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Marantz Reference gear in the Carlyle hotel spoils you for clock radio
While our typical hotel coverage involves HDTVs and/or special programming, we'll make an exception for the Marantz/DALI audio setup getting dropped into the Empire Suite of Manhattan's Carlyle hotel. We won't make any guesses about what the rack rate is for the duplex suite in the swank hotel, but it's got to be cheaper than the audio system, which combines four MA-9S2 mono amps, an SC-7S2 preamp and SA-7S1 SACD deck from Marantz's Reference lineup with a pair of DALI MEGALINE III speakers. All told, that's about $47,000 of Marantz gear and another cool $60,000 for the speakers, all to deliver good old two-channel. Might we suggest staying in and ordering room service?
New York's flagship Apple Store doing great business
New York City's flagship Apple Store, located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, is doing tremendous business. According to The New York Post, that store raked in $440 million in one year. Of course, the location doesn't hurt. It's right by Central Park and the huge, glass cube is a real tourist draw. The Post also notes that the SoHo store pulled in $100 million, but didn't provide any stats on the West 14th Street store. In the meantime, construction has begun on what's rumored to be a fourth NYC store, expected to open at the corner of 67th and Broadway on Manhattan's Upper West Side later this year. If that store and a rumored Brooklyn store are opened, NYC would boast six stores total (including the Staten Island store).Apple intends to open 25 new stores for fiscal year 2009, half of them outside the United States.[via AppleInsider]
NYC cabbies could have cellphone use blocked while driving... but probably not
The Taxi and Limousine Commission of New York City (also known as the TLC) is considering some changes to the way that taxis and their drivers will operate in the future as part of its "Taxicab Passenger Enhancement Program." Among the wild ideas being floated is one that would "block" anyone in the front seat from using a cellphone -- most notably, of course -- the driver. Driving while using a handset is already illegal in New York, but this measure would apparently kill the ability to use a hands-free device as well. The TLC is trying to have an open discussion with New Yorkers on its website about other possible ways to make taxi rides more... enjoyable "in the future." We're betting this one will never happen but hey -- you never know. Our suggestion? Stop acting like we asked you to cart us to the gates of hell when we tell you we need to go to Brooklyn. [Via WCBS]
T-Mobile announces April 21st "private launch event" in NYC
Well well well. Well. What do we have here? Apparently the cats and kittens over at T-Mobile have something special planned on Tuesday, April 21st. We've just gotten a very brief email letting us know that something was going down, but without any other detail. Obviously our gadget-alarms started clanging, and the way we see it we've only got a few things to get excited about. Will we see the launch of Cupcake? Could this be the official US unveiling of the Magic? Or perhaps we'll finally get to see the new Sidekick which just hit the FCC. Look -- anything is possible, but whatever happens, we'll be there. What do you guys think is in store?
Robotrains take over NY's Brooklyn-Manhattan line under careful watch of human conductor overlords
If you ride the L train between Brooklyn and Manhattan at odd hours of the day, get ready for a little more automation in your lifestyle. As of today, the L will become the first NY subway line to be fully controlled by Communications Based Train Control, or CBTC, initially used overnights and during non-peak hours. It allows the trains to effectively run themselves, closer and faster than their meatbag conductors could otherwise, which should mean more trains more often. However, those fleshy workers have something their robotic replacements don't: contracts. Because of that there will still be humans watching the controls and, we'd imagine, napping occasionally. At least they're not striking. [Thanks, Zoli]
Greener Gadgets 2009, this Friday in NYC
If you're like us, you're probably taking an ever-increasing interest in gadgets with an eco slant. If that's the case -- and we think that it is -- you'll want to check into Greener Gadgets, a day dedicated to the quest for sustainable consumer electronics and better solutions for our industry, launched by Jill Fehrenbacher, Editor-in-chief of Inhabitat. This Friday (February 27th, 2009), you can join "innovators, entrepreneurs, visionaries, and eco-designers" in New York City to explore some of those solutions, take a look at green gadgetry, and hear from a handful of speakers on the cutting edge of Earth-friendly electronics. Oh, and there's that killer design competition to round it all up. This year, our own Editor-in-chief, Joshua Topolsky, will be moderating a panel on gadget recycling called "Closing the Loop In Cradle to Cradle," so if you needed some added incentive to attend, you've got it. Today is the last day for registration, so follow the read link and sign yourself up!
