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42" is EXTREMELY small

Not everyone has your budget.

The MS Origami devices coming out have a novel onscreen keyboard interface. Who knows how well it works, but at least it's a different appraoch than the traditional "picture of a keyboard" approach.

Pix here:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/08/cebit-web-site- shows-origami-ui/

but from what I've seen on Lenovo's website, they are already adding gimmicky things like white marks on the top to indicate where various ports are

Don't bother writing Apple about it. A little girl did and got a reply that was less than warm. http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/14/apple-legal-sen ds-little-girl-running-crying-to-room/

Dell, HP, Panasonic, and Sony all make crappy PC's compared to an Apple product. Apple is super stable and hold their resale value in ways that even a gold plated Alineware laptop can only dream of.

• overheating iMac G5s
  
• Intel iMac video problems
  

Here's a brief article I was able to find about it:

http://www.engadget.com/2004/06/14/force-field-for -tanks/

It was Sony's decision not to put BluRay to the DVD Forum, which was specifically founded to prevent format wars. Since then, others have signed up to BluRay, which does not change the fact that it's NOT HD-DVD, and that we now have another format war on our hands. BluRay is superior to (though more expensive than) HD-DVD, but it should have been HD DVD. This sort of silly competition has NO place in the consumer arena, this is what the standards bodies are for in the first place. (And besides, you'll find the list of companies supporting BluRay is longer than yours, as is the list of HD DVD backers check here.. Porn producers aren't listed in the HD DVD camp, but they are, since it's cheaper to fab for them, which may be an important factor (cf. VHS vs. Betamax)). Lists of supporters don't really tell the whole story; we're still waiting for working devices from either camp. It DOES tell us there's yet another wholly unnecessary formats war, though.

And your nitpick doesn't adress any of the other examples at all. Not very impressive ground for calling some one completely wrong.

http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/24/functional-revo lution-controller-mock-up/

"...this new DiamondTouch touch panel table interface has one thing NYU's unit lacked: game. IGN has video of the DiamondTouch panel in action, and it really appears to be a glorified top-down projection system -- which it is. The image is projected onto a white table, which contains the actual magic. By touching the table you complete a circuit that sends a signal through your body with the X/Y position of your touch. This means the table can handle multiple simultaneous touches, so you and your friends can all gather around and do gaming as it was meant to be done, tabletop style. Mitsubishi's system also includes voice control, and they show it all off with a fairly impressive demo of WarCraft III." - Paul Miller, Engadget (view article)

"...let's be honest, Mitsubishi really throws down here. Unsatisfied with pretty light shows or boring diagrams, they're out to research that ancient query, "But what about the games?" Using Warcraft III, the fellas at MERL are able to use voice and touch to control the game in what appears to be an impressively seamless fashion." -John Choo, Joystiq (view article)

"...brings the exciting possibility of multiple simultaneous touches. Another notable feature is the speech recognition that is demonstrated in the video, although I can't imagine myself talking to a table non-stop for the whole duration of a 4v4 game. Now if the MERL team could show us a video of a real game of WarCraft on the DiamondTouch and played with skill, I would probably wet my pants." -Leo Huang, HipTech Blog (view article)

"...this new DiamondTouch touch panel table interface has one thing NYU's unit lacked: game. IGN has video of the DiamondTouch panel in action, and it really appears to be a glorified top-down projection system -- which it is. The image is projected onto a white table, which contains the actual magic. By touching the table you complete a circuit that sends a signal through your body with the X/Y position of your touch. This means the table can handle multiple simultaneous touches, so you and your friends can all gather around and do gaming as it was meant to be done, tabletop style. Mitsubishi's system also includes voice control, and they show it all off with a fairly impressive demo of WarCraft III." - Paul Miller, Engadget (view article)

I guess Slashdot waited a couple of weeks after this hit the internet this so everyone else could see it before the site got slashdot-ed? Seriously, this was on Engadget two weeks ago today!

I will give you a break that IPODS are over priced but as far as computing goes mac minis are light years ahead and priced very low. The future of computing is small boxes and Jobs knows this.

As for the lock, a bic pen works great. See http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/14/kryptonite-evol ution-2000-u-lock-hacked-by-a-bic-pen/

Maybe you were just being sarcastic, but Steve Jobs probably had nothing to do with this. Disney Mobile has been in the works since at least last summer. I had signed up on the Disney Mobile web page months ago.

