it’ll cost ya to rock while your rolling during the commute, but in the meantime, we know the perfect synth player for when you wanna get that office band started. Think Geek’s Electric Guitar Bag holds your laptop, lets you ‘rock’ the commute originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …British judge doesn’t like the cut of Newzbin 2′s jib, orders BT to block it
July 29, 2011 No Comment
Shiver-me-timbers, it looks like the movie studios’ latest legal broadside just scored a direct hit against the big bad pirate ship. A UK judge has ordered telecoms giant BT to block its subscribers from visiting Newzbin 2, a site which aggregates Usenet downloads, on the simple basis that BT knows some of its customers are using the the site to breach copyright law and therefore has a duty to stop them. This counts as an unprecedented victory for the Motion Picture Association, who brought the case, and it potentially arms them with a new weapon to force ISPs to block other sites in future. Could that be Newzbin 3 we spy on the horizon? British judge doesn’t like the cut of Newzbin 2′s jib, orders BT to block it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Google’s Music Beta gives users two invites, keys to the cloud for their best mates
July 29, 2011 No Comment
We probably all know at least one person who is bummed they missed out on the initial round of invites for Music Beta by Google . Well friends, you can be the bearer of good news for those troubled souls (who haven’t moved on to other online music pursuits, of course), as we discovered through a fellow music enthusiast. Members of the cloud-based service are now the proud owners of two invites handed down from the Goog, to be passed out only through a thorough application and interview process. Ok, not really… but perhaps you do have the power to make two of your friends, or soon-to-be friends, pretty happy. That is, until they realize how long it will take them to upload that music library they’ve been curating since 8th grade. [Thanks, Ralph] Google’s Music Beta gives users two invites, keys to the cloud for their best mates originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Ready for another mobile operating system ? Alibaba certainly is, having just unveiled its Aliyun OS. The new entrant will apparently be “fully compatible” with apps from Android through a proprietary Waterloo-style emulation layer . We don’t know exactly how that’ll work, but come September we’ll find out when the new OS ships on a rebranded Tian Hua K-Touch, the W700, for
Continue reading …