Griffin’s Beacon Universal Remote Control System brings dongle-free control to your smartphone
January 7, 2011 No Comment
Ditch those dongles and throw out those cases , the next level of smartphone-as-universal-remote technology is here. Beacon Universal Remote Control System from Griffin Technology and Dijits turns your iPhone and other iOS devices into omnipotent remote controls, by converting Bluetooth signals into infrared commands that your stereo, TV, and other devices can recognize. Paired with Dijit’s Universal Remote App, Beacon, which looks something akin to a game show buzzer, converts your touchscreen to a remote, making all the added cases, dongles, and even cords unnecessary — it can run up to two months on four AA batteries. Beacon hits the market in May 2011 for $79.99, but if you’re lucky enough to be at CES this week, you can check out a demo at Griffin’s booth. Griffin’s Beacon Universal Remote Control System brings dongle-free control to your smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Orb BR software comes to PS3 and other Blu-ray players, 1080p streaming for $20
January 7, 2011 No Comment
The tiny, coaster-like design of the Orb TV is hard not to like, but the lack of HD output is mighty tough to stomach these days. Plus, who wants another doo-dad cluttering up their entertainment center? Thankfully, the next product from Orb is much smaller: a disc. You pop the software into your internet-connected PS3 or Blu-ray player and magically it turns into a top-shelf media streamer. You’ll have connectivity with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Comedy Central, Amazon VoD, and naturally YouTube. The discs are set to ship in February for $19.99, which puts even the $99 Orb TV to shame, but we’re curious to see how the performance is. You can be sure we’ll be finding out for you soon. Continue reading Orb BR software comes to PS3 and other Blu-ray players, 1080p streaming for $20 Orb BR software comes to PS3 and other Blu-ray players, 1080p streaming for $20 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Sadly Ford isn’t confirming the Focus Electric that it saw fit to tease earlier this week, but we can now tell you all about the new smartphone app that will let you monitor the charging of… certain Ford vehicles. The app is called MyFord Mobile and it offers similar features to the apps we’ve already seen for the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt , notably car’s charging status from afar and deliver some climate settings to ensure that the car is properly hot or cold before you leave on your cold or hot commute. The car will also let you find the car by GPS and, once you do, unlock the doors with your phone. When the car and the app launches there will be versions for Android , BlackBerry , and iOS , though interestingly there will be a an HTML-5 browser interface that’ll even work on featurephones . Yes, featurephones. Interestingly, the app can automatically charge… whatever mystery vehicle you connect it to at the optimal time of the night to ensure you get the lowest cost for your juice, automatically pulling down rates from your utility so that you don’t have to worry about it. That is what we like to call smart. And thrifty. Again the app will be available with a certain car that has a plug whenever that certain car is available, and if you want to know when that is going to happen you’re going to have to wait. Update : Yes, that’s a WP7 phone up there, a Samsung Focus to be exact. No, the app is not announced for Windows Phone 7. Conclusion? Cloudy. We’ll have a little more clarification for you later today and you’re just going to have to wait. Plenty of time to sharpen up those conspiracy theories. Continue reading Ford introduces MyFord Mobile app for smartphones Ford introduces MyFord Mobile app for smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Mili Power MiFlip re-ups your smartphone battery without the extra baggage
January 7, 2011 No Comment
As if we weren’t excited enough about MiLi’s HDMI iPhone dock , the battery powerhouse has announced yet another multifunctional device for re-juicing your smartphone. The MiFlip foldable smartphone charger — compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and BlackBerry — functions as a charger, battery backup, and viewing stand, and it’s small enough to keep your mobile phone, well, mobile. This skinny battery booster provides eight hours of talk, 15 hours of video, or 80 hours of music, and uses a mini-USB connector to sync with iTunes. MiFlip will be available for $49.99 on MiLi’s website, and we’ll look for it at CES this week. Mili Power MiFlip re-ups your smartphone battery without the extra baggage originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We love us some Windows 7 Media Center , but we recognize that using a HTPC for a DVR isn’t for everyone. For some there is no replacement for a dedicated set-top box, which is why we were so excited to hear that Windows Media Center was coming to embedded devices . The problem of course is that is-coming and is-here, are completely different. A little known European company (state side anyways) hopes to change that by brining one to the US in the first quarter of this year