Gadget Access

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 1:55PM
Research In Motion’s forthcoming blackberry Bold just got a little bit closer to reality. The device — which is said to be making its appearance on shelves around August — has shown up in the FCC’s files, getting the sensuous, loving treatment only the Federal Communications Commission can provide. Want to get deep inside the Bold’s situation? Hit the read link and begin your magical journey into SAR validation reports.

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by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 7:55AM
A number of shots have surfaced of an upcoming Sidekick that we’ve alternately known as the Gekko and Gecco, but the rumor du jour on the naming front is that we’ll actually be calling it “Sidekick 2008″ by the time it launches (later this month if we’re lucky). The grainy photography shows a device looking roughly like what we expect the new model to look like — but more interestingly, it shows the phone wearing a variety of different shells, some of which rock as much bedazzlement as a Swarovski one-off. Pretty cool. Oh, and don’t bother trying to go to sidekick.com.shells — we did, and it isn’t online yet.

[Via Hiptop 3]

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 9:38AM
We’ve all dreamed of wire clutter-free home theaters for years (admit it), and Belkin is about to make things a lot easier with the FlyWire. The new wireless transmitter and receiver can send 1080p video over a 5GHz band. Belkin promises little to no interference and no latency even for you gamers. As for connections, we’re looking at three HDMI ins, two component ins, one composite, and one HDMI out. Remote control is done via IR, which should be welcome news to those of you with universal remotes. FlyWire will come in two packages: The FlyWire AV69003 at $999.99 is meant for a whole-home solution with an IR backchannel for multi-room control, while the FlyWire R1 AV69000 at $699.99 is meant for a single room without the IR backchannel. Not exactly cheap, but a heck of a lot cheaper than those custom wireless installs, and a lot more pretty than ripping a hole in your wall for cables. FlyWire should hit stores in October.

Gallery: Belkin FlyWire

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by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 7:55AM
A number of shots have surfaced of an upcoming Sidekick that we’ve alternately known as the Gekko and Gecco, but the rumor du jour on the naming front is that we’ll actually be calling it “Sidekick 2008″ by the time it launches (later this month if we’re lucky). The grainy photography shows a device looking roughly like what we expect the new model to look like — but more interestingly, it shows the phone wearing a variety of different shells, some of which rock as much bedazzlement as a Swarovski one-off. Pretty cool. Oh, and don’t bother trying to go to sidekick.com.shells — we did, and it isn’t online yet.

[Via Hiptop 3]

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by Ryan Block, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 7:15AM
The App Store is live, and we’re taking a peek around before it implodes from curious users trying to download dozens of apps for their iPhones and iPods touch (or is that ipod touches?).

Already users can start downloading their programs (which are downloaded to their /Users/[user]/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications/ directory as .ipa files), but you can’t do anything with them until you get the 2.0 firmware (or an iphone 3G).

So far everything is really smooth and easy to use, although it’s easy to tell that the enormous amount of applications that will be available in the coming months (and years) will become a difficult thing to trudge through. It’s a high-class problem for Apple, but hopefully it won’t be too overwhelming to find something good if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for.

We’ll be keeping tally of some of the more noteworthy launch apps, although many we’ve already seen, and we’re updating as we go. Take a look at a few after the break!

Gallery: App Store hands-on, notable apps

AIM — We’re excited about this, though the fact you can’t turn off the sounds, coupled with the non-live message reception puts a little damper on the proceedings. We’re hoping this gets a bit more exciting when Apple’s push servers come online.

Google Mobile — “a great place to start your search”

Twitterrific — Finally, a legit, standalone Twitter client. We’re finding it to be quite buggy and slow, however — which seems to be a growing trend with apps we’re testing out.

Bomberman Touch — We love Bomberman, and we’ll take him in any form we can get him.

Epocrates Rx — An app to help identify “mystery pills” you might find. Very helpful, except that you’ve got to create an account to use the software, which is quite annoying.

NY Times — We want to like this, but it seems a bit top heavy. Loading up the front page took longer than it should have over WiFi. We could see this being a useful source of news if you’ve got the patience for it. A dedicated RSS reader will probably get you further though.

NYC Subways — This is a great idea, unfortunately it only provides scrollable images — no zooming or deeper info. We’d like to see an update to this ASAP. Still, it’s nice if you need to take a quick look for a train. There are quite a few options on the store for apps of this nature — CityTransit and the more expensive iTrans NYC both look like viable options.

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by Ryan Block, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 7:15AM
The App Store is live, and we’re taking a peek around before it implodes from curious users trying to download dozens of apps for their iPhones and iPods touch (or is that ipod touches?).

Already users can start downloading their programs (which are downloaded to their /Users/[user]/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications/ directory as .ipa files), but you can’t do anything with them until you get the 2.0 firmware (or an iphone 3G).