TWC to give Southern Manhattan its due HD channels
Admit it, south Manhattan -- you felt totally snubbed by Time Warner Cable's recent announcement that your brethren to the north would soon be getting a whole wheelbarrow full of new high-def content. Thankfully, the suits at TWC have realized that south-siders need clarity too, and it's planning to launch a significant amount of fresh HD channels in February. We can't even begin to cover the full list here, so we'll post it up word for word after the break. We know what you're thinking: February?! [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family][Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Thank you NYC!
Well that was nuts! The Engadget NYC reader meetup has come and gone, and it was a blast. Diehard readers braved seriously nasty weather and long lines to get inside, but we still managed to reach capacity at Hiro Ballroom. We're really, truly blown away by the excitement and enthusiasm we saw from the folks that were there, and we hear you loud and clear -- there's more of these in store, with bigger venues and lots more to see / do. We gave away a ton of gear, met some amazing people, and had an absolute blast hanging out with everyone. Thanks so much for coming out guys -- you rule.And to all the vendors / sponsors / friends that were showing off their stuff, and all the companies who offered giveaways: thank you from the bottom of our mechanical hearts. We couldn't have done it without you!You can see some Ovi-streamed pics of the event right here and read the lineblog here. If you have pictures you took and want to share, add them to our Flickr pool here, and if you've got video, post a link in the comments below!
Engadget's NYC reader meetup / holiday party is tonight!
This is it! The Engadget reader meetup / holiday party is happening tonight in New York City! All of the information you need is below, but we'd like to stress a few points: The venue capacity has a limit, so make sure you get there early, and plan to wait in a bit of a line. It is snowing like crazy in New York -- so please bundle up and come prepared for the elements! We'll do everything we can to move people inside as quickly as possible, and there's a coat check at the venue for your heavier gear. Bring your ID! Without it, you can't get in! And the rest of the details about the event: We're giving away tens of thousands of dollars in gear! Including... SanDisk 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB microSD cards for the first 200 people through the door! Free food, and free drink tickets for the first 500 people Live Q&A session with Engadget editors Music for the evening will be provided by Justin VanDerVolgen (of !!! and Outhud) The event is 18 TO ENTER / 21 TO DRINK, AND YOU MUST BRING AN ID. ADMISSION IS FREE. Sorry younger readers, but we'll do a follow-up all ages event soon! The venue capacity tops out at a tiny bit over 1000, so you if you're coming, be sure to get there early! When: Friday, December 19th, 7:00PM to 12:00AMWhere: Hiro Ballroom, 371 W. 16th St., New York, NY. 10011You can discuss plans for the event on Facebook here. View Larger Map For media interested in attending, please ping us at: nycreadermeetup [at] gmail [dot] comNote: space for media is very limited as this is a reader event. Readers, you're all set -- no need to email us.
Engadget NYC reader meetup, December 19th: new giveaways, more info
By now you should have heard about the Engadget NYC reader meetup / holiday party taking place TOMORROW, Friday, December 19th. If you're not clued in to all the happenings, this should bring you up to speed. We'll have participation (and giveaways) from the following companies: Nokia, Microsoft (Zune and Xbox), T-Mobile, Palm, HP, SanDisk, Peek, VIA, Sling, Bug Labs, Neat Receipts, Panasonic, Livescribe, Rhapsody, and Make.Some new additions (to the already large stack of items): VIA has just handed over an Artigo A2000, Peek is going to be flooding the event with a whopping 12 handhelds to give out (celebrating its 12 days of Peekmas), Bug Labs is offering a BUGBundle, and Livescribe has provided us with a Pulse (courtesy of Target)! And remember, those are just a few of the goods on offer.Remember, feel free to bring any hacks, mods, or other generally awesome tech you want to show off to us and other Engadget readers -- you don't get the chance too often!Here are some super-important details about the event: We're giving away tens of thousands of dollars in gear! Including... SanDisk 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB microSD cards for the first 200 people through the door! Free food, and free drink tickets for the first 500 people Live Q&A session with Engadget editors Music for the evening will be provided by Justin VanDerVolgen (of !!! and Outhud) The event is 18 TO ENTER / 21 TO DRINK, AND YOU MUST BRING AN ID. ADMISSION IS FREE. Sorry younger readers, but we'll do a follow-up all ages event soon! The venue capacity tops out at a tiny bit over 1000, so you if you're coming, be sure to get there early! When: Friday, December 19th, 7:00PM to 12:00AMWhere: Hiro Ballroom, 371 W. 16th St., New York, NY. 10011You can discuss plans for the event on Facebook here. View Larger Map For media interested in attending, please ping us at: nycreadermeetup [at] gmail [dot] comNote: space for media is very limited as this is a reader event. Readers, you're all set -- no need to email us.
