Fears of range anxiety have loomed over EVs since their inception, and those fears were validated courtesy of a couple unfortunate souls whose Nissan Leafs apparently died on them while driving. The drivers put their faith in the Leaf’s remaining range calculation, and were sorely disappointed when the car’s dash said they had enough juice to go 10+ miles, but the batteries had other ideas. Turns out, the Leaf needs some time to get to know you and your lead foot before it can accurately determine the bounds of its own range. Nissan sent engineers out to check the cars and found no technical faults — but one driver reckons the cold sapped some of the batteries’ power (a theory that Mini E drivers would disagree with ) and the car’s software didn’t factor that in when making its range estimates. Who’s to blame? We suspect that while there was some user error, Nissan should rework the Leaf’s software to improve range calculation — else we may be talking about the death of EVs instead of internal combustion . Range anxiety gets real: Nissan Leaf drivers run out of juice on the road originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 02:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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An animal research technician charged with killing a Yale University graduate student days before her wedding plans to plead guilty Thursday, his attorney said. (March 15)
Continue reading …Staples’ slate of slates leaks out, corroborates Samsung 8.9-incher and the HP Opal?
March 15, 2011 No Comment
For over a month, we’ve held onto a document — allegedly a Staples tablet guide — that’s been looking increasingly wrong as the days fly by. Tablet release dates were too soon, and prices were far too high, which made us think it was either a forgery or sorely out of date. (Curious? See our copy after the break.) This week, however, Droid-Life published a far more likely looking copy of the very same thing, which appears to be both quite recent and fairly interesting. You’ll see that Samsung’s 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab makes a cameo, as does the 7-inch HP Opal we told you about early this year, and both the BlackBerry PlayBook and Dell Streak 7′s appearances align with recent rumors we’ve seen. The only outlier is an April release date for the Motorola Xoom WiFi, which ads peg for March 27th . The rest is practically a who’s who of upcoming tablets, so we’ll spare you the full churn of the rumor mill. If you want to know what we know about the lot, simply refer to our coverage below. Update: Oh, and that HTC tablet is listed as a 10-inch one — could it be the EVO View we’ve been waiting for? [Thanks, Morgan] Read – Dell Streak 10 Read – Acer Iconia Tab Read – Toshiba’s unnamed Tegra 2 / Honeycomb tablet Read – HP TouchPad [Thanks, Billy F.] Continue reading Staples’ slate of slates leaks out, corroborates Samsung 8.9-incher and the HP Opal? Staples’ slate of slates leaks out, corroborates Samsung 8.9-incher and the HP Opal? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Netflix rumored to spend $100 million or more outbidding cable networks for one new TV show
March 15, 2011 No Comment
While Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has suggested the company would avoid getting into the content business, Deadline Hollywood reports it outbid cable channels like HBO and AMC for a new David Fincher drama starring Kevin Spacey called House of Cards . The post goes on to suggest that the deal is still being negotiated but Netflix will be on the hook for two season which could cost it more than $100 million. Right now Netflix is flush with the cash of its 20 million strong subscriber base, but so far it has focused on enhancing it’s $8 / month streaming package by spending on quantity, not necessarily quality new content even after deals with Relativity Media and Epix . A deal like this changes things completely and puts it directly in competition with the pay-TV biz, but we’ll wait and find out how much of the rumor is true before putting up a deathwatch for HBO, Showtime and the rest. Netflix rumored to spend $100 million or more outbidding cable networks for one new TV show originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Publisher starts annual e-book licensing for libraries, attempts blood extraction from stone
March 15, 2011 No Comment
Public libraries are en vogue again now that e-readers and e-books are so popular, and publishers are wary of the trend. To the dismay of many and the surprise of few, HarperCollins Publishers has set its e-books to expire after 26 rentals — effectively giving them around a one-year shelf life (assuming 2 weeks per rental x 26 = 52 weeks). So now cash-strapped public libraries have to pony up license fees on an annual basis because the publisher is concerned that “selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book ecosystem.” In other words, HarperCollins thinks lending e-books is costing the company money it could make selling them. The publisher is the first to treat library e-books differently from hard copies, and the policy change has caused some librarians to stop purchasing HarperCollins e-books. Should the new licensing scheme become a trend, we