for about $499. The bad news is that there’s no CableCARD support like the Gateway one we saw earlier . There are plans to follow it up with dedicated versions for cable and telecom operators later this year, but for some reason we don’t feel like they’ll be too interested in it. Continue reading Reycom Windows Media Center coming for $499 Reycom Windows Media Center coming for $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Huawei was right on cue here at CES today, announcing the US version of its IDEOS X5 mid-range Android smartphone. This device uses the same formula as the original IDEOS (also known as the Comet for T-Mobile ) and aims to provide a decent product at a competitive price. Although we already knew the specs , this was our chance to play with the IDEOS X5 and gather more information. The phone looks elegant and feels solidly built, with a 3.8-inch WVGA capacitive display behind glass in front and 1500mAh battery behind soft-touch plastics in back, all wrapped in an 11.4mm-thin body. Take a look at the gallery below, and hit the break for additional details and our hands-on video. Gallery: Huawei IDEOS X5 hands-on Continue reading Huawei IDEOS X5 hands-on (video) Huawei IDEOS X5 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We knew the Dell Venue was coming stateside, but now we know it. Dell has announced the phone for our fine country at its CES 2011 press conference , although it failed to mention a price, a release date, or anything else very helpful. Right now Dell doesn’t have a carrier partner, so they’re planning on selling the handset unlocked from Dell.com. Apparently they’re flirting with the idea of a T-Mobile version, but the unlocked model won’t have the T-Mobile 3G bands — basically, it’s an unlocked AT&T phone that AT&T hasn’t blessed. Oh, and just in case you forgot the specs: WVGA 4.1-inch AMOLED screen, 8 megapixel camera, Android 2.2, and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 processor. Got it? Good, now we wait. Dell Venue announced for the US, will be sold unlocked originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Sure the world of digital printing might not catch many people’s eye, but there’s something otherworldly about just how fast this thing spits out pages. Memjet ‘s office reference printer is fast. How fast? 60 pages a minute, fast. Print quality looks fine at 1600 dots per inch and reportedly half the cost of ownership of other color printers. The trick behind the speed are the 70,000 nozzles firing more than 700 million drops of ink per second that print the page in one pass rather than the several passes of traditional inkjets — or enough for a page a second. We’re pretty sure if we had one of these at our disposal we’d be throwing as much material as we could at it just to watch the magic on the output side. Gallery: Memjet: ink-on with the world’s fastest printer Continue reading Memjet: ink-on with the world’s fastest printer Memjet: ink-on with the world’s fastest printer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Been needing a credit card scanner to execute your superspy data collection with? Say hello to your new best buddy, the Planon Slimscan. This teeny tiny unit is equipped with a 600dpi optical scanner, though it shrinks images down to a 300dpi resolution to get a reasonable number of them to fit within the 64MB of onboard memory. Intended primarily as a collector of business card and receipt data, the Slimscan will come with Abbyy and PaperPort software along with the ability to export your stuff out to an Excel spreadsheet. Pricing is set at $120 and shipping is expected to commence any time now. Gallery: Planon Slimscan, world’s slimmest scanner, hands-on Continue reading Planon Slimscan, world’s slimmest scanner, hands-on (video) Planon Slimscan, world’s slimmest scanner, hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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iRobot’s first attempt at a telepresence robot, a modified Roomba, was a false start , but now they’re back with an all-new bot called AVA which should right all wrongs. The bot can adjust its own height from three feet to five feet tall to meet you at eye level, with a tablet perched on top (this is CES 2011, after all). Its base is an odd three-wheeled configuration for maneuverability, and the robot has DARPA Challenge-style environment mapping to avoid bumping into anything or anybody. For sensors the AVA is using dual Kinect-style PrimeSense sensors, along with laser rangefinders, scanning acoustic sensors, and bump sensors. There’s naturally a microphone and camera for the bot’s primary purpose: video telepresence. What’s more interesting, however, is that iRobot has an apps platform for this, which will allow developers to build new functionality. There’s no word on price or when this will go on sale, but we already know one thing: we want one. Check out some quality time that PC Magazine ‘s Lance Ulanoff spent with AVA after the break. Continue reading iRobot debuts AVA telepresence robot with tablet controls iRobot debuts AVA telepresence robot with tablet controls originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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