.::REALITYRECALL::.

Ever wonder if Staples is going to have to change its name at some point? Surely some time in the not-too-distant future, actual staples will be a relic of the way people published, once upon a time. Maybe a company-wide abbreviation will be in order. How about S-ples? Or Stapes? The latter, according to Wikipedia is “the stirrup-shaped small bone or ossicle in the middle ear.” You guys can work with that, right? Maybe build an ad campaign around it?

I bring all of this up because, for a company that makes as much as it does selling paper product and the like, Staples has always had an eye on technology. In fact, the office supply mega chain has just inked a deal with Amazon to begin stocking Kindles. The store is set to carry three models–the Wi-Fi-only, the 3G, and the Kindle DX.

Staples is the second major retailer to carry the eBook reader. Target began carrying the device earlier this year. Borders and Barnes & Noble, of course, are focused on their own readers, the Kobo and Nook, the latter of which is also available in Best Buy stores.

A 13-year-old boy has been charged after a 49-year-old man was stabbed in the head and neck in the village of Togo, Sask.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders loonie will be unveiled this week, and fans and coin collectors in the province will get first dibs.

We’ve just made the Xbox 360 Wireless controller even better with a brand new version that includes a transforming D-pad.  The engineers have come up with an ingenious solution with a d-pad that can go from a plus to a disc with the twist of the wrist.

 

From this:	To this instantly:

 

Here is a video that shows how it work:

In addition to the new d-pad, the matte silver controller also features concave analog sticks and gray A,B,X,Y buttons for added style. 

 

The controller will only be available with the new Play & Charge Kit that will launch on November 9th for US $64.99.

 

More photos on my flickr

 

If you are headed to PAX Prime this weekend in Seattle, drop by the recording of my LIVE Podcast on Sunday where I’ll have a few of these controllers to give away for free.

We’ve just made the Xbox 360 Wireless controller even better with a brand new version that includes a transforming D-pad.  The engineers have come up with an ingenious solution with a d-pad that can go from a plus to a disc with the twist of the wrist.

 

From this:	To this instantly:

 

Here is a video that shows how it work:

In addition to the new d-pad, the matte silver controller also features concave analog sticks and gray A,B,X,Y buttons for added style. 

 

The controller will only be available with the new Play & Charge Kit that will launch on November 9th for US $64.99.

 

More photos on my flickr

 

If you are headed to PAX Prime this weekend in Seattle, drop by the recording of my LIVE Podcast on Sunday where I’ll have a few of these controllers to give away for free.

Microsoft seems to have caught the hardware tinkering bug. Having overhauled its Xbox 360 design, the software giant is now said to be keeping busy in the lab working on the console’s controller. Such is the word coming from our buddies over at Joystiq, whose reliable source indicates that Redmond will soon produce a new 360 controller with a redesigned D-pad. As the story goes, when you rotate the directional pad ninety degrees, it’ll rise up by about a quarter of an inch, making it more accessible for those that still care to use it (e.g. fighting game fans). No details on what sort of bundled or standalone retail fate this little guy may have, but the holidays are its unsurprising destination. We just hope the Bond-esque mechanism comes with an appropriately futuristic swooshing sound.

Xbox 360 to get fresh controller, better D-pad in time for the holidays? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft seems to have caught the hardware tinkering bug. Having overhauled its Xbox 360 design, the software giant is now said to be keeping busy in the lab working on the console’s controller. Such is the word coming from our buddies over at Joystiq, whose reliable source indicates that Redmond will soon produce a new 360 controller with a redesigned D-pad. As the story goes, when you rotate the directional pad ninety degrees, it’ll rise up by about a quarter of an inch, making it more accessible for those that still care to use it (e.g. fighting game fans). No details on what sort of bundled or standalone retail fate this little guy may have, but the holidays are its unsurprising destination. We just hope the Bond-esque mechanism comes with an appropriately futuristic swooshing sound.

Xbox 360 to get fresh controller, better D-pad in time for the holidays? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you thought the Dell Streak was too large to be used as a phone at 5-inches, get a load of ViewSonic’s ViewPad 7, a 7-inch Android tablet that also doubles up as a phone. More »

If you thought the Dell Streak was too large to be used as a phone at 5-inches, get a load of ViewSonic’s ViewPad 7, a 7-inch Android tablet that also doubles up as a phone. More »

Posted by Doug Aberdeen, Software Engineer

People tell us all the time that they’re getting more and more mail and often feel overwhelmed by it all. We know what you mean—here at Google we run on email. Our inboxes are slammed with hundreds, sometimes thousands of messages a day—mail from colleagues, from lists, about appointments and automated mail that’s often not important. It’s time-consuming to figure out what needs to be read and what needs a reply. Today, we’re happy to introduce Priority Inbox (in beta)—an experimental new way of taking on information overload in Gmail.

Gmail has always been pretty good at filtering junk mail into the “spam” folder. But today, in addition to spam, people get a lot of mail that isn’t outright junk but isn’t very important—bologna, or “bacn.” So we’ve evolved Gmail’s filter to address this problem and extended it to not only classify outright spam, but also to help users separate this “bologna” from the important stuff. In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules.

Priority Inbox splits your inbox into three sections: “Important and unread,” “Starred” and “Everything else”:

As messages come in, Gmail automatically flags some of them as important. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most (if you email Bob a lot, a message from Bob is probably important) and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better at categorizing messages for you. You can help it get better by clicking the or buttons at the top of the inbox to correctly mark a conversation as important or not important. (You can even set up filters to always mark certain things important or unimportant, or rearrange and customize the three inbox sections.)

