Outside of Word documents and IM clients, one of the most intensive uses of keyboards nowadays is in massively multiplayer online games . But, gaze upon the button array before you and you’ll notice that there’s nary a single concession to your ten-hours-a-day WoW habit. SteelSeries is today looking to rectify that situation with its all-new MMO Keyset, which you can see above, attached to the company’s already available Shift gaming keyboard . This assortment of oddly titled keys comes with an exhaustive set of customization and macro options, so even the most hardcore of online raiders should be able to extract some added value from it. We’re not sure that utility will ever add up to the $25 (€25 in Europe) asking price, but then we’ve never managed to get our Night Elf Mohawk to Level 80, either. Continue reading SteelSeries Shift MMO Keyset comes optimized for online questing SteelSeries Shift MMO Keyset comes optimized for online questing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Splashtop Remote Desktop brings Windows PC access to your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
November 19, 2010 No Comment
Oh, sure — you’ve got a smorgasbord of virtual machine clients out there for the iDevice in your life, but you haven’t had this one. Until today, of course. Splashtop (the former DeviceVM ) has just unleashed its Remote Desktop app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, enabling users to funnel Windows PC content onto their handheld. The catch is an obvious one — you’ll need a WiFi connection to make the magic happen, though we’re assuming you wouldn’t even want to imagine how sluggish the process would be over 3G. The company claims that this app will let users “watch movies, listen to music, or access any other Windows files and programs, including full web browsers with Flash,” and you’ll need a WiFi-connected Win7, Vista or WinXP machine nearby to take advantage. We’ve got a feeling this won’t work nearly as well as advertised (sorry, it’s just the nature of tunneling / emulation), but those willing to take the plunge can tap into the App Store as we speak. Continue reading Splashtop Remote Desktop brings Windows PC access to your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Filed under: Software Splashtop Remote Desktop brings Windows PC access to your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Mitsubishi i is the new name of the i MiEV for American market, coming next fall for $30,000
November 19, 2010 No Comment
Mitsubishi promised it’d bring the i MiEV over to the US before 2012 and now it’s rehashed that pledge with a slightly more detailed roadmap and an indicative price point to boot. Maurice Durand, the company’s communications manager for North America, is quoted as saying the newly renamed i will cost “around $30,000″ when it launches, which is expected to happen in fall 2011. Sales expectations are a very modest 20,000 units by 2015, but apparently the idea is for Mitsu to just get its foot in the US electric vehicle market before introducing more powerful and versatile people carriers. The i is pitched as primarily a commuter’s vehicle, though it has been enlarged slightly to accommodate US safety regulations and “larger frame people.” Be honest, Maurice, you mean larger waistline, not frame. Mitsubishi i is the new name of the i MiEV for American market, coming next fall for $30,000 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It may not exactly stray too far from the company’s previous models , but MSI’s new Wind Top AC1900 does boast a slightly revised design, and some expectedly low-end but not terrible specs (assuming the price is right). That includes an 18.5-inch 1,366 x 768 display, a dual-core Celeron E3400 processor, 2GB of RAM upgradeable to 4GB, a 320GB hard drive, a built-in DVD burner, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and Windows 7 Home Premium for an OS. Still no word on pricing or availability, but the product page on MSI’s site does seem to suggest that it’ll be available soon, if it hasn’t hit stores already. MSI debuts low-end Wind Top AC1900 all-in-one PC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We might be busy refilling our inkwells in preparation for CES 2011 , but let’s not forget that some of the CES 2010 exhibitors are still working feverishly on bringing their innovations to market. Copia is one such company, though in the time between its January debut and today it’s had to abandon its plans for own-brand e-readers and has fully transitioned itself into a software offering — with apps available for the desktop, iPad, Windows Phone 7 now, and Android and other touch devices following soon. Copia allows Facebook Connect logins, which should give you a hit at its premise — it aims to meld an ebook store in with a vibrant and active online reading community, with a litany of social and sharing features making it perhaps more attractive than the somewhat more limited social skills on offer from the current ebook market leaders. Unannounced OEM partners have been engaged to deliver the Copia platform on upcoming e-reading devices, though whether the whole thing sinks or swims will be entirely up to you, the user. See a video demo of what Copia’s about after the break. Continue reading Copia’s ‘social reading’ platform goes live, abandons hardware plans Copia’s ‘social reading’ platform goes live, abandons hardware