How's about this for a coincidence? We've just benchmarked the Snapdragon 800 reference tablet, with some very nice results, and now Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft will use a Qualcomm chip in its next refresh of the Surface RT. The report, based on insider sources, doesn't stretch to detailing whether we'll be looking at the flagship 800 processor specifically, but that'd seem like a logical upgrade for the current hybrid which runs on NVIDIA's Tegra 3 and already feels underpowered. As for NVIDIA, the same unconfirmed report suggests that they'll still have a role to play as a supplier "for some versions" of Microsoft's product. That's a curious notion, because it implies we might see multiple iterations of the Surface RT to suit different price points or markets (e.g., those with or without LTE), and at least one version of those could house a Tegra 4. Or it could simply be a diplomatic way of saying that the existing RT products will continue to be sold and supported for a while. Either way, if Microsoft doesn't implement the full force of Snapdragon, someone else hopefully will.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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Source: Bloomberg

Keeping your Gmail account organized isn't that hard when you can tag and Star emails. Evernote Web Clipper's new function, however, promises easier access to missives you deem particularly important. Once the Chrome extension is installed, it saves any message you want along with its attachments in just one click. One note though: you'll need a premium account to search through any attached documents. Note that the Gmail clip will look like a garbled mess (especially if it's a lengthy thread) on Web Clipper's preview screen, but on the Evernote app or web portal it will appear nicely formatted. If you think this new function can help you wrangle an increasingly unruly Gmail account, hit the source link below for more info or look for the extension on the Chrome Web Store.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Via: The Verge

Source: Evernote

Many partygoers want to keep their alcohol in check, but we don't know many who want to lug around a dedicated breathalyzer, no matter how small it may be. Tokyoflash may have found a happy medium for those drinkers by tucking a breathalyzer into its new Kisai Intoxicated watch. Blow into a sensor and the LCD will change to a color reflecting the alcohol intake: green is sober, yellow is buzzed and red is well over the line. There's also a mini-game to test reflexes in those less-than-certain moments. Buyers seeking some temperance in their lives will want to act quickly, however -- Tokyoflash will only sell the Kisai Intoxicated at a discounted $99 price during its first 48 hours on sale.

Filed under: Wearables

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Source: Tokyoflash

HTC's just pulled back the proverbial curtains on the Butterfly s at its Taiwan launch event. It'll arrive boasting a familiar-sounding 5-inch 1080p display, front-facing BoomSound stereo speakers and Sense 5 as expected. When it comes to internals, the Butterfly s runs Android Jelly Bean on a quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 (faster than the HTC One), an impressive 3,200mAh battery, quad-band HSPA/WCDMA radio, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage, expandable once again through microSD. As for imaging, alongside that primary UltraPixel camera and Zoe software features, there's a 2.1-megapixel wide-angle shooter on the front. It's currently scheduled for a release in July in Taiwan, accompanied by a NT $22,900 (roughly $766) price tag, but no word when (or even if) it'll reach foreign shores.

Update: Our Chinese sister site just spent some hands-on time with the device. Check out their first impressions right here. And look! A gallery right below!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Source: Engadget Chinese

If Vine still leaves you pining for the choppiness of GIFs, Microsoft's got you covered -- on Windows Phone 8, at least. Redmond's Blink app, which helps smartphone photographers capture bursts of images, has hit version 2.0 and scored the ability to create short animated clips, aptly dubbed Blinks. In addition to the bite-sized videos, the latest update bakes in camera settings in capture mode, sharing to social networks and web galleries for shared creations. Microsoft Research also released Blink Cliplets for Windows 8 and RT, which allows users to layer static and dynamic elements atop footage. Hit the break to check out the new release of Blink in action, or jab the first source link for the download.

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Via: Windows Phone Blog

Source: Blink (Windows Phone Store), Blink Cliplets (Windows Store)

No need to envy your iPhone- and iPad-toting friends anymore just because they can catch the latest episodes of Bates Motel or Dance Moms on the go. Streaming apps from A&E, History Channel and Lifetime have just arrived on Android, and you can access content even if you're not a cable subscriber. Naturally, the entire roster of shows and episodes isn't available -- in some cases, you can only watch clips instead of full episodes -- but Comcast or DirecTV subscribers who log in will have more to choose from. Should you need new companions for solitary nights, hit the source links below to download the apps on your device.

Filed under: Misc, HD, Mobile

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Via: Android Police

Source: Google Play 1, 2, 3

Netflix mentioned another European country was in its sights for this year and tonight it's announced the new region it will service is the Netherlands. As is its custom, it will be offering Dutch viewers a package of movies and TV shows for one low price, including its ever-growing slate of original series. There's no word yet on what that price will be, an exact launch date or what devices will be supported, but interested residents can sign up for alerts at Netflix.nl starting today.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Netflix

Planned to turn on your PS3 for some The Last of Us action tonight? According to a thread on the PlayStation Support forums, if you're prompted to install the latest firmware update version 4.45 then you may want to hold off for the moment. A number of owners are reporting their systems will no longer fully boot up after the update, although the problem may only affect users with hard drives installed that are 500GBs or larger. According to the changelog, it was supposed to allow users to select whether or not they want an in-game notification when a trophy is earned. If it is tied to user-replaced hard drives, then it wouldn't be the first time -- v3.41 resulted in a few corrupted PlayStation 3 drives a few years ago. Check the thread for more details, if we hear anything from Sony then we'll let you know when it's safe to press OK.

Update: It appears the update has been pulled and users are no longer being prompted to download it, but we still haven't received any official response from Sony on the situation.

Update 2: According to the PlayStation Europe Twitter account, Sony is aware of the problem, and has taken 4.45 offline to investigate the issue.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Sony

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Via: @Wario64 (Twitter)

Source: PlayStation 3 Support Forum, PlayStation Europe (Twitter)

Jelly Bean has been making its way to ever cheaper phones in recent months, and that's very conspicuous with the launch of Virgin Mobile's new Samsung Galaxy Ring. For $180, you're getting Android 4.1 in a price range where 4.0 is still common. You're also getting a surprisingly capable device under the hood -- while there's no LTE, the prepaid handset carries a reasonably quick 1.4GHz processor, a 4-inch screen, a 5MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front-facing sensor. We'd still consider shelling out a little more cash for a future-ready 4G device, but Virgin users determined to scrimp and save can pick up the Galaxy Ring today.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Via: Android Community

Source: Virgin Mobile

Scanadu clearly knows to tap into our collective Star Trek dreams, as the company just reached $1 million in funding for its Scout tricorder. The backing so far comes from people in 91 countries, including luminaries like Eugene Roddenberry (who else?) and Steve Wozniak. That figure is more than symbolic, we'd add -- backers who've paid for a Scout can now get theirs in black rather than a clinical-looking white. Should the new color option prove tempting, it's not necessarily too late; as of this writing, there's still a few days left to make a pledge.

Filed under: Household, Science

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Source: Indiegogo

He was nominated to replace Julius Genachowski as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission a mere six weeks ago, and before he's even got the job, Tom Wheeler's making headlines. Ars Technica reports that would-be chairman Wheeler wants what many (all?) cell phone owners want -- the ability to unlock our phones free from fear of legal retribution. The way he sees things, when folks have bought and paid for their phones and are contract-free, they "ought to have the right to use the device and move it across carriers." Unfortunately, while he's staked out his position on the matter, he has yet to say exactly how he plans to make phone unlocking legal, be it through legislation or other means. The good news is, he's not the boss just yet, so he's got time to address those niggling details while he waits to be confirmed as the new chairman.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Ars Technica

The E3 and WWDC news surges have finally calmed, so now we're back into the normal weekly groove. This week, Ben details his time using an Oculus Rift to watch recorded video and Richard attempts to ride out E3 as long as possible with our roundup. All that and more is ready to stream straight to your ears below.

Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh (@bjdraw), Richard Lawler (@rjcc)

Producer: Joe Pollicino (@akaTRENT)

Hear the podcast

Filed under: Podcasts, HD

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To use NVIDIA's graphics technology, you've typically had to buy gadgets using NVIDIA chips -- good for the company's bottom line, but not for influencing the industry as a whole. The firm is expanding its ambition today with plans to license some of that technology on a broader scale. Beginning with the Kepler architecture, other firms can use NVIDIA's GPU cores and graphics-related patents for their own processors and chipsets. The deal could affect a wide range of hardware, but it mostly pits NVIDIA against the likes of Imagination Technologies: a system-on-chip designer could integrate a Logan-based GPU instead of the PowerVR series, for example. While it will be some time before third-party silicon ships with NVIDIA inside, it's already clear that the company's in-house design is now just one part of a larger strategy.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Tablets, NVIDIA

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Source: NVIDIA

Today we had a chance to play with Qualcomm's latest MDP devices (tablet and phone) which pack the company's mighty Snapdragon 800 SoC (MSM8974). The tablet is slightly larger than than last year's and features an 11.6-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel display, 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32GB of built-in flash storage (with microSD expansion), USB 3.0 support and a 12 megapixel AF rear camera with flash (2MP fixed-focus in front). All of this is crammed into a slim (0.46 inches / 11.7mm) chassis that's powered by a 3400mAh Li-ion battery and incorporates a bevvy of radios (LTE band 17, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4 LE, GPS, NFC) and sensors (including pressure and humidity).

