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Standards help lower or set price?

HDMI cable or HDMI cable?

While I don't think it's ever going to disappear, I do think that the gaming aspect of consoles is slowly becoming less important than its media functions. I'm a tech geek and I only recently bought a PS3, but not for its games. I bought it because: #1 it became slimmer, #2 it became cheaper, #3 it plays DVD's and Blu-Ray movies, #4 it can stream my photos, music, and videos wirelessly from my MacBook.

After I got it, I discovered that I could also rent a substantial selection of videos (though not as much as iTunes yet and the prices are still $1-2 too high), and buy very cheap ($5-15) downloadable games that are often much more fun than the games on a disk b/c they were simpler to play, took much less time to play, and I didn't have to pop in a new disc everytime I wanted to play a different game. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the news by location feature in Life with Playstation (the World Heritage Channel is very cool too if you like National Geographic quality photos).

After I showed all these "features" to my non-techie friends, 3 of them went out and bought a PS3, and 2 more are about to. If Sony manages to either finally bring PlayTV and/or Hulu to the PS3 in the US, they have essentially managed the very nifty trick of turning their "gaming console" into a Home Theater system. It would essentially negate the necessity of owning a HTPC.

I don't own a Xbox 360, but it seems that Microsoft is essentially going for the same thing. Nintendo looked like they were going to head down this path at the beginning with their "channels" menu system, but they haven't done as much as Sony or Microsoft. I'm guessing the next Wii will have HD hardware and push harder towards this goal. So, while I don't think console gaming is dying, what we think of traditionally as a gaming console is being transformed. "Convergence" would be term I suppose?

Not sure why this is getting marked as a troll as I found a couple of articles that talk about Apple's royality troubles.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/29/nokia-vs-apple-the-in-depth-analysis/
http://seekingalpha.com/article/36317-apple-s-iphone-and-the-future-of-qualcomm-part-ii

True, no phone currently runs Android 2.1, but will that be true if and when the Nexus launches? And even if the Nexus is the 1st Android 2.1 phone, Google and their partners generally role out new version updates to the rest of Android phones within a couple months.

As for the hope that the Nexus spells the end of the fragmented Android UI, I think that it's misplaced. HTC recently showed off their 2010 roadmap, and there are a lot of Sense UI Android phones on it, including a couple running Snapdragon.

These have existed for a while now, I remember seeing one that actually did turn pages (but used a real scanner and wasn't gentle when it turned the page).

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/22/build-your-own-fullauto-bookscanner/

That isn't to take away from what was done here, just to point out this isn't so new that the publishers/manufacturers don't already know about it.

You can see a picture of this device here

Yeah, I'm as curious as you on this area, hence why I call the "fad" card, as we've been filled with news on these stretchable, bendable chips for years, on science tv, documentaries, and whatever magazine you could read before Internet were for anyone.

There are (was / is) several ways to make chips flexible. The old 80's method was to keep the silicon chip itself ridgid while the the housing itself would be flexible - and the pcb itself of course, flexible resistors are a bit tricky since the resistance varies with the stretching - but this could be solved with wired resistors - flexing between the conductive/resisting wire itself, yet again - posing tear-wear issues.

Last year they came up with actual twistable sillicon chip - meaning that the actual IC-Core could be flexible as well:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/28/stretchy-silicon-circuits-wrap-around-complex-shapes-like-your/

If you look at the various OLED demos. of either e-paper or OLED displays that are flexible, they STILL pose the same tear and wear issues as silicon chips would have, they simply won't last (yet) - but strangely enough - this stuff pops up like it was fantastic news - every year, and unsurprisingly - very few actual products come out of it.

You tell me.

How about an IR mask? You could always embed a bunch of smd ir leds into the brim of a cap, or affix some to glasses. (glasses would likely be tougher to pull off as they'd need an external power pack located elsewhere) Something like this: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/23/diy-ir-headgear-repels-security-cameras-attracts-security/

If you look just at smartphones, then you see why. Andriod is still a relatively new platform, so the fact it doesn't have much much market share isn't surprising.

