Nokia premieres Ovi Suite 3.0 beta

After a private alpha, Nokia has loosed a beta of its refreshed Ovi Suite client -- now at version 3.0 -- on visitors of its Beta Labs site. Seems like most of the improvements revolve around simplifying common activities, but the biggest change would have to be the addition of tight Ovi Music integration, including playback controls, store access, and Ovi Music Unlimited support -- in other words, this product is now officially the Zune / iTunes of the Nokia world, and in this case we'd say that's a very good thing. Installation is said to be faster and simpler than before, too, so come on, hesitant N8 owner -- what the heck are you waiting for? Follow the break for the official video intro of the new build.

Continue reading Nokia premieres Ovi Suite 3.0 beta

Nokia premieres Ovi Suite 3.0 beta originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:03:00 EST.

Hasselblad's Ferrari-branded H4D camera: now available for just €21,499

Now that you've wasted precious moments of your life saving $10 here, $8 there and $6.23 in your local Target, how's about a Black Friday deal that you'll never forget. Hasselblad's Ferrari-branded H4D medium format camera, which we saw unveiled earlier this year at Photokina, is now shipping to the affluent, the zany, and the select few that happen to be both. So far as we can tell, this is just an H4D with a Ferrari-approved design scheme, and neither point helps to make this thing anywhere near affordable. A grand total of 499 are being made available today, with each one to run €21,499 ($28,425) + tax. Who knew you'd be buying something today that's only purchasable via your Centurion card -- puts a whole new spin on Black Friday, huh?

Continue reading Hasselblad's Ferrari-branded H4D camera: now available for just €21,499

Hasselblad's Ferrari-branded H4D camera: now available for just €21,499 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:57:00 EDT.

Editorial: My next iPad won't be a 7-incher, but I wish it could be

It took me a while, but I'm starting to fall in love with my iPad in a way I haven't loved a gadget for a long while. There's something about the form factor, the apps, the OS that feels just right and makes me want to do as much of my daily computing on it as possible. Of course, that's still a pretty small sliver of my overall day, and the iPad isn't even close to replacing my laptop for the large majority of my work, but I'm finding myself increasingly doing casual browsing, casual gaming, serious writing, and, yes, even some reading on Apple's 10-inch tablet.
But I have one "big" problem with the tablet that doesn't look like it'll be solved anytime soon: it's not 7 inches. Will Apple ever eat its words and build a smaller iPad, or will the 7-inch form factor be left to the rest of the emerging tablet market to fight over?

Continue reading Editorial: My next iPad won't be a 7-incher, but I wish it could be

Editorial: My next iPad won't be a 7-incher, but I wish it could be originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EDT.

Hasselblad H4D-40 Stainless Steel medium format camera: limited to 100 units, priced at €13,990

Wondering just how large a premium that Ferrari badge was adding to Hasselblad's Ferrari-branded H4D? Oh, around €7,500 (if not more). Hot on the heels of the aforesaid announcement, Hasselblad has just revealed yet another variant of the famed H4D-40, with the Stainless Steel edition offering a classy, classic motif and another limited run item for collectors to snatch up. Only 100 of these will be produced, with each one selling for €13,990 ($18,497) sans lens or €14,990 ($19,809) with the HC 2.8/80 mm. If this guy's more "within reach" than the Italian-inspired alternative, hit up your local dealer as soon as humanly possible... or just before your 100 closest friends, anyway.

Continue reading Hasselblad H4D-40 Stainless Steel medium format camera: limited to 100 units, priced at €13,990

Hasselblad H4D-40 Stainless Steel medium format camera: limited to 100 units, priced at €13,990 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:42:00 EDT.

Toshiba TG01 slowly, surely gets hacked to run Android

It's easy to forget about the TG01 nowadays, but bear in mind that Toshiba's WinMo beast from last year was the first production phone in the world to use Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon. Oh, and it was under 10mm thick and featured a 4.1-inch WVGA display at a time when such specs were basically science fiction -- so you've got to give credit where credit's due. Anyhow, the phone's far from obsolete -- apart from that little WinMo issue, that is, so the good folks on xda-developers have started the time-honored tradition of transplanting Android onto it. Important stuff still isn't working (the lack of calling capability is a big one for us, personally) but we're guessing it's just a matter of time before we see a solid, usable build in the wild now. HD2, watch your back!

