TomTom VIA 1435, 1535, 1405 and 1505 navigators start shipping in North America
April 1, 2011 No Comment
Remember that line of VIA navigators we peeked back at CES? Looks like today’s your lucky day if you were holding off to procure one. TomTom just announced retail availability of the VIA 1505, 1535, 1405 and 1435 in North America, and all of ‘em can also be picked up with lifetime maps and / or lifetime traffic. The 14xx models will be boasting a 4.3-inch panel, while the 15xx editions gain a 5-inch display; the whole lot includes the company’s new fold-and-go EasyPort mount, and variants do seem to be available with Bluetooth and advanced voice recognition. Look for the gang to start populating shelves this weekend for $169 and up… if you can manage to find your local Best Buy, that is. Continue reading TomTom VIA 1435, 1535, 1405 and 1505 navigators start shipping in North America TomTom VIA 1435, 1535, 1405 and 1505 navigators start shipping in North America originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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When a product takes well over a full year to go from introduction to release, it’s natural for consumer expectations to amp themselves up a notch or two. Such is the case with Razer’s Chimaera, an Xbox 360-centric wireless gaming headset that was initially teased at CES 2010, and just started shipping to end users early this year . The company’s been in the gaming headset business for some time now — if you’ll recall, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the (wired) Carcharias headset right around two years back. This 2.1 system promises to give Xbox Live yappers exactly what they’ve been waiting for, but is it really worth the $129.99 entry fee? Head on past the break for our take. Gallery: Razer Chimaera wireless Xbox 360 headset hands-on Continue reading Razer Chimaera wireless Xbox 360 headset review Razer Chimaera wireless Xbox 360 headset review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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In a nice rebound from last week , Netflix is expanding its non-exclusive agreement with Fox for content, bringing older shows Ally McBeal and The Wonder Years to Watch Instantly for the first time. Also arriving are the first season of Glee and the first two seasons of Sons of Anarchy from FX, with additional seasons to be added annually, as well as “a number of library movies” after their premium pay-tv windows subside. Its not exactly the cable TV competing type of deal that it just locked up with Paramount in Canada, but for fans of those shows have a few more reasons to hang on to the service. Beyond the announcement a slew of new content popped up on the service today including the just-aired premiere episode of Body of Proof , BBC stuff like Top Gear and Luther , a few James Bond flicks and anime like Inuyasha and Bleach , so even if you’re not a gleek (and disappointed because if Netflix and Fox are talking, the only topics of discussion should be commissioning new seasons of Firefly and Terriers ) there’s plenty of reasons to update that queue today. Continue reading Netflix adds more Fox content to streaming including Glee S1, Ally McBeal Netflix adds more Fox content to streaming including Glee S1, Ally McBeal originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …MSI slips AMD’s Fusion into 13-inch X370 ultraportable, hopes you’ll notice
April 1, 2011 No Comment
Tired of Intel’s Core i5 taking a beating on your X-Slim X360 ‘s battery life? Join the crowd. For those less concerned with playing Crysis 2 and more concerned with a solid overall machine, MSI’s new X370 looks to strike a lovely balance. The 13.4-inch ultraportable gets a 1366 x 768 resolution display, AMD’s hot-off-of-the-presses Zacate E-350 APU, Radeon HD 6310 graphics, HDMI / VGA outputs, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, an internal card reader, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, gigabit Ethernet, a 1.3 megapixel camera and (nearly) as much DDR3 memory as you can stuff into it. You’ll also get a 320/500/640GB hard drive, a 4- or 8-cell battery and a chassis that weighs 3.08 pounds with the smaller of the two cells. Naturally, Windows 7 (64-bit) is the OS of choice, but the company’s stopping short of providing a hard price or release date — here’s hoping it falls somewhere between “cheap” and “price mistake.” MSI slips AMD’s Fusion into 13-inch X370 ultraportable, hopes you’ll notice originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Microsoft removes Imagewind from Marketplace, WP7 gets first bitter taste of rejection
April 1, 2011 No Comment
