A tale of two Food-Named Financial Aggregation Web 2.0 startups: Mint is one, who remembers the other? http://bit.ly/ajzp3l

Panasonic's DMR-BF200 stuffs hard drive and Blu-ray burner into one tiny, magical box

And this, friends, is why Japan is a marvelous place. Panasonic has just removed the wraps from its new DIGA DMR-BF200, which is being hailed as the planet's smallest Blu-ray recorder. For all intents and purposes, this is simply an external hard drive with a slot-loading Blu-ray burner baked in, but there's plenty more on the inside to pay attention to. It'll stream DLNA content, interface with your other VIERA Link equipment, output content via HDMI and even access acTVila (a Japanese video-on-demand service). Users can also toss in an SD card for watching flicks stored on more portable media, and most anything housed on the 320GB internal hard drive can be toasted on BD-R/RE for playback elsewhere. It should be noted, however, that neither BDXL nor Blu-ray 3D are supported, but those still keenly interested can find it on November 15th for ¥70,000 ($861) in black or white.

Panasonic's DMR-BF200 stuffs hard drive and Blu-ray burner into one tiny, magical box originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell XPS resurrected with NVIDIA graphics, HD webcams and JBL audio

It's baaack. Okay, to be fair Dell's XPS brand never really went away -- there's been the Studio XPS and Adamo XPS -- but as of today, the company's refocusing its efforts and bringing back the tried and true multimedia laptop brand. Just like we'd heard, the new 14-,15.6-, and 17-inch machines will be available across the board with NVIDIA GeForce 400M GPUs (with Optimus / 3D Play support) and Core i5 / i7 processor options, but there's more to these than just internal oomph -- it'll be one of the first laptops to ship with a Skype-certified HD webcam and they're also equipped with high-fidelity JBL speakers. In terms of aesthetics, the machines pull in some styling from the new Inspirons with the wider battery base, however, instead of plastic, the lids are coated in anodized aluminum. (Of course, Dell wouldn't be Dell without making the models available with Design Studio customization options -- aka with crazy pattern options.) So, what's the deal with pricing? The entry level systems -- the $899 XPS 14, $849 XPS 15, and $949 XPS 17 -- are all configured with Intel Core i5 460M processors, 1GB NVIDIA 420M graphics, 500GB 7,200rpm hard drives, 4GB of RAM and pack Intel WiDi. That's not too shabby, but, of course, you'll be able to configure 'em all with Blu-ray drives, more storage, memory, etc. Our review unit just arrived! so expe ct a full work-up of the 14-inch system soon, but until then we leave you with the images and press release below.

Gallery: Dell XPS hands-on

Gallery: Dell XPS press shots

Continue reading Dell XPS resurrected with NVIDIA graphics, HD webcams and JBL audio

Dell XPS resurrected with NVIDIA graphics, HD webcams and JBL audio originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia ends talk of Symbian^4, adopts HTML5 in Qt framