What's new on SlashGear.com |
- Samsung Promises Highest Possible Level of Protection against Data Loss with Self-Encrypted SSD
- Original Apple-1 Computer Sells for $210,000 USD in London
- Apple Proves People WILL Buy The Beatles Music from iTunes, Lots of it
- Razer’s TRON Legacy Gaming Mouse is Available Now
- Acer Android Tablets Hands-On
- Cricut Cake Printer Lets You Print Edible Goodies
- Sony PS3 Launching 50 3D-Capable Video Games in the Near Future
- A Week with NOOKcolor: Reading (aka Core Apps)
- WD TV Live and Live Plus Media Streaming Boxes Get Facebook Support, Plus More
- TÛRANOR PlanetSolar is World’s Largest Solar Powered Boat
- Are Premium 3D Glasses Worth It?
- US Army Testing Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot [Video]
- Acer 10.1-Inch Windows 7 Tablet Announced, Due in February
- Acer Alive: Next-Generation Store, Focuses on Real-Time
- Acer’s Clear.fi is Media Sharing Made Easy
- Acer 4.8-inch Android smartphone boasts 1024 x 480 display
- Acer Android Tablets Announced
- Dell Inspiron Duo hits UK on December 2
- Acer Iconia Dual-Screen Laptop Unveiled
- iPad production boosted as new Foxconn plant comes online
- SlashGear Morning Wrap-up: November 23 2010
- Opera 11 beta adds tab stacks & speed boost [Video]
- FCC 911 update could allow SMS, MMS & video stream reports
- Gliding snake research funded by US government
- Marvell Android tablet hands-on [Video]
- Cool Pop-up Microlites make your remote control light up
- Kingston outs Hyper Max 3.0 external USB 3.0 HDD
- Mvix USA offers Mini HD reform media streamer for a killer price on Cyber Monday
- Digital Storm unveils new Sub-Zero gaming PC with peltier cooled liquid
- Zagg unveils sweet sports leather back protection for iPhone and iPad
| Samsung Promises Highest Possible Level of Protection against Data Loss with Self-Encrypted SSD Posted: 23 Nov 2010 01:54 PM PST Samsung’s got a new Solid State Drive and they want you to take it for a spin. Samsung says it has the only Solid State Drive to feature Goverment-Grade AES 256-bit Encryption for the ultimate in security for your awesome files and such. This hardware encryption is always on, the data encryption and user authentication being performed “in the high security of the drive controller” instead of where it’d normally be stored, in the software. Software encryption works using the main CPU of the computer and stores info in the relatively insecure memory of the system, while SEDs (self-encrypting drives) encrypt at the speed of the interface making no impact on performance in the protected hardware of the SSD.
Inside this monster you’ll find AES encryption capability extended to 256 bit keys, secure updates of firmware in the drive, and soon FIPS 140-2 certification (“FIPS 140-2 is a set of widely acknowledged cryptography requirements issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)”). They’ve even got a graph showing you how awesome this SSD is! Done by Trusted Strategies earlier this month (November 2010), this graph shows how much better a system performs with a self-encrypting SSD compared to software encryption. So much better! As in, 2.4 times better performance than SSD + software encryption and basically 3.7 times better than a crappy ol’ HDD + software encryption. Take a look at the whole press release below:
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| Original Apple-1 Computer Sells for $210,000 USD in London Posted: 23 Nov 2010 01:17 PM PST Today at Christie’s auction house in the center of London, that Original Apple-1 (or Apple I) we mentioned 10 days ago sold for just a little under what it was expected to bring in, selling for a total of 133,250 pounds (about $210,000.) It came with a signed sales letter from Steve Jobs (you know who he is) and the original packaging. Christies mentioned in the sale that this computer, when introduced in 1976, was the only “personal computer” sold with a fully assembled motherboard, meaning the user would only have to purchase a keyboard, power supply, and display separately. Kinda like the beginning, ya know? The Apple I originally sold for $666.66 and was sold for about one year.
The final bid was made by Italian businessman Marco Bodlione, a man who fancies himself a private collector and his brother (who was at the auction) “The first time I had heard of the idea of a personal computer, it was from Marco,” Macro’s brother Boglione said. He bought it “because he loves computers.” Also present at the auction was none other than Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer. He was kind enough to add an autographed letter to the lot (though it’s unclear whether his letter went into this box or the greater lot of technology-related goods available at the auction.) “Today my heart went out as I got to see things auctioned off like the Turing documents and the Enigma machine and the Apple I,” Woz told journalists right after the auction. “It really was an important step – I didn’t feel that way when I designed it. … I’m very delighted for the gentleman who purchased it.” The Turing documents he speaks of are writings by British mathematician Alan Turing, and the Enigma is a historic German code-making machine. [Via AP on Yahoo!]
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| Apple Proves People WILL Buy The Beatles Music from iTunes, Lots of it Posted: 23 Nov 2010 12:53 PM PST Over the past few days there’s been talk about how in many cases, The Beatles can be purchased in physical form (CDs, for example) for much cheaper than they can be purchase over at iTunes. Case in point: this guy who found he could buy The Beatles box set for $100 in physical form or for $149 as a download on iTunes. Despite this, and despite the fact that, wait, doesn’t everyone already own all The Beatles music?, Apple sold two million songs or 450,000 albums in a week (according to Billboard.) Apple noted that the top album so far has been Abbey Road and the top song has been Here Comes the Sun (due in no small part more than likely to the new Apple/Beatles TV ad spot.
