We knew it was coming , but today at BlackBerry World 2011 we were treated to a demo of Android apps running natively on the PlayBook. The end result isn’t too far removed from what we saw with Myriad’s Alien Dalvik at Mobile World Congress. Android’s menu and home buttons are emulated using the standard PlayBook gestures, and the back button is replaced with an on-screen softkey. Of course, you’ll have to visit App World to download Android apps for the PlayBook when the Android Player (as it’s called) finally becomes available. And speaking of Android apps, the wildly popular Angry Birds is coming to the PlayBook as a native game – no cross-platform trickery required. Android apps on PlayBook eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Alienware M18x shipping now, hernia threat level set to high for American delivery men
May 3, 2011 No Comment
Here it is tinfoil hat gaming enthusiasts, the Alienware M18x laptop. Sure, you’ve been told it existed and even seen some photos of a purported prototype , but a savvy person such as yourself wants to see the proof with his or her own eyes. Now Dell is willing to deliver one of these 16-pound beasts to your doorstep for the starting price of $1,999. Let’s be serious though, you’re not interested in that pedestrian 2GHz Core i7 that ships with the base model. You want the intergalactic speed delivered by that Core i7 Extreme overclocked to 4GHz and dual 2GB Radeon 6970m graphics cards. Top it off with a pair of 256GB SSDs and 32GB of RAM and you’re looking at a $6,000 laptop. Nobody said this thing was gonna be cheap — besides, it’s gonna cost some serious dough to cover up the disappearance of the M15x . [Thanks, Nicklas] Alienware M18x shipping now, hernia threat level set to high for American delivery men originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s time for us to welcome yet another contender in the battle for world’s slimmest Android phone: the LG Optimus Black . This 9.2mm-thick handset made its debut to oohs and aahs of admiration at CES earlier in the year, and is now on the very precipice of a global release. Admittedly, it’s not quite slender enough to knock the 7.7mm-thick NEC MEDIAS N-04C off its perch as the absolute thinnest, but it is sufficiently slender to give Samsung’s Galaxy S II and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc a good fright. That pair of smartphones offer thinner proportions on the spec sheet, but when rested on a flat surface they sit ever so slightly higher than the Optimus Black. This is because, unlike its tricky contemporaries, the Optimus Black keeps to the same thickness along its full length (don’t laugh), which, technically speaking, makes it the thinnest Android handset on the European market. Check it out in the gallery below or video after the break — and hold tight, we’ll have a full review for you in the coming days! Gallery: LG Optimus Black vs. Galaxy S II and Xperia Arc… fight! Continue reading LG Optimus Black vs. Galaxy S II and Xperia Arc… fight! LG Optimus Black vs. Galaxy S II and Xperia Arc… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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One Thunderbolt port on your new MacBook Pro ? Pah. The new 27-inch iMac has twice that many — two. When we got ours out of the box we just had to do the natural thing: fire up as many pixels as possible. Two 30-inch Dell displays and a couple of dual-link DVI display adapters later and we have what you see above: a wide swath of LCD covering covering 11,878,400 pixels. Sure, any average desktop can do this, but how many all-in-ones can push that many dots? The iMac’s 27-inch, 2,560 x 1,440, LED-backlit IPS panel is definitely a highlight, but flanked by another two monsters the combination is, honestly, a little overwhelming. We tried working this way but only made it about 30 minutes before retreating to smaller fields of view. Other tid-bits we’ve learned about the updated iMac: those who’d rather swipe than drag can now choose to order theirs with a Magic Trackpad instead of a Magic Mouse, though we’re sure Apple would surely be happy to sell you both. Additionally, the 21.5-inch model can now be configured with a 256GB SSD, just like its big bro. The bigger news, of course, is what’s on the inside, with updated Radeon HD graphics featuring GDDR5 memory and Sandy Bridge processors all-round. We’ll be back with a full review later to get a feel for just how powerful this thing is, but until then dig all those pixels in the video below. Gallery: 27-inch iMac unboxing and triple-display config Continue reading Apple iMac hands-on, with dual 30-inch displays! (video) Apple iMac hands-on, with dual 30-inch displays! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 11:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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This year has seen the evil doings of many powerful natural disasters around the world, and while the capable organisations are doing their best to provide relief, many lives could’ve been saved if the stranded victims were able to provide their precise positions for quicker rescue. Having seen the number of recent floods and cyclones in Queensland, Australia, Ergon Energy started trialing a new emergency tracking system earlier this year, which utilises pole-mounted mobile GPS stations to pinpoint cellphones equipped with special but cheap location-based chips — Samsung and Nokia are said to be participants in this project. Over the next 12 to 18 months, said energy firm will be