Toshiba TG01 slowly, surely gets hacked to run Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 03:45:00 EDT.

Modified radar gun identifies suicide bombers up to ten meters away

William Fox of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and John Vesecky, his colleague at UC Santa Cruz, are working on a modified radar gun that can identify suicide bombs worn under the clothing. To do this, they cataloged the most common arrangements of looped wires used to construct "suicide vests," and developed software that can identify the radar cross-section of each. So far, results have been pretty good: according toNew Scientist, "telltale factors in the polarisation of the reflected signals" allowed them to correctly identify volunteers dressed as bombers up to ten meters away, roughly eighty-five percent of the time. Of course, even with a success rate this high, such a system would be prone to kicking up false positives. In order to minimize this, the devices would have to combined with other technologies, such as smart surveillance camera systems and infrared imaging.

Modified radar gun identifies suicide bombers up to ten meters away originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 07:12:00 EDT.

Orange UK prices 3G iPad at £199 on two-year contract, taking pre-orders today

Want an iPad but can't countenance the associated outlay of cash up front? Orange is making that pill easier to swallow today with the revelation of its contract-tied pricing for Apple's tablet in the UK. Pre-orders are about to start today for obtaining the 3G-connected iPad at prices of £199 ($312) for the 16GB version, £249 ($391) for its 32GB sibling, or £349 ($626) for the one equipped with 64GB of storage. This is all subject to you signing up for a two-year plan costing £27 ($42) a month that'll give you 1GB of anytime data, 1GB of off-peak data (judged by Orange to be between midnight and 4pm), and 3GB of BT Openzone WiFi access for each twelfth of the year. The expectation is that Orange's new best bud, T-Mobile, will be offering similar pricing shortly, leaving us to wonder what Vodafone and O2 might be cooking up. The day of the subsidized tablet might be with us sooner than we thought.
[Thanks, Jon]
P.S. - We've just spotted that Three, the UK's 3G-only network, is also planning to sell the iPad "in the coming months." Pricing and data allowances, however, have yet to be revealed.

Orange UK prices 3G iPad at £199 on two-year contract, taking pre-orders today originally appeared onEngadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 08:52:00 EDT.

Boeing's Spectrolab subsidiary set to mass produce 39.2 percent efficient solar cells

Boeing's Spectrolab subsidiary has been working on making solar cells more and more efficient for years now, and it looks like it's now set to put its latest record-breaking cells into mass production. Those come in the form of the company's new C3MJ+ solar cells, which boast an average conversion efficiency of 39.2 percent, making them the most efficient mass produced cells to date. What's more, Spectrolab says that since the new cells are so similar to its current C3MJ production cells, it should be relatively easy for customers already using those to upgrade to the new cells. Still no word on a price, it seems, but the new cells should be available in January. And, yes, Spectrolab is also hard at work on breaking its own record -- it hopes to crack the 40 percent mark later in 2011.

Boeing's Spectrolab subsidiary set to mass produce 39.2 percent efficient solar cells originally appeared onEngadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:31:00 EDT.

Tokyoflash brings RPM LED wristwatch concept to reality (video)

Tokyoflash, purveyor of all things awesome when it comes to watches, has just unveiled its latest addition. If you're of the eagle-eyed variety, you've probably spotted it just to the right (or after the break in video form). The difference between this fellow and most of the timepieces found here is pretty simple: the RPM LED watch started as a fan render. Over the months, the company took this grand idea and made it a reality, now offering it to anyone with with more money than sense. The operation is semi-simple -- the inner ring shows the hour, while the outer ring shows the minutes. There's a group of five LEDs at the top that further explains the latter, and we're hearing that the band itself pushes the IQ of the wearer higher by 12 to 15 points. Even if confirmed by a respected panel of mad scientists, we still say it's not worth the $208.42 asking price, but you're obviously free to disagree vehemently.

