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As far as PMPs off the beaten path go, Energy Sistem’s always seem to be a slight cut above the rest, and it’s new 4040 Touch looks to be no exception, with it packing some reasonably high-end features into a bargain-priced but not too cheap-looking package. That includes a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot for further expansion, a built-in microphone, an FM tuner, support for most of the usual audio and video formats, and even support for Microsoft’s PlayFX, all for a fairly reasonable €120, or about $150. If that’s more than you need, the company apparently also recently rolled out its 5020 and 5021 models, which drop the touchscreen and cut the storage down to 4GB, and the price down to €85, or just over $100. Just don’t be too surprised if they wind up looking slightly less polished that Energy Sistem’s photos.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Energy Sistem rolls out 4040 Touch PMP originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now come on, this is some seriously sweet stuff. The multi-function Archos 5 (now with updated firmware which the company says addresses a handful of issues we had) is a choice deal unto itself, but toss in that DVR Station, and we think it’s clear just how serious we are about holiday cheer. If you don’t throw your hat in the ring for this one, you may just be faking a love of gadgets. Want to make this happen? Here’s how it works.

We’ll put up a gadget on the site, and you can only enter it until the next gadget lands (usually within a couple of hours). If you miss your shot, sorry, we’re moving on to the next gadget. Good luck! Oh, and don’t forget the rules. (Yeah, there are always rules.)

• Leave a comment below. That’s it! Who loves you, baby.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) You can enter different giveaways in today’s Black Friday giveaways, but you can only enter this one once.
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers or US contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly.
• Entries can be submitted until the next contest goes up. After that we’re all done. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Last round’s winner: Curt! (Remember, winners are selected at random.)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Black Friday Giveaways (part 4): Archos 5 and DVR Station originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already heard that Microsoft plans to make use of GPU acceleration in Windows 7, but it looks like the company is also going to be doing its part for the GPU-less out there, with the OS’s new so-called WARP system promising to allow for DirectX 10 acceleration using nothing more than a plain old CPU. Among other things, that’s apparently being done to avoid a recurrance of the Vista-capable debacle that happend last time around, when some systems that were said to be capable of running the OS were, in fact, anything but. According to Microsoft, WARP (or Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) will work with as little as an 800MHz CPU, although it says it’ll work better on multi-core processors with SSE 4.1. To really put it to the test, Microsoft apparently even went so far as to run a few Crysis benchmarks with the system, and managed to clock in a blistering 7.36 fps frame rate at 800 x 600 on a Core i7-equipped PC, which is actually slightly better than what Intel’s current integrated graphics were able to eek out.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Windows 7 WARP system to allow for DirectX 10 CPU acceleration originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Word on the street is that people have suddenly (and rather unexpectedly) started to be able to buy the Curve 8900 on Rogers for $179.99 on a three-year contract with support for the carrier’s Talkspot UMA service. Why this wasn’t heavily advertised leading up to the release, we don’t know — folks seem to be red-hot for this release — but at any rate, you should be able to stroll into your local shop in the next few days and pick this sucker up. That eternal question comes up yet again: Curve, Bold, or Storm?

Update: Game on — according to Boy Genius, the Curve is now listed in Rogers’ internal database and retail stores are starting to get stocks. So what’s it gonna be?

Filed under: Cellphones

Rogers selling the BlackBerry Curve 8900? UPDATE: Yes indeed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve had some false alarms in the past, but it looks like the first Jasper-equipped Xbox 360s may now finally be starting to make their way out into the wild. While there unfortunately still aren’t any pictures of the motherboard to completely put this thing to rest, everything else certainly seems to be pointing in the right direction, including a 150W power supply (25W less than the current models), a manufacturing date of 2008-10-23, an 0843X lot number, and a power adapter that most definitely won’t fit in a Falcon console — head on past the break for a pic of it. Now, anyone feel like cracking open some cases?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Apparent Xbox 360 “Jasper” spotted in the wild

