HTC ChaCha to be known as ChaChaCha in Spain, somebody didn’t do enough market research
March 2, 2011 No Comment
As it turns out, the word “chacha” is used as a term of disparagement in the Spanish language. Coincidentally , perhaps after somebody hit HTC’s marketing genii with a Spanish phrasebook, the HTC ChaCha will hereafter be known as the ChaChaCha in the land of sun, sand and siestas. This follows mobile search engine ChaCha suing for trademark infringement a couple of days ago and serves as an instructive example of why one should do one’s market research before deciding to use one’s internal codenames as retail product nomenclature. HTC ChaCha to be known as ChaChaCha in Spain, somebody didn’t do enough market research originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Shocker! UK regulator finds average broadband speeds are ‘less than half’ those advertised
March 2, 2011 No Comment
You don’t have to go to the lengths of compiling a statistical project to know that advertised and actual broadband speeds are two pretty disparate entities, but it does help. Ofcom , the UK communications regulator, recently took a thorough look at 11 broadband packages, which collectively account for over 90 percent of all British broadband subscriptions, and found that actual download throughput was less than half (only 45 percent) of the advertised “up to” speed. The worst offenders were resellers of BT’s ADSL lines, with Orange dipping below 3Mbit on its 8Mbit lines and TalkTalk occasionally offering only 7.5Mbit to users paying for a 24Mbit connection, while Virgin’s cable connectivity won out by sticking most loyally to its listed rating. What Ofcom proposes for the future is that all these service providers start offering Typical Speed Ranges that more accurately reflect the bandwidth a potential subscriber would be buying into — a proposal that might actually have some teeth as the British Advertising Standards Authority is currently in the midst of a review specifically concerned with broadband advertising practices. Transparency in the way we’re sold broadband? That’d make a welcome change! Shocker! UK regulator finds average broadband speeds are ‘less than half’ those advertised originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Eizo’s 27-inch ColorEdge CG275W has a 2560 x 1440 IPS panel, which will calibrate itself
March 2, 2011 No Comment
Calibrating your monitor in order to maximize color accuracy is considered an inevitable chore for graphics professionals, but here comes Eizo with a defiant look on its face and a brand new 27-inch IPS display. The ColorEdge CG275W promises to do all the adjustments itself, eschewing the need for a separate calibration utility, and can even be set to do it overnight, freeing your creative mind to collect its much needed ration of Zs. Brightness maxes out at 270 nits, contrast is rated at 850:1, and there’s a 6ms gray-to-gray response time, not bad for the traditionally slower IPS tech. DVI, DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort connectivity is augmented with a USB 2.0 hub, while the stand can tilt, rotate and swivel in typical Eizo fashion. You also get that fetching hood that’s compatible with both portrait and landscape orientation. Shipping begins at the end of this month, with pricing varying by territory. Continue reading Eizo’s 27-inch ColorEdge CG275W has a 2560 x 1440 IPS panel, which will calibrate itself Eizo’s 27-inch ColorEdge CG275W has a 2560 x 1440 IPS panel, which will calibrate itself originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’re sure that the debate of a carefully controlled and curated environment like Apple’s App Store versus a free-for-all like the Android Market will rage on for years to come, but here’s something to chew on: Google just removed some 21 apps from the Market in the last day from a publisher going by Myournet for doing all sorts of naughty things to your device. Offenses include attempting to root your phone, uploading phone information (including IMEI) to who-knows-where, and — most egregiously — adding a backdoor that allows additional code to be pulled down and executed. At least some of the apps are pirated versions of existing apps that have been re-uploaded at zero cost to the user, which makes them appealing… and the trick apparently works quite well, because the 21 managed to clock over 50,000 downloads before getting taken down. This isn’t the first time malicious apps have shown up on smartphones — far from it — but it’s probably the highest-profile case of a first-party app store being infiltrated by really bad stuff. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Google was extraordinarily quick to respond once Android Police reported the situation — the site says it took less than five minutes from the time they reached out to the time the apps actually went offline. Still, that’s little consolation if you’ve already installed your “free” copy of Super History Eraser. Google spikes 21 malicious apps with big download counts from the Market originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …HTC Magic / T-Mobile G1 gets Honeycomb port, Android past and future fused together (video)
March 2, 2011 No Comment