Continue reading Tokyoflash brings RPM LED wristwatch concept to reality (video)

Tokyoflash brings RPM LED wristwatch concept to reality (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:56:00 EDT.

Manufacture Royale debuts $1.2 million Opera accordion watch, Sir Steampunk scoffs

Well, pardon us. We balked at the $208 price tag affixed to Tokyoflash's RPM LED wristwatch, but the value proposition there now looks an awful lot brighter when compared to this. Manufacture Royale's looking to catch at least one or two elitists off guard with its new Opera Time-Piece, a $1.2 million device that's composed of 319 parts in the wilds of Switzerland. Purportedly, it was designed by Fabrique du Temps, and the minute repeater plays the hours in the key of A as the minutes chime in C sharp. It's also encased in 18k gold, sapphire crystal and a healthy dose of self-worth. Word on the street has it that only a dozen of these will be made available for sale, with the accordion casing being the standout feature in our eyes. In a manner of speaking, of course.

Manufacture Royale debuts $1.2 million Opera accordion watch, Sir Steampunk scoffs originally appeared onEngadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:18:00 EDT.

Gateway stuffs Core i5-470UM, Bluetooth 3.0 into 11.6-inch EC19C-A52C/S laptop

Don't call it a netbook, capiche? Gateway has just outed a new 11.6-incher over in Japan, with the EC19C-A52C/S boasting some of the most impressive specifications we've seen in a unit this compact. A 1.33GHz dual-core Core i5-470UM processor sits at the heart of this here lappie, and it's accompanied by a 320GB hard drive, 1366 x 768 resolution display, 2GB of RAM, HDMI / VGA outputs, an inbuilt Ethernet port and a six-cell battery that should last half a dozen hours (on a good day). As expected, you'll also find a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) and Bluetooth 3.0 (a nice touch, we'll confess), with sales expected to start right about now in the Land of the Rising Sun. As for pricing? Try ¥65,000, or right around $775. Told you it didn't quite fit the netbook category.

Gateway stuffs Core i5-470UM, Bluetooth 3.0 into 11.6-inch EC19C-A52C/S laptop originally appeared onEngadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 20:02:00 EDT.

Nokia toys with context-aware smartphone settings switch, Jigsaw provides better context for apps like this

If Intel prognosticated correctly, context is the future of apps -- your device's array of sensors will determine where you are and what you're doing, and clever programs will guess from there. Problems arise, however, when one tries to run those accelerometers, microphones, radio antennas and GPS tracking devices constantly on the battery life of an average smartphone and determine what the raw data means, and that's where a group of Dartmouth researchers (and one Nokia scholar) are trying to stake their claim. They've got a bundle of algorithms called Jigsaw for iPhone and Symbian that claims to be able to continually report what you're up to (whether walking, running, cycling or driving) no matter where you place your device, and only pings the sensors as needed based on how active you are. (For better or for worse, Jigsaw also dodges the privacy concerns Intel's cloud-based API might raise by storing all personal data on the phone.)
Of course, we've had a very basic version of context-aware functionality for years in apps like Locale for Android and GPS-Action for Symbian -- which modifies your smartphone settings under very specific conditions you specify. Now, Espoo's doing much the same with an app called Nokia Situations. Presently in the experimental stage, Situations is a long ways away from the potential of frameworks like Jigsaw, but here you won't have to wait -- you can download a beta for Symbian^3, S60 5th Edition and S60 3.2 at our source links without further delay.

Nokia toys with context-aware smartphone settings switch, Jigsaw provides better context for apps like thisoriginally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 23:59:00 EST.

