Reality Bites
It’s almost daily routine that you run into someone parking in two spots, way too far over the line, or in a spot designed for a car half the size. You Park Like an Asshole helps you fight back. More »
Apple has taken the tablet world by storm, there is no doubt that they have dominated a market and to this day, face little competition in the marketplace. While the Samsung Tab does offer solid competition, the jury is still out about if it will stand the long term test…
Cineplex Entertainment has launched a service that allows customers to download movies from its website directly to their home PCs or other compatible devices.
That’s right, just as we had heard, Dell is finally putting an end to the Inspiron Duo’s mysterious marketing videos and officially spinning its screen for the world to see! You won't be able to hit the order button on the totally unique 10.1-inch tablet / netbook hybrid today, but according to Dell, it should go up for pre-order sometime soon and start shipping out the first week of December. As for pricing, the base model will start at $549 (£449), and will pack a dual-core Intel Atom N550 processor, 2GB of RAM, a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator, 250GB of storage, and Windows 7 Home Premium. Naturally, you'll be able to configure it with a larger hard drive, and adding that JBL speaker dock will bring the price up to $649 (no word on what it will cost on its own). We’re guessing those are the details you’ve been waiting on, but undoubtedly you’ve got to be dying to know what we think of that crazy-looking laptop. Well, we’ve got you covered there too — hit the break for our impressions and a brief hands-on video.
Gallery: Dell Inspiron Mini Duo hands-on
Dell Inspiron Duo finally official, can be yours the first week of December for $549 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Gizmodo’s done their own tests of FaceTime on the Mac, but what about other video chat applications? We took a look at three of the most popular desktop apps to see how they fared against one another. More »
Interac will begin rolling out PIN-less debit cards starting next summer to speed up and simplify purchases for Canadians.
Now you can edit Google Docs on the go, using an iPad, iPhone or Android device. The new mobile Google Docs will be rolled out to English-language users using Android Froyo and any iOS 3.x thingamajig. It even supports voice recognition. More »
Even those who work at Google are often surprised at what they find when they visit their Google Dashboard. It’s a good idea to check in on what Google has on you regularly, for reasons both tinfoil-esque and practical. More »
Alex Roman is some kind of wizard. I suspected it when I saw his jaw-dropping CGI mini-movie The Third & The Seventh, but after watching his new 100% computer generated commercial, there’s simply no other explanation. My brain is goop. More »
RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie actually declined to show off the his company’s tablet today on the Web 2.0 Summit stage, but in private he was more than kind, treating us to a nice long glimpse at the BlackBerry PlayBook in a quaint hotel hallway. We only got to heft the one-pound slate for a few seconds, but we got the basic feel of the device in the hand — warm to the touch, solid if a little plasticky, with a responsive glass touchscreen up top and a bottom that’s mildly rubberized. Balsillie didn’t bother to locate the “module cavity” for us, but he did try to explain where those 5300mAh lithium ion cells might hide — we suspect the CEO exaggerated only slightly when he told us “it’s all battery and glass inside.” He then wrenched the device forcefully from our unprepared hands (at least that’s how we like to think it went down) and proceeded to let us film a brief film showing off the QNX and Air-based OS juggling a spreadsheet, photo gallery and some beautiful underwater footage all at the same time. Hit the break for that hastily-shot video.
Continue reading BlackBerry PlayBook first hands-on! (video)
BlackBerry PlayBook first hands-on! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Any doubts over Microsoft’s foray into motion-sensing gaming may have been erased as it announced Monday it was on track to sell five million units of its new Kinect controller. In just the first ten days, one million Kinects were sold, which included sales from both the US and Europe.
Kinect launched on November 4 in the US and last Wednesday across Europe. It is slated to launch Thursday in Asia, and in Japan on Saturday. By the holidays the company expects some 60,000 retailers worldwide to carry it, with 17 titles available.
