Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

Engadget

Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide 2009

The team at Engadget is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. See the guides below!
Accessories

Coming Soon

Cellphones

Nov 20th 2009

Desktops

Coming Soon

Digital cameras

Coming Soon

Docks / Alarms

Coming Soon

e-book readers

Nov 16th 2009

Fun stuff

Coming Soon

GPS

Nov 18th 2009

Home theater set ups

Coming Soon

Laptops

Coming Soon

MIDs / Handhelds

Coming Soon

Netbooks

Nov 24th 2009

PMP

Coming Soon

Smartphones

Coming Soon

Television / displays

Coming Soon

Toys

Coming Soon

Video cameras

Coming Soon

Latest Posts

All News
Reviews
Reviews

Inbrics announces Android MID, promises 'inspirational moments' (video)

Inbrics, a company known in Seoul for its VoIP solutions, looks set to rock your world with an Android MID early next year at CES. All we have for you at present are the barest of specs, machine translated Korean PR that declares "a full convergence of the future," and one of those vague, uplifting videos that demonstrates the myriad of ways that its one platform can dramatically change your life -- without ever really telling you what it does. The device itself is a QWERTY landscape slider that features an AMOLED touchscreen, GPS, compass, WiFi, and an ARM Cortex A8 800MHz processor. Experience the inspirational moment after the break.
READ MORE

4iThumbs overlay adds a tactile keyboard to your iPhone... sorta (video)

The iPhone keyboard (or the lack thereof) has been a polarizing point for many, and while we've seen a workaround or two in our day, we've yet to see a solution to the lack of tactility as beautifully simple as this. 4iThumbs is a screen overlay that adds minuscule bumps on your iPhone display -- bumps that correspond to where the keys are when using the vertical keyboard. 'Course, these things are apt to bug you when using the horizontal keyboard (or no keyboard at all), but we're guessing the heavy texters in the crowd won't mind. Have a look at the videos below the break for a better idea of what you're about to get yourself into. Oh, and be sure to pick up a pair of Awethumbs while you're at it -- we hear these two go great together.

Update: A horizontal version is available, hooray!
READ MORE

Tony Hawk: Ride prototype skateboards employ arcade buttons, duct tape, love

If you managed to catch the last Engadget Show, you inevitably saw our own Paul Miller carve it up a bit on Tony Hawk: Ride. Of course, Mr. Miller is known 'round these circles as a "professional skater," so there's a solid chance he could've handled just about anything the guys and gals at Activision threw his way. The reality of the matter is that not everyone feels safe and secure on something resembling a skateboard, and now we're being let in on the world of prototypes that were used to land on the final design. Within the read link you'll find randomly placed arcade buttons, trucks with no wheels, a terrifying amount of sensors and a comical amount of duct tape. Yeah -- even the whiz kids that make your dreams a reality start with duct tape. Go on, have a peek if you're in disbelief.

DroboPro RAID array causes reviewer to fall madly in love (video)

Data Robotics' RAID solutions have always been a cut above the rest -- and a little more expensive, and better looking, for that matter. As one clearly ecstatic reviewer at PC Perspective will attest, the DroboPro even does you one better, sporting eight bays of storage, extremely effective cooling, and support for FireWire, USB and Gigabit Ethernet connections. Of course, no product is perfect -- and here the lack of eSATA and nearly $1,500 price tag leave something to be desired. Your inner gadget hound (sadist) will surely delight in the insane amount of torture testing this device endured for this appraisal, and you'll be pleased to know that the array came out on top. Hit the read link to get started -- but not before you check out the video after the break.
READ MORE

TomTom XXL 540S World Traveler Edition: perfect for that dude you're jealous of

We know, our GPS gift guide has already been erected, but if you're in the unfortunate position of needing a high-end gift for someone who'll actually be in San Juan del Sur over the holidays, there's hardly a better option than this. The TomTom XXL 540S World Traveler Edition is exactly what you think it is: it's an XXL 540S, but with maps for the United States, Canada and Europe (what -- no Central America?). The 5-inch touchscreen is still there, as is the company's IQ Routes, 'Help Me!,' an increased 4GB of storage, advanced lane guidance and 7 million points of interest. It's expected to hit retail shelves in both the US and Canada early next month for $349.95 (US) / $399.95 (CAD).

Palm and Sprint issue statement acknowledging Profile backup issue

Even in a world full of racket, it seems that the squeaky wheel still gets the grease. In yet another blow to this whole "cloud" agenda, a vocal segment of Palm users began to notice that information transferred from their online Palm Profile was only a fraction of what it should have been. Today, both Palm and Sprint have issued a joint statement acknowledging the issue and promising to work much, much harder in order to avoid having something like this ruin your life once again. To quote:
"We are seeing a small number of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Palm Profile information to another Palm webOS device. Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device."
Between this mess and the T-Mobile fiasco, we're pretty certain we're being forced to stay on the manual backup bandwagon for the foreseeable future.

