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Posts Tagged ‘Wallets’

XpanD X103 3D glasses universally compatible with 3DTVs, but not all wallets

During CES 2010. RealD managed to slide its 3D glasses in with most of the new televisions coming our way this year, but XpanD is continuing its promise to work with any IR-enabled set from any manufacturer (Samsung has already stated its glasses will only work with its TVs, Panasonic couldn’t confirm cross compatibility with other brands when we asked) with the X103 series. XpanD is claiming compatibility with “virtually any monitor capable of displaying 3D content”. Even with plans for 12 different colors and sizes for kids or adults it’s more likely you’ll end up in a caption contest than a look book rocking these, but as long as they get the job done they seem like a natural go to for additional pairs when they launch in June. The main problem? Pricing isn’t final but Chief Strategy Officer Ami Dror told PC Mag he expects them to run $125 – $150 — even if the local cinema uses active shutter technology, that’s a lot of 3D flicks before you recoup the cost and makes it nearly out of the question to grab a few spares for friends to watch.

XpanD X103 3D glasses universally compatible with 3DTVs, but not all wallets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FirstView’s $95 Android / Windows CE PC607V tips a craptablet iceberg at CeBIT

Doesn’t look too bad for a $95 Android tablet, huh? Well, there’s plenty more where that came from. Scattered along the main halls of CeBIT are dozens of Chinese and Taiwanese consumer electronics resellers looking to sell products to new customers, and this year they sure loaded up the suitcases with cheap Android / Windows CE tablets. For the most part all these tablets (or small smartbooks) have ARM 9 or 11 processors and 5 to 7-inch resistive touch displays. While some like the FirstView PC607V tablet (pictured above) have attractive skins on top of Windows CE, others from companies like Forsa and Huawei have gone with stock versions of Android. In truth, all of the ones we played with felt chintzy, but it was easier to lower our standards when we learned they wouldn’t draw more than $150 from our wallets. We’ve got a hands-on video with FirstView’s Android tablet after the break, but if that doesn’t fill your cheap tablet needs hit the more coverage links for videos by some serious Android / ARM tablet lovers.

Continue reading FirstView’s $95 Android / Windows CE PC607V tips a craptablet iceberg at CeBIT

FirstView’s $95 Android / Windows CE PC607V tips a craptablet iceberg at CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2011 Chevy Volt pinned with a November 1st official production kickoff date?

Christmas isn’t coming early, but at least you’re getting a heads up. GM car dealers got their annual model guide, and what has our interests piqued here is the listing for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the plug-in hybrid electric car that seems to make our heart race in equal proportions to our wallets crying. According to the chart, the company will be accepting orders starting in September, with the official production date (or “Job 1 date” in automotive lingo) starting November 1st. There’s a bit of a discrepancy, however, as the dealers won’t know their final allocation until two weeks after the startup time — notice how it’s typically done weeks before with the other models — but hey, maybe time paradoxes is just another bullet point on its list of features. It’s about time Doc’s DeLorean had some competition.

2011 Chevy Volt pinned with a November 1st official production kickoff date? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visible Technologies secures $22M for social monitoring

Bellevue, Wash. startup Visible Technologies announced it has raised $22 million in a fourth round of funding. The investment surely shows significant growth potential for social and digital media monitoring companies. It also suggests that big companies and brands might be starting to take out their wallets.

The ability to provide companies and brands with a way to monitor and measure is the stepping stone for them to take the leap of faith into social and digital media. While they may know that customers are having “conversations” about them, they want to make sure they have a good beat on who, what, where and when before they develop a presence on, say Twitter or Facebook.

Visible Technologies claims to have a strong data set in its TruCast platform, revolving around a listen, learn, engage and protect motto. The platform includes several additional solutions. TruPulse, an RSS feed web app, lets users listen to real-time discussions and determine influencers and activists. TruVoice, a set of response apps, allows the user to develop responses to any online conversations without having to leave the Visible Technologies platform. Finally, TruReputation is a set of services that helps you to maximize the positive information about your brand so it’s found by web searches.

Other social monitoring companies are working to strengthen their data sets as well. Yesterday, we saw two social monitoring companies Trendrr and Klout decide to share data to help strengthen each other’s platforms for users to better track trends and determine key influencers on the social web. Companies like Radian6 or Buzzlogic do the same type of analytic analysis and have similar solutions.

The funding was led by new investor Investor Growth Capital (IGC) and existing investors Centurion Holdings, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel and WPP. Financing will be used to strengthen it’s technology platform, discover news uses and expand into international markets. Added to a previous third round, Visibles Technologies now has a total of $34 million.