plans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Hey Xbox 360 Kinect owners, want to spice up those family shadow puppet shows? Then check out the installation prototype created by Emily Gobeille and Theo Watson using an Xbox Kinect connected to a laptop using the libfreenect Kinect drivers and ofxKinect. The openFrameworks system tracks the elbow, wrist, thumb, and tips of the fingers to map a skeleton onto the movement and posture of an animated puppet. And get this: it was made in a day. So just imagine the Kinect homebrew we’ll have around this time next year. See it in action after the break. [Thanks, Pradeep ] Continue reading Kinect hack creates world’s greatest shadow puppet (video) Kinect hack creates world’s greatest shadow puppet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 03:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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First Bluetooth , then USB and now PCI Express. It’s clearly the era of version 3.0, and given that the PCI Express specification has been humming along at 2.0 speeds for over two years now, we’d say an update was definitely due. Thankfully, the PCI-SIG has announced the availability of the PCIe Base 3.0 specification to its members today, and the highlights are certainly notable. There’s a new 128b/130b encoding scheme and a data rate of 8 gigatransfers per second (GT/s), doubling the interconnect bandwidth over the PCIe 2.0 specification. And since we’re sure you’re fretting it, we’ll go ahead and affirm that it maintains backward compatibility with previous PCIe architectures. We’re also told that based on this data rate expansion, “it is possible for products designed to the PCIe 3.0 architecture to achieve bandwidth near 1 gigabyte per second (GB/s) in one direction on a single-lane (x1) configuration and scale to an aggregate approaching 32 GB/s on a sixteen-lane (x16) configuration.” A lot of technobabble, sure, but one thing’s for sure: your next graphics card is bound to murder your current one if paired with a PCIe 3.0 motherboard. Continue reading PCI Express makes the 3.0 leap, doubles bandwidth over PCIe 2.0 spec PCI Express makes the 3.0 leap, doubles bandwidth over PCIe 2.0 spec originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 03:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Far be it from us to tell Verizon how to do a product launch, but showing off a 360-degree of the HTC Merge before the phone’s even been announced doesn’t seem like the soundest strategy to us. Of course, we doubt anyone intended for this Flash module to have become public knowledge like it has, but sure enough, a forum member over at Android Central spotted it among VZW’s web properties and now we can all take a multidimensional look at this upcoming Android handset. Yes, that includes seeing it with its sliding QWERTY keyboard open — you can find more imagery of that after the break — though the pivotal questions of when, for how much, and “can you disable Bing?” remain unanswered for the time being. Ah well, let’s just enjoy the eye candy. Continue reading HTC Merge emerges on Verizon site a little early HTC Merge emerges on Verizon site a little early originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 02:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Magellan RoadMate GPS app updated for iOS 4, includes real-time traffic and multitasking
November 19, 2010 No CommentMagellan may not be the head honcho when it comes to standalone PNDs here in North America, but that’s not stopping the outfit from keeping its iOS app up to snuff. With TomTom, Navigon and Garmin all introducing iOS 4-compatible apps over the past few months, Magellan has finally done likewise — version 1.3 of the app now enables navigation to occur in the background, meaning that iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 users will still hear turn-by-turn guidance while using another application. Better still, real-time traffic information is provided free of charge through NAVTEQ, alerting motorists to accidents, traffic flow and the nearest ice cream truck. If you’ve already sunk cash into this one, now’s a solid time to check those updates — otherwise, you can hit the source links for a trifecta of versions catering to various regions. Magellan RoadMate GPS app updated for iOS 4, includes real-time traffic and multitasking originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We were really digging this 10-inch Android tablet when we spotted it back in August , and now it’s shipping for a totally palatable $300 pricetag. It’s powerful enough to play 720p video, has a 1024 x 600 screen, HDMI out, 802.11n WiFi and even a front facing camera. Plus there’s even the somewhat comforting notion that this isn’t Archos’ first time to the Android tablet rodeo. Of course, the big drawback is the lack of Android Market, but there are always hacks to solve that , and Archos preloads some good apps to get you started. The tablet is shipping with Android 2.1, but Archos pinky swears it’ll be getting 2.2 by the end of the month. Can’t handle 10 whole inches of Android? Try the 7-incher Archos 70 on for size. You can’t say they aren’t trying. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Archos 101 now shipping, Android tablet game really heating up originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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