Regardless of whether you’re stuck in an abode with no room, or you’re simply too lazy preoccupied to run eight miles of cabling to six separates in your home cinema room, soundbars are definitely a preferred alternative to in-home surround home here at Engadget HQ. Harman Kardon ‘s got a new option in the mix, with the classy SB 16 offering two-way, dual-driver, left and right soundbar speaker channels, each with two 3-inch midrange drivers and a 3/4-inch dome tweeter. $599.99 also gets you a wireless 100-watt ported subwoofer, while the soundbar itself gets pushed by a 25-watt x 2 amp. Head on past the break for the full release, and feel free to grab one prior to hosting your Super Bowl party. You are hosting one, right? Continue reading Harman Kardon’s SB 16 soundbar ships with a subwoofer, $600 price tag Harman Kardon’s SB 16 soundbar ships with a subwoofer, $600 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Samsung Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Gio and Galaxy mini fill out our Android universe
January 26, 2011 No Comment
Samsung’s decided that 10 million Galaxy S devices just aren’t enough for us, so it’s trickling down the brand name, Android OS and TouchWiz UI into some more affordable form factors. In order from left to right, the Galaxy Ace is a 3.5-incher that most closely resembles the S patriarch, though it makes do with an 800MHz processor and HVGA screen resolution. It’s said to be available immediately in Russia, to be followed by Europe, India and China soon. The Fit takes us into lower spec territory, with a 3.3-inch QVGA screen and 600MHz speed, while the Gio packs an even smaller display but raises resolution back up to HVGA. The Galaxy mini has to go down as a blatant LG Optimus T KIRF, which might be its sole notable feature, given the 3.1-inch QVGA display and 600MHz capabilities. All three are targeting the same territories as the Ace, meaning the US will likely be spared from this affordable Android whimsy. Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Gio and Galaxy mini fill out our Android universe Samsung Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Gio and Galaxy mini fill out our Android universe originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Here’s hoping you don’t mind having your existing laptop made antiquated by this one. Just months after Maingear introduced its Clutch-15 and Alt-15 machines, along comes yet another 15.6-incher… and this one’s claiming to be the world’s fastest in its category. The eX-L 15 packs a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution (with glossy or matte options!), a variety of new Sandy Bridge chips (with the Core i7 2920XM capping things off), NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460M (1.5GB) / GTX 485M (2GB), up to 16GB of DDR3-1333 memory, a 2x Blu-ray reader, HDMI / DVI outputs, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports and a pair of USB 2.0 sockets to round things off. The starting tag of $1,579 certainly isn’t easy to swallow, but where else are you getting a powerhouse like this with a Full HD matte display? Exactly. Continue reading Maingear throws Sandy Bridge, GTX 485M into eX-L 15 laptop Maingear throws Sandy Bridge, GTX 485M into eX-L 15 laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It was bound to happen sometime, and today is as good as any other post-holiday day to launch the mythical white iPhone 4 . While normally we’d consider a Wednesday night shuttering of the global Apple store to be maintenance-related, a tweet identifying a pair of supposed white iPhone part numbers — MC604X/A (16GB) and MC606X/A (32GB) — has surfaced, attributed to an established last-minute Apple insider known only as ” Mr. X ” in various tech forums. Mind you, ” spring ” was the last official timeframe for a white iPhone release. But please, we beg you… don’t say that it’s early if it does appear when the Apple Store returns to business later today — we don’t want anyone to get hurt in the comments. Update: Apple.com has undergone a subtle redesign, with the navigation bar up top taking on a shinier new look, though the Store remains down. A little bit of web-based multitasking, eh Apple? White iPhone rumored as Apple Store goes down globally originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sony VAIO SA and SB show up at European e-tailers with 13-inch screens, Core i5 / i7 CPUs, SSD options
January 26, 2011 No Comment
Looks like Sony is preparing to freshen up the top end of its laptop range with a pair of new VAIO series, the SA and SB. An Intel Core i7-2620M is found populating a listing for an SA1X9E/XI model, alongside 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics, and a 1600 x 900 resolution squeezed into a 13.3-inch screen. All that for a measly
