BlackBerry Storm Doesn’t Need Wi-Fi or Tri-Band HSDPA Because Verizon Says So, Ok? [Blackberry Storm]

Though the omission of two all-but-standard smartphone features from BlackBerry’s Storm is disappointing, it isn’t totally inexplicable. BGR has confirmed through a “really top-level” Verizon source that the crippling was — surprise! — carried out at the behest of the wireless company. Few wireless providers are innocent of phone neutering, but this blatant promotion of their data service and the added network anchor that the lack of tri-band HSDPA protect interests that, well, don’t really need much protecting. Even with Wi-Fi, who the hell is going to buy a Storm without a data plan? Stop baiting us, Verizon. We like you. [BGR]

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Capital Gate Tower is Four Times as Crooked as the Leaning Tower of Pisa [Leaning Tower Of Abu Dhabi]

If you thought the Leaning Tower of Pisa was messed up, get a load of the Capital Gate tower currently being constructed in Abu Dhabi. Actually, saying it is “messed up” is incorrect given that the 18 degree westward incline was completely intentional. In fact, the project’s architects have submitted a joint application to the Guinness Book of Records to recognize the tower as the ‘most inclined in the world.’ In order to support the awkward angle of the 35-story structure, the design called for a foundation of extremely dense reinforced steel mesh and 490 piles sunk nearly 100 feet into the ground. We can only wonder how many slaves will die or get injured building that. [World Architecture News via The Design Blog]

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HP’s Compaq Mini 700 thinks he’s a Mini 1000, only better

Filed under: Laptops

Without a single official peep on the matter from HP (that we can find), its Compaq division has apparently announced a Mini 700 netbook in the UK that is a near spec-for-spec equivalent to HP’s Mini 1000 already available in the US. Only get this, it will feature a 10.2-inch, 1,024 x 600 (16:10 aspect ratio) display and optional HSDPA data radio when it ships in mid December for a £299 starting price… that’s 100 Quid less and two months before the UK’s Mini 1000 with 10.1-inch, 1,024 x 576 pixel (16:9 ratio) display hits the UK high street. Hey, that’s the hubbub in the British press. Care to elaborate HP?

[Via Trusted Reviews and Pocket-Lint]

HP’s Compaq Mini 700 thinks he’s a Mini 1000, only better originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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George W. Bush Urinal Pees Tribute to the Last 8 Years [Satisfying]

No matter who you are pulling for in this election, the popularity polls indicate that the vast majority of Americans are ready to see Bush pack up his things and get the hell out of the White House. While there is tons of anti-Bush paraphernalia out there, few things capture our disdain as well as “George W. Flush”—a design by famed urinal sculptor Clark Sorensen.

Unfortunately, this urinal is one of a kind, but it will be on display at his one-man show entitled “Down The Drain - The Legacy of George W. Bush.” at Ruby’s Clay Studio and Gallery in San Francisco. The show runs from January 17 to February 16, 2009. Hopefully, visitors will be allowed to relieve themselves in it. Let’s be honest—it would be satisfying on multiple levels. [Clark Sorensen via InventorSpot]

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Softbank’s New 1Seg Tuner Gives Japan’s iPhones Mobile TV Goodness [IPhone]

Softbank’s just stumped-up with this interesting mobile TV add-on for Japanese iPhone users: it’s a separate unit with tuner and aerial that retransmits the signal over Wi-fi to the phone. The rechargeable device will give about three hours of TV oggling, and connects to a special iPhone app that’ll be distributed free when the device hits the streets in mid December for a suggested price of around $100. Better still, the receiver unit doubles as an iPhone battery top-up when you link it via the dock connector, for double the utility. And just maybe it’ll pave the way for similar non-1seg devices this side of the Pacific. [AVWatch]

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Netflix HD Impressions, On Xbox 360 [Impressions]

While we’ve already reviewed what it’s like to stream Netflix movies on the New Xbox Experience, we missed that there were 300 pieces of HD content right below our noses. Since then, we loaded up The Thing in HD and gave Netflix Instant Streaming HD our full once-over.

