Extreme
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Sandisk's super-fast 400GB microSD is ready for 4K HDR video
It's great that Sony's new Xperia XZ2 smartphone can record 4K HDR video footage, but the bandwidth and storage requirements are bound to be, er, extreme. That's where SanDisk's new 400GB Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card comes in, delivering 160 MB/s read and 90 MB/s write speeds while maintaining compatibility with most devices. It also conforms to the A2 specification (4000 IOPS read and 2000 IPS write), meaning it'll let you launch apps more quickly.
SanDisk's Extreme microSD cards promise 80MBps, live up to that claim
No one likes waiting for a file transfer to finish, and thankfully SanDisk is doing something about it. The company's new "Extreme" line of microSD cards (16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities) promises to deliver speeds of up to 80 MBps. Benchmarks done by Android Police have the 64GB card hitting 78 MBps when used in a dedicated card reader. Putting the card in a smartphone, however, yields far different results. Most smartphones, save for the Exynos 5 Octa version of the GS4, don't support the newer UHS-1 standard for increased transfer speeds. When tested in a Galaxy Note II, SanDisk's new card "only" achieved 14MBps read speeds and 14.6MBps write speeds -- that's still between 50% and 100% faster than a previous generation 64GB SanDisk microSD card. So now we just need phones to catch up, and for handset makers who are averse to microSD cards altogether to change their tune.
How would you change the GoPro Hero HD 2?
You can strap the GoPro HD Hero 2 to any number of things to document your extreme adventures in high definition. However, for all of the improvements in the second version, we found it to be distractingly heavy, difficult to mount and with audio that left plenty to the imagination. Still, a few days of testing, even with some aerial combat thrown in, can't match constant use over the last six months. So, why not tell us how you've found using this thing on a daily basis and if you could, what would you change about it?
Samsung Rugby Smart officially coming to AT&T March 4 for $100
It was only a matter of time, we suppose. After having seen the Samsung Rugby Smart poke its head out from time to time, Samsung's new rugged smartphone is officially hitting AT&T stores on March 4th. Much like the Pantech Element, the Rugby Smart will be "waterproof," meaning it can be submerged for up to 30 minutes in one meter of water. The phone itself is built to mil-spec 810F standards, so it's going to handle most extreme conditions pretty well. So let's list off the specs we've heard so far: it will launch with Android 2.3 -- shocker, we know -- as well as a 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED panel, 4GB of internal storage, 1,650mAh battery and a 1.3MP front-facing shooter for video chat along with a 5MP rear facing autofocus camera with LED flash and 720p video capture. The Smart will also be 12.19mm thick (also not a surprise, given its rugged nature) and weigh 4.2 ounces. We don't know what CPU's inside yet, but we'll update as soon as we find out. To check out all the extreme details, head to the videos and press release under the break.Update: As noted by NJTechReviews, Samsung has confirmed it's a single-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 powering this guy.
Spotify iOS app update brings 320kbps music to mobiles
Enjoying your Spotify tracks on the go just got a little better, at least on iOS, where an app update to v0.4.23 gifts users "very high quality" 320kbps music streaming (for Premium subscribers) and syncing, up from the previous max of 160kbps. Enabling the higher quality streams -- though heavy listeners may want to mind those bandwidth quotas -- is as simple as ticking the "Extreme" box in the settings, as shown above by The Next Web to join in a quality that was previously only available via the desktop app or in the living room. If you're just signing up or setting up the app again the one-tap Facebook log-in should also be a convenient addition (or not, if you don't use Facebook and insist on telling everyone you don't at every opportunity -- we heard you the first ten times). There's no word on updates for the other mobile platforms yet, but we'll keep an eye out.[Thanks, Pete]
Record-breaking freefall advances space suit technology (video)
Jumping to Earth from the edge of space is no mean feat. Not only are you dropping like a stone, there's also the minor issue of your blood boiling as you do so. These are challenges daredevil Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team will be taking head-on -- literally -- with their record-breaking 120,000 foot "spacedive." To ensure Baumgartner lives to claim his honors, the Stratos team is using a custom spacesuit. It's designed by the David Clark Company, which made the first pressurized suits for World War II fighters, and includes a gas-filled bladder and integrated valve to maintain pressure over the various altitudes. While Baumgartner hopes to set new freefall distance, and time (5 minutes 30 seconds) records, there'll also be a lasting contribution to science, with team medical director Dr. Jonathan Clark hoping the developments can lead to advances in space travel and tourism. So in the future when you're opening your pretzels, looking down upon the Earth, raise a complimentary glass to Felix
Sony Ericsson hangs ten, launches Xperia Active Billabong Edition
Sony Ericsson is looking to start a bromance with the McTwist-loving, Double-Cork-landing, A-Frame-riding masses jonesing for a new Android device. The handset maker has announced a "global strategic alliance" with Billabong to launch the Xperia Active Billabong Edition smartphone in select markets. The handset will come preloaded with exclusive content, including Billabong screen savers, and bundle several Billabong-branded games and applications. As the two companies tell it, the Xperia ABE is the "ideal smartphone for extreme sports enthusiasts." Accordingly, Sony Ericsson hardware is about to start making appearances at various "major" Billabong events. Unfortunately, this next bit is really going to harsh your mello: the hardware is identical to that of the Xperia Active announced back in June, complete with a single-core 1GHz processor, Gingerbread, a 3-inch Reality display and a five-megapixel shooter. Even with its no-so-extreme spec sheet, we give SE a gnar-lay for effort.
