The Nexus One, grandaddy of Android’s latest pure-bred wonder, appears to have some fight left in it. Developer drl33tmd has managed to coax the old man into running an early port of Ice Cream Sandwich, although it’s not perfect. The somewhat unstable build is a bit sluggish, and suffers from media playback issues and a distinct lack of WiFi. Check out the demo after the break to see the original Google smartphone struggle up some increasingly steep software stairs.

Continue reading Nexus One takes a bite out of Ice Cream Sandwich, chews slowly

Nexus One takes a bite out of Ice Cream Sandwich, chews slowly originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG’s biggest, fastest phone to date, previously known as the Optimus LTE, has made its first landing outside of Korea. In a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to the retina display-beating resolution density, it’s now answering to the name, Optimus Eye. The smartphone’s been leaked in a preview video from The Source, a Canadian retailer which is owned by Bell — who’ll evidently be making the phone available on their network. We also get to see LG’s latest AH-IPS display technology in action, alongside a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and the increasingly standard eight megapixel shooter. No whisperings just yet on pricing or a launch date, but we’d expect these top-drawer specifications to be matched with an appropriately top-drawer price tag when it does arrive. You can eye it up for yourself after the break.

Continue reading LG Optimus Eye: LTE smartphone renamed with a view to landing in Canada

LG Optimus Eye: LTE smartphone renamed with a view to landing in Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking forward to Dell’s latest Windows slate? Point your peepers here, the outfit’s Malaysian site just unleashed a promo video showing off the firm’s Latitude ST tablet. The preview confirms that the 10-inch tablet will sport front and rear cameras, HDMI-out, a built-in stylus and an Intel Atom processor. The Latitude ST can also be paired with a familiar looking docking station, leaving us to wonder if we’re looking at Dell’s ‘Peju’ Tablet in its final form. Care to wonder with us? You’ll find the video after the break.

Continue reading Dell Latitude ST promo video shows off stylus, docking station

Dell Latitude ST promo video shows off stylus, docking station originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re going to go to the trouble of sending a camera to the edge of space, you might as well send one capable of doing the trip justice, right? That hasn’t always been the case with similar DIY attempts (for obvious reasons), but the team behind the so-called Cygnus “spacecraft” decided to go all out when they sent their weather balloon / beer cooler contraption aloft this month to photograph the curvature of the Earth. In this case, going all out meant sending a Nikon D300s DSLR equipped with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, which managed to capture some stunning pictures like the one you see above — although some got a bit obscured by ice build-up. There’s more where that came from at the Flickr link below, and you can check out a video of the launch after the break.

[Thanks, Udi]

Continue reading Nikon D300s travels to the edge of space, survives to share the results

Nikon D300s travels to the edge of space, survives to share the results originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s Personal 3D Viewer’s finally found its way off the showroom floor and on to the shelves of Harrods? That’s right, the dual screen 1280 x 720 0.7-inch OLED sporting headset’ll initially be a limited exclusive to the well-heeled UK retailer, with a general country-wide release set for later this month. US gamers will have to hold out just a few more days until its end of October launch, but if you’re super impatient, there’s always that import option. Think you can shell out for the

No matter what country you’re in, you’ll find at least one body-painted sports nut willing to act a fool in the name of fandom. To figure out what makes these hooligans tick, Sharp’s setting up trucks outside EuroCup 2012 matches to measure fans’ brainwaves using biometric technology. Once inside these mobile FanLabs, volunteers will watch the game while wearing the company’s NeuroSky headsets — a super sensitive EEG that uses dry electrodes to measure cerebral activity. By looking at brainwaves, along with heart rate and vocal excitement, scientists hope to reveal what levels of attention, stress, relaxation and excitement a fan goes through while supporting a specific team. Even if you’re not lending your melon to science, you can still join in the fun online, and see how you stack up against fans from around the world. So, bust out the body paint, grab your foam fingers and check out the video after the break.

