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FCC working to expand WiFi spectrum, wants to avoid wireless 'traffic jam'
Ever suffer through the painfully slow bottleneck of public WiFi? Sure you have -- Airports, coffee shops, even your neighbor's unprotected home network are limited by the current WiFi spectrum. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says it's a problem, and wants to clean up the mess. Speaking with Gary Shaprio at CES, Genachowski revealed that he's been working with the DoD and other Government agencies open up more bandwidth for WiFi. Areas like New York City have an abundance of spectrum set aside for TV licenses, he says, airwaves that could serve the public better for WiFi or cellular networks. "The rest of the world is watching us," he told Shapiro. "We have to get it right... ...we need to have a nationwide, unlicensed, continuous, same-frequency platform for innovation." To do that, the FCC will need to wrench spectrum from the hands of broadcasters, and redistribute it. "We can reorganize it and ensure everybody gets a good share." It's an uphill battle, but one the chairman recognizes as important. "We predict a WiFi traffic jam, and we need to fix it... ...WiFi is such an integral part of our broadband ecosystem, and we need to make sure that we pay it sufficient attention." Check out the rest of Shaprio and Genachowski's dialog in our ongoing liveblog.
Pentax offers 100 different custom color options for its Q10 mirrorless camera
If Pentax's Q10 ILC piqued your interest when we got to play with it back in September, then perhaps the choice of 100 different paint jobs might push you to a purchase. Alongside several new cameras at CES 2013, the camera-maker will start to offer custom ordering for the mirrorless unit, with a choice of colors for both the grip and body. And the options? They include pink, white, black, red, turquoise, gold, green, magenta, orange and brown -- and Pentax will be offering them all direct from its Q10 studio site, which you can find at the source.
CES 2012 Flashback: Seth Green's favorite 3 apps
Last year we ran into Seth Green at CES and asked him his favorite 3 apps. As we reported later, Shodogg (an app Green has invested in) is an app for easily sharing videos across devices wirelessly. We're at CES this year and will keep you posted on any cool products we find.
How would you change the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1?
We've got a big, no, massive soft-spot for the GX1 around these parts. It was being reviewed during this year's CES and our man behind the lens rapidly became the object of our envy. In fact the only thing that really made us wince when testing it was the $950 price for the kit model -- otherwise we could feel our wallets opening obligingly. But how about those of you who did opt for one of these beauties? Does your experience match our own, or were there some unexpected bumps along the way? Now's your chance to share them with us.
Sony's Google TV-enabled NSZ-GS7 Network Media Player up for pre-order at J&R
We knew Sony's next batch of Google TV-enabled hardware was coming this summer, and now at least one device is up for pre-order at J&R. Folks who've been wanting the Android-based service without shelling out for a full TV set from the company will now only need to part with $200 for its NSZ-GS7 Network Media Player. The unit comes complete with an updated remote featuring a QWERTY keyboard, motion control, a microphone (for "voice commands") and a touchpad, and it's said to work with most of Sony's 2012 TV lineup. There still seems to be no word on this streaming box's exact specs, a ship date or when you'll be able to snag its Blu-ray touting sibling, but you can hit the source link to secure one for yourself in the meantime. Here's to watching whether it'll muster up more gusto for the platform than Logitech's Revue, once it's planted consumers' AV racks.
Sennheiser intros ritzy IE 800 earphones and HDVD 800 amp, your wallet screams
You thought Sennheiser had already done enough to appease audiophiles this year at CES? Think again. The company has announced yet another new set of headphones with an amp to keep it warm at night, but the high-end wares come at a high-end price. The ceramic IE 800 buds (€599 or $787) offer a broad 5 - 46,000 Hz audio range in spite of their mere 7mm drivers, while stainless steel vents on the back supposedly "improve bass and airflow." If you need some extra juice and don't mind forking over the premium €1,499 ($1,973), the HDVD 800 headphone amp's shell is rocking anodized aluminum and a glass window for peering at the bantam circuitry within -- way over the top, but also, pretty amazing. It supports 24-bit 192kHz sources and is engineered for ideal synergy with Senn's HD 800, HD 700, HD 650 and HD 600. Both should hit the shelves by summer of this year.
Nikon 1 future plans revealed: 4K video, brighter lenses, picture effects
Tetsuya Yamamoto, Nikon's head of development was at CES talking up the future plans of the company's 1 system cameras after strong holiday sales. The 10.1 megapixel sensor inside the 1 body is sufficiently capable of shooting 2 and 4K video and bringing that functionality into the unit is planned for a future edition. There's a need for a set of brighter lenses with faster auto-focusing, although we're not sure how much bigger you can get on that petite body. It's also kicking around the option of letting V1 (i.e. more professional) users get at manual AF control and in-camera RAW editing -- while J1 users can expect plenty of features they won't use much, like in-camera effects. It's exciting stuff, but let's hope these new features don't cause the price to climb any higher, eh?
