Contactless payments have been something of a curiosity in the credit card industry. MasterCard’s PayPass has been around for the better part of a decade, but merchants and banks alike seem hesitant to adopt the technology required to make the system work, and inconsistent implementation adds to the confusion — particularly for customers. Google’s new mobile phone-based Wallet service has the potential to transform the technology from its current status as a transaction turkey, to a future as a checkout champion. But will it work? We spent a week with a Wallet-enabled Nexus S 4G, using the device to pay whenever we encountered a MasterCard PayPass terminal. Unfortunately, that wasn’t often enough, limiting us to just a handful of transactions in the first week. Still, with Google just beginning to roll out the service and only a limited selection of launch partners ready to go, it’s impossible to deliver a complete verdict just yet. Jump past the break for an inside look at Google Wallet, including a video of the service in action, and a brief look at what the world of contactless payments may look like in the future.

Continue reading A week with Google Wallet (video)

A week with Google Wallet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve spent a few click days shooting click with click Sony’s new click NEX-5N click click click and were very click impressed with its click still image performance click click but click noticed some… Oh man, we’ve gotta hit Stop. As you can see, the camera suffers from a rather significant yet-to-be-diagnosed condition that outputs a mysterious clicking sound whenever you move it about. Since it’s quite faint, this is little more than a minor nuisance when shooting stills, but when you go to playback video click it’s impossible to ignore, rendering the audio component of your video virtually useless.

We’ve been able to isolate the sound to the camera body itself, so it’s completely independent of the lens and other accessories. We also happen to be testing a variety of new Sony products this week in San Diego, and had Sony reps on hand to acknowledge and confirm the issue, which seems to plague every NEX-5N that we’ve tried. This is still very fresh, so Sony doesn’t have a fix or even a statement to issue, but because 1080/60p video is one of this camera’s headline features, we’re going to recommend holding off on your purchase until the company can confirm what’s causing the issue. Jump past the break to hear it for yourself in our demo video.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Sony Alpha NEX-5N makes clicking sound when moved, renders captured audio useless (video)

Sony Alpha NEX-5N makes clicking sound when moved, renders captured audio useless (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are you a Sprint subscriber? Super stoked about possibly getting your hands on an iPhone? It seems as though you’re finally about to be in business. After a chat with a freshly-briefed, forthcoming sales associate, TUAW is reporting that the carrier will start offering an Apple device of some sort next month alongside existing data plans — providing some confirmation for the recent Wall Street Journal report. Things get a bit cloudy after that in regards to exactly which handset the carrier will obtain, but the sales force is currently getting familiar with the iPhone 4. Regardless of which iPhone Sprint ends up procuring, it’s getting fairly impossible to shake the (seemingly) obvious. We’ll see in a month, eh?

Sprint begins iPhone briefings, exact model number remains questionable originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Summer is coming to an end and that means the disappearance of the few remaining summer TV shows still hanging around on the schedule (LA Ink, we won’t miss you). It also means the appears of a certain war movie that takes place in the stars on Blu-ray, and an opportunity for networks like NBC and CW to get some of their fall programming kicked off early. Of course, we’re still all about football and Monday Night Football returns in earnest for the first time tonight with a doubleheader so while you know what we’ll be watching then, check out our highlighted picks of the week here, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Star Wars
While the rest of the world already got their taste, here in North America those looking to obtain legitimate HD copies of the series have to wait until Friday. Whether you’re buying six or three movies, there will be plenty of extras to go along with them, although unfortunately word is there’s been a few (more) changes made. You can have the movies of your childhood in 1080p and crisp surround sound, but you’ll also have to take a quick NOOOO from Vader in Episode IV (clip after the break) — is it worth it? Only you can decide.
($79.99 – Complete Saga, $39.99 – Original Trilogy / Prequel Trilogy on Amazon, September 16th)

