Subscribe:

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Shops Online

Shops Online

Volkswagen's People's Car Project in China offers three concepts, including a ho...

Posted: 06 May 2012 01:32 PM PDT

Volkswagen's People's Car Project in China offers three concepts, including a hovering EV


Volkswagen's People's Car Project in China offers three concepts, including a hovering EV
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Volkswagen, China Last year, Volkswagen commenced its People's Car Project in China to create crowdsourced concepts of the VW of the future. More than 33 million people visited the site, and three concepts were created from the inputs: the Music Car, the Hover Car and the Smart Key. The Music Car is a Beetle wrapped in LEDs that change colors to match the driver's choice of music. The Hover Car is a zero-emissions two-seater that, no surprise, hovers over electromagnetic road networks. The Smart Key is Big Brother for your car, for your pocket: the hig-def touchscreen on the nine millimeter key can track the status of your car and keep an eye on it via "satellite transmission." The project is continuing, so you can still post your thoughts to VW's future. In the meantime there's a video and a couple of press releases after the jump for more on the story.Continue reading Volkswagen's People's Car Project in China offers three concepts, including a hovering EVVolkswagen's People's Car Project in China offers three concepts, including a hovering EV originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 06 May 2012 16:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

PSA: AT&T's HTC One X now in stock, get it while it's frosty

Posted: 06 May 2012 11:53 AM PDT

PSA: AT&T's HTC One X now in stock, get it while it's frosty


PSA: AT&T's HTC One X now in stock, get it while it's frosty
While the AT&T One X is getting some flack for being blocked from HTC's bootloader unlocking program, the good news is that it's officially available starting today. So long as you're not phased with having Sense 4 sprinkled on top of your 4.7-inch Ice Cream Sandwich, the dual-core, LTE-enabled device is on offer in gray or white for $200 with a two-year contract ($150 if you order through Amazon Wireless). Hit up the source links below to get your hands on a One X to call your own -- and don't forget parse our review if you're still making up your mind about this frosty treat.PSA: AT&T's HTC One X now in stock, get it while it's frosty originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Android Central | AT&T | Email this | Comments

Editing Text On Your iPad? Speed Up The Process With SwipeSelection

Posted: 06 May 2012 11:05 AM PDT

Editing Text On Your iPad? Speed Up The Process With SwipeSelection


Editing Text On Your iPad? Speed Up The Process With SwipeSelection
More than a few people have been clamoring for Daniel Hooper's thoughtful iPad text editing concept to become a real thing since his video started making the rounds, and now all you mobile text editors have reason to celebrate. Thanks to the efforts of an intrepid iOS hacker named Kyle Howells, that awesome vision of quick-and-painless text editing has been realized with a new (and free) iOS tweak called SwipeSelection.

OS X Lion update accidentally outs user passwords in plain text, stumbles over F...

Posted: 06 May 2012 10:16 AM PDT

OS X Lion update accidentally outs user passwords in plain text, stumbles over FileVault


OS X Lion update accidentally outs user passwords in plain text, stumbles over FileVault
Are you an avid user of OS X's FileVault encryption and running a recently updated version of Lion? It may be time to consider changing your passwords. According to security researcher David Emry, users who used FileVault prior to upgrading to 10.7.3 may be able to find their password in a system-wide debug log file, stored in plain text outside of the encrypted area. This puts the password at risk of being read by other users or enterprising cyber criminals, Emry explains, and even opens the door for new flaw-specific malware. FileVault 2, on the other hand, seems to be unaffected by the bug. The community doesn't currently have a way to fight the flaw, so users rushing to change their password now may find it being logged as well. Obviously, we'll let you all know once we hear back from Apple regarding this matter.OS X Lion update accidentally outs user passwords in plain text, stumbles over FileVault originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 12:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | ZDNet | Email this | Comments

Norway's Zero team crosses Europe in hydrogen cars without a backup

Posted: 06 May 2012 07:45 AM PDT

Norway's Zero team crosses Europe in hydrogen cars without a backup


Norway's Zero team crosses Europe in hydrogen cars without a backup
It's not quite a trip around the world, but a trek that Norway's Zero team recently undertook in a pair of hydrogen-fueled cars is certainly an impressive enough feat in its own right. Late last month, they drove two Hyundai Ix35 FCEVs from Oslo to Monte Carlo (admittedly one of the easier ways to technically "cross Europe"), relying solely on the existing hydrogen refueling infrastructure -- that's as opposed to other trips that brought along fuel trucks as backup. As the team explains, the key to the trip was some careful planning at the outset, but they apparently still wound up cutting it close a few times, and were forced to put their hypermiling skills to the test. Not surprisingly, they found that the hydrogen infrastructure still needs to be considerably improved for such trips to become commonplace, but they seem hopeful that things could soon improve.Norway's Zero team crosses Europe in hydrogen cars without a backup originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Wired Autopia | Zero | Email this | Comments