Global Market share from early this year puts Nokia in the lead(50.3%), followed by RIM(20.9%), followed by Apple(13.7%). It looks like Apple and RIM are still gaining ground, with Apple at 11% of the global market.

US marketshare is harder to find good numbers for, but it looks like RIM and Apple are beating Nokia in the US. Plus, people actually use their iPhones a lot.

I saw a prototype Pegatron machine that looked like it would meet all of these, but it's not available yet... every time I search, I keep hearing that these machines are just around the corner. In summer, they were coming about for Christmas 2009. Now that it's December, I hear they are coming out in Q1 2010.

H'mmmm... one of these, you mean? Yes, I'd definitely buy one!

Mythbusters defeated a similar lock using a simple fingerprint photocopy.

If you saw any of the video conference (live blog at http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/fusion-garage-crunchpad-video-conference-liveblog/), that dude even looks like a scheister.

I agree, makes perfect sense: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/entourage-edge-e-reader-shows-off-its-softer-ware-side-on-video/

The eDGe will be using a Marvell chipset that is over 1ghz http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/marvells-armada-chip-bringing-hd-quality-video-3d-graphics-su/

Apple came to the phone market doing what they do best, interface & usability. Sure others have some catching up to do in this segment.

However Apple is standing on the shoulders of giants with iPhone. If you look at GSM standards for example, Nokia owns 67 of the 158 patents considered "essential" for GSM. Apple owns 0. And that is just a tiny part of the tech that goes into a modern phone.

People give Apple way too much credit for the shiny package. When it comes to actual tech, Apple is simply using the inventions of other manufacturers and I highly doubt that will change.

Color eInk is a ways off, but there are other short-term compromise solutions out there.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/pixel-qi-e-ink-lcd-hybrid-display-to-debut-on-tablet-next-mont/

Paper magazines are cheap - but suppose you could access EVERY magazine and newspaper for $15/month, WITH an eReader, and a reading experience superior to the Web? Could the economics for that work? Sure! Few people subscribe to more than a few magazines and newspapers (and many subscribe to none). So the average amount paid for paper subscriptions is probably under $15/month/family now. They just have to start collecting that and dividing it up "fairly" amongst publishers.

They are at risk in one way though - they need to make sure that they're still part of the web. They want to be so cheap and so cross-linked with the web, that pretty much everyone subscribes, and all publishers flock to them.

Maybe they will provide a "free, text only, dull formating, advert surrounded" version for the web (so bloggers and such still feel somewhat comfortable linking to them), but subscribers to Skiff could browse the web and full quality magazines without barriers in either direction. (An eReader is incidental to this, really - but a good way to get some attention.)

Not saying they're smart enough to do that - the "by publishers for publishers" bit does seem to indicate they've got the wrong attitude.

You can see here what I was thinking of. Also covered on cnet.

"I don't know where the cutoff is ..."

"I expect ..."

LEARN a little! The Lechner Distance chart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_J._Lechner or in graphical form at http://hd.engadget.com/2006/12/09/1080p-charted-viewing-distance-to-screen-size/) highlights a very basic aspect of this which you're personal guesses completely overlooked -- the ability to distinguish between display resolutions is directly dependent on your distance from the screen.

So you could have a 100" screen and still not be able to distinguish 480p from 1080p if you are sitting 30 feet away.

I've got a CableCARD compliant tuner in my HTPC, check out http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/06/new-utility-makes-any-computers-bios-cablecard-ready/

Works like a charm.

1) DVR from cable company. Problems: I've gotten anecdotal information that these DVR's have poorly designed UI's and tend to be somewhat flaky (worse than Windows). Also, they are a closed system, I can't move the recording to a mobile device for portable viewing.

At least in my experience with Comcast DVRs, yes they are flaky, the interface is poor, the fast forwarding sucks, and it has had problems with just magically losing all recordings twice in the two years I used it.

2) PC + HD ATSC / Clear-QAM tuner card - this gives me the ability to record over the air broadcasts and cable channels that support Clear-QAM (which is a fairly small subset of cable channels).

