Paul Miller
Articles by Paul Miller
Ion Audio's Twin Video dual-facing camera becomes more than a render, starts shipping
Remember this little "Twin Video" freak of nature from January? Well, Ion Audio went and built the thing, and while it looks dramatically different now, the general idea is the same: one camera faces you, the other camera faces your subject. Outside of that it's a pretty basic Flip-style camcorder, with a decent $120 price tag, SD card storage, and a rechargeable battery. Just remember, with great dual-facing power comes great dual-facing responsibility. Check out a sample video after the break.
HP's DreamScreen 400 is the touchscreen Linux desktop you'll never own
"What's this thing? It looks pretty cool. What pretty icons! Can I touch them? I can, really?" Etc. That basically describes our infantile thought process when we stumbled across the DreamScreen 400 (not to be confused with the DreamScreen photo frame line), a new all-in-one desktop from HP, but suddenly it all became clear: this thing is built for the Indian market, and us chubby Americans will have to keep on dreaming. Still, it's an interesting thought experiment. HP has long sought to differentiate itself in its Windows-based offerings, and even at times abandoned its first OS love with its Mobile Internet Edition Ubuntu-based netbooks and now its upcoming webOS tablets. The DreamScreen 400, which runs some flavor of Linux with an extensive, touch-friendly HP skin on top, sort of demonstrates an alternate reality where HP decided to pursue Linux in the consumer desktop space -- Microsoft be damned. Of course, this is also an actual reality: you should be able to buy this 18.5-inch desktop in India for Rs. 19,999 (about $450) in India right around nowish, and we'll see where HP takes this software from here. [Thanks, Chris J.]
aTV Flash (black) now in beta, ready to equip your new Apple TV with a browser
It's always a bit of a funny business paying for hacks, but Fire Core's aTV Flash is a serious product and we can't blame them for trying to make a buck off the back of it. Now the sequel, aTV Flash (black), is here in beta form, bringing a subset of the aTV Flash's functionality to the brand new Apple TV, which runs that fancy new iOS-based 4.0 software. Most importantly, Fire Core brings a HTML5-compatible browser, but the Last.fm app and Plex Client are welcome tag alongs. "Coming soon" features include expanded media format support and networked storage support. The pre-order beta price is $20, while the final hack will retail for $30. For existing users, (black) is a free upgrade. [Thanks, Gustavo]
LMP Bluetooth Keypad escapes all pretense, wants to befriend your Apple Keyboard
We've seen Apple Keyboard add-on look-alikes -- like Interlink's Bluetooth Calculator Keyboard, which has shown up for sale in some Apple stores, but has middling reviews due to connection problems -- but LMP wouldn't want its new Bluetooth Keypad to slip through the cracks of subtlety. The device, which just passed through the FCC, comes with a connector that allows you to snap the independently powered and Bluetooth-ed keypad right onto your numeric keypad-less Apple Bluetooth Keyboard. Get it? It's like they're one big magical keyboard now! Well, not now in a literal sense, because the LMP Keypad has yet to hit retail, and we don't have a word on pricing either. But in our dreams...
HP Slate beginning to ship?
We've got word from one loyal reader that his HP Slate is en route from Shanghai, and he even provided us PDF proof of that fact, just to quell any doubts. We're not sure if that's some little slip on HP and FedEx's part, or a sign of larger things to come (be sure to let us know in the comments if you've received similar notice), but for now all we know is that something enterprisey is scheduled to show up on one Dave P.'s doorstep on December 6th. Godspeed, dear tablet. Godspeed. [Thanks, Dave P.]
Acer confirms plans for Windows Phone 7
We saw the briefest whisper of an indication a couple months ago, but now Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci has come out and said it: Acer's working on Windows Phone 7. In an interview with Ina Fried, Gianfranco touched briefly on the company's plans for Microsoft's new OS, after an ill-fated stint with Windows Mobile not so long ago. Naturally, the addition of Windows Phone 7 won't be coming at the expense of Acer's newfound love of Android, but Lanci oddly says he sees for WP7 "the same opportunity you can see on Android in terms of customization." We don't know what sort of customization he could be referring to, but we're trembling in anticipation. So, let's just tally them up: MeeGo, Chrome OS, Windows Phone 7, Android, and, of course, Windows itself... pretty nice collection you've got for yourself, Acer. What's next, BeOS?