SAE Congress: GE charges up Nissan's EV plans

Posted: 06 May 2012 06:05 AM PDT

SAE Congress: GE charges up Nissan's EV plans


SAE Congress: GE charges up Nissan's EV plans
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Nissan, SAE World Congress, VideosNissan and GE shared a booth at the SAE World Congress in Detroit recently to emphasize the way the two companies want to connects your car and various appliances to the emerging smart grid. The common piece of equipment is the new WattStation, which is an electric vehicle charging station that - along with the companion piece of software called WattStation Connect - gives plug-in vehicle drivers "the ability to manage and set customer pricing for EV charging, provide access control at their facilities, generate valuable reports and engage with customers in new ways." Some of those new ways include powering your home from your electric car, keeping track of electricity usage and having the charging stations (when used publicly) talk to navigation software to broadcast availability. Rental company Hertz was also involved in the development of the WattStation Connect software. You can see a video of the WattStation at the Congress down below. Nissan was also proudly displaying a placard about the expansion of the CHAdeMO fast-charging protocol. It said that when the CHAdeMO association was established in March, 2010, there were just six CHAdeMO DC quick charger manufacturers, all of them Japanese, and only 192 chargers were installed globally. Two years later, at the end of March 2012, there are 33 manufacturers and 1,071 DC quick chargers installed around the world. Those are good numbers for the charging protocol, but a challenger is coming in the form of a new, eight-automaker-approved alternative fast-charging standard being unveiled at EVS26 this week. How these two options will battle it out in the coming years will be most interesting to watch.Continue reading SAE Congress: GE charges up Nissan's EV plansSAE Congress: GE charges up Nissan's EV plans originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 06 May 2012 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Screen Grabs: Are agents on Fringe flashing their Google Wallet?

Posted: 06 May 2012 06:05 AM PDT

Screen Grabs: Are agents on Fringe flashing their Google Wallet?


Screen Grabs: Are agents on Fringe flashing their Google Wallet?
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com. We're not sure exactly what the FBI's standard issue kit consists of, but we imagine it has more than a few bits of secret tech. These screen grabs from this week's Fringe, however, would have us believe that the rogue agents like to pick up their tabs with what looks like Google Wallet. We can clearly see a Sprint-branded Galaxy Nexus being used to for a not-so-undercover financial transaction. At least it looks like the agents might have had an upgrade since we last saw them around these parts. [Thanks, Te-je]Continue reading Screen Grabs: Are agents on Fringe flashing their Google Wallet?Screen Grabs: Are agents on Fringe flashing their Google Wallet? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 08:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Origin PC upgrading pre-Ivy Bridge orders with new silicon, asking nothing in re...

Posted: 06 May 2012 03:32 AM PDT

Origin PC upgrading pre-Ivy Bridge orders with new silicon, asking nothing in return


Origin PC upgrading pre-Ivy Bridge orders with new silicon, asking nothing in return
Sure, you may need to shop around to find a replacement for that 11-inch number Dell pulled off the shelves, but that doesn't mean you need to miss out on a free Ivy Bridge upgrade. Origin PC tells us that it's offering the very same silicon swap as Dell to folks who pulled the trigger on any of its laptop and desktop PCs before Intel's big launch. If your order hasn't shipped yet, you're looking at an upgrade. Now if only we could find a manufacturer willing to hand out free GPU upgrades.Origin PC upgrading pre-Ivy Bridge orders with new silicon, asking nothing in return originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 06:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Origin PC | Email this | Comments

