Whoever it was at Sony HQ that decided to pursue “military contracts” as a revenue source, kudos! Mere days after the US Air Force expressed interest in expanding its PS3 supercomputer, we’re hearing glorious Britannia’s Royal Navy has conscripted 230 PSPs into duty as revision aids for its trainee sailors. Loaded with maths and physics materials, the PSPs can be used in a bunk, have familiar controls for the young and mostly male recruits, and are considered pretty tough to break. The underlying reason for this move though is cost cutting: by making the training course more intensive, the Navy is saving on teaching time. Given that the UMD drive won’t come disabled — which is hoped to encourage the sailors to take better care of the device — the future this paints is of marines who’ve spent more time with a freebie handheld console than with a pro instructor. At least they’ll have a great stable of captured monsters to show for it.
[Thanks, pankomputerek]
Sony PSPs enlisted as study aids by the Royal Navy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Nintendo’s been doing a bit of digging and it turns out it’s already won the console wars. If we’re only talking about the ladies, that is. A whopping 80% of American female primary gamers (the person who primarily uses the console rather than the occasional dabblers) do their thing on the Wii, which we see as a clear indication to the graphics-obsessed Xbox 360 and PS3 developers that women prefer their games to be fun to play, rather than just look at. Maybe if we also stopped dressing female characters in swimsuits, they’d find non-Wii games relatable too — that’s just a guess though, probably wrong.
Nintendo Wii has lion’s share of female console gamers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
This Dragon Skin armor has been knocking about since 2007, but now that piezoelectrics and intelligence have been thrown into the mix we couldn’t stop ourselves from taking a peek at it. The armor’s strength is derived from a reptilian arrangement of overlapping ceramic and titanium composite discs, which simultaneously block incoming rounds and dissipate the impact to a wider area. What’s interesting about the new design is the two piezoelectric sensors attached to each end — one of them transfers a low voltage of power through the armor in the form of vibration, which the other picks up, and the reported energy loss is interpreted as armor degradation. Gnarlier still is the ability of these sensors to generate electricity from bullet impacts, which can then themselves give you an indication of what sort of bullet hit you. Capable of being applied to soldiers and vehicles alike, this could make the real act of soldiering a whole lot more like a video game (minus the whole “infinite respawn” thing), with HUDs showing you how much “shield” you have left. You can see an old(ish) video of the original armor after the break.
Continue reading Dragon Skin body armor gains piezoelectric sensors, keeps bullet-stopping abilities
Dragon Skin body armor gains piezoelectric sensors, keeps bullet-stopping abilities originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Digg | 
Discovery News | Email this | Comments
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/microsoft/Microsoft_Opens_PC_Lounge_in_Saks_Fifth_Avenue_New_York’;
We all know Microsoft’s feeling pretty smug — and with good reason — about Windows 7 right now. In an effort to drum up yet more hype for its latest OS, and perhaps to try and gauge customer interest in an East coast Store, Microsoft has decided to open up a cozy “PC lounge” inside Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship New York store — you know, the one that actually is on Fifth Avenue. As part of the agreement, Windows 7 will be used to drive Saks’ window displays, and opportunities will be provided for customers to interact with the new software throughout the building. The lounge itself will be populated by Windows 7 laptops and Microsoft experts, who’ll probably answer your questions in the sort of overly peppy, commercial way that makes us wonder why anyone goes to offline shops in the first place.
Microsoft opens PC lounge in Saks Fifth Avenue for holiday season originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Electronista | Microsoft | Email this | Comments
First thing’s first: the video beyond the break is certainly not up to our usually stellar standards. That said, the voice recording is clear enough, so you may consider it an audio presentation with the bonus of a shadowy figure making occasional hand gestures in time with what’s being said (lighting also improves as you go along). Arimasa Naitoh is the man behind the ThinkPad line, having joined the product engineering team at IBM during the 1970s and shifting with the ThinkPad brand on to Lenovo in 2005. Currently the VP for Notebook Development and the head of the Yamato Development Labs, Naitoh-san was kind enough to do a presentation in London yesterday, in which he touched on the history of the fabled laptop line and was also not shy about trumpeting the key advantages of the latest T400s flagship model. So click past the break, turn your speakers up, and get educated by one of the true founding fathers of mobile computing as we know it today.