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Lenovo ThinkPad T410s, T510 and W510 now sniffing for your wallets

Lenovo ThinkPad T410s, T510 and W510 now sniffing for your wallets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ultrathin, algae-based batteries could charge things you never thought possible
Somehow or another, we’ve figured out how to send mere mortals to the moon, create (and mass produce) a laptop thin enough to floss with and add multitouch capabilities to a mouse. But for whatever reason, we’re still stuck using AA batteries that last approximately one-fifth as long as you need them to. Outside of a few breakthroughs here and there, the battery industry at large has found a holding pattern that digs at consumers and likely fattens the wallets of those in charge. Thanks to new research surrounding the use of Cladophora (green algae) in a flexible, ultrathin alternative, it looks as if we may finally be onto something good. Researchers purport that these super skinny cells could be placed in areas where batteries are currently unable to go — think of perpetually charged wall sensors, energized clothing or even light-up wrapping paper. Better still, prototypes have shown the ability to hold a significant charge, but unfortunately for us all, no specific production date has been pegged. A boy can dream though, yeah?

Ultrathin, algae-based batteries could charge things you never thought possible originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Operation Failure: Times Plans To Charge For One-Day Access To Online News

Newspapers continue to struggle with finding an economically viable and sustainable business model for the production and distribution of news on the Web, and not a day passes without me reading about some idiotic statement about the future of online news or journalism made by someone in charge of something at one of the world’s beleaguered newspaper and/or magazine publishers.

Today we have James Harding, editor of News Corp-owned The Times, giving some insight into the publisher’s plans to generate revenue from the digital edition of the paper to an audience of senior editors and executives at the Society of Editors conference in Essex, per PaidContent.

The plans? To charge for 24-hour access to the digital version of the daily newspaper in combination with a subscription-fee based model.

Seriously, Harding apparently said he believed charging for a full day’s access to online news you can – and will continue to be able to – essentially get for free elsewhere is a good idea. Pledging to “rewrite the economics of newspapers”, I can’t help but wonder how he wouldn’t expect such a stupid endeavor to rewrite nothing but the economics of The Times exclusively.

And not in a good way.

Paywall brouhaha aside, I figured everyone realized by now that people tend to cherry pick news content online based on their time and specific interests, and that there was quite some agreement around the fact that people vote with their wallets when given more individual choice (e.g. evolution of music album sales vs. single track sales). If you could choose between paying per single music stream rather than spend your money on 24-hour access to an entire album, which would it be?

Even if you still go out and buy the news as printed on actual paper and subsequently read every single article in it, how many people are like you, you reckon? And if you wanna read everything and everyone a daily newspaper has to offer anyway, why not just, erm, continue to buy the newspaper instead of paying for time-limited access to the digital version of it? Because the advertising alongside articles in the latter case is more interactive?

Despite clear indications of the contrary, Harding believes people will be prepared to pay for news, citing the 270 million books purchased annually in Britain as evidence of an “enormous appetite for the written word and for news”. Except of course you usually pay for a book only once in your life and it (hopefully) stays relevant for the rest of it, while a newspaper by definition stops being a vehicle for actual news the very moment it gets printed.

At least Harding and I agree that micro-payments are not the way either – he claims newspapers should be “wary” of article-only economics because they could find themselves “writing a lot more about Britney Spears and a lot less about Tamils in northern Sri Lanka”.

An excerpt from the MediaGuardian article:

“From spring of next year we will start charging for the digital edition of the Times. We’re working on the exact pricing model, but we’d charge for a day’s paper, for a 24-hour sign-up to the Times. We’ll also establish a subscription price as well.”

The paper’s recent decision to end the free distribution of bulk copies was in line with this strategy, he said.

“We think it’s good for us and good for business to stop encouraging the trickery and fakery of the ABCs. We want real sales to real customers – that’s what our advertisers want too.”

There’s not a doubt in my mind that that’s indeed what The Times wants and hopes for.

There’s even less doubt in my mind that this is not what readers want, though.

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Acer A1 Android phone listed for pre-order with 768MHz processor

We’d been hearing that Acer’s Android-based A1 smartphone would be hitting this month, and while we still haven’t heard anything official, it’s just gone up for pre-order at Expansys. The spec sheet is rather intriguing, since it lists Android 2.0 Donut and a 768MHz Qualcomm 8250 processor, which is a 240MHz bump over every other Android set on the market right now. Pre-orders aren’t insane at €389 ($571), but we’ll see what official pricing and carrier support look like before we reach for our wallets.

[Via Engadget German]

Filed under: Cellphones

Acer A1 Android phone listed for pre-order with 768MHz processor originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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