Oh, sure, it was easy to pick on Apple for all those frustrating App Store rejections over the years, but Google’s had its own run-ins with apps being pulled under unfortunate circumstances , and now it’s time for WP7 users to get a taste. Microsoft has pulled Imagewind from the Windows Phone Marketplace, an app that basically pulls random images en masse from the Twitter-stream, splaying them all over your touchscreen. MS indicated that, without some sort of filter to weed out seedy images, the app has to go. Somewhat curiously it’s actually be chilling in the Marketplace since March 3rd, and it was only upon reviewing a recent update that someone in Redmond said “Hey, waitaminute!” Imagewind is now gone and honestly we can’t say that its rejection is completely arbitrary — displaying all images the all the time is not necessarily a good thing for sensitive eyes — but it still stings, doesn’t it? Microsoft removes Imagewind from Marketplace, WP7 gets first bitter taste of rejection originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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In the future, our flying robot overlords won’t just navigate terrain autonomously, they’ll also report back to base with detailed 3D maps of everything they’ve seen — or at least that’s what this homebuilt UAV does in a video released this week. In a nutshell, MIT’s combined its room-mapping Roomba with the Kinect quadrocopter radar developed at UC Berkeley, resulting in a flying contraption sure to be the envy of topographers everywhere. We’re not sure that the world’s robot incumbents will be too happy, though — perhaps MIT should invest in some laser protection next. Kinect quadrocopter gets a new mission: 3D mapping (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Try as we might, we’ve never been able to get too worked up over DAB radio — dab , just saying it rids the body of consciousness. But then we perked up after seeing the image above for Sony’s retro-nouveau XDR-S16DBP micro — a temporary burst of adrenaline nearly stifled by the more mundane XDR‑C706DBP clock radio found after the break. Both are compatible with the DAB+ digital broadcasting standard rolling out across Europe and offer ten DAB/DAB+ presets with an additional ten for FM. The
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Ah, April 1st. It’s that time of the year again when the Internet is rife with odd news and pranks. As before, news sites like us end up with a healthy stream of tips throughout April Fool’s Day (thanks, by the way), so let us round up some of the best findings for your comedic appetite. Contenders include the usual suspects like Google and ThinkGeek, the former of which dominating the gigglesphere this year with some new “features.” We also have some interesting submissions from Hulu, a font company, and probably plenty more to come as the day progresses, so keep watching this space as we add new entries to this post. Right, let the fun commence after the break. Continue reading April Fools’ Day roundup: Google overload edition April Fools’ Day roundup: Google overload edition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Like killing elephants, paper airplane construction is a skill passed from father to son generation after generation — at least until the robots take over. Dr. James Porter knows this and has done us the service of putting together a video showing him manipulating a da Vinci surgical robot to deftly fold a tiny paper airplane. So why not call in the kid and click through the break for all the go-action, daddy. It’s not quite as impressive as robotic prostate surgery but hey, at least it’s not prostate surgery. Continue reading Surgical robot builds tiny paper airplane (video) Surgical robot builds tiny paper airplane (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The details behind the rift that saw Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci (pictured) suddenly resign yesterday are now starting to emerge. Simply put, Acer’s board wants the Taiwanese company to be more like Apple and HTC, according to Bloomberg , raking in big profits on fat margins. Lanci’s approach, however, was to aggressively increase volumes and using its scale to negotiate cheaper prices from suppliers in a race to steal market share from Dell and HP . According to data compiled by Bloomberg , Acer’s profit margin in the last fiscal year was just 2.3 percent compared to Apple’s 21.5 percent. Daunting, to say the least. With Lanci gone, JT Wang, Acer’s chairman and temporary CEO, plans to put more effort into expanding its smartphone and tablet business while broadening efforts around enterprise sales. For Wang, Lanci’s departure marks a break with the past, saying, “Recently the iPad [tablet computer] and other new form factors have had a very big impact on the PC market. We have to change our business strategy.” While PCs will still be core to the business, Wang said “we won’t be in a hurry to change to become the world number one.” Unfortunately for Acer, its brand is more closely associated with low-cost laptops than with the premium devices required to significantly expand its profit margins. We’d wish ‘em luck but we think Acer will be better served by an innovative CEO and focused R&D. New Acer will be more like Apple, less like HP originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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