Slashdot Mirror

well the private sector can set this up (if shooting border jumpers isn't illegal)
 
  http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/17/internet-huntin g-coming-to-texas/

If you hate registering, here's the link to the NYTimes article. I know this is off topic, but let me just briefly plead with the Slashdot editors to use the RSS feed links when linking to newspapers. Please, for the love of god, I don't want to have to karma whore anymore! Go to the XML page and merely pick out your link! There's no trick to this.

Also note that prices seem to be dropping for the MovieBeam box. Quite a bit actually, the latter article states that you can get them for $49 now--$200 is the debut MSRP.

I've read a lot of luke-warm reviews on this thing and people say now that the system needs refinement. What I'm wondering is whether or not you can substitute a broadband (RJ-45) connection with the phone line connection. I don't have a land line at my home because four people in my family own cell phones. It just doesn't make sense to pay for long distance accross a land line. Is there an alternative to people like me for phoning home and notifying the company of my movie watchage?

Honestly, I guess I don't want Michael Eisner in my living room or a device that phones home to him.

If you can't wait until they release this thing, you can always try this.

I read about this 18 days ago...since when did /. become so slow? I'm a consistent reader and all, but this is a little disappointing. http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/11/mit-students-au tomate-dorm-room-add-party-mode/

Now, if the big screen video iPod rumours turn out to be true, all bets are off, and Sony better watch the PSP's sorry little UMD-using ass, 'cause it'll go the way of the Lynx in a friggin' eyeblink.

• the IMAP email client is hopelessly broken, crashing at the slightest provocation (changing folders mostly!)
• the web browser, for all its other limitations, doesn't do gradual page rendering (well it tries, but effectively it doesn't), and freezes the phone up while rendering a long page. Not good when you have a 14Kb GPRS connection;
• the terminal works well (cough, third party software) but is hamstrung by the phone's refusal to change connection types if the first one you pick doesn't work. You have a 10 minute timeout or something so that if a wi-fi connection doesn't work, you can't immediately switch to GPRS without going for a cup of tea first.
• (unforgivably, for Nokia, at least) if you missed a call and want to see who it was, you press "last call log" from the front panel and it takes 10-20 seconds of "Reading log..." on the screen before it shows you. A list of numbers! That's all I'm asking for! Totally maddening.
• No reset mechanism except taking the battery out. Because it will never crash, oh no. Especially not in the middle of a busy street when you're trying to make a call and then have to find a quiet place to take the f--king thing to pieces...

Now under normal circumstances, well, yeah you get bugs in software, we'll get them fixed! Except that you don't with phones. I had three firmware upgrades to that phone and none of those issues were solved. So I never really used it for email or web browsing unless I had a lot of time & patience, and it was very important to try to get a particular piece of info (still it was quicker calling the train times information line than trying to use the web site).

But really there was nothing wrong with the hardware -- I could see that the phone could do everything that it advertised, but Nokia were on to greener pastures now that this phone was out of the door. All it would need (in any other software market) would be a programmer or two, 2-3 months and some willing "power user" beta testers to hammer out these stupid bugs. I mean god forbid they actually try to make a device with a market lifespan of more than about 12 months, with, you know, a user community and long term support plans. But just a bit more love on the software after release would make a huge difference.

After a couple of terrible months with an HTC Universal (lots of problems but the biggest one is that it's impossible to answer an incoming call more than about 20% of the time! Great testing guys!), like an idiot I'll have a Nokia E61 on order soon. Maybe that'll work better :-)

So no I don't believe phone "convergence" is a myth when the phone manufacturers get so darned close. It's their unwillingness to go the extra mile after the phone has been released and tested on a large scale which causes people to damn their gadget-phones as white elephants.

As per the discussion on Digg here is a video of the robot in action with the MRI:

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/honda_develops _bmi_robot_hand.php

And all the other links that were related:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/24/hondas-asimo-ge ts-mind-control-interface/

http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=12565

The Japancorp has the most information than both the engadget and then Yahoo.

Personally, I'd really like one of these:

http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/19/movie-gadget-fr iday-the-orgasmatron-from-sleeper/

Now that both the 360 and PS3 will offer HD DVD/Blu-ray drives without HDMI, there's a LOT of rumors going around that hardware manufacturers have brokered a deal with studios to delay turning on the ICT flag until 2010. If so, that would make the $500 PS3 more viable, IMHO.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060521-6880 .html
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/22/studios-wont-do wngrade-hd-video-for-now/

I think generic-man meant that other portable audio players don't play AAC. They can play AAC if they acquire a license, but they don't.

