Spend an embarrassing amount of your life immersed in the Xbox Live universe? It’s cool — we all do. But now, you’ll actually have a better reason to ignore whoever’s yelling at you to disconnect. Microsoft has just launched its Xbox Live Rewards loyalty program after testing it out last year, but for now it’s only available to US and UK-based gamers. As our compadres over at Joystiq mention, it’s a lot like Club Nintendo, but instead of getting gear, you’ll be awarded Microsoft Points for doing things you’d already be doing anyway. Gamers can look for a ten point boost for renewing a one-month membership, a 400 point increase for buying / renewing a family plan or 100 points for activating Netflix — and that’s just the start. Hit the source link to join up. It’s free, you know. Xbox Live Rewards loyalty program goes live in the US and UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Ion Audio’s Twin Video dual-facing camera becomes more than a render, starts shipping
December 2, 2010 No Comment
Remember this little ” Twin Video ” freak of nature from January? Well, Ion Audio went and built the thing, and while it looks dramatically different now, the general idea is the same: one camera faces you, the other camera faces your subject. Outside of that it’s a pretty basic Flip-style camcorder, with a decent $120 price tag, SD card storage, and a rechargeable battery. Just remember, with great dual-facing power comes great dual-facing responsibility. Check out a sample video after the break. Continue reading Ion Audio’s Twin Video dual-facing camera becomes more than a render, starts shipping Ion Audio’s Twin Video dual-facing camera becomes more than a render, starts shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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“What’s this thing? It looks pretty cool. What pretty icons! Can I touch them? I can, really?” Etc. That basically describes our infantile thought process when we stumbled across the DreamScreen 400 (not to be confused with the DreamScreen photo frame line), a new all-in-one desktop from HP, but suddenly it all became clear: this thing is built for the Indian market, and us chubby Americans will have to keep on dreaming. Still, it’s an interesting thought experiment. HP has long sought to differentiate itself in its Windows-based offerings, and even at times abandoned its first OS love with its Mobile Internet Edition Ubuntu-based netbooks and now its upcoming webOS tablets . The DreamScreen 400, which runs some flavor of Linux with an extensive, touch-friendly HP skin on top, sort of demonstrates an alternate reality where HP decided to pursue Linux in the consumer desktop space — Microsoft be damned. Of course, this is also an actual reality: you should be able to buy this 18.5-inch desktop in India for Rs. 19,999 (about $450) in India right around nowish, and we’ll see where HP takes this software from here. [Thanks, Chris J. ] Continue reading HP’s DreamScreen 400 is the touchscreen Linux desktop you’ll never own HP’s DreamScreen 400 is the touchscreen Linux desktop you’ll never own originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …XIM3 final hardware revealed, coming soon to give an unfair advantage in Xbox 360 shooters (video)
December 1, 2010 No Comment
It’s been almost two years since the XIM2 finally became available, letting Xbox 360 gamers bring some additional inputs to their gaming — namely a keyboard and a mouse. Now its successor is nearing availability and its final form has been unleashed to the world. This version is considerably more advanced than its predecessor, sporting a little LCD for easier programming and some very advanced game-specific tuning called “Smart Translators.” These handle various settings for various games, automatically deleting the various sized and various shaped dead zones employed by various shooters, demonstrated in a video below. No price has been announced yet, but we’re guessing it’ll cost a good bit more than the (now discontinued) XIM2′s $149.99. Gallery: XIM3 final hardware [Thanks, K. Green] Continue reading XIM3 final hardware revealed, coming soon to give an unfair advantage in Xbox 360 shooters (video) XIM3 final hardware revealed, coming soon to give an unfair advantage in Xbox 360 shooters (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Wonder why Motorola’s set-top-box business got bundled in with the phones ? If we had to guess, it’s probably because Motorola Mobility is making a device that will wirelessly join both. Speaking at the Reuters Global Media Summit, company president Daniel Moloney said that Motorola’s working on a standalone device that will wirelessly sling video to tablets and phones in the home, and will later be integrated directly into new set-top-boxes the company rolls out. “It’s one consumer proposition that will come sooner rather than later,” he told the crowd, suggesting that the device would be available through “service providers” rather than sold off the shelf, and that said providers might charge an additional service fee for its use. Here’s hoping not. Perhaps Qualcomm finally found a buyer for that FLO TV spectrum , though? Motorola Mobility’s mystery gadget streams video to tablets and phones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Keepin’ it real fake: Mini Galaxy S gazes meaningfully skyward next to a mini grand piano
