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GE's futuristic Alexa lamp accepts your voice commands in style
Amazon's Alexa, the voice-controlled platform that powers the company's own Echo line, continues to gain support from third-party manufacturers. The C by GE Sol is the latest product to embrace the technology, in the form of a table lamp that looks straight out of a sci-fi film. GE actually announced the device December of last year, but now it's finally starting to take pre-orders. As a refresher, the C by GE Sol features a circular LED light and, most importantly, doubles as a hands-free voice assistant and Bluetooth speaker. GE is letting early adopters pre-order the Sol for $160 right now, with units expected to ship in September. If you decide to wait until it hits stores, it'll cost you $200.
Two weeks with Sol's solar-powered laptop
When I showed Sol to my family, they all got a bit confused. My dad asked why I was testing a toolbox for Engadget, while my sister took one look at it and said "Bumblebee." If you peek at the images below, you'll understand why: This solar-powered laptop does resemble a hardware tool case. And yes, it looks like a Transformer too. Nobody would call Sol "sleek." It's big, bulky and measures more than two inches in depth at its thickest part -- a look that calls to mind Panasonic's Toughbook series. Indeed, Sol was designed to be more durable than your average gadget, which makes sense since it's mainly aimed at travelers and field scientists. In fact, everything about it (even the chemical composition of the plastic) was meant to last through heat. It's also durable enough to survive a fall -- good news for Sol's target audience. Compared to other rugged laptops, though, Sol's quite affordable (with a price tag of $375 to $400, depending on the market), as it was designed for use in developing countries. So how is it in use? After two weeks of testing Sol in the Philippines, I'm finally ready to weigh in.
Solar-powered Ubuntu laptop boasts 10-hour battery, 2-hour charge time
A blazing sun and the outdoors don't exactly make for an ideal computing environment -- unless you're toting a ruggedized laptop that harnesses energy from sunlight like the Ubuntu-running Sol. Created mainly for use in developing countries with intermittent (or non-existent) electricity, it's equipped with solar panels that soak up the sun when unfolded. According to OMG Ubuntu, its creators from Canadian company WeWi Telecommunications claim Sol's battery, which can last for up to ten hours, only takes two hours to charge via solar energy. The device's official website reveals little else, but according to the nuggets of information we've stumbled upon, Sol will pack an Intel processor, WiFi connectivity and an HD display, with an optional satellite module for internet connectivity. While full availability details have yet to be announced, a countdown timer on its website hints at more info in just under two days. Ghana will reportedly see the hardware arrive first with an accompanying $300 price tag. Though the notebook isn't exactly wildly affordable, it's at least a bit cheaper than Samsung's 2011 take on a sunbeam-fueled laptop.
The Daily Roundup for 08.01.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
LG Optimus Sol gets a healthy dose of hands-on treatment
A phone known as the LG E730 made it through the clutches of the FCC three weeks ago, but little information could be discerned from the filings. Turns out we didn't have to wait terribly long for the big question mark to be erased, as German site BestBoyz was able to procure a pre-production unit of the E730, codenamed "Victor," and now known as the LG Optimus Sol. It's an Android 2.3.3 phone with a 1GHz CPU and 3.8-inch WVGA AMOLED display, and looks ready for a debut with Vodafone. Oh, and it'll come in silver and black and will retail for roughly $420. Need more quality time with the fresh device? Great news -- there's a video after the break.
Captain's Log: The reverse slingshot effect
Captain's Log, Stardate 65056.3... Hello, computer (and players)! The slingshot effect is a maneuver, shown throughout the Star Trek franchise, which allowed starships to move back through the time continuum. By traveling at a high warp factor towards a star with a large gravitational pull, the ship would whip around it and time travel. While this seemed to only exist within the realms of the IP, it looks as though Star Trek Online's Executive Producer Dan Stahl took us on a reverse slingshot course, giving us a glimpse into the future of the game. Before we returned to the original timeline, he made sure to write up everything we saw along the way for those who couldn't make the trip. In layman's terms, for those of you who missed the news earlier this week, July's Engineering Report has been released. While this is a monthly publication that contains the development pipeline for STO, including some items that have been featured in past issues, there are always a few bullet points added that seem to spark a healthy amount of debate -- one of these includes the ability to auction off your in-game Emblems, a form of currency, for C-Store points that have been paid for with real money. For information on this, including a response from Cryptic's PR department, and more, read ahead past the jump for this week's Captain's Log entry. Ensign, warp 10! Let's pull a slingshot maneuver of our own...