So far everything is really smooth and easy to use, although it’s easy to tell that the enormous amount of applications that will be available in the coming months (and years) will become a difficult thing to trudge through. It’s a high-class problem for Apple, but hopefully it won’t be too overwhelming to find something good if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for.

We’ll be keeping tally of some of the more noteworthy launch apps, although many we’ve already seen, and we’re updating as we go. Take a look at a few after the break!

Gallery: App Store hands-on, notable apps

AIM — We’re excited about this, though the fact you can’t turn off the sounds, coupled with the non-live message reception puts a little damper on the proceedings. We’re hoping this gets a bit more exciting when Apple’s push servers come online.

Google Mobile — “a great place to start your search”

Twitterrific — Finally, a legit, standalone Twitter client. We’re finding it to be quite buggy and slow, however — which seems to be a growing trend with apps we’re testing out.

Bomberman Touch — We love Bomberman, and we’ll take him in any form we can get him.

Epocrates Rx — An app to help identify “mystery pills” you might find. Very helpful, except that you’ve got to create an account to use the software, which is quite annoying.

NY Times — We want to like this, but it seems a bit top heavy. Loading up the front page took longer than it should have over WiFi. We could see this being a useful source of news if you’ve got the patience for it. A dedicated RSS reader will probably get you further though.

NYC Subways — This is a great idea, unfortunately it only provides scrollable images — no zooming or deeper info. We’d like to see an update to this ASAP. Still, it’s nice if you need to take a quick look for a train. There are quite a few options on the store for apps of this nature — CityTransit and the more expensive iTrans NYC both look like viable options.

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No middleman. Claims of paying their artists more than twice the royalty rate offered on commercial radio. Sounds pretty darn good for independent artists, doesn’t it? Last.FM is a music-streaming service that says they offer all of that and more.  The company actually launched in January of 2007, and has since been bought by CBS, so, they have some pretty strong backing holding them up. And they are starting to pass the longer running Sound Exchange even with the fact that royalty rates for music being streamed over the Internet has been raised; making it somewhat difficult for ad-supported start-ups to stay afloat. Some people though, say this is not wholly due to their really being all for the artist, but instead because they pay rock bottom royalty rates. From a commenter at DashGo regarding Last.Fm’s royalty tier - “Even bands that write just one great song deserve compensation for their copyright. Maybe not by a major label force bundling it into an album, but certainly at more than 30% of whatever pitifully low CPM Last.fm and CBS can dredge up - something they won’t even guarantee a floor on.”

However, Last.FM maintains they support smaller labels that possibly couldn’t exist on a site like SoundExchange due to their size, or for some other reason. They say that their account creation is up 60% since January and users have uploaded over 450,000 tracks. So, looks like somebody is listening at least.

I don’t know. A way to shake down the poor indie guys who can’t afford a label, or a site that seriously wants to support the local music scene? Music for the masses to offer it up in a cool new way, or a yet another dot.com simply out to roll in bucku-bucks at the expense of the little dude?  I think this one just may play out to be the former.

Via [TechCrunch]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 3:07AMSeveral Japanese tech giants are teaming together today in a quest to make 40-inch and larger OLED panels for televisions. Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp and others will participate under a joint development project initiated by the Japanese government. All of this is of course meant to help the Japanese companies compete with South Korea’s chaebols, particularly Samsung and LG, as the industry giants maneuver for an advantage over the next, next-generation flat panel technology to dominate the living room.

[Via OLED-info]

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Filed under: Displays

by Ryan Block, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 5:37AMWe know there are people lined up all over the world for the iphone 3G — so if you’re among the intrepid souls out there waiting to get yours, send in your photos (and stories) for our international launch lineblog. Just hit us up at iphone@engadget.com.

4:59PM, Auckland, New Zealand - We paid a visit to the soon-to-be first ten iPhone 3G owners waiting for Vodafone’s midnight New Zealand launch — despit the cold, people seem in pretty good spirits. More soon as the launch gets under way.

Japan should be going off sometime soon — send in some shots, people!

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by Tim Stevens, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 4:53AM
Car companies have been promising fully electric autos for decades, but it seems like we’re finally on the cusp of fuel-free, silent running. The Telsa, Zap, and Six50 EVs will all be on the road within the next year or so (we’re betting on “so”), and GM’s much-anticipated Volt plug-in will come a year after that. Nissan would like to politely remind you that it too plans to have an all-electric auto in U.S. by 2010, all the while lining up charging stations at places like commuter parking lots and train stations. The company recently showed off an all-electric version of its popular (in Japan) Cube at the NY Auto Show, so it’s a safe bet that the above is Nissan’s vision for the all-electric future of American highways. Shame they couldn’t have picked something a little sportier.

[Via Autoblog]

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Filed under: Transportation