December 1, 2010 No Comment
If you were going to make a “mini” version of something else you’d probably want it to be significantly smaller. However, this “i9000 Mini” smartphone, cheekily adorned with both Samsung and Galaxy S branding, isn’t any more svelte than the phone it is most certainly trying to be. If our eyes don’t deceive us it’s even fatter, though the capacitive touchscreen is indeed a half-inch smaller, down to 3.5-inches, and rather than being wide VGA it is instead half VGA — doing with a measly 320 x 480 pixels. And no, it sure isn’t AMOLED . Other specs include a five megapixel camera, 512MB of ROM and RAM, and dual SIM support. Roll with this 1,480 yuan (about $200) phone and you’ll be rolling with Android 2.1, but the manufacturers promise it’ll be updated to 2.2 in just a few weeks. If you can’t trust a company that steals another company’s design, logo, and trademarks, who can you trust? Keepin’ it real fake: Mini Galaxy S gazes meaningfully skyward next to a mini grand piano originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …aTV Flash (black) now in beta, ready to equip your new Apple TV with a browser
December 1, 2010 No Comment
It’s always a bit of a funny business paying for hacks, but Fire Core’s aTV Flash is a serious product and we can’t blame them for trying to make a buck off the back of it. Now the sequel, aTV Flash (black) , is here in beta form, bringing a subset of the aTV Flash’s functionality to the brand new Apple TV, which runs that fancy new iOS-based 4.0 software. Most importantly, Fire Core brings a HTML5-compatible browser, but the Last.fm app and Plex Client are welcome tag alongs. “Coming soon” features include expanded media format support and networked storage support. The pre-order beta price is $20, while the final hack will retail for $30. For existing users, (black) is a free upgrade. [Thanks, Gustavo] aTV Flash (black) now in beta, ready to equip your new Apple TV with a browser originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Gameloft Advent Calendar offers free iPhone, Android games until Christmas
December 1, 2010 No Comment
Deals on iPhone and Android games aren’t exactly hard to come by at this time of the year, but the folks at Gameloft have cooked up something a little extra special for the month of December. They’ve just kicked off an Advent Calendar on Twitter, which promises to reveal a free iPhone games, Android games, and a few other surprises every day until December 25th — plus “a little bit more in the end.” While there may be a few duds in there, things have gotten off to a pretty good start — you can now grab the updated version of the classic PlayStation game Driver for the iPhone and iPod touch. Gameloft Advent Calendar offers free iPhone, Android games until Christmas originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …NC State and CMU develop velocity-sensing shoe radar, aim to improve indoor GPS routing
December 1, 2010 No Comment
The world at large owes a good bit to Maxwell Smart , you know. Granted, it’s hard to directly link the faux shoe phone to the GPS-equipped kicks that are around today, but the lineage is certainly apparent . The only issue with GPS in your feet is how they react when you waltz indoors, which is to say, not at all . In the past, most routing apparatuses have used inertial measurement units (IMUs) to track motion, movement and distance once GPS reception is lost indoors, but those have proven poor at spotting the difference between a slow gait and an outright halt. Enter NC State and Carnegie Mellon University, who have worked in tandem in order to develop a prototype shoe radar that’s specifically designed to sense velocity. Within the shoe, a radar is attached to a diminutive navigational computer that “tracks the distance between your heel and the ground; if that distance doesn’t change within a given period of time, the navigation computer knows that your foot is stationary.” Hard to say when Nike will start testing these out in the cleats worn by football players, but after last week’s abomination of a spot (and subsequent botching of a review by one Ron Cherry) during the NC State – Maryland matchup, we’re hoping it’s sooner rather than later. NC State and CMU develop velocity-sensing shoe radar, aim to improve indoor GPS routing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’re surprised it took this long, but what good would it do to live in the past? Google Reader is now available to download as a native app for Android , care of Google Inc. itself. Multiple accounts are supported, preferences are synced, search is enabled, and since it’s native, you can send to other apps (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Bluetooth). Should make for a better experience than the web-only client, but hey, you be the judge. Google Reader gets native Android app originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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