Take a peek at this advertisement: Then, since I know you love ads and The Beatles and Apple and all that good rock and roll, here’s the rest! Notice a trend yet? There’s one different one with them jamming. Here it is: Think of all the potentially brand new customers (and potentially old, yet brand new to the store customers) pouring in to find their favorite Beatles song, hopping around the store finding other songs, apps, movies, shows they like as well. Think of that. Brand ties like this come along only once in a great while, and this is a great one. [Via WSJ All Things Digital]
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| Razer’s TRON Legacy Gaming Mouse is Available Now Posted: 23 Nov 2010 12:24 PM PST Remember those TRON: Legacy peripherals that Razer unveiled a few months back? If you thought that you could probably find yourself buying one this year, then you’ll be happy to know that Razer stuck with their fourth quarter estimates, and have officially launched the gaming mouse. It’s obviously a TRON-themed accessory, and sure enough, the lights on the accessory light up just as we would want them to.
The mouse is available now for purchase, and it will run you a cool $99.99 to get your hand on it. The mouse itself is pretty standard, but you can expect to find 5,500dpi, and 3.5g laser sensor. There are 7 “hyperresponse” buttons. And, as you can tell, it’s themed to look like it came right out of the TRON world. Those lights on the mouse do light up, and it even features sound effects. [via Laptop Memo]
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| Posted: 23 Nov 2010 12:03 PM PST The folks from Engadget that were in the super fancy fashion audience sitting around the runway at the Acer global press conference today had the opportunity to put their hands on several of the devices announced at the event, including the 10.1-inch tablet, 4.8-inch smartphone, and 7-inch tablet. Sadly, because most of the tablets Acer announced today are going to be running on Android Honeycomb (Google’s tablet OS), they basically didn’t function at the moment. They did get to peek at the 10.1-inch dual-core Tegra-powered tablet though, taking a peek at some high definition video but noting it to be “sluggish” and seeming very much like a pre-production device.
Once they were able to see the 7-inch tablet and 4.8-inch phone, they noted that they too seemed to look and feel like very pre-production units, but did have nice glossy black screens and brushed metal backs. They note that the phone’s screen seems huge [read more here] and that for the most part all of the devices looked decent. Exciting?! [Via Engadget]
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| Cricut Cake Printer Lets You Print Edible Goodies Posted: 23 Nov 2010 11:33 AM PST Having a printer that will cut out pieces of paper in distinct designs isn’t new. In fact, even the original Cricut printer did the same thing. So, if you don’t want to just make the same printer, how can you take the idea and make it better? You add desserts, of course. The Cricut Cake printer looks like a normal printer, but in this version, you don’t put regular paper in there.
The Cricut Printer is able to cut pre-determined designs into thing sheets of sweets. You can load a sheet of fondant in there, or even frosting sheets. You can even put cookie dough, tortillas, modeling chocolate, and soft candies. When you do, you just tell the printer what you want printed on the particular goodie, and the Cricut Cake printer will take care of the rest. For those of you out there who have always wanted to decorate a birthday, or other celebratory piece of dessert but you lack the artistic skill necessary, here’s an easy way to make it happen. But, as you can probably already guess, this won’t be a cheap way to get what you want. You’ll have to shell out $399 to make the Cricut Cake printer yours. [via Oh Gizmo!]
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| Sony PS3 Launching 50 3D-Capable Video Games in the Near Future Posted: 23 Nov 2010 11:23 AM PST Back in June, we reported that Sony was going full-steam ahead with the adoption of 3D, and that many of their titles heading to the PlayStation 3 video game console would be getting the 3D “improvement.” Many of those titles, as was suggested, would be triple-A titles, some of which would even be coming from Sony’s first party developers. Titles like Killzone 3 are being treated to the 3D experience, and even recent releases like Call of Duty: Black Ops have the ability to play through the title with 3D visuals turned on. As a new report from Develop states, Sony’s pushing even harder now, applying 3D technology to 50 titles in the near future.
According to SCEE studio director, Mick Hocking, Sony is internally developing upwards of 20 titles for the 3D conversion. That’s part of the total 50 games being converted. Some of those games, Hocking says, are major names. Whether that means development teams, or the games is unclear. But, if it is the games that are featuring the “big names,” that would line up with the triple-AAA titles that we heard were getting the 3D treatment in the future. Hocking believes that, due to the hype of 3D and the fact that developer’s are jumping onto the bandwagon, goes to show how popular 3D is. Especially when it comes to video games in the home. Of course, there’s no chance that Sony is going to stop the 3D assault any time soon. The interesting part will be to see which games, especially the ridiculously popular ones, get the same treatment. [via Joystiq]
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| A Week with NOOKcolor: Reading (aka Core Apps) Posted: 23 Nov 2010 11:17 AM PST Welcome to the second installment in SlashGear’s “A Week with” review session with NOOKcolor, a device which Barnes and Noble promises will be for customers the culmination of all their knowledge on how people interact with what they read. This device is a reader-centric tablet, made by the world’s largest bookstore for the people who enjoy reading the most. Today’s review session revolves around the way you the user will potentially interact with the reading materials you’ll be using while utilizing NOOKcolor. As this device is aimed not at those who wish for an open Android tablet experience, this review will for the most part assume that the people who will buy this device are the same people Barnes and Noble intends to market to. On the other hand, I and we know there’s a large population of tech-smart individuals out there who indent to try this device out as a hacked device. While I won’t be hacking into this device for your pleasure, we will be keeping you in mind.
As you open up your NOOKcolor for the first time, you’ll be sort of dazzled by the brightness and colorfulness of it all. If you’ve only used an e-ink reader in the past, this will be like going from an original GameBoy to a GameBoy color (remember that transition?) In some ways spectacular, in some ways a bit of a draw back, especially since, like many of the games created for GameBoy back in those days, lots of books never needed color to function. NOOKcolor isn’t meant for people only intending on reading novels. Barnes and Noble might disagree with me, but if you’re only intending on purchasing books that don’t require color, stick with an e-ink device.
That’s not to say that there aren’t features here that you’ll appreciate, oh you lovers of e-ink, features that don’t necessarily require the color the display here presents, but features hereto unavailable in e-readers. Most of these features have to do with sharing and interactivity.