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What do you do with that once state of the art Power Mac ? Well, you could always empty the case and add a “cheap clock mechanism,” in the words of our friend Justin — who emailed us some pictures of his latest creation this morning. But don’t forget the Mighty Mouse pendulum: that’s what really won us over. Hit the source link for more glamor shots. Visualized: the Power Mac G4 clock originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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After initiating the first on-contract Galaxy Tab price cascade back in December that quickly led Sprint to respond , T-Mobile may chop subsidy prices again today for the 7-inch tablet to just under $250 (after a pesky $50 mail-in rebate). Together, that’s only $62 more than the bargain bin CherryPad , which should infuriate early adopters who paid double that only a few months ago, not to mention sober up Samsung. However, when you consider that pseudo-4G tablets like the Dell Streak 7 and LG G-Slate will join Magenta’s lineup soon , it is a viable strategy for extending the Tab’s consumer appeal in this viciously competitive Android tablet world we live in. Then again, if the dual-core processors teased for the Tab’s successor actually pan out, we doubt Samsung will need any assistance getting back to its smug position on top of the Android heap. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled on T-Mobile’s site today and be sure to update should the price change actually materialize. T-Mobile expected to cut Galaxy Tab pricing again to $249.99 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Intel hires Will-i-am as ‘director of creative innovation,’ whole world is nonplussed
January 26, 2011 No Comment
You know a job title is tenuous when even the guys who announce it have to put it in quotation marks — Intel’s just signed up the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am as a “director of creative innovation.” The hip hop star responsible for flooding CES 2010 and every BlackBerry event since with an irritatingly cheery tune (which we’re sure we don’t have to name) is about to commence a long-term, “hands-on” collaboration with Intel on its development of “new technologies, music and tech advocacy.” Basically, it sounds like he’ll act as an ambassador for the chip company, who’ll in turn pretend to listen to his zany ideas about mega-giga-bass . Then again, Lady Gaga’s similar partnership with Polaroid produced these glasses , so what the hell do we know? Continue reading Intel hires Will-i-am as ‘director of creative innovation,’ whole world is nonplussed Intel hires Will-i-am as ‘director of creative innovation,’ whole world is nonplussed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that you can fit a Tegra 2 in your pocket — how else could we have these phones ? — but it’s still impressive to see the dual-core ARM Cortex A9 and GeForce ULP chip find its way into a bona fide fanless nettop that sips just three watts under load. This Compulab Trim Slice isn’t nearly as powerful as the AMD Fusion model we saw last week, but it sure is svelte, with a die-cast metal case just six-tenths of an inch thick despite cramming in a SATA SSD, 1GB of RAM and most every I/O port you could want. You’re looking at four USB 2.0 sockets, SD and microSD slots, HDMI, DVI, RS-232, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth, a pair of 3.5mm audio jacks and S/PDIF out for sound, not to mention JTAG, UART and SPI interfaces for extending the system on your own terms — and analog video-in, for crying out loud. Look for it in April, priced “higher than a streamer, but lower than a tablet.” Sound about right? Find another picture and the full PR after the break, while you make up your mind. Continue reading Compulab makes a tiny Tegra 2 computer for the lilliputian community Compulab makes a tiny Tegra 2 computer for the lilliputian community originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s not often we mark the anniversary of a single word around here, but this one’s particularly close to our cold, electronic hearts — it was ninety years ago today that the word ” robot ” was introduced to the public in Karel Capek’s play “R.U.R.” (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which first premiered in Prague in its original Czech language in 1921, and came to New York a year later in English. As Gearlog notes, however, Capek actually gives credit for the origin of the word to his brother Josef, who suggested the term “roboti” that he derived from the Czech word “robota,” which literally means “serf labor,” and can refer to drudgery or hard work. Of course, robots themselves have evolved quite a bit over those ninety years, and — given the pace of development as of late — we’re a bit hesitant to guess what things might be like when the 100th anniversary of the word comes around. ‘Robot’ marks its 90th anniversary as a word originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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