(Credit: CDC)As anybody who’s watched the movie Outbreak knows, when it comes to raging epidemics, the military will get involved at some point, the question is: in what way (PDF)?
To answer that, the Department of Defense (DOD) has commissioned the development of a simulation-based planning and training …
Originally posted at Military Tech
Peeped in spy pics on these Interwebs since June, Nokia just went official with the 6260 slide. Unfortunately, “slide” in this case reveals a numeric keypad not a QWERTY. Otherwise, it’s pretty much an iterative step beyond the 6220 classic. As such, we’re looking at a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, WiFi, and HSDPA/HSUPA data to quickly share photos and video on Nokia’s Ovi service with the promise of support for other photo and video sharing sites you might actually use. The 6260 slide also features Nokia Maps riding AGPS — a first for a mass market, Series 40 device. Ships in early 2009 for about €299 before taxes and carrier subsidies, naturally.
Update: Detailed specs just released show a 2.4-inch, 320 x 480 pixel display on this 15.4-mm thick slider with quad-band GSM/EDGE and tri-band UMTS radios and microSD expansion. [Thanks, L]
Gallery: Nokia 6260 slide
Read — Press Release
Read — Detailed Specs [Warning: PDF]
Filed under: Cellphones
Nokia slips out 5 megapixel 6260 slide with AGPS, a first for S40 devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Chalk another one up for MPEG-LA, as the licensing group’s members have dropped lawsuits against Vizio stemming from the one-time value HDTV company’s refusal to license MPEG-2 technology, claiming it’s suppliers had already paid the necessary fees. Despite Amtran’s pleas, just like Target’s TruTech brand televisions and DVD players, that argument appears to have quickly folded, . It remains to be seen what direct affect this will have on price, but between this and Vizio’s notable Black Friday absence they must be serious about changing to a more upscale image, we wonder if Sony will invite them to a special reception. (Warning: PDF read link)
Vizio caves on patent dispute and joins MPEG-LA licensees, gobble gobble originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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(Credit: TVPredictions.com)Black Friday is still 11 days away, but for TV manufacturers looking to jump-start sluggish sales in the midst of a recession, it’s already here–and will likely continue in spirit right through the holiday season.
Word of current and impending HDTV price drops is spreading rapidly. The HDGuru reports, for example, that Sony, Samsung, and Mitsubishi are rolling out MSRP reductions across the board, with some cuts as high as $500 on expensive models like the Sony KDL-52XBR6. Samsung is offering $200 off rear-projection models like the HL61A750, which was already a solid value to begin with. Looking for hot-selling prices last Friday, the Guru found deals like the 42-inch Panasonic TH-42PX80U plasma for $649 (although when we checked Monday it was back up to $729 online–still a great deal).
Looking for more? The latest Black Friday price watch (PDF) over at TWICE includes advertised price drops that range from 11 percent for the Sony KDL-46Z4100 to a drastic 33 percent for the LG 32LG30–one of the best deals we’ve seen so far at $549 at Best Buy. When we saw that price, we immediately added the LG to our Best cheap LCD TVs list.
We suspect even better bargains are yet to come. In past years, the best deals were available after Black Friday, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, especially on name-brand TVs.
The combination of the holiday season, nosediving economy and the impending DTV transition may be creating a perfect storm of low HDTV prices, but are people actually buying new TVs as a result?
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Filed under: Handhelds
Sony’s lithe new PRS-700 conquers many of the most annoying faults of Amazon’s chunky little fire-starter, but falls just short of greatness according to MobileTechReview. First with the good: the touchscreen enables page turning with the flick of a finger (or stylus), note taking via virtual keyboard, responds quite well, and doesn’t even smudge! It supports PDF and Word files, can be used landscaped, and even has LEDs built into the screen’s border for reading in the dark. Sadly, though, that display can’t even match the contrast of its predecessors, which are plenty murky to begin with, and with no wireless of any sort you’re stuck filling this one via USB, SD, or MS Duo. In other words there’s still no perfect choice in the world of the e-ink reader — but it is awfully hard to ignore the Reader’s sleek exterior when compared to the Kindle’s distinctively sci-fi doorstop look.
Sony’s new Reader close to greatness, but a bit too dim originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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(Credit: Federal Communications Commission)Some cable subscribers may have been “forced” into purchasing a set-top box and a more expensive digital subscription to receive certain basic cable channels, according to a new investigation launched by the Federal Trade Commission.
The FCC sent out letters (PDF) to Comcast, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and other major cable companies, requesting a tabular list of information, from the “number of overall subscribers in each affected cable system at the time of the analog-to-digital channel change” to “whether Company permitted subscribers affected by the analog-to-digital channel change to modify their service at no charge for 30 days after receiving notice of such change.” Verizon Communications’ FIOS network, which isn’t explicitly a cable service, is also being investigated. The investigation doesn’t affect satellite providers.
The investigation seems to have been initiated by a letter that the Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, sent to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, according to Ars Technica.
Switching to digital is good business for cable. The New York Times reported that Time Warner Cable and Cablevision had better than expected profit this quarter. While Time Warner attributed this to phone and Internet subscriptions, it still “lost 31,000 basic video subscribers in the quarter, but added 124,000 digital video subscribers.” Cablevision also gained a significant amount of digital cable subscribers.