Agreed, though because of that I'm pretty perturbed that it looks like they did ultimately go for some MS support. http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/04/new-olpc-deets- 500-mhz-128mb-ram-windows-ce-and-no-hand-crank/

Yeah, a PowerBook/MBP docking station would be nice, and I don't know why Apple hasn't made one (ExpressCard could handle it). But that's not the solution for everyone -- I have a tower with faster hard drives and 2 big monitors at home, so I don't dock. I use my DVI connector on the road to connect to monitors and projectors at remote sites, and VGA wouldn't always cut it.

I also like the trackpoint and wish it were available as an Apple option. I disagree with your characterization of the keyboards, though -- I find I'm faster with the Apple PB/MBP keyboards than the ThinkPad one. (If you're thinking of the flimsy iBook keyboard it's a different story.)

The other thing which the ThinkPads (and 99% of all other non-Apple laptops) is lacking is digital audio output. This is especially glaring as laptop analog audio hardware is both cheap and very prone to interference from inside the case.

By the way: stealth fighter = 1982. :-) Seriously, I'd love to buy other Core Duo laptops but I haven't seen one with a design even half as sleek and well-executed as Apple's -- and the MBP is only a slight evolution of a design first unveiled in 2003! Laptop manufacturers need to get with the design program. Garish multicolored plastic 1.5" thick enclosures aren't good enough.

But "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"

And it holds more music to boot!

http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/30/engadget-exclus ive-sean-p-diddy-combss-custom-diamond-ipod/

I think this was a great example of the "early adopter" market making a great showing, but the product didn't have what it took to cross the chasm.

I can't find the original news article, but Engadget is usually a pretty trustworthy source.

It seems to me that even the smartest robots are still only about as intellectually capable as me and my roommates after a heavy night of drinking.

So naturally, the next step for them is to be made citizens. That way, they can't dodge the draft.

While they've already began using them for educational and military purposes, I somehow doubt that they will become useful anytime soon. They will be something used only by the government or by the rich until enough money is thrown in and research is done to turn them into anything worth considering.

LG kills blu-ray model and considers combo player

from TFA: "..could be available as early as the fall."

My hard-earned will probably land on one of these. Combo drives are quickly becoming inevitable, will be interesting to see how prominent they are in the first-gen series of players.

>> I couldn't find any specs or reasons for the lower cost. Anyone else?

some info here

Sounds like the 300 bucks gets you better soound and usb ports..

Toshiba expects to sell 600k to 700k of these units?! There isn't enough shelf-space worldwide to hold those devices at that size.

They mention in the article that there will be a lower-end version for sale in North America for around $500. I couldn't find any specs or reasons for the lower cost. Anyone else?

I read this earlier this month and thought it could have some merrit, but probably not.

After all, we are talking Apple rumors AND it is April Fools day.

Other Apple-April Fools links:

iGame - yeah, right.
New video iPod - possible?
iNote - nice pics ;)
Media Center - err... nevermind.

Well if nothing else, maybe we get some fun new photoshopped Apple toys to dream about.

including Sony.

http://robots.engadget.com/2006/03/27/universal-wo nt-downsample-hd-dvd-content/

"Add Universal to the list of studios that won't downsample content for owners of non-HDMI HD sets. The company follows Sony and several others in announcing its decision not to use the Image Constraint Token to force owners of older HD sets to watch their films at 540p instead of the discs' native resolution."

The rest of the article is opinion, so I've elected not to quote it.

Yet enter DRM: Sony and pals are so scared of nerds ripping off their signal and trading it peer-to-peer they're going to screw those who spent $3000 on TVs and who can afford and do purchase large amounts of DVDs.

Wasn't a key part of the PS3 delay announcement that Sony had been held up producing PS3s due to wrangling over downsampling content that can't find End-To-End HDCP encryption but they had finally got agreement to drop that aspect.

So, if I read that correctly:

Sony and Blu-Ray (along with the PS3) IS NOT going to screw people who bought a $3000 TV that doesn't have HDMI and HDCP.

Microsoft and HD-DVD (along with Vista and the 360 should it gain an external HD-DVD) ARE going to screw people who bought a $3000 TV without HDMI/DVI-D and HDCP and are going to screw every PC user who's bought a current gen graphics card that doesn't come with an HDCP chip.