Panasonic welcoming crash test consumers to the handheld gaming Jungle
In an interesting move for a major console launch, Panasonic is reaching outside of the fold and looking to some select US consumers to test out its upcoming Jungle gaming handheld. No details on the testing program were given, and it's not much in the way of news, but it's the most we've heard out of Panasonic since it announced the online gaming-centric handheld in October -- we still don't know when the Jungle will land or how much it will cost. At least Panasonic isn't short on self-assessment: "We know other companies out there have traditional hand- held gaming covered... We're doing something very different." You can't argue with that, we'll just have to wait and see if Panasonic can pull it off.
Google Earth 6 adds 3D trees and integrated Street View
It's not hard to love Google Earth: it's free, it gives great views of one of our top five favorite planets ever, and it's free. Now Google is adding in some new functionality to push the realism to the limit in Google Earth 6. Most importantly, Street View is getting seamless integration into your virtual travels, with the little yellow Pegman set right next to the navigation controls for placing any which where. Google has also "planted" millions of 3D trees to make the 3D building view a bit more realistic, and has a new easy-access method for pulling up historical imagery. It all sounds very exciting in theory, but the best part? Google Earth 6 is free, and you can download it right now to find out for yourself.
Microsoft announces 2.5 million Kinects sold in first 25 days
Points for style, Microsoft, crossing the 2.5 million Kinect sensors sold mark a convenient 25 days into your global sales of that ever-so-hackable / sometimes-cool-for-gaming item. This number factors in Black Friday sales from this past weekend, and has us really curious as to how well Sony has been doing of late -- Sony's been mum on Move numbers since it announced 1 million units shipped about a month ago. Microsoft says it's on pace to sell 5 million Kinect units through this holiday, which leads us to wonder: what sort of 3D video extravaganza could we pull off with 5 million Kinects in tandem?
DARwIn-OP humanoid revealed, ready to open source your robotics program
The next version of the RoboCup-famous DARwIn bot is about ready to give the Nao a run for its money. The new DARwIn-OP from Robotis and Virginia Tech's RoMeLa (led by Dr. Dennis Hong, who joined us on the Engadget Show earlier this year) is just about to land, and the first pictures of the finished thing have started to circulate. While the bot is designed to perform, with sensors and servos suitable for higher-end robotics, the main thrust of the design is the open source and modular nature of the hardware and software. The bot can be purchased as a product from Robotis, but the CAD files are publicly available, and its plastic parts can be fabricated by the end user to save money (you do have a 3D printer, right?). Rumor has it the robot will retail for around $8,000, around half the cost of its closed source Nao competition. The full unveil of the robot is due at the IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots a couple weeks from now.
Editorial: My next iPad won't be a 7-incher, but I wish it could be
It took me a while, but I'm starting to fall in love with my iPad in a way I haven't loved a gadget for a long while. There's something about the form factor, the apps, the OS that feels just right and makes me want to do as much of my daily computing on it as possible. Of course, that's still a pretty small sliver of my overall day, and the iPad isn't even close to replacing my laptop for the large majority of my work, but I'm finding myself increasingly doing casual browsing, casual gaming, serious writing, and, yes, even some reading on Apple's 10-inch tablet. But I have one "big" problem with the tablet that doesn't look like it'll be solved anytime soon: it's not 7 inches. Will Apple ever eat its words and build a smaller iPad, or will the 7-inch form factor be left to the rest of the emerging tablet market to fight over?
AirVideoEnabler hack brings AirPlay video to the rest of your apps
Apple's new AirPlay video streaming functionality is great... unless you want to use it in a non-Apple app. For whatever reason, Apple is restricting AirPlay video to just its first party apps right now, and not even all of those (Safari is left out, for instance). Interestingly, Apple actually built the functionality in, it's just not enabled. Thanks to some "spelunking" work by TUAW's Erica Sadun, it was discovered that a single line of code is all that's necessary to spread the feature to any app that relies on Apple's MediaPlayer framework, including VLC, AirVideo, and even Safari. Now Zone-MR has built a hack called AirVideoEnabler and put it on Cydia, allowing you to bring this functionality to your own jailbroken iPad. For the hack-averse, let's hope Apple catches up in functionality soon. Check out a video of AirVideoEnabler and Erica's original hack in action after the break.
