The Gadget Geek

Switched On: The iPod touch and the big picture
Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

In a New York Times interview of Steve Jobs conducted by Engadget columnist aspirant David Pogue, Apple’s CEO suggested that the company did not include a camera on the iPod touch because the company was now marketing the iPod touch as a game machine and that a camera was not germane to such a device. “We don’t need to add new stuff,” said Jobs.

But why is adding a digital camera any less germane to the portable game device of the iPod touch than it is to adding it to the media player of the iPod nano? Or, if price is an issue, why not exclude it only on the entry-level model? The iPod touch market will soon be large enough to support such diversity. And if the iPod touch is indeed being marketed as a gaming console and a low-cost point of entry to the app store, excluding a camera disrupts the continuity of the touch/iPhone platform, while the iPod imaging message is now more muddled: If you’re buying the iPhone 3G, you can capture stills but not video, while the “lower-end” iPod nano offers video capture but not stills, the iPod touch offers neither, and only the iPhone 3GS offers both.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Switched On: The iPod touch and the big picture originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N96 Smartphone
Nokia N96 Smartphone
Motorola s First Android Phone Takes Aim at Social Networks
SAN FRANCISCO — Motorola today introduced the Cliq, the company’s first phone based on the Android mobile operating system. The device will have a custom interface called Moto Blur that will bring together e-mail messages, text messages, Facebook and Twitter feeds, and photos into a single interface. The phone has a touch screen and a physical [...]
Vintage Nixie Tubes That Tell Time
Scores of you are going to drool over this unique time-telling machine! Called the Nixie Concrete Clock, its full-on retro with shiny orange Nixie tubes in a reinforced rough concrete body and can be wall mounted as well. Inspired by the vintage Z560M Nixie tubes, used in former East-Germany, this …

Sherwood’s 700W R-904N NetBoxx AV receiver dabbles in online media

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but CEDIA has just kicked off down in the ATL. One of the first to introduce something genuinely fresh is Sherwood (of all companies), with its R-904N NetBoxx pulling double duty as a 7.1-channel AV receiver and an internet media portal. For starters, the compact set-top-box looks nothing like a typical AVR, but you’ll still find 700 total watts of amplification, three HDMI 1.3 inputs, one Toslink input, a pair of coaxial audio inputs and support for Dolby Volume, Dolby TruHD and DTS-HD Master high-resolution audio formats. Once you’re done hooking up your music makers, feel free to shove an Ethernet cable in there and witness its ability to pull down material from PlayOn (Hulu, Netflix, CBS, CNN, ESPN, Amazon, etc.), CinemaNow, YouTube and SHOUTcast. There’s also a USB socket for loading up media locally, and at just 17- x 10- x 2.5-inches, it shouldn’t take up too much room underneath your current HDTV. It’ll set you back $649.95 when it ships later this month, and you can feel free to dig even deeper in the full release just past the break.

Continue reading Sherwood’s 700W R-904N NetBoxx AV receiver dabbles in online media

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Sherwood’s 700W R-904N NetBoxx AV receiver dabbles in online media originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG HS200 ‘pocket projector’ hands-on reveals an FM transmitter and embedded DivX surprise

Small, bright, and wireless: a potent trifecta of win for an ultra-portable projector. LG’s new HS200 DLP projector is here at IFA sourcing DivX video off local USB media and throwing the audio over its embedded FM transmitter. And because it’s LED-based, it racks up numbers like 200 ANSI-Lumens and 30,000 hours of operation before burn-out — that’s 4 hours of operation per day for oh, say, 20 years. The 80-inch, 800×600 pixel moving image that we saw was reasonably bright in a demo-room where ambient lighting was on par with a daytime living room, curtains closed. The viewing and listening experience was more than passable, enjoyable even, and far superior to what you’ll get from a pico projector. Jacks include HDMI, RGB / component, and composite with an expected price of €499 when it lands in Europe this month (coming to the US a few months later). See it for yourselves in the video after the break.

Continue reading LG HS200 ‘pocket projector’ hands-on reveals an FM transmitter and embedded DivX surprise

Filed under: Displays

LG HS200 ‘pocket projector’ hands-on reveals an FM transmitter and embedded DivX surprise originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Creative Zen Stone MP3 Player
Creative Zen Stone MP3 Player
Magnetic Bike Pedals Stick to Your Feet
Mavic, maker of bike parts and accessories, has gone all Sony on us. The EZ-Ride Evolve pedals don’t look too different from a normal platform pedal, but that little circle in the center is a magnet. When combined with the matching shoes (and here’s the proprietary Sony-style part) which are only supplied by Mavic, your [...]
Picasso Can Draw To Switch-off Lights
So what if your drawing sucks, the JustDrawIt unit won t mind; it will in fact help to manage the power supply to the various household equipments hooked on to it. How? A main device and several remote-controlled receivers visualize the service life of your synced electrical appliances. A haptic interface …

NTT DoCoMo might just enter the US cellphone market, MVNO graveyard wishes it luck

If you’ve paid any attention whatsoever to the goings-on in the American cellphone market, you’d know that ponying up the dough to start an MVNO here is probably not your best shot at striking it rich. One after another has fallen flat, even ones that had millions (and millions) in marketing dollars behind ‘em. That said, Japan’s own NTT DoCoMo is mulling the possibility of fully entering the US cell market next year, offering up smartphones and “other high-performance handsets with its i-mode mobile internet service.” We’re told that the operator may start as an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), leasing capacity from T-Mobile USA or AT&T until it decides on its next move. Call us crazy, but we’re guessing it just might have a shot here on US soil if it snags the iPhone, enables all those 3G services that have been running for years on other platforms and only charges one (as opposed to three or four) human limbs for a monthly plan.

