Dynamic Eye LCD sunglasses blot out the sun, not the rest of your life (video)
December 15, 2010 No Comment
Those giant Chanel sunglasses you bought for $450 may make you look happening at the pool, but did you notice the extra squint-lines you’re getting thanks to their barely-there tinting? Not cool, and that wouldn’t be a problem with Dynamic Eye shades. The concept model above admittedly looks worse than that pair of knockoff Oakleys you got for $20 from some mall kiosk, but that’s hugely better than the early prototype demonstrated below, ready for its cameo in Revenge of the Nerds V: Nerds Hit the Beach . The concept is simple: each lens is an LCD that creates a dark box over the sun, blotting out the biggest source of glare and allowing the rest of the glasses to remain rather less tinted. They’re even said to work at night. It’s a project the company has been working on for years and still has many months of development left, but it feels close enough to ask for your help via Kickstarter. If you’re feeling generous, a $400 donation will ensure you get one of the first pairs to roll off the assembly lines — or you can just chip in $10 for now and get an e-mail telling you when you can order. Probably the safer way to go. Continue reading Dynamic Eye LCD sunglasses blot out the sun, not the rest of your life (video) Dynamic Eye LCD sunglasses blot out the sun, not the rest of your life (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide ! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today’s bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the holiday season. A new digital camera is a solid go-to gadget present for almost anyone on your list, since everyone loves taking and sharing photos. But pairing the right camera to the right person at the right price can be challenging — with thousands of camera choices spanning every shape, size, and price tag, picking the right camera can be overwhelming. You’re in luck, though — we’ve looked through all of 2010′s holiday camera offerings and narrowed things down for you. Read on! Continue reading Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Digital cameras Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Digital cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Gawker Media Inc., which runs a series of irreverent blogs on media, technology and other issues, is urging subscribers to change their passwords because someone has managed to hack into the company’s user database. (Dec. 15)
Continue reading …Regio Smart Toilet is self-cleaning, music playing, and definitely overkill
December 15, 2010 No CommentSo, this is what the future looks like: the Regio Smart Toilet by INAX combines a bidet and a self-cleaning toilet with such features as automatic flushing and deodorizing, an automatic seat and lid, and dual flush modes, with a throne-side media player that supports an SD card reader for custom audio playlists. We just hope that this comes pre-loaded with “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” by The Gap Band. Available in black or white at Crescent Supply in Lawrenceville and select retailers worldwide — hit the source link to get one for yourself. Continue reading Regio Smart Toilet is self-cleaning, music playing, and definitely overkill Regio Smart Toilet is self-cleaning, music playing, and definitely overkill originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Oh man, as if having 10 Neo Geo classics hitting the PS3 and PSP complete with online multiplayer wasn’t sweet enough, now SNK is doing one better by releasing an updated version of the classic Neo Geo gamepad. Sure, it isn’t as magestic as the giant, hulking arcade stick that came in a pair with the $650 Neo Geo Gold System. However, the system’s gamepad (released with the Neo Geo CD) would go on to be even more popular thanks to its much lower cost and novel floating 8-way d-pad. That controller is reborn (again) for the PS3 with USB connectivity the addition of a PS button in the middle, meaning you can even use it to pull up the XMB and taunt your friends into joining a King of Fighters match. Sadly this is only getting a release in Japan, where it sells for 3,129 yen (about $37), but Play-Asia will import you one for $45. Small price for such a lovely thing. SNK continues to tickle retro gamers, releases Neo Geo gamepad for PS3 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …As if the nation’s overexcited and misguided border vigilantes didn’t have enough ways to trigger alarms and bedevil the U.S. Border Patrol (whose job is hard enough as it is), University of Arizona researchers have developed Helios, a monitoring system that uses an acoustic sensor to detect movement via fiber optic cables buried beneath the US-Mexico border. The system is evidently able to distinguish between vehicles, animals, and humans — and it can even differentiate between different types of human activity, including walking, running, and digging. But that ain’t all! UA is looking to spin the technology out into the private sector, working with a company called Fotech to automate the system, further refine the database of signals, and maybe even integrate this into a comprehensive border security system complete with mobile surveillance vehicles and an animatronic Jan Brewer that is, according to a guy we overheard at the bar, “only slightly more human than the actual Arizona governor.” UA engineers develop ‘invisible,’ fiber optic border monitoring system originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Creative ZiiEagle Movie Box promises 3,000 years of Chinese culture in one sleek burgundy package