OpenVizsla hopes to bring USB sniffing to the everyhacker
Remember that Kinect hack how-to? A key figure in the story was the use of a USB analyzer that was plugged in-between the Kinect and the Xbox to pick up on USB traffic and pull out a log that could be used for hacking. Well, there's a new 'OpenVizsla' project on KickStarter that's aiming to build open source hardware that can put this typically expensive tech ($1,400+) in the hands of more hackers, who use the hardware for anything from jailbreaking locked-down devices to building Linux drivers for hardware. The project was actually started by hackers "bushing" and "pytey," who have worked on hacking the Wii and the iPhone, respectively. They've already raised a good chunk of change for the project in pledges, with backing from folks like Stephen Fry and DVD Jon helping out the momentum, and hopefully we'll be seeing the next generation of hacks enabled by OpenVizsla and its brood before too long.
Next iPad likely to get a new screen, front-facing camera; USB port... not so likely
New rumors are swirling about the iPad 2, and they're a bit of a grab bag. The source is the same Economic Daily News paper that made one of the early calls on the first iPad, but also the one that reported in August that there was a 7-inch display being sourced for the iPad's sequel (which Steve Jobs seems to differ with). The new report says that the next iPad will be out in Q1 2011, will have dual cameras, a new display with new touch tech, and a USB port for working with third party devices. From our own information we know there were actually some last minute revisions on the first iPad that ended up killing the camera and nixing an extra dock connector, so the camera(s) seem a particularly natural "addition" for the iPad 2. We've also heard that a revised screen is happening, though it's unclear if this will be a "Retina Display" or something more minor. On the USB plug front, which could mark a sort of adolescent transition of the iPad into "computer," our source says it's, sadly, very unlikely. We're particularly interested in this mention of a new touchscreen technology from the EDN rumor (perhaps stylus support or pressure sensitivity?) but we don't have anything else to go on there. Overall, it's still hard to tell if the next iPad will be a small update or something more splashy, but it's certainly going to be something.
SlingPlayer Mobile app hits the iPad (update: only works with SOLO and PRO-HD)
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad was looking pretty slick when we saw a preview a couple weeks ago, and now, just like that, it's arrived at the App Store. Folks who already invested in the iPhone app might be a bit disappointed to find they need to fork out another $30 for the iPad version -- although they can keep using the iPhone app in "Compatibility Mode" if they'd like -- but Sling is touting new video quality levels for the iPad, that your iPhone can only dream of, to sweeten the deal. There's also a new program guide UI and other iPad-friendly tweaks. Check out that video preview after the break to learn more, or just hit up your local App Store and start downloading (it's rolling out in typical App Store fashion, which means it might take a few minutes to pop up in your particular iTunes). Update: We were having trouble getting our Slingbox PRO to work with the app, but it turns out that's on purpose: it doesn't work. That's right, Sling just pulled a Sling and has made obsolete another set of its own hardware. The only iPad compatible Slingboxes are the Slingbox SOLO and the PRO-HD, which is a bit confusing given that the iPhone app has a wider compatibility list. Sling says Apple wanted them to stick with a higher resolution than some of their older hardware could support, but it seems pretty lame that they can't just upsample the video as a fallback. There's a $50 voucher that will apparently be offered for Slingbox owners who want to upgrade, which will help them buy expensive hardware that will no doubt be obsolete by the time Sling decides to support a new piece of Apple hardware. Not that we're bitter or anything...
Richard Branson launching 'Project' magazine for iPad next week
Is there something in the air? Hot on the heels of Rupert Murdoch's impending The Daily newspaper for the iPad, we're getting word of a Richard Branson-funded, iPad-specific magazine dubbed Project. The magazine will cover entertainment, travel, business, design, and international culture. It's hard to tell if these two announcements are somehow related to each other, or if they imply some sort of shift in Apple's treatment of publications, but either way they do indeed seem to be happening. The full announcement of Project is due for Tuesday next week.