The original gangster of Android, T-Mobile’s G1 , just refuses to quietly fade into the annals of history. Even in spite of its long overdue end of retail life last summer , the handset continues to see support from grassroots modders and tweakers, with the latest project being the most ambitious of them all: an Android Honeycomb port. A pair of xda members have succeeded in splicing Android’s most senior hardware with its very latest software and the results are available to see on video after the break. As usual with these builds, half of the phone’s functions have still to be enabled and the UI lag seems like it’ll be a permanent feature whatever happens, but still — it’s Honeycomb on the G1! Continue reading HTC Magic / T-Mobile G1 gets Honeycomb port, Android past and future fused together (video) HTC Magic / T-Mobile G1 gets Honeycomb port, Android past and future fused together (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 04:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Ahh, the wonders of OLED — flexible displays , great viewing angles, and low power consumption. However, the folks at NanoPhotonica have “perfected” a quantum dot display technology called S-QLED that allegedly has superior picture quality, uses 30 percent less power, and costs three-quarters less than its OLED competition. The company is gearing up for mass production and is in talks with several OEM’s to start producing S-QLED displays, but unfortunately there’s no timetable for when they’ll get to market. Guess we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see just how perfect these QLEDs really are. Continue reading NanoPhotonica develops S-QLED, OLED to develop inferiority complex soon NanoPhotonica develops S-QLED, OLED to develop inferiority complex soon originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Nintendo Entertainment Systems have proven to be fertile ground for the DIY community — purses , guitars , and belt buckles are just a sampling of the more unusual NES mods out there. We’ve also seen our share of NES PCs , and now an enterprising Finn going by the name Ana-5000 has crammed a fully-fledged home theater PC into everybody’s favorite eight-bit console. An Asus AT3IONT-I Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Atom 330 dual core processor and an NVIDIA Ion GPU provides the computing power and offers HDMI and VGA ports, six USB 2.0 ports, optical and RCA audio connections, integrated 802.11b/g/n wireless and Gigabit ethernet, and Bluetooth connectivity. Ana-5000 gave the repurposed Nintendo a fresh black and white paint-job to set it apart from your garden variety NES as well. Hit up the Source link for pics and an explanation of the entire mod process if you feel like doing some console recycling yourself. NES becomes an HTPC, turns your FOF upside down originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 03:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Look, not even the source of these images is absolutely certain that the device in his possession is a legitimate iPad 2, but we can’t very well leave you spending your entire day anticipating Apple’s new tablet launch without a potential candidate for what it might eventually look like. The above mockup has been procured over in China (where else?) and seems to tally closely with speculation we’ve been hearing about this hardware refresh — namely, a slimmer profile, an almost entirely flat back, bigger speaker, and of course, rear- and front-facing cameras. We’ve looked into the digits on the back of the device and the model number is one for the original Apple TV while the FCC ID is for a WiFi-only iPad, but those could be mere placeholders on what is, once again, a mockup and not a real working tablet. The SIM card slot looks to have been repositioned to a slot that was once expected to house an SD card reader. Other tidbits of interest here include the 3G antenna, whose white cover is expected to be black on final units, and the sloped power button and headphone jack, bringing those witty “jumbo iPod touch” jokes to mind. Boy, those never get old. Jump past the break for a few more pics. Continue reading iPad 2 (or something) shows up in the wilds of China iPad 2 (or something) shows up in the wilds of China originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 02:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Put down the search bar and step away from the television. Charlie Sheen’s Twitter account has just been certified genuine letting you watch the train wreck at 140 frames per second. Continue reading The Charlie Sheen meltdown will be twitterized #Winning #Duh The Charlie Sheen meltdown will be twitterized #Winning #Duh originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Flexible batteries get the graphene treatment, could be cheaper than other bendy batts
March 1, 2011 No Comment
We’ve been talking about flexible batteries for years now, but a team of Korean researchers have presented a new solution to bendable energy sources that is not only more powerful than standard lithium-ion batteries, but also potentially cheaper to produce than its malleable predecessors — and unsurprisingly, everyone’s favorite wonder material, graphene , is at the heart of the innovation. The rechargeable battery contains a vanadium-oxide cathode, grown on a sheet of graphene paper, an unidentified separator, and an anode made of lithium-coated graphene. According to the folks behind the new power source, it sports higher energy and power density, as well as a better cycle life than the literally stiff competition. Similar advances have also out-performed rigid lithium-ion batteries, but have enlisted carbon nanotubes , a material more expensive to produce than graphene. Of course, like all technological advances, we won’t be seeing these things for years, if not decades, so you might as well get used to ye olde standard bearer. Flexible batteries get the graphene treatment, could be cheaper than other bendy batts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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