Universal Motion Simulator: real enough to evoke panic (video)
A fighter sim just isn't realistic unless it makes you throw up and scream for your mother, which is why the sadistic folks at Australia's Deakin University created the Universal Motion Simulator. It's a barebones cockpit attached to the end of a seven-meter robotic arm that can pull up to six Gs -- indeed it's uncomfortable enough to mimic external disturbances, mechanical failures and crash scenarios as well as normal flying. The system also monitors a pilot's brainwaves, pulse and other bodily functions to discover if they have necessary nerve. Check out the video after the break and then imagine combining it with a 360-degree viewing dome for utter perfection.
MOD and MOD Live Android ski goggles give extreme analytics, we go eyes-on (video)
Straight out of Q's closet of goodies are Recon Instrument's brand new MOD and MOD Live ski goggles, giving bikers, skiers and snowboarders a glimpse into the digital extreme with a tiny built-in LCD micro display -- powered by an itsy bitsy Android ARM Coretex-A8 600 MHz computer. The 428 x 240 WQVGA screen allows the hardcore to tune into things like speed, jump analytics, distance, pre-loaded trail maps, height and GPS location, while keeping MOD Live users connected to calls and texts via Bluetooth. Running Android 2.3, the LIVE variety will let you see who's calling, answer calls, receive texts and even respond to them with pre-programmed responses. Users can switch between screens using the included remote, attachable via wristband or headstrap. Since the display is so tiny, the amount of Android apps athletes will be able to use will be limited -- so, sorry kids, no Angry Birds while mountain biking off a cliff. If that doesn't sound distracting enough, the manufacturer promises future third-party camera and video recorder integration to capture all the jumps, dives and spills associated with shredding the gnar. Sadly, the current model only has 512Mbs of storage and 256MB of RAM, so you won't be able to store too many Sean White-worthy feature films on them. Giving these bad boys a go, they transported us into what seemed like the future with details of our personal best performances staring us in the eye from the corner of the screen -- rad. Flexible and bendy, the eye shield easily pops out of the frame to reveal the display itself, along with the computer's guts. Of course, the extreme flexibility and bulkiness of the goggles doesn't bode well for those of us who actually use goggles to protect our eyes -- giving us the impression that they would not offer much cushion with a severe spill. The enviable eyewear will retail for $299 with the Android smartphone-connected version available for $399. Check out the video and full PR after the break. %Gallery-138853%
Rage against the extreme: Introducing L.A.W -- Living After War
Are you brave? A little nuts? A mutated cat-like thing with a giant sword and a healthy resistance to radiation? Then you, like most Massively readers, are set for the apocalypse and prime for the latest post-nuclear MMO, L.A.W -- Living After War. Set a couple hundred years in the future, the title sees self-imposed exiled survivors of a nuclear holocaust return to Earth to start civilization and Walmart all over again. But it turns out Earth isn't empty, and the abominations unto nature itself aren't willing to give up their turf without a fight. It... plays better if you imagine thrash metal music in the background. L.A.W's two factions boasts three classes apiece, and we're intrigued at the mention of a transformation ability that can turn us into "mighty creatures." Players will punctuate these PvP struggles with -- of course -- stock market trading and crafting. Get a feel for L.A.W with our first look screenshots below and a trailer after the jump. On board? Then head on over to the site and sign up for the closed beta! %Gallery-135873%
Nikon unveils S1200pj and AW100 cameras, we go hands-on
In case you were distracted by all the Sony fuss this morning, Nikon also chose today to announce a gaggle of fresh cameras. Most of the new models are incremental updates that will demand in-depth reviews when they're released in September. In the meantime, however, two cameras stand out as warranting a bit of quick hands-on attention. Firstly, there's the Coolpix S1200pj priced at $430, which is the third generation of Nikon's line of projector cameras and appears to house some significant improvements. Next up, we have the $380 AW100, which represents Nikon's first foray into the all-weather niche since the days of celluloid. It's a rugged Rambo of a camera that is waterproof down to ear-stinging depths and is a heck of a lot more expensive than the Fuji FinePix XP30 we just took fishing. So, it was only proper that we harpoon pre-release versions of both these cameras in order to provide you with some initial impressions and videos, which you'll find directly after the break. %Gallery-131609% %Gallery-131611%
Delkin's CF cards handle all weathers, so quit yo' jibber jabber
Delkin sneers at wimps who sit around all day debating whether it's worse to be too hot or too cold. Its new 32GB and 64GB rugged CompactFlash cards relish both extremes, with a claimed operating temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees Celsius. They achieve this by eschewing the cheaper multi-level cell design of namby-pamby mainstream cards in favor of single-level cells that last for up to two million cycles and max out at 105MB/s reads and 95MB/s writes. We wouldn't stick anything else in our SnoMote. Full details in the PR after the break.
