Every night we go to bed thinking that we’ve finally seen the best Kinect hack done and every morning we wake up to see something even crazier concocted with Microsoft’s motion controller . Today, it’s been mounted atop a quadrocopter — yes, man’s future worst enemy — and utilized essentially as a 3D radar, facilitating the bot’s autonomous maneuvering around a predetermined track. The random introduction of obstacles is also handled in stride, leaving us equal parts impressed, apprehensive, and eager for more. See the video after the break. [Thanks, Glen ] Continue reading Kinect turned into a quadrocopter radar (video) Kinect turned into a quadrocopter radar (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Federal Wi-Net bill proposes a femtocell and WiFi hotspot in every federal building
December 6, 2010 No Comment
Here’s one way to fix the spectrum crunch : set up wireless base stations and WiFi hotspots in every single one of the 9,000 buildings currently owned and operated by the US General Services Administration. That idea, along with the proposal that such installations be made mandatory in all future federal structures, was put before the US Senate this Friday. It’s argued that installing femtocells at those locations would improve reception indoors, lighten network loads in busy areas, and expand accessibility for more rural locales. Ubiquitous WiFi routers, on the other hand, hardly require any justification beyond “common sense,” but you should be aware that the Federal Wi-Net bill also asks for a $15 million budget for the performance of retrofitting and future installs. Federal Wi-Net bill proposes a femtocell and WiFi hotspot in every federal building originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …NYU prof sticks camera on the back of his head, just as promised (video)
December 6, 2010 No Comment
Remember when your parents told you they had eyes in the back of their heads, and part of you wanted to believe? Well, NYU professor and artist Wafaa Bilal recently had that done , though it’s not as permanent as we’d hoped — it’s a removable dealie, affixed to a titanium plate implanted in the back of his skull. The resulting lifecast gets piped to to a satchel at his side, which will be used in his art project The 3rd I at the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art on December 30th… but you should be able to get a sneak peek at the images at his website in just a little over a week. No word on whether he’ll also hook up the whole kit to some sweet LCD goggles . Here’s hoping. Video after the break. Continue reading NYU prof sticks camera on the back of his head, just as promised (video) NYU prof sticks camera on the back of his head, just as promised (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Man sticks camera in the back of his head, fulfills our childhood fantasies (video)
December 6, 2010 No Comment
Remember when your parents told you they had eyes in the back of their heads, and part of you wanted to believe? Well, NYU professor and artist Wafaa Bilal recently had that done. You’re looking a removable digital camera affixed to a titanium plate implanted in the back of his skull, which takes images once a minute wherever he goes. The resulting lifecast gets piped to to a satchel at his side, which be used in his art project The 3rd I at the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art on December 30th… but you should be able to get a sneak peek at the images at his website in just a little over a week. The man’s been responsible for controversial art before, however (see: the “Virtual Jihadi” game) so we can’t promise this one will be any safer for work. Also, no word on whether he’s yet hooked up the whole kit to some sweet LCD goggles . Here’s hoping. Video after the break. Continue reading Man sticks camera in the back of his head, fulfills our childhood fantasies (video) Man sticks camera in the back of his head, fulfills our childhood fantasies (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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No. 1 Auburn meets No. 2 Oregon in the BCS national title game. TCU plays Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Virginia Tech takes on Stanford in the Orange Bowl. Pairings were also announced Sunday for the other BCS bowl games. (Dec. 5)
Continue reading …NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M refreshes mobile graphics midrange, starts up 500M series
December 6, 2010 No Comment
