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The Engadget CES stage show kicks off at 1PM ET tomorrow
Sure, here at CES we're scouring the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center (and hotel suites in a roughly three miles radius) for all the latest tech toys to write about. But that part of our work isn't exactly fun to watch. Fortunately, we have you covered with live news and entertainment from our stage all week long. From daily previews and recaps, video game competitions, interviews with tech's biggest names and even a chance for our dear readers to join in the fun, there's pretty much always going to be something to watch. Best of all, it'll take you no effort at all to keep on top of the myriad goings ons. You'll be able to watch every minute of our stage programing right on the homepage. And it all kicks off here in 24 hours. Check out our entire schedule (in Pacific time) for the week below.
Step aside Gershwin: Computer-generated musical to premiere in London
Computers might be ideal productivity companions, but sometimes they need to express their creative side too. They produce music, design knitwear, create art and delicious recipes; even write news stories (*gulp*). But their next creative achievement is on an altogether grander scale. Commissioned by UK TV channel Sky Arts for an upcoming series, and debuting in the Arts Theatre in London's West End early next year, Beyond the Fence isn't your typical musical. In fact, the full-length stage production features a plot and score conceived principally by machines.
'Resident Evil' the play is better than I expected
The first Resident Evil games were my favorites. With comically bad dialogue like the now infamous "Jill sandwich" meme, tension built on scare tactics, gore and the thrill of a shotgun blast, simpler was better, or at least more fun. As soon as the franchise started to take itself too seriously, I stopped paying attention. So when Capcom decided to make the video game horror franchise into a stage play, I feared it'd either steer straight into closed-space melodrama (i.e., actors trapped in a room; one has a dark secret) or that it'd simply have little to no relevance to Resident Evil. So, with trepidation, I went to see Biohazard: The Stage (the series' title here in Japan) when it opened for a limited one-week run right before Halloween. Was I going to be bored to tears? Despite an unnecessarily fashionable Tyrant and a severe lack of blood, I was hooked for all two-and-a-half hours of it. And that even included a pop-dance interlude.
iJustine loves fitness wearables as much as Taco Bell
Digital diva and influencer Justine Ezarik (aka iJustine) thinks CES is a big "tech tease." She's right, of course -- there's just too much technology to cover in a short amount of time (and inevitably, some of it will never be released). But it's fitness wearables that get her the most excited about the show floor this year, like the stuff Misfit showed off. On our CES stage she explains her valentine Taco Bell and how the two keep up over Snapchat. We talk about a whole lot more during our fun conversation, which you can watch after the break.
Electric scooters and fiber-optic shirts land on Engadget's CES stage
From one angle, there are so many similarities between Gogoro and Cambridge Consultants that it's hard to tell them apart. For instance, both are visionary companies that seek to redefine an existing market and both came out with innovative technology that no one had seen before. Another similarity between the two, of course, is that they joined us on the Engadget stage as our editor's choice.
Pilotwings stage spotted in Super Smash Bros Wii U
Today's image du jour over on the official Super Smash Bros website unveiled a Pilotwings Resort-themed stage for the Wii U version of Nintendo's cross-franchise brawler. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this biplane is secretly a new playable character, a la Hornet in Fighters Megamix.
A behind the scenes look at the Engadget CES stage!
Guys, haven't you heard? We've got our own stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center this year, right in the thick of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. And all week we'll be delivering live podcasts, as well as nonstop interviews with some of the most prominent companies setup here on the floor. Keep it locked here all week for the usual CES blitz, and if you're curious as to what the stage itself takes to operate, there's a video above that deserves your attention.
Dell's 10-inch Android and Windows tablets get names, specs, release dates
Well, well, what have we here? A pair of 10-inch Dell tablets, one running Windows 7 on those fancy new Oak Trail chips from Intel and the other pushing Android 3.0 with a Tegra T25. We already saw these devices leaked in February, but now we have some specs and release dates. The Wintel powered Latitude ST boasts a resolution of 1366 x 768, 2GB of RAM, up to a 128GB SSD, GPS, an accelerometer, both front- and rear-facing cameras, an 8-hour removable battery, and "1080p video output," which we assume means HDMI-out. The Android-flavored Streak Pro opts for a 1200 x 800 panel, but keeps the pair of cameras (and two mics) for video chats, while adding an unspecified mobile broadband radio and slathering Dell's Stage UI on top of Honeycomb (whether or not that's a good thing is purely a matter of taste). Pricing is still up in the air, but the leaked roadmap indicates the Streak Pro will land in June, followed by the Latitude XT3 convertible tablet in July, and the Latitude ST in October.