Works well, although I'd recommend something like the HDHomerun (dual clear-QAM tuner box that plugs into your home network). At least where I am, I get pretty much everything on basic cable in 480p, and then the OTA channels plus a few others in either 720p or 1080i.

Beware that Comcast likes to leave their QAM frequencies undocumented and likes to map them to different channels periodically. So if you're using MythTV you'll want some familiarity with the database, particularly the channels and dtv_multiplex tables. That said, with the switchover to digital, I no longer have the ability to record analog cable and you may find the same problem in upcoming months. In particular, in my area, Comcast switched QAM frequencies last month (again) and is now using some of the area formerly allocated to analog.

3) PC + HD Tuner Card + Cable Card - does anyone make one of these? Anyone have any experience with this?

Tivo is your easiest solution. Windows Media Center will support a CableCard but with some tweaking required (good writeup here: http://hd.engadget.com/2009/05/12/how-to-install-a-cablecard-tuner-in-your-diy-media-center/)

I don't know of a way to get MythTV working with a cable card and it seems rather unlikely because it is a hardware / vendor lock-in.

There you go again with that "hype" word. Actually Apple is so respected for their ability to innovate that they benefit strongly from the word-of-mouth you speak of. The iPhone made the cover of Time magazine, as the "best invention of the year", total cost to Apple: Zero. The Steve was named by Fortune magazine as the CEO of the decade. Cost: Zero. Those represent the top of a mountain of free press coverage that Google simply cannot match. So of course their strategy is different; but not by choice.

Case in point.

You've just demonstrated the dictionary definition of hype.

7.4 million units sold in Q3 2009. That is roughly twice the number of units sold running Windows Mobile, and dangerously close to the number of BlackBerries sold in the same time frame. Explain your usage of the phrase "not selling much".

What does "roughly twice" mean on the planet where you're from. The numbers tell an entirely different story with Winmo outstripping Iphone by 2 to 1.

Explain how.

I did that before, not my fault you missed it but here it is again. Everyone who wants an iphone pretty much has one by now. They are no longer a new thing thus demand falls.

And this is exactly why RIM and Nokia _are_ worried.

What you call worried, the industry calls Business As Usual, the iphone doesn't scare RIM or Winmo. It scares the likes of the LG Shine as this is the audience its competing for. The iphone sales rise and fall with the amount of marketing released for it.

After reading this tripe I have to wonder weather you're either a very clever troll or truly ignorant.

I don't know what you mean by "most" but IME, "most" people are lucky to get anywhere close to 10 (ten) at home. 100 Mbps is not even on the horizon for "most" people.

This is changing, there are currently 8 or 9 cities in the US (soon to be around 15, albeit most in Utah) where you can get a Fiber over the last mile to your home and symmetrical service from 10Mbps to 10Gpbs. One of the First was Wilson, N.C. thanks to Greenlight (100Mbps / 100Mbps for $100 per month) and the local politicians that invited Greenlight into their community after the American Telco and Cable Companies refused to put fiber to peoples homes. Of course after the fact, the telcos/Cable Cos are using any and every legal / lobbyist means via the North Carolina state legislature to prevent others from getting decent bandwidth via Fiber from their homes.

Here is the other places, thanks to Utopia, Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency: (ten years in the making by some elected officials that thought more of those they represent than lobbyists): Bringham City, Tremonton, Perry City, Layton, Centerville, Murray, Midvale, West Valley City, Riverton, Cedar Hills, Lindon, Orem, Payson, Cedar City

Note: Verizon's restricted FIOS only allowing 50Mbps / 5 Mbps for $119 while better than Cable is still restricted and is NOT symmetrical!

Today's hardware is a totally different story.

Totally different from the old days, yes. But today's Apple (laptop) hardware is really nothing remarkable. It ranks 4th in reliability, just above Dell, but below Sony, Asus and Toshiba:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey-asus-and-toshiba-win-hp-fails/

Inamo was featured on Engadget and definitely a place to check out.

One place I would have liked to check out but which did not fit in my trip are the cabinet war rooms where you can see (amongst other WW2 things) the hotline between the UK prmier and the US president on display.