Qualcomm buys Pixtronix to make for better Mirasol displays?
Qualcomm's whipped out some flipping great wadges of cash in order to snap up Pixtronix for its PerfectLight MEMS-based display tech. It reportedly cost between $175 - $200 million and is expected to be merged into the company's super-low power Mirasol-based displays. Compared to the Kyobo eReader we played with at CES, PerfectLight has a wider viewing angle (170 degree), supports full speed video playback and much better RGB modulation. Depending on how successful the marriage is, it could spell the end of the final hurdles that have hampered the widespread adoption of the technology.
The Engadget Show 29: Red Cameras, MakerBot and the coolest gadgets of CES 2012
Consider this one last hurrah for CES 2012. Sure, we've happily left the Las Vegas Convention Center in the rear view mirror of the magical mystery Engadget trailer, but there's still plenty to talk about. We kick things off with a recap of Apple's textbook announcement, discussing what implications the move might have for the industry, before taking you on a tour of the Engadget CES trailer and stage. Next up, with got a pile of the Consumer Electronic Show's hottest devices on the gadget table, including the HTC Titan II, Acer Aspire S5, HP Envy 14 Spectre, Pantech Element and Burst, Nokia Lumia 900, Samsung Galaxy Note, Sony Xperia S and the $79 Ainovo Novo7 Paladin -- one of which will find its way into a tank of water. We also take you on a tour of the CES show floor and get some serious hands-on time with the new Red Scarlet camera. MakerBot's Bre Pettis joins us on stage to discuss the company's new Replicator 3D printer and we close things out with a performance by NYC's Ducky and a few of her dancer pals. Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater, Darren Murph Special guests: Bre Pettis, Richard Lai, Richard Lawler Producer: Guy Streit Director: Michelle Stahl Executive Producers: Joshua Fruhlinger, Brian Heater and Michael Rubens Music by: Ducky Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 029 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 029 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show - 029 (Small) Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (MP4). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (MP4). [RSS MP4] Add the Engadget Show feed (MP4) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically. [HD RSS] Get the Engadget Show delivered automatically in HD. [iPad RSS] Get the Engadget Show in iPad-friendly adaptive format.
Switched On: Connected Electronics Show
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Compared to CES 2011, which featured an explosion of tablets and high-powered smartphones poised to jump on emerging 4G networks, this year's edition of Gear and Gloating in Las Vegas was a more muted affair when it came to mobile devices. Sure, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile trotted out a few devices and there were even a few standouts, such as the Transformer Primesque Lenovo IdeaTab S2 with its its docking keyboard as well as the heavily promoted Galaxy Note, coming soon the U.S. after launching in Europe.
Leaked Sony image: Is this the ST25i Kumquat?
What's this? If this is true, it looks like one of the jilted partners in the Sony Ericsson split is doing all it can to ruin the nice surprises planned for next month's MWC. An image has appeared at Xperia Blog that purports to be of the ST25i Kumquat, which, if you've been paying attention is the cheapest of the three phones due in April listed on the leaked roadmap from a few days ago. The design language matches the Nozomi and the Xperia S we played with at CES, but the on-screen icons are clearly bigger: pointing us in the direction of this having a cheaper display (with a worse resolution) than its brothers. Don't let that Sony Ericsson logo fool you either, the company's producing versions that bear both branding, at least for this set of releases. We're off to grab a microscope and see if we can't glean any more facts from the snap.[Thanks, Joseph]
Engadget Distro Issue 24: CES Roundup, OK Go's Andy Ross and SOPA comic relief
We've spent the past week recuperating and reflecting, and while we're ready to put CES 2012 behind us, we're bring you this special roundup edition to cover all of our consumer electronics bases. In this issue, we'll dive deep into product categories that were overlooked in our previous CES editions, like audio, and flesh out those categories that dominated this year's coverage. Also in this issue, OK Go's Andy Ross takes on the Distro Q&A, we bring you a visual breakdown of Engadget's CES Vital Stats and Box Brown takes a comic look at the SOPA / PIPA debate. So join us in grabbing a cold one and get to downloading.Update: And we're back! Let the downloads begin!Distro Issue 24 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
Editorial: Don't call it an ultrabook
Every year at CES, the tech-watching masses engage in a bit of trendspotting -- an attempt to identify the one or two big themes of the show that may or may not come to define the year in technology. Some years those are easy to spot (tablets and 3D TV were two big ones recently), and other times they involve a bit of guesswork. This year, one of the most oft-cited trends is the "ultrabook." Judging from the companies' announcements at the show and some of the coverage they've received, you might think that's a new sort of device or a radically new type of laptop. But, really, they're just laptops. Small, thin laptops -- but laptops. It's actually Ultrabook, with a capital "U," and a (TM). The name is a wholly-owned creation of Intel, and the hype you've seen for them at CES is only just the beginning. Intel is reportedly planning its biggest advertising push in eight years to promote Ultrabooks, and it's clearly already done a decent job of bringing hardware manufacturers on board the bandwagon. How many new "laptop" announcements do you remember from CES?
