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Microsoft shows off XNA games running on Windows Phone, full 3D is a go

Alright, we’re going to be straight with you: you’re not going to like this. See, Microsoft just showed us a pair of 3D games running on its ASUS Windows Phone prototype and built with its brand new XNA Game Studio 4.0, but wouldn’t let us nab a single photo or video of the process. What we can tell you is that they exist, they work, and at least Microsoft tossed us some screenshots to wave in your face. The two titles are The Harvest (pictured), a good looking touch-controlled dungeon crawler with destructible environments, being developed by Luma Arcade; and Battle Punks, a less impressive one-on-one sword fighting Facebook game by Gravity Bear that’s being ported over. We didn’t get to see any full motion 3D camera moves, since Battle Punks is just composed of two characters duking it out, and The Harvest has a fixed camera and some pre-rendered elements, but there were indeed some real polygons being crunched before our eyes at a full resolution (no upscaling), alpha-rev, choppy framerate, and we were assured that full screen 3D was possible. We also got to see one of our first glimpses of universal notifications on Windows Phone: Achievement unlock notices (also pictured above) that slide down from the top of the screen in a black bar and then slide back, and can’t be interacted with. Follow after the break for some more nerdy details, along with a video of VisualStudio in action, and screenshots of the two games are in the gallery below.

Continue reading Microsoft shows off XNA games running on Windows Phone, full 3D is a go

Microsoft shows off XNA games running on Windows Phone, full 3D is a go originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Inverted, ocean-bound “seascrapers”: aqua-communes for the future?

You guys, I’m freaking out about how cool these things could be. A recent skyscraper concept competition yielded some really interesting designs, among them this utterly amazing concept, which they inexplicably call a “water-scraper” instead of the decidedly more euphonious “seascraper,” as I have dubbed it. Think of it: a partially self-contained structure floating in calm seas, growing food, harvesting wave energy, and providing a home for… well, not that many people, but more than a few.

Newegg terminates supplier relationship over counterfeit Core i7 CPUs

This weekend, up to 300 Newegg customers who pulled the trigger on a new Intel Core i7-920 processor found themselves puzzling over a clever fake instead. Who’s to blame? It’s not exactly clear — Newegg initially said that the processors were “demo units,” but has now posted a statement to Facebook saying that supplier IPEX shipped counterfeit chips and has had its contract revoked. That’s good news for D&H Distributing, another Newegg supplier that responded to an initial wave of finger-pointing by issuing legal nastygrams to sites covering the story, thus ruining whatever good vibes the truth’s generated.

Finally, here’s the statement Intel just sent us, explaining in no uncertain terms that these are counterfeit parts:

“Intel has been made aware of a limited number of counterfeit i7 920 packages in the marketplace, specifically Newegg, and is working to how many and/or where they are being sold. The examples we have seen are not Intel products but are counterfeits. Buyers should contact their place of purchase for a replacement and/or should contact their local law enforcement agency if the place of purchase refuses to help.

Intel is getting samples to inspect and until then we can say that everything in the package appears fake. Some of the photos of the processor look like it is a casting and not even a real processor of any kind. Newegg has moved quickly to replace the suspect units.”

No matter who’s at fault here, the damage has been done. We’ll never build another PC without losing precious seconds carefully examining its CPU first.

[Thanks, Cody C.]

Newegg terminates supplier relationship over counterfeit Core i7 CPUs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RAmos T7+ portable media player

RAmos continues riding the High Definition (HD) wave with its latest portable media player (PMP), the T7+. This model does not only handle 720p but 1080p playback, it can also do its bit in preserving your favorite memories as they happen in 720p HD video. Other specifications include a 7” display at 800 × 480 resolution, HDMI out and support for a plethora of audio and video file formats, including MKV and H.264 for your viewing pleasure. There is no word on pricing or availability though, but don’t expect it to break any records when it comes to its retail price.

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iPad Scams Surface On Facebook And Twitter

It was bound to happen, and it seems that scam sites are now riding the wave of anticipation of Apple’s upcoming iPad. Facebook and Twitter pages offering users to beta test the iPad are surfacing with headers such as “iPad Researchers Wanted – Want to beta test Apple’s latest product?” It all seems rather innocent, even when you see the pop-up window pretending to be a quiz, requesting information such as your date of birth and cellphone number. According to a senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos, the information provided will them be used to sign you up for a premium rate cellphone service, which will charge you something like $10 a week until you unsubscribe. After Facebook’s security team was notified about this, the page was disabled, but you can be sure that there will be similar pages that will sprout up the moment one goes down. So if you see such pages, you’ll certainly want to tread carefully.

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LED Wave Display

Csaba Bleuer’s latest DIY invention would be the LED Wave Display which will display text in mid-air simply by waving it back and forth. This is somewhat reminiscent of the Fan Motor Spinning LED Display, where the spinning display inspired this creation albeit with the addition of a quartet of AA batteries. A tiny circuit board is mounted on the new device alongside a switch which has a motion detector on top. Folks who are adventurous enough to venture out on their own can always contact Csaba for the code.