Dell's WiFi-only Streak 7 goes Euro-trippin', now available in the UK for £299
With one of the original 5-inch Streak's chief downsides being that it was considered too small to be a proper tablet, Dell did the sage thing this January and introduced a 7-inch variant in the Streak 7. The newer slate is outfitted with a nice Tegra 2 dual-core chip, 16GB of storage, a 5 megapixel rear- and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, a WVGA (800 x 480) display, and now the eminently reasonable UK price of £299 ($487). Alas, where Dell fell short with its Streak family expansion was in installing Android 2.2 on the 7, which hasn't changed during its trip over the Altantic, and in offering pretty poor battery life -- which might actually be a bit better here since Brits are receiving the WiFi-only model. Then again, if we're having to praise a device for improving itself by omitting a valuable feature like 3G, perhaps that tells you all you need to know about its viability. At least the Streak 7 is priced correctly and Dell does promise a Honeycomb update is in the offing. You can order yours at Dell's UK outlet linked below or jump past the break to familiarize yourself with the company's press release.
StreakDroid 1.9.0 takes Dell Streak Own3rs to the frontier
Fans of rooting the Dell Streak are likely familiar with the efforts DJ_Steve, a tenacious phone enthusiast with a penchant for keeping the tablet at its bleeding edge. To the uninitiated, this five-inch smartphone is enjoying an underground renaissance, thanks in large part to the hacked ROMs known as StreakDroid. Even while Froyo has been available officially from Dell for some time now, the aforementioned spinner got it there first. Releasing a tireless flurry of updates since then, StreakDroid now sits at version 1.9.0. Dubbed 'The Final Frontier,' DJ_Steve's latest release brings Android version 2.2.2 to the Streak, along with a more polished, heretofore unreleased version of Dell's Stage UI. Additionally, users are now given the option to select a default launcher before installation, with LauncherPro, Stage UI, and Gingerbread's launcher available for the choosing. Issues of a flaky accelerometer are documented in the release notes, though initial user reactions have been overwhelmingly positive. Streak hackers, get your download on in the source below, and let us know how this particular mix resonates with you.
Dell rolls out Froyo update for AT&T and Rogers Streak 5 users
Dell already pushed out its Froyo update to users of unlocked Streaks way back in November, and it looks like those that bought their Streak 5 from AT&T or Rogers can now finally get in on the action as well. The company just began rolling the update for those users out over-the-air today, and it brings with it all of the features we've already seen on unlocked Streaks, including Flash support, Dell's Stage UI and, of course, support for any apps that require Android 2.0 or later. Hit up the source link below for the complete details on the upgrade.
Flash Player 10.2 sheds beta label, improves efficiency with Stage Video playback
Should you be one of those (sensible) people who don't use software until all the Greek letters are removed from its name, we've got some happy news for you. Adobe's Flash Player 10.2 has just exited beta testing and is now available for download to Windows, Mac and Linux computers. Its biggest new feature is the Stage Video API, which promises to drastically reduce the processor load of playing back high-res video. It'll need to be enabled by content-providing sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Brightcove -- all of whom are already on the job -- but once that's done, Adobe says 1080p playback will cost you no more than 15 percent of your CPU cycles. Other new additions include a single-monitor full screen option for multi-display rigs, allowing you to max out a Flash video on one panel while keeping the others free, IE9 hardware acceleration support, and some nifty sub-pixel text rendering enhancements to make our web lives marginally nicer to look at. Hit the source to get your download on. Update: Flash Player 10.2 also marks Adobe's discontinuation of support for PowerPC-based Macs and Microsoft's Windows 2000 OS. So if you're still rocking some finely aged gear, you'll have to just content yourself with the awesomeness of 10.1.
Dell Venue ready to order now for $500 unlocked, shipping February 18th
In classic Dell fashion, the company's most legitimately appealing Android handset yet has just gone up for sale with nary a peep marking its arrival. If you'll recall, the US announcement for the Venue wasn't exactly overloaded with facts and figures, we were basically told that it's coming, and hey, here it is now! A cent under $500 buys you an unlocked Android 2.2 device -- with either AT&T or T-Mobile 3G bands, your choice -- equipped with a 4.1-inch WVGA AMOLED display, an 8 megapixel camera, and some of the best looks on any smartphone yet. The preliminary shipping date we're seeing is February 18th, let's hope that's a much more concrete number than we've experienced with the Venue Pro, eh? [Thanks, Spiridon and Tanjot]
Dell Inspiron Duo review
When Dell first demoed the Inspiron Duo and its vertically rotating screen on stage at IDF in September, our mouths nearly hit the floor. It looked like a plain old netbook until its 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen did a magical backflip and folded down over its keyboard to morph into a tablet. It was like nothing we'd ever seen before. And we actually figured it would be the sort of system that would stay locked up in Dell's labs, but when its specs were revealed -- a dual-core Atom N550 processor, 2GB of RAM, and Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator -- it became evident that the netbook / tablet hybrid was the real deal. Running Windows 7 Home Premium and Dell's new Stage interface, the $550 netvertible has the potential to successfully straddle both the netbook and tablet world. It also has a real shot at being the perfect device for those wavering between buying a netbook and a tablet. Indeed, the Duo is filled to the brim with potential, but what's the thing really like to use? We've spent the last few days with the Duo (and its Duo Audio Station) to find out, so hit the break for the official Engadget review! Editor's note: The review unit Dell sent us was a hardware production unit, but we were told the software was about 95 percent done. We will update this review with our impressions of the final unit when we receive it. This review was updated / edited on 12.8.2010 to include impressions of the final production level Inspiron Duo. %Gallery-108438%
Dell Streak Android 2.2 (Froyo) update review
Dell Streak. Froyo. Need we say more? If you're not already getting giddy, let us remind you that said tabletphone's technically still stuck on the aging Android 1.6 OS, so this is obviously great news for all anticipating (and presumably very patient) users. Well, the handful of us anyway, given the majority's distaste for this five-inch device's abnormal form factor. Here at Engadget, we've been fortunate enough to give this final 2.2 build a thorough test over the weekend, but has it fixed the bugs that plagued the 2.1 release? And will it make the Streak relevant again? Read on to find out.%Gallery-107961%
Geminoid-F takes the stage for Japanese play
Japan's uncannily realistic robots have been creeping us out for years, but one was deemed emotive enough to have a stint on stage -- yesterday evening, Hiroshi Ishiguro's Geminoid-F made its debut in a Japanese play. It's a fairly small step for robotkind, really, as the android was completely controlled by a real-life human actress from a soundproof room behind the stage, and no attempt was made to pass off the robot as human, as Geminoid portrays a caretaker android assigned to a dying girl. Still, the possibilities must have Hollywood agents agape -- it's only a matter of time before the world's highest paid actors can literally phone in their lines.