LG's Magic Remote is powered by Nuance
It was Monday morning at CES when LG unveiled its Magic Remote: a television zapper that recognized Wii-style motion control and voice recognition -- stripping out the fiddly array of buttons that most TiVo users are familiar with. Nuance, of Dragon Dictation fame, got all excited and lifted the lid on which company's voice recognition technology was powering the unit (hint: it's Nuance). Thanks to the handy press release after the break, we've learnt that if you bellow "Lady Gaga" into the unit, it'll return materials related to Ms Germanotta herself -- although if you've seen Jack Donaghy's voice-activated TV from 30 Rock, you might not be too convinced that you can kiss goodbye to buttons just yet.
Smule's Ge Wang plays Magic Guitar for us at CES
We got to sit down for a quick chat with Smule's own Dr. Ge Wang at CES in Las Vegas last week, and the result is the video below. Not only is the co-founder overseeing Smule's musical experiences for mobile devices (and its recent merger with Khush, another musical developer), but he's also an assistant professor at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. And, as you can see, he's a mean Magic Guitar player as well. Those gloves he's wearing are Altec Lansing speakers sewn onto some gloves (with the fingertips cut off) for the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra. Wang was actually in Vegas to accept the Kids at Play Interactive's Emerging Pioneer award, which is an impressive achievement as well. Always good to see Smule's co-founder out and about. He says Magic Guitar is selling well, the merger is moving along smoothly, and Smule continues to aim towards expanding its social connection features across apps in the new year. He couldn't share specific plans, but we'll wait and see. When he's kind enough to strum a few virtual bars for us like this, who are we to argue?
Slacker Radio tries to break through a flooded streaming music market
One of our final meetings at CES last week was with Slacker Radio's VP of Marketing, Jonathan Sasse, who sat down in a Las Vegas lobby restaurant to tell us what his company has been up to lately. Slacker Radio is one of the many streaming radio offerings that have apps available on the App Store (Pandora, Rdio, and Spotify are a few other examples), and Sasse says that after a few years of building up the service with content and technology and making sure it can be accessed almost anywhere, his main goal these days is just telling people why they should choose this service over all the others. His first reason: Content. Sasse says Slacker Radio has more than ten times more music to play than Pandora does, which is a pretty impressive figure. Slacker's been working hard to make content deals with record labels for quite a while, which means there's a large library of different tunes to choose from. And in addition to all that music content, Sasse said Slacker has been making a big push for non-music to listen to as well. The service has already added in ESPN Radio and ABC News to listen to, and there's streaming comedy stations to tune in on as well. Additionally, while Pandora and other services also have their usual music selection systems for computer-generated radio stations, Slacker's genre stations are actually curated by real DJs, which is a fact that Sasse said is often hard to get across to the public. Slacker's hired former radio personalities, including Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Marco Collins, to actually choose, curate, and even narrate the music on its genre stations, which means that "he curates that station by hand," Sasse said. The company is also working on deals with partners to make sure that users can find and access it anywhere. Slacker already has a deal with Ford to show up in the company's cars, and there are also deals being worked out with phone carriers for special data access, as well as other possible partnerships. Slacker's plan, Sasse said, was to learn to monetize first and then grow, and it's time for the company to really make a marketing push and grow that audience. "We're kind of ready to step on the gas," he said. One of the biggest obstacles, so far, has been a boogeyman that we've heard a lot about during this year's CES: Apple's subscription rules. Slacker Radio also was originally bound by Apple's rule that you can't sell subscriptions on the App Store without paying a 30% cut -- Slacker at first decided to not sell subscriptions through the app at all, which led to just a login screen being shown when users opened up the app. But the call of Apple's audience was too much for the company, and Slacker is now able to sell its Radio Plus subscription (the cheaper of two offerings) via an in-app purchase. Users still can't subscribe to the Premium Radio service through just the app, however. "That margin is still too high," Sasse said. In addition to a big marketing push later this year, Sasse said Slacker is still beefing up its library and trying to figure out ways to differentiate its offerings even further. One goal is to work with users to tag and respond to content while they're listening to it, so the company can provide an even better experience. Already, users can customize ESPN Radio content with their favorite teams and shows, and Sasse wants to bring that kind of customization to other content as well, so listeners can hear exactly what they're looking for. Slacker is also working on more original content, like band-curated radio stations, and maybe even podcasts, Sasse said. Finally, Sasse said the last goal is to create a "unified, clean experience" across the entire platform, so that users see the same setup on the website as on the company's various mobile apps and platforms. Slacker Radio has already done a lot of work on its service, and while the streaming radio market is already full (and growing even more crowded almost by the day), time will tell if the company can push itself in front of the other choices out there and really find a majority audience.
