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OQO founder lists prototype handheld PCs on eBay
This is definitely one for hardcore fans only: company founder Jory Bell has listed two of the very first prototype OQO computers on eBay. Sadly, they may or may not be bootable (you'd have to break out the soldering gun to figure that one out), but both will definitely look great in the self-styled "Museum of Legacy Computer Hardware, discontinued AD&D Modules, and Heavy Metal T-Shirts" you have going in your parents basement. What will the lucky winner receive for his hard-earned dough? The Brazil PC dates back to 2000 or 2001, and is missing many of the things (batteries, CF card) that actually lets it function. Fun, huh? The other prototype, ATTO, apparently held the Guinness World Record at one time for smallest PC. It includes a capacitive touchscreen display, firewire, an integrated antenna for WiFi and Bluetooth, and more. Feel like going nuts? You've got about a week to bid as of this writing, with the lot currently going for just over $4. [Thanks, Picasso]
Motorola Spice is the Brazilian Android portrait slider of your mid-range dreams
Hey, remember that weirdo Motorola XT300 portrait slider we saw with hints of Droid branding back in August? It was just announced at CTIA (and released in Brazil) as the Spice. Apart from the form factor, it's basically a Flipout with a different hinge -- it's got Android 2.1 with Motoblur, a 528MHz processor, a 3.2-inch QVGA screen, Motorola's crazy "Backtrack" rear trackpad, and a 3.2 megapixel camera -- but it was apparently designed and built entirely in Brazil, so that's something. We're assuming AT&T passed on this one when it chose to release the Flipout, Flipside and Bravo instead, but damn -- can someone please take this form factor and put it together with a high-end Android spec sheet already? We have cash money.
Ubisoft confirms closure of Brazil studios within the calendar year
Ubisoft has confirmed to Joystiq that "development activities in its Brazilian studios will ramp down by the end of this year." The publisher states that due to the current market conditions, it can't "achieve the goals initially set for the studios." There is no set date when the Brazil shops will close, but it will be before the end of the calendar year. There are currently 25 people working between the two studios in Brazil, who are "finishing DS and PSP projects which they will see to completion." The company could not confirm the official number of layoffs, as "some" team members may take positions at other Ubi studios. The Brazil studios had worked on the casual Imagine series, which doesn't currently fit in with the company's focus on major franchises -- a priority for the major, new (subsidized) Toronto studio. Ubisoft plans to continue its business presence in Brazil and is "currently evaluating opportunities." Overall, the publisher states that its "production headcount" should remain stable this year.
Ubisoft reviewing its Brazilian operations
Ubisoft's future in Brazil is unclear. Following a report by Canal dos Games that the publisher was shutting down all operations in the country, Ubisoft was forced to comment, telling UOL Jogos it was reviewing its plans for the region. Ubisoft opened up its first studio in Brazil back in 2008. The company followed that up by acquiring Southlogic Studios, which has diligently worked on the Imagine series for the past couple years. We've contacted Ubisoft to find out if its casual-focused developers in the region will have to Imagine unemployment.
Teen archer launches cellphone-laced arrows into Brazilian jail
Sometimes we sit around at Engadget HQ and do informal, anonymous surveys of our favorite gadgets of all time. Cell phones are unsurprisingly always at the top of the list. But the bow and arrow always comes in a close second -- call us closet traditionalists. Anyway, seems like a gang in Sao Paulo trained a 17-year-old to shoot arrows with cell phones strapped to the tips over a prison wall to communications-starved inmates. Apparently the misguided teen got at least four phones in before he fired one at a cop's back. Whoops! Still, dang. We much prefer this practicality of this old-new mashup to, say, steampunk flash drives. [Image credit: Robert van der Steeg's flickr]
Airborne electricity is ripe for the picking, claim researchers
Electricity might not grow on trees, but it is freely available in the air -- provided you know how to catch it. Such is the contention presented by Dr. Francesco Galembeck of Brazil's University of Campinas at the 240th annual American Chemical Society shindig. He and his crew have shown how tiny particles of silica and aluminum phosphate become electrically charged when water vapor is passed over them. This aims to prove two things: firstly, that airborne water droplets do carry an electric charge, and secondly, that metals can be used to collect that charge. Detractors have pointed out that Dr. Galembeck's team may be generating the droplets' electrical charge by the act of pumping the air over the metals -- which might imply you couldn't practice this technique with still, humid air -- while there's also the rather large caveat that the little electricity they were able to collect from vapor was a hundred million times less than what you could obtain from a solar cell of equivalent size. Still, it's another new door unto a potential alternative energy source and we don't ever like having to close those.
Samsung adds ISDB-Tb reception for Brazil's Galaxy S
By and large, mobile TV services across the globe have rallied around DVB-H, T-DMB, and ATSC Mobile, but a couple strange (and very important) bedfellows ended up going a different direction: Japan and Brazil, both of whom use variants of ISDB-T. In Japan, the service is more commonly known as one-seg, and Brazil's localized version goes by the rather unwieldy ISDB-Tb. Got that? Good -- because Samsung's prepping yet another flavor of its Android-powered Galaxy S for the local Brazilian market, and the addition of an integrated ISDB-Tb tuner should be just what the doctor ordered to take advantage of that lovely 4-inch Super AMOLED display. It's got Android 2.1 (though Froyo should be in the cards) and most of the other features you're already accustomed to from other Galaxy S launches; one notable exception, though, is the addition of mobile hotspot capability, something that normal comes stock in Android 2.2. It's coming in September, apparently for a whopping 2,399 reals which works out to something in the neighborhood of $1,367 -- fully unlocked, we hope.