How could we possibly miss the HD content, you ask? Well, it’s not marked anywhere as HD. Neither Netflix’s site nor the Xbox 360 is showing any discernible “HD” label on content until the moments when clips begin to buffer. Seeing as many of us may choose what we watch based upon the quality of feed, we hope this issue gets addressed soon. Right now it’s a “feeling lucky?” situation.

According to Netflix, streaming in HD requires a connection of 8mbps or greater. That’s a problem for me as my connection maxes around 5mbps. So while I was still able to stream HD, I was in their second quality tier, not first.
But still, the quality was very good. Compared to Netflix SD streaming, it’s much sharper, but maybe even more important, the frame rate is far better. Netflix SD has noticeable breaks in motion, like a web feed. Simple footage I watched in Netflix HD was as smooth as television.

As for sharpness, it looks like compressed HD normally looks. That means it’s not as sharp as a good Blu-ray or OTA HD. But it’s better than DVD. It looks like a crappy HD movie transfer, actually, somewhere between fine upconversion and best case scenario HD, probably leaning toward upconversion at my second-tier connection speed.

But since buffers take only 15 seconds, I mentally deemed the quality excellent, and definitely light years ahead of Netflix SD streaming.

There is one big catch in the user interface, however. Fast forwarding and rewinding have been completely disabled. Instead, you can only “skip” in 10-minute intervals. Ouch.
Also of note, those who convert HDMI to DVI into non-HDCP compliant displays may have issues (as in, the video will not play). However, all of my streaming was performed fine through component cables, so there are definitely some strange exceptions going on with certification.

So in terms of quality, the most important issue, we’re quite pleased with Netflix HD streams so far. But as for supporting features, like fast forwarding and an easy way to differentiate HD content, there’s some definite room for improvement.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Robots

Oh Rolly… we know you’re an overpriced, 2GB dancing robot with convoluted controls and questionable sound quality. But dammit, your impractical, big-corporate ways have gnawed a soft-spot deep into the noxious cesspool we call a heart. Now this: Rolly model SEP-50BT with Bluetooth control from your cellphone or laptop. Shipping in Japan on November 21st for an expected ¥40,000 or about $427. Sold. Watch it all unfold in the video after the break.

[Via Impress]

Continue reading Sony’s Rolly learns the Bluetooth trick

Sony’s Rolly learns the Bluetooth trick originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via [Engadget]

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New PSP Media Manager Integrates With the Playstation Store [PSP]

Just in case you are one of the few that have actually used the PSP Media Manager, you might be interested in knowing that a new update grants access to the PlayStation Store through the PC. It also helps out with syncing your music, photos and other digital content. Full details are available in the press release after the break.

New Media Manager for the PSP System

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) released a new Media Manager for the PSP System today. Designed to accommodate the expanding functionality of PlayStation®Portable (PSP), the Media Manager grants access to the PlayStation®Store through the PC, easing the process of browsing, purchasing, and downloading of games, movies and television shows. The Media Manager also allows for organizing and syncing your music, photos and other digital content for PSP.

“The latest firmware update for the PSP provides today’s entertainment enthusiasts with a truly mobile entertainment device by enabling the downloading of content on the go,” said Susan Panico, senior director of PlayStation®Network, SCEA. “Because of the enhanced functionality, we felt it was necessary to expand the role of the PC application by giving users a means to further acquire and organize content for their PSP in a way that is intuitive and familiar.”

With the recent PSP firmware update (v. 5.01), PlayStation added direct access to PlayStation®Store on PSP, enabling consumers to browse the store and download games whenever they’re at a Wi-Fi hotspot. With the launch of the new Media Manager for PSP, the current URL http://store.playstation.com will re-direct visitors to the new home page.

