Sony’s January 9th Announcement Will Be That Oblong Netbook… Thing [Laptops]

The cryptic countdown in New Zealand and the FCC info about the strange, elongated maybe-netbook are almost certainly for the same product, according to a Japanese teaser site.

In the flash animation at the front of Sony’s Japanese Vaio page an masked device that matches the leaked dimensions of the shallow, long miniature laptop can be clearly seen. The site dubs the product “Sony New Mobile”, which fits quite well with the previous “It’ll change the way you look at laptops” blind teaser, and implies the same mobile connectivity focus that was evident in the leaked specs.
The main question now is one of price. Will Sony aim for the affordable heart of the netbook market, just sell an oddly-shaped, regularly priced laptop or—and I’d say this is a likely possibility—end up with a product that sits uncomfortably between netbooks and traditional laptops in both price and performance? Regardless, the form factor is interesting and we’ll find out more spes (and if it’s coming to the US) on January 9th, probably at CES. [Sony.jp via Electronista]

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SlingPlayer For Windows Mobile Comes to Loads More Phones [SlingPlayer Mobile]

The aging SlingPlayer for Windows Mobile has been updated, and almost exclusively for compatibility. The app will now run on most modern phones, including (finally) 640×480, 800×480, 400×240 and 320×320 handsets.

The official list of supported phones now includes the following:

Sprint Treo 800w
Sony Ericsson X1
Palm Treo Pro
Sprint HTC Touch Diamond
Sprint HTC Touch Pro
Verizon HTC Touch Pro
Verizon Samsung Saga
Verizon Samsung Omnia
AT&T LG Incite
AT&T HTC Fuze
AT&T Samsung Epix
HP iPAQ 910
AT&T Pantech Duo
Sprint Samsung ACE
Verizon XV6900

That said, almost any phone running a compatible resolution should be fine (Touch HD, anyone?). [Sling]

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Best of Giz Explains 2008: Stuff You Absolutely Need to Know [Giz Explains]

I hope you guys learned as much reading Giz Explains this year as I did writing them. Here are the best, the ones explaining stuff you absolutely must know.

• Every Video Format You Need to Know: Do you download video from the internets? Read this! It also has delicious pancakes.

• Why HD Video Downloads Aren’t Very High Def: You’re downloading and watching more video than ever online, so you should know the dirty secrets about the video quality that services like Apple TV call HD.

• How to Buy an HDTV Like a Pro: Combine this super-servicey edition of Giz Explains with our complete how-to-buy-an-HDTV follow-up, and you’ll hear Best Buy employees’ knees knock every time you pull into the parking lot.

An Illustrated Guide to Every Stupid Cable You Need: Our first illustrated guide to something with an infinitely stupid number of permutations, our picto-guide to cables and ports covers essentially every major kind you’ll come across in today’s tangly, not-quite-wireless world—except Apple’s Mini DisplayPort, but, uh, screw that.

• Everything You Wanted to Know About DRM: An extensive catalog of every major type of DRM known to man, and just how each one makes watching movies, listening to music or playing games more of a pain in the ass than it should be, including hits like “Why can’t you play music from the iTunes Store on a Zune?” and “Did my rental download just go away?”

• Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives: From every stupid connector to why they die and you’re left cursing and pulling your hair out to its rhythmic, mocking clicking, this covers it all.

• An Illustrated Guide to Smartphone OSes: A basic rundown of every smartphone OS, from the iPhone to Windows Mobile, with pictures, because we love pictures.

• An Illustrated Guide to Every Stupid Memory Card You Need: You could try to actually keep up with every stupid spin on plastic cards with memory jammed inside of them, or you could bookmark our sweet guide.

There is, of course, more where all that came from. If there’s something we didn’t get around to explaining this year that you’re dying to know, hit us up with your pressing query at tips@gizmodo.com with “Giz Explains” in the subject line.