Intel's PCI-E 910-Series SSD reviewed: blazing fast, even under pressure

Posted: 06 May 2012 01:50 AM PDT

Intel's PCI-E 910-Series SSD reviewed: blazing fast, even under pressure


Intel's PCI-E 910-Series SSD reviewed: blazing fast, even under pressure
Intel's not one to mess around when it storms a new market, and its jump into enterprise-level PCI Express SSD seemed no exception. Now, a full review by Hot Hardware of its 400GB ($1,929) and 800GB ($3,859) 910-series confirms that while not as stupid-fast as some, the 2 GB/s read and 1 GB/s write speeds are still sublime. On top of that, throughput holds steady even when the device is besieged by thousands of IO demands. A lack of bootability and on-board RAID were complaints, but these SSDs are intended for datacenters, not your gaming PC. And for its target market, the lowish $4.82 price per GB and chart-topping 14 Petabyte max endurance are also endearing qualities. Given its history of SSD reliability, Intel is bound to draw a crowd of corporate admirers to its 910 series -- even though it's fashionably late to the boardroom.Intel's PCI-E 910-Series SSD reviewed: blazing fast, even under pressure originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 04:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Hot Hardware | Email this | Comments

Blue Origin dishes more details on its Bezos-backed spacecraft

Posted: 05 May 2012 11:23 PM PDT

Blue Origin dishes more details on its Bezos-backed spacecraft


Blue Origin dishes more details on its Bezos-backed spacecraft
Blue Origin typically keeps pretty tight-lipped about its projects. The private space-travel firm claims it prefers to talk about what is has done, rather than what it hopes to do. As such, We recently heard about its "Space Vehicle" (that's its actual name,) having completed wind-tunnel testing, and now the firm (partly funded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos) has revealed a little more. The craft in question is a seven-seater, and it took 180 rigorous tests to get to the final design. Blue Origin has been working with NASA under the agency's CCDev program, which awarded the firm $22 million to develop the project. Under the same initiative, Blue Origin is about to start testing on its BE-3 engine thrust chamber, which will help give the BE-3 rocket motor its 100,000 pounds of thrust. Once complete, this engine will be used in the company's multi-launch vehicle, and is currently on the test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. We'll spare you the puns about it not being "rocket science".Blue Origin dishes more details on its Bezos-backed spacecraft originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 02:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Space | Email this | Comments

Ariel Atom-inspired simulator touts world's first 180-degree spherical projector...

Posted: 05 May 2012 09:46 PM PDT

Ariel Atom-inspired simulator touts world's first 180-degree spherical projector screen (video)


Ariel Atom-inspired simulator touts world's first 180-degree spherical projector screen (video)
The Ariel Atom is arguably one of the greatest bangs for the buck in terms of sports car performance, so it's no surprise that the automaker has paired up with Motion Simulation to design a particularly special simulator for both hardcore fans as well pro racing drivers and pilots. The TL1 has the world's first 180-degree spherical projection unit (technically, three projector screens acting as one) to give you that advance view of the apex without display bezels getting in the way. Its seat not only adjusts to fit different breeds of cars and aircraft but, if you opt for it, tucks in a motion transducer that will properly jolt you when you hit a bump in the road. What may please extra-serious racing game fans the most is the off-the-shelf nature of the computer needed to drive the TL1 properly: as long as your graphics hardware can handle the extra-wide 5760 x 1200 resolution, any typical Windows XP or Windows 7 desktop will do. The real question is whether your wallet can handle it, as the £11,500 ($18,573) PC-less starting price will make it tempting to buy a real Atom instead.Continue reading Ariel Atom-inspired simulator touts world's first 180-degree spherical projector screen (video)Ariel Atom-inspired simulator touts world's first 180-degree spherical projector screen (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Autoblog | Motion Simulation | Email this | Comments

Pair vs. Pair: Pair The App Is Getting Sued By Pair Networks, The Hosting Company

Posted: 05 May 2012 08:08 PM PDT

Pair vs. Pair: Pair The App Is Getting Sued By Pair Networks, The Hosting Company


Pair vs. Pair: Pair The App Is Getting Sued By Pair Networks, The Hosting Company
It was less than a week ago that Tenthbit, the developers of the buzzy, new social-networking-app-for-couples (or other partners) Pair, picked up a $4.2 million seed round, money the founders said would be used to expand its mobile development and design teams. Now it looks like some of those funds might also need to go to legal bills. Tenthbit is getting sued by pair Networks, a hosting and domain registration company based in Pittsburgh, for trademark infringement. Tenthbit, meanwhile, has also sued pair Networks, to prevent the other suit from going ahead. Pair Networks is asking for an injunction on Pair the app, as well as "other relief as this Court deems appropriate." Tenthbit argues the two do not compete directly, and would therefore not result in any brand confusion.