Pioneered by Nintendo’s Wii, motion-sensing gaming is expected to be the “next big thing” when it comes to video games. It is widely though that Nintendo’s suprising dominance this generation had a lot to do with its innovative gameplay versus its graphical capabilities, which are far inferior to either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
The success of Kinect is likely a result of Microsoft’s general success overall during this generation of video game consoles. While the Wii has sold the most units overall, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming system has kept sales consistent, and has led overall sales for four months running.
It is also the direct opposite of what happened in the previous generation, when the Xbox struggled for relevancy against a powerful Sony lineup in both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. While the PlayStation 3 has begun to build some momentum as of late — mainly thanks to Blu-ray — it’s increasingly likely Sony will not be able to catch up to its better selling rivals in this generation.
Sony also has its own motion sensing controller, called the Move, however it took a full month before the controller shipped one million units in the US, and an additional 1.5 million units in Europe during the same period.
ACTRA members meet with MPs over concerns about Bill C-32
We’ve only ever seen brief glimpses of the BlackBerry PlayBook in action so far, but a new video posted up by RIM comparing its tablet’s web browsing performance to the iPad certainly has us hungry for more. Seriously — PlayBook pretty much run laps around the iPad while loading pages, and even its Flash performance seems decent, which is a first for a mobile device in our experience. Of course, the video was made by RIM and we’re sure the specific pages were picked to make the PlayBook look as good as possible, but that’s fair enough — now if we could just get our hands on one to verify these claims for ourselves, we’d be happy as clams. Video after the break.
Continue reading BlackBerry PlayBook and iPad go head-to-head in a browsing showdown
BlackBerry PlayBook and iPad go head-to-head in a browsing showdown originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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So small, and yet potentially so disruptive. AMD’s 1.6GHz Zacate chip, bearing a pair of Bobcat modules, has been taken off the leash today, resulting in a torrent of benchmarks pouring down onto the internet. While perusing the sources below, you might think to yourself that it’s not exactly a world beater, sitting somewhere in the middle of the pack on most tests, but compare it to Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 — its most immediate competition in the target sub-$500 laptop price range — and you’ll find a thoroughgoing whooping in progress. The highlight of these new Fusion APUs is that they integrate graphics processing within the CPU chip, and Zacate didn’t disappoint on that front either, with marked improvements over anything else available in its class. The resulting chips might still not have quite enough grunt to earn a place in your daily workhorse mobile computer, but their power efficiency and netbook-level pricing goals sure do look delightful. Or dangerous, if you’re Intel.
Read – AnandTech
Read – Tech Report
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – Legit Reviews
AMD’s Bobcat APU benchmarked: the age of the Atom is at an end originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Now that Microsoft’s real motivations for building the Kinect are crystal clear, it’s impossible not to find a sinister tone in Microsoft’s latest press release: a proud proclamation of one million Kinects sold worldwide in 10 days. Microsoft says it’s on pace to sell a previously projected five million sensors by year’s end, but reading in between the lines we’re positive they’re implying some sort of nefarious partnership with the TSA to ruin your holiday travel plans. You heard it here first, folks. On the Kinect vs. Move front, comparisons are a little difficult because Sony’s numbers (around 3 million worldwide as of last month) were of “shipped” units, not “sold.” We’ll see who the real winner is after the holidays are over and the dust settles, but for now we wish all three motion-sensing consoles the best of luck. You know, except for the two we don’t own because they suck.
Microsoft sold one million Kinect sensors in 10 days, will be watching you sleep for a lifetime originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Eric Schmidt: Chrome OS aimed at keyboard based solutions, Android optimized for touch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GENEVA (Reuters) – Scientists at the CERN research center say their “Big Bang” project is going beyond all expectations and the first proof of the existence of dimensions beyond the known four could emerge next year.
Chrome: Manually checking your bookmarks file is an extremely low priority for most people but it’s irritating to find out the link you need is dead. Bookmark Sentry scans your bookmarks and displays the dead links and dupes for easy deletion. More »