Rumor: iPod event next week
A Brazilian site named MacMagazine claims to have heard from a source within Apple that the company's annual back-to-school iPod press conference might be held as soon as next week. This is simultaneously pretty likely and somewhat hard to believe. On the one hand, MacMagazine isn't really a well-known vanguard of the reporting community -- you have to wonder why they've heard about this event when no one else yet has. But on the other hand, Apple of course runs a back to school program every single year, and considering that it's about that time, and that we've had a year chock full of innovation with the iPad and the iPhone 4, it's probably a pretty good guess that yes, sooner rather than later, Apple will hold an event to show off this year's iPod offerings. And what might those be? Why, we're going with the perpetual rumor of a camera-equipped iPod touch. MacMagazine also suggests a new iPod touch would see other iPhone 4 features, including a gyroscope and possibly a Retina Display. It's gotta be true eventually, right? [via Cult of Mac]
Brazilian laundry soap comes with a GPS surprise
The crackerjack marketing teams at Unilever Brazil have come up with a promotion for the ages -- they've implanted GPS tracking devices into fifty boxes of the popular Omo laundry soap, and plan to follow buyers all the way to their doorsteps. We're sure it's a harmless promotion -- the chosen get a free video camera -- but on paper it sounds hilariously bad. You see, the promotions agency (aptly named Bullet) may be knocking on doors in neighborhoods with high crime rates, where unwitting individuals may not open the door, but should that happen there's a backup plan -- they'll instruct the box to start beeping via remote. If the bomb scare doesn't smoke out prospective winners, we're not sure if Bullet will bash down the doors, but the disastrous recipe also includes plans to post the general vicinity where winners live (complete with photographs) at an experimental website. And you thought Walmart's new RFID tags were bad.
Motorola's EX112, EX115, and EX245 exposed enroute to Brazil
If you think this dynamic duo is running Android, well... think again! Turns out Moto apparently isn't abandoning its Google-free low end just yet, with Celular Cafe -- a site that has developed quite a track record for leaking South American Motorolas -- showing a pair of new models that have all the smartphone looks without guts to match. The EX112 (pictured right) is actually available in two variants, with the second -- the EX115 -- featuring dual SIM capability; it's got a 3 megapixel cam, quadband GSM, full QWERTY (obviously), and apparently not much else. The EX245 on the right is arguably the more interesting of the bunch, stepping up to a full touchscreen while carrying over the same camera; what's particularly notable, though, is that it seems to be gunning for an Android-like UI with a widget-based home screen and a status bar that looks suspiciously similar to a variety of Motos with higher-end aspirations. No word on pricing, availability, or distribution, but we imagine these will be kept solidly out of the North American market.
The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, the middle years
This week, we cover the second installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (or check out part one, if you missed it). From 2005, there's an impossible amount of material to cover, but there are some interesting stories lurking among it all. Join us as we work our way through some of the interesting highlights from 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Keepin' it real fake: Nokia X5 goes shanzhai in record time
Is this a new record? Not twelve hours after the Nokia X5 slider got official in Singapore, our friend Albert spotted this curious square-shaped, Nokia-branded KIRF in a flea market in Manaus, Brazil. Of course, this raises the horrible possibility that this odd-ball form factor just might be catching on somewhere -- but we're going to try and put it out of our minds it for the time being.
Apple store in Brazil? Jobs says no
Rio de Janeiro may have picked up the 2016 Olympics, but they won't be getting an Apple store. According to MacMagazine Brazil, the city's Secretary of Heritage emailed Steve Jobs personally to ask if there were any plans to start up an Apple store in the city. Jobs replied back in the negative, citing high taxes on imports in the area and saying that "many [other] high-tech companies feel that way." Apple has no stores at all in Mexico or Central or South America. Almost all foreign countries apply import tariffs to products manufactured elsewhere, but apparently charges in those countries are too high for Jobs to be interested. He said that the high charge "makes it very unattractive to invest in the country." Some manufacturers will lower their retail prices to a certain country in an attempt to dodge higher tariffs on more expensive goods (taking a small cut on profits in order to avoid paying high fees), but obviously Apple, as a premium manufacturer, would rather not get involved if it means lowering their prices. So, for the moment, Brazil will have to go without an Apple Store. [Thanks, Silvio Sousa Cabra!]
Redesigned LG Watch Phone caught showing off shapely figure in Brazil
LG's £500 ($800) GD910 Watch Phone made quite an impression when we reviewed it late last year, but part of that impression was of a bulky, blocky thing that feels decidedly substantial on the wrist. A subtly redesigned version was spotted recently at the LG Digital Experience in Brazil, sporting a slightly more curvaceous shape and a new logo placement -- up top rather than below the screen. It's hard to tell what (if anything) else has changed, and apparently LG reps weren't forthcoming with information, but with any luck this new version will offer a more affordable price point than its stately but spendy predecessor.