I type almost as fast with my iPhone as I do with my keyboard.

Sorry, but all that tells me is that you suck at using a keyboard. World records for texting have people completing a 160 character message at 40 seconds.
See here and here.
That works out to 48 words per minute, which is still very slow compare to even a novice touch-typist.

You will also note that the world records are continually won by people using tactile keyboards.

The only people who continually raise the issue with this are people who haven't used the product, or have and are easily frustrated. Or they're too old to learn a slightly new trick.

Wow, over-generalize much?

I could just as easily claim that the people who continually issues the iPhone keyboard are people who can actually type. Or that the the people who like the iPhone keyboard are rabid fanboi's who are so trapped in their Apple-worshiping love-fest that they can't see the obvious fact that a non-tactile keyboard is a pretty stupid way of communicating.

But of course I won't.

You mean like this? :D

Now they just have to solve the problem with it landing somewhere that you can't get to - I'd rather throw a 0.00 EUR stone that I just found lying on the ground than a damn 500+ EUR phone...

np: Speedy J - Drill (A Shocking Hobby)

Let's see - couple of examples:

Downloading/simulating human minds: the philosophical and social implications of that are a recurring theme in Greg Egan's work - Permutation City, Diaspora and several of his shorts (such as "Learning to be Me"). If you want a side-order of ultraviolence with that, there's Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon". Of course, that's never gonna happen.

Post-scarcity economics: Not tech in itself, but the implications of tech. What if we had sufficient resources and robotic "labour" that everybody could just take whatever they reasonably wanted? How would the capitalism/socialism debate change that? This is the basis for Iain Banks' "Culture", but it also crops up a bit in Star Trek TNG.

Ain't never gonna happen. I'd better explain that one: software is a microcosm in which a "post scarcity" economy is possible because the marginal cost of "manufacturing" and distributing software has become negligible.

Near-future space flight: Stephen Baxter wrote a whole series of books on the general thesis "NASA rejected my application to be an astronaut: NASA sucks!". We have Time which had private enterprise saving the space program; Voyage (what would happen if Apollo had stayed on track and gone to Mars) and Titan (what would happen if an anti-science US president didn't replace the shuttle and we suddenly had a good reason for wanting to go to Titan).

Desperately cobbling together a cheap launcher from surplus shuttle components? Going back to an Apollo-style capsule instead of wasting fuel boosting space-planes into orbit? Private spaceflight saving the day? Ain't Never Gonna happen

(Interesting lack of US authors in that list, though...)

Yeah, but if you make your plane shiny and reflective, you make it a lot easier to target with other weapons, like missiles.

See? Wonder Woman was always ahead of the pack.

*not to mention Lynda Carter's unwavering hot-ness!!

You are missing this

http://www.gpsdaily.co.uk/off-road/bmw-driver-follows-gps-off-cliff/

and

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/27/faith-in-gps-sends-mercedes-downstream/

What next, Linus stars in an "I'm a PC" commercial?

What, you mean like this?

Ya, it really sucks that I have to buy special Apple brand BT headsets to work with their products.

You mean like this sort of thing? Yes, I realize that isn't referring to a BT headset, but it is a case of Apple locking down peripherals.

GP might have been a bit on the trollish side, but you're not exactly helping your own cause by responding in kind.

Since GoodGearGuide.com.au is a bit bogged down, try Engadget: Fujitsu's splitting F-04B cellphone gets tested, found to contain no Energon cubes

There's a lawsuit for that.

Their EVDO 3G is barely better than EDGE (2.5G). I'll take UMTS, even if it isn't available in East Bum-Fuck Kansas.

Not a flame, just a correction... the AppleTV supports WPA encription as well as WEP, and has for years. See http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/05/apple-tv-review/ .

Nope, no answer here that is cost effective but it may be of interest to someone.

Yes, there is an ethernet solution that runs over the house electrical wiring. It should be trivial to stream audio or download and play MP3s over it. http://www.homeplug.org/products You would have to pick a setup that falls under your budget and actually works. I see some at 40 each which at 5 rooms is $200. There are some pitfalls to it IIRC there may be some information on /. or Google about fixing wiring problems but my search foo is lacking.