Murdoch reveals News Corp iPad app sales numbers at D8
Steve Jobs wasn't the only CEO on stage at the D8 conference this week -- Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp, also took the stage this week, and shared some sales figures for his company's iPad news apps. The Financial Times' app is the biggest winner, with 130,000 downloads, although that number is probably so high because the app itself is free. The Guardian Photography app (not part of News Corp, but still a print publication), also free with a sponsorship, has 90,000 downloads, and the Wall Street Journal app (free to subscribers) has 10,000 downloads. Internationally, the numbers are a little lower, though the iPad only went on sale overseas last week. The Times iPad edition has only sold 5,000 copies, and The Australian's app has sold 4,500. Murdoch is just as optimistic about Steve Jobs, though, in believing that where there are iPads, people will want material to read on them. "After all," he told the crowd, "what's an iPod without music? A high-definition television without popular shows? An e-reader without news or books?" And he's got a point, but the question will be if there are enough iPad owners out there who are willing to pay for content for print publishers to make their business profitable again.
Dell Thunder explodes Android with 4.1-inch OLED screen, promises Hulu app
It's like Dell's making up for lost time with smartphones: while "Lightning" is the company's answer to Windows Phone extravagance, the Dell Thunder that's leaking out along side does up Android 2.1 with similar aplomb and a 4.1-inch WVGA OLED screen. There's a heavily custom Dell "Stage" UI on top, which seems much different (and classier) than what we've seen on the Streak or Aero. It apparently ties into Facebook and Twitter for social networking, and taps Swype for a touchscreen keyboard replacement, along with grabbing just a pinch of HTC's Sense good looks. Dell's document also claims this has Flash 10.1 for watching web videos, along with a mention of an "integrated web video Hulu app." We're not sure how that works, but hopefully it's everything we ever dreamed mobile Hulu could be. Under the hood we'd guess there's the same Snapdragon chip that's powering the Lightning, but we don't have specific specs. There is supposed to be an 8 megapixel camera, however, and the phone will be sold in AT&T and world-friendly HSDPA versions around Q4 of this year, with an LTE model to follow near the end of 2011. We can hardly wait. %Gallery-91360%
Richard Garriott live on stage, one night only!
As a game developer, there's no denying that Richard Garriott is a legend. I think by now most people reading this realize his importance in creating Ultima Online, and his "come-back" attempt with Tabula Rasa. Since then, Garriott has expressed a desire to leave gaming to pursue his rediscovered love for space travel, and then gaming again, and now space travel again.If you find yourself compelled with the space flight of Richard Garriott, and you feel like paying $65 a ticket for the opportunity, he'll be telling his story live on the ZACH Theatre's Whisenhunt stage in Austin, TX for one night only. On Saturday, January 24th, at both 2:30pm and 8pm, you can listen to Richard Garriott talk about his experiences in space and his future plans with the space program. There will even be a Q&A session afterwards. I can think of a few questions I'd like to ask him. How about you?
A sneak peek at the BlizzCon floor
Our good friends at the Orange County Register were lucky enough to be let into BlizzCon yesterday (we'll be on the floor in just a few hours here), and they've got a preview gallery of what it's like in there up on their site right now. There's nothing super revealing in there, but there are lots of pictures of vendors setting up, and the various stages they'll have at the event. The Illidan statue from last year is making a re-appearance, and he's joined by someone Starcraft fans will want to see.We can't wait to get in there -- Diablo 3 will be playable, and of course we'll have coverage from all the panels, tournaments, and booths inside the convention center all day today and tomorrow. The Opening Ceremony starts at 11am PST, so stay tuned here to watch our coverage as it goes down live.