RCN extends relationship with Highgate Hotels, will provide HDTV to weary travelers
RCN has stuck its nose (and HDTV services, for that matter) in all sorts of lodging chains before, and you can mark it down for another thanks to a revamped agreement with Highgate Hotels. The multi-year contract enables RCN to provide the company's New York portfolio of hotels with its own digital TV / HDTV services sans a set-top-box; additionally, the carrier will be delivering third-party VOD content. At first, the operator will upgrade existing service to the DoubleTree Metropolitan, Radisson Lexington and Park Central Hotels, and it expects to have all five phase-one Highgate properties operational by February 2009.
Reader meetup update: 'Fallout 3' bundles, Nokia N-Gage / Ovi, Make, and more!
Say there, perhaps you've heard about that little Engadget NYC reader meetup / holiday party happening on December 19th? Well we've got a little more info for you (and some important details) that might be of note. First we wanted to show off some of the stuff we're going to be giving away, and we thought there would be no better illustration than these amazing Fallout 3 "Nuclear Winter Survival Kit" bundles from Microsoft (pictured above). Some details:PC bundle Alienware Area 51 m15x laptop Fallout 3 Collector's Edition (PC) Fallout 3 Token (redeemable for Operation: Anchorage premium downloadable content in January '09) SideWinder mouse Wenger Impulse Notebook Case by SwissGear Emergency blanket Xbox 360 bundle Xbox 360 Elite console Fallout 3 Collector's Edition (Xbox 360) Fallout 3 Token (redeemable for Operation: Anchorage premium downloadable content in January '09) 1-yr Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription Emergency blanket These are just two of many, many succulent giveaways you could walk away with if you attend. Nokia has also graciously offered up some free N-Gage content. If you're an N-Gage user, you can bring your device to the meetup and they'll hook you up with a free game! The company is also outfitting a handful of readers with Ovi-equipped devices during the event so they can stream live content. Five (5) readers will be selected -- if you'd like to be one of the chosen few, leave a comment on this post, and we'll contact you with more info!Additionally, our main homeboys from Make are going to be in attendance with some projects and magazines, as well as a pretty cool surprise to show off that we're awfully excited about.Just added: LIvescribe will be giving away a Pulse (courtesy of Target), Palm is handing out a Treo Pro, and Neat Receipts has graciously offered up 3 Neat Desks!Read on after the break for more details about the meetup!
Engadget reader meetup / holiday party in NYC, December 19th!
This is the one you've been waiting for, Engadget fans. We've decided to end the year on a high note with a big reader meetup and holiday bash for our faithful readers! On December 19th, we're blowing it out at the completely amazing Hiro Ballroom in Manhattan. We'll have a big selection of gear and giveaways on hand, including products (both to play with and to win) from: Nokia, Microsoft, T-Mobile, HP, SanDisk, Peek, Sling, Rhapsody, and more! And believe us, there really is more to come. Here are a few details: We're giving away tens of thousands of dollars in gear! Including... SanDisk 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB microSD cards for the first 200 people through the door! Free food, and free drink tickets for the first 500 people, totally awesome music all night Live Q&A session with Engadget editors The event is 18 TO ENTER / 21 TO DRINK, AND YOU MUST BRING AN ID. ADMISSION IS FREE. Sorry younger readers, but we'll do a follow-up all ages event soon! The venue capacity tops out at a tiny bit over 1000, so you if you're coming, be sure to get there and get in line early! When: Friday, December 19th, 7:00PM to 12:00AMWe're still working out details as well as adding to our roster of giveaways and companies which will be in attendance, so expect updates as we move towards the event. If you're planning on coming, shout it out in the comments!Update: Super exciting news! Music for the evening will be provided by Justin VanDerVolgen -- who you just may know from his bands !!! (chk chk chk) and Outhud!