Continue reading Sharp FanLabs goes inside soccer fans’ minds, measures loyalty with brainwaves (video)

Sharp FanLabs goes inside soccer fans’ minds, measures loyalty with brainwaves (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jersey girls and boys can now tap and pay their way around, but for the Garden State’s myriad of malls, cash’ll still have to do. Not so for the Ozzies Down Under who may soon never have to leave the comfort of food court chairs — if they’re packing a Nexus S, that is. Designed as a concept by University of Sydney start-up SDigital, special coaster-like “brand stickers” affixed to eatery “brand tables” would relay fast-food menus to mobile phones via NFC. Hungry, hungry humans would then make their selections, order up and receive a vibrating notification when the food’s ready. It’s a contactless payment solution not unlike the QkR platform MasterCard demoed for us last month. And given our ever-increasing crawl towards the bleak adult baby form factor of our potential Wall-E futures, we’d say this tech’s right around the public release corner. Head on past the break for a video demo of the tukkis-numbing, Foodcourtia tech.

Continue reading Brand Table concept revolutionizes fast food, NFC still won’t make it good for you (video)

Brand Table concept revolutionizes fast food, NFC still won’t make it good for you (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Typically, road rage responses range from a flip of the bird to some gentle highway drag racing. For an enterprising hacker by the name of Gagandeep Singh, however, those on-road hijinks have given way to a more eloquent, albeit LED-lit resolution. Conceived as means of informing errant drivers of their transportation follies, Singh rigged up a 40 x 16 LED matrix display and affixed it to his car’s rear window. Using an AT89C51 micro-controller, hard-coded messages and animations are then fed to the 2cm x 2cm grid, much to the chagrin of reprimanded drivers following close behind. Eventually, this helpful hack’ll hookup with a mobile phone over Bluetooth, delivering real-time updates (and insults?) to the display. Until then, you’ll just have to make due with Singh’s step-by-step DIY at the source. Jump past the break for a scrolling view of this corrective driving tech.

Continue reading Rear window LED hack minds bad drivers’ manners, has nothing to do with Hitchcock (video)

Rear window LED hack minds bad drivers’ manners, has nothing to do with Hitchcock (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a little souvenir for Twitter addicts eyeing the upcoming PS Vita: at today’s debut event in Hong Kong, we got to see said console’s Twitter app in action for the very first time, and we were also fortunate enough to get some exclusive hands-on time with Sony’s in-house software. As you can see in our video after the break, the overall design feels very much in line with Twitter’s standard ID: the same shade of blue, the usual tabs on the left column, slick elastic scrolling in the timelines, and support for geotagging, hash tags plus photo attachment while tweeting. No surprises here, but hey, the app worked well for us.

That said, we were told that the app wasn’t quite finished yet, and Sony still couldn’t confirm whether this — along with the other dedicated apps like Skype, Foursquare and Facebook — will be ready for download by the time the Vita launches in Hong Kong on December 23rd (just a tad later than Japan’s launch on the 17th). In case you’re wondering, the Vita there will cost HK$2,280 (US$290) for the WiFi version and HK$2,780 (US$360) for the 3G flavor, both unsubsidized but cheaper than their Japanese counterparts. Of course, given that the console isn’t region-locked, feel free to go do some shopping in Hong Kong then — just save some for the locals, OK? Also, check out our gallery below for some close-up shots of the Vita’s music and video apps.

Continue reading PS Vita’s Twitter app shown off in Hong Kong, we go hands-on (video)

PS Vita’s Twitter app shown off in Hong Kong, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If Apple is that paranoid friend that has four deadbolts on his door and a loaded weapon in every room, then Microsoft is the over-sharer who tweets where, when and what he had for lunch — including both before and after photos (and we’re not talking about pictures of a clean plate). Redmond wants you to know about everything it does — no accomplishment is too minor for a lengthy explanation of the what and why. Take for example, portrait mode. Windows 8 will have one. We know what you’re thinking, “well I would frackin’ hope so,” but the devs want you to know this isn’t just some feature they slapped in the OS knowing people would expect it. The team studied users both familiar with and new to the tablet form factor. They looked at grip, posture and when people chose to rotate their slates. And, if you’re some weirdo who likes reading things on their side, there’s a rotation lock option. For more details hit up the source link and the video after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft talks Windows 8 portrait mode, really wants you to be proud of it (video)

Microsoft talks Windows 8 portrait mode, really wants you to be proud of it (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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