Ross Miller
iPod nano vs touch vs shuffle… fight!
Three new iPods under one roof — how could we not throw them on a table and see how they size up against one another? Obviously, the iPod touch is the black sheep here in terms of sheer physical space, but the width / height difference between the nano and shuffle is as marginal as you probably guessed. More pics below!
iPod nano vs touch vs shuffle… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
iPod nano (2010) first hands-on! (update: video!)
Here it is, the new (and completely redesigned) iPod nano. Super thin, super light, and really, the capacitive multitouch works very well. The screen is crisp and top menu navigation is smooth, but can’t say we have great feel for moving back out of sub menus (via swipe or holding down the screen). We’re going back for seconds and thirds, peep the initial gallery below!
Update: Okay, we’ve gotten much more quality time with the nano, and we’ll admit that after some brief practice, the menu navigation is nice both going in and out of menus — holding the middle will take some getting used to, if only because you gotta avoid any other on-screen items that beckon for your digits. Probably due to the small size of the screen, there is no pinch-to-zoom for photos. Instead, we’re using a simple double-tap motion to a fixed zoom in / zoom out distance.
The clock app has a very easy-to-read analog style to it, and swiping across the screen will give you a stopwatch and timer. There is no alarm clock, however, which as the Apple rep explained to us was a design decision given its lack of an external speaker. Bummer, as it’s the perfect size to strap on a band and use as a wristwatch — a fitting thought, too, given one of the settings will let us see the time every time we wake up the screen. Check out our video tour after the break.
Gallery: iPod nano (2010) first hands-on!
Gallery: More iPod nano (2010) hands-on shots
Continue reading iPod nano (2010) first hands-on! (update: video!)
iPod nano (2010) first hands-on! (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
iPod shuffle (2010) first hands-on!
Not much to say here, it’s got a click wheel in as few molecules as possible. Pics below!
Gallery: iPod shuffle (2010) first hands-on!
iPod shuffle (2010) first hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
PlayStation Move review
The PlayStation Move. It’s funny to think just 15 months have passed since Sony first unveiled its motion controller, and now we’re mere weeks away from hitting the retail market. To be sure, it’s not like the company didn’t have waggle on the mind already — patents dating as far back as 2005 reveal as much, and of course the incredible success of Nintendo’s Wii proved there’s a market for more physically exerting gameplay. And it’s not just PlayStation; Microsoft’s got its controller-free Kinect motion camera system coming this November. So, in the year where all major game consoles now ask you to get off the couch and earn arm muscle, how does Move fare? Read on for more!
Gallery: PlayStation Move review
Continue reading PlayStation Move review
PlayStation Move review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
HP Labs teams up with Hynix to manufacture memristors, plans assault on flash memory in 2013
The memristor’s come a long way since being hypothesized back in 1971. If you ask HP Labs, the history of this particular memory technology didn’t hit its next milestone for almost four decades, when the company produced the very first memory resistor chip. Just last month, the Labs group proved its little transistor could handle logic and data storage, and as of today, the company’s announcing a joint development agreement with Hynix Semiconductor, with a goal of bringing these chips to the market — and rendering flash memory obsolete.
That challenge against flash (not a very popular naming convention these days, it seems) was thrown down by HP Labs Senior Fellow Stan Williams, who posits that the memristor is “an universal memory that over a sufficient amount of time will replace flash, DRAM, magnetic hard disks, and possibly even SRAM.” But onto the immediate, albeit aspirational goal (i.e. not a commitment, which he stressed on multiple occasions): Williams hopes to see the transistors in consumer products by this time 2013, for approximately the price of what flash memory will be selling for at the time but with “at least twice the bit capacity.” He also claims a much smaller power requirement of “at least a factor of 10″ and an even faster operation speed, in addition to previously-discussed advantages like read / write endurance.
With Hynix on board, the goal is to make these “drop-in replacements” for flash memory, whereby the same protocols and even the same connectors will work just fine. For HP, however, Williams says there’ll be an initial competitive advantage for the company due to its comfort level with memristors’ unique properties, but that other companies will be encouraged to license the technology and experiment with new possibilities in hardware design. Williams wouldn’t give any specific product examples where we might initially see the memristor, except to repeat that it’ll be anywhere and everywhere flash memory is. Fighting words, indeed. We normally don’t get excited about minute hardware components — not often, at least — but we gotta say, the seeds of the future look mighty interesting. Can’t wait to see what germinates. Highlights from our talk with Williams after the break.
Gallery: HP Labs’ Memristor Milestones
HP Labs teams up with Hynix to manufacture memristors, plans assault on flash memory in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Xperia X10 family’s Android 2.1 upgrade coming by end of September, says Sony Ericsson UK
When we talked to Sony Ericsson for the Xperia X10 for AT&T review, reps informed us that the phone is upgradeable but no further information could be provided. Now, we can’t say if this latest bit is global or just for those across the pond, but the official Twitter account of SE’s UK arm wrote today that Android 2.1 is “due for release before the end of September this year.” Certainly a step up from the Q4 2010 time frame we heard previously, but again, we’ve no clue if this applies to the US as well — we’ve messaged a stateside rep and will let you know what we hear. A blessing for some X10 family owners, just a cherry on top for others.
[Thanks, Henrik]
Xperia X10 family’s Android 2.1 upgrade coming by end of September, says Sony Ericsson UK originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
@SonyEricssonUK (Twitter) | Email this | Comments
Cyanogen Mod 6 — the one with Froyo — hits target list of devices, first stable release
If 6.0.0 RC1 just wasn’t cutting it for ya, CyanogenMod-6.0 has released what’s being touted as the “first stable release based on Android 2.2″ and has hit the target number of supported devices, which by our quick count includes EVO 4G, Slide, Nexus One, Dream / Magic, Aria, and Droid — and we might be missing a few.. You know the drill; if you need a bit of Froyo in your mobile life.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Cyanogen Mod 6 — the one with Froyo — hits target list of devices, first stable release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Cyanogen | Email this | Comments
YouTube courting Hollywood for pay-per-view movie service by end of 2010, says Financial Times
For all the stupid pet tricks, first-person confessionals, and clips from Conan O’Brien’s formative years that form YouTube’s content, the one territory it doesn’t really venture is pay-per-view à la Apple, Amazon, and others. Well, it’ll be a Brave New World for the service — and parent company Google — if this Financial Times report is worth its weight in 3mm. According to the publication, the G-Men have been in talks with “Hollywood’s leading movie studios” for several months, touting its reach as one of the main draws for the players involved, for the launch of an international pay-per-view service by the end of this year. Some prices are also thrown around here, to the tune of about $5 for new titles (streaming, not download) available the same time as the DVD releases. The video site has been doing rentals on a trial basis since early this year, with just a smattering of indie titles. The thought of paying to watch Blockbuster titles in the same window we watched three dozen (if not more) remixes of Keyboard Cat is still a bit of a new concept, but hey, that’s the future for you.
YouTube courting Hollywood for pay-per-view movie service by end of 2010, says Financial Times originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Recent Comments