30
Apr
Author: // Category:
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If all this talk of
Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 has thoroughly piqued your interests, here’s something to tickle your fancy even more. Acer UK marketing director Bobby Waltkins has told
Pocket-Init that the
Z5600 all-in-one PC is due out October 23rd along with — and here’s the kicker — a genuine copy of Windows 7 pre-loaded on the device. That jibes with what
Compal’s president said back in late February, but it’s hard to say for certain from the wording of his response whether he’s referring to the OS’s wide release or just his company’s 7-equipped desktop, although his talk of a 30-day upgrade free upgrade period might be suggesting the former. Until the boys in Redmond call it official, we’re just gonna mark our calendars very lightly with a pencil.
Filed under: Desktops
Acer: Windows 7 coming October 23rd pre-loaded on Z5600 AIO originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Microsoft is making many well-received improvements in Windows 7, but may be in for a black eye on its Starter Edition because of growing misconceptions that it has optimized and recommended the limited Starter Edition for netbooks. For instance, the ad copy for the Apple commercial jabbing Starter Edition almost writes itself.
“Hello, I’m a Mac.”
“And I’m a PC.”
PC is trying to juggle.
“Hey, PC. What’s with the juggling act?”
“It’s my new operating system. See, it only lets me run three programs at a time so I need to stop doing one thing when I want to do another. Really keeps me on my toes thinking about which three programs I should use. Of course, I could upgrade to a more expensive version that gives me the capabilities I should have had from the beginning.”
PC drops the balls.
“Hmm, really? Every Mac lets you run as many programs as you want out of the box.”
“Well, that would be nice. I’d sure like to send someone an e-mail about that.”
“That’s a good idea, PC. Why don’t you?”
“Because I had to quit my e-mail program to say that.”
PC starts trying to juggle again. Cut to iMac with “Mac” desktop
Continue reading Switched On: Windows 7, Non-Starter Edition
Filed under: Laptops
Switched On: Windows 7, Non-Starter Edition originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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With proven success stories like Tesla struggling to keep those electric car dreams alive in today’s economy, it’s no shock to hear that at least one little guy (that’d be Phoenix Motorcars) has caved to the pressures. After reviving itself once already late last year by nailing down a partnership with the absolutely stunning state of Hawai’i, it seems the company hasn’t been able to progress as planned with its intentions to bring EVs and an electric vehicle infrastructure to the island of Maui. According to a filing on April 27th, the flagging automaker has pegged the soft economy (surprise!) as well as a $5.3 million arbitration apparently won by former drivetrain supplier UQM as the main contributors to its demise. In an update to the situation, however, its CEO has replied to AutoblogGreen in order to reaffirm that it “has not abandoned the alternative fuels transportation space.” Unfortunately, that could mean absolutely anything… or nothing at all.
Read - Original filing
Read - Update from Phoenix MC
Filed under: Transportation
Phoenix Motorcars undergoing restructuring, still committed to EV space originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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We’ve seen iPod hacks run the gamut, from the
useful to the
just plain absurd, but no matter how rough around the edges such a project may seem, we always get a kick out of the ingenuity and hard work involved. Today’s DIY wonder comes from a cat named Benjamin Kokes, who’s using his engineering chops to put together a GPS peripheral for the iPod nano. As the project stands right now, he’s taken a reference board sporting a Nemerix GPS and written a screen driver for it, allowing it to do its thing on the handheld. Apparently, all this bad boy is capable of doing right now is finding a satellite and displaying your latitude and longitude — but we’d like to see your old nano do that! Hit the read link for the whole, sordid tale in geek-tastic detail, or to speak with the developer if you’d like to give this a shot your own self. Tell him Engadget sent you.
[Via Technabob]
Filed under: GPS, Portable Audio
iPod nano GPS hack ensures that you and your MP3s make it home safely originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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Good ol’ Nokla, with its punny branding and utter shameless, has taken upon itself to build the touchscreen N98, based on a sketchy Nokia concept that was making the rounds last year and never materialized. There’s a 3-inch QVGA screen and dual-sim support, but things lean into the realm of Nokia parody with the complete lack of 3G or EDGE data. The worst part is that this phone actually looks kind of nice. All this unintentional humor can be yours for a mere $78.
