The Gadget Geek

Xbox Live Fall 2010 Dashboard Update preview: ESPN, Netflix search, Kinect, and more! (Update)

Shortly before Kinect hits store shelves on November 4th, Microsoft plans on rolling out the Fall Update to Xbox Live — even sooner for those who signed up for the preview program. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, really: even without the numerous leaks, the fall update is a longstanding tradition for the almost five-year-old console, and the company devoted a large chunk of its E3 2010 presentation to talk about the biggest additions. That includes Netflix search (finally!), Zune music, and an entertainment hub for a certain worldwide sports broadcaster… ESPN. We’ve had a chance to spend some time at home with the Fall Update, follow us after the break for our full impressions!

Update: As both Joystiq and a number of tipsters have alerted us, Microsoft has pulled the large, wooden lever in its dark underground lair that allows for the Fall Update to trickle out and assimilate itself into the consoles of those smart enough to sign up for the preview program. If you receive a prompt upon signing in, rejoice! If not, well, have patience!

P.S. – Looking for more? Our BFFs at Joystiq have compiled a series of exhaustive videos chronicling the Fall Update. Check it out!

Continue reading Xbox Live Fall 2010 Dashboard Update preview: ESPN, Netflix search, Kinect, and more! (Update)

Xbox Live Fall 2010 Dashboard Update preview: ESPN, Netflix search, Kinect, and more! (Update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson LiveView acts as a 1.3-inch remote control for your smartphone, requires Android 2.0

You’ve been asking for someone, anyone, to please kick out a tiny remote control display that can save you from having to whip your smartphone out for every little thing and Sony Ericsson, it seems, has listened. The 1.3-inch OLED screen above is a new Bluetooth accessory for Android 2.x phones that’s said to function very much like a desktop widget. There’s an app you can install on your phone that’ll get it to communicate with the 128 x 128 pixel grid, which can then be used to read messages, find your phone, control music playback, and receive those precious social networking updates from your friends. We know by now you’ll be crying foul over Sony Ericsson dishing out an Android 2.0 accessory when its handsets are stuck somewhere below that marker, but the plan is to dish this “micro display” out in the last quarter of the year, after that messianic Android 2.1 update has arrived. Fingers crossed.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson LiveView acts as a 1.3-inch remote control for your smartphone, requires Android 2.0

Sony Ericsson LiveView acts as a 1.3-inch remote control for your smartphone, requires Android 2.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony holding Google TV event on October 12

We’d definitely been hearing that Google TV would be hitting sometime in the next month or so, and here we go: Sony’s sending out invites for an October 12 event in New York. We already know we’ll be getting both Bravia Internet TVs and Blu-ray players with Google TV integration, so we’re not banking on any earth-shattering surprises, but you know we’ll be there with bells on, IR blasters set to stun.

Sony holding Google TV event on October 12 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mozilla’s Seabird phone concept teaches us how to dream

Look up, peasant, from your soot-stained hands. Drop that shovel into the furrowed ground and gaze upon the magic* that Mozilla has wrought. Concept designer Billy May, working through Mozilla’s “Open Web Concept Phone” project, has gathered community feedback and followed up on some rather mundane visions for the mobile future with this little beauty, the Mozilla Seabird. The completely fictional device has a disturbing initial resemblance to a BlackBerry Storm, but as the video unfolds the functionality is really what sells this thing. The big innovation is the use of dual pico projectors on the side of the handset, which can provide different functionality based on the phone’s orientation: flat on a table they pump out the two halves of a QWERTY keyboard, up on a dock they offer the dual purpose of a large viewing screen above and a seamless projected keyboard below. Other features, like the pop-out wireless pointer / Bluetooth headset are slightly less realistic but no less charming. Now, before you get too excited, you should know that Mozilla has no plans to build this or any phone, they’re just messing around with some fancy 3D software and the bright imagination of their community of users. Still, for the two minutes and thirty seven seconds that the video after the break unfolds, allow yourself to think: “What if?”

*Actually, it’s just a 3D render.

Continue reading Mozilla’s Seabird phone concept teaches us how to dream

Mozilla’s Seabird phone concept teaches us how to dream originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Lego Rock Band
E3 2009: Lego Rock Band

QPC’s Articulated Naturality Web looks to one up augmented reality

We’ve already heard QderoPateo Communications (or QPC) talk up its notion of “articulated naturality” on smartphones, but it looks like the company has really gone all out for the World Economic Forum’s recent Summer Davos Conference. That’s where the company laid out its ambitious vision for an “Articulated Naturality Web,” which promises to take the concept of augmented reality to a whole new level. Described as a “complete renaissance in the way we approach technology,” the system would let you check hotel room availability simply by looking at the outside of the hotel, try out different furniture in an empty office space, look at items from a museum before you go inside, and get a weather forecast just by looking at the sky, to name just a few possibilities. Ambitious to be sure, but is it actually attainable in the near future? We certainly hope so. Head on past the break for the video.