Uh oh, just as we thought NVIDIA had moved beyond its penchant for rebadging hardware , here comes the vanguard of its 500M mobile GPU series — which happens to be specced nearly identically to what’s already on offer in the 400M family . The GT 540M chip maintains the same 96 CUDA cores and 128-bit memory interface as the GT 435M, but earns its new livery by cranking up graphics and processor clock speeds to 672MHz and 1344MHz, respectively, while also taking the onboard memory to a max speed of 900MHz. Power requirements have been kept unchanged, mind you, and NVIDIA itself admits it’s exploiting the maturation of the production process to just throw out some speedier parts. China gets the GT 540M immediately, courtesy of Acer, while the rest of the world should be able to buy in at some point next month. Jump past the break for the full press release. Continue reading NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M refreshes mobile graphics midrange, starts up 500M series NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M refreshes mobile graphics midrange, starts up 500M series originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Deja vu all over again ? Not quite — this time it’s Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and and Indiana feeling the pain of no Comcast internet, according to a bevy of tipsters and a series of official ComcastCares tweets. As before, the fix is fairly simple, assuming you know how to manually switch your DNS — just point your computer to a public domain name server (like Google’s at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, but there are plenty of others) and things should re-route themselves in seconds flat. Friends don’t let friends go without a connection, so if you know someone who’s likely affected but won’t find out what’s wrong until it’s too late, why not shoot them a text message or something to share the fix? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Comcast internet down in the midwest, DNS servers to blame again originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …LimeWire the online store fades away, LimeWire the file-sharing service soldiers on
December 6, 2010 No Comment
In what will no doubt be held up as an shining example of irony in the months and years to come, it seems the RIAA has succeeded in shutting down LimeWire … but only the legal part. The LimeWire Store, which legitimately sold online music, will reportedly close on December 31st, and the site itself states that it won’t be taking new customers from now on. Where, oh where will folks get their digital tunes instead? Some might go right back to filching them using LimeWire’s peer-to-peer application, which hasn’t actually been squashed by the injunction . Yes, a rogue group released LimeWire Pirate Edition last month, a version of the original Gnutella P2P client with all the bloat stripped out and premium functionality turned on, which is apparently receiving so welcome a reception in the file-sharing community that the Lime Group felt the need to issue a cease-and-desist to those distributing the software. Yo ho, yo ho… LimeWire the online store fades away, LimeWire the file-sharing service soldiers on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Shenzhen netvertible flips its lid, apes Dell Inspiron Duo with days to spare
December 5, 2010 No Comment
If you thought the Inspiron Duo would be the only netvertible to have a slick spinning screen, think again — with less than three months since Dell’s design debuted and ten days till it ships , that trap-door design’s been copied by the gadget giants of Shenzhen. This time around, it’s not an obvious KIRF , but it’s also not a terribly powerful little PC — where Dell at least attempted to push the envelope with a dual-core Atom N550 processor, 2GB of RAM and a Broadcom Crystal HD chip, here we’re looking at a bargain-basement netbook with all the usual suspects (Atom N450, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, Intel GMA 3150) and what looks like a tiny optical trackpad. At least it’s got a capacitive screen! No word on when or how much you can expect to pay if flipping bezels are your thing. Shenzhen netvertible flips its lid, apes Dell Inspiron Duo with days to spare originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Micron embeds error correction in flash memory chips, calls it ClearNAND
December 5, 2010 No Comment
Solid state storage is fantastic stuff, durable and lightning-quick, but it’s got its fair share of quirks — bits fail, pages fill up, and cells deteriorate over time. Typically, the onus is on a beefy controller to take care of your drive and make sure it lasts a good long while (which is why brand names like SandForce can make or break an SSD) but it looks like Micron is planning to usurp some of that responsibility with its new ClearNAND chips. Simply put, each ClearNAND memory module has a built-in 24-bit error correction engine, so your drive’s host controller doesn’t have to shoulder that load, and can focus on the good stuff — getting your data delivered at speeds that would obliterate traditional hard drives. Micron says the new chips are available right now in 25nm sizes . Want a more technical rundown? Hit up our more coverage link to hear what this might mean for the error-prone future of the medium. PR after the break. Continue reading Micron embeds error correction in flash memory chips, calls it ClearNAND Micron embeds error correction in flash memory chips, calls it ClearNAND originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 18:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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