Archive for February, 2010.
Fujitsu’s LifeBook UH900 started shipping to Americans just over a fortnight ago, and now one has landed into the capable hands of Pocketables. Boasting a 2GHz Atom CPU and some of the most unsightly adapters we’ve ever seen, this flip-open handheld — which just looks too lovely to be saddled with the “UMPC” moniker — strangely stirs something within our heart. It’s one of those “I know I don’t need it, but I just have to have it” things. Don’t agree? Hit the source link, scroll all the way down, think about the upcoming weekend, and then see how you feel. Oh, and feel free to check out those size comparisons if you need extra encouragement in the “ooh” and “aah” department.
Fujitsu’s LifeBook UH900 gets unboxed, sized up against the competition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What’s cute, cuddly, and makes all sorts of bizarro noises when it senses wireless waves? Yoshi Akai’s Wireless Catcher, of course! This analog synth contraption is simplistic in nature and complex in design, utilizing an onboard antenna to sense WiFi signals and then alter the sounds being outputted depending on signal strength and direction. It’s not exactly the symphony that Bach forgot to write, but it’s certainly beautiful in its own nerdy way. Have a look at the video past the break, won’t you?
Continue reading Yoshi Akai’s Wireless Catcher senses nearby wireless waves, makes music (video)
Yoshi Akai’s Wireless Catcher senses nearby wireless waves, makes music (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Engadget German, MAKE | 
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According to a little late night tweet from Palm — and the update screen on our device — the stacked new webOS 1.4 update is making its way out into the world for the company’s Verizon-flavored devices. That’s right, Plussers — video recording (and editing) is just a small download away. So why are you still reading this?
Palm webOS 1.4 update hits Verizon’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Solar cells are cute and all, but let’s be real — these things are far too inefficient for mainstream use. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology are working hard to remedy that very issue, and they’ve recently concocted a “new type of flexible solar cell that enhances the absorption of sunlight and efficiently converts its photons into electrons.” The solution relies on arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded onto a polymer substrate, which uses just a fraction of the expensive semiconductor materials required by conventional solar cells. According to professor Harry Atwater, these cells have “surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials” for the first time, and we’re told that the arrays can convert between 90 and 100 percent of the photons they absorb into electrons, and yes, that does mean that they have a near-perfect internal quantum efficiency. Hit the source link for all the technobabble, and cross your fingers for this stuff to get the honored approval of the Governator.
Caltech gurus whip up highly efficient, low cost flexible solar cell originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple’s famous desire for total control over its operations seems to have extended to its manufacturing facilities as we’ve come across Cupertino’s Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report, which details audits the American company has done of its overseas suppliers and the failures identified therein. The findings are pretty damning on the whole, with more than half (54 percent) of all factories failing to meet Apple’s already inflated maximum 60-hour work week, 24 percent paying less than the minimum wage, 37 percent failing to respect anti-discrimination rules, and three facilities holding records of employing a total of eleven 15-year olds (who were over the legal age of 16 or had left by the time of the audit). Apple is, predictably, not jazzed about the situation, and has taken action through train-the-trainer schemes, threats of business termination with recidivist plants, and — most notably — the recovery of $2.2 million in recruitment fees that international contract workers should not have had to pay.
It should come as no shock to learn that cheaper overseas factories are cutting illegal corners, but it’s disappointing to hear Apple’s note that most of the 102 audited manufacturers said Cupertino was the only vendor to perform such rigorous compliance checks. Still, we’ll take what we can get and the very existence of this report — which can be savagely skewed to defame Apple’s efforts (as demonstrated expertly by The Daily Telegraph below) — is an encouraging sign that corporate responsibility is being taken seriously. We hope, wherever your geek loyalties and fervor may lie, that you’ll agree Apple’s leading in the right direction and that its competitors should at the very least have matching monitoring schemes. They may have to swallow some bad PR at first, but sweeping up the dirty details of where gadgets come from is juvenile and has no place in a civilized world. Hit the source link for the full report.
Apple supplier audit reveals sub-minimum wage pay and records of underage labor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What would have been a perfectly fine, eco-friendly, nicely paced, and Apple-free podcast is ruined by a surprise appearance by jetsetting Engadget Editor-in-Chief Joshua Topolsky.
P.S.- KHOTAR. Keyboard Haptic Operation and Tactility Assessment Review. Think about it.
Hosts: Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Guests: Ross Miller, Josh Topolsky
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Mighty Mike – In Bloom (Mike’s Rockabye Mix)
Hear the podcast
00:02:28 – The Bloom Box: a power plant for the home (video)
00:05:05 – Live from the Bloom Box press event
00:08:00 – Bloom ‘Box’ Energy Server hands-on (literally) with video!
00:11:58 – Nintendo DSi XL hands-on
00:15:00 – Nintendo to release 100 Classic Book Collection for DS on June 14
00:23:16 – Palm sales ‘lower than expected,’ revenues to miss targets
00:24:14 – Analysts turn sour on Palm stock, cite weak sales on Verizon
00:30:55 – Motorola Devour goes hands-on, hits Best Buy for $99 this week (update: video!)
00:46:05 – Engadget PMA 2010 coverage
00:54:21 – Alienware M11x review
01:01:55 – The winners of the 2009 Engadget Awards!
01:10:38 – Engadget for iPhone / iPod touch 2.0.1 now available!
01:11:47 – The Engadget Show returns this Saturday, Feb. 27th… now with live streaming!
