Gadgets 4 Geeks: 6/17 gadgets 123

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Crave: Homer Simpson joins TomTom's custom voices
June 16, 2009 at 7:51 pm

This will go great with my "Simpsons Sing the Blues" cassette.

(Credit: TomTom)

Homer Simpson joins the ranks of Mr. T and John Cleese as a downloadable custom voice for TomTom portable navigation devices. Fans of the longest-running American prime time entertainment series can now listen to Homer "...

Originally posted at The Car Tech blog

Engadget: Switched On: When netbooks suffer from 'Droid rage
June 16, 2009 at 7:13 pm

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Despite powering only a handful of handsets available on the market, Android has already had a significant impact on the competitive landscape in smartphones. Looking at its primary rivals that run on a variety of hardware from multiple manufacturers, Android has provided a free and highly customizable licensed challenge to Windows Mobile, And competition with the Google-developed mobile operating system may have also provided the final push of Symbian into the world of open source.

Just because Android has turned the tables, though, does not mean it should be used on devices that rest on them. Recently, the infatuation with Android has led to much speculation and supplication regarding the operating system as an alternative on netbooks and less proven "gaptops" that live between the smartphone and the notebook. But while blazing benchmarks may erase any speed records set by netbooks running Windows, they can't erase what amounts to a weak case for Android on these devices.

Recent history shows that the overwhelming majority of consumers want Windows on their netbooks. This has become especially true as the market has shifted from the quasi-appliance like original Asus Eee, with its suboptimal 7" screen, to most netbooks running 10" and now even larger screens and vendors such as Dell and HP that are pillars of the Windows hardware world have grabbed market share. Even these manufacturers have more to gain by going with their own twist on Linux. HP, for example, has created a unique and differentiated experience with its Linux environment for netbooks. It will take some time before various Android implementations are so unique. It's unclear why an Android-based netbook would fare much better than Linux-based netbooks have.

Continue reading Switched On: When netbooks suffer from 'Droid rage

Filed under: Laptops

Switched On: When netbooks suffer from 'Droid rage originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crave: DukeMobile iPhone app puts historical images in your pocket
June 16, 2009 at 2:54 pm

Here's an interesting tidbit for students, scholars, historians, and folks who like purty pictures: DukeMobile, an app ostensibly designed for students of Duke University, just added a collection of nearly 32,000 historical images, all of them specially formatted for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I could blather on ...

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Engadget: Olympus E-P1 video samples posted, camera turns up in ad-within-an-ad Blendtec spot
June 16, 2009 at 2:51 pm

There's much to love about the new Olympus E-P1, but the hip new thing for the DSLR market is video, and Panasonic has already demonstrated with the Lumix DMC-GH1 that Micro Four Thirds cameras are in some ways even better suited to the demands of high quality point-and-shoot video. The folks at Digital Photography Review have some samples up now of the E-P1's video performance, and while we'd like to see how the camera fares indoors as well, the outdoor samples they've posted are very promising. The colors seem just a touch washed out, but there's great motion and clarity, and solid manual controls. It is interesting to note that while the camera does include some built-in effects, most of them dramatically reduce the frame rate -- making them more or less useless. ~~Most unfortunate, however, is the fact that there's no auto focus in video mode~~, which is where the DMC-GH1 still reigns supreme in DSLR land. Hit up the read link for the videos, or if that's not your style check out the bemusing Blendtec advert for the E-P1 after the break -- it's a real viral meets meta mashup, or something like that.

[Thanks Richard L.]

Update: We've heard conflicting word on auto focus. According to Photography Review's preview, the camera doesn't have auto focus in video mode, but according to the Olympus press release, as Super Marxio pointed out in comments, there is auto focus during recording. Perhaps Photography Review was looking at a non-final version of the camera. We do know that the camera does auto focus using contrast detection, like a regular compact camera, and while that's the same method used by the GH1, DP Review claims it's slightly inferior -- though they did state they were working with a 0.9 firmware.

Continue reading Olympus E-P1 video samples posted, camera turns up in ad-within-an-ad Blendtec spot

Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV

Olympus E-P1 video samples posted, camera turns up in ad-within-an-ad Blendtec spot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gearlog: Tangent VITA LT Promises Energy Efficiency, Homework H
June 16, 2009 at 11:06 am

Students will soon have a more energy-efficient way to play Oregon Trail and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing with the release of the Tangent VITA LT, an all-in-one "green" PC that costs less than $1,000 and is aimed at the education market. The VITA LT uses Intel's Atom N270 processor, commonly found in netbooks, to draw up to 72 percent less energy than standard Energy Star 4.0-compliant PCs.

For a sub-$1,000 all-in-one, it's loaded with perks for class projects, including a 18.5-inch touchscreen display, a 4-in-1 media card reader, an integrated webcam, and built-in wireless. In addition, the computer is 1.4 inches thick and seems to be taking style tips from Apple (which is never a bad idea).