The entertaining irony in all this, as I recall, was that Sony were the ones who initially gave the movie industry more of the restrictive terms the industry wanted. Microsoft sided with HD-DVD specifically because it allowed you to do more on your PC with it but that freedom meant the movie firms jumped behind Blu-Ray not HD-DVD and the race was pretty much considered over. Then, once they'd won the get-the-movie-firms race, Sony turns around and says they ARE NOT going to downsample for anyone without end-to-end HDCP - making the product with all the movie firms backing it now the best product for consumers too.

So, by all means accuse the "and pals" part. Even accuse "Microsoft and pals". But, given Sony is outputting to non HDMI analog HD sets just fine, it seems a little unfair to brand them too.

You mean their new controllers? I've always thought the boomerang looked kind of comfortable.

It's clear that RMS feels that in some cases it is better to use the GPL than the LGPL.

I think RMS would say the GPL is preferable in the vast majority of cases. Else why would he urge developers -- in bold letters -- to release their libraries under the GPL?

But getting back to the topic of this thread: should GNOME's multimedia backend be licensed under the weak LGPL, when we know that the entertainment cartel has been one of the most vocal advocates of Digital Restrictions Management and Treacherous Computing?

Preventing users from skipping computers
Controlling your computer over the internet with rootkits
Instilling fear by suing innocent people
Suing independent competitors out of business
Bullying witnesses into perjury
and the list goes on...

The answer is absolutely no, and I daresay the FSF is of the same opinion, since they will include anti-DRM provisions in the GPLv3.

Developers of Free and Open Source Software should use every legal tool at their disposal to protect the users' freedom. One of the best tools is to license music and video apps under the GPL, so that the entertainment cartel can't poison their hard work with draconian DRM. Otherwise, the developers might as well be working for the RIAA and MPAA!

Open Source developers who care about the users' freedom should help out multimedia projects that are licensed GPL (such as Xine, MPlayer, and VideoLAN).

engadget has links to five mirrors (at least some of which still work):

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/16/windows-xp-on-m ac-solution-posted/

the mirrors to which the above links:

http://harrisonjordan.com/Winxponmac_0.1.zip

http://leewilkins.com/share/winxponmac0.1.zip

http://www.jerrybrace.com/Winxponmac%200.1.zip

http://www.geekdinner.co.uk/winxponmac0.1.zip

http://www.apple.tempex.sk/wordpress/Winxponmac%20 0.1.zip

t stings to get banned... but realy any MMO is a waste of time, WoW being one of the worst in my opinion.

He should channel all his energy into some more worthwhile waste of time like us sensible Nerds, something like..... ummm.... building a PC case made completely out of fans, or an iPod with a 300gb disk or if he is really masocistic he could try installing Oracle Application Suite on a minimalist Slackware system. One of the aspects of Nerdity is spending so much time indoors doing nerdy things that you begin to suffer from lack of exposure to sunlight and and Warcraft in all its incarnations made the list of nerdy things a long time ago. That being said, techically, you are right WoW is a waste of time.

The new Sharp 904SH, soon to be released, has a VGA display in a 2.4" screen. That's got to be as high as necessary for text.

1) Samsung was recently fined $300 million for price fixing. This is evil on Microsoft and Ma Bell levels.

2) They supply flash memory to Apple for use in the iPod.

BTW the only announced pricing I have seen is at least $1000.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/03/09/umpc/index .php
"Samsung plans to put the Q1 on sale in Europe before the end of June. The device will cost around 1,000 (US$1,190), it said."

Exactly what does this get you that a tiny subnotebook would not? Except looking like a dork as you stand around using it. Even using my PDA to read a lot, I prefer to sit down. If you are sitting down, a small notebooks is better has a real keyboard, holds itself up even in your lap to watch movies etc. With a tablet you have to hold it. Compare the size of the Samsung UMPC to the Sony VAIO. Almost the same, I would much rather have the Sony. Fold it and throw it in a bag. This thing will get scratched unless you carry it in a case....

Size:
Samsung Q1 UMPC: 779g 230mm x 140mm 7-inch touchscreen LCD
VAIO PCG-C1MSX: 998g 249mm x 152mm 8.9" LCD (only slightly bigger but real keyboard, bigger screen)

Jpgs:
http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/03/samsung_q1.j pg
http://www.transmetazone.com/articleimages/transva ioc1msx_perpspec2.jpg

More stuff on the VAIO, I think this one never made it to North america, but the could bring it back using the UMPC chips:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1 058

Put the same processor in each, which would you rather have, tablet or submini notebook?