deploying 1,000 of these stations to cover 95 percent of the state, in order to let emergency services track down calling victims within centimeters — that’s a huge leap from conventional GPS devices’ 10 to 20 meters, though an updated land database with matching accuracy is still required before the system reaches its full potential. Regardless, here’s hoping that this brilliant project will be brought over to many more disaster-prone areas sooner rather than later. [Thanks, Justin] Australia trialing new emergency finder system with centimeter accuracy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 09:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Steve Ballmer made an appearance today at BlackBerry World 2011 and after briefly pimping Window Phone on stage, announced a partnership between Microsoft and RIM to integrate Bing into BlackBerry products. In addition to making Bing the default search and map provider for all BlackBerry devices, the functionality will be added at the OS level instead of being included as a series of apps. This will provide features such as voice and location-aware search as well as panorama stitching. It also suggests that we’ll likely see another iteration of the BlackBerry OS beyond version 7 — based on QNX , perhaps? — sometime before the holidays. BlackBerry to integrate Bing services at the OS level originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …E Ink dashes hopes of a next-gen display in 2011, but pencils in full-motion video for 2012
May 3, 2011 No Comment
E Ink Holdings is brazenly making us wait until 2012 before producing a successor to its popular Pearl electronic paper display. One of the company’s VPs dropped into CNET ‘s offices to spill the bad news: developing and testing a next-generation display “takes some time”, apparently, and it is sticking to a two year product cycle. Perhaps E Ink has shifted its focus to the LCD screen in Amazon’s rumoured tablet . Or maybe it’s still working on the Triton color e-ink display that left us so underwhelmed at CES. Either way, the monochrome Pearl has been knocking around in the Kindle and other e-readers for a while now and although it has better contrast than earlier iterations, it is still ripe for a revamp — especially a faster refresh rate. But the E Ink VP did hint at some brighter news: the next-gen display, when it does finally arrive, could sport full-motion video. So far e-ink video has failed to go beyond a slightly jittery 10-15fps , so full-motion 24fps or 30fps could definitely be worth the wait. E Ink dashes hopes of a next-gen display in 2011, but pencils in full-motion video for 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 09:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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While designer Theo Jansen’s dreams of a race of independently multiplying Strandbeests is more than just a little bit out there, it seems he has found a way to streamline production of the rather fascinating self-propelled creatures. In language that is unique to Jansen’s relationship with the things, he explains the impact of 3D printing on the Strandbeest production process as such: “Strandbeests have found a way to multiply by injecting their digital DNA directly into the Shapeways system.” The 3D printed versions of his strolling mechanisms, known as Animaris Geneticus Parvus, are now available in the Shapeways store, and require zero post-printing assembly. Check out the video after the break for more of Jansen’s eyebrow-lifting take on reality. Continue reading Strandbeests birthed from 3D printer pop out ready to walk (video) Strandbeests birthed from 3D printer pop out ready to walk (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Tiny CrazyFlie quadrocopter piloted by Playstation controller, does not run Doom (video)
May 3, 2011 No Comment
While autonomous quadrocopters are quietly evolving into Hunter-Killers , there’s still one who just wants to be your friend and playmate. Meet CrazyFlie, a tiny (so tiny!) chopper you can hold in the palm of your fleshy, human hand. Built by the trio of hackers at Daedalus Projects, on a printed circuit board that weighs just 20 grams and spans eight centimeters, it’s piloted using a Bluetooth Playstation controller; the onboard Cortex-M3 CPU keeps it flying stable by monitoring gyroscopes and accelerometers and adjusting rotor speed accordingly. Enjoy its adorable, gnat-like whirring in the video after the break, and the source link includes a detailed build diary for the truly ambitious. Continue reading Tiny CrazyFlie quadrocopter piloted by Playstation controller, does not run Doom (video) Tiny CrazyFlie quadrocopter piloted by Playstation controller, does not run Doom (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 05:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Details are spotty but Apple special forces have apparently swept into its data center, temporarily disrupting the company’s ability to sell anything online. We’re expecting official word of the operation from company CEO Steve Jobs, at about 08.30 Eastern Time. With any luck, a new iMac will emerge unscathed by the Nehalem menace , sporting a shiny new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture all its own. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Apple store goes down, iMac refresh on high alert originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 05:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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