That Siri gal is certainly making the rounds these days. When she’s not answering your questions on a 4S, she’s showing up on iPads and elder iPhones. Not one to play favorites, Siri’s now lending her considerable talents to an iPod touch. Two enterprising young hackers, euwars and rud0lf77, are the ones who put Siri on the iPod, and you can see the results of their labor in the video after the break. Of course, Apple’s servers still aren’t as friendly as the virtual voice assistant, so Siri’s latest cameo remains a silent one — but some Siri’s better than none, right?

Continue reading Siri shows up on an iPod Touch, no longer plays favorites in the iOS family

Siri shows up on an iPod Touch, no longer plays favorites in the iOS family originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So far the appcessories — yeah we said it, APPcessories — we’ve seen include some good ideas, and some less so. The Bluetooth LE 3D-Sport and Weather offerings from Mosoro fall into the former category (if they make their way into a shipping product that is). The 3D-Sport is a motion capture device you attach to sports equipment. The on-board accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer beam motion data to your iOS device, where it can be analyzed by Rocky-style Russian coaches to see where your throw or golf swing is going wrong. The latter is a mini weather station that reads temperature, humidity, elevation, and barometric pressure to tell you the conditions where you are right now. More usefully, it nabs your GPS location and uploads it all to Mosoro’s aptly named “Cloud” Server that presumably maps out some crazy real-time crowdsourced weather report. Both also use Bluetooth 4.0′s low energy technology so they won’t need to see a charger for a long time. Now we just need a company that likes collating personal data, perhaps with a weather service, to snap this one up… any takers?

Continue reading Mosoro Bluetooth LE iOS accessories improve your golf, if the weather’s right

Mosoro Bluetooth LE iOS accessories improve your golf, if the weather’s right originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hope you weren’t planning on falling asleep tonight. We’ve got a very spooky episode of The Engadget Show coming at you this week. We get a behind the scenes tour of the technology that goes into running Manhattan’s Nightmare haunted house. And we swing by New York Comic Con, to discuss the state of digital comics and shoot the breeze with geek legends Mark Hamill and Stan Lee.

We also announce the winners of our Frankengadget contest and give away the clothes from Tim’s back to the winner of our in-studio costume contest, courtesy of Halloweencostumes.com — oh, did we mention that Tim and Brian and dressed as Darth Vader and a storm trooper this whole episode? Because they are.

Intel’s staff futurist Brian David Johnson stops by to talk about the near future of the chipmaker and the role science fiction plays in his daily work. We pay tribute to Steve Jobs with the help of some eager Apple fans. And we take a look at the iPhone 4S, Amazon Kindle and the ASUS Zenbook UX31.

Gallery: Engadget Show — October 2011

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Special guests: Brian David Johnson
Producer: Guy Streit
Director: Alexander Vietmeier
Executive Producers: Joshua Fruhlinger, Brian Heater and Michael Rubens

Download the Show: The Engadget Show – 026 (HD) / The Engadget Show – 026 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show – 026 (Small)

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The Engadget Show – 026: A visit from Intel, a trip to New York Comic Con, haunted houses and costume contests originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square makes a larger mark on the brick-and-mortar scene, available in more outlets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Siri ported to iPad, still getting silent treatment from Apple servers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

At AsiaD this week, Google’s Andy Rubin noted that there were at least six million Android tablets in use. That number included only those running Google services. One could question whether the briskly selling Nook Color — which is not open to Android apps at large — is relevant to that tally, at least from a developer perspective. It will certainly be the case, though, that the Kindle Fire — also expected to be a hot seller — will be an important addition to the number moving forward.

Still, Rubin conceded, it was a tally far behind that of the 30 million cumulative units of the iPad, which broke open the modern-day tablet category, extended its lead with the iPad 2, and will likely see another revision this coming spring. When Apple introduced its tablet device, it set a precedent for third-party developers by rewriting core applications to take advantage of the iPad’s larger display with “HD” versions. And while there are still far fewer native iPad apps than iPhone apps, Apple is far ahead in the race for native tablet software.