December 15, 2010 No Comment
So just what is the Creative ZiiEagle Movie Box? What exactly do you get from this? Here’s what we’ve gathered: A set-top box featuring 668 movies from Celestial’s Shaw Brothers Film Collection. “3,000 years of Chinese culture and secrets of the much elusive ‘Confucian thing.’” A price tag — 888 Singapore dollars ($676 in US currency) — that “solves the perennial video piracy problem in one stroke.” The reason for that awesome picture above to exist. Singapore, consider yourself enlightened, and consider your days of video piracy officially numbered. Creative ZiiEagle Movie Box promises 3,000 years of Chinese culture in one sleek burgundy package originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The only way to open this editorial is to admit something I’ve been rather shy about on the pages of Engadget: I’ve been an avid BlackBerry fan and user for about six years now. I mean a real addict — the kind who wakes up each morning looking for a blinking red LED, the kind who’s refused to give up push email and BlackBerry Messenger in favor of more powerful, polished, and progressive mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, and webOS. In fact, when my Verizon contract was up last year I opted to get a Curve 8530 instead of the Motorola Droid or Palm Pre — to say nothing of making the leap over to AT&T for the iPhone. There were lots of reasons I didn’t want to give up my BlackBerry, but five days ago I lost that very Curve in a San Fransisco cab. Then coincidentally, a day later I saw RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis speak at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference , where he almost embarrassingly avoided every question about the company’s immediate smartphone strategy. I had always known that RIM was behind the curve (always a great pun!), but I also always had hope that the company would catch up with modern smartphones of today. Sadly, watching Mike dodge questions on the D stage took that hope away from me — it’s crystal clear that RIM won’t have a solution to compete with those powerful smartphones anytime soon. So, what happens to a BlackBerry diehard like myself? Where do I go from here? Continue reading Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Nikon Coolpix P7000 v1.1 firmware released, improves RAW processing and focusing reliability
December 15, 2010 No Comment
Nikon’s taken criticism of its enthusiast-friendly P7000 compact to heart and has today announced a fresh firmware for that shooter. Overall NRW (Nikon’s own RAW format) processing times are said to have been reduced, while lens control has been optimized to reduce the occurrence of focusing errors. A couple of other tweaks have also been thrown in: one to overcome a rare issue that would block the zoom from operating, and another causing blown highlights on the camera’s LCD when Active D-Lighting is enabled and the shutter is half-pressed. That’s your lot; if you’ve got the camera already, it’s a no-brainer, and if you don’t, it might cast a happier new light on the P7000′s earlier reviews . Nikon Coolpix P7000 v1.1 firmware released, improves RAW processing and focusing reliability originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Windows Phone 7 said to be getting major ‘Mango’ update in August or September
December 15, 2010 No Comment
We’d already heard that Windows Phone 7 is set to get an update of some sort early next year — possibly coinciding with Mobile World Congress in February — but ZD Net’s Mary Jo Foley is now reporting that an even bigger update could be following in August or September. According to her sources, the update is codenamed “Mango,” and it will effectively amount to Windows Phone 7.5, which she says might even be the actual name when it’s released. That update will apparently bring Silverlight runtime and HTML5 support to the OS, along with Far Eastern language support, and some other unspecified features and functionality. It will also presumably be the most significant update until Windows Phone 8, which Foley says is codenamed “Apollo,” and is on track for a release in late 2012. [Thanks, John] Windows Phone 7 said to be getting major ‘Mango’ update in August or September originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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