Inside a novels, you’re able to highlight specific passages or whole books and share them via Twitter, Facebook, or your Contacts (connected through NOOKcolor.) Using this same method*, you can also highlight, add a note, or use your highlighted text to search the rest of the book. You may also add a bookmark to a page by tapping the upper right hand corner of the screen (I consider this to be a function in the same house as the highlighting.) *This highlighting is a very fun function but don’t expect to be adept at making it work unless you try at it for a while. Attempting to highlight text in an incorrect manner can instead somehow lead you to a completely different page in the book (I must assume this has to do with your ability to reach other points in the book via the slider at the bottom of the page, accessible by tapping the bottom of the page, invisible otherwise.)
Continuing in on functions inside reading a novel, there are several ways you can adjust the text. One is font size – you’re given 6 different sizes to choose from, each one general, identified in a scale of “A”s. Next you’ll be able to choose the font you like to read in best, the list of fonts being: Century Schoolbook, Dutch, Georgia, Ascender Sans, Trebuchet MS, or Gill Sans. After that, you can choose from several color combinations, those named: Normal, Night, Gray, Butter, Mocha, Sepia – these are all very nice combos, the one standing out most being Night as it’s the only one with a dark background with white lettering. After that there’s three choices for how much space you’d like between each line of text, and three more options for how much of a margin you’d like around your text. If all of these options give you a nervous breakdown, you’ve always got the option of flicking on the “Publisher Defaults” switch. All of these options are awesome, the Publisher Defaults being the icing on this nice little cake.
The rest of the functions inside a novel I don’t see everyone accessing all that often, that being brightness, search (aka searching through the book for a keyword), and Share (which includes Recommend (the book to your friends), Rate and Review (for B&N), and Post Reading Status (which just posts a status to Twitter or Facebook saying the percentage of the book you’ve completed.)) The furthest-left tab is Content, and this will be helpful if you’ve gotten the hang of highlighting passages and adding notes, as Content consists of three tabs: Contents (chapters in the book), Notes & Highlights (jump to any of your notes and highlights throughout the book), and bookmarks (working here the same as notes and highlights.)
Next are Newspapers. This category of reading material has 24 titles at the launch, so I recommend you take a look at the list before purchasing if reading your favorite title is high on your list of things to do with NOOKcolor. Once you’re inside one of these periodicals, you’ll find a very different experience than the reading of an actual newspaper – there’s sort of a disconnect, if you will, but not necessarily a bad one.
Each article is set up in a single column, one above the next, each with a tiny thumbnail preview image where appropriate. Newspapers have basically the same controls and functions that novels do, they having the ability to have their letters, margins, line spacing, etc changed at will since their content is here not the layout of the paragraphs, but the messages contained inside the paragraphs. The feature unique to newspapers (and magazines) is that if you purchase a subscription, new issues will appear in your desktop’s dock (and in your library) with a ribbon saying NEW as soon as they are released.
Magazines are a place where NOOKcolor really shines, and it really should, being brilliant in its display of colors and its simple navigation, it’s as if NOOKcolor were created with magazines at the forefront of the designers minds. You can view magazines in both portrait mode or landscape mode – I’d suggest landscape as that’s how people laying out magazines intend you to view their spreads.
You move through a magazine the same way you’d do it if you were holding the paper copy in your hands, but it’s better in that you’ve got the option to employ Article View. What Article View is is a way to have the entire article you wish to read (often otherwise spread throughout a magazine here and there) all in one place, floating above the magazine until you’ve finished reading it.
Everything else about reading a magazine here is great – zooming in works, finding a page you want by using the thumbnail scroller at the bottom of the screen works, getting new issues works (similar to newspapers). The only thing that you might think twice about, again, is if your favorite title is available, as there are only 67 titles at launch.
Next, there’s children’s books. If you’ve got a kid who is already technologically advanced (aka you give them your iPhone to mess around with while waiting in the doctor’s office lobby), plays video games, or is generally able to sit long enough to read a short book, they’ll probably enjoy NOOKcolor’s children’s books feature. Each children’s book is landscape mode only as far as I can see, mostly because the authors who lay out children’s books, again, do so by spread rather than by single page. Turning the page is done with a swipe, and at the bottom of the screen is simplified to a single arrow button which reveals the whole book in thumbnail mode, allowing you the parent or the child to select the page they want to find (“mom, lets start from where the goats and piggies perform for the chickens!”) You’ve also got the option of pressing the “Read By Myself” button or the “Read To Me” button. If you opt for the read to me option, the book is read aloud by a narrator, sometimes a famous narrator!
In the future there will be more interactivity with these children’s books (starting at the beginning of next year when the first big update to NOOKcolor happens) including moving images and the ability to move characters around, play with them, all sorts of things that work directly with the storyline. Over the phone I recently spoke with a Barnes and Noble representative who works in the department responsible for executing these children’s books, and she described their efforts as very much for the advancement of the storyline rather than just a distraction from it. Exciting!
One of the more interesting features available to you in place for you to be able to interact with other NOOKcolor users is the LendMe tab. You can access the LendMe function from other places on the device, but here you can both offer your books up directly to friends or browse the books they’ve got available and ask them to lend them to you. When you click one of your books that are available for lending (not every book is, mind you,) a message pops up giving you the ability to send the book out through Facebook or your NOOKcolor contacts. It reads: “You may only lend this book once. Your friend has up to 7 days to accept or decline this offer and then up to 14 days to read. Once the book is returned, you can download and read again.” Choose wisely!