Linky

I remember seeing this thing on a CNet video a year ago, it was extremely impressive back then running a full version of XP with all the inputs and outputs you could want.

Reviews Without Fullpage Advertisements

I think most people would say that a 40 inch OLED TV qualifies as 'new stuff'. And clearly, the world's best GSM cellphone of 2005 must have had something new to it. Furthermore, having over 14000 patents is also usually a sign of being innovative.

Yeah, I'd love an up to date Psion too, although I preferred the Revo to the Series 5. Eventually I settled for an HTC Universal, which has the right form factor, including keyboard. Might be worth a look for you too:

http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/02/hands-on-with-t he-htc-universal/

Samsung is planning a dual-format player.

Your wisdom just silenced me.

Reread the post. Nowhere does it mention any of the phrases you quoted. In fact, it fails to say that DRM should be abolished. I think most sane people realize that DRM is a required part of digital media.

However, the license agreements that DRM enforces must be balanced, fair, and clearly spelled out to the consumer. The DRM must be flexible enough to allow the consumer to have "reasonably free" use of the content that they have licensed. The content producers must not own all the control while the content consumers have none.

DRM raises some very complex questions with no clear answers, even for hardware and content producers. For an excellent example, read the following engadget article on the consequences of HDCP. Both the consumer and the manufacturer of the "cracked" hardware will lose.

They're already doing this for years in The Netherlands via the 'Stichting Thuiskopie' ('association for home/personal-copies') :( And they want to expand this sick idea to other media carriers as well.. http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/28/dutch-ipod-tax- could-squash-digital-audio-player-industry/ Should be fun to see how much our government will have to pay lost revenues to the artists now that the EU internet data retention law has passed if this tax will also become a reality once. I'm wondering how life in Norway would be sometimes. ;o

The Xbox 360 shouldn't have problems no matter where you put it. Sorry to say, but If I can't put the thing where I want to, then it's broken. Obviously things like putting it in your oven are a bad thing, but simply putting the power supply on carpet was reported to cause problems. I'm sorry, but not being able to put the power supply on the carpet is a little restrictive.

I have the power brick sitting behind my TV on carpet and I have no problems. I think the people that had problems were sticking it inside of their TV cabinets, which I imagine can cause problems if it's not well ventilated. There's lots of warnings not to do this, but lots of people don't bother reading them. (They just want to get their shiny new toy up and running as soon as possible)

Should equipment like that be designed that it can run in ANY location? Probably not. Otherwise, it'd take a lot longer for the product to be released, as the engineers try to figure out how to get the PS3 to work fine on top of a hot CRT.

So, how about designed to run in a reasonable location? Sure, I'll agree with that. But the problem is that there's a lot of gray area here. I think it's obvious not to stick equipment in un-ventilated cabinets, because I'm a techie and also because there's warnings all over the place not to do so. But Joe User doesn't read manuals and throws those paper warnings away, so he'll do just that and complain when his latest gaming system keeps locking up.

Granted, there's also the problem where any hardware is going to have defects. Anyone remember the class action lawsuits with the iPod that Apple settled? Or the PSP dead pixel problem? Ideally, yeah I want all of my gadgets and electronics to have absolutely no problems, 100% of the time. But we don't live in a perfect world. Fortunately, that's why we have things like customer service and warranties, so that when you are bitten by the bad hardware bug, you can expect to get a replacement as soon as possible.

What would be nice is to get actual statistics on hardware defects and returns, and not anecdotal evidence. I know several people with 360s and they've had no problems. My 360 has been running fine, but I did get a bum controller recharger. But that's just me. I'm sure the Slashdot audience is going to claim higher than normal problem rates, since the typical user is anti-Microsoft. (It's also interesting that those who claim lots of problems don't even have one themselves. They just repeat what they saw on the Internet) I know there has been talk of class action lawsuits on the 360, but don't know if they've gone anywhere either.

The real issue about the hardware problems is going to be years from now, to see if people still remember the issues or not. I know I had lots of problems with my PS2 (remember the DVD lawsuit and settlement?), but it's in the back of my mind and I mostly remember all the great games on that platform. That's exactly what Sony wants. Whether or not the same will happen with the 360 remains to be seen.

The Xbox 360 shouldn't have problems no matter where you put it. Sorry to say, but If I can't put the thing where I want to, then it's broken. Obviously things like putting it in your oven are a bad thing, but simply putting the power supply on carpet was reported to cause problems. I'm sorry, but not being able to put the power supply on the carpet is a little restrictive.

