The Gadget Geek

Microsoft’s Marketplace for Mobile developer portal now open for business
Remember the 12 rules of Windows Marketplace for Mobile Microsoft posted a few weeks back? For coders, those were just the beginning. The Windows Mobile Developer portal is now live, serving pages upon pages of PDFs with rules, regulations, and plenty of fees, too. A 10-page license agreement describes the account fee ($99 per year), transaction fees (30 percent of each sale), and, most importantly, the license fee, which is the monthly amount paid out to the developer based on their app sales. A further 32-pages worth of submission guidelines advise on everything a registered developer needs to know to get an app through certification, including thrilling subjects like shortcut placement and icon design, DLL installation directories, and details of the fearful Hopper test — two hours of random inputs and waterboarding. Apps will also be tested for memory leaks and to ensure that they play nicely with on-screen keyboards, two things many current third-party WinMo CABs have issues with. Marketplace will drop whenever Windows Mobile 6.5 starts hitting handsets — officially, that is.

[Thanks, the::unwired]

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft’s Marketplace for Mobile developer portal now open for business originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 07:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yamaha RX-V2700 Receiver
Yamaha RX-V2700 Receiver

Video: Researchers learning to make VR more realistic, uncomfortable

Researcher Mel Slater (a computer scientist who divides his time between ICREA in Barcelona and University College, London) and his stalwart band of cybernauts are currently studying people when immersed in virtual environments, hoping to gain insight into why we respond to fake stimuli as if it’s real. In one experiment, test subjects enter a “virtual bar” in which patrons schmooze, booze, and do the Frug. At a point during the virtual carousing, a fire breaks out. “We have had people literally run out of the VR room, even though they know that what they are witnessing is not real,” says Slater. “They take their cues from the other characters.” Other studies include a recreation of the classic Milgram Experiment of the 1960s (where the subject is ordered to give an electric shock to a “student” when they answer a question incorrectly) and a phobia study that introduces subjects to virtual heights. The researchers hope to gain insight into how the brain functions, eventually creating more intense and realistic virtual experiences, with applications in healthcare, training, social research and entertainment. What’s next? According to Slater, the group is currently developing a project that is designed to help shy men overcome their fear of women (at the very least, it’ll help you meet that Second Life avatar of your dreams). If this is your kinda thing, check out the video after the break. [Warning: the first several seconds of the video are audio only.]

Continue reading Video: Researchers learning to make VR more realistic, uncomfortable

Filed under: Displays, Science

Video: Researchers learning to make VR more realistic, uncomfortable originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 12:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Tonium Pacemaker in action

We’ve been playing with the Tonium Pacemaker pretty much non-stop since we got it, and while we’re not terrible DJs, we thought we’d bring in some big guns for a demo — so we asked our buddy Carlos from Chicago’s CAPCOM crew to come in and spin a few tracks. Check out the video and our in-depth impressions after the break!

Continue reading Video: Tonium Pacemaker in action

Filed under: Portable Audio

Video: Tonium Pacemaker in action originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 May 2009 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon takes 70 percent of Kindle newspaper revenues

The Kindle DX launch might have sparked a wave of hype about the next generation of newspapers, but not everyone’s so quick to agree: Dallas Morning News CEO James Moroney told a Senate subcommittee yesterday that the Kindle isn’t a “platform that’s going to save newspapers in the near term.” According to Moroney, Amazon demands 70 percent of subscription revenue from newspapers, and further requires content owners to grant Amazon the right to republish content to other devices — like, say, the iPhone. That’s a pretty inequitable split, and while we understand that Amazon has to pay for Whispernet somehow, it’s hard to imagine newspaper publishers lining up to wager 70 percent of their digital subscription revenues and a perpetual license to their content on devices that are far from proven. On the other hand, it’s innovate or die time for these guys, so we’ll see what happens — with all the competitors out there poised to make a move, things are about to get interesting.

Filed under: Handhelds

Amazon takes 70 percent of Kindle newspaper revenues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 May 2009 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Keepin’ it real fake, part CCV: Sonia F2 doesn’t do Idou justice

Sony Ericsson’s Idou is still a ways off — possibly October according to some reports — but if you’re jonesing for the form factor now, or if you find the 12.1 megapixel camera somehow intimidating, Sonia’s KIRF-tacular F2 might be right up your alley. The doppelganger eschews a Symbian-powered OS in favor of Android, shrinks the screen by about half an inch diagonally, and even though its camera only shoots at 1.3 megapixels, it still says 12.1 on the back, which should be just enough to convince your friends before you quickly hide it back in your pocket and slyly change the subject.

