Love to tinker and tweak your smartphone? Find running beta apps a challenge, not a burden? Then you’ll be happy to hear that Nokia’s N900 running Maemo 5 is now shipping in the US, a week later than the press release suggested. This Cortex-A8 phone with 32GB of on-board storage is ripe with potential and the perfect holiday gift for grandma as long as she’s comfortable dropping into the X Terminal for the occasional “rm -R /home/user/.microfeed” command. It’s still listed for $649 unlocked from Nokia direct though that price will be dropping soon enough.
[Thanks, Alex]
Nokia N900 now shipping in the land of Ford freedom trucks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We gadget nerds have to endure unspeakable atrocities in order to slake that early adoption jones: first-run gear shipped DOA, buggy pre-release software, and months of waiting after a product leaks only to be greeted by a jacked-up price premium at launch. So we feel your pain, original Kindle owners, after Amazon announced a major firmware update that brings native PDF support to the 6-inch Kindle 2 and DX readers with the promise of a staggering 85% increase in battery life to all Kindle 2 devices — if you haven’t already received it OTA, the 2.3 software update is now available for download and installation via USB tethering. At least owners of “some earlier versions of Kindle” (quote from the press release) will receive native PDF support whenever the 1st generation firmware update (currently at version 1.2) is released. It’s worth noting that Amazon’s PDF reader lacks a zoom function which makes many PDFs entirely unreadable on the device. Good thing Amazon’s store is chock full of easily zoomable books in a proprietary format then, huh?
Kindle 2.3 software update available, generation 1 owners need not apply originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GE Global Research in collaboration with SABIC Innovative Plastics has developed a new class of holographic materials that can be processed in plastic to create a wide range of novelty products, credit, or identity cards. Instead of just being stamped onto the surface of the card like typical holograms, these new cards rely upon thermo-plastic based volume holography to store the data (binary images, 3D images of your face, fingerprints, and even animations) within the card itself for an extra degree of tamper-free security. And because the holographic material can be injection-molded, it could ultimately be applied to a variety of personalized products including laptops and cellphones. GE Global Research is intent on commercializing the new holographic materials by 2012, until then we’ve got a video that gives a good idea of how your 3D mug might look pressed into those government or corporate mandated ID cards of the future. Check it after the break.
Continue reading GE Global Research holograms increase security, redefine ‘going green’
GE Global Research holograms increase security, redefine ‘going green’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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ATI just announced its latest greatest polygon cruncher on the planet: the previously leaked Radeon HD 5970. The new card card is also one of the first to support Microsoft DirectX 11 and Eyefinity multi-display (driving up to three displays at once for a 7680×1600 maximum resolution) with ripe potential for overclocking thanks to the card’s Overdrive technology. Instead of relying upon a single GPU like the already scorching Radeon HD 5870, the 5970 brings a pair of Cypress GPUs linked on a single board by a PCI Express bridge for nearly 5 TeraFLOPS of computer power, or a mind boggling 10 TeraFLOPS when setup in CrossFireX. Naturally, the card’s already been put to the test by all the usual benchmarking nerds who praise the card as the undisputed performance leader regardless of game or application. It even manages to keep power consumption in check until you start rolling on the voltage to ramp those clock speeds. As you’d expect then, ATI isn’t going to offer any breaks on pricing so you can expect to pay the full $599 suggested retail price when these cards hit shelves today for retail or as part of your new gaming rig bundle.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming
ATI Radeon HD 5970: world’s fastest graphics card confirmed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Today’s the day that a GameStop listing had Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Wireless N Networking Adapter going live for retail. So how’s that $100 worth of throughput treating you? What’s that… it’s not actually for sale? Indeed: the entry has been pulled from GameStop and a Google Shopping search reveals only a single Buy.com entry showing the adapter as “temporarily sold out.” That’s wishful thinking. While Microsoft has confirmed the adapters’ existence they have not officially announced a street date or price. We’ll let you know if that changes.
Update: Amazon.fr lists the adapter for 80 euro bucks with an expected November 20th ship. We’ll see.
[Thanks Adam and Tim Ashman for pre-modified photo]
Filed under: Gaming, Wireless
Xbox 360 Wireless N adapter disappears from the internets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oh how the mighty have fallen. Nintendo just announced that its interim net profit was cut by more than half to ¥69.49 billion (about $770 million), from ¥144.83 billion last year at this time — figures that won’t be helped by the cheaper Wii price tag announced at the end of September. Speaking of which, Nintendo sold only 5.75 million Wii consoles from April to September (down 43% from last year) and cut its full year sales forecast for the April 09 to March 2010 period to 20 million units, down from an expected 26 million. DS sales were also off 15% from last year and we doubt that a bigger screen on the new DSi LL model will change that dramatically.
Nintendo profits sink on declining console sales, weak game selection originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A recent Gizmodo sit down with Steve Ballmer led with a headline exclaiming a Blu-ray add-on for Xbox was coming. See, when Ballmer was asked about making the Xbox a home theater companion of choice and where Blu-ray might fit in, the Windows 7 wild man said, “Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there — you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.” He then added that on-demand is the future of movies, not physical media. Now our bud Major Nelson, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, has stepped up to lay the conflation to rest. The Major says that Ballmer was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC and reiterated Microsoft’s focus of bringing instant-on 1080p streaming movies to the Xbox 360. So… that should end speculation of Blu-ray on Xbox right? Not if history serves, nope.
Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Microsoft: ‘We have no plans for Blu-ray on Xbox 360′ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What happens when you launch a 7-pound (3.2-kg) PS3 Slim into a 46-inch Bravia KDL46X 3100 LCD at 50 miles per hour (80 km/hr)? A video destined to go viral with internet stardom, that’s what. Exactly the thing Sony Australia is looking for with a new ad campaign touting its buy a Bravia get a PS3 for free. Awesome, and after the break.
Continue reading PS3 crashes into Bravia TV at 50 MPH for fun and profit (video)
Filed under: Displays, Gaming
PS3 crashes into Bravia TV at 50 MPH for fun and profit (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Is it us or has Ben Heck outdone himself with the minimal clean design of his latest gaming mod? This laptop sees Sony’s PS3 Slim stuffed into a monochromatic chassis with 17-inch Gateway 1775w LCD throwing a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution. There’s even space inside to tuck away the power cord when traveling. The pinstriped result is nothing short of elegant, sporty even, especially when compared to his PS3 laptop from 2008. Not much in the way of detail yet, but really, this one’s meant to stimulate the heart, not the frontal cortex. See it throb to life in the video after the break.
Continue reading Video: Ben Heck’s 17-inch PS3 Slim laptop makes hearts race
Filed under: Gaming, Laptops
Video: Ben Heck’s 17-inch PS3 Slim laptop makes hearts race originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You know that UMD-to-PSP Go conversion program? Ain’t gonna happen. The “good will” program that would have provided free (or at least heavily discounted) digital copies of games already purchased on UMD discs has been scrapped. A spokesman for SCEA said, “We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time.” Adding insult to injury, the PSP Go Rewards program offering 3 free games to European UMD owners will not be offered in the US. That’s the bad news. The not so bad news is that 16,000 pieces of digital content will be available for the US PSP Go launch on October 1st. These include 225 downloadable games (full PSP titles, PSN exclusives, UMD legacy titles, and Minis), 2,300 films, and 13,300 television episodes. Still, not quite the “at least 300″ digital games we were expecting. So US PSP owners, still planning to “upgrade?”
Read — UMD-to-PSP Go program scrapped
Read — 225 games at US launch
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds
Sony America abandons UMD-to-PSP Go “good will” program, offers 225 games at full retail price instead originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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