With the exception maybe of these 57 mobile phones (granted, from such obscure companys as "SonyEricsson" or "Nokia") which play AAC. And maybe Sony's announcement to support it on their dedicated (=non-phone) players also... And there are more exceptions. So I really don't see that there are no other mobile players that support AAC.

“Apple's solution to this is to recommend that customers put the computer on a desk or other flat surface. And, not surprisingly, the word "laptop" does not appear once in the MacBook's manual.”

Did the Wiimote work? That's 90% of the point and feature of the Wii's system right there. So, big frickin deal.

It's not like the goal of the machines was better graphics and processor power, and they had them running on PCs.

Look no further: http://ask.engadget.com/2006/03/30/ask-engadget-bl ock-wifi-the-right-way/?

He knows that and you don't seem to.

http://homeentertainment.engadget.com/2005/11/29/s ony-pictures-to-use-mpeg-2-on-blu-ray/

And as to the vast amounts of content you see on the net that are HD and reencoded, many of them aren't true HD and many of them don't look particularly good.

I know MPEG-4 is a lot better than MPEG-2 for video. But even with only good quality (ATSC), TV shows take 8G an hour. Now you want to squeeze that to 0.360G? 24X? And BluRay is supposed to provide superior quality picture, not good quality picture.

Top Gear takes about 0.300G for an hour of content. And it still doesn't look perfect and it has 1/5th the pixels as a movie.

Just because you can strip enough bits to get it to fit a CD doesn't mean the quality is there.

I am sick and tired about people bashing Sony saying samsung is all good. (I have no connecton to Sony)

Samsung where copying some Apple design and got into a lot of trouble this was not very well covered in the press.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/05/keepin-it-real- fake-part-xxvii-samsung-admits-to-knocking-off

Hyping Samsung does not help ... Sony IS the biggest and best company of those two!

Joystiq asked Peter Moore at a blogger breakfast at GDC, and, um, i mean they've always been coy about the demand for the Core system, but, they were very defensive of it, saying that in order to appeal to a worldwide audience, it was very important for them to offer a lower price point, for certain countries, say in South America, or in Eastern Europe, it would be important for them have a lower price point, otherwise the console simply wouldn't be viable for whole parts of the world. But, the question becomes then, why are you still offering it for North America, where most gamers have no interesting in it, but...

(someone else starts talking) I mean, you can play almost every game on the core unit, without having to use the hard drive.

Engadget asked one of the Microsoft guys about the core system, and one of their answers was that outside of the US, there are some consumers who simply don't have the budget for the higher-priced version, and who are fine with having partial functionality, as long as they can play modern games. Engadget also noted that the 360 CAN compete with the Wii... although it will be more expensive (at most $75 more, by the time the Wii comes out), it's much more powerful in terms of graphics, so for casual gamers who might buy just one console, and don't want to drop a lot of money, then a $200 Wii vs. a $275 360 Core might be two of the options they'd consider (granted, it's not remotely cost-effective if you ever want the hard drive later, but casual gamers may not care about that so much, especially if they're comparing it solely to the Wii).

come on Finland !!

http://explorer.altopix.com/map/lqoqnr/Nokia_Headq uarters.htm

damn, wait

http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/14/nokia-and-micro soft-get-friendly-over-windows-media/

Nokia ... revealed their plans to add support for Windows Media Audio files, Windows Media DRM 10 and Media Transfer Protocol to their handsets.

and a 2.0 GHz MacBook in a stunning new black enclosure.

What the article doesn't mention is that the new black enclosure is made from the same patented finish as the ipod nano ;-)

Seriously, $1099 for the low end one is making these look pretty tempting, but I'm going to have to wait for the fourth gen (instead of usual second gen) for mactel stuff.

Never mind, I'm sure the other types of leaks will follow soon enough.

If the new Windows Player has a problem with leakage, perhaps it needs a Wii Controller?

Thank you, I'll be here all week, try the sushi!