Sony aims for half of Japan's e-reader market by 2012

Given the dominance of Sony's Walkman over in the Land of the Rising Sun, it's a little surprising to think that Sony has been all but silent regarding the Japanese e-reader market. We heard back in May that the mega-corp was planning an e-reader launch in Japan by the year's end, aiming to build out an elaborate e-book distribution platform with local telecom operator KDDI. Fast forward a few months, and it seems as if thing's are finally falling into place. New reports are suggesting that the 5- and 6-inch Sony Reader devices will be on sale in Japan on December 10th, with pricing set for ¥20,000 ($237) / ¥25,000 ($297), respectively. Additionally, it's planning to crack the seal on an online e-bookstore with around 20,000 titles, and that one should be ready to roll prior to the "year-end shopping rush." Perhaps more stunning, however, is Sony's intentions to "sell 300,000 Readers in the first year and win half the domestic market by 2012" -- that's according to Sony Marketing Japan president Nobuki Kurita. Bold words, Sony, but we love the ambition.

Sony aims for half of Japan's e-reader market by 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 04:04:00 EDT.

DARwIn-OP humanoid revealed, ready to open source your robotics program

The next version of the RoboCup-famous DARwIn bot is about ready to give the Nao a run for its money. The new DARwIn-OP from Robotis and Virginia Tech's RoMeLa (led by Dr. Dennis Hong, who joined us on the Engadget Show earlier this year) is just about to land, and the first pictures of the finished thing have started to circulate. While the bot is designed to perform, with sensors and servos suitable for higher-end robotics, the main thrust of the design is the open source and modular nature of the hardware and software. The bot can be purchased as a product from Robotis, but the CAD files are publicly available, and its plastic parts can be fabricated by the end user to save money (you do have a 3D printer, right?). Rumor has it the robot will retail for around $8,000, around half the cost of its closed source Nao competition. The full unveil of the robot is due at the IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots a couple weeks from now.

DARwIn-OP humanoid revealed, ready to open source your robotics program originally appeared on Engadgeton Sun, 28 Nov 2010 10:10:00 EDT.

Kinect used to control Super Mario on a PC, redefine convergence (video)

If, like us, you've been waiting to see Kinect in control of a truly marquee game, your wait has now come to an end. The same fella that brought us the Kinect lightsaber has returned with a hack enabling eager nostalgics to enjoy a bout of Super Mario controlled only by their body contortions. OpenKinect was used to get the motion-sensing peripheral -- originally intended exclusively for use with an Xbox 360 -- to communicate with his PC, while a simple NES emulator took care of bringing the 25-year old plumber to life. The video awaits after the break.

Continue reading Kinect used to control Super Mario on a PC, redefine convergence (video)

Kinect used to control Super Mario on a PC, redefine convergence (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 12:59:00 EDT.

iPhone 3G, 3GS get iOS 4.2.1 unlock, using risky ultrasn0w workaround

Can't wait another minute for your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS to be carrier-unlocked once more? If and only if you're already running the latest firmware, you can actually pilfer a bit of iPad code to pick the requisite locks -- though there are some serious risks in doing so. The iPhone Dev Team has a new version of PwnageTool that uses the 6.15.00 baseband from iPad firmware 3.2.2, which which just so happens to run perfectly on the iPhone 3G and 3GS since both phones and tablets of that era use the same Infineon radio chip. If you know your way around an IPSW and regularly bench-press SHSH blobs, you can download all the software you need right now -- but if you don't, you might want to steer clear of the proceedings for the time being. We spoke about risks a moment ago, and in this case there are quite a few -- like the inability to downgrade from baseband 6.15 or ever do a full restore unless Apple relations improve, and it's fairly likely that Cupertino won't look kindly on your warranty if they find you running iPad software. Them's the breaks, kid.

iPhone 3G, 3GS get iOS 4.2.1 unlock, using risky ultrasn0w workaround originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AMOLED shortage to become a surplus in 2011

Samsung's beautiful Super AMOLED panels are becoming more and more common in mobile devices, but they're not as common as they could be if there were more of the things flying out of Samsung Mobile Display factories. Predictably that's set to change in 2011, with SMD planning to fulfill its promise and bring another production facility online, while other competitors in Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore will ramp up their own AMOLED facilities in the coming year. Meanwhile, China is said to be working on its OLED supply chain as well, meaning those displays of the passive matrix variety will also be flying off of assembly lines soon. So, 2011 may still not be the year of a chicken in every pot, but it could be the year of glowy organic goo in every smartphone.

AMOLED shortage to become a surplus in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.