iPhone-controlled beer cannon is the robot friend of our dreams (video)
December 29, 2010 No Comment
If your morning’s been running low on a little thing called awesomeness , hurry past the break and gorge yourself on the stuff in the embedded videos. For the more patient among you, we’ll set the scene. A young chap by the name of Ryan has repurposed an old mini-fridge from his college days into a beer-firing drone, which can accept instructions on beer brand, temperature, and destination, before launching it at the target with a force of 50psi. An embedded webcam assists the iPhone user in aiming the throws, while it’s also said to record every toss and tweet it out for posterity as well. If this thing could slice bread, we’d probably offer to marry it. Continue reading iPhone-controlled beer cannon is the robot friend of our dreams (video) iPhone-controlled beer cannon is the robot friend of our dreams (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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With iTunes overrun with apps that do little more than find creative ways to promote products or otherwise suck time, it’s nice to see mobile technology doing something that’s, well, not so trivial. VerbalVictor, a $10 program, which should be available in the App Store next week, uses iPhone and iPad touch screens to allow people with disabilities to communicate with the outside world. Paul Pauca — whose son suffers from Pitt Hopkins Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes delays in cognitive development, motor skills, and verbal communication — developed the app as an affordable alternative to non-verbal communication devices. It touts functionality similar to the device used by Steven Hawking, but is far more accessible than the professor’s $8,200 setup. VerbalVictor allows parents and caregivers to take pictures and record accompanying audio; the entries are then turned into buttons, which the user presses when they want to communicate — sort of like a very advanced and customizable See N’ Say. The device can be used for simple expressions, like an image of a dog that speaks “dog” when pressed, or for recording commonly used phrases and complete sentences. It may never reach the popularity of, say iFart , but it’s sure to win some dedicated users. VerbalVictor app gives voice to disabled originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Ever wonder what happened to LEDs as a WiFi alternative ? Well, wonder no more, because visible light communication is here — in the municipal offices of St. Cloud Minnesota, at least. Starting tomorrow, LVX System, a Minnesota start-up, is installing the first of a series of LED fixtures that will use flashing lights to connect office workers to the internet, while saving big on the electric bill. The fixtures also function as regular overhead lights, using 36 watts of energy where 100 watts were once necessary. The setup consists of clusters of LEDs that switch on and off thousands of times per second at intervals undetectable to the human eye. The flashes emit binary code data — off equals zero and on equals one — that is received by special patented modems. Lights on these modems then transmit data back to the fixtures, and voila, you’ve got internet. According to LVX, light-powered networks are far less crowded and far more secure than their predecessors. Unfortunately, LVX’s current incarnation transmits data at about 3Mbps — a mere pittance compared to standard WiFi or Ethernet. Then again, 3Mbps is certainly fast enough for a city employee to perform really important tasks like keeping track of their favorite gadget blog, so we’ll take it. [Thanks, Andrew] LVX System launches visible light communication in the US, finally originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Another Sony Ericsson Android leaked in China, successor to the X10 Mini Pro?
December 29, 2010 No Comment
Once again, here’s proof that China is the place to be for piping-hot gadget leaks. The latest delivery is yet another mysterious Sony Ericsson slider, which is allegedly the Android 2.3 successor to the much loved X10 Mini Pro . Despite its modest dimensions, this little gem packs a 1GHz chip with an Adreno 205 GPU, scoring an impressive 1,553 on the Quadrant benchmark app — coming close to the Nexus S’ score — and 42.5fps on Neocore, as pictured on the 3-inch 320 x 480 multitouch LCD above. It sure sounds juicy, except for one thing: the buttons are in reverse order of the current Xperia layout. Very funny , Sony Ericsson, now just give us a date. One more shot after the break. Continue reading Another Sony Ericsson Android leaked in China, successor to the X10 Mini Pro? Another Sony Ericsson Android leaked in China, successor to the X10 Mini Pro? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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First it was the Adamo , now it’s the Envy . HP has joined Dell in deeply discounting its aging 13-inch ultrathin, though unlike its Round Rock competitor, it hasn’t bothered to give it any spec bumps. Consequently, even with this interest-building $450 rebate, the Envy 13 loses out to the Adamo 13 in a straight spec fight — a 1.6GHz CPU, 3GB of DDR3 RAM and a 5400RPM hard drive are all either slower or smaller than Dell’s offering — but it does still have a pair of aces up its sleeve to get latecomers to part with their cash. Those include an external SuperMulti DVD rewriter and a discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 GPU with 512MB of dedicated memory. Sure, it’s not much, but then neither is the new price. HP slashes Envy 13 price to $999 with $450 rebate originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Putin orders Russian federal agencies to switch to open source software, galavant topless in the out-of-doors
