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GuitarBud plug cable system

Check out the GuitarBud plug cable system which allows you to hook up your electric guitar into your iPhone, making it work with a bunch of compatible apps. Among them include working in tandem with Voice Memos to record a quick riff, while you can always take advantage of several apps for guitar player on the iPhone such as JamAmp that simulates a guitar amp, tuner and training tool simultaneously. Other apps that will play nice with the Guitarbud include StompVox, Riff Raters, GigDaddy, iStrobosoft, Rectools Pro and Guitar FX Deluxe. Interested? The Guitarbud will go for £29.95.

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Sony’s ultra-compact concept camera gets slightly less mysterious

We didn’t exactly get the best look at Sony’s new ultra-compact concept camera at PMA last month, but the company is now thankfully starting to reveal a few more details about the “DSLR quality” camera. Still nothing in the way of specs or an actual working camera, of course, but Sony has provided a few screenshots of the camera’s menu system that at least provide a few tidbits of information. Most notably, it seems that the camera will employ a touchscreen interface, with most of the main controls handled by a menu on the side of the screen, and it looks like the camera will have a RAW + JPEG shooting mode, which should no doubt please more serious photographers. Hit up the link below for a few more screenshots.

[Thanks, Julien]

Sony’s ultra-compact concept camera gets slightly less mysterious originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Consumer Reports says Apple has the best tech support, Acer/Gateway/eMachines the worst

Consumer Reports has a new report on which computer company has the best tech support. Apple wins! That’s what happens when the same company controls the hardware as well as the operating system (and several of the most prominent pieces of software). The highest ranking PC manufacturer is Dell for desktops and Lenovo for laptops.

Hott MD500 rocks to Android

With the slew of tablets as well as iPad wannabes rolling out from China these days, the law of probability points toward a winner through the plethora of candidates, and perhaps one that might just edge out the iPad in terms of popularity? Perhaps in another lifetime, but kudos to Hott for their MD500 which is powered by the Android operating system. This tablet sports a 4.8″ touchscreen display that was specially customized to function with the ARM9 Rockchip processor, featuring full video playback support, a minimal screen bezel and interesting Android customizations.

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Mio S400 GPS navigation system

Mio has rolled out their S400 GPS navigation system in Korea, where it picked up China’s ‘If’ design award so you can be pretty sure that this is easy on the eyes. The Mio S400 will be powered by the Windows CE operating system, where it will house the vaunted SiRFStar III GPS chipset and equipped with a 4.3″ touchscreen display and holds up to 16GB of external memory thanks to a memory card slot. You can pick up the 2GB model of the Mio S400 for around $100 after conversion.

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Helium Bike Case

While bicycles have certainly come some way to being more and more portable, making it a snap to tote around while you take advantage of the city’s public transport system, there is always a better way to do things. Case in point, the Helium Bike Case which can be opened 360° to pack your bike’s frame, a couple of sets of wheels as well as various accessories including a helmet, shoes and pump without missing a beat. Compatible with road bikes up to 64cm size or a full-suspension freeride mountain bike, the secret behind the Helium Bike Case would be its network of inflatable partitions which are strategically positioned on either side of the frame to offer better stability and protection without weighing you down compared to other systems. Heck, it even comes with wheels to help you bring this around wherever you go. No idea on pricing as at press time.

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OPPO Enjoy ebook reader specifications unveiled

As promised, we bring you news of the specifications of the OPPO Enjoy ebook reader which runs off the Android operating system. This model will come with a 6″ e-ink display at 800 x 600 resolution alongside support for a wide range of popular formats such as TXT, HTML, HTM, CHM, EPUB and PDF – not to mention all your regular Office file formats (DOC, XLS and PPT) alongside ZIP compression support. Viewing images is also a breeze, as with listening to audio file formats. Hardware-wise, you will get at trackball, flip button, and touch-sensitive control methods for easy navigation, while its 2GB of internal memory ought to be more than enough to hold a large variety of books as well as entertainment files for your pleasure.

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PlayStation Move first hands-on (update: video!)