I have the power brick sitting behind my TV on carpet and I have no problems. I think the people that had problems were sticking it inside of their TV cabinets, which I imagine can cause problems if it's not well ventilated. There's lots of warnings not to do this, but lots of people don't bother reading them. (They just want to get their shiny new toy up and running as soon as possible)

Should equipment like that be designed that it can run in ANY location? Probably not. Otherwise, it'd take a lot longer for the product to be released, as the engineers try to figure out how to get the PS3 to work fine on top of a hot CRT.

So, how about designed to run in a reasonable location? Sure, I'll agree with that. But the problem is that there's a lot of gray area here. I think it's obvious not to stick equipment in un-ventilated cabinets, because I'm a techie and also because there's warnings all over the place not to do so. But Joe User doesn't read manuals and throws those paper warnings away, so he'll do just that and complain when his latest gaming system keeps locking up.

Granted, there's also the problem where any hardware is going to have defects. Anyone remember the class action lawsuits with the iPod that Apple settled? Or the PSP dead pixel problem? Ideally, yeah I want all of my gadgets and electronics to have absolutely no problems, 100% of the time. But we don't live in a perfect world. Fortunately, that's why we have things like customer service and warranties, so that when you are bitten by the bad hardware bug, you can expect to get a replacement as soon as possible.

What would be nice is to get actual statistics on hardware defects and returns, and not anecdotal evidence. I know several people with 360s and they've had no problems. My 360 has been running fine, but I did get a bum controller recharger. But that's just me. I'm sure the Slashdot audience is going to claim higher than normal problem rates, since the typical user is anti-Microsoft. (It's also interesting that those who claim lots of problems don't even have one themselves. They just repeat what they saw on the Internet) I know there has been talk of class action lawsuits on the 360, but don't know if they've gone anywhere either.

The real issue about the hardware problems is going to be years from now, to see if people still remember the issues or not. I know I had lots of problems with my PS2 (remember the DVD lawsuit and settlement?), but it's in the back of my mind and I mostly remember all the great games on that platform. That's exactly what Sony wants. Whether or not the same will happen with the 360 remains to be seen.

For your flashback fix, you can get one of these. Or, if your old cartridges are lying around, try a Generation NEX.

There's also rumors of a "virtual console" in the Revolution, which would allow play of NES (and other Nintendo console) games via download (subscription or per-title fee expected).

Same DRM? Sony plans to include self-destruct of hacked players. I haven't heard that for HD-DVD.

Right, because if there's one thing that MS does really well, is build good hardware. If they want to do that, fine, that's called a free market.

Your first sentence describes what they're already doing, and is what all the bundling lawsuits are about. As for licensing, it's a pretty incestuous relationship, but ultimately Microsoft needs the boxmakers more than the boxmakers need Microsoft. The volume licenses MS sells to the boxmakers are a goldmine for the company that they wouldn't want to mess with. So Dell et al. could just decline the "Dell Windows" licensing fee, still buy the MS volume licenses, and refer to systems sold with 'a well-known operating system that runs the majority of today's applications', and most consumers wouldn't even notice that it didn't say Windows. For corporate customers, the Dell sales rep tells you what version OS you're getting over the phone. Next?

I know the submission was astroturf, but I'm still interested to see what the heck this thing actually is.

Engadget is running an article with some possible information on the project. Looks somewhat interesting.

You probably want one of these: Spatz-Tech's DVIMAGIC

But that $500 device may become a paperweight when the HDCP compliance police (Digital Content Protection, LLC) revoke the DVIMAGIC HDCP key. And they can slip that revocation on an innocent-looking movie disk so that your working system suddenly fails and refuses to send any more content through the device :(.

You probably want one of these: Spatz-Tech's DVIMAGIC

But that $500 device may become a paperweight when the HDCP compliance police (Digital Content Protection, LLC) revoke the DVIMAGIC HDCP key. And they can slip that revocation on an innocent-looking movie disk so that your working system suddenly fails and refuses to send any more content through the device :(.

You probably want one of these: Spatz-Tech's DVIMAGIC

You will not have to wait too long AACS is Flawed big time, and soon we will be able to get these baby's http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/21/the-clicker-hdc ps-shiny-red-button/ from Canada or another country that sees through MPAA's BS and not effected by US laws.

Bottom line? DMCA or not I will do what I want with MY CONTENT on MY HARDWARE that I PURCHASED with MY HARD EARNED MONEY period.