RCA announced these way back at CES, and it’s now finally rolled out its new line of portable “hybrid” televisions, which are able to receive both Mobile DTV and standard digital TV signals. Those include in two different 3.5-inch models that run $119 and $159 (the latter includes an FM tuner and lithium ion battery back instead of AAs), as well as a 7-inch model that will set you back $179 — somewhat curiously, those prices are all $10 higher than those originally announced. Those looking to fully round out the package can also snag a car kit that includes a charger, remote control and monopole antenna for $129. Full press release is after the break. Continue reading RCA’s line of portable hybrid televisions now available RCA’s line of portable hybrid televisions now available originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Practical or not, there is no denying the nerd-gasm inducing wow factor of Microsoft’s Surface . Of course, Surface is expensive — like, unless you’re a millionaire you’re probably not buying one for personal use expensive. There are some DIY solutions out there, but designer and developer Seth Sandler has come up with the cheapest and easiest yet. Built from about $400 worth of material (some of which you probably have lying about your home / apartment / dungeon), the MTbiggie brings big-screen multitouch to the masses. Like the hacker’s previous homebrew multitouch device, the MTmini , there’s nothing particularly difficult to find here. All you need is a couple of chairs, a mirror, a projector, an infrared webcam (which you can easily hack together with some old film negatives and cardboard), a big sheet of paper and an equally large piece of clear acrylic. Just set it all up according to the instructions in the video below and in no time you be finger painting and playing Angry Birds on a screen that dwarfs your iPad — and possibly your kitchen table, too. Continue reading MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Word out of NAB is that Matrox, known best for enabling day-traders to run an excessive number of monitors off a single graphics card, will be the first company to market with peripherals designed to use Thunderbolt . All the latest models of its MXO2 family of video I/O boxes will be shipping with Thunderbolt on board, while budding film makers using the current gen MXO2 devices will be able to push 10Gb worth of pixels per second by picking up an adapter. Matrox didn’t announce a firm release date or price, though we expect it will fall in line with the current products , which range from $449 up to almost $2,400 for the MXO2 Rack with Matrox Max. They’re not exactly must have accessories for the average user, but if you simply can’t wait any longer to put those Thunderbolt ports to use, it’s the only game in town. Matrox strikes at NAB, first to market with Thunderbolt products originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Skype with video calling leaks for HTC Thunderbolt, celebrations unsurprisingly erupt
April 11, 2011 No Comment
Verizon may have left it out from the get-go, but it looks as if eager HTC Thunderbolt owners needn’t wait another day to test out a video-enabled version of Skype . For those outside of The Loop, there was quite the back-and-forth going during the early days, with Verizon announcing at the 11th hour that its flagship LTE phone would be shipped sans Skype. It’s still unavailable in the bona firde Android Market, but a build has appeared from the ether and seems to be humming along just fine here at Engadget HQ. Hit the source link if you’re feeling froggy, and let us know in comments how things work out. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Skype with video calling leaks for HTC Thunderbolt, celebrations unsurprisingly erupt originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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There’s not exactly a lot of details on this one, but it looks like Logitech may be getting set to introduce some new company for its speaker / lapdesk contraption, the Speaker Lapdesk . A device known as the Touch Lapdesk N600 has now turned up at the FCC, which apparently not only adds some “touch” to the equation, but some 2.4GHz wireless connectivity as well. Unfortunately, that’s about all that the FCC’s willing to share at the moment, but there’s a handsome label after the break, and a couple of dozen pages of test reports at the source link below if you’re looking for a bit more evidence that this thing actually exists. Continue reading Logitech’s wireless Touch Lapdesk hits the FCC Logitech’s wireless Touch Lapdesk hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sharp suspends production at its two largest LCD factories following Japanese quake
April 11, 2011 No Comment
Toshiba, Hitachi, and Panasonic already said they would shutter their liquid crystal display plants for a month following the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck the country on March 11. Now, Japan’s largest exporter of LCD TVs ( Sharp , for those keeping notes) has suspended production at its two biggest factories, thanks to a shortage of a gas used in the manufacturing process. The Osaka and Mie plants, which have a combined capacity of 172,000 sets per month, won’t reopen until May 6, at the earliest. Until then, the company claims it has enough TVs in its inventory to last about a month. One JP Morgan Chase analyst estimates that the company stands to lose 50 billion yen ($590 million) this fiscal year due to the freeze. That all seems trivial, of course, given that more than 27,000 people in Northeastern Japan are dead or missing and the