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If you're very clumsy (or you love watching TV in the bathtub) Sony Japan has just the thing for you. The Rimotokomanda RM-PZ3SD
universal remote comes in a palette of soothing colors, works with a wide variety of sets (including those by Panasonic / National, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Victor / JVC, Sanyo, Aiwa, Sharp, Funai / PRECIOUS, NEC, Fujitsu, Pioneer, Philips, and, of course, Sony), and offers at least a modicum of water-resistance for wet-handed TV viewing (we'll leave that part up to your imagination). To be unleashed on the Japanese buying public "soon" for ¥2,468 (around $26). More pics after the break.
[Via
Boing Boing]
Continue reading Sony unveils waterproof universal remotes for deep-sea TV addicts
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Sony unveils waterproof universal remotes for deep-sea TV addicts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise given the fairly
steady growth netbooks have seen since their inception as a product category, it's still pretty notable that they've apparently now managed to nearly double traditional laptops in sales growth during the second quarter of this year. That word comes from market research firm DisplaySearch, which found that netbook shipments grew an impressive 40% compared to the same quarter last year, as opposed to 22% for plain old laptops. As excitingly illustrated in the chart above, however, that still leaves netbooks (or "mini-notes") well behind laptops in terms of total shipments, although that seems almost certain to narrow considerably in the months and years ahead -- at least until the line between netbooks and laptops becomes so blurred that we just start calling everything "laptops" again.
Filed under: Laptops
Netbook sales growth doubles laptops in Q2 '09 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We're starting to get the feeling they just didn't know about WiFi in Waterloo until now, because almost every BlackBerry hardware rumor we're hearing lately is all about how
RIM's adding the wireless networking spec and everyone's oh-so-happy. Case in point: today we've got word of a new BlackBerry Essex, which is essentially... the
Tour with WiFi. Seriously, that's the whole rumor, and we're guessing it has something to do with
Sprint mandating WiFi on all of its future handsets, so it's not even particularly wild. Don't get us wrong here, we're glad to have WiFi -- it's extremely nice on the Bold, and it certainly improves battery life -- but considering the sorry state of the BlackBerry browser and the continued lack of real IMAP on the BlackBerry platform, we're just wondering when BlackBerry fans will have some
real changes to get excited about.
Filed under: Cellphones
BlackBerry Essex to bring WiFi on Tour? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Shoving
breathalyzers into MIDs and PNDs has been all the rage overseas for quite a while, and now it looks like Toyota itself is getting in on the act. The breath-alcohol ignition-interlock system features a handset that detects alcohol on your breath (if any) and snaps your mug with a digital camera. Depending on your level of "fun" (that is, alcohol consumption) the thing can be set to alert you (in case you forgot about those three Iron Citys) or lock the vehicle's ignition altogether. In addition, it can be used to monitor vehicles of commercial fleets and notify the boss if the driver shows up sloshed. Testing of the device commences September 1st, and will go through November 30. Historians agree that had this technology been available thirty years ago, the 1970s
CB radio craze could have been avoided altogether.
[Via
Yahoo!]
Continue reading Toyota develops breathalyzer ignition-interlock, BJ McKay promises to hack it
Filed under: Transportation
Toyota develops breathalyzer ignition-interlock, BJ McKay promises to hack it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Researchers at the University of the West of England have snagged a grant to fund the building of a whole new type of
robot -- a non-silicon, biological plasmobot, built using plasmodium, a vegetative type of slime
mold. The mold, which is commonly found living in forests and gardens, is, according to researcher Andy Adamatzky, a "naturally occurring substance with its own built in intelligence," which is capable of carrying out complex tasks, like figuring out the shortest path between two points -- all on its own. The aim for the plasmobot will be for it to sense objects, span them in the shortest way possible, and carry tiny objects along pre-determined routes, controlled by light and electromagnetic fields. The plasmobot should also be capable of complex "number crunching power," enabled by parallel inputs and outputs. Long-term uses could include using the bots within the human body to deliver drugs to specific targets. Though much of this is still purely theoretical (and extremely complicated), we look forward to the day when we're all covered in mold, don't you?