Shodogg makes a grand debut at CES
A new company that debuted at CES is looking to figure out a way to give users of web video (both content owners and viewers) exactly what each of them wants without ruining the experience for either side. Shodogg wants to be the middleman of the video experience, tapdancing on the line between protective content owners and content-hungry users. If you have a web-enabled television (and if CES was any indication, that's a question of "when," not "if"), and you are playing a video on your iPad, you can send that video to the TV easily and as securely as possible. The idea is similar to what you have with AirPlay via the iPhone/iPad and Apple TV, except that Shodogg is intended to work with any smartphone and any web-enabled screen -- you can 'toss' your videos to the TV, control them with your phone-as-remote, and maintain playlists for yourself or share them with friends (like Boxee does now). While Shodogg plans to support all varieties of handsets and screens, right now the company's signup-only alpha test is limited to the iPhone and to a small set of browsers. Participants in the alpha can try out the connected video playback features, but not all the bells and whistles will be working yet. I am an optimist, so to me Shodogg is a very exciting thing: users and content providers both win, and I hope that all parties involved will be interested since it strikes a balance that seems to meet everyone's requirements. Full disclosure: This particular company caught my eye because Seth Green was there representing them, because he is a Shodogg investor and advisor. We went to find out what they were about, and in speaking with Seth, it turns out they are trying to do something really interesting. Other advisors include the CEO of JibJab and an NBCU exec, so it is entirely possible this could be the thing that tips the scale for video consumption. You can check out the demo video below. Shodogg - Video's Best Friend from Shodogg on Vimeo.
Oregon Scientific unveils ATC Beats WiFi sports cam and ATC Chaméléon dual-lens camera
Joining Oregon Scientific's range of waterproof sports cameras later this year are these two new models: the ATC Beats on the left and the ATC Chaméléon on the right. The Beats, arriving in November for $399, features 1080p 60fps video capture with a 130-degree field of view and a 270-degree rotatable lens, along with built-in GPS, accelerometer and heart rate monitor (via wireless chest belt) for those keen on recording some extra data. Most importantly, though, is its WiFi connectivity with any iPhone or Android device: not only can you do wireless file transfer with it, but much like the way ContourGPS Connect View app works, you can also use your phone as a wireless viewfinder. Pretty handy for when the camera's stuck on a helmet, of course.The Chaméléon, on the other hand, is slated for a September launch at $199 only. While it doesn't have all those fancy wireless features, it boasts two 180-degree rotatable lenses (with a 110-degree field of view) at each end of the long body: one moves horizontally, and the other moves vertically; hence the name. The idea is that the camera can simultaneously capture 720p 30fps footage from both lenses (there's only one camera controller inside), and then output a synchronized horizontal or vertical split-screen video clip. We can already picture the Chaméléon being used on a surfing board or in a racing car, so there's certainly great potential here. Anyhow, enjoy our hands-on photos while you imagine the adrenaline rush.
Oregon Scientific Time & Wireless Charging Stations hands-on
Buried within the pile of gadgets at Oregon Scientific's CES booth were these two Time & Wireless Charging Stations. On the left we have the entry-level clock that's already out in the market, whereas the bigger "plus" model on the right made its debut at the show, boasting the extra clock projection and weather forecast feature. Also shown along side were the customized iPhone 4 Qi sleeves that Oregon Scientific will be offering online, and they actually had pretty high quality finish, too, especially with the texture coating on top of them. Do take a closer look in our hands-on photos below.
Oregon Scientific's Portable WiFi Projector comes with a hinge, flirts with your ceiling
A projector from Oregon Scientific, you say? Nope, it's not one of those clock and weather projectors, but rather an actual DLP pico projector. At CES 2012, the company was kind enough to show us an early prototype of its Portable WiFi Projector that'll handle FWVGA (854 x 480) at 1,000:1 contrast and a good 80 lumens of brightness (50 if powered by USB alone). Apparently at 3.2 meters from the wall, such combination should produce a clear 120-inch wide picture in total darkness, so we shall see. The final unit -- dummy pictured above -- will be slightly smaller than the working prototype, yet it'll pack a 90-degree hinge (not a first, of course), a focus slide, a 3.5mm headphone jack and some buttons for brightness, power and volume.