Finally, there’s the organization of your collection. The organization of books in several places on NOOKcolor is everything you’d hope it to be. You can have them stacked on your three-screen desktop in different sizes, access them from your desktop dock (which consists of new issues from your subscriptions as they’re released as well as your most recent reads), or access all of your materials in your library. Your library is stacked according to the kind of material (Books, Magazines, Newspapers) or however you’d like in your “My Shelves” tab which you can edit however you’d like. There’s a “My Files” tab inside which there’s multiple folders which you can access when plugging the NOOKcolor in to your computer like an external harddrive. This is an interesting feature as it appears that basically everything else about the device is essentially closed-shop and curated, but inside these folders you can place basically anything. As you may remember from the hardware review portion of this “A Week with” set of posts we’re in, it’s not easy yet to put whatever file you’d like in a folder and expect it to open. Will this be rectified in the future by third-party apps? We’ll just have to wait and see. Wrap-UpEverything depends on how you choose to read. This is not a device for everyone, but a reader for people who’d like to access several kinds of periodicals, books, and children’s books from one device. First and last, I’d recommend checking to see if your favorite titles are available or will become available some time in the future – do not assume they’re going to certainly be here. Should the NOOKcolor blow up, that’ll be something you can assume, but for now, be sure to check. If your chosen titles are here, especially if they’re magazines and children’s books, definitely give this device a try. As far as e-ink goes: you must be the one to decide. I personally do not have any issue with reading from a bright screen like the NOOKcolor uses, but you’ve got to take into account the fact that I work on a computer screen 10+ hours a day. If you do not use a computer at ALL during the day, then I’d probably recommend you get yourself an e-ink device instead of NOOKcolor for reading. If you’re a person who works in the food service industry during the day and can’t keep your eyes off your laptop at night, well, then, again, feel free to give NOOKcolor a try. Be on the lookout the rest of this week for more posts like this, each of them accessible by searching “A Week with” in the SlashGear searchbar. [This paragraph will be replaced with links to the rest of this extended review at the end of the week]                               
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| WD TV Live and Live Plus Media Streaming Boxes Get Facebook Support, Plus More Posted: 23 Nov 2010 11:00 AM PST While they didn’t feel like it was necessary to have a mid-morning press event, Western Digital officially announced on Tuesday that their media streaming boxes, the WD TV Live lineup, would be getting updated to support Facebook, Blockbuster On-Demand, and even more goodies for WD TV Live and Live Plus owners to enjoy.
Due to the support for Blockbuster On-Demand, owners will now be able to rent or buy movies at the same time they would be able to buy or rent Blu-ray or DVDs via Blockbuster On-Demand in the US. As it stands, it looks like only the WD TV Live Plus set-top boxes will be able to access the Blockbuster On-Demand content. However, if you have yourself the WD TV Live set-top box, you’ll be able to freely enjoy your Facebook account, without any issues. The same goes for other features, like on-demand music service Deezer, and weather information courtesy of AccuWeather.com. What’s better though, is that the WD TV Live set-top boxes will now support Bluetooth keyboards, as long as you have a Bluetooth dongle to connect to it. So, if you were accessing the WD TV Live Hub to reach AccuWeather.com and Facebook, you should be happy that the extra step is no longer necessary. [via Electronista]
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| TÛRANOR PlanetSolar is World’s Largest Solar Powered Boat Posted: 23 Nov 2010 10:45 AM PST When you’re aiming to break records, there’s no reason to just aim for one, when you knock a couple of them down in one try. That’s what the owner of the TÛRANOR PlanetSolar, the world’s largest solar powered boat, is trying to do. He’s already got the record for the world’s largest solar powered boat, and now he is aiming to be the first person to sail around the globe without using any fossil fuels at all.
The TÛRANOR PlanetSolar is owned by one Immo Ströher, who is a German entrepreneur. He took off in the PlanetSolar just over a month ago, and intends to sail around the world without using any fossil fuels at all If he can succeed, that would make him the first person to accomplish it. If you find yourself in Miami or Cancun in the next mont, you might be able to catch a glimpse of the PlanetSolar, as it is scheduled to stop there during the next month. As for the boat itself, it measures in at 5,700 square feet. Most of that is covered in solar panels. The energy collected from the solar panels is stored in a lithium ion battery. It took Immo Ströher $17.5 million to build the PlanetSolar. [via USA Today]
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| Are Premium 3D Glasses Worth It? Posted: 23 Nov 2010 10:38 AM PST I was going to review Harry Potter this weekend, but I realized that would be a pointless endeavor. I try to review films on the edge of good taste, to either save my readers from a horrible film, or recommend a surprisingly good one. Harry Potter is a no-brainer movie. If you have seen the first six movies, you must see this one. If you haven’t seen them, you have about 15 hours of movie watching to do before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I will make any sense. So, instead of reviewing the obvious blockbuster hit, I decided to try an experiment.