This atleast shows a picture. http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/04/palm-treo-700p- looking-legit/

Some more info here

Yes, there's a slim possibility it's a Photoshop job, but it's sure as hell a lot more fun to look at that a Slashdotted site. heck, even Engadget had the Treo 700p featured back in February!

According to Engadget, Netflix could not reach licensing agreements with the major movie studios to allow their content to be downloaded to Tivos.

If they come out with that badass blood-covered chainsaw RE controller for the Wii, I am so there.

Many people have complained about the 32 process limit of Windows CE 5. According to Engadget, Windows CE 6 will support more than 32000 processes, which is indeed an increase of several orders of magnitude.

Cablevision (Long Island Cable) tried doing everything on-demand only to fail. Now they are trying a different solution that gives the same illusion.

here's engadget's link: http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/08/engadget-and-jo ystiqs-live-coverage-of-sonys-playstation-3-e3-ev/

What will they call it upon retail? Core Quado? Core Duo-Duo?

Why can't someone just come out with a bigger-screen pda, and be done with it?

I hate to reply to myself, but I made a mistake or two on that list:

I meant Fujitsu P1510D, not T4020 -- the T series is the big, heavy one.

Also, I forgot to mention that I'm also considering the iRex iLiad, which is an e-ink ebook reader (but has the right specifications to be a PDA with a nice big screen). At the moment, the finalists in my decision are it and the X41 (but I'm waiting to see if anything better comes out this summer, since I don't need it until school in the fall).

This is not a new device, and has never really caught on, regardless of how many times you might scream it has Linux inside. It might be neat for those that just have the burning desire of throwing money away, and that's about it.

See for yourself...

- It was announced back in 2004, and Engadget mentioned it:

http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/08/the-pepper-pad- 2/

Then Tux Magazine reviewed it in April 2005, and it was still not available to the public:

http://www.tuxmagazine.com/node/1000125

Now it's available for sale, but for the price it's selling ($850), you can easily pick a cheap laptop with far more expandability for quite less.

Do you think it's portable? Think again. Look at the dimensions:

http://www.pepper.com/products/specifications.html

12.1" x 6.6" x 0.8" (309 x 175 x 20mm)
2.3 lbs (1043 grams)

Now, for something this big, why not get something that's cheaper and just better like say, the Dell Inspiron B120 for $499, with free memory and wifi upgrades? See for yourself:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features. aspx/featured_basnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Just my 2 cents....

pics
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/06/jet-powered-vw- bug-takes-to-the-street/

I guess it gets it's air-intake from through the floor

Who wants a self heating can when you can get a self cooling beer!

(although I'll wait for the non-miller version, as I prefer my beer with flavour thank-you-very-much).

Check some sources before posting old stuff Slashdot, pretty please? ;) http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/06/jet-powered-vw- bug-takes-to-the-street/ I'm sure a good number of your readers also read Engadget on a regular basis. They should've caught this already. Anyway....

At least he didn't decide to suprise the owner with this upgrade, like this guy did...

For those of you who don't know what this is, please review: Broadcast Flag Article at Wikipedia

"So far the researchers have only worked through the mathematics to prove that the device is plausible. The practicalities of making one have yet to be solved."

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/02/japanese-reseac hers-invent-completely-transparent-material/

yes, because hardware never gets cheaper... When the Xbox 1 launched at $299 in '01 it was a steal for what you got, I can pick up a PIII machine today for about the price of a used Xbox1. I suspect they will be able to mach the PS3's (they could care less about the Wii) price points quite easily, especially considering it has far more expensive hardware inside. Considering the PS3 price to manufacture is speculated to be up around $800, Sony would EAT IT if they tried to undercut 360's price point at $400. They'll want to stay at their launch price for as long as they can, all the while MS can stay at their current price point and continue to undercut them.

I've heard much better things about the kinds of phones one can get from Cingular on that point

If you don't have a "data plan" with Cingular, you get charged by the kilobyte (which is nice compared to Verizon who won't let you do anything but 14.4k without adding "data" to your cell plan) Cingular doesn't support computer configurations that don't use their software (which you can't download if you can't get a connection, but you can't get a connection without downloading the software...is what they told me while I was on vacation trying to check my email)

The dataplans vary widely, I think they are 2MB/month, 5MB and 10MB, and "unlimited". I signed up for the unlimited for a month and the speed was stupidly slow for a simple ssh session.