December 29, 2010 No Comment
Never one to pass up the opportunity to run a hunkitudinous (look it up!) picture of Vladimir Putin , we were thrilled to hear that the Russian Prime Minister and ex-KGB man has signed an order specifying that “federal executive bodies and agencies of the federal budget” should transition to open source software beginning in Q2 2011. That’s right — it looks like there is something , at least, to those recent rumors that the country was dissing Redmond and contemplating a national open source OS . There’s a lot more to it that appears to be of little interest unless you’re a member of the apparat, in which case you’ll probably be reading this thing in the original in Russian soon enough. As for us, we’re just curious to see how the new software will be used to bedevil dissident groups once Microsoft is out of the picture. Putin orders Russian federal agencies to switch to open source software, galavant topless in the out-of-doors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 03:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Fujifilm explains how its X100 hybrid viewfinder works, we nod and pretend to understand
December 29, 2010 No Comment
If you just tried to tell us the FinePix X100 was a bog standard digital camera, we’d still probably pay any price for those amazing retro looks, but Fujifilm has more in mind. Specifically, the X100 harbors an all-new viewfinder setup, that can switch between a full-on optical view (something that’s currently impossible in similarly sized Micro Four Thirds cameras), and an electronic viewfinder. The optical mode also includes overlaid shooting data, which isn’t typical for a straight compact viewfinder (since it’s looking through its own lens, not the camera’s main lens). You’ll have to read Fujifilm’s full-on explanation to really know what’s going on here — it gets a little technical — but basically there’s a half mirror prism that lets the mini LCD project info on top of the optical image that’s coming through to your eye, but that half mirror prism becomes a straight up mirror when the viewfinder’s front lens is blocked, allowing for a full electronic image of the actual image being captured by the lens to bounce to your eye. See? That wasn’t so difficult. We don’t know what we were so worried about. Fujifilm explains how its X100 hybrid viewfinder works, we nod and pretend to understand originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 02:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …BYD Motors to debut e6 Premier, S6DM plug-in vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show
December 29, 2010 No Comment
China’s BYD came out of nowhere in early 2009 to debut a MID / phone running Windows XP , but consumer electronics are just one arm (actually spun off) of the relatively young mega-corporation. Its BYD Motors division has also been working on various plug-in vehicles for the past few years, and it’s now set to roll into the Detroit Auto Show next month with two new models. Those include the all-electric e6 Premier crossover, and the S6DM dual-mode plug-in hybrid SUV, the former of which promises a range of 300 kilometers and a top speed of 140km/h, while the latter can eek out 60 kilometers solely on electric power or close to 500 kilometers when the 2.0L gasoline engine comes into play. What’s more, the company is apparently also promising a US launch announcement of some sort, although Autoblog Green suspects that will involve the earlier F3DM hybrid (pictured above), which has already begun testing in California, and the E6 electric crossover. Head on past the break for the full press release. Continue reading BYD Motors to debut e6 Premier, S6DM plug-in vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show BYD Motors to debut e6 Premier, S6DM plug-in vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Is your Matter Compiler broken? Well, step on down to the local .MGX for all your 3D printed needs! Materialise’s .MGX brand has just opened its very own flagship store in Brussels, and it professes to be the first physical store solely dedicated to 3D printed wares. It’s primarily high design baubles right now, but we’re sure it won’t be long before we’re chucking our old and busted cutlery into the deke bin and churning out new sets with our at-home M.C. we bought at Target. Right, Neal? .MGX opens world’s first store dedicated to 3D printed goods originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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What, you didn’t forget about the Cliq series, did you? The followup to Motorola and T-Mobile’s slider’s been long rumored — we heard a few morsels of information back in September — and now CellPhoneSignal has a few pics of what it claims is the Begonia , aka Cliq 2 (for T-Mobile, naturally). The keyboard here is, well, interesting, to say the least, and there’s also apparently a five megapixel camera on the back. We’re not really sure how our thumbs feel about the layout, but if this is legit, we’d reckon they’ll get to try it out themselves sooner or later. That’s what giant gadget trade shows are for, right? Right. More pictures via the source link. Motorola Cliq 2 pictures hit the outside world? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 23:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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