Needless to say, I’m excited about the new Tron movie coming out, and I don’t mind buying into some of the merchandise. After all, I did love the style of Tron, and I wouldn’t mind buying, say, a Tron mouse or a Tron Xbox controller. I wouldn’t pay much of a premium for it, but all things being equal, I’d prefer a controller decked out in soothing blue LED lines, rather than a plain grey. Then, along came a bit of paraphernalia that intrigued me. When I first saw the Oakley Tron-branded 3D glasses, I laughed. They cost $150. Who would pay that much for 3D glasses? Certainly not me. You cannot use them as normal sunglasses. They would give you a headache after a day’s use, and they wouldn’t even be effective at blocking UV light or glare, because of the way they are polarized. I have paid that much for sunglasses, and I currently wear a pair of Oakley’s as my everyday shades, so I am in the target audience (not even including the Tron obsession), but I couldn’t imagine actually shelling out the dough. But I’ve always felt like 3D movies weren’t meeting my expectations for quality. Not just the subject matter, the actual 3D, depth of field technology. It always seemed dim. There is ghosting, where you can see the edges of two images overlapping slightly. Sometimes it’s hard to focus quickly, and I lose the action. Other times, my eyes just seem to ignore some of the more blatant 3D effects. When objects are supposed to jump off the screen at me, I usually don’t perceive them that way. I always wondered if it was the glasses that were at fault. Worst of all? When you touch the 3D lenses after touching some popcorn or soda. You get a splotch on the ‘lens.’ Wipe it with a shirt or a napkin and you only smear the stain. There is no way to really clean the glasses, so either you live with foggy vision for the rest of the movie, or you have to go out to the lobby to get another pair. I’ve committed myself to reviewing most of the 3D films that come out in the next year or so. I want to trace the development of the 3D technology as it becomes more and more ubiquitous. I want to see how bad it can get, and also report on the best 3D experiences available. I’ve probably seen a dozen 3D movies since Avatar (including a third trip to Avatar when it was re-released with extra footage). So, if the $150 expense of some fantastic 3D glasses is worthwhile for anyone, it’s probably worthwhile for me. If they suck, Oakley has a 30-day return policy. No harm, no foul. I bought a pair of Oakley Gascan 3D glasses. The normal pair runs for $120, but the Tron edition, which is only different in a dab of blue paint on the frames, run an extra $30, for $150 total. I bought the Tron edition. Then I had to find a 3D movie. The pickings are slim these days, not just because all of the movies in 3D are so awful, but because I’ve seen them all. Saw 3D? Seen it. Jackass 3D. Yup. The only movie left was “Megamind.” I’d considered it when it launched, but it seemed more of a kid’s movie. But I love a good animated flick, so I took my glasses and headed to the theater. The experience really was much better. I had the theater-supplied glasses and my new Oakleys, and I tried some A-B tests, flipping each on and off to watch the same scene with both styles. Here’s what I discovered. First, the movie looked much more clear in the Oakleys. I saw almost no ghosting. On one occasion, I saw the effect, but since it’s perceptual I wonder if I didn’t force myself to see it by looking for it. With the theater glasses, I noticed ghosting when I wasn’t looking for it. The theater glasses start to blur around the edges. Because they don’t curve with your face, if you look at something in your peripheral vision, it doesn’t look as clean and well-formed as something directly in front of you. I never noticed this before, but switching back and forth with the Oakleys, I realized that the peripheral vision was greatly improved. I also felt like I was perceiving depth much better. Not so much when objects fell back into the plane of the screen, but when they came closer to me, I had less trouble focusing on them, and I was able to feel like the movie was more ‘in my lap’ than when I was just wearing the theater glasses. It wasn’t a huge difference, but it was enough that I noticed it without thinking about it. The Oakleys are also much more comfortable. I’m not a fan of the Gascan style, but I only wore them in a dark theater, so who cares what I look like wearing them. But I never felt fatigue in my nose or ears, or felt like I needed to take them off to give my eyes a rest. The downside? The movie was still darker than I would have liked. This is probably the nature of the 3D technology, so either theaters can pump up the brightness to searingly high levels, or we can just live with this effect. I saw no difference in brightness between the Oakleys and the theater glasses. The other downside? Did I mention that they cost $150? Or $120 if you don’t love Tron? While the Oakley glasses were certainly higher quality, I don’t think that most people would find the cost worth the subtle improvements. If everyone had these glasses, would Avatar have made more money? No, the movie was great without dropping a Benjamin on eye wear. I think most people will be satisfied with the theater glasses, or at least as satisfied as they can be, given the sorry state of 3D movies. If you’re a discerning movie watcher, and you see even half as many 3D movies as I do, you might be interested. If the money isn’t an issue for you? Well, go buy a really big 3D set and watch movies with the active shutter glasses, which are much better looking than even the theater experience. Eventually, TVs, and perhaps even movie theaters, will go to glasses-less 3D, so you have to ask yourself how many movies you’ll watch with these glasses on. 10? 20? That’s almost the equivalent of doubling the ticket price just to have better 3D glasses. I’m going to keep them. I liked the experience, and I can justify them as a work expense, since I write movie reviews for this column. Plus, my 30-day return period ends after Tron: Legacy is released, so I’ll get to be the ultimate dork wearing Tron 3D glasses to see Tron. It’s like wearing the shirt of the band you’re going to see in concert, but much more expensive. So, how was Megamind? Pretty good, actually. It wasn’t the Incredibles, one of my favorite movies of all time, but it was surprisingly original. It wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny, but I had a few chuckles, and the story was much better than I expected. The movie looked great, and the 3D effects did add some depth to the experience. I’d recommend it without reservation. The glasses? That’s a much harder choice.
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| US Army Testing Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot [Video] Posted: 23 Nov 2010 10:27 AM PST Robots in the military are becoming pretty common. As the Commanding Officers try to think of new, and futuristic ways to make sure that their soldiers aren’t put into harm’s way, new robotic devices are being tested and implemented into dangerous situations. One of the United States Army’s newest devices, the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot, or BEAR, is meant to be able to use all of its skills and abilities to go into live-fire zones, and pull wounded military personnel out of the conflict.
The BEAR is a robot that can do quite a few things. For example, it has the ability to stand up, and balance itself while moving. It also has arms and hands, which it can use the fingers at the end of the appendages to pick up items. BEAR is capable of lifting 500 pounds at any given moment. BEAR is controlled remotely, thanks to an “iGlove,” or from a modified rifle grip, thanks to the multitude of sensors that are placed on BEAR. As with any other piece of future tech being tested by the military, the ultimate goal is to get it into the hands of soldiers on the field, so that they have an aide when it comes to highly dangerous situations, like rescuing downed allies in a battlefield. Check out the video below to see BEAR in action. [via TG Daily]
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| Acer 10.1-Inch Windows 7 Tablet Announced, Due in February Posted: 23 Nov 2010 09:46 AM PST While Acer may have focused on Android for the majority of their announcement, not counting that dual-screen laptop, it looks like the company is also launching a Windows 7-based tablet into the market, beginning in early 2011. This tablet, which measures in at only 15mm thick and weighing in at only 2.2 pounds, is actually missing a lot of information, unfortunately. Including a name.