At last, we’ve felt Sony’s long awaited motion controller, now at last officially known as “PlayStation Move,” in our unworthy, sweaty hands. We have a bunch of videos on the way, but for now you can revel in our first close-ups of the controllers in the gallery below. Here are some of our initial thoughts:

• The controllers are light. Much more akin to the DualShock3 than the Wiimote in heft, and we’re guessing that’s due to Sony’s continued love of rechargeable batteries.
• The main controller does have some subtle vibration (not DualShock or Wiimote level, but present), but we’re not sure yet about the subcontroller.
• We hate to say this about “pre-alpha” software, but we’re feeling lag. An on-rails shooter we tried out, dubbed The Shoot, was discernibly inferior to shooting experiences we’ve had on the Wii, both in precision and refresh rate of the aiming cursor.
• The gladiator game is about as fun as it looks, we’ll have video after the break momentarily. Unfortunately, while it’s less of a defined experience than something like the sword game on Wii Sports Resort, you’re still working through a library of sensed, pre-defined actions instead of a true 1:1 fighting game with simulated physics. Not that it isn’t possible with PlayStation Move, just that it’s not this.
• The lightness of the controllers means we might be feeling less of that Wiimote fatigue, always a good thing! There’s an aspect of the controller that feels a little cheap, but at the same time we wouldn’t call it fragile.
• As far as we can tell, the control scheme for Socom 4 is quite similar to dual-controller shooter setups on the Wii, with the camera moving based on your aiming cursor hitting the edge. It’s hard to see this as the preferred hardcore setup, but we’re told it’s configurable, so we’ll try and see what else is on offer.
• The system seemed to have a bit of trouble understanding the configuration of our body in a swordfighting stance: even though we selected “left handed,” it was putting our sword arm forward instead of our shield. Right-handers didn’t seem to have similar problems, and we’re sure this will be ironed out in time, but it certainly shows that the controllers aren’t magical in their space-detection prowess.
• As would be expected, you’re supposed to stand relatively center on the TV, and at a certain optimal distance. The system is forgiving, but there’s a sweet spot that users will undoubtedly have to learn.
• Lag is less prominent on Socom 4, and we’d say we’re pretty accurate with the controller already, though the framerate choppiness of this pre-alpha build obviously hampers that a bit. We did get a slight feel of being in “scene to scene” shootouts instead of a free-roaming FPS, perhaps a design choice to mitigate the limited camera movement offered by the controller, but we’ll have to see more levels to know for sure.

Update: We added in a longer video — are you ready for three minutes of nonstop excitement?

Update, final edition: We’ve got a new video with close-up walkthroughs of the controllers and some in-depth gameplay of Socom 4.

Continue reading PlayStation Move first hands-on (update: video!)

PlayStation Move first hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTML5 vs. Flash comparison finds a few surprises, settles few debates

Think we’d all be better off if HTML5 could somehow instantly replace Flash overnight? Not necessarily, according to a set of comparisons from Jan Ozer of the Streaming Learning Center website, which found that while HTML5 did come out ahead in many respects, it wasn’t exactly a clear winner. The tests weren’t completely scientific, but they did find that HTML5 clearly performed better than Flash 10 or 10.1 in Safari on a Mac, although the differences were less clear cut in Google Chrome or Firefox. On the other hand, Flash more than held its own on Windows, and Flash Player 10.1 was actually 58% more efficient than HTML5 in Google Chrome on the Windows system tested. As you may have deduced, one of the big factors accounting for that discrepancy is that Flash is able to take advantage of GPU hardware acceleration in Windows, while Adobe is effectively cut out of the loop on Mac — something it has complained about quite publicly. According to Ozer, the differences between HTML5 and Flash playback on a Mac could be virtually eliminated if Flash could make use of GPU acceleration. Hit up the link below for all the numbers.

Update: Mike Chambers has performed some additional tests that he says shows that “does not perform consistently worse on Mac than on Windows.” Check out the complete results here.

HTML5 vs. Flash comparison finds a few surprises, settles few debates originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Pixel-bots to the rescue!

This video is bat-shit crazy, and I mean this with all due respect. It shows someone’s thesis in action. Pixel-bots? Sure, why not.

Here’s what’s going on, because the video is reasonably abstract:

Each block operates independently as a self-contained unit, and has full mobility, allowing movement across any physical surface. The blocks operate independently of one [...]

Review: Scottevest Evolution Travel Jacket

Short version: Scott Jordan understands geeks. Or at least, he understands what geeks want in clothing. The Evolution Travel Jacket takes the same basic concept as the other Scottevest products, and refines it. The Evolution is a jacket with more pockets then most people will ever need, and could quite easily replace a backpack or messenger bag when traveling.

ARM to mobilize 50 tablets this year

Roy Chen, ARM’s worldwide mobile computing ODM manager, predicted that the company will be powering at least 50 tablets that will be launched sometime this year, with the first slew hitting us in the second quarter followed by a tsunami of tablets in the third. What we are more interested in would be the operating system of choice – will these ARM-powered tablets run on Android, Linux, or Windows?

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