IBM’s board of directors have announced that Virginia M. Rometty will be taking over as CEO of the company in 2012, succeeding current chief Samuel Palmisano. Palmisano will stay on as chairman of the board, but at the end of the year will hand over the reins to Rometty who will become one of a few, but growing number of female chief executives (alongside Meg Whitman) in the tech industry. During her roughly decade long tenure with the company she has spearheaded the push into the services industry and in 2009 became senior vice president of sales, marketing and strategy, leading the charge into markets like China and India. The 54-year-old Rometty will look to continue Palmisano’s success, which has seen IBM become the second most valuable tech company in the world, just ahead of Microsoft and right behind Apple. Check out the full PR after the break.

Continue reading IBM announces Virginia Rometty as new CEO

IBM announces Virginia Rometty as new CEO originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:18:00 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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If you meander on down to the Apple store this morning, you’ll spot some nice little spec bumps to the MacBook Pro range — without any increase to the prices. For a start, you can now splash out on a faster AMD Radeon HD 6770M discrete GPU with your 15-inch or 17-inch lappie. Even better, there are some CPU improvements to be had: the 13-incher gets the option of a 2.8GHz Core i7 or a 2.4GHz Core i5 dual-core processor, instead of the previous entry-level 2.3GHz i5 (and it also gets its HDD notched up to a minimum 500GB, or max 750GB). The 15-incher now goes up to a quad-core 2.4GHz i7 — the same speedy processor that comes in the updated 17-inch variant. Oh, the cost/benefit dilemmas.

Apple MacBook Pro (late 2011) line-up gets processor and graphics boost originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s most highly sophisticated OS yet? Cupertino would have you think so, but as with any major update, there have been plenty of quirks to work through in the months following the introduction of Lion. For those of you who’ve made the 0.2 leap from 10.6.8 (or from further back, actually), we’re interested in learning how your overall experience has been. A good move? Still regretting it? What apps have broken on you? Has your workflow changed at all? Do you prefer “natural” scrolling? How would you tweak Lion if given the chance? What apps would you overhaul? What factory settings would you alter? Carefully considered thoughts are welcome in comments below.

How would you change Apple’s OS X 10.7 (Lion)? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alternative transportation blasted off into the future this week as DeLorean revealed plans to launch an all-electric vehicle in 2013 and Richard Branson announced the official opening of the Virgin Galactic Gateway spaceport. Researchers also developed a next-gen quantum levitation technology that could lead to floating vehicles, and we spotted a cloud concept blimp that soars through the skies. We also brought you an exclusive interview with Revenge of the Electric Car director Chris Paine, and we shared a leaked brochure with specs on Toyota’s new Prius C.

Renewable energy also rocketed towards a more sustainable tomorrow as Japan’s team Tokai took first place in the World Solar Challenge and Apple filed a set of patents for next-generation solar technology. Meanwhile Facebook announced plans to launch a new energy efficiency app in 2012 and we launched a contest where you can win one of 25 $600 home energy audits. We also showcased a stunning set of satellite photos of the world’s power lines, and since Halloween is on its way, we brought you a Zombie-Powered Vertical Farm designed to keep its inhabitants safe from the Living Dead.

Speaking of Halloween, this week we shared instructions for making a DIY cardboard box robot costume, and we launched our 2011 Green Halloween Costume Contest for kids. We also brought you several developments from the realm of eco textiles — a material that repairs its own rips and tears and a Japanese company that recycles old bras into power-generating fuel. Finally, we showcased several slick developments in aqueous technology: an oil skimmer that cleans up spills four times faster, an artificial muscle that could one day propel nanobots through the body, and a quirky set of ‘Macquariums‘ made from Apple iMacs.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: quantum levitation, Zombie-Powered Vertical Farm and Macquariums originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Christian, who seems to be into the idea of traveling sans wires. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I am looking for some AirPlay-enabled speakers that I can use to travel with. They should support 110 to 240 volt and have WiFi built-in so I don’t have to carry around an AP. Also, it would be cool if this WiFi could connect to the hotel network, if possible. Thanks!”

It’d also be cool if you share any relevant advice down in comments below. Cheers!

Ask Engadget: best AirPlay speakers for travel? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember when T-Mobile CMO Cole Brodman splashed a bucked of cold water on our hot iPhone 4S dreams? Yeah, well the carrier’s back to clarify its glaring lack of the handset in its lineup, and it appears the choice wasn’t theirs to make. In a statement released today, SVP of Marketing Andrew Sherrard expressed the operator’s desire to play host to Apple’s latest device, but claims Cupertino’s omission of an AWS-friendly radio is the true culprit. In order for that phone to run competently on T-Mo’s 4G network, those 1700MHz bands would need to be serviced. In its stead, the exec points to the other phones currently on offer — namely, those bearing Android — while referring to the 4S’ apparent network issues. Follow past the break for the full quote straight from Magenta’s mouth.

Continue reading T-Mobile’s Andrew Sherrard: ‘the iPhone is not the only option’

T-Mobile’s Andrew Sherrard: ‘the iPhone is not the only option’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:45:00 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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We’re not gonna lie: we’re on one. One heck of a crazy week, that is! Two big phone launches kept our feet close to the fire, and a couple of odds n’ ends rounded out the week in the way that only odds and ends can — oddly. It’s the Engadget Podcasters, live in a room together, at last, and with devastatingly informative consequences.

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guest: Dana Wollman
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Devil’s Haircut

02:30 – Samsung and Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich event liveblog!
03:30 – Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus gets official: Android 4.0, 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display (video)
06:22 – Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on (video)
07:57 – Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus launches in November on NTT Docomo, Verizon, and more
08:18 – Android Beam takes us to the future of close-proximity data exchange (video)
18:00 – Motorola Droid RAZR unveiled: LTE, 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, available November for $299
27:00 – Motorola Droid RAZR hands-on (video)
29:15 – Motorola RAZR to get updated to Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012
34:45 – Samsung’s Won-Pyo Hong: Galaxy Nexus wasn’t designed just to skirt Apple patents
38:37 – Motorola Motoactv hands-on (update: video with Dean Karnazes!)
41:45 – Research in Motion announces BBX, ‘combines the best of BlackBerry and QNX’
43:36 – Lytro camera hands-on (video)
46:45 – ASUS’ Jonney Shih: Padfone will ship in Q1 2012 with Ice Cream Sandwich
46:55 – Microsoft’s Andy Lees: Nokia will announce ‘its Windows Phones’ at Nokia World
51:36 – The Engadget Show
56:04 – Listener questions

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 261 – 10.21.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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