However, while we don’t know what kind of storage space we should expect from the upcoming tablet, let alone screen resolution, we do know that the device will feature AMD inside. Unless Acer is just teasing us in the images below, we know that a docking station will be an accessory made available for the Windows 7 tablet as well. The tablet does feature built-in 3G connectivity, and there’s a 1.3MP camera not only one the back, but one on the front as well. We don’t know what the unnamed tablet will cost, but we do know that Acer is aiming for a February 2011 launch date. So, if you can hold out, and you’ve been waiting for a Windows-based tablet, this 10.1-inch model from Acer may be worth waiting for.   
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| Acer Alive: Next-Generation Store, Focuses on Real-Time Posted: 23 Nov 2010 09:38 AM PST While hardware is one thing, and even focusing on media sharing is another, Acer wasn’t done until they managed to cover pretty much every interesting market there is to cover this morning. While still on stage, Acer managed to also unveil their brand new, next-generation digital storefront. Luckily enough, this one doesn’t have the word “market” or “store” in the title. However, Acer’s Alive may be unique enough to catch someone’s attention, somewhere. The store, while similar in the content that it delivers, was created to make you feel like it is alive, as Acer wants it to focus on real-time interaction with the user.
That’s what Acer believes is the one, major difference between their new store, and everyone else’s. They noted that going into a store, finding what you want, and then getting recommendations for what you might like is something akin to “the Old Times,” and that the feature is no longer present in the way that they would like it to be. They mean, of course, real-time. That way, as you are browsing through any one category, as Alive will feature categories for content, you’ll be treated to recommendations. Therefore, as Acer mentions, the more you use Alive, the better your recommendations, and the general user experience, will become. Acer managed to wrangle plenty of content providers and partners for Alive, making sure that when it does launch in the near future, there’s plenty of items in the store for people to buy. Acetrax is one of those companies, providing videos and movies. And, all of your purchases are stored in the cloud as meta-data, so you can watch it whenever, wherever you want after you purchase it. At launch, Acer says there will be 15,000 music videos, 2,000 movies from “top Hollywood studios,” and thousands of eBooks, and other reading material like newspapers, ready to go. There will also be thousands of casual games. As far launch dates go, Acer confirmed that Alive will be launching in the United Kingdom first, beginning December 20th. On that same date, it will also launch in Italy. It will then launch in several Asian, European, and in the Americas by the end of the second quarter, 2011. They will have cross-platform and cross-device optimization ready to go by the end of the first quarter, 2011.   
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| Acer’s Clear.fi is Media Sharing Made Easy Posted: 23 Nov 2010 09:24 AM PST Acer’s press event today started with hardware, and ended with software. Throughout their announcements this morning, the company made sure to focus on the fact that interactivity between their devices was paramount. They wanted to feature the same User Interface, the same elements, amongst their devices, no matter the software powering it, or the hardware owners would be using. To help that, sharing media is a must, and so the company has created a new way to share your media, all in hopes of making it easier, more streamlined, with a focus on multi-platform. It’s called Clear.fi.
Acer’s focus is to make media sharing easy, when it comes to Clear.fi. Acer believes that it is easier to share media if the media is all in one location, based on the same interface and linked to one system. And, most importantly, they have to be able to be shared in real-time. Clear.fi is meant to work with multi-format media, and be able to stream it on multi-platform devices. They intend to make it this simple: if you’re device is connected to your WiFi network, you should be able to stream the media you want to stream. Clear.fi will automatically detect devices that are connected to the network, and from there you’ll be able to start the streaming. Not only that, but you’ll also be able to share/upload images from the network to social networking sites like Flickr, and Facebook. YouTube is also included in there, too. In concept, the idea is great, but it will only be when customers start using it, that we’ll be able to find out how well Acer has made media streaming easier.          
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| Acer 4.8-inch Android smartphone boasts 1024 x 480 display Posted: 23 Nov 2010 09:13 AM PST Acer‘s smartphone may be the smallest Android device the company has announced today, but it also has a pretty huge display for a cellphone. The unnamed handset has a 4.8-inch 1024 x 480 touchscreen, which Acer reckons makes it “100-percent smartphone, 100-percent tablet”; poor math aside, there’s a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, and a 2-megapixel camera up front for video calls.
Acer has also slotted in Flash Player 10.1 support, so we’re guessing Froyo is on board, together with HSDPA 14.4Mbps support, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. There’s also an HDMI port, DLNA streaming and 6-axis motion sensing (pairing a gyroscope and accelerometer). Full specs aren’t known – size, for instance, is unclear beyond the phone being 64mm wide – but it certainly looks promising from this vague information. Shipping is expected to kick off in April 2011.
[via Android Community] Press Release:
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| Acer Android Tablets Announced Posted: 23 Nov 2010 09:09 AM PST Today, Acer took center stage in New York to announce a plethora of new devices. While their dual-screen laptop may be one of the shining moments for the company, they’ve got a few ideas for the tablet market, too, which is exactly what we expected to see. Acer took some time to show off not only a 10.1-inch tablet, but also a 7-inch version, both of which run Google’s Android mobile Operating System.
While both tablets run the Android OS, which many believe to be Android 2.2 under the hood, their differences are enough to make the question regarding screen size one of the most important aspects. The 10-inch version (featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800) will feature full Flash 10.1 support, but under the hood you’ll find a 1GHz processor. It will also feature Acer’s User Interface, v4.5. Along the back, you’ll find a 4MP camera. And then there’s the 7-inch Android-based tablet. This device will actually feature a Qualcomm dual-core 1.2GHz processor under the hood, the same Acer User Interface as its larger brethren, and full Flash 10.1 support. There’s no telling which version of Android is being run on this smaller tablet. It does feature the same 1280 x 800 resolution on the smaller display, though. Both tablets are due to hit retail by April of 2011.    
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| Dell Inspiron Duo hits UK on December 2 Posted: 23 Nov 2010 09:00 AM PST Dell is slowly filling in the blanks about the Dell Inspiron Duo convertible netbook which we played with yesterday, confirming that the hybrid tablet will begin shipping in the UK on December 2. There, the Duo will be priced from £449 with a 250GB HDD, £499 with the optional dock, or £479 – later in the year – with a 320GB HDD.