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Chimp in Japan Gets Popcorn Machine for Xmas, Freaks Out [Merri Kurisumasu]

I know some of you might be tempted to get gadgets as Christmas presents for your pets, so here’s a tip: Chimpanzees don’t like popcorn machines. Don’t say we never help you out! [Japanprobe]

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You Will Probably Be Reading Gizmodo on Christmas Day [Christmas Is Dead]

It’s okay, everyone’s doing it: Two-thirds of adults will be online for an average of 84 minutes tomorrow. So we’ll all be, collectively, reading Giz, and avoiding our families. [Evening Standard via Fark]

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For the first time ever (yes, ever!), this year’s Rose Parade in Pasadena, California will be headed up by a hydrogen-powered vehicle. Honda’s fuel cell-equipped FCX Clarity will lead the 120th parade, and the pace car will be followed by the Super Cub motorcycle — the first model sold in the United States. As fancy as these two are, it’s the ASIMO that’ll undoubtedly steal the show, and yes, we’re talking about the 49-foot iteration we spotted a few days back. Catch Honda’s trio riding high on January 1 at 8:00AM PST; after that, it’s time to place your bets between USC and Penn State.

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Hydrogen-powered Honda FCX Clarity, giant ASIMO to lead Rose Parade originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via [Engadget]

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Dell confirms shocking truth: Adamo to rival MacBook Air

In a confusing timeline of events that only Charlton Heston could love, Dell confirmed today that it already has touted its soon-to-be-unveiled “Adamo” as a rival to the MacBook Air in a blogvertisement that posed itself as a rumor that Adamo would do just that:

“Rumor has it that Dell is coming out with a computer called Adamo that will rival the MacBook Air. At press time, the company was keeping the product tightly under wraps, but PC users rejoice - word on the street is that something cool is coming your way.”

The adblog appeared on a “luxury internet magazine,” and was noticed by The New York Times Bits Blog, who bounced the copy off Dell, which confirmed it as an ad: “We did this to wake up the personal computing category and create some buzz.” This further confirms (or perhaps pre-confirms) what we’ve heard about Adamo, but we’re looking forward to the actual unveiling of this laptop and forming our own real, factual opinions on the thing.

Filed under: Laptops

Dell confirms shocking truth: Adamo to rival MacBook Air originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell confirms shocking truth: Adamo to rival MacBook Air

In a confusing timeline of events that only Charlton Heston could love, Dell confirmed today that it already has touted its soon-to-be-unveiled “Adamo” as a rival to the MacBook Air in a blogvertisement that posed itself as a rumor that Adamo would do just that:

“Rumor has it that Dell is coming out with a computer called Adamo that will rival the MacBook Air. At press time, the company was keeping the product tightly under wraps, but PC users rejoice - word on the street is that something cool is coming your way.”

The adblog appeared on a “luxury internet magazine,” and was noticed by The New York Times Bits Blog, who bounced the copy off Dell, which confirmed it as an ad: “We did this to wake up the personal computing category and create some buzz.” This further confirms (or perhaps pre-confirms) what we’ve heard about Adamo, but we’re looking forward to the actual unveiling of this laptop and forming our own real, factual opinions on the thing.

Filed under: Laptops

Dell confirms shocking truth: Adamo to rival MacBook Air originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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For the first time ever (yes, ever!), this year’s Rose Parade in Pasadena, California will be headed up by a hydrogen-powered vehicle. Honda’s fuel cell-equipped FCX Clarity will lead the 120th parade, and the pace car will be followed by the Super Cub motorcycle — the first model sold in the United States. As fancy as these two are, it’s the ASIMO that’ll undoubtedly steal the show, and yes, we’re talking about the 49-foot iteration we spotted a few days back. Catch Honda’s trio riding high on January 1 at 8:00AM PST; after that, it’s time to place your bets between USC and Penn State.

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Hydrogen-powered Honda FCX Clarity, giant ASIMO to lead Rose Parade originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via [Engadget]

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This is How You Explain Malware To Your Grandparents [Malware]

Show them this. Explain that opening all those damn attachments is the equivalent of letting a bunch of dudes with hairy arms reach through the internet, into their homes. Watch their reaction.

The image is taken from Sophos’ 2009 security threat report, which says 37% of malware comes from inside the US, 27% comes from China, and 9.1% from Russia. China’s actually down from their previous position of being responsible for more than half of worldwide malware in 2007. USA! USA! USA! [DigitalTrends]

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