Continue reading Lenovo’s ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s
Lenovo’s ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
So we know the iPhone has been slumming it and selling itself on Walmart shelves in the US for a while now, but it’s retained a somewhat more dignified cachet over here in Europe. Until today, that is. Just “in time for Christmas,” British retailer Tesco will make it possible for you to buy your socks, no-frills groceries, and shiny smartphone all in the same place. You’ll still be riding O2’s network, thanks to the Tesco Mobile service, but the department store chain is likely to price its contracts more aggressively, as it already has a £30 per month plan that includes unlimited calls, texts, and web surfing. Maybe there’s something to this whole “competition” thing after all then, eh?
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink BBC News | Tesco | Email this | Comments
We were as surprised as anyone when the USAF threw down the cash for 300-odd PlayStation 3s back in March of last year, but what’s more shocking is that it’s now back for more — seven times more, in fact. Already employing its PS3 cluster for research into high-def video processing, the Air Force Research Lab wants to expand its capabilities significantly and it seems that Sony’s Cell processor is still its weapon of choice. We would use this opportunity to make a few jibes about lazy engineers upgrading their setups in time for Modern Warfare 2, but we’re better than that. We’ll also totally avoid noting that the US government’s skimping on costs now is leading it to commit to an instruction set tailored specifically to the Cell processor, which contrary to the latest Xeons — pricier though they may be — is not guaranteed to keep updating in pace with the USAF’s needs. Those are things we’ll leave for someone who isn’t afraid of death lasers and autonomous attack drones to say.
US Air Force orders up 2,200 more PS3s — for thinking, not gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Sony Insider, Information Week | US Air Force | Email this | Comments
Alright, we’re not too happy with the Natural Selection moniker implying that being a celebrity is somehow a marker of evolutionary prowess, but we’ll forgive Toshiba this one time. The Japanese company has recruited a quartet of famous folks to help promote its wares with limited edition laptops painted to their specifications. Aerosmith guitar legend Joe Perry, the no less mythical Rainn Wilson, Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward and his coach Mike… oh wait, that’s Omar Epps, have put their own personal stamps on a selection of Toshiba’s latest 505 laptop models from the A, P, M, and Qosmio X series. These will be auctioned off on eBay starting this Friday, with all proceeds going to charity. Any more questions before you start the bidding? No? Good.
Toshiba Natural Selection laptops get celebrity paintjobs, good causes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Toshiba | Email this | Comments
Seems like we just can’t go a week without some corporate power plays or mudslinging making our pages. Back in October, Datel promised it would “remedy” the situation created by Microsoft’s forthcoming (now present) Dashboard update locking out its higher capacity memory modules. The accessory company was the first (and only) third-party supplier of memory cards for the Xbox 360, but it seems that MS took a dislike to the MicroSD-expandable Max Memory units and has since taken the unusual step of downgrading the console to being able to read only chips up to 512MB, essentially taking Datel’s 2GB+ wares out of commission. Yeah, classy. Datel’s retaliation is in the finest Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, namely to assert antitrust concerns and to claim its right to act as a competitor to Microsoft in the memory market for Redmond’s own console. It all sounds rather silly to us too, and could probably have been avoided by a rational compromise, but what’s the fun in that?
Datel sues Microsoft, wants its Xbox 360 market back originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Feels nice when a company keeps its promises, doesn’t it? Nintendo said it’d have the newly bulked up DSi LL out in Japan for November 21, and shockingly enough that’s exactly what’s happened. Eager Japanese upgraders have today gotten their mitts on the 4.2-inch (both screens, of course) device, while similarly inclined European and American Nintendo lovers are once again left to envy from afar. Their helping of jumbo DSi, to be known as the XL, will be showing up some time in the first quarter of 2010, long after bragging rights and gift-giving holiday occasions have passed. We’re not sure whether to consider it consolation or cruelty, but you’ll find a gallery containing close-ups of the new machine at the read link.
[Thanks, Craig]
Nintendo DSi LL set loose in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