US pricing, meanwhile, has been confirmed at $549, while the dock will be another $49. Availability in the US hasn’t been announced, beyond early December. More details in our hands-on report. Press Release:
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| Acer Iconia Dual-Screen Laptop Unveiled Posted: 23 Nov 2010 08:43 AM PST Acer is currently holding a global press event, where the company is hard at work on announcing plenty of new touch-centric devices. Acer is focusing mainly on interaction, and how new Acer-branded devices will interact with users, as well as one another. The first of those announcements centers around the Iconia, which is a dual-screen laptop.
Much like the LIbretto before it, the Iconia is a notebook that features touchscreens, rather than a physical keyboard. Acer’s focus on touch-sensitive controls doesn’t stop at just the onscreen keyboard, either. The Iconia, as with all of their touch-based devices being announced today, will feature plenty of new gesture-controlled options, as well as the Acer Menu that will appear if you put five fingers on the main display. The circular menu will let you access touch-friendly videos, photos, and other options. To access the keyboard on the bottom LCD, you just need to put both hands on the display, so that the screen can register the tip of your ten fingers. Once you do that, the software keyboard will pop up, and you can begin typing. The software keyboard stretches across the whole bottom LCD, so it should give you plenty of room to type. The Touch Browser will appear on both displays, and there are controls for the Internet browser, which is Internet Explorer thanks to Windows 7, on the bottom display. And, when the bottom LCD is not being used for any one particular purpose, users will be able to access a window management tool. Acer will be releasing a Software Development Kit (SDK) some time in December, but Acer points out that all of the gesture controls and touch-sensitive menus out of the box were created by Acer. Stay tuned, as more products are incoming.      Press Release:
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| iPad production boosted as new Foxconn plant comes online Posted: 23 Nov 2010 08:00 AM PST Boosted production of Apple’s iPad has apparently begun at new Foxconn plants in Chengdu, China, in an attempt to meet predicted strong holiday demand. Production is minimal, according to DigiTimes‘ sources, only amounting to around 10,000 units per day, but that’s expected to change over the coming months until being positioned as a major supply base in Q1 2011. Eventually around 50 iPad production lines are expected to be active at the plant, with a maximum annual capacity of around 40m units.
Existing iPad supply comes from Foxconn’s Shenzhen plants, which are capable of producing 2.5m units per month. Q4 2010 shipments are tipped to exceed 7m units, while overall 2010 volumes could surpass 15m, according to sources. Foxconn are also expected to be heavily involved in production of the iPad 2, Apple’s second-generation iPad that many believe will launch in April 2011.
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| SlashGear Morning Wrap-up: November 23 2010 Posted: 23 Nov 2010 07:56 AM PST Dunk it in! This morning over at Android Community (or was it late last night?) Vincent reviewed the Motorola Defy – a rugged piece of machinery that’ll get wet and keep on clickin. There’s some 3D modeling and studying of flying snakes on SlashGear, a hands on with the Marvell Android tablet, and a gaming computer employing cooled liquid to get it down to some sub-zero temps. And then, and then! Apple announces they’re going to have some Black Friday sales at their stores. Holy holiday ham! What a strange day it’s turning out to be here on SlashGear Morning Wrap-up!
R3 Media Network SlashPhone Android Community SlashGear To see more wrap-up posts, follow the following tags: [The Daily Slash] or [SlashGear Morning Wrap-up]
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| Opera 11 beta adds tab stacks & speed boost [Video] Posted: 23 Nov 2010 07:18 AM PST Opera has pushed out the first beta of Opera 11, the latest iteration of its browser and the first to support tab stacking. Billed as a less cluttered and more intuitive way to deal with tabs than the regular side-by-side layout, groups can be organized by site or by theme, and new stacks created by simply dropping one tab onto another (a little like how iOS folders work). Meanwhile Opera 11 also gets extension support, mouse gestures and more.
Video demo after the cut
Opera claims to be seeing 10-20 new extensions added each day; you can browse the catalog here. As you’d expect, it’s billed as faster and more efficient than Opera 10, too, being a 30-percent smaller install and 15- to 20-percent faster on the regular benchmarks than its predecessor. Plug-ins can now be set to load on demand, rather than being constantly active, which is also good for up to a 30-percent performance boost. Automatic extensions updates, new security indicator badges and a streamlined address bar round out the main changes, along with a new bookmarks bar. It’s a free download from here, and is available in Windows, Mac and Linux versions.                  Press Release:
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| FCC 911 update could allow SMS, MMS & video stream reports Posted: 23 Nov 2010 06:28 AM PST The FCC has announced plans to open the 911 emergency system to text messages and even streaming video from cellphones, as part of a drive to increase usability and responsiveness. According to the FCC, the update was in part prompted by lessons learnt after the Virginia Tech campus shooting in 2007, where many people apparently attempted to send SMS messages to 911, messages that were never received.
The plans also include more complex interaction between 911 systems and various types of automated sensors, such as chemical detectors and alarms. Medical devices and in-car systems including On-Star could also be integrated, allowing for more immediate reports of issues. It’s unclear when the FCC expects the new systems to be rolled out.
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| Gliding snake research funded by US government Posted: 23 Nov 2010 06:06 AM PST As unusual governmental research grants go, investigations into flying snakes seems pretty unusual; however, that’s just what the US Defense Department has been doing, funding researchers at Virginia Tech looking at five species of snakes able to glide down from treetops. Using an array of cameras, biologists at the university created 3D models of chrysopelea paradisi snakes as they flattened their bodies and leapt from 15m towers.