Tangent's emphasis with the VITA LT is to provide a client for their virtual desktop infrastructure solution, which allows students (or employees) to take their desktop with them over a network, regardless of what computer they're on. This type of application doesn't require the latest and greatest in processing power, so it makes sense to power it with an Atom-based machine. The decrease in energy consumption is a definite plus too.

Wired: Scary-Looking Concept Bike is All Corners
June 16, 2009 at 10:17 am

bici11-500x368

While we like the thinking behind the BaubBike, a bicycle both modular in design and also fairly easy to build from standard square-section steel tubes, in practice it looks both dangerous and rather uncomfortable.

There’s a reason bike frames have been triangular for so long: stiffness. A steel frame will flex a lot, and the triangle is an inherently stable shape. Stiffer modern materials mean that today designers can experiment more, but if you’re using off the shelf tubing, a square is going to crumple in a collision.

bici21

Of course, looking at the Bauhaus-inspired frame by designer Michael Ubbesen Jakobsen, we’re not thinking about damage to the bike. We’re thinking about damage to ourselves: Check the iteration with a second saddle and cojones-splitting handle. Ouch. In fact, all the sharp corners in general make this one of the scariest-looking rides we’ve seen. Far better is the slot-in carrying-rack, but that still leaves a lot of sharp corners.

Unlike many concepts, there is a “buy” button on Jakobsen’s site, although right now it leads only to an e-mail contact form. If he does put it into production, he might consider adding a “sue me” button alongside it. Either that or just only sell the BauBike to men who are already wearing tight jeans and taking very hot baths in order to deprive their baby-hungry wives of vital proteins.

Product page [BauBike via Design Boom]

Engadget: The Daily Roundup: here's what you might've missed
June 16, 2009 at 1:24 am


	Samsung's Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride It's hard not to notice the stunning AMOLED screens on these phones, especially up against the dull-by-comparison Omnia Lite with its petty LCD.		Palm webOS system upgrades mandatory; hacking scene forbidden from tethering The Pre and webOS have attracted a lot of talent in the past two weeks, and it'd be a shame to lose it. (See also: Palm Pre data tethering is a go, Sprint be damned)
	Leaked Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds compact has us hot, bothered It's not scheduled to be announced until tomorrow, but it looks like Olympus' Micro Four Thirds tribute to the classic rangefinder has leaked out onto these here Internets looking every bit as handsome as the top-side leak seen earlier.	Other news of import Samsung Omnia II now official: AMOLED touchscreen with TouchWiz 2.0 destined for Verizon Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge Is this Dell's Android smartphone ditty? iPhone 3G S pre-orders start shipping, reservations estimated in the hundreds of thousands
	Analyst: Blu-ray can't stop video sales slump, sees modest growth in 2010 As frequently predicted, Blu-ray hasn't been enough to make up for sagging DVD sales, as a new Screen Digest report indicates a 4.8 percent slide worldwide last year, falling more than $2.6 billion.		Samsung Jet packs an 800MHz processor, AMOLED display, featurephone OS Samsung's busy launching a bunch of handsets across even more timezones right now, and in addition to all the Omnia updates, there's also the Jet, which is an interesting hybrid.
FCC says DTV transition going smoothly, few TVs shot up Marantz UD9004 SACD / Blu-ray player combo priced & dated		T-Mobile myTouch 3G spotted in the wild, G1 starting to feel unloved BlackBerry Curve 8520 with T-Mobile branding walks in front of a camera Sony Ericsson launching something at ComunicAsia this week -- XPERIA X2, maybe?

The Daily Roundup: here's what you might've missed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crave: Olympus' E-P1 message: It's not your father's Olympus, but remember that he had one
June 16, 2009 at 1:05 am

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Looking only a bit like the original Micro Four Thirds concept design Olympus floated last September at Photokina, the company's retro interchangeable lens E-P1 debuts this year to ride the coattails of the 50th anniversary of the company's PEN film camera. From the name, to the design, to the tagline etched on its top--"Olympus PEN since 1959"--it feels like a cross between an homage and a desperate reminder that Olympus was in the camera biz long before most digital photographers were born. That said, after a few days with a preproduction model, I think the design works, and if Olympus can pull off decent performance and photo quality (you can never tell from an early unit), it will probably carve itself a nice sized niche among style-, but not budget-conscious, enthusiasts.

...

Engadget: Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures
June 15, 2009 at 8:52 pm

With nary another word in terms of specs or details, one lucky forum goer at NotebookReview has posted what looks to be pics of a new, as of yet unannounced Dell Latitude Z Series laptop. Not much to say at the moment, aside from the obvious Adamo influence, but we did spot a biometric fingerprint scanner, an oddly-placed ethernet port in the back, and Windows / Intel Centrino stickers. Earlier in the thread another person, albeit lacking any physical proof of owning one, chimed in to say it'd have a 15-inch matte screen, Core 2 Duo processor, webcam with facial recognition, and DisplayPort, with a scheduled release a week from today. Judging by the ports in the pics, it's definitely a thin one -- could we be seeing Dell finally dip its toes into the CULV market? With any luck, we'll be hearing more about this soon.

Gallery: Dell Latitude Z-Series laptop