Dutchman integrates a 4.5GHz water-cooled rig into his d3sk
Cooler Master's 2011 Case Mod Competition looks to be the gift that keeps on giving. After serving up a Tron lightcycle and an architectural marvel, it's now playing host to a mod that redefines the idea of an all-in-one PC. Peter from the Netherlands has managed to fit a pretty bombastic set of components -- 4.5GHz Core i7-980X, two ASUS GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards in SLI, over 12TB of storage with an SSD boot disk, and two PSUs providing 1,500W of power in total -- together with a water-cooling setup and the inevitable glowing lights inside one enclosure, which just so happens to also serve as his desk. The three-piece monitor setup is also a custom arrangement, with a 27-inch U2711 IPS panel being flanked by two 17-inchers. Admittedly, this isn't the first water-cooled and over-powered desk we've laid eyes on, but that shouldn't prevent you from giving the links below a bash and checking out the amazingly neat design of Peter's l3p d3sk.
G-Form Extreme Sleeve gives new reasons to throw a MacBook out a window (video)
Extreme products make people do extreme things -- take, for example, all of those phones we've dumped in glasses of water and various things we've run over with cars. When it comes to demonstrating ruggedness, G-Form is no slouch. After dropping a bowling ball on its iPad case (iPad inside, naturally), the company hit YouTube again to toss a MacBook encased in a new Extreme Sleeve from a 20 foot balcony -- a fall it survived unscathed. These heavy-duty cases are made up of PORON XRD, a flexible material that absorbs 90 percent of impact energy, which the company also uses it to make things like skateboarding knee pads and biking accessories. The laptop case starts shipping on May 31st for $69.95, so heads up when walking under windows this summer. Extreme press release and video of gadget abuse after the break.
Comcast Extreme 105 serves up 105Mbps internet speeds for home users with deep pockets
We first caught wind of Comcast's 105Mbps broadband plans back in May of last year, but the time since then has been filled with silence until this very moment, when the service has gone official. Neither the name nor basic concept have changed, however, with the Extreme 105 offering 105Mbps download speeds tied to 10Mbps uploads. Pricing has been tweaked a little, starting at $105 a month for the first year when taken up as part of a Triple Play bundle. Comcast claims coverage of 40 million people with its new rollout, including folks in Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Washington DC, and "the majority" of Boston. More markets will come "on a rolling basis." So what say you, are 105 megabits per second worth 105 dollars per month?