Condiment transporting SWITL robot arm gets a gig moving meat, packing boxes (video)
Way back in March, we spotted video of the SWITL, a robotic hand with a penchant for picking up globs of condiments without changing their shape. Neat, yes, but what sort of applications might such a device have in real life, beyond rather inefficient cleanups of Burger King floors? Manufacturer Furukawa Kikou has put the electronic appendage to work, folding meat and packing boxes with bags full of sol-gel substances, without losing the shape of either material. The size of the company is prohibiting sales of SWITL machines overseas at present, but Furukawa Kikou is happy to discuss partnerships, should someone approach it for its raw meat and ketchup moving needs. Exceedingly unappetizing video after the break.
Why did Pluto lose its planet status? Because it never mattered enough
It's kind of hard to accept, Pluto has always been our favorite underdog, but the truth is that the Solar System's ninth planet was never really significant enough to earn that designation. Such is the coldly logical reason given for its removal from the planetary annals by a man who had a lot to do with its demise. Caltech astronomer Mike Brown discovered Eris, what he'd hoped was the tenth planet, back in 2005, but its extreme distance from the Sun and diminutive (by planetary standards) dimensions disqualified it from consideration. Unfortunately, its discovery is what doomed Pluto to be downgraded to a "dwarf planet," though Mike's not shedding too many tears over it. In fact, he's gone and written a book about the whole thing, the smug planet destroyer that he is. You don't have to buy it to learn more, however, as the source link has an interview with Mike all ready and waiting.
Shadow of Legend overhauls crafting system
The folks over at Shadow of Legend have taken a second look at crafting, and made it yet more awesome. Like the old system, the new system will show you the materials required to craft an item, the item that will result, a progress bar showing the progress made, and a cancel button that ceases production immediately.To this has been added varying features -- crafted items can vary from up to 30% better (or worse) than their base item. Don't worry -- if the item isn't sufficiently awesome, it can still be split into its original components. Secondly, crafted items take far fewer resources than before, and you will only need to harvest one sort of material for your class. Combatants only need to find ores, Mages seek only wood, Monks require only leather, and Archers need only come up with some cloth for their items. These welcome changes will make item crafting easier and more rewarding than ever before,[Via MMORPG]
Freeverse updates Big Bang Board Games
If you're a fan of the Big Bang suite of board games, you'll be happy to learn that Freeverse has released a fully Universal version of the seven-game package, with performance improvements, sleeker graphics and greater stability. The new version now offers tighter iChat integration so you can better taunt your opponents invite friends to play against you. The updated package weighs in at a hefty 400MB once installed and offers the same games you've come to love: 4-in-a-Row, Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Mancala, Reversi and Tic-Tac-Toe. The package costs $25 (free for current owners) and you won't feel like a Blue Moon if you buy it. It offers lots of re-play as these games are classics; my kids love them.
PotBS updated once more, build 1.0.25.0 live to open beta
Whew. Just a couple of days ago, Pirates of the Burning Sea was updated to build 1.0.22.0, but build 1.0.25.0 has already gone live. This revision includes the planned changes to Ships of the Line, bringing them closer to how they were originally intended to be.Also in 1.0.25.0, swashbuckling has been tuned quite a lot, and some new voice acting from foreign speakers has gone in. The invisible avatar problem hasn't been fully resolved yet, but we're promised some more progress when the next patch is released.Once again, this is but a small portion of all the changes in the patch, and the full list is pasted after the break.
PotBS beta devlog: Ships of the Line
A new beta devlog has been posted to the Pirates of the Burning Sea site. The topic of discussion is the powerful Ships of the Line (SOLs) and some very large changes to how they will play out in the future. The initial SOL concept was to make these ships extremely difficult and costly to obtain, but in turn they would be able to turn the tide of a battle due to their immense power. In actual implementation during closed beta, only half of this was fulfilled: they were much easier to get than intended and people were churning them out.Now that the game is in open beta, the changes that have been made to SOLs bring them back in line with the original concept. They will cost a lot more to make, and the items required to build them will vary in level, meaning that lower level players can contribute to the construction. Another change is that the difference in cost between Fourth, Third, Second, and First Rate SOLs has been increased. Because they were previously similar in cost, people would skip straight to the First Rate SOL, which really unbalanced things. Now there will be a bigger cost variance between these ranks of SOL, and the First Rate will be very expensive to fix after being damaged, making it a major decision on whether to bring one to a battle, or to stick with the less powerful but less expensive versions.All of these changes have implications for various classes in the game. For example, the SOLs are one of the main reasons to become part of the Navy, so of course, this changes things for them in a big way. The full beta devlog has information on how the Navy will be altered with respect to the SOL updates, and how it will affect others as well.
