.::REALITYRECALL::.

The U.S. government says it will seek the maximum penalty of $16 million US from Toyota Motor Corp. for failing to promptly notify regulators about defective gas pedals in its vehicles.

Well, well — what’s this? We just got our hands on what looks like an internal HP Slate presentation given to cool down some of the iPad hype amongst HP employees, and it just happens to have specs and pricing details on the elusive Windows 7 tablet. As we’d heard, the Slate will run $549 in its base configuration, which has a 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive multitouch display, a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor with UMA graphics and an accelerator for 1080p video playback (we’re assuming it’s a Broadcom Crystal HD chip), 32GB of flash storage and 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM. There’s also a $599 version with 64GB of storage, and both models will have a five-hour battery, an SDHC slot, two camera, a USB port, a SIM card slot for the optional 3G modem, and a dock connector for power, audio, and HDMI out. Of course, what this spec list doesn’t cover is software, and we still haven’t seen much of how HP plans to make Windows 7 on a full slate device with netbook-class internals perform as smoothly or as intuitively as its demo videos. That’s not a small challenge, especially since the iPad is out now and setting some pretty high expectations for how this new breed of tablets should work. We’ve got our fingers crossed — show us something good, HP.

HP Slate to cost $549, have 1.6GHz Atom Z530, 5 hour battery? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The live action “Smurfs” movie took a major step towards the theaters today as production began in New York.

A study by Ottawa University found that some brands that claimed to kill ’99 per cent’ of germs did not – at the very best they killed 60 per cent, and at worst just 46 per cent.

Log into Gmail today and, if you haven’t disabled it, there’s a good chance Google’s Buzz social network will prompt you to look over all your privacy settings. The BBC reports that Google is pushing out a message that will ask Buzz users to review and confirm their privacy settings, as well as “show every aspect of a user’s profile, from public settings to the websites users are connected to, and who they are following or being followed by.” With Buzz facing rebukes from U.S. Congress members and a class-action privacy complaint, it’s probably a smart idea for the service to go out of its way to show users what is and isn’t being shown. [BBC News] Update: Here’s Google’s official blog post about the settings confirmation. More »

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake has struck the U.S.-Mexico border region, killing at least 1 person and causing power outages in both countries as it sent out seismic waves felt from Los Angeles to Arizona and Tijuana.

If you want to send out a personalized mass email, much like most companies’ marketing emails, creating a mail merge is the easiest way. Unlike the antiquated mail merges of days past, you can do it in Gmail with half the headache. More »

Regardless of how you feel about Microsoft’s rejuvenated mobile push this year, hatred of the “Windows Phone 7 Series” moniker has been nearly universal — it’s too long, it trips you up every time you try to say it (seriously, just listen to any of our podcasts), and the “Series” bit doesn’t make a whole lot of sense anyhow. Happily, Microsoft has heard the world loud and clear on this one, officially changing the name today to the simpler, happier, more logical “Windows Phone 7.” The branding move doesn’t have any technical or strategic significance, as far as we can tell — it truly is just a name change, that’s all — so you can expect the same software to launch later this year that we’ve already been anticipating… you just won’t have to deal with a tongue twister every time you’re trying to tell a friend about it.

Windows Phone 7 is the new name, ‘Series’ gets voted off island originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this week we asked you to share whether or not you’re satisfied with Windows 7, and nearly 18,000 votes later, we hear you loud and clear: 72 percent of Lifehacker readers identify as being “Absolutely!” satisfied with Windows 7; 22 percent have some complaints but are happy overall; and a meager 4 percent think it should be “a lot better” (2 percent answered “Other”). The interesting thing: That means that a whopping 94 percent of you are pretty damn pleased with Windows 7. Microsoft should be proud. More »

Google just rolled out an excellent new two-pane Gmail interface for tablets like the iPad, and whether or not you’re buying one, it’s a cool big-screen version of Gmail some people may want to use on their desktops. Here’s how you can. More »

Android: When you’re traveling where a cellular connection is fairly certain, Google Maps’ own Navigation tool is a total GPS replacement. For those without data plans, or heading into the wilds, MapDroyd makes for a nice offline map backup. More »

Hockey coach Mike Babcock, who led Canada’s men’s hockey team to Olympic gold in Vancouver, will be honoured in Saskatoon this summer when the city names a day after him.