After lots of internal testing here at Google, as well as with Gmail and Google Apps users at home and at work, we’re ready for more people to try it out. Priority Inbox will be rolling out to all Gmail users, including those of you who use Google Apps, over the next week or so. Once you see the “New! Priority Inbox” link in the top right corner of your Gmail account (or the new Priority Inbox tab in Gmail Settings), take a look.

Microsoft has enabled Hotmail push email support for a wide range of phones including the iPhone, Windows Phone devices and Android today.

Microsoft is introducing the support using Exchange ActiveSync, available on nearly 300 million phones. With push email you can sychronize email between your phone and the web, and also…

I wanted to let you know that as of November 1, 2010 we are increasing the price of an Xbox LIVE for some members. This price increase only affects Xbox LIVE Members in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom or the United States.

US
Current 1M Gold:  $7.99 3M Gold:  $19.99 12M Gold:  $49.99	Starting Nov 1, 2010 1M Gold:  $9.99 3M Gold:  $24.99 12M Gold:  $59.99
UK
Current 1M Gold:  4.99 GBP	Starting Nov 1, 2010 1M Gold:  5.99 GBP
Canada
Current 1M Gold:  $8.99 CAD	Starting Nov 1, 2010 1M Gold:  $9.99 CAD
Mexico
Current 12M Gold:  499 Pesos	Starting Nov 1, 2010 12M Gold:  599 Pesos

 

Unless listed above, there is no change in any other subscription packages.

 

Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.

 

However, we do want to thank our loyal members and give you the opportunity to lock in your current price with an additional discount, so now would be a good time to renew your subscription.

 

Again, the only subscription packages impacted are those mentioned above. For instance, the 12m UK Price? Not affected since it is not mentioned above.

 

Edit: You can sign in and hit this page on Xbox.com to find out when your Xbox LIVE subscription expires.

 

Do you have some thoughts on what should happen in “The Expendables” sequel? Sly is plugged into Twitter and he’s listening for your suggestions!

It’s only available in the Dev and Canary builds of Chrome, and very few pages support it—for now. But if you want to get hardware acceleration running in Google's browser, it's just a simple command line switch away. More »

 

 

Four years ago AMD did the unthinkable: it announced the 5.4 billion dollar acquisition of ATI in a combination of cash and stock. What followed was a handful of very difficult years for AMD, an upward swing for ATI and the eventual spinoff of AMD’s manufacturing facilities to GlobalFoundries in order to remain profitable and competitive.

In the years post acquisition, many criticized AMD for blowing a lot of money on ATI and having little to show for it. Even I felt that for $5.4 billion AMD could’ve put together its own competent graphics and chipset teams.

Despite the protest and sideline evaluations, good has come from the acquisition. The most noticeable is the fact that AMD’s chipset business is the strongest it has ever been. AMD branded chipsets and integrated graphics are actually very good. And later this year, AMD will ship its first Fusion APUs (single die CPU/GPU): Ontario using Bobcat cores and an AMD GPU. Ontario will be the first tangible example of direct AMD/ATI collaboration since the acquisition.

Just as we’re about to see results from the acquisition AMD is announcing that it will retire the ATI brand later this year. Save those boxes guys, soon you won’t see an ATI logo on any product sold in the market.

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.

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Samsung has already released an official teaser video for their forthcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab. Now, they are giving us a glimpse at some official accessories for the 7-inch Android tablet.

The image above shows a leather case with stand that is rumored to retail for $52, a full-sized 83 key keyboard peripheral for $83, and lastly, the small “table charging station” on the left.

Perhaps the most notable offering in the list of accessories set to be released with the Samsung Galaxy Tab is the table charging station (image above), which features an HDMI port and audio output ports.

[via Engadget]

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Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has once again surfaced online via unofficial channels, and this time it’s carrying a sticker on one side that clearly states CDMA. The iAndroid forum goer who allegedly snapped these shots praised the device for its strong speakers, call quality (although not clear if that’s over 3G or WiFi), and ability to run Flash — but at the same time notes the GPS is just a bit slow (it does work, though). More pictures in the gallery below, right next to our ever-increasing impatience to try this little guy out ourselves.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Samsung Galaxy Tab, in the wild and now teasing CDMA originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Smart Pad? That’s just Toshiba’s product category, according to Netbook Italia’s latest post on the tablet (it’s previously shown off some apparent imagery). The publication has published new renders — including a dock peripheral — and some purported specs. Here’s what’s being said: Android 2.2, NVIDIA Tegra 2 (both of which we’ve heard in other whispers), a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 screen, 16GB internal memory, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 3G, SD and MMC card readers, HDMI and USB 2.0 ports, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and a 1020mAh battery with a battery life of up to 7 hours with mixed use (browsing and video playback). Software-wise, it’s got Opera mobile browser, Flash 10.1, an e-book reader, and some office applications. The doubting Thomas in us still remains hesitant until Toshi gives the official word, but nothing here seems too crazy for the tablet mania most companies seem to have this year. One thing’s for sure, its claimed official name — Folio 100 — is a few degrees to close to some bad memories of ours.

Toshiba’s Tegra 2-powered Android Smart Pad to be called Folio 100? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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