shall see if libraries are forced to stop the electronic lending party. [Thanks, Scott] Publisher starts annual e-book licensing for libraries, attempts blood extraction from stone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Harman didn’t exactly manage to impress us that much with its most recent pair of wireless headsets , but it’s now already back with something a bit different: a PC gaming headset. Available in your choice of black and orange, white and green, or camouflage and blue color combos, the headset isn’t wireless, but it can be folded up for a bit of added portability, and Harman promises that the headphones will deliver “realistic, dynamic sound” while also filtering out most background noise. Sound like just the headset you’ve been looking for? You can grab this one right now for $80. Full press release is after the break. Continue reading Harman rolls out AKG GHS-1 gaming headset Harman rolls out AKG GHS-1 gaming headset originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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iPhone users have been able to avoid radar speed guns using Cobra’s iRadar system since late last year, and it looks like Android users will soon finally be able to get in on the act as well. Cobra used the gdgt Live event at SXSW to announce that iRadar will be available for Android phones sometime in April. That consists of a standard dash-mounted radar detector and, of course, an app, which also takes advantage of your phone’s built-in GPS capabilities to provide warnings of photo enforcement zones and other potential impediments to your inability to drive 55 — you’ll apparently soon even be able to share radar alerts with other iRadar users. Head on past the break for a video of the iPhone version. Continue reading Cobra iRadar detection system coming to Android next month Cobra iRadar detection system coming to Android next month originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Piracy is a problem of ‘global pricing,’ not enforcement, claims new report
March 15, 2011 No Comment
The smart cookies at the Social Science Research Council have spent three years researching media and software piracy in so-called emerging economies — countries like Brazil, Russia, India and Mexico — which has this past week resulted in a comprehensive report aimed at establishing the trends and causes of the unauthorized consumption of intellectual property. The major theme of the report is that ever more stringent enforcement of IP rights has proven ineffective in countering the growing tide of content piracy, and it is instead a problem of “global pricing” that needs to be tackled first. Content distributors’ primary concern is argued to be the protection of existing pricing structures in the honeypot nations of Western Europe and North America, which has resulted in prices in locales like Eastern Europe and South America being artificially inflated relative to the purchasing power of their population. Consequently, squeezed out of buying media the legal way, consumers have found themselves drawn to the, erm, grayer end of the market to sate their entertainment needs. There’s plenty more to this report, including a proposed solution to fixing these broken economics, but you’ll have to check out the links below for the full scoop. Piracy is a problem of ‘global pricing,’ not enforcement, claims new report originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Internet Explorer 9 gets WebM support with ‘preview’ plug-in from Google, internet video gets more friendly
March 15, 2011 No Comment
Google has released an early WebM plug-in for Microsoft’s latest and greatest browser, IE9 — stepping in to fill a gap that Microsoft itself refused to fill. You may remember the firm’s decision to not build in support for the new standard natively, but that it was “all in” with HTML5, WebM’s close cousin. Billed as a “technology preview” at this stage of the game, the add-on will enable users to play all WebM video content just like the good Internet overlords intended them to, despite the fact that an additional download is needed. Microsoft said that it would allow for support and it appears to be following up on its word, regardless of other harsher comments made separately. Isn’t it good to see big companies getting along? Now if only these same niceties played out in the mobile landscape, then we’d really be getting somewhere. [Thanks, ChrisSsk] Internet Explorer 9 gets WebM support with ‘preview’ plug-in from Google, internet video gets more friendly originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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One thing leads to another. First we get a slew of reports of screen flickering from folks using an HDMI to DVI adapter with their Apple TV , and now an Apple rep has confirmed on the company’s support forums that Apple is indeed “aware of this issue and working on a fix.” No more details than that at the moment, but it seems like you can rest assured that Apple won’t be leaving you behind just because your TV doesn’t have an HDMI port. Fix for Apple TV screen flickering issue said to be on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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