The phone shares most of the tablet's specs but swaps the screen for a 4.3-inch panel (1280 x 720 pixels) and the battery for a smaller (1500mAh) pack. We put these Snapdragon 800-equipped MDPs through their paces by running our usual suite of benchmarks (plus a few more). The results? Prepare for ludicrous speed! More after the break.

Gallery: Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MDP tablet screenshots

Gallery: Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MDP phone screenshots

Gallery: Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MDP devices

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it took down 1,400 Citadel botnets with the help of the FBI, and now Ballmer and Co. have divulged just how big of an impact the effort had. According to Richard Domingues Boscovich, the firm's Digital Crimes Unit assistant general counsel, the operation freed at least 2 million PCs across the globe from the malicious code -- and that's a conservative estimate by his reckoning. It's believed that more than $500 million has been stolen from bank accounts thanks to information gleaned from keystrokes logged by computers afflicted with the software. Though the chief botnet organizer is still on the loose and many machines are still burdened by Citadel, Domingues Boscovich says they "feel confident that we really got most of the ones that we were after."

[Image credit: Edmund Tse, Flickr]

Filed under: Microsoft

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Source: Retuers

The latest move in the standoff between Softbank, Sprint, Dish Network and Clearwire has been made, as Dish stated today it will not submit another bid for Sprint. This comes after Sprint sued to stop Dish from buying Clearwire, which the satellite company called an attempt to deflect attention from its own unfair dealings. If you'll recall, Dish Network jumped in with a $25.5 billion offer to buy Sprint, but after Japanese carrier Softbank improved its proposal slightly, Sprint put Dish on a deadline to respond. That time limit expired today, and Dish is choosing to consider its options on Sprint, while focusing on completing the Clearwire deal. Dish cited some specific changes in the Softbank deal that made it impossible to meet the deadline, including higher break-up fees if the deal didn't go through. so what's next? Softbank's still waiting for FCC approval before it can go through with the acquisition, and reports it expects to close the deal in early July.

Filed under: Mobile, Sprint

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Source: Reuters, Bloomberg, Dish Network

Nintendo was coy when it announced that its first free-to-play game will launch before the end of next March, divulging only that it wouldn't belong to the Mario or Pokemon franchises. However, the firm's Shigeru Miyamoto revealed to IGN that its first gratis title would be a Steel Diver game -- yes, as in the 3DS launch title -- featuring four-person multiplayer. Don't expect a rehash though, as the pricing model will change the game's design. Kyoto's gaming powerhouse hasn't settled on what business model they'll lean on quite yet, but CEO Satoru Iwata mentioned during an E3 analyst Q&A that its unpaid games would be "balanced and reasonable." The Big N noted that "free-to-play games, if unbalanced, could result in some consumers paying extremely large amounts of money, and we can certainly not expect to build a good relationship with our consumers in this fashion." There's still no word regarding which consoles this free installment of Steel Diver will grace, but Miyamoto teases that it's something they're hoping to show "relatively soon."

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Nintendo

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Via: Joystiq

Source: IGN

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.

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Google

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Look at the people with smiling faces in the above illustration. It's not too difficult to figure out what's going on: it's their birthday, and they're all happy because they're about to get presents. What if they knew that you had totally spaced on the fact that they were celebrating the anniversary of their birth? Fortunately, there are plenty of services that will remind you of friends' and family members' DOBs, and Amazon is now joining their ranks with a Facebook-integrated program called Birthday Gift. The idea is simple: you can order an Amazon gift card for a Facebook friend ahead of time, and the company will make sure it gets delivered on their momentous day. What's more, you can also send invites to mutual friends to see if they want to pitch in a few bucks. This way, nobody feels terribly cheap for plunking down a couple dollars, and you won't settle for the standard Wall post birthday wish. Check out the video below to see how it all works.