Sharp fires up 43 LCD tree for the ho-ho-HOPE Program
New Yorkers passing through Grand Central Terminal will be treated to a 26-foot high holiday bush ensconced in, you guessed it, 43 Sharp LCD panels -- 52-inch behemoths at the base and 19-inch models way at the tip-top. Oohs, ahs and festive lighting aside, the display is meant to raise donations for the HOPE program's "Green Collar Project" that will help students find a green-collar job related to environmental work. Snicker all you want about the heat pumped out by those 52-inch LCDs, but it the tree as a whole beats its plasma counterpart and it's a good cause to boot. Enter to win one of the 43 deciduous panels and $1 will be donated to the program, up to $100,000 (and with a minimum of $50,000). Good on you, Sharp!
Video: New York City conducts analog shutoff drill
We've seen a smattering of shutoff drills go down from one side of the country to the other, but honestly, hearing of one is still more the exception than the rule. With the digital TV transition drawing ever closer here in the USA, the Big Apple decided to flip the test switch on its local OTA stations in order to give antenna-using citizens a much-needed heads-up. As you can see in the video waiting in the read link, the two-minute test only affected an analog set using an antenna; televisions tuned to WCBS via cable, digital OTA or satellite didn't even notice the warning message. Nice show, New York.
Live from T-Mobile's Android event in New York City
9:49AM We're here, and we're waiting out front for the big party to start. Stay tuned for more info as it happens!10:07AM We're inside and we've got some very exciting happenings afoot... stay tuned.10:12AM That's right folks -- we've already managed to get our hands on the G1 (see post above), and we're in the process of handling some other colors right now (there's also white and brown). We're hanging out with a few of the developers for the device, and they're being very gracious with their phones. Thanks guys!10:17AM We just heard that for the first 90 days after purchase, all apps from the T-Mobile Marketplace (or whatever they're calling their App Store) will be free for phone buyers. That's a nice incentive... now how about some free Amazon MP3s?10:19AM Announcement: ladies and gentlemen, we'll be starting 10 minutes. Also, there's some smooth jazz playing here that's a little too smooth, and not enough jazz.
RCN giving New York City a taste of Analog Crush
New York is next in line after Massachusetts and Chicago, with the New York Times' CityRoom blog reporting it is next in RCN's plan to rid itself bandwidth-wasting of analog cable TV. Starting October 1, basic cable customers will suddenly become digital cable customers, with a few extra channels for their trouble. Of course we're more concerned with the potential of adding more HDTV over the ten already added recently, but first things first. Expect official word to go out in September, with rates expected to stay the same -- at least until next year.
World Fishing Network HD splashes down on FiOS TV
Though probably not as niche as Rural Free Delivery (RFD HD), World Fishing Network HD still has a pretty narrow audience. That being the case, there's still some logic to pushing the channel in rural parts of America or in regions with nearby fishing outlets. Call us crazy, but New York City is not the first place that comes to find when someone mentions deep sea fishin'. Nevertheless, Verizon has just announced that WFN HD has arrived in the Big Apple on FiOS TV, giving transplants an easy way to get back in touch with their small town roots. There's no word on when the station will hit other FiOS TV areas, but we'd bet it'll be making the rounds soon enough.
RCN bringing HDTV to student residence in New York City
We told you that kids these days had it made, didn't we? The latest episode of college students getting more than just ample amounts of study time comes courtesy of RCN, which is delivering triple-play services to student residence rooms at 1760 Third Avenue in Manhattan, New York. The agreement with Educational Housing Services will enable the carrier to offer high-speed internet, digital phone and HD programming to over 1,100 students representing "a variety of institutions of higher learning, including LIM (Laboratory Institute of Merchandising)." U-verse in a University of Houston dorm, RCN here -- what's next, FiOS TV in Corvallis?
New York City officially gifted with Verizon's FiOS TV: 100 HD channels
Not quite four months after Time Warner Cable completely and entirely revamped the HD lineup in New York / New Jersey, another big player has entered the Big Apple. NYC residents, meet Verizon. After tons of planning, drawn-out meetings and a bazillion approvals, FiOS TV is now available to order in 108 neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. Better still, the carrier is offering 100 high-definition channels in the area, and if all goes to plan, that number will creep upward even more in the not-too-distant future. Jump on past the break for a (long) list of the communities that can order service today. So, the big question: are any of you NYers making the switch?Read - Official releaseRead - More details