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Nokia cancels NFC-equipped 6216 handset

Nokia cancels NFC-equipped 6216 handset originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MWC 2010 Day 1 & 2 Roundup

• Skype Mobile App – Verizon and Skype Partnership
• HTC Desire
• HTC Legend
• T-Mobile HTC HD2 and HSPA+ webConnect Rocket
• Windows Phone 7 Series
• Samsung Wave – Hands On
• Sony Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro
• LG GD880 Mini
• LG GW990 with Intel Moorestown
• Huawei U8800 is first 3G/HSPA+ Android handset
• Huawei SmaKit S7
• Huawei U8300 targets or social networkers
• PUMA Phone Unveiled
• Sonim XP2 Spirit arrives

• Mobile: 300 million fewer female subscribers than male subscribers worldwide

• Texas Instruments nHD chipset announced
• Qualcomm Snapdragon running Flash 10.1
• Nokia and Intel announce Meego
• Nokia at MWC – Wrap Up
• SanDisk iNAND Embedded Flash Drive Comsys Mobile unveils first WiMAX/GSM Android smartphone reference design
• New Dolby Mobile with 5.1 Genuine Surround Sound at MWC

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Samsung Wave shows what’s Super about its AMOLED display by going outdoors (video)

Direct sunlight — is there anything more terrifying for an OLED screen? Up until now, you had to sacrifice some outdoor performance from your phone’s display in order to get the spectacular contrast and viewing angles on offer from OLEDs. Up until now. Samsung’s Wave has been taken for a quick spin by Dutch publication portablegear and while we’ve no idea what their feedback on the phone was, the moving pictures speak for themselves. The phone remains entirely readable and usable in spite of the bright environment around it — if you question how much light is hitting it, just take a look at the hand of the person holding it — and color saturation is maintained throughout. Samsung promised us a great media experience on the handset, but this quick demo places its Super AMOLED tech a clear step above… well, every other display out there. The wildly impressive video awaits after the break, and you can find more imagery and our hands-on impressions here.

Continue reading Samsung Wave shows what’s Super about its AMOLED display by going outdoors (video)

Samsung Wave shows what’s Super about its AMOLED display by going outdoors (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s Wave gets the preview treatment

What, our hands-on with video wasn’t good enough for you? Fine, Eldar at Mobile-Review.com has a rather lengthy preview of Sammy’s 1GHz Bada phone, the Wave, including so many macro photos you could probably make yourself a compelling reproduction of Mr. Murtazin’s thumbprint. Impressions of this pre-production phone were very positive, coming to the conclusion that it will “definitely become one of the milestones not only for Samsung, but also the whole industry.” Yeah, it’s looking that good, but we do have to wonder just how warmly the buying community is going to welcome yet another mobile OS. We’ll find out soon enough, as the phone is set for release in April.

Samsung’s Wave gets the preview treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung i8520 ‘Halo’ Android 2.1 phone with 3.7-inch Super AMOLED and pico projector

While Samsung is desparate for us and the world to focus on its very first Bada device — the Wave S8500 — we found something a bit more interesting for Google fans. Tucked away in the depths of a spec sheet is Samsung’s unannounced i8520 phone running Android 2.1. After quizzing a team of perplexed executives of increasing rank, a VP from Samsung’s mobile division finally told us that it’ll be revealed as the “Halo” tomorrow when the show floor opens. Looking at the spec sheet then, the i8520 Halo packs a 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display (bigger than the Wave’s 3.3-incher), 8 megapixel autofocus camera with flash (VGA on the front), 720p / 30fps video encoding / decoding, DivX and Xvid playback support, Bluetooth 2.1, standard 3.5mm headphone jack, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, A-GPS, 16GB of internal storage and microSD expansion, stereo speakers, DLNA support, and — get this — a DLP pico projector integrated. The spec-sheet also lists a “Specialized Projector UI” as one of the features, suggesting it’ll look a little different when you toss it up onto the big screen. This quad-band GSM / EDGE phone with tri-band UMTS 900 / 1900 / 2100 will ship in Q3 to Europe and Asia with a chance for a US version at some point later. We’ll bring you more tomorrow just as soon as we get through all this paella.

Samsung i8520 ‘Halo’ Android 2.1 phone with 3.7-inch Super AMOLED and pico projector originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung i8520 ‘Halo’ Android 2.1 phone with 3.7-inch Super AMOLED and pico projector (updated)

While Samsung is desperate for us and the world to focus on its very first Bada device — the Wave S8500 — we found something a bit more interesting for Google fans. Tucked away in the depths of a spec sheet is Samsung’s unannounced i8520 phone running Android 2.1. After quizzing a team of perplexed executives of increasing rank, a VP from Samsung’s mobile division finally told us that it’ll be revealed as the “Halo” tomorrow when the show floor opens. Looking at the spec sheet then, the i8520 Halo packs a 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display (bigger than the Wave’s 3.3-incher), 8 megapixel autofocus camera with flash (VGA on the front), 720p / 30fps video encoding / decoding, DivX and Xvid playback support, Bluetooth 2.1, standard 3.5mm headphone jack, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, A-GPS, 16GB of internal storage and microSD expansion, stereo speakers, DLNA support, and — get this — a DLP pico projector integrated. The spec-sheet also lists a “Specialized Projector UI” as one of the features, suggesting it’ll look a little different when you toss it up onto the big screen. This quad-band GSM / EDGE phone with tri-band UMTS 900 / 1900 / 2100 will ship in Q3 to Europe and Asia with a chance for a US version at some point later. We’ll bring you more tomorrow just as soon as we get through all this paella.

Note: Even though the i8520 clearly seems to run the same UI as the Bada-powered Wave, we’ve been assured by multiple people in Samsung — including a VP in the Mobile division — that it is, in fact, running Android 2.1. That ties in nicely with the fact that Bada’s graphical representation comes through as a new cut of TouchWiz, so it makes sense these guys would want to port the same look and feel to other platforms. Also of note is the fact that we couldn’t confirm from the company that it’s got a projector on board, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest it does: the so-called Specialized Projector UI, the fact that the 14.9mm girth is likely thick enough to swallow the necessary optics, and — of course — the big DLP logo on back. We’ll bring out the final details just as soon as we know ‘em.

Update: Images confirm it, Halo is a projector phone!

Samsung i8520 ‘Halo’ Android 2.1 phone with 3.7-inch Super AMOLED and pico projector (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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