Motorola Xoom WiFi to get Android 3.1 update within the ‘next several weeks’
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Google said yesterday that the new limited edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be getting updated to Android 3.1 in the next couple of weeks, and it looks like it will be a similar situation with the WiFi-only Xoom. Motorola has just announced that it will receive the update “within the next several weeks.” It also reaffirmed that the Verizon 3G Xoom is rolling out over the air this week, so you should be receiving it soon if you haven’t already. Full press release is after the break. Continue reading Motorola Xoom WiFi to get Android 3.1 update within the ‘next several weeks’ Motorola Xoom WiFi to get Android 3.1 update within the ‘next several weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 10:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Charlotte Motor Speedway, Panasonic flip the switch on the world’s largest HD screen
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Charlotte Motor Speedway and Panasonic held an event yesterday to celebrate the completion of the new world’s largest HD screen , which measures at 16,000 square feet (200 feet wide and 80 feet tall). Of course, the only natural thing to do when face with a screen this size is to play videogames on it , and CMS got very meta by bringing out NASCAR driver and simulation racing fan Dale Earnhardt Jr. to turn a few laps on the track in iRacing on the brand new display. The 720p display, located on the backstretch, is big enough for fans seated along the front stretch of the track between turn four and turn one to have a clear view of replays, standings and stats all the way across the track. Its official debut will take place May 21st during the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and will also take a turn as a massive HDTV airing clips of Top Gear USA during a History Channel sponsored race the week after. You can see the videogame rig, screen and ceremonial oversized remote above while video of them actually playing is available at the source link. [Thanks, Jeffery] Charlotte Motor Speedway, Panasonic flip the switch on the world’s largest HD screen originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Blu e-cigarettes help you make friends, light up when you’re near another Blu smoker
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Oh, that old adage: smoke, be cool, make friends. Die. Well, e-cigarette manufacturer Blu is now trying to resurrect that image, albeit perhaps without so much of the death bit , by making its packaging more sociable. It’s new “smart packs” are equipped with radio sensors that detect when a fellow Blu smoker comes within 50 feet, causing your box to light up and vibrate. This is meant to encourage you to go over and make conversation, like “Hi, so, er… you also spent $80 on a pack of battery-powered smokes. Is that fur real?” Blu e-cigarettes help you make friends, light up when you’re near another Blu smoker originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Editorial: Android@Home is the best worst thing that could happen to home automation
May 11, 2011 No Comment
As the resident Engadget home automation nerd , Google’s Android@Home announcement rocked my little low-powered RF world yesterday. Seeing a brand like Google get behind home automation is the stuff I’ve been dreaming about ever since Nokia dipped a toe into the tepid Z-Wave waters back in 2008. Unfortunately, Nokia abandoned its Home Control Center ambitions shortly thereafter, leaving the industry in the hands of such consumer powerhouses as Zensys, Sigma Designs, ExpressControls, AMX Corp, Control 4, Echelon, and Jung. Heard of them? No, no you haven’t, and that’s my point. Home automation has long suffered from the lack of a consumer-centric approach. Consumer electronics companies have almost universally come around to the new mantra of user experience. Most companies have finally awoken from their deep eighties slumber to realize that a single product can no longer dominate an industry on its own — the age of the Walkman is over. For success, a product must encompass great software, great service, hardware that just works, and stellar support when it doesn’t. In short, the user experience is what sets the product apart. Home automators have yet to realize this but Google’s announcement could force the issue. Continue reading Editorial: Android@Home is the best worst thing that could happen to home automation Editorial: Android@Home is the best worst thing that could happen to home automation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 08:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Lighting Science demos Android @ Home bulbs, promises dead-simple home automation (hands-on)
May 11, 2011 No Comment
‘Tis amazing what a partnership with Google can do. Unless you’re a frequent patron of Home Depot, there’s a slim chance you’d ever heard of Lighting Science prior to this week’s opening I/O keynote . Now, said company is leading the Android @ Home charge, and based on what we learned yesterday at its booth, we’re feeling better than ever about home automation’s chances in the mainstream market. Company representatives noted that this Google-led mesh networking solution — which beams out commands on the 900MHz frequency band — is the first HA solution that’s truly designed to be ultra-low-cost and easy to implement. Compared to Z-Wave and Zigbee, there’s far less technical expertise needed to start automating things in your home, and there’s no need to take out a second mortgage to open your garage door with your handset. Oh, and there’s zero chance anything fails due to congestion on the 2.4GHz band. We pressed the company on pricing details, and it stated that the wirelessly enabled light shown above would be priced “at parity” with the non-wireless counterpart available today. At last check, that puts a single bulb at around $30. In order to make these kinds of devices compatible with existing Android phones and tablets, a couple of WiFi-to-900MHz adapters will be available. From Lighting Science alone, you’ll soon see a light switch, security lamp and a regular wall wart on sale to handle the transfers. In other words, you can pick up a dirt-cheap plug, toss it in your guest room, and immediately give your Nexus One the ability to dictate Android @ Home products. Not too shabby, but what does this mean for the broader industry? Gallery: Lighting Science demos Android @ Home bulbs: hands-on at Google I/O Continue reading Lighting Science demos Android @ Home bulbs, promises dead-simple home automation (hands-on) Lighting Science demos Android @ Home bulbs, promises dead-simple home automation (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If you were glued to your computer during the live broadcast of the Google I/O keynote yesterday morning, you might have noticed a new feature accompanying an otherwise recognizable YouTube video. The online video provider used this morning’s conference kickoff as the springboard for its live captioning feature, which brings human input to the transcription process. According to Google’s Naomi Black, a team of stenographers banged out translations during this morning’s keynote. The resulting captions were then displayed on the conference floor and delivered by an “open source gadget” to the I/O YouTube channel. This new feature apparently prevents the inaccuracies experienced using Google’s automatic captioning function, which, if you’ll recall, provided us with at least a couple hearty chuckles when we took it for a spin . The code behind the new live captions will be available to YouTube’s partners and competitors on Google Code. You can check out tomorrow’s keynote to see how the humans fare. YouTube brings human-enabled closed captioning to live video for Google I/O originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sharp Aquos Phone SH-12C has 3D cameras, qHD resolution, Gingerbread filling
May 11, 2011 No Comment
The HTC EVO 3D and LG Optimus 3D just got themselves a new buddy in the three-dee picture-taking arena in the shape of Sharp’s Aquos Phone SH-12C. We know, that name just rolls off the tongue. What’s remarkable about the 12C is that the dual cameras on its back go all the way up to 8 megapixels (to the EVO 3D’s 5), which will be creating quite the tasty workload for the 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 chip contained within. A qHD (540 x 960) screen resolution also keeps up with HTC’s latest, though the 4.2-inch, 3D-capable display on the Aquos offers more pixel density and less in absolute real estate. Android 2.3, replete with some evident customizations, will serve as the OS, and 720p video recording in 3D will also be available when Sharp launches the 12C in Japan on May 20th. Rest of the world? Well, we can dream about it right now. Sharp Aquos Phone SH-12C has 3D cameras, qHD resolution, Gingerbread filling originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 05:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Hasbro’s experimental Nexus-powered robot toy hands-on at Google I/O (video)
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Are you ready to welcome our experimental toy robot overlords? They’re adorable, and they’re taking no prisoners here at Google I/O . Hasbro and Google are collaborating to bring these little critters to life by docking a Nexus S brain to an exoskeleton-like body containing a battery, a Bluetooth radio and a bunch servomotors (the kind you find in RC models). The battery powers the dock and provides additional juice to the phone which in turn controls the servos via Bluetooth. Where things get interesting is that these toy robots don’t just act based on a set of rules programmed into the Nexus S, but actually react to their environment (using the handset’s sensors, front-facing camera, and touchscreen) and communicate with Google’s cloud services over WiFi (for facial and object recognition) in order to enhance their behavior. Shake them and they get dizzy, rub their display and they get happy / angry, show them a Decepticon card and they cower away. They will also take a picture of you, decide if you are friend or foe, and respond accordingly. Predictably, Hasbro is sticking with gender stereotypes by providing basic male and female “personalities,” complete with accessorized docks. Check out these experimental creatures in our gallery and hit the break for our hands-on video. Just don’t go in expecting a price and release — it’s prototype cuteness only for now. Gallery: Hasbro’s experimental Nexus-powered robot toy hands-on at Google I/O Continue reading Hasbro’s experimental Nexus-powered robot toy hands-on at Google I/O (video) Hasbro’s experimental Nexus-powered robot toy hands-on at Google I/O (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 05:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Ready to get your bump on? You’d better be because Google’s planning to bring peer-to-peer NFC sharing to the Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android. Imagine it: 0-click contact, web page, and YouTube video sharing between your NFC-equipped Android smartphones and tablets. Just bring the devices together and voila, data shared without launching an application or navigating through the UI. Google plans to build this functionality into as many systems apps as it can while providing the API to developers to 0-click enable their third-party applications. Watch it go down phone-to-phone and phone-to-tablet (prototype) after the break. It’s the future, get used to it. Continue reading Android 0-click NFC sharing demonstrated in Ice Cream Sandwich (video) Android 0-click NFC sharing demonstrated in Ice Cream Sandwich (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 01:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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No need to worry about that loud, fiery exploding noise in Florida last week — that was the sound of us all becoming a little bit safer. An Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Saturday, carrying Lockheed Martin’s Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) Geo-1. The spacecraft will be followed by three more satellites launched in the next five years, all totaling $17.6 billion. Ominously referred to as “persistent overhead surveillance,” the $1.3 billion first piece of the SBIRS constellation missile defense system is set to replace the antiquated Defense Support Program launched in 1970. It’s a small price to pay to keep those darn space invaders out of our hair. Continue reading First piece of SBIRS missile defense system launched, not shot down First piece of SBIRS missile defense system launched, not shot down originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 03:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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