The snakes – which live in trees in Southeast and South Asia – are in fact capable of travelling 24m from the towers. They’re not just “falling with style”, either; “the snake is pushed upward – even though it is moving downward – because the upward component of the aerodynamic force is greater than the snake’s weight” says researcher Jake Socha. “Hypothetically, this means that if the snake continued on like this, it would eventually be moving upward in the air” the biologist suggests, though the snakes only manage it temporarily and eventually come down to earth. It’s unclear what the Defense Department hopes to gain from the research, though we can only hope for combat-ready flying attack snakes with laser beams on their heads. [Image via The Flying Snake Homepage] Press Release:
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| Marvell Android tablet hands-on [Video] Posted: 23 Nov 2010 05:48 AM PST Marvell has been showing off its ARMADA 600-based Android tablet reference design, ahead of what the company says will be several manufacturer-branded products using the 1080p-capable chipset launched at CES 2011 early next year. The demo slate has a 10.1-inch 1280 x 720 capacitive touchscreen and runs Android 2.2 Froyo, and was shown simultaneously driving its own display and an external HDTV over HDMI.
Video demo after the cut
Marvell wasn’t talking specific chipsets, but it’s the ARMADA 628 that is at the helm of its tablet segment push. A tri-core chip capable of 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decide, hi-fi audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing, the 628 has a pair of 1.5GHz cores for processing and a further, 624MHz core that can be used for apps with low power requirements. That means longer battery life, since the heavy-duty crunching is only turned on when it’s actively required. Actual shipping specifications will largely depend on OEM choice, so it’ll be up to the manufacturers to decide how much memory to fit, whether to use a glass or plastic screen, what camera(s) to install and other differentiators like that. Without knowing what sort of pricing range they’ll fall into, it’s difficult to predict market success, but it seems CES 2011 will mark the start of another tablet-centric year.   
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| Cool Pop-up Microlites make your remote control light up Posted: 23 Nov 2010 05:27 AM PST One of the things I really like about my Logitech Harmony One remote is that the keys are backlit. That way I can see what button I am hitting even in the dark. If you are using the factory remote that came with your TV or cable box, odds are you are having to strain to see what button you are hitting.
A new accessory for your remote control has surfaced called the Pop-up Microlight. The thing is a small light that sticks onto the bottom of your remote. When you press it down in the closed position, it is turned off. When you press it and it pops into the up position the light comes on. The idea is that the little LED light lets you see the buttons easily. You can get a single Pop-up Microlite for $9.99 and three of them for $19.99. The integrated battery is good for up to 3-years and it attaches with included 3M tape.
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| Kingston outs Hyper Max 3.0 external USB 3.0 HDD Posted: 23 Nov 2010 05:13 AM PST I am glad to see lots of new USB 3.0 storage devices coming to market. For a long time we had relatively few devices on the market to work with. Kingston has unveiled a new external storage device for your USB 3.0 port called the HyperX Max 3.0 external HDD.
The drive is offered in several different capacities with a 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB of storage inside. Kingston is keeping the pricing of the drives mum at this point. The thing has a sequential read speed of 195MB/s and writes at up to 160MB/s. The drive is encased in blue aluminum housing. The drive is silent with no moving parts to create noise. That means that the drives don't use a traditional HDD, but use a SSD for less power consumption and faster data speeds. You can bet that these drives will cost quote a bit, especially the 256GB version.
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| Mvix USA offers Mini HD reform media streamer for a killer price on Cyber Monday Posted: 23 Nov 2010 04:57 AM PST When it comes to shopping deals online we all know the Monday following Thanksgiving is the time when you can get some killer online deals. The day is known as Cyber Monday and if you want a Mvix Mini HD media streaming that has been factory recertified you need to be spamming the F5 key Monday for the official discount code.
That code will get you the recertified player for only $9.99. The Mvix Mini HD Media player supports UPnP Streaming, external storage playback, and MKV, RMVB, H.264, and HDMI. The code is a secret right now; I guess they want to tease us about the deal. If what you really want, is the cool Ultio Pro 1080p media player with PVR, which one will be on sales as well for $69. It is also factory recertified. We all know that most of the gadgets returned as broken are just fine and the issues were user error so this is a great way to get some cool hardware at a big discount.
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| Digital Storm unveils new Sub-Zero gaming PC with peltier cooled liquid Posted: 23 Nov 2010 04:31 AM PST When it comes to gaming computer the cooler you can keep your hardware, the more you can overclock and the faster the rig will run. We all know about liquid cooling and air cooling, but there are methods that are more exotic too. We aren’t typically going to get into things like liquid hydrogen unless we are serious about our overclocking. That typically leaves liquid for mainstream users or phase change for the hard core with bulky external boxes to get sub-zero temps on your CPU.
There is another option that many gamers don't even know about known as peltier coolers. Digital Storm has unveiled a new line of gaming PCs called the Sub-Zero Liquid chilled system. The machine used liquid cooling on the CPU and on other components and the liquid in that closed system is cooled to temperatures below freezing using TEC peltier coolers. The new cooling tech can be had on a machine with an Intel Core i7-980X CPU running at up to 4.6GHz with idling temperatures at or below 0C. The machine has a temp gauge on the board that shows how cold the fluid is. The machine starts at $3,899 and it one of the coolest gaming PCs ever.   
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| Zagg unveils sweet sports leather back protection for iPhone and iPad Posted: 23 Nov 2010 04:16 AM PST I know that there are some rabid sports fans out there that are also gadget geeks as well. If you are this sort of person and you want something to put on your iPhone or iPad that looks really cool and shows folks what your favorite sport is Zagg has some really cool genuine leather covers for Apple gadgets.
Zagg has two sportLEATHER back protection skins made from real leather with genuine textures. The skins can be had in white baseball leather with red stitching just like the real deal. You can also get a football skin with the correct pigskin texture and fat white laces. Both of the skins are really cool and the only downside is that they will not provide you with any drop protection and you can't put your gadget in a case with the skin applied. The skins are offered for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPad. The iPhone skin only costs $29.99 and the iPad version is $54.95.  
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