Reality Bites
President Obama is calling for $53 billion in funding for developing trains that travel at speeds of up to 250mph in a bid that follows his State of the Union speech about “winning the future.” [The Huffington Post] More »
Should you be one of those (sensible) people who don’t use software until all the Greek letters are removed from its name, we’ve got some happy news for you. Adobe’s Flash Player 10.2 has just exited beta testing and is now available for download to Windows, Mac and Linux computers. Its biggest new feature is the Stage Video API, which promises to drastically reduce the processor load of playing back high-res video. It’ll need to be enabled by content-providing sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Brightcove — all of whom are already on the job — but once that’s done, Adobe says 1080p playback will cost you no more than 15 percent of your CPU cycles. Other new additions include a single-monitor full screen option for multi-display rigs, allowing you to max out a Flash video on one panel while keeping the others free, IE9 hardware acceleration support, and some nifty sub-pixel text rendering enhancements to make our web lives marginally nicer to look at. Hit the source to get your download on.
Update: Flash Player 10.2 also marks Adobe’s discontinuation of support for PowerPC-based Macs and Microsoft’s Windows 2000 OS. So if you’re still rocking some finely aged gear, you’ll have to just content yourself with the awesomeness of 10.1.
Continue reading Flash Player 10.2 sheds beta label, improves efficiency with Stage Video playback
Flash Player 10.2 sheds beta label, improves efficiency with Stage Video playback originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
So far it seems like everyone but HTC has made an official tablet announcement in these early days of 2011. As such, we’re reliant upon the rumor mills for every scrap of information we can get. So lean in close because the Chinese language Economic Daily has something to share. In a piece largely written about Pegatron, Economic Daily claims that HTC’s 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet will ship in late Q1 (read: March, as we’ve heard earlier) with a new version of the HTC Sense UI. Our guess, is that HTC wants to get a tablet on the market now, rather than wait to customize Android 3.0 and have the Motorola Xoom and friends gobble up all the market share. The paper does mention two Android 3.0 tablets from HTC scheduled for 2011. Unfortunately, there’s no word of the rumored “Flyer” brand name or whether those Honeycomb tablets will get the Sense treatment or not (we’re guessing they will). Nevertheless, the Mobile World Congress event kicking off next week would be the perfect opportunity to make it all official, don’t you think?
HTC’s 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet with new Sense UI still rumored for March originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
California prosecutors say they plan to charge Lindsay Lohan with felony grand theft of a $2,500 necklace reported stolen from a jewelry store last month – the most serious count the actress has faced in more than three years of trouble with the law.
Canada’s internet regulator has launched a review of decisions that would have eliminated unlimited internet plans and drastically lowered downloading limits for customers of small internet service providers.
Some new numbers from mobile industry tracker Comscore are in, and the picture they paint is so extremely stark it’s almost eye-popping.
Last week we asked you to share your favorite social media manager. We rounded up the top nominations and put them before you for a vote and now we’re back to highlight the winner and runners-up. More »
We’ve got very little information here, but Dell’s just announced that it’s planning to bring a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet to market later this year. According to the press release, it will be aimed at commercial and enterprise markets. Sound familiar? Yep, it sounds like a HP Slate in the making, but let’s hope this one is faster and sticks to its shipping schedule. We’ve got no other details for now, but we’re hoping to dig up more at the “Dell Means Business” event, which should be starting any moment now. Stay tuned…
Update: Well, that was a letdown — Dell didn’t share any additional details at the event, but CNET did snap the shot above of a plastic mockup that was shown off. Wondering how much of a mockup it is? We are told by our guys on the ground that it is like a “fake IKEA TV.” Hit the break for the full press release.
Continue reading Dell promises a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet later this year
Dell promises a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Okay, so there’s a good chance that the developing 802.11ac Gigabit wireless standard will receive its official seal of approval long before 2048, but by 2015? Given that it took 802.11n a full seven years to move on from Draft N status, we aren’t holding our collective breath. Regardless, there’s obviously a need for a far faster interface than what we’re using now, and the Wi-Fi Alliance is obviously doing everything it can to keep on keeping on. According to a loose study by In-Stat, Planet Earth will go from zero 802.11ac devices in 2010 to one billion by 2015, with Vice President of Research Frank Dickson noting that a draft of 802.11ac should be cleared at some point in 2011. As for backwards compatibility? Looks like you’ll just have to wait and see.
Continue reading Study: 802.11ac devices to hit the one billion mark in 2015, get certified in 2048
Study: 802.11ac devices to hit the one billion mark in 2015, get certified in 2048 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Damaging a patient’s nerves during surgery can cause agony – and even paralysis. But nerves are rather hard to see.
Ridiculously cute and tiny Royal antelope calf born at the San Diego Zoo. These tiny antelopes stand barely a foot tall when fully grown.
(Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)
Starbucks has given the caffeinated crowd a new reason, other than the free WiFi, to stop by a couple of locations in Toronto and Vancouver — interactive window displays! Taking sidewalk passers-by on a journey to assemble their favorite Tazo teas, the interactivity comes via a vinyl screen, projector, and gesture controls. We’ve already seen an interactive storefront in the US, so its about time our friends up north got some geekified advertising of their own. Vid’s after the break.
Interactive storefront displays show up at Canadian Starbucks, window licking discouraged originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sprint promised us an “industry first” at its event today, and it certainly delivered: check out the Kyocera Echo, the first dual-screen Android phone. That’s right, dual-screen — that’s two 3.5-inch 480 x 800 displays which can be unfolded and used as a single 4.7-inch 960 x 800 surface. The screens are connected by a slick sliding liquid-metal hinge that Kyocera’s filed several patents on — the phone can be closed and used like a regular single-screen phone, unfolded all the way, or propped up into the faux-laptop configuration shown above. Under the hood there’s a 1GHz second-gen Snapdragon running Android 2.2 — we’ll forgive the older software because Kyocera had to do extensive customization to add dual-screen support to seven core apps like the browser, email, and messaging. The seven optimized apps can be run on each screen individually so you can have the browser up top and email below, and several of them include useful full-dual-screen views as well. There’s also a new dual-screen app manager, which is brought up by tapping the two screens simultaneously. Unfortunately, third party apps can’t be run in any of the new modes and just fill the entire display for now — Kyocera and Sprint say an SDK is coming shortly.
Interestingly, the Echo doesn’t really run the optimized apps simultaneously when you have two of them open — it quickly switches them in and out of hibernation, even though they’re both displayed on screen. That means you can’t do things like watch a video while writing an email, for example — it’s an odd limitation, but it seems like it’ll only be an issue in limited circumstances. As for battery life, Kyocera and Sprint aren’t giving definite numbers, but we were told things would last about a day with heavy use of both screens — and the Echo is being sold in a bundle with a second battery in an external charging case, so you should have plenty of juice on the go. Downsides? Well, it’s not the most attractive phone we’ve ever seen, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that there’s just a lone rear-facing 5 megapixel camera with 720p video capture and that the Echo is 3G-only — there’s no WiMAX, which is a bit odd for a Sprint halo device. Still, it’s definitely one of the most intriguing Android handsets we’ve ever seen, and at $199 (after a $100 rebate) when it launches sometime in the coming months, it’s bound to pique some serious interest. Check a short hands-on video after the break.
Update: So the simultaneous apps thing appears to somewhat complex — we weren’t able to run a video and email when we played with the phone during our briefing, but Sprint’s Fared Adib was able to do it when we ran into him during the launch event. We’ll post that video soon — and of course we’ll dig deep into this when we get a review unit. One more thing we noticed: none of the devices we saw in action had pinch-to-zoom enabled anywhere, which is obviously very strange. We were told that the software is still early, so we’ll have to see if it makes it into shipping product.
Update 2: It’s attack of the press materials! New images, video, and release can be found below!
Gallery: Kyocera Echo hands-on
Gallery: Kyocera Echo press photos
Continue reading Sprint’s Kyocera Echo dual-screen Android phone announced, we go hands-on (update)
Sprint’s Kyocera Echo dual-screen Android phone announced, we go hands-on (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Android 2.4 reportedly coming in April, headed to ViewSonic ViewPad 4? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Xperia Play coming to Canada, exclusive to Rogers? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Meet Max Page, the 6-year-old boy who plays a bite-sized Darth Vader in Volkswagen’s latest Super Bowl commercial. Max, who was unmasked on the ‘Today Show’ this morning, has a congenital heart defect that forced him to get a pacemaker at an early age. But that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams in Hollywood. He’s already appeared on ‘The Young and the Restless,’ starred in a handful of regional commercials, and bears an uncanny resemblance to Meg Ryan. The kid’s such a natural, he doesn’t even need to prepare for his roles. Even after having donned Vader’s mask and cape, Max has yet to actually see ‘Star Wars.’
Continue reading The Kid in VW’s Darth Vader Commercial Is as Cute as You’d Expect Him to Be
The Kid in VW’s Darth Vader Commercial Is as Cute as You’d Expect Him to Be originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Continue reading X-47B unmanned stealth bomber completes its first flight (video)
X-47B unmanned stealth bomber completes its first flight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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More charges have been laid against an elected councillor with a Yorkton-area First Nation in connection with an alleged prescription drug trafficking ring.
BusinessWeek says a 6 character password (just letters) can be cracked in just 10 minutes while a 9 character password complete with letters, uppercase, numbers and symbols will take 44,530 years to crack. Take a look at the image to see other comparisons, the first column describes your password, the other columns show you how long the hackers need to hack your password. [BusinessWeek via Neatorama] More »