[Via SlashGear]
Filed under: Cellphones
Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIV: Nokla beats Nokia to the touchscreen N98 punch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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Okay, so first things first — we all know the world’s on track to end in 2012, so it’s not like this really matters. But if, just if it manages to survive (à la Y2K), you can pretty much bank on a mass reversal of culture as we all push aside our netbooks and return to the playground. According to some “research” slated to be fully published “later this year,” PCs and laptops are apt to “operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an unreliable toy” from 2012 onward. The reason? Massive growth in internet demand, which is undoubtedly on pace to crush existing infrastructure that can’t ever be improved upon by anyone, regardless of their market capitalization or determination to expand. It’s noted that the internet itself will somehow survive, but that users will begin to see “brownouts,” which are described as “a combination of temporary freezing and computers being reduced to a slow speed.” Thank heavens for FinallyFast, right?
Psst… the solution to all of this is just past the break.
[Thanks, Colin]
Continue reading Doomsday alert: internet to become an “unreliable toy” in 2012
Filed under: Networking
Doomsday alert: internet to become an “unreliable toy” in 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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Luxeed’s got a fine history of making the keyboard a fantastical piece of wonder, and its newest offering is not exception. The U5 LED keyboard has pretty much everything one could ask for in a colorful peripheral — programmable, patterned LEDs which are guaranteed to brighten up your day. It boasts support for Windows, Linux and Mac (previous versions were Windows only), so if it’s ever made available outside of Korea, we can guarantee you we’ll be getting one for every member of our dance posse. They’re available for pre-order in Korea now for KRW 99,000 (about $77 USD). One more mountain-moving shot after the break.
[Via Technabob]
Continue reading Color changing Luxeed U5 LED keyboard is a rave at your fingertips
Filed under: Peripherals
Color changing Luxeed U5 LED keyboard is a rave at your fingertips originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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Man, that was fast. Really fast. Not like we’re shocked at all to hear that T-Mobile customers weren’t really digging the idea of paying ten bones per month to keep a digital photo frame alive, but hey — it was worth a shot, right? As of today, T-Mobile’s quickly forgotten Cameo connected digiframe has dropped from $99.99 to $39.99 up front, while the recurring charge to keep the media flowin’ has nearly vanished by going from $9.99 per month to just $1.99 per month. Reviewers over at ZDNet seemed to be quite pleased with the value proposition at the new price point, noting that it was perfect for technologically illiterate family members who yearned to see digital images of you and yours. Sadly, you still have to walk into a T-Mobile retail store to actually buy one, but at least it’s finally worth your while to do so.
Filed under: Displays, Wireless
T-Mobile’s connected Cameo digiframe plummets in price, gets reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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It won’t exactly provide an Ion-level boost in performance, but it looks like the GMABooster app that’s been floating around for a little while does indeed deliver on its promise of providing a small helping hand to the stock Intel GMA 950 graphics found in the majority of netbooks out there. More specifically, the application boosts the clock speed from the standard 133MHz or 166MHz to a full 400MHz, or the same as the non-low voltage chipset found on standard laptops. According to the folks at UMPC Portal, that translates to about a 20% gain in Crystal Mark benchmarks, although you can also unsurprisingly expect to take a slight hit in battery performance as a result. Better still, the app is even available for OS X and in addition to Windows and Linux, so folks that have already been busy tweaking their netbooks in other areas aren’t out of luck.
[Via TweakTown]
Filed under: Laptops
GMABooster gives your netbook’s integrated graphics a nudge originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Apr
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Ready for some totally prototypical corporate non-answers regarding the alleged release of Android 1.5 on T-Mobile USA’s G1s? Good. Here you go:
“T-Mobile USA will confirm details of Android 1.5 availability for our T-Mobile G1 customers in the near future.”
Doesn’t mean much to us — and it’s hard to tell from that alone whether 1.5’s actually begun over-the-air distribution — but at any rate, it seems like they’re not ready to talk about it yet. Don’t keep us waiting long, guys.
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
T-Mobile neither confirms nor denies Android 1.5 availability for G1 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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