But not everyone wants to join that race.

Continue reading Switched On: Android’s tablet traversal

Switched On: Android’s tablet traversal originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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British expats and international fans of BBC television alike can now stream some Gavin & Stacey to their televisions (past season 1 anyway, which is on Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video), as long as they’re properly equipped. The global iPlayer app for iPad has been updated with AirPlay streaming (those in the UK however, have no such luck so far) so once users update to iOS 5 and buy an Apple TV box, they’re in business. Of course, this would all be much simpler if iPlayer were just available on the Apple TV itself (without XBMC or other hacks), but no one asked us, did they?

BBC’s global iPlayer app adds AirPlay streaming, should just be on Apple TV originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Psst. Hey, do you carry a spare Smart Cover around with you? Well, if you’re an unscrupulous sort, you can actually use it to bypass the lock screen of any iPad running iOS 5. This multi-step security hole will let you browse whatever’s running behind the passcode screen, whether that’s email, apps or the homescreen. To take advantage of the flaw, hold down the power button on the locked device until the power off slider appears, then whip the Smart Cover on, open and tap cancel. Fortunately for iPad owners, the rest of the tablet remains locked-down, but the main problem here is any sensitive information left on-screen. If you unlock the tablet to the main screen, you won’t be able to open new apps, although anyone feeling particularly nefarious can apparently delete apps from that meticulously arranged home screen. See how it’s done in the video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Smart Cover can unlock password-protected iPads running iOS 5 (video)

Smart Cover can unlock password-protected iPads running iOS 5 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They’re here! We gave Apple’s latest some face time in Distro’s first special edition and now it’s time for Google’s little green robot(s) to get the cover treatment. If Cupertino’s strength is in its concentration on a single device, then Android’s is in its diversity, and this week we’re bringing you our thoughts on not one, not two, not three, but four new smartphones sporting Mountain View’s OS. We’ll bring you all the dirty details on two hotly anticipated and recently released phones, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Motorola’s Droid RAZR, dive deep into Beats in our review of HTC’s Sensation XE, and find out if the Amaze 4G can live up to its name. We’ve also got a review of the first Ultrabook to make it to market, Acer’s Aspire S3, and a glimpse at how Tech News Today host, Tom Merritt became the Geek he is today. The Android Invasion is upon us, but don’t run for your life. Pick up that iPad or hit the PDF download link below and get your Distro on. (And for those of you diehard Android fans, we are indeed still working on a Honeycomb version — hang tight!)

Distro Issue 9 PDF
Distro on the iTunes App Store
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

Engadget Distro Issue 9: the Android Invasion is upon us! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA’s founder and president Jen-Hsun Huang has never been one to dodge a question, and that made for an excellent closing interview here at AsiaD. Outside of (re)confirming what lies ahead for Tegra, he also spoke quite openly about his feeling towards Windows on ARM in response to a question from Joanna Stern. Here’s the bulk of his reply:

“It’s important for [Microsoft] not to position these as PCs. From a finesse perspective — I can’t speak on their behalf — but I would come out with tablets first with Windows on ARM. It helps to establish that this isn’t a PC. Will yesterday’s Office run on tomorrow’s Windows on ARM PC? Will a new version of Office run on tomorrow’s Windows on ARM tablets? Both questions are about legacy, and both are about Office. The actual implementation of it is radically different. I see no reason to make Office 95 to run on Windows on ARM. I think it would be wonderful, absolutely wonderful — I’d say, as someone who uses Windows — it would be almost a requirement to me that [the ARM] device runs Windows interoperably. If Office runs on Windows on ARM — it’s the killer app. Everything else is on the web.”

He elaborated to say that he would hope Office for Windows on ARM would support the same files that today’s Office does, much the same way that Office for Mac eventually synced up with its Windows-based sibling. For more from Huang’s interview, hop on past the break!

Continue reading NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Huang: Windows on ARM should hit tablets first, battling Intel is a bad idea, would love his chips in iPad

NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Huang: Windows on ARM should hit tablets first, battling Intel is a bad idea, would love his chips in iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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