Filed under: Robots
English scientists set out to build first biological robot using mold originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's sort of interesting that China is where all the
Android action seems to be
going down lately, but here we are, staring at the LG GW880 -- essentially the company's first Android phone. Of course, "Android" in this case means
China Mobile's custom WiFi-less
OPhone platform, which means we'll probably never see this guy outside of the Middle Kingdom, but it's a fair look at what LG's handset designers think an Android set should look like: 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen, 256MB RAM, GPS, and a five megapixel camera. Honestly? We're hoping LG has grander plans for those
other Android phones it has planned for this year -- we'll just have to wait and see. Hit the read link for a few more shots in the meantime.
[Via
Slashphone]
Filed under: Cellphones
LG GW880 leaks out, runs Android on China Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Canon's seemingly imminent
EOS 7D DSLR may still not be fully official just yet, but there's certainly no end to the
leaks these days, with the camera's complete video specs only the latest to surface. Assuming this latest rumor is on the mark, it looks like you can expect to get your choice of 24, 25 or 30 fps video at full 1080p, or 50 or 60 fps at 720p, along with an external mic, full manual controls (though not continuous focus, it seems), some in-camera editing options and, of course, and HDMI out port for some big screen viewing. What's left to know? A price and release date, for starters -- but hopefully Canon itself will clear those details up (and confirm the rest) before too long.
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Canon EOS 7D video specs get detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We figured the suits over at T-Mobile USA were on some of that good stuff when they
slapped an almost comical $350 (on contract) price tag on HTC's
Touch Pro2, but evidently said "stuff" has made its way into the halls of Overland Park as well. After months of watching
evidence mount, Sprint has finally come clean and admitted that HTC's EV-DO Rev. A-equipped superphone is coming to its network, and with it will come access to Sprint TV as well as NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile apps. The smartphone will go on sale
September 8th, though you'll have to pony up $349.99 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) in order to secure one on a two-year contract. We're all about that 3.6-inch WVGA tilting screen, but with Palm's
Pre selling on this very network for a full $150 less, we're thinking this one won't appeal to many outside of the WinMo faithful.
Continue reading Sprint follows T-Mobile's lead, wants $350 for HTC Touch Pro2
Filed under: Cellphones
Sprint follows T-Mobile's lead, wants $350 for HTC Touch Pro2 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Remember that time you installed Windows XP before it even hit the market? Remember how your AGP video card would only display a maximum resolution of 800 x 600 and your audio card would only emit bleeps and bloops? Ah, those were the days. Quite a bit has happened since XP landed to wash away the awful stain that was Windows ME, though it's still no shock to hear that new operating systems leave more than a few applications broken. Over the past few days, we've
seen oodles of gripes from across the web from loyal Mac users who just can't believe
Snow Leopard has borked their favorite software, but we're wondering how things have been on your machine. Have you realized that your
Optimus Maximus no longer boogies with OS X 10.6? Are you bummed that iStat pro isn't giving you the details it used to? What kind of hell has broken loose since you threw caution in the garbage and updated your machine?
Filed under: Software
Snow Leopard: what's broken (or working) for you? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, Intel hasn't exactly been making many secrets about its latest
cadre of processors, and at least a few of them already seem to be
shipping in some parts of the world, but it now looks like things could soon be about to get a whole lot more official. According to
DigiTimes, Intel is set to announce its new Core i5-750, Core i7-860 and Core i7-870 CPUs (and the
P55 chipset to go along with 'em) on September 8th, which is almost right in line with some of the
earliest rumors on the matter. Details are otherwise a bit light, although
DigiTimes' "sources" estimate that P55-based motherboards could account for as much as 20% of total motherboard shipments by the end of 2009.
Filed under: Desktops
Intel rumored to be launching new Core i5, i7 processors September 8th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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