Archer
The most hilarious animated series on television. The third season starts this week on FX and we’ll be there to watch the exploits of drinking, womanizing, and not always clear on the details super spy Sterling Archer. Explaining the appeal is impossible and quite possibly illegal, so check season one out on Netflix streaming if you need any further convincing, but do it fast.
(Thursday, FX, 10:30PM)

63rd Emmy Awards
We prefer 40 Year Old Virgin and Party Down Jane Lynch to the current Glee-ified version, but we’ll still tune in to see her host the Emmy Awards this weekend in an arena where big song and dance numbers should be right at home. Check the wiki to see which of your favorite shows are up for an award — can we admit that we didn’t watch HBO’s Mildred Pierce, which leads all others in number of nominations with 21?
(Sunday, Fox, 8PM)

Continue reading Must See HDTV (September 12th – 18th)

Must See HDTV (September 12th – 18th) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The hardest question I was ever asked as a kid was “what do you want to be when you grow up?” When the boys all cried “Fireman!,” and the girls unanimously pledged their life to marine biology, I came up short. Growing up? I hadn’t planned on that.

Peter Pan complex (and book collection) aside, I had it as good as any boy during the 80s / 90s split. I grew-up in the pre-internet stone-age, when the world was still a mystery that couldn’t be Wiki’d away. Playground rumors went without debunk, and wild stories ran amok across the schoolyard — pixies in England, aliens in New Mexico, and magical robot cars in Japan. The world was a fantastic, impossible place. It still is, but I’d be lying if I said the finality of reality isn’t a small disappointment compared to the lies I loved as a child. With the information superhighway still under construction, I had to find other ways to spend my summers. Sure, countless hours were wasted well spent saving 8-bit princesses (and the world of course), but the best weeks of summer were had at Boy Scout camp, the County Fair, and trudging across the country on family road trips.

Continue reading Growing Up Geek: Sean Buckley

Growing Up Geek: Sean Buckley originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s more frightening than a swarm of robots? An award-winning swarm of robots trained to raid your library — that’s what. This SciFi-worthy outfit of mechanized literature swindlers, known as the “Swarmanoid,” landed themselves the Best Video Award at this week’s AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) conference in San Francisco. The video in question features the mixed bag of eye-bots, hand-bots and foot-bots in an Oceans 11-style bookcase heist. Of course, there are probably easier ways to reach the top shelf (e.g. a ladder), but none that get us thinking about the end times quite like this. The full video awaits you after the break.

Continue reading Swarm robots attack your bookshelf, win AAAI Oscar

Swarm robots attack your bookshelf, win AAAI Oscar originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think SIGGRAPH‘s all about far-out design concepts? Think again. A crew from the Tokyo Metropolitan University IDEEA Lab was on hand here at the show’s experimental wing showcasing a new “musical interface,” one that’s highly tactile and darn near impossible to walk away from. Upon first glance, it reminded us most of Yamaha’s Tenori-On, but the “universal input / output box” is actually far deeper and somewhat more interactive in use. A grand total of 16 solenoids are loaded in, and every one of ‘em are loaded up with sensors.

Users can tap any button to create a downbeat (behind the scenes, a sequencer flips to “on”), which will rise in unison with the music until you tap it once more to settle it (and in turn, eliminate said beat). You can grab hold of a peg in order to sustain a given note until you let it loose. There’s a few pitch / tone buttons that serve an extra purpose — one that we’re sure you can guess by their names. Those are capable of spinning left and right, with pitch shifting and speeds increasing / decreasing with your movements. The learning curve here is practically nonexistent, and while folks at the booth had no hard information regarding an on-sale date, they confirmed to us that hawking it is most certainly on the roadmap… somewhere. Head on past the break for your daily (video) dose of cacophony.

Continue reading PocoPoco musical interface box makes solenoids fun, gives Tenori-On pause (video)

PocoPoco musical interface box makes solenoids fun, gives Tenori-On pause (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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