country is widening its evacuation zone, all while recovering from relentless aftershocks, including one that hit yesterday. Still, the domino effect of a strangled supply chain remains relevant to us as tech journalists, particularly if a scarcity in materials has the potential to drive up prices — and affect as many kinds of products as we think it will. Sharp suspends production at its two largest LCD factories following Japanese quake originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The current trend in the world of home theater may seem like 3D cinematography is all the hype these days, but Sony’s latest imager in its CineAlta family begs to differ. Unveiled at the 2011 NAB Show, this F65 mammoth camera (pictured right) packs one beastly 20.4 megapixel, Super 35mm CMOS sensor — a huge leap from the F35′s 2 megapixel 1080p CCD. Aside from the obvious quantitative difference, what’s special about this new chip is that unlike the Bayer BG-GR subpixel matrix on conventional 4K sensors, here we have green pixels forming the 4K grid while an RB-BR matrix fills in the space, thus doubling the number of horizontal pixels to 8K for a finer 4K picture (see illustration after the break), as well as allowing better visual effects editing using the extra data. What’s more, this sensor is fast — not only can it capture up to 72fps on 4K, but it can also crank up to a smooth 120fps on 2K. As for those seeking to squeeze out every bit of detail from their clips, don’t worry: the F65′s got you covered with a 16-bit RAW output (19Gbps) at 4K resolution, or it can be compressed to 5Gbps for the convenience of recording onto the new SR-R4 portable 4K recorder. Looks like Sony’s finally found a candidate that’ll put a lid on film stock, but then again, at the end of the day it’ll depend on the price tag when it comes out in Q3 this year. Of course, Sony isn’t going to just ignore the 3D scene here. Also announced at NAB is the PMW-TD300, which will be the first professional 3D camcorder sporting a shoulder mount. Featuring a pair of Exmor 3CMOS sensors, hardcore cameramen will finally be able to go mobile with this new toy while filming 3D in 1080p. Not sure how the videos will turn out, though — we’re not keen on the idea of watching shaky and potentially nauseating 3D captured by someone running along the sideline. Anyhow, this camera will be up for grabs in Autumn this year. [Thanks, Blackjack] Continue reading Sony shoots out CineAlta F65 4K camera and PMW-TD300 3D camcorder at NAB Sony shoots out CineAlta F65 4K camera and PMW-TD300 3D camcorder at NAB originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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HTC’s Droid Incredible 2 for Verizon hasn’t exactly been the best kept secret over the past few months, and it looks like some of the remaining few details about the phone have now also been cleared up by some more leaked documents obtained by Android Central . Assuming they are indeed legit, it’s looking like the Incredible 2 will be a world phone with both CMDA and GSM connectivity, and that it will boast a new 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera to go along with the standard 8 megapixel shooter ’round back. You can also apparently count on getting a 16-megapixel microSD card with the phone, and it seems that use of the 3G mobile hotspot will cost you an extra $20 for 20GB — although Android Central notes that may well be a typo. Here’s hoping Verizon finally clears up some of those details itself sooner rather than later. Leaked docs suggest Verizon Droid Incredible 2 will be a world phone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The Dakar is the most grueling race in the world and, while that historic location is no longer the destination, the race itself still serves as the most brutal punishment a car (or bike) can take. If you can cover 5,500 miles across some of the roughest terrain in the world you know you built it right. The Rīga Rally-Raid Team has done just that in the past, and for its next attempt it’ll make things more interesting with a series hybrid powertrain. Its car is called the OSCar eO, an EV with enough batteries to make it between 150 and 300km on a charge. However, most Dakar stages are well longer than that, so the car also carries an on-board generator, a Nissan-sourced engine fueled by a 200 liter fuel tank. That’s 53 gallons worth of the good stuff to keep this thing going over the kind of terrain you can see in the video below, with regenerative dampers helping to add juice as well. Will the whole contraption make it all the way to Dakar Lima? We’re hopeful, but then again we all know how well sand and electronics get along. Continue reading OSCar eO will bring EVs to the Dakar rally (video) OSCar eO will bring EVs to the Dakar rally (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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When ASUS dumped the source code for its 10.1-inch, Honeycomb powered Transformer tablet online we knew it was only a matter of time before someone cracked it open and bent it to their will. Before it hit store shelves here in the U.S. MoDaCo founder Paul O’Brien managed to get his hands on one of the upcoming Android devices and, with a little help from Twitter user BumbleDroid, gained root access to the tablet. So, you’ll still have to hang out for a bit before getting yours, but at least when it lands you won’t have to wait to get your hack on. [Thanks, Alessandro] Transformer rooted before ASUS can get it out the door originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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