Filed under: Gaming

Apparent Xbox 360 “Jasper” spotted in the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The popular rumor floating around at the moment is that Microsoft intends to announce self-branded handsets powered by NVIDIA’s beefy Tegra architecture for next-gen phones and MIDs at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in February of next year. Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that Redmond continues to vehemently deny having any interest in getting into the hardware end of its Windows Mobile racket — concealing the truth is a part of doing competitive business, after all — and turn our attention to the practical matter of whether this makes any sense whatsoever. First off, Windows Mobile’s strength lies in its incredibly deep and wide partner base, a base that includes visionary teams at HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and countless others. With Android and Symbian finally becoming viable opportunities for third-party manufacturers, Microsoft doesn’t want to do anything that’s going to hasten the revolt before it’s able to wrap up version 7 (or at the very least, 6.5) — and competing with your own licensees would be a bang-up way to do that. Granted, Microsoft did exactly that by introducing Zune following the PlaysForSure initiative, but let’s be honest: Windows Mobile and Zune don’t play in the same league. Zune’s a hobby, a side gig; WinMo’s a monster, a long-term cash cow that’s got to be treated with the same franchise tag as Windows itself.

Continue reading Microsoft working on its own Tegra-powered superphone? Doubtful.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Microsoft working on its own Tegra-powered superphone? Doubtful. originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Enter our MP3 Insider contest to win a new 120GB Zune (Gears of War 2 Edition), courtesy of Microsoft.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

Donald and Jasmine discuss Zune price drops and a Zune Pass deal that may put some pressure on other subscription services.

Also on the agenda is the latest iPod Touch firmware, some products that failed to impress, iTunes alternatives, and a reader question about stripping audio from DVDs.

Plus, we’re giving away a 120GB Zune MP3 player from Microsoft (see contest details below). Not just any Zune, in fact, but the thoroughly badass Gears of War 2 Edition, which features an etched logo and comes loaded with Gears of War videos, photos and music.

Listen now:

Download today’s podcast

…

Originally posted at MP3 Insider

In the manner of a modern day fable on par with The Little Engine That Could or Rocky, Microsoft has just announced that sales of the Xbox 360 have outraced total sales of the original Xbox, a mere two days after the 360’s third birthday on November 22. Do you feel yourself getting teary-eyed? Sure, the gang in Redmond could have stopped believing, or reaching for that rainbow (or whichever tired cliché you prefer), but it looks like all the hard work has paid off — Microsoft has won a race with itself, and in doing so has given us all hope. To put this in perspective, a total of 25 million original Xboxes were sold during its lifecycle of November 2001 - May, 2005 (roughly three and a half years). The company has yet to release precise sales figures for the 360, but between price cuts in Europe, Black Friday, and the New Xbox Experience, they expect to ride out the tail end of this year with a huge sales boost. Great job, guys! We knew that some day your company would be a success.

[Via Joystiq]

Filed under: Gaming

Xbox 360 outsells the original Xbox, Microsoft heads down to the trophy shop originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back for more, eh? Well you’ve come to the right place — the Engadget Podcast! Join Josh, Paul, and Nilay as they take you on a magical journey through the trials and tribulations of the BlackBerry Storm, investigate the legal situation of the Apple-cloning operation known as Psystar, dish on the latest Zune and Xbox happenings, and lament the forthcoming death of FireWire as it cedes its high-speed throne to USB 3.0. And just think, access to this treasure-trove of information is yours free of charge!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Paranoid

00:02:25 - BlackBerry Storm review
00:32:35 - Psystar’s antitrust claims against Apple dismissed
00:53:59 - Microsoft revamps Zune Pass: keep ten tracks per month forever and ever
01:02:43 - Microsoft ratchets down pricing on flash-based Zunes
01:02:39 - NXE hitting 360s with red ring, freezing and sorta-sexy-avatar issues?
01:06:45 - Goodbye, FireWire 400

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 119 - 11.21.2008 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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