Read – Specs
Read – Hands-on pics

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCV: Sonia F2 doesn’t do Idou justice originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 19:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hitachi DZHS500A DVD/HDD Camcorder
Hitachi DZHS500A DVD/HDD Camcorder

iPhone OS 3.0′s parental controls to assuage some app submission woes?

Here’s something that should help Trent reach a level of moderate contentment. Although we already knew that Apple was expanding its parental controls with iPhone OS 3.0 into the realm of TV shows, movies and App Store apps, a report today about the rejection of Makayama’s Newspaper(s) app provides a good example at the ramifications of such alterations. According to iLounge, it was rejected due to a picture of a topless woman under the section for UK-based tabloid The Sun. The accompanying letter suggested a resubmission once 3.0 (and subsequently the parental controls) go public, which we take to mean that the questionable content will suddenly be okay for the App Store once it’s behind the appropriate age gate. We won’t know for sure until everything falls into place, but sounds like this is one part of the submission approval process that’ll soon end up much less frustrating for developers.

[Via 9 to 5 Mac]

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone OS 3.0′s parental controls to assuage some app submission woes? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 May 2009 20:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gateway XHD3000 30-in Monitor
Gateway XHD3000 30-in Monitor
Photos: Amazing X-Rayed Games Consoles
X-ray technician and Flickr member Reintji has combined his passions into a rather splendid peek inside the workings of game consoles. Presumably sliding the hardware into the x-ray machine between fracture victims, he offers a glimpse inside the old and the new, from NES to XBox 360. While the consoles themselves are moderately interesting, they re all pretty [...]
Recycling Typography
It is set upon me to congratulate the simplest and most why-didn’t-I-do-that designs, I think. Here’s one of them. It’s brilliant. These folks decided it was lamp time, and having seen the way of the modern design-driven world, decided that giant characters would be in order. And wow! If their …

Canon gets all ‘Steve Zissou’ with its Mixed Reality Aquarium

In some ways, augmented reality is an elegant solution to the main problem with VR: while there are some areas where insane levels of immersion are required, this stuff ain’t cheap — relegating solutions like CirculaFloor to academics, the military, and the extremely well-heeled. But how about those who just want to see wild graphics while they, you know, “party?” Canon’s Mixed Reality Aquarium headset transforms any area you inhabit into a giant fishbowl. Not the sort of thing that you’ll want to do more than once, probably — although, to the company’s credit, this is more of a research project than an actual product. How about an option to swim with Daryl Hannah from Splash? That would be pure gadget gold. That said, this does make for a fun video — which we’ve graciously provided for you, after the break.

[Via Oh Gizmo!]

Continue reading Canon gets all ‘Steve Zissou’ with its Mixed Reality Aquarium

Filed under: Displays

Canon gets all ‘Steve Zissou’ with its Mixed Reality Aquarium originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 May 2009 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TrekStor vibez MP3 Player
TrekStor vibez MP3 Player
U.S. Continues to Lead on Innovation, Says LCD Pioneer
It is difficult to picture consumer electronics products without Liquid Crystal Displays or that one man was responsible nearly 46 years ago for the paper that would set the ball rolling for the use of LCDs. George Heilmeier, a researcher at RCA Laboratories, along with Richard Williams published a report in 1963 suggesting [...]

Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire One gets a spec list, release date

We’ve already gotten a good look at Acer’s new 11.6-inch Aspire One netbook, and even gotten word of some of the specs, but it looks like Acer has now removed any last bit of mystery on its German website, where it has finally let loose a complete spec list. Now officially dubbed the Aspire One 751, the netbook packs an Atom Z520 processor (as opposed to the Z530 that was initially rumored), along with up to 2GB of RAM, built-in Bluetooth, your choice of three or six-cell batteries, optional 3G, and a 1366×768 resolution on that 11.6-inch display — not to mention your choice of XP or Vista. Still no official word on a release ’round here, unfortunately, but it looks like it’ll be hitting at least some parts of Europe later this month for just over $500.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Laptops

Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire One gets a spec list, release date originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 May 2009 14:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uberclok Reactor Gaming PC
Uberclok Reactor Gaming PC
Augmented Reality Cams Put Fish, Magic Into Your World
When ordinary reality is just too banal, wouldn’t it be nice if you could transform everything you see into something mysterious and wonderful? Augmented reality does that, by overlaying computer-generated effects on the real world. It makes for some really magical effects, as techno-magician Marco Tempest demonstrates in the nifty magic trick here. It combines good [...]
Interview Me: Nick Trincia
As part of an ongoing series of quickstyle interviews with some of today’s most talented designers, I thought it prudent by kicking things off with the winner of our RELAX contest – Nick Trincia. It was a very VERY close call but in the end – the judges chose his …