We did a bit of a double take when we first saw the press release this morning for the new Acer Revo 100. Sifting through our memory banks (and Engadget archives), we finally remembered: the “Revo 2″ with Intel CE4100 shown off earlier this year at IDF. We’re betting this is just a twin and the Intel version is still en route, but for now, the Revo 100′s packing AMD Athlon II Neo dual-core processor with NVIDIA ION graphics, up to 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, Dolby Home Theater v3, Blu-ray drive, 802.11b/g/n, and a multitude of ports including HDMI and two mini-PCI Express card slots for expansion. More interesting, though, is the slide-out RevoPad, which can function as either a multitouch gesture pad or, when activated, a QWERTY keyboard with lit-up keys on the same surface. Software-wise, we’ve got Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and Acer’s new clear.fi media sharing system . When’s it available? Now — at least in the UK. How much?
Continue reading …Verizon CEO: 4G can be a ‘substitute’ for home internet and cable, will accelerate cord cutting
December 7, 2010 No Comment
Sometimes, you have to wonder if these CEO types are being paid the big bucks just because they can believe their own outlandish claims. Latest to try and push the boundaries of credulity is Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg, who told an investor conference that he sees the company’s newly unveiled 4G offering as becoming a “modest substitute” for premium home entertainment services as offered by cable and online streaming companies. He concedes that for now VZW’s new LTE network will be viewed as an addition, rather than a replacement, to our connected world, but, over time, Seidenberg expects that its presence will be enough to convince more people to cut the cord . Perhaps those who’ll find the $50 per 5GB levy easiest to swallow will be those with no cord at all — the folks in rural areas for whom wired broadband isn’t yet an option. As to the rest of us, we’ll just wait until the economics start to look a tiny bit more appealing. Verizon CEO: 4G can be a ‘substitute’ for home internet and cable, will accelerate cord cutting originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Visa clears DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay mobile payment microSD card for use in smartphones
December 7, 2010 No Comment
No iPhone? No problem. If you’ll recall, we heard back in May that Visa was in cahoots with DeviceFidelity , with the two trumpeting a not-exactly-svelte In2Pay case that would add contactless payment support to Apple’s darling. Today, the rest of the world is finally being taken into consideration. The aforementioned firms have just cleared a new In2Pay microSD solution for use in the real world, with the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the Samsung Vibrant in particular named as compatible. In theory, it seems that nearly any smartphone with a microSD slot could be ushered into the arena, and Visa itself expects to add additional phone models for use with this technology, “including phones based on the Symbian and Windows operating systems.” This unveiling is happening after a solid 18 months of testing around the globe, but there’s no definitive word on which banks will be offering this to customers. Between this and the sudden interest in NFC , America seems more poised than ever before to slip ever further into an endless pool of debt, and with way less friction than before! We kid, we kid… kind of. Continue reading Visa clears DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay mobile payment microSD card for use in smartphones Visa clears DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay mobile payment microSD card for use in smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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There are many hugely efficient ways to get around Tokyo, but for visitors taxis usually come at the bottom of that list. Drivers rarely speak English and, compared to the rest of the world, they’re quite expensive (about $8 to start, going way up from there). But, should you find yourself in one they’re naturally hugely clean and sophisticated, that sophistication getting a boost now by DoCoMo . 820 black sedans for hire in Tokyo will be outfitted with WiFi, freely available to customers who dishonor the back seats with their backsides. 100 of the cars will even have Sony PSP s back there too, which is odd because we were pretty sure everyone in Tokyo already had one — or a DS , at least. These specially equipped taxis can be identified by the red DoCoMo WiFi stickers on the doors, so don’t accept anything less, no matter how late you are for that KneuKlid Romance concert in Shinjuku. Docomo grants Japanese taxis with WiFi, PSPs, little red stickers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …MantaroBot telepresence robot works via Skype, offends our aesthetic sensibilities
December 7, 2010 No Comment
We don’t see much in this space from Mantaro, an engineering and development company that usually works on things like network management systems and switches for telecoms. That’s why we were pleasantly surprised when the company announced an affordable telepresence robot . How affordable, you ask? Well, in a marketplace where these things can easily cost well over ten grand, MantaroBot can be yours for a cut-rate $3,500. Unfortunately, in a marketplace where these things can easily cost over ten grand, MantaroBot also looks like it cost a cut-rate $3,500. But you know what? Sometimes one must choose function over form. And what you get here is pretty straightforward: the remote operator steers the robot and communicates using a Skype plug-in (PC only) that also allows 180 degree panning and tilting of the onboard HD camera. This bad boy also features infrared sensors for obstacle detection, communication link monitoring (if you go offline, MantaroBot stops in its place) and more. Available now. PR after the break. Continue reading MantaroBot telepresence robot works via Skype, offends our aesthetic sensibilities MantaroBot telepresence robot works via Skype, offends our aesthetic sensibilities originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 debuts: the 580 goes on a power diet to fit into $349 price bracket