AMD launches Radeon HD 6990 powerhouse for $699, maintains 'world's fastest' title
If you're scoring at home, NVIDIA currently holds the lead in single-GPU graphics cards with its GeForce GTX 580, but ATI's dual-chip Radeon HD 5970 has been holding down the absolute speed crown for a good long while. Now, bearing the name of AMD Radeon HD 6990, its successor sidles up to the throne and demands attention as the fastest single expansion board you can plug into your shiny new motherboard. The 6990 boasts a massive 4GB of GDDR5, 3,072 Stream Processors, 64 ROPs, and an 830MHz core clock speed. A dual-BIOS switch will let you crank that clock up to 880MHz with a corresponding increase in voltage, but don't expect to see much overclocking headroom above that. Reviewers note, alongside their fawning assessment of the world's best performance, that the HD 6990 is a massively power-hungry card (375W TDP) and one that makes quite a bit of noise while going through its herculean tasks. That's in spite of a new vapor chamber cooling system that allegedly supports up to 450W of thermal output. If all this strikes you as a somewhat flawed execution, maybe you'll join us in hoping NVIDIA's imminently upcoming response, dubbed the GTX 590, will be able to offer a neater, more efficient assault on the extreme peaks of graphical performance. Read - HardOCP Read - AnandTech Read - Tech Report Read - PC Perspective Read - techPowerUp! Read - Hot Hardware Read - Hexus
Intel Core i7-990X reviewed: best performance ever, but far from best value
As T-Pain once so wisely proclaimed, "it ain't hardcore unless it's hexacore." Intel should have no worries with its Core i7-990X, which has enough processing units to satisfy even the most demanding of hip hop moguls, but it pads out its extreme credentials anyway with an audacious 3.46GHz default speed. That can be Turbo Boosted to 3.73GHz (yes, we are talking about a CPU that can run at 3,730MHz right out of the box) and there's 12MB of L3 cache and three channels for DDR3 memory to justify the $999 price tag. Well, to partially justify it, anyhow. Tech Report and Tom's Hardware both ran this new chip through their benchmarking suites and both concluded it's the fastest consumer processor around, but neither was willing to recommend it as a terribly astute purchase decision. Then again, when has an Extreme Edition of anything ever been a good value proposition?
SanDisk SDHC UHS-I cards are so Extreme they went Pro
Let's get this out of the way right up front: Sandisk's new UHS-I SDHC cards are fast but not that fast. So for all the talk of "extreme" and "pro" just remember that the claimed 45MB/s read and write performance pales in comparison to Toshiba's own UHS-I cards announced back in September with staggering 95MB/s read and 80MB/s write speeds. Still, they're fast enough to capture HD video from the latest DSLRs and certainly faster than anything touting a Class 10 SDXC rating. Now for the best part, gadget masochists, they'll range in 8GB to 32GB capacities with retail pricing set somewhere between $109.99 to $349.99. Just be sure your camera supports UHS-I before making the plunge, ok?
Jabra's CES 2011 extravaganza: Extreme, Cruiser2, Speak 410, and more (hands-on)
With all the madness going on here at CES 2011, we somehow managed to find Jabra's booth and got a hands-on look at its new gear. As you recall from just yesterday, Jabra debuted its line of Skype-certified Bluetooth headsets and speakers. The Extreme (99.99), Easy Go ($59.99), Speak 410 ($159.99) and Chill for PC headphones all play nicely with Skype -- all that's standing between you and VoIP nirvana is a quick and easy install of software preloaded on the USB dongle. Be warned though, the devices only work with Windows PCs, and we didn't get the impression that said fact is apt to change in the near future. The Cruiser2, for $99.99, is a speakerphone system for your automobile that -- surprise, surprise! -- acts as a Bluetooth speakerphone, allows you to play tunes on your connected device via an FM transmitter and even talks to your smartphone's contacts and tells you who's calling. In addition to all the BT goodness, we got to see its new line of wired headphones; Chill, Rhythm, and Active will be priced at $24.99, $34.99 and $49.99, respectively. All of Jabra's gadgets are available now save for the Speak 410, which'll be here in Q1. Head past the fold for the pics! %Gallery-112886%
SanDisk reveals $1500 128GB Extreme Pro CF card, Ultra / Cruzer Edge USB drives
The world's fastest high-capacity CompactFlash card? Yes, please! SanDisk has just taken the CF game to an entirely new level, doubling the capacity of its current highest Extreme Pro offering by dishing out a 128GB model here at CES. The Extreme Pro is definitely the card of choice for the high-speed cameras here at Engadget HQ, and for those who've outgrown their twin 64GB setup within their D3S, you can soon pop in a pair of these bad boys for a nominal fee. The card touts performance as high as 100MB/sec (write), a Power Core controller and a UDMA-7 interface, perfectly suited for capturing hours of 1080p footage. Oh, and speaking of that nominal fee -- it's expected to hit retail "later this year" for $1499.99. Yeah, a grand and a half. But hey, you get what you pay for. In less enticing news, a pair of new flash drives are also being launched this evening, the SanDisk Ultra and Cruzer Edge. The Ultra offers transfer rates as high as 15MB/sec, ships in capacities ranging from 8GB to 32GB and will cost between $44.99 and $109.99. The Cruzer Edge reaches from 2GB to 16GB and will set you back between $12.99 and $79.99. Check out the full releases after the break, and though we shouldn't need to advise you, we'd recommend you start pinching those pennies dimes soon. %Gallery-112736%