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In less than two weeks, the USB Implementers Forum will reveal USB 3.0, the speedy update to the bus which gave birth to humping dogs and a million other crapware widgets.
In the USB tradition, USB 3.0 will also come with a confusing nickname — SuperSpeed USB, as compared to Hi-Speed USB (2.0) and Full-Speed USB (1.0 - 1.1). Got it? Good. The new spec, supported by industry heavyweights like Microsoft, Intel and HP, promises to be ten times faster than the current 2.0 iteration.
The best part is that we don’t have to worry about anything. Like the other USBs before it, 3.0 will be backward compatible (although we suppose 1.0 wasn’t technically backwards compatible, but you get the point) so you can plug any device into any bus-hole.
We fully expect this to take off, and it might also go some way to silencing the cheapskate whiners who don’t want to put down the cash for a MacBook Pro to get FireWire. If Apple adds USB 3.0 into all its machines, then the lack of a FireWire port in the standard MacBook will be moot.
The exciting SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference runs on November 17th and 18th in San Jose, California. Don’t miss it.
USB [USB.org]
Press release [PDF - USB.org via Cnet]
Photo: Chaymation/Flickr
The Darth Vader Toaster is pretty bogus: any real Jedi would just slice his loaf with a Light Saber and it would fall ready-toasted, needing only a quick slathering of butter and jam (blueberry for the good guys and red, red, raspberry for those on the Dark Side).
But until the Light Saber becomes a common part of the culinary toolkit (a true multi-tasker, we might add) then we’ll have to settle for this junky plastic toaster, the result of pouring black beads into the mold-maker instead of the usual white. It’s exactly the same as a normal thrift-store toaster, only it has the addition of a Darth Vader shaped element which appears to char the Dark Lord’s visage into your breakfast bread. And we mean char — in the picture the center section looks almost inedible.
And of course, you’ll be stung on price, too. $55. For that money, we’d expect a steaming replica of a dead Tauntaun, toast popping crisply from its freshly sliced stomach. Available January 2009.
Product page [Star Wars Shop via New Launches and Nerd Approved]
Filed under: Displays, Handhelds
If you’ve been disinterested in the current wave of e-book readers due to their size, have a gander at Hanvon’s N510. Yeah, you’ll have to look a little harder than usual given its diminutive size, but it’s there (we promise). Hailed as the world’s first five-inch e-book to use electrophoretic technology, this power-sipping device relies on an E Ink Vizplex display and offers up 180-degrees viewing, an 11-millimeter thick frame and support for TXT, HTML, PNG, JPG, PDF, XEB, CEB, MP3 and MTXT formats. The daylight-viewable screen boasts an SVGA (800 x 600) resolution, and it comes loaded with a 1GB SD card and a mini USB port. There’s no direct mention of availability, but it should start floating around soon (somewhere in the world, at least) for $295.
[Via Slashgear]
Hanvon taps E Ink for Vizplex tech in N510 e-book reader originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Yesterday news broke that Circuit City would announce the imminent closure of 155 retail locations, and this morning the company confirmed the news. Detailing its next plan of action in a lengthy press release, the electronics-maker blames “waning consumer confidence and a significantly weakened retail environment” (amongst other things) for the closings, and says that it’s considering “all available options and alternatives for the business.” In the short-term, this means that we’ll see store closings in 55 markets from coast to coast, and the retailer will axe 17 percent of its workforce. The company also plans to begin store closing sales this Wednesday, November 5th, so they’re clearly not wasting any time with the process. We’ve got more info in the read links below, as well as a full list of the closing stores — if you’re an employee, we hope your number isn’t on there.
[Thanks, Milachy]
Read - PDF List of store closings
Read - Circuit City to Retrench [Warning: requires subscription]
Read - Circuit City Stores, Inc. Provides Update on Liquidity and Announces Store Closing Plan
Circuit City announces store closure plans, full list of locations revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Motorola has come out with a phone, the Cliq, targeted at a specific market and utilizing the power of Google’s Android platform. It is the first of a family of new Motorola phones, where the Cliq stands at the patronymic fore. As far as features go, Cliq is doing all right. The phone is complete [...]
For Microsoft Outlook users unfamiliar with Xobni, pay attention. The venture-backed company’s first piece of software, not even two years old, is a powerful advancement for e-mail organization, Outlook style. Wednesday, the new version of the tool is available, Xobni1.8 which provides additional power. In addition, the previously free plugin is offering an advanced version, [...]
Ever since June of last year there has been talks of Verizon and Alltel merging, but now it is official. Verizon wireless has now become the largest mobile carrier with over 83 million subscribers. Alltel will continue to run under the Alltel name until a complete merger of the two brands later this year. Now [...]
Pioneer has released a statement saying they have developed a Super Multi-Layered Disc that will play using current Blu-ray players. The disc consists of 16 layers that can hold 25GB of data each, which totals a 400GB Disc. They plan on having a read-only disc available by 2010, a rewritable by 2012, and a 1TB [...]
One of the biggest reasons most Windows users are sticking with Firefox over Google Chrome is its extensibility—and the most popular Firefox extension by far among Lifehacker readers is Adblock Plus.
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