I have a Nokia 6230 (and their free software) but the BT [modem] is a pain to get working right on a win32 laptop (had it working once or twice, but not since then - and no clue how to get something like that working in linux). The helpdesk person at cingular actually had a really good suggestion that worked like a charm - IR. I used the IR so often I had it disabled in the system bios. Slow as hell, but it worked for pine. Downside, phone and laptop have to pretty much be stationary for line-of-sight IR comms to work. Maybe there is a way to make it go faster, I dunno.

How about a Panasonic laptop instead? I consider them to be way superior to both apple and alienware.

They were just updated with core duo btw, for those interested: http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/25/panasonics-lets -note-goes-core-duo/

Passed to a subsidiary of Applix called VistaSource.....

I hadn't heard of a subsidiary of Applix called VistaSource.

But a quick google finds that VistaSource is 60% imcomplete ;-)

Thank you, thank you - try the salmon.

It opens to the right or to the top. It's a two way hinge.
Look closely at the numbers on the keys.
http://img.engadget.com/common/images/306000000005 4405.JPG?0.2856900814862148

image of phone

So the cover opens to left? I won't be using it as I'm unable to use it. I'm left-handed.

I honestly think HD DVD will win over Blu-Ray. While name recognition will help, it won't be the deciding factor.
Remember, many don't have much faith in Sony anymore. They've had numerous delays with their PS3, which is their main way to market Blu-Ray. The PS3 is expected to be $599 or possibly more. Not only that, but their last format, UMD, failed miserably and is being pulled off Wal-Mart's shelves. Combine that with their previous failures with formats like Mini-Disc and Sony doesn't have much of a track record with having successful mediums. Also, don't forget, many consumers have a bad taste in their mouth because of Sony installing rootkits on their computers even if they disaggred to their EULA.
Other things that will help HD DVD is the fact that it has at least a 3 month lead on Blu-Ray. That and right now, you can buy an HD DVD player for $499 where as most Blu-Ray players are expected to cost around $1,000 when they're released.
Also, when customers find out that many Blu-Ray players will include a feature to disable themselves remotely if anything "odd" has been detected in the player (I'm sure this will also be exploited by hackers). This permenantly damages the palyer requiring chips to be replaced.
Honestly, I think Blu-Ray is great for doing huge backups and working with large files on computers, but I can't see it succeeding in the movie market.

image of phone

one thing is for sure, Nokia are pretty consistant in making phones asthetically ugly as they can, still looks like a Motorall flip phone from the early 90's, its as if a good display, touchscreen , hi-res etc isnt important to them, unlike the massive surge of smart phones with hi-res screens, touchscreens to replace aging remote controls, handwriting recognition, etc etc

xmax will be the next wireless internet access technology to put the eyes on. Even wimax, will be put behind. no frequency band licence is needed, very low power, very cheap devices, any one could install an ISP, interesting signal range, what could we want more ? :)
please check it out!
http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/05/xmax-cheap-wire less-broadband/
http://www.xgtechnology.com/
http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?N ewsID=4722
http://www.codingheaven.net/

I agree with you, but for the initial run of units, many (most?) DID sell far above the MSRP. JC Penny, for example, sold their stock at $799 a unit. Not to mention the eBay retailers who managed to sell units for upwards of $1000.

so in reality, a large number of units went for far more than the $400 price. i.e. The market self-adjusted the price. Microsoft may not have seen the profits, but that wasn't the point. Microsoft is selling the console as a loss-leader using the "razor blade" model. Advertising the system to be more costly would reduce demand, and thereby cut profits for Microsoft as fewer games got sold. With the lower MSRP, Microsoft was able to generate not only demand for games, but also buzz about the system. Buzz leads to more system sales (in the future), and more system sales can lead to more game sales. More game sales == more profit.

And that's without assuming that Microsoft isn't using its resources to undercut the competition in an attempt to monopolize the market.

Can we just mod the writer? Cringely is definitely a +5 idiot.

too bad ther already was a wifi enabled mp3 player on the market. it failed because the nimrods that made it kept it closed and used a nasty stupid way of getting music onto the player.

and their Pc software sucked horribly.

Personally I dont want to transfer music at 802.11g speeds. firewire is insanely faster.

Soniqcast Aireo is the wifi mp3 player.

dont be tempted. it completely and utterly sucks based on the software and crappy firmware in it alone.