Once you have that running you want to be able to FIND the songs. This may help but I've not used it. It looks slick and useful. http://www.nealosis.com/mp3collector/Forms/Default.aspx Since the requester does not want a PC in each room this is not the answer but I am going to try it as it looks cool.

With networking available in each room
http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/01/nicts-ethernet-speakers/
http://www.aaavoip.com/cyberdata-10882.html

Based on prices this is not an optimal solution but the cyberdata would sound so retro some may like it. ;)

Should I sue because they didn't accommodate for people with my particular disability? Plenty of people are missing limbs. Why aren't they in an uproar over Guitar Hero?

They might be actually, but are in line behind pathetic one hit wonders mad that the guitar hero version sounds like the original song, a talentless trailer trash bimbo suing because she thinks her dead husband is copyrighted, and a delusional guitar maker that seems to claim a patent on pretending you're playing guitar without actually playing guitar.

Whatever court hears completely bat-shit insane lawsuits by greedy jerks trying to get money they didn't earn from successful games must be pretty backlogged.

So here's a better link if you want to see this monstrosity. The guy earlier in this discussion who was joking about putting a mouse wheel on a standard keyboard wasn't far off.

I'm sure if anyone actually buys this a lot of wrist surgeons will rejoice...

Link to an Engadget article regarding the device in question...

I imagine it is caught in a development life cycle...or that Microsoft determined that most consumers are content using touchpads or game system controllers to interface from the couch.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/04/t-mobile-7-2mbps-hspa-rolling-out-now/

Vtech has a phone that can sync all of you contacts from you cell phone. Then sync your contact manager with your cell through google.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/29/new-vtech-cordless-can-download-cellphone-address-books-over-blu/

It looks like there are copies of it here: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/

I've seen a couple of people who say they don't get it and use the recently modified advert as proof. The first version of the map used the words "Out of touch", had no small print and wrongly implied that outside of the coloured area you weren't going to get any coverage at all.

AT&T's data coverage may be poor (I don't know, I don't live in the USA) but there aren't massive blackspots all over America as this map implied.

See Engadget for more information.

Lenovo has tested several of their new Thinkpads to comply with MIL-SPEC semi-rugged computing standards. The results prove what you are saying, Thinkpads can pass as semi-rugged on many counts but don't compete with the fully ruggedized Toughbooks. Tests included operation at low atmospheric pressure, high humidity, operational and non-operational vibration, dust exposure, and the "mild" -20 to 60 C temperature range. http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/thinkpads-pass-the-tough-test-but-dont-call-em-rugged/

So much for the "DoD's MIL-STD 810F heat, dust and vibration requirements"*
It looks cool as shit, but that's about it. I guess the only requirement to meet DoD specs is testosterone appeal.

[*] -
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/super-rugged-latitude-e6400-xfr-is-tougher-than-you/

WTF??

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/20/apples-new-macbook-unboxing-and-hands-on/

Or is it just another shitstorm of astroturf and payed for reviews that is pretty much the trademark of Microsoft?

Yeah I'm sure they payed off Cnet, PC World, PC Magazine, and even Engadget... You're an idiot.


And technically astroturfing is payed-for reviews since I'm pretty sure most companies pay their employees.

Accoding to engadget the route is cached when calculated, so as long as you don't go too far of course....

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/28/google-navigation-video-hands-on-you-want-this/

It is wider, taller and thicker. It is thinner than the DS Lite though.

Size comparison at Engadget

Actually it should read:

Undeservingly distinguished hack scientist participates in unremarkable product development, set to make virtually no impact on the gaming world.

...or some other form of dead air.

And this gizmo is just a minor variation on an old theme.

File this one under 'yawn'.

Honestly, I love my G1 and all, but as soon as Motorola's Droid comes out, I'm switching to Verizon Wireless. The Droid offers basically everything the G1 does (including the beloved slide-out physical keyboard), and more.