Filed under: Amazon, Facebook

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Via: AllThingsD

Source: Amazon

The Oculus Rift company is barely one year old, but it's already off to a strong start. Developers have kits from a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, said kit has support from the industry's biggest game engine creators, and the consumer-friendly HD version is already being shown off to press (we loved what we saw at E3 2013 last week). And now the company's got a solid $16 million in the bank backing up its next step: creating a virtual reality headset that's significantly more mainstream than the $300 dev kit currently available. But don't think that alters the young company's promise of virtual reality on the PC platform; quite the contrary, as CEO Brendan Iribe told Engadget, "We're really focused on the PC as the platform to bring this to market right now."

He said that Oculus isn't against bringing its VR headset to consoles, but that PC remains the primary platform. "We're always looking at other platforms -- looking at consoles, we're also looking at Android and the mobile side in a big way -- but right now we really are focused on the PC platform," he said. Sony's Shuhei Yoshida told us last week in an interview that, "We've got a couple of the development kits, and I tried it out and I love it," though he wouldn't outright say if the PlayStation 4 will support the Rift. We're betting "yes."

As for what Oculus is doing in the short-term with the new infusion of cash? In short, it's being used to staff up (the company's still under 50 employees right now, mostly engineers). "We're using the funding to ramp up on hiring more smart people, the best and brightest that we can find," Iribe said. "The dev kit as it is now, that we're shipping, will stay the same, and the software side will just keep getting better." The vast majority of those new employees will be engineers -- one glance at the company's careers page quickly confirms this claim. Outside of new employees, though, Iribe said little will change in the company's ongoing goal to develop "the very best virtual reality platform we can create."

Filed under: HD

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Although Google Drive has spread far and wide, its localization hasn't always kept pace. The service just took a few needed strides forward, however, with the addition of 18 new languages. Asia gets the most recognition with support for Hong Kong Chinese, Khmer, Lao, Malaysian, Nepali, Persian, Sinhalese and Urdu. Not that Google is neglecting other corners of the world, mind you: Africa is well covered with the additions of Afrikaans, Amharic, Swahili and Zulu, while Europeans get some TLC through support for Basque, Estonian, Galician and Icelandic. French Canadians and Spanish-speaking Latin Americans get localizations, too. Google Drive still isn't tuned for every language on Earth, but those with cloud storage in Cape Town or Kuala Lumpur should feel at home.

Filed under: Storage, Internet, Google

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Source: Google Drive Blog

"Internet radio" is usually a misnomer, as well as an indicator of its ambition. The term "radio" is misapplied to internet services like AOL Radio, Rhapsody Radio, the upcoming iTunes Radio and their ilk. All these mediums are unrelated to radio technology. But for most people, "radio" simply means something you turn on and listen to. As a marketing term, "radio" seeks to accustom users to new technology by connecting it with familiar technology. Pandora describes itself as "free, personalized radio."

The business intent in all cases is more ambitious -- to wean people from the terrestrial radio habit and migrate them to online services. Will it work?

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Apple

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Google and other companies have already made general calls for more transparency in the wake of the PRISM revelations, and it looks like Mountain View is now escalating those requests to a court challenge. As The Washington Post reports, Google is asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for some additional leeway with the government requests for data that it's able to disclose, and it's citing the First Amendment to make its case.

In a statement provided to us (included in full after the break), a Google spokesperson says that the company is specifically asking the court to let it "publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately," adding that "lumping national security requests together with criminal requests - as some companies have been permitted to do - would be a backward step for our users." That's in line with a statement Google made on Friday, which was echoed by Twitter, although there's no word yet on it or any other companies joining Google in the court challenge at this time.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: The Washington Post

GameStick first appeared around the the first of this year, promising its Kickstarter supporters an Android gaming console that looks more Roku Streaming Stick than OUYA. Since then, GameStick has gathered its cash and started shipping out dev units, but its commercial release has already been delayed once, and today the project got pushed back another month. That means that GameSticks won't start shipping until early August.

The reason for the delay is that the device's UI remains a work in progress and the team hasn't yet given backers who pledged $300 or more the chance to provide feedback. It's not all bad news, however, as the folks behind GameStick have confirmed that manufacturing tooling is complete, and the first Kickstarter controller has rolled off the line. Not only that, but you can see shots of the final versions of the GameSick itself and its controller's charging dock at the source link below.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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Source: Kickstarter

Google users may have already spotted the carousel design on search results while browsing on Nexus slates or the iPad, but, as of today, you can also expect this layout to show up on the desktop version of the site. Essentially, this new feature blends results in a much sleeker way, allowing you to view what you're looking for (hotels, bars, etc.) in more presentable fashion and in congregation with Google Maps. The only caveat is that it's only available in the US and in English at the moment, however the search giant did say we can expect "more features and languages over time."

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: Google