[Thanks, Marius]

Continue reading QPC’s Articulated Naturality Web looks to one up augmented reality

QPC’s Articulated Naturality Web looks to one up augmented reality originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gunnar Optiks Glasses
Gunnar Optiks Glasses

Einstein brings Newton OS to the iPhone, handwriting recognition and all

Palm OS on the iPhone? Check. Android on the iPhone? Quasi-check. Newton OS on the iPhone? As of today, that’s a trio of affirmations. Developer Matthias Melcher has wisely used a good bit of his free time to port one of the world’s forgotten-but-not-forgotten operating systems onto Apple’s iOS platform, and while things are understandably sluggish right now, he’s currently working on performance optimizations that’ll hopefully have it running like a clock before long. He’s also made the source code available to anyone willing to tinker with the emulator, and somehow or another, he’s even managed to bring over the much-hyped handwriting recognition aspect. Don’t believe us? Hop on past the break and hit play.

Continue reading Einstein brings Newton OS to the iPhone, handwriting recognition and all

Einstein brings Newton OS to the iPhone, handwriting recognition and all originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ctrl+S PS3 controller for professionals and burgeoning arthritics

We really thought we’d seen it all when it comes to handheld video game controllers, but this upcoming “Ctrl+S” model from UNIQ brings a surprising quantity of new ideas. The most basic innovation is the weird “UNIQ wing” that sticks out from the rear edges of the controller, allowing you to passively support the controller with the insides of your index fingers instead of having to “grip” the controller to hold it up. Yeah, that sounds lazy, but the idea is to reduce muscle stress and cramps, which makes sense for people who game a few hours a day. The relaxed posture is also supposed to help improve thumb mobility, though we’ll have to test it out with a game to see if that’s actually the case. Around back are some nicely oversized and easily worked analog triggers, along with a grid of repositioned “face buttons.”

The feel of the prototype we were playing with felt just a little too light and a little too “cheap,” but that’s typical for prototypes, and the promises of improved ergonomics and optimized control placements are certainly compelling. The best news is that the controller will be highly customizable, with tweaks available for the analog sticks, “wings,” and even the force feedback motors. We’ll see how well this impacts gameplay when the controller hits the market in December for $69.99. Check it out on video after the break.

Continue reading Ctrl+S PS3 controller for professionals and burgeoning arthritics

Ctrl+S PS3 controller for professionals and burgeoning arthritics originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony demoes flexible electronic paper display, tickles our fancy

Say, did the air just get a little richer in vapor? Sony has titillated its home nation with a demonstration of a new flexible e-paper display, which looks set to compete with LG’s, HP’s, Toshiba’s, and hell even Sony’s own, flexi-display ventures. Employing a plastic substrate, the above prototype is apparently capable of being rolled up like a regular old newspaper — presumably fly-swatting is not a problem either — but we have our usual reservations about yet another flexible display teaser. Oh, they’re all gorgeous and revolutionary, it’s just that we’re not seeing too many of them in our local Walmarts, you know?

Sony demoes flexible electronic paper display, tickles our fancy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum
E3 2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum
New Amazon Ad Shows Kindle As Sexy Competitor
Amazon’s new commercial puts the Kindle in the best possible light: poolside, in the hands of a beautiful, bikini-clad woman. It even works in a dig at the iPad and other LCD tablets; the dweeby guy next to the Kindle reader can only see his own ugly reflection. This video has been percolating around the tech [...]
Heavy Shopping Bags Need Some Air For Easy Carry

UC Berkeley researchers craft ultra-sensitive artificial skin, robots dream of holding eggs
Researchers and engineers have been toiling on synthetic skins for years now, but most of ‘em have run into one major problem: the fact that organic materials are poor semiconductors. In other words, older skins have required high levels of power to operate, and those using inorganic materials have traditionally been too fragile for use on prosthetics. Thanks to a team of researchers at UC Berkeley, though, we’re looking at a new “pressure-sensitive electronic material from semiconductor nanowires.” The new ‘e-skin’ is supposedly the first material made out of inorganic single crystalline semiconductors, and at least in theory, it could be widely used in at least two applications. First off, robots could use this skin to accurately determine how much force should be applied (or not applied, as the case may be) to hold a given object. Secondly, this skin could give touch back to those with artificial hands and limbs, though that would first require “significant advances in the integration of electronic sensors with the human nervous system. Dollars to donuts this gets tested on the gridiron when UCLA and / or Stanford comes to town.

UC Berkeley researchers craft ultra-sensitive artificial skin, robots dream of holding eggs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nico Vega – Gravity (DT3 Acoustic Sessions)
Nico Vega – Gravity (DT3 Acoustic Sessions)

Flexjet hooks private jet travelers up with free Gogo Biz in-flight WiFi, as well it should
Here’s the deal: you’re pouring out thousands on Flexjet’s fractional aircraft program in order to get where you need to be, when you need to be there. The last thing you’re looking for is another bill to ensure you’re connected while jetting from point A to point Z. Thankfully, the aforesaid company has just inked a deal with Aircell that’ll place Gogo Biz in-flight WiFi into each of its private jets at no additional cost to flyers — a move that’s likely meant to counter NetJets’ recent announcement. Of course, that “annual price bump” will more than likely take care of things come December, but hey — what’s the use in filet mignon on a Challenger 300 when you can’t tweet a picture of your indulgence? Exactly. Head on past the break for all the installation plans.

Continue reading Flexjet hooks private jet travelers up with free Gogo Biz in-flight WiFi, as well it should

Flexjet hooks private jet travelers up with free Gogo Biz in-flight WiFi, as well it should originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Sep 2010 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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