O-Bow repurposes a mouse sensor for artificial bow tracking
Here at the Engadget HQ we're very serious about articulating the noise and action of a bow when it comes to our synthesized string instruments, and the O-Bow looks like it could be the low cost solution we were dreaming of. (No, Smule Magic Fiddle doesn't count, it's a devil "instrument" and it lies). Hacker / musician Dylan Menzies has devised a method using the optical sensor from a mouse for tracking anything with a grained surface, like a wooden stick, and using it to make a single sample synthesizer "sing" like a real bowed instrument. Unfortunately, that single sample sounds pretty terrible right now, but Dylan is working on a more sophisticated method of modeling the instrument. Until then, we'll just have to resort to giving Smule dirty looks and messing around with our Korg joystick. There's a video after the break, but don't say we didn't warn you about that sample.
Apple prepping App Store subscription payments for News Corp's upcoming 'The Daily' pub?
John Gruber of Daring Fireball has synthesized some of the swirling rumors about Rupert Murdoch's latest News Corp venture: The Daily, an iPad / tablet-specific publication that will cost real US money dollars. Add in a touch of his own sources and it's a pretty interesting story, particularly when it comes to the future of publications and other "recurring" services on iOS devices. Gruber says that his sources (and he makes sure to clarify that his sources on this particular bit aren't from Apple) say Apple is brewing up a new billing option for apps to allow for subscription payments through the App Store. That sounds kind of boring, but the lack of real automated payment has held back some publishers. Right now a user has to knowingly tap an in-app purchase every time they want to continue their subscription, instead of letting that monthly payment float into the back of the consciousness where publications want it, and Apple also restricts app builders from getting their payments outside of the Apple ecosystem. Word is that there could be an Apple event within the next few weeks to announce all this, though it seems a stretch for Apple to rally the troops for just subscription payments and a new pub that flaunts them. Maybe they'll throw in a Verizon iPhone just for kicks!
The Xbox 360 turns five years old... in a purely theoretical sense
Show of hands: how many of you bought an Xbox 360 in its first month or so of release, five long years ago? Alright, now how many of you still use that same Xbox regularly, with zero RRoDs getting in your way? Yeah, we thought so. The Xbox 360 has been an astounding success for Microsoft and for gamers, a particularly strong feat when you consider that it was Sony's race to lose going into this console generation. Still, when you talk Xbox history, it's hard not to see that huge red smudge on an otherwise stellar record. In hindsight, perhaps it was wise for Microsoft to do such a stellar job of taking the console online, beyond all the obvious reasons: the overheating hunk of plastic and silicon in our entertainment center didn't really mean much anymore, sentiments-wise. Instead it was our Gamertags and Gamerscores and cutesy Avatars that really mattered, the true "heart" of our console. We can't even count how many Xboxes we churned through in the past five years, with only Microsoft's most recent attempt finally solving some of the machine's egregious noise issues, but most of us stuck with the Xbox all the way through because that's where our friends were. Cute trick, Microsoft, but let's pick a slightly less expensive way to fail for the next generation, alright? Oh, and happy birthday Xbox; we'll meet you at 8pm with the pizza and the wine and the Black Ops... you just bring the sexy. Want to re-live a bit of the launch day insanity? Check out this little trip down Engadget memory lane: Live Xbox 360 shot! Engadget's live coverage of the Xbox 360 launch Xbox 360 hands-on preview Unpacking the Xbox 360 Xbox 360 gutted! Engadget Podcast 053 - 11.22.2005 Xbox 360 backward-compatibility list (1.0) released Boy, didn't we look young and naive back then? The world was our oyster. There were so many Halos yet to come.
FAA gives SpaceX the first-ever commercial license for spacecraft reentry
Well, SpaceX just scored a huge milestone in space travel for the proletariat: we get to come back now. The FAA just gave SpaceX's Dragon capsule a reentry license, paving the way for it to make round trips to the International Space Station and eventually even take people up there. NASA, who already has some hefty contracts with SpaceX for launches, has congratulated SpaceX over Twitter on the good news, though we're sure the few billion dollars in future business speaks volumes already. Engadget's own Chad Mumm, resident Space Destiny Enthusiast, had this to say about the momentous occasion: "We're standing on the shoulders of our ancestors, reaching out a small, child-like hand at the stars. And then returning safely to earth thanks to FAA certification. We're on the verge of the impossible." Sorry, there's something in our eye...