I got sucked into a demo at CES. It was innocent enough, Editor Adam Berger wanted to play with the steering wheel on the table and being his assigned wingman, I got stuck listening to the pitch. I went from feeling stuck to genuinely interested in about 15 seconds. This is a really neat concept that combines GPS, car monitoring and email/SMS.
Let’s say your wife breaks down on the way to work. If you had one of these units plugged in, you’d know where she was and what kind of problem the car is having, probably well before she does. The device plugs into the cars computer port and can report speed, location, low tire pressure, and all the other things your car knows. It can even unlock doors remotely.
Another scenario is your teen finally gets permission to take the car. You can program this device to let you know if the car goes over 65 mph or goes out of a location zone. Notifications can come in via email or SMS. Sweet, teens are getting away with nothing these days.
At $140 per year, the cost isn’t ridiculous especially if you are a nervous parent. Coming this June to consumers and in March to car dealerships.
Company site [CarShield] *warning: company website is horrible; let’s hope this first look will improve by launch
This was built a few months ago, but we just heard about it today courtesy of Jean-Luc Picard’s ancestor Steve. The guy who made this hooked up an Xbox 360 to one of those XFPS adapters that let you use a mouse and keyboard on your 360, then hooked it up to a custom microcontroller using a Samsung Q1 UMPC, then hooked it up to a PC with Wiimote drivers, then connected a Wiimote to it. The result: an ability to control an FPS game on the 360 with the Wiimote and Nunchuk attachment. The best part is that the creator’s documented the process so you can build your own if you really feel the need to play Halo with a Wiimote (and have money to buy a Samsung UMPC). [Live]
The International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate a complaint of patent infringement made against Sharp Corp. Samsung claims that Sharp has infringed on 4 different patents for LCDs. Samsung is attempting to block imports of products using Sharp LCDs. These products include HDTV’s and the Motorola RAZR2. The companies are suing each other in various federal courts and in Seoul, South Korea. A decision is not expected to come for about 15 months.
CNET UK reviews the Nokia E51 and writes, “Picture quality from the 2-megapixel camera is grainy when blown up but fine for MMS messages and small prints. You can also record video using the E51’s camera but don’t expect to shoot a hi-def short film.”
A number of documents can be found on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website that confirm Sony is bringing the ceramic white version of the PS3 to North America.
The documents show pictures of the white PS3 set up as a test unit along with a letter requesting short-term confidentiality to stop the news getting out. The model will be the now standard 40GB incarnation, but no price or specific release date has yet been announced.
I seem to be one of the few people who didn’t like that the Xbox 360 was white when it first came out. I prefer my under-TV gadgets to be black, so they hide in the darkness of my glass-fronted cabinet.
The thing that sticks out the most about this ceramic white edition of the console is the dark buttons on the controller. Why aren’t they white as well? Surely it would have worked with the white theme?
Nokia has just filed a patent application known as “Mobile device with virtual keyboard”, and we can guess as much from there that the digital camera located on the handset is used to capture the movement and position of the user’s fingers, projecting them onto a virtual keyboard which is shown on the phone’s display in real time. I’d say such an application will see your cell phone’s battery drained in no time, and is the camera fast enough to capture the image of a speed typist? Should this idea make it big, you will probably see a limitation in cell phone designs as the cameras can only be placed at a certain place on the handset in order for it to work nicely.
Posted Jan 23rd 2008 9:45AM by Evan Blass Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Portable Video In case you haven’t been following all the drama over at Engadget Mobile, Taiwanese smartphone kingpin HTC is seeing a rather unexpected customer backlash over sub-par video playback in recent devices employing Qualcomm’s MSM7xxx chipsets — apparently, handsets like the popular TyTN II and Touch Cruise were purposely shipped without drivers that would take advantage of the embedded ATI Imageon acceleration hardware. And now, instead of issuing a mea culpa or at least providing the drivers for a small fee, HTC has basically suggested in a recent statement that consumers will need to upgrade to future products if they want “high-resolution video support.” Obviously customers are outraged, with the statement only fueling further talk of a class action lawsuit.
We think it’s time for the Engadget community at large to weigh in on this snowballing controversy: what (if anything) should HTC have done differently in order to maintain the proactive, customer-friendly image that it has up to this point been known for?
What should HTC have done differently with respect to the video driver controversy?
The Globus Mobile is a complete office workstation and chair hidden in a large ball. The concept by designer Michiel van der Kley can be moved to any place using its hidden wheels. When you want to work, you just swivel it open and bingo: you can slot in a laptop, perch on the padded chair and think up as many chicken-and-egg or ping-pong ball jokes as you like. [Michiel van der Kley via Yanko design] galleryPost(’globus’, 3,’globus’);
Anyone with an iPhone will definitely want to do their best to keep it scratch-free as long as possible (we know it is inevitable), which is why OtterBox has come up with their iPhone case that was paraded at the recently concluded MacWorld. This polycarbonate shell snaps together to safeguard the device, while a scratch-resistant polycarbonate membrane prevents the screen from picking up dust and stops light water intrusion. Sounds like my kind of case for any shiny new device, and not only the iPhone.
I got sucked into a demo at CES. It was innocent enough, Editor Adam Berger wanted to play with the steering wheel on the table and being his assigned wingman, I got stuck listening to the pitch. I went from feeling stuck to genuinely interested in about 15 seconds. This is a really neat concept that combines GPS, car monitoring and email/SMS. 
CNET UK reviews the Nokia E51 and writes, “Picture quality from the 2-megapixel camera is grainy when blown up but fine for MMS messages and small prints. You can also record video using the E51’s camera but don’t expect to shoot a hi-def short film.”
In case you haven’t been following all the drama over at Engadget Mobile, Taiwanese smartphone kingpin HTC is seeing a rather unexpected customer backlash over sub-par video playback in recent devices employing Qualcomm’s MSM7xxx chipsets — apparently, handsets like the popular TyTN II and Touch Cruise were purposely shipped without drivers that would take advantage of the embedded ATI Imageon acceleration hardware. And now, instead of issuing a mea culpa or at least providing the drivers for a small fee, HTC has basically suggested in a recent statement that consumers will need to upgrade to future products if they want “high-resolution video support.” Obviously customers are outraged, with the statement only fueling further talk of a class action lawsuit.
The Globus Mobile is a complete office workstation and chair hidden in a large ball. The concept by designer Michiel van der Kley can be moved to any place using its hidden wheels. When you want to work, you just swivel it open and bingo: you can slot in a laptop, perch on the padded chair and think up as many chicken-and-egg or ping-pong ball jokes as you like. [Michiel van der Kley via Yanko design]