Users of the legacy Media Manager will be able to update their software to incorporate the new features including access to the PlayStation®Store. Consumers who own the retail version of Media Manager (v2.5) will be able to upgrade to the online Media Manager PRO (v3.0) for free.

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Windows 7 details galore: interface tweaks, netbook builds, Media Center enhancements

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Microsoft’s Windows 7 announcement earlier today was followed up by an extensive demo of the new features during the PDC keynote, and since then even more info about the new OS has flooded out, so we thought we’d try to wrap up some of the more important bits here for you. Microsoft seems to have done an impressive job at this early pre-beta stage, folding in next-gen interface ideas like multitouch into the same OS that apparently runs fine on a 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM, but we’ll see how development goes — there’s still a ways to go. Some notes:

• Obviously, the big news is the new taskbar, which forgoes text for icons and has new “jump lists” of app controls and options you can access with a right-click. You can select playlists in Media Player, for example. Super cool: when you scrub over the icons, all the other app windows go transparent so you can “peek” at the windows you’re pointing at.
• Gadgets now appear on the desktop — the sidebar has been killed. That makes more sense for all those laptop owners out there with limited screen space, and you can still see gadgets anytime by peeking at the desktop, rendering all other windows transparent.
• Window resizing and management now happens semi-automatically: dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it, pulling it down restores; dragging a window to the edges auto-resizes it to 50% for quick tiling. Nifty.
• The system tray now only displays what you explicitly say it should — everything else is hidden, and the controls have been streamlined.
• User Account Control settings are now much more fine-grained — you can set them by app and by level of access.
• They demoed multitouch features on an HP TouchSmart PC — it was pretty cool, although the usual nagging “what is this good for / that’ll get old fast” concerns weren’t really addressed. The Start menu gets 25 percent bigger when using touch to make it easier to handle, and apps will all get scroll support automatically. There’s also a giant on-screen predictive keyboard. Again — could be amazing, but we won’t know until it’s out in the wild.
• We’ve always known Microsoft intends Windows 7 to run on netbooks, and we got a small taste during the PDC keynote: Windows SVP Steve Sinofsky held up his “personal” laptop running Windows 7, an unnamed 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM that looked a lot like an Eee PC, and said that it still had about half its memory free after boot. (We’re guessing it was running a VIA Nano, since most Atoms run at 1.6GHz.)
• At the other end of the scale, Windows 7 supports machines with up to 256 CPUs.
• Multiple-monitor management is much-improved, as is setting up projectors — it’s a hotkey away. Remote Desktop now works with multiple monitors as well.
• Media Center has been tweaked as well — it looks a lot more like the Zune interface. There’s also a new Mini Guide when watching video, and a new Music Wall album artwork screensaver that kicks in when you’re playing music.
• Devs got a pre-beta today; a “pretty good” feature complete beta is due early next year. No word at all on when it’ll be released to market apart from that “three years from Vista” date we’ve known forever.

That’s just the good bits — hit the read links for piles of more info and screenshots, and we’ll keep our eyes out for anything else interesting. Exciting times!

Read - Keynote videos on the PDC site
Read - Technologizer Windows 7 hands-on
Read - Ars Technica Windows 7 interface walkthrough
Read - Laptop Windows 7 hands-on
Read - Windows 7 Media Center revealed

Windows 7 details galore: interface tweaks, netbook builds, Media Center enhancements originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kangaroom Carrying Case Tidies Up Gaming Slobbery [Organization]

Now that I live in visiting distance from my parents, they tend to come over a lot and nag me about how messy everything is. Since most of the crap I have lying around is related to gaming, I should probably invest in this case from Kangaroom, whose various organizing solutions we’ve covered a couple times before. The Gamer Pocket and Carrying Case drapes over any sofa arm and holds up to 8 Wii controllers or nunchucks, 8 games, and other accessories. If you want to take it on the go, flip it over and it turns into a mobile carrying case. Costs $30 off the website. [Kangaroom]

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