Those seeking the upper echelons of virtual guitar wizardry have a third option now — the You Rock Guitar , which is now compatible with Rock Band 3′s Pro mode . So long as you’ve also got Mad Catz’ MIDI-Pro adapter handy, the multi-touch fret board sounds like a solid middle ground between the uber-realistic Squier Stratocaster strings and the tiny toy-like fret keys of the Mustang Pro , and at roughly $200 street it’s priced right between the others as well. PR after the break, and find our early impressions of the You Rock here . Continue reading You Rock strums its way into Rock Band 3 Pro mode You Rock strums its way into Rock Band 3 Pro mode originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 06:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Some of our UK readers have woken up to the less than awesome discovery this morning that their phones have lost all connectivity to the outside world. 3G, 2G, SMS, and BlackBerry services on the Vodafone UK network are all down for what seems like a significant proportion of its user base — an issue the carrier has since identified as being caused by a break-in at its Basingstoke exchange center. No further details have been provided, though work is naturally underway to repair the damage done and we’re assured customers’ private data has remained so. We can’t imagine quite such a service disruption being caused by a random act of vandalism or burglary, perhaps a disgruntled employee felt the need to vent his or her frustrations in grand style? Or has O2 gone gangster on the competition? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Vodafone’s UK network taken down by a break-in originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 06:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Fisker Karma enters production on March 21st, our future shortly thereafter
February 28, 2011 No Comment
It’s been a long road for the Karma to reach production, but now it finally has an end in sight: March 21st. That’s the date Fisker promises to start rolling its gorgeous PHEV off assembly lines, with deliveries to the first humans to reserve one coming up in April. The price for the 2012 Karma remains a mighty $95,900, though if you ask our brethren over at Autoblog , that’s a bunch of pennies well spent . Fisker expects to start producing 1,500 Karmas per month starting in October and to then sell 15,000 a year from 2012 onwards. Fisker Karma enters production on March 21st, our future shortly thereafter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …T-Mobile continues campaign against iPhone 4 with new ‘State of the Smartphone’ infographic
February 28, 2011 No Comment
T-Mobile cares about you. It cares so much that it’s spending all its advertising dollars lately making sure you know full well that the iPhone 4 can’t do ” 4G ” the way its own phones can. The latest salvo in this crusade of enlightenment includes the above graphs showing just how much faster and further your money can go if you ride along on the Magenta network. It conveniently ignores the fact that AT&T and Verizon offer other phones besides Apple’s iPhone, some of which can handle speeds above the 3G threshold, but such is the price you pay when you want to have a really pretty and eye-catching chart. Hit the source link to soak up more of T-Mobile’s priceless wisdom. [Thanks, Ramon] T-Mobile continues campaign against iPhone 4 with new ‘State of the Smartphone’ infographic originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …AT&T ShopAlerts: first location-based ads from a US carrier kick off in four markets
February 28, 2011 No Comment
A few third-party apps have been going after this market for a while now, but AT&T has just become the first American carrier to throw its weight behind location-based ads in teaming up with Placecast to launch the so-called AT&T ShopAlerts service in four markets. Residents of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco will be the first to experience the mind-bending future of advertising — presumably because they’re densely-populated enough to make a location-based trial worthwhile — with seven inaugural partners: HP, Kmart, JetBlue, SC Johnson, Kibbles ‘n Bits (‘n Bits ‘n Bits), Nature’s Recipe, and the “got milk?” people. Fortunately, the system is opt-in, not out. Follow the break for AT&T’s full press release. Continue reading AT&T ShopAlerts: first location-based ads from a US carrier kick off in four markets AT&T ShopAlerts: first location-based ads from a US carrier kick off in four markets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It may not sound like the most practical combination, but we’ve got to hand it to AdvanceTC — it’s shoehorned telephony into a Windows 7 tablet, fulfilling our dark desire for a spiritual successor to the xpPhone . Yes, that’s not Windows Phone 7 you’re looking at above, but rather full desktop Windows running on a sizable quad-band GSM brick, whose insides hold a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and a chunky 3200mAh battery to power the whole thing. Calls are handled via AdvanceTC’s custom UI layer and there’s some software trickery to keep that battery in check, as the device can automatically wake from sleep when it detects an incoming call or text message. We doubt we’d much enjoy navigating Windows 7 on a screen that small, but AdvanceTC also gives the Atrix a nod, claiming that the device can act like a full nettop PC when connected to an HDMI dock. We’ll let you know if the company gives us a price, release date, or any indication that it will actually hit retail at all. Gallery: AdvanceTC Magic W3 press shots AdvanceTC’s 4.8-inch tabletphone runs Windows 7 on a 1.6GHz Atom CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …It may not sound like the most practical combination, but we’ve got to hand it to AdvanceTC — it’s shoehorned telephony into a Windows 7 tablet, fulfilling our dark desire for a spiritual successor to the xpPhone . Yes, that’s not Windows Phone 7 you’re looking at above, but rather full desktop Windows running on a sizable quad-band GSM brick, whose insides hold a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and a chunky 3200mAh battery to power the whole thing. Calls are handled via AdvanceTC’s custom UI layer and there’s some software trickery to keep that battery in check, as the device can automatically wake from sleep when it detects an incoming call or text message. We doubt we’d much enjoy navigating Windows 7 on a screen that small, but AdvanceTC also gives the Atrix a nod, claiming that the device can act like a full nettop PC when connected to an HDMI dock. We’ll let you know if the company gives us a price, release date, or any indication that it will actually hit retail at all. Gallery: AdvanceTC Magic W3 press shots AdvanceTC’s 4.8-inch tabletphone runs Windows 7 on a 1.6GHz Atom CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …It may not sound like the most practical combination, but we’ve got to hand it to AdvanceTC — it’s shoehorned telephony into a Windows 7 tablet, fulfilling our dark desire for a spiritual successor to the xpPhone . Yes, that’s not Windows Phone 7 you’re looking at above, but rather full desktop Windows running on a sizable quad-band GSM brick, whose insides hold a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and a chunky 3200mAh battery to power the whole thing. Calls are handled via AdvanceTC’s custom UI layer and there’s some software trickery to keep that battery in check, as the device can automatically wake from sleep when it detects an incoming call or text message. We doubt we’d much enjoy navigating Windows 7 on a screen that small, but AdvanceTC also gives the Atrix a nod, claiming that the device can act like a full nettop PC when connected to an HDMI dock. We’ll let you know if the company gives us a price, release date, or any indication that it will actually hit retail at all. Gallery: AdvanceTC Magic W3 press shots AdvanceTC’s 4.8-inch tabletphone runs Windows 7 on a 1.6GHz Atom CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If you had any remaining doubts whether the HTC Trophy would be playing for Team Red , you can leave them at the door — a tipster just sent us a high-res version of the above image, and says it’s running the latest version of Windows Phone 7, complete with copy/paste support . Our anonymous source says it seems exactly the same physically as the European version we reviewed in October , save for a last telling tweak — instead of the orangish-yellow innards , it’s got red highlights around back. [Thanks, Anonymouse] HTC Trophy spotted in the wild, sporting Verizon logo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …If you had any remaining doubts whether the HTC Trophy would be playing for Team Red , you can leave them at the door — a tipster just sent us a high-res version of the above image, and says it’s running the latest version of Windows Phone 7, complete with copy/paste support . Our anonymous source says it seems exactly the same physically as the European version we reviewed in October , save for a last telling tweak — instead of the orangish-yellow innards , it’s got red highlights around back. [Thanks, Anonymouse] HTC Trophy spotted in the wild, sporting Verizon logo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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