ESA estimates 'over 9.78 million' pirated game downloads in December
[Joriel Jiminez] So, okay, seriously, there are a lot of people out there stealing games. Like, lots. "Over 9.78 million" in just December of 2009, more specifically, according to a recent study conducted by the International Intellectual Property Alliance and the Entertainment Software Association. Scouring "the most popular peer-to-peer platforms" for a group of 200 titles, the study found that the worst offenders (by country) were Spain (12.5 percent), France (7.5 percent), Brazil (6 percent) and China (5.7 percent) -- the ESA also points out that these stats "demonstrate a strong correlation between countries that lack sufficient protections for technological protection measures and countries where online piracy levels for entertainment software are high." Worse yet, the figures are repeatedly noted as being an under-representation of actual piracy numbers. "While they account for illegal downloads that occur over select P2P platforms, they do not account for the downloads that occur from 'cyberlockers' and 'one-click' hosting sites, which continue to account for high volumes of infringing downloads," the ESA echoes. The IIPA has since submitted the findings to the United States Trade Representative who could potentially impose sanctions on certain countries based on the recommendations.
Brazilian senator hopes to ban sale of 'offensive' games
[Rondonia Digital] Though Brazil is no stranger to banning video games, a recently proposed bill from Senator Valdir Raupp certainly seems pretty drastic. Raupp's bill, which was recently passed by the Education Commission of the Senate, and will now go to vote in the Committee on Constitution and Justice, seeks to "curb the manufacture, distribution, importation, distribution, trading and custody, storage [of] the video games that affect the customs [and] traditions of the people, their worship, creeds, religions and symbols." According to Brazilian news site UOL, if the bill passes, folks caught violating the law could be subject to one to three years imprisonment. That's quite a bit of jail time to serve for just importing a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, dont'cha think? [Via GamePolitics]
Dell Mini 3iX shown off in Brazil, works on tan, leaves Android Market in the dust?
Hey, Dell: looking for the absolute quickest way to screw up your first entry into the dog-eat-dog smartphone industry? Well, removing the Market app from your Android load is a solid way to start. Yeah, you heard that right -- according to Brazilian site Zumo, the all-important Android Market was nowhere to be found on the Mini 3iX it had an opportunity to play with, rendering software discovery and installation about as easy as a WinMo device from three years ago. It seems that Dell's "strategy" here is to have users download apps directly from their sources -- a practice that typically needs to be manually enabled on an Android device as a security override -- and get the rest of their wares from proprietary stores, presumably operated by the carrier, Dell, or both. On the bright side, the 3iX includes the WiFi radio that its Chinese doppelganger lacks and features a generous 3.5-inch display, 3 megapixel camera, 3G support, and a completely button-free face that looks particularly sexy in this low-light shot. Dell's apparently commenting that Brazilians can expect the 3iX in shops in 2010 -- possibly in the first quarter -- which should give 'em just enough time to un-make that deal-breaking Market mistake prior to launch.
PlayStation 2 finally launches in Brazil for the bargain price of around US $462
You read that right. Sony's PlayStation 2, which the great majority of the world has been enjoying since 2000, is just now officially touching ground in Brazil. We're pretty sure it's been making its way into the country for many years by not-so-official means, but if you've gone the legit route, last-generation's game console king can be yours for just 799 Brazilian Real, which we're sad to say translates to about $461 in US currency. Yeah, we're expecting this to just fly off the shelves.
Sony finally launches PS2 in Brazil (or, welcome to 2000!)
We don't live in Brazil, but from what we hear, it's not one of the most gamer-friendly places out there. Piracy runs rampant and whenever any kind of controversial game releases, citizens usually find their government won't let 'em play it. But, hey, things are kinda looking up! Reader Renato wrote in to us saying the PS2 has finally officially released in Brazil and that consumers can get it from the Sony Style store now ... for the low, low price of 799 BRL (about 461 USD). That's right, Brazilians no longer need secure safe passage for emigrating consoles or pay ridiculous sums of money to third-party distributors and can instead pay ridiculous sums of money directly to Sony for a locally-supported PS2! Isn't that awesome? [Thanks, Renato] Congratulations to Serge808 on being the first to comment. You've been emailed a free Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta code. All beta codes have been awarded. Click here, for more information on this giveaway. Official rules apply.
Second Life Global Provider Program troubled?
Back in 2007, Linden Lab formed regional partnerships with companies to operate localized portals for the Second Life platform, called the Global Provider Program (also sometimes referred to by the Lab as the Gold Provider Program, though distinct from the Gold Solution Provider Program). Linden Lab identified three non-English regional markets that it felt were priorities for support and localization: Brazil, Korea and Germany. The first of the providers was Kaizen Games in Brazil, followed by Barunson Games (then called T-Entertainment) in Korea in October 2007. Bokowsky and Laymann might constitute a third partner in this program for Germany, but the the actual arrangement there isn't very clear.