Ask Engadget: best lens for wedding photography?

Posted: 05 May 2012 07:18 PM PDT

Ask Engadget: best lens for wedding photography?


Ask Engadget: best lens for wedding photography?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Van, who needs some help recording his sister's wedding. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I'm supposed to be shooting my sister's wedding in June, with an outdoor ceremony and an indoor reception. I've got a Canon T2i (550D, non-Americans) with the kit 18-55mm lens and a 50mm f.18 prime lens. I'm looking for suggestions for an additional lens I could rent for the day, would a 200mm or a telephoto be worth it? Also, if anyone can suggest a good filter for an afternoon shoot, that'd be very welcome. Thanks!" That's the second wedding-related query we've had this year -- there must be something in the water. We're sure plenty of you want to help Van's sister's big day go perfectly, so any photogs, camera buffs and bridezillas with an opinion, please add them below.Ask Engadget: best lens for wedding photography? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 22:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Mobile Miscellany: week of April 30th, 2012

Posted: 05 May 2012 07:18 PM PDT

Mobile Miscellany: week of April 30th, 2012


Mobile Miscellany: week of April 30th, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, we saw the first rollout of Verizon LTE from one of its rural partners, and both the Optimus L7 and Xperia U were spotted for Fido. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of April 30th, 2012.Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of April 30th, 2012Mobile Miscellany: week of April 30th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 21:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments

AT&T's One X discovered to have 'restricted' bootloader, HTC responds

Posted: 05 May 2012 06:30 PM PDT

AT&T's One X discovered to have 'restricted' bootloader, HTC responds


AT&T's One X discovered to have 'restricted' bootloader, HTC responds
Since last year, HTC itself has been happy to let you unlock the bootloaders on its Android devices, but that doesn't mean you'll always be able to. If you'll recall, the international version of the One X was rooted just a few weeks ago, but such access apparently isn't in the cards for the AT&T-branded variant. The inconsistency was discovered by the likes of the XDA-Developers forums and MoDaCo, and after we pinged HTC for comment it responded with the following: HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we'll continue to unlock additional devices in the future." While HTC clearly isn't spilling the beans on what "restrictions" are blocking this variant of the Android superphone from entering the land of custom ROMs, it's become a general suspicion that AT&T might be the source. Naturally, we can't know for sure at this point, but we've reached out to the carrier in hopes of potentially getting more details on the situation. We'll be sure to keep you posted if we hear anything, but in the meantime, hit up the more coverage links below for further info. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]AT&T's One X discovered to have 'restricted' bootloader, HTC responds originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 20:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Verizon takes the lead on text to 911 services

Posted: 05 May 2012 04:52 PM PDT

Verizon takes the lead on text to 911 services


Verizon takes the lead on text to 911 services
The FCC first outlined its intention to allow texting to emergency services back in 2010, and since then despite more talk of accepting photo and video messages, nothing official came to be. This week, however, Verzion has taken the initiative, and announced its own plans to enable text to 911 for its customers. Working with TeleCommunication Systems, the big red hopes that it can facilitate the sending of SMS messages to emergency call-centers as soon as early 2013. Texting isn't just about adding communication options, it also provides a valuable tool to the deaf, hard of hearing and situations where talking is dangerous, or not possible. The service will use existing CDMA and SMS networks, and therefore should be available to all customers once finally rolled out.Continue reading Verizon takes the lead on text to 911 servicesVerizon takes the lead on text to 911 services originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Venturebeat | | Email this | Comments

Facebook Messenger update makes it even harder to blow people off

Posted: 05 May 2012 03:15 PM PDT

Facebook Messenger update makes it even harder to blow people off


Facebook Messenger update makes it even harder to blow people off
Your friends just don't get it. While they're still bumming around in Nikes, dorms and doomed relationships, your life has recently become more serious. That's why you sometimes need to hide from their constant, mindless barrage of messages, and also why you probably won't install the newly updated Facebook Messenger app v1.7. In line with FB's "mobile first" strategy, it debuts key new functions on iOS and Android, including instant and compulsory "seen by" read receipts as well as optional "sent from" notifications. So, in addition to knowing how aloof you've become, they'll be able to track you down and slap your face.Facebook Messenger update makes it even harder to blow people off originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Google Play, iTunes | Email this | Comments