December 7, 2010 No Comment
Want to know what the famous act of cutting down a graphics card to match a given price point looks like? Well, here it is, the $349 GTX 580 (aka GeForce GTX 570): it has 480 CUDA cores running at 1464MHz, a 732MHz graphics clock, and 1.25GB of GDDR5 memory hurtling along at an effective rate of 3.8GHz. Each of those specs represents a moderate downgrade from NVIDIA’s original 500 series GPU, while the physical construction — including that vapor chamber cooler — is almost wholly identical to the 580. Aside from the paintjob, the only difference is that the GTX 570 can live on a pair of 6-pin auxiliary power connectors. The best comparison for the 570, however, turns out to be NVIDIA’s former flagship, the GTX 480, as reviewers found the new card’s performance to be nearly identical to the old tessellation monster . Verdicts invariably agreed that the 570 is quieter, cooler, and more power-efficient, making it pretty much a no-brainer of a purchase in its price bracket. Of course, every recommendation comes colored with the warning that AMD should finally be unveiling its upper-tier wares next week — we’d wait the extra few days before parting with our cash. Read – HardOCP Read – Tech Report Read – AnandTech Read – Bit-tech Read – Hexus Read – Legit Reviews Read – PC Perspective Continue reading NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 debuts: the 580 goes on a power diet to fit into $349 price bracket NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 debuts: the 580 goes on a power diet to fit into $349 price bracket originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …SGI’s ICE Cube Air Modular Data Centers can be deployed anywhere, even in the hood
December 7, 2010 No Comment
SGI is a shadow of its former self, selling its name to Rackable Systems and appearing in some disgraceful situation comedies. We like to remember the old, harder, edgier SGI, a pioneer in the computer graphics industry when it came straight outta Sunnyvale in the ’80s. Now it’s back, launching the ICE Cube Air Modular Data Center, capable of housing four racks and expandable up to 80 and a total of 97,920 cores and 143.36PB of storage. Each unit is almost entirely self-sufficient, requiring only power and a supply of water, which can come from a plain old garden hose. Cost starts at $99,000, which isn’t cheap, but we went ahead and ordered four. You know how we do it. Continue reading SGI’s ICE Cube Air Modular Data Centers can be deployed anywhere, even in the hood SGI’s ICE Cube Air Modular Data Centers can be deployed anywhere, even in the hood originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Another day, another annoying distraction when you turn on your PlayStation 3 . Prepare to be prompted to update your machine, version 3.55 hitting the internets and offering a single thing: “a security patch.” No word on exactly which holes are being spackled over or how long it’ll take for modders to drill them back out again, but be sure to pledge your allegiance and update today, so that you can be better prepared to update again tomorrow. PS3 update v3.55 adds ‘a security patch,’ nothing else originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Toshiba planning trio of tablets for CES: one each for Android, Chrome OS and Windows 7
December 7, 2010 No Comment
So what if the Libretto exited the common consciousness almost as quickly as it entered it while the Folio 100 was bad enough to get its major UK retailer to discontinue it ? Toshiba promised it’d have a family of tablets for us by the end of 2011′s first quarter and the plan apparently hasn’t changed. DigiTimes is reporting today that three new Toshiba slates are set for their debut at CES in a month’s time, two of them equipped with 10.1-inch screens and a third sized at 11.6 inches. Microsoft’s Windows 7 and Google’s Chrome OS and Android will each be responsible for providing the operating environment on one of these new tablets, indicating that Toshiba — much like the rest of the world — has yet to make up its mind about what the best tablet OS out there is. We should know more in just a few short weeks. Toshiba planning trio of tablets for CES: one each for Android, Chrome OS and Windows 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Work, play on a single phone: LG teams up with VMware to deploy Android handsets with virtualization
December 7, 2010 No Comment
VMware has been chatting up seamless, sexy virtualization among multiple operating systems on a single smartphone for some time — and it’s finally getting the opportunity to deliver en masse thanks to a new partnership with LG. Targeted at the enterprise, Korea’s number two phone maker — which is going into 2011 with a big Android push — will be integrating VMware’s virtualization technology into some of its models next year, starting with Android but potentially moving to other platforms ( Windows Phone 7 comes immediately to mind) if the market demands it. You might think that being able to virtualize a second operating system on your phone doesn’t have much consumer relevance, but VMware’s got a point: with smartphones becoming more of an end-user phenomenon than ever before, it’s getting tougher for IT departments to sell employees on giving up their personal phones in favor of a secure, managed, corporate-provided alternative. With the virtualized setup, the work phone lives as an app within the personal phone — two phone numbers, two complete environments, and only the work environment can be controlled by the IT nerds. Long term, the concept would be that employees could use whatever phone their little hearts desire — companies would merely need to dump their VMware setup on top and you’ve suddenly got your work phone integrated. Follow the break for the press release and a video demo of VMware’s virtualization software (on a Nexus One, not an LG) in action. Continue reading Work, play on a single phone: LG teams up with VMware to deploy Android handsets with virtualization Work, play on a single phone: LG teams up with VMware to deploy Android handsets with virtualization originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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