Daily Roundup: Honda and Toyota's human transporters, Valve's Steam Machine specs, Siri's voice actress and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Honda UNI-CUB vs. Toyota Winglet
For the first time this year at CEATEC, there's a space solely dedicated to testing electric vehicles like two human transporters: Honda's UNI-CUB and Toyota's Winglet. While neither of these mobilizers is completely new, we just couldn't pass up the chance to give them a try. Both machines vary significantly from the Segway: the UNI-CUB allows riders to sit down, while the Winglet has some mechanical differences. Read on for details and videos of our battle royale.
Valve's Steam Machine prototype is tiny, potentially powerful
When Valve ships its own prototype version of the Steam Machine to 300 lucky beta users, those folks will be getting a pretty small, powerful device. At the very least, it'll have an NVIDIA GTX 660, anywhere from an Intel Core i3 to an i7-4770, plus 3GB of DDR5 RAM. We don't know what specs might appear in a finished machine, but it likely won't be cheap given that Xi3's Piston will cost $1,000. Read on for more specs of the prototype gaming machine.
Bloomberg: Microsoft, HTC in talks to put Windows on Android phones
Wondering what Microsoft's next big mobile move will be now that it has purchased Nokia's devices and services business? Today, Bloomberg claimed that unnamed sources told them that the company was considering loading Windows onto some of HTC's Android devices. The same report also claimed that Microsoft's operating systems chief Terry Myerson had discussed lowering license fees, or eliminating them completely, as incentive. Head to the link above for more details.
Susan Bennett confirms that she is the original voice of Apple's Siri
Ever wondered where your smartphone's search voice comes from? Today, Atlanta-based voice actor Susan Bennett came forward and identified herself as the prolific voice behind Apple's Siri. Bennett tells CNN that the Siri recordings started in 2005 when she worked at Nuance, and lasted four hours a day for the entire month of July. Click the link above for more about Bennett, and a video interview with the actress herself.