[Thanks, Mike]

Dragon Skin body armor gains piezoelectric sensors, keeps bullet-stopping abilities

This Dragon Skin armor has been knocking about since 2007, but now that piezoelectrics and intelligence have been thrown into the mix we couldn't stop ourselves from taking a peek at it. The armor's strength is derived from a reptilian arrangement of overlapping ceramic and titanium composite discs, which simultaneously block incoming rounds and dissipate the impact to a wider area. What's interesting about the new design is the two piezoelectric sensors attached to each end -- one of them transfers a low voltage of power through the armor in the form of vibration, which the other picks up, and the reported energy loss is interpreted as armor degradation. Gnarlier still is the ability of these sensors to generate electricity from bullet impacts, which can then themselves give you an indication of what sort of bullet hit you. Capable of being applied to soldiers and vehicles alike, this could make the real act of soldiering a whole lot more like a video game (minus the whole "infinite respawn" thing), with HUDs showing you how much "shield" you have left. You can see an old(ish) video of the original armor after the break.
READ MORE

iBuyPower lets out five liquid-cooled gaming desktops

It's never too early to start thinking about that desktop that you really, really need under the tree by the third week in December, and rather than waiting until the last moment and getting stuck with some random configuration and a lofty overnight shipping fee, iBuyPower is encouraging you to have a gander at the five new liquid-cooled rigs that it just unveiled at NewEgg. The low-end is propped up by the Gamer Extreme 922 SLC at just $989, while the specced-out Gamer Supreme 979SLC will set Santa back just under four large. At the top, you'll find luxuries such as Intel's Core i7 975, a Blu-ray drive, 128GB SSD and 1.5TB of HDD space, while lower-end systems snag the likes of a Core i7 860, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD. Peek the via link below for a more robust look at the specifications, and feel free to get your order in now if you like resting easy.
READ MORE

Microsoft opens PC lounge in Saks Fifth Avenue for holiday season

We all know Microsoft's feeling pretty smug -- and with good reason -- about Windows 7 right now. In an effort to drum up yet more hype for its latest OS, and perhaps to try and gauge customer interest in an East coast Store, Microsoft has decided to open up a cozy "PC lounge" inside Saks Fifth Avenue's flagship New York store -- you know, the one that actually is on Fifth Avenue. As part of the agreement, Windows 7 will be used to drive Saks' window displays, and opportunities will be provided for customers to interact with the new software throughout the building. The lounge itself will be populated by Windows 7 laptops and Microsoft experts, who'll probably answer your questions in the sort of overly peppy, commercial way that makes us wonder why anyone goes to offline shops in the first place.

Lenovo's ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s

First thing's first: the video beyond the break is certainly not up to our usually stellar standards. That said, the voice recording is clear enough, so you may consider it an audio presentation with the bonus of a shadowy figure making occasional hand gestures in time with what's being said (lighting also improves as you go along). Arimasa Naitoh is the man behind the ThinkPad line, having joined the product engineering team at IBM during the 1970s and shifting with the ThinkPad brand on to Lenovo in 2005. Currently the VP for Notebook Development and the head of the Yamato Development Labs, Naitoh-san was kind enough to do a presentation in London yesterday, in which he touched on the history of the fabled laptop line and was also not shy about trumpeting the key advantages of the latest T400s flagship model. So click past the break, turn your speakers up, and get educated by one of the true founding fathers of mobile computing as we know it today.
READ MORE

Nokia N900 now shipping in the land of Ford freedom trucks

Love to tinker and tweak your smartphone? Find running beta apps a challenge, not a burden? Then you'll be happy to hear that Nokia's N900 running Maemo 5 is now shipping in the US, a week later than the press release suggested. This Cortex-A8 phone with 32GB of on-board storage is ripe with potential and the perfect holiday gift for grandma as long as she's comfortable dropping into the X Terminal for the occasional "rm -R /home/user/.microfeed" command. It's still listed for $649 unlocked from Nokia direct though that price will be dropping soon enough.