[Thanks, shinbunboi]

Filed under: Cellphones

NTT DoCoMo might just enter the US cellphone market, MVNO graveyard wishes it luck originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell XPS M1330 Laptop
Dell XPS M1330 Laptop
Weather Pro: Full-On Meteorology App for iPhone
The English are famous for talking about the weather, and I m no different. We re also inveterate whiners and gloaters. Combine these and you ll see why Weather Pro is important: I get to chuckle when I see how cold and wet it is in my parents’ Devonshire village, and at the same time complain about the [...]

How would you change Olympus’ E-P1?

Just look at that little bugger. Ain’t it just so cute? All jesting aside, the adorably retro piece of kit you’re inevitably peering at above rings up at $799 to $899, meaning that it’s priced way too high to be slotted in most consumers’ impulse buy category. Olympus’ E-P1 was launched with high hopes, and it pretty much held the weight of the Micro Four Thirds world on its shoulders. During our time with the unit, we found image quality to be satisfactory overall and the design to be simply stunning, but we certainly didn’t come away feeling it was flawless. For those of you who overlooked the entry-level DSLR in order to try something different, how has that decision treated you? Are you full of remorse? Could you not be happier? Spill all in comments below.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

How would you change Olympus’ E-P1? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Homefront
E3 2009: Homefront
Britain s Oldest Working Computer Roars to Life
The oldest original working computer in the U.K., which has been in storage for nearly 30 years, is getting restored to its former glory. The Harwell computer, also known as WITCH, is getting a second lease on life at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The machine is the oldest surviving computer whose programs, [...]
Picasso Can Draw To Switch-off Lights
So what if your drawing sucks, the JustDrawIt unit won t mind; it will in fact help to manage the power supply to the various household equipments hooked on to it. How? A main device and several remote-controlled receivers visualize the service life of your synced electrical appliances. A haptic interface …

Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

While Nokia wouldn’t invite us to Nokia World this year, we were fortunate enough to discover a pair of its new X6 handsets on the IFA floor here in Berlin. On hand were two engineering prototypes, one of which was peeling away from its plastic shell while the other seemed less responsive to our finger-taps than the other. Still, it’s clear that the capacitive touchscreen is far more responsive to human touch than the resistive screens found on its N97, or the 5800 XpressMusic especially. This was made abundantly clear when using the on-screen keyboard although some of our swiping gestures were inexplicably ignored in other elements of the interface. But given the choice of the screen being awesome or super-awesome (remember, we’re comparing it to Nokia’s resistive touchscreen legacy), we’ll have to settle on the former for now. Of course, underneath you’ve still got S60 5th, for better or worse, pumping away inside a chubby little candybar — no screen tech can change that. See the action in the video after the break then jump into the gallery to see it sized up with a few of its S60 cousins five times removed.

Continue reading Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mitsubishi now shipping VUDU powered 1080p streaming HDTVs

Joining LG and (eventually) VIZIO, Mitsubishi’s new line of Diamond Unisen HDTVs are shipping with VUDU 1080p streaming capability built in, plus out of the box ability to handle the service’s Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio, thanks to the 18 speakers peeking out of the bottom of the frame. The 46- and 52-inch LCDs can stream movies via Ethernet, or wirelessly with the optional VUDU wireless accessory bridge. Buyers unsure of whether the streaming experience can live up to expectations are encouraged to take advantage of an offer of two months of SD, HD and HDX movies (up to $50 worth) for free, so if the LT-46249 or LT-52249 find their way into your living room for anywhere near their respective $2,599 and $3,099 MSRPs, we’d plug that network cable in and give it a shot. Check the official PR after the break.

Continue reading Mitsubishi now shipping VUDU powered 1080p streaming HDTVs

Mitsubishi now shipping VUDU powered 1080p streaming HDTVs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP LP2465 LCD Monitor
HP LP2465 LCD Monitor

Nokia Comes with Music US launch smartly pushed back to 2010

Not that most Americans could care, but Nokia is pushing back the US launch of its DRM-laden Comes with Music service into 2010. CWM, you’ll recall, is Nokia’s “free” all-you-can-eat music service that bundles the 12-18 month music subscription cost into the inflated handset price — although like any DRM music scheme, solutions already exist to break the CWM shackles. The delay is probably a wise move considering the weak state of Nokia’s US partnerships required to offset consumer costs, lukewarm response to its latest handsets, and the fact that most US consumers share a broad distaste for DRM music. We’d rather see Nokia launch late but with a compelling proposition than launch now in blind adherence to a timeline.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Nokia Comes with Music US launch smartly pushed back to 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Dark Void
E3 2009: Dark Void
Manliest Man-Bags Ever Resemble Gun-Holsters
The hotness of the product is doused somewhat by the shots of bed-haired male models prancing in Wallpaper-style interiors, but in the end it triumphs. After all, what could be cooler than a leather gun-holster style case for your cellphone? Sadly, the pitch is even lamer than the lifestyle photos: It is not just a handbag for [...]
Cheers For Zilborrerstea!
Unique name and equally unique in function! I wouldn t want to dilute its creativity by losing you in heaps of word. Keeping it short: Zilborrerstea is a deck that you can use in water bodies like lakes or the beaches. Hop onto it, rest a while or simply sunbathe. Take …