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Download the podcast
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Contact the podcast
1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.
Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @ohnorosco @engadget
Filed under: Podcasts
Engadget Podcast 185 – 02.26.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, that didn’t take too long. Just a day after we pondered the shipping status of Fusion Garage’s JooJoo tablet, the company’s come clean and told us shipping will delayed to March 25 because of a manufacturing issue with the tablet’s 12.1-inch capacitive screen. Yep, it looks like it’s going to be at least 27 more days until you’ve got a JooJoo of your very own — which means, of course, that Fusion Garage will now be trying to launch this thing during the same week Apple’s scheduled to launch the iPad. Ouch. To its credit, Fusion Garage says it’s not happy with the delay and has promised a free accessory to pre-order customers to make it better — we’re told it’s likely to be the $30 stand. We’ll see if that’s enough to hold back the effects of Cupertino’s coming media blitz, but either way we’re quite excited about making a tablet sandwich at the end of March. Full PR after the break.
Continue reading JooJoo ship date pushed to March 25 due to manufacturing issues
JooJoo ship date pushed to March 25 due to manufacturing issues originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Can’t wait for another Engadget Show to roll around? Well you’re in luck, friend. It’s happening tomorrow at 5:00pm ET. We’ll be doing giveaways at the show taping only, so brave the weather and join us in person for a chance to win great prizes!
Josh will be sitting down with Avner Ronen of Boxee to discuss the upcoming (and hotly anticipated) Boxee Box, as well as his strategy for taking on Big Television and their army of Jeff Zuckers.
Microsoft will also be on hand to demo Windows Phone 7 Series and the company’s own Aaron Woodman will be sharing stories about the major changes Redmond has made to the Windows mobile OS. Also expect an out-of-this-world performance from Nullsleep complete with stunning visuals from Outpt and Paris, as well as some other big surprises…
As you may have heard, livestreaming is back by popular demand, and we’re rolling out some cool new features! You will now be able to tweet your comments directly to the livestream! During the show, just include the hashtag “#engadgetshow” and look for your tweet to show up on the ticker at the bottom of the stream. One thing to note, The Engadget Show is a family program, so any single instance of swearing or trolling will force us to turn off the ticker… and it won’t come back on. So, keep it clean and have fun!
The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are — as always — free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served… so get there early! Here’s all the info you need:
- There is no admission fee — tickets are completely free
- The event is all ages
- Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2:30PM on Saturday, doors will open for seating at 4:30PM, and the show begins at 5PM
- You cannot collect tickets for friends or family — anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket
- Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we’re full, we’re full
- The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break)
- The show length is around an hour
If you’re a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we’ll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.
Subscribe to the Show:
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Update: As you guys may have noticed, New York and the surrounding areas got hit with a little snow. Never fear, because we’re still doing the show, but we’re going to make it easier for everyone to come out and enjoy it. If you want to see the taping today, don’t worry about showing up at 2PM or standing in line — if you come anytime before 4:30PM you will definitely get a seat! We don’t want anyone standing around in the snow, and it’s likely that not everyone who was going to come will be able to make it, so we should be able to accommodate everyone that does show up.
Continue reading The Engadget Show tapes tomorrow… snow or shine! (plus livestreaming!)
The Engadget Show tapes tomorrow… snow or shine! (plus livestreaming!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For a device with as much superphone street cred as the Milestone, you’d think a basic task like listening to music through the headphone jack would be a cakewalk. No problems, right? So straightforward, really, that it’s not even worth testing thoroughly — and therein lies the problem, it seems. Milestone owners on both sides of the pond are reporting en masse that music playback occasionally skips over the jack — though stereo Bluetooth, ironically a more CPU-taxing operation, seems to be fine. For many owners, particularly those who don’t carry a separate PMP, that can totally be a deal-breaker. It’s said you can work around the issue by putting the phone into airplane mode, which effectively makes it a dedicated PMP anyhow — not an optimal solution, right? Yeah, Moto, this seriously isn’t shaping up to be your week, so let’s just make sure you earn some brownie points with awesome customer service through this rough patch.
[Thanks, Vlad G.]
Motorola Milestone skipping on music playback, perfect for Billy Joel’s ‘Movin’ Out’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The same Adobe employee who mentioned on Adobe’s official forums that Flash 10.1 would be blowing right past Windows Mobile 6.5 made another notable comment, too: on Android, they’ll be conveniently overlooking devices that aren’t based on an ARMv7 core like a Snapdragon or OMAP3 — in other words, pretty much every device of consequence except the Nexus One, HTC Desire, Acer Liquid, Motorola Droid / Milestone, and Sony Ericsson X10. At this point, we’re starting to get a little suspicious — this is the same company that proudly demoed the Hero’s custom-rolled Flash support last year, after all, and there’ll be no shortage of devices using Qualcomm’s MSM7x27 line of chipsets in 2010 — so we’re holding out for some additional verification on this. Granted, forum mod Jochem van Dieten refers to the commenter specifically as an Adobe employee and he’s got a Plaxo profile identifying him as a product manager, but this is pretty wild news if accurate. We’ll update you as we know more.
Update: Indeed, PC Magazine points out that Adobe’s current verbiage is that Flash 10.1 is going to require Cortex A8 “or better.” So much for the “open” in Open Screen Project, eh?
Flash 10.1 snubbing non-ARMv7 Android devices, too? (update: yes) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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