[Thanks, Alex]

Samsung Go netbook gets $100 cheaper with one-year Times Reader 2.0 subscription

Publicly, at least, The New York Times has seemed perfectly kosher with the way things are moving in the newspaper industry. Rather than freaking out and wondering why they didn't make the move to digital earlier, it's apparently looking to push the digital distribution of its content via discounts and partnerships with hardware providers. In a rather unique and unprecedented move, the paper has today announced that prospective readers can receive $100 off of a Samsung Go netbook if they subscribe to Times Reader 2.0 for a year. The machine will come pre-loaded with the Adobe AIR-based application -- which pushes published content to one's machine on the double -- and will be sold exclusively through J&R Music and Computer World. Of course, NYT wants $179.40 for a one-year sub, so the deal's not exactly awesome or anything, but the offer stands for first-time subscribers until March 2010 if you're interested.

iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet

So we know the iPhone has been slumming it and selling itself on Walmart shelves in the US for a while now, but it's retained a somewhat more dignified cachet over here in Europe. Until today, that is. Just "in time for Christmas," British retailer Tesco will make it possible for you to buy your socks, no-frills groceries, and shiny smartphone all in the same place. You'll still be riding O2's network, thanks to the Tesco Mobile service, but the department store chain is likely to price its contracts more aggressively, as it already has a £30 per month plan that includes unlimited calls, texts, and web surfing. Maybe there's something to this whole "competition" thing after all then, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Kindle 2.3 software update available, generation 1 owners need not apply

We gadget nerds have to endure unspeakable atrocities in order to slake that early adoption jones: first-run gear shipped DOA, buggy pre-release software, and months of waiting after a product leaks only to be greeted by a jacked-up price premium at launch. So we feel your pain, original Kindle owners, after Amazon announced a major firmware update that brings native PDF support to the 6-inch Kindle 2 and DX readers with the promise of a staggering 85% increase in battery life to all Kindle 2 devices -- if you haven't already received it OTA, the 2.3 software update is now available for download and installation via USB tethering. At least owners of "some earlier versions of Kindle" (quote from the press release) will receive native PDF support whenever the 1st generation firmware update (currently at version 1.2) is released. It's worth noting that Amazon's PDF reader lacks a zoom function which makes many PDFs entirely unreadable on the device. Good thing Amazon's store is chock full of easily zoomable books in a proprietary format then, huh?

US Air Force orders up 2,200 more PS3s -- for thinking, not gaming

We were as surprised as anyone when the USAF threw down the cash for 300-odd PlayStation 3s back in March of last year, but what's more shocking is that it's now back for more -- seven times more, in fact. Already employing its PS3 cluster for research into high-def video processing, the Air Force Research Lab wants to expand its capabilities significantly and it seems that Sony's Cell processor is still its weapon of choice. We would use this opportunity to make a few jibes about lazy engineers upgrading their setups in time for Modern Warfare 2, but we're better than that. We'll also totally avoid noting that the US government's skimping on costs now is leading it to commit to an instruction set tailored specifically to the Cell processor, which contrary to the latest Xeons -- pricier though they may be -- is not guaranteed to keep updating in pace with the USAF's needs. Those are things we'll leave for someone who isn't afraid of death lasers and autonomous attack drones to say.
November 2009
1
Nov 1st 2009
8 POSTS
2
Nov 2nd 2009
44 POSTS
3
Nov 3rd 2009
45 POSTS
4
Nov 4th 2009
43 POSTS
5
Nov 5th 2009
43 POSTS
6
Nov 6th 2009
41 POSTS
7
Nov 7th 2009
15 POSTS
8
Nov 8th 2009
13 POSTS
9
Nov 9th 2009
41 POSTS
10
Nov 10th 2009
43 POSTS
11
Nov 11th 2009
44 POSTS
12
Nov 12th 2009
45 POSTS
13
Nov 13th 2009
39 POSTS
14
Nov 14th 2009
11 POSTS
15
Nov 15th 2009
12 POSTS
16
Nov 16th 2009
43 POSTS
17
Nov 17th 2009
40 POSTS
18
Nov 18th 2009
44 POSTS
19
Nov 19th 2009
38 POSTS
20
Nov 20th 2009
39 POSTS
21
Nov 21st 2009
13 POSTS
22
Nov 22nd 2009
12 POSTS
23
Nov 23rd 2009
42 POSTS
24
Nov 24th 2009
38 POSTS
25
Nov 25th 2009
20 POSTS
26
Nov 26th 2009
0 POSTS
27
Nov 27th 2009
0 POSTS
28
Nov 28th 2009
0 POSTS
29
Nov 29th 2009
0 POSTS
30
Nov 30th 2009
0 POSTS
“Getting too close completely blurred what we saw to the point of incomprehension, but again, this shows a whole heap of potential that's fascinating to us.”
Upcoming Engadget posts on Digg over the past 24 hours.
99.1
MILLION

The number of televisions estimated that sit unused in closets.

The EPA estimates that nearly 100 million unused televisions are currently taking up precious, beautiful space. (source: EPA, July 2008)

 
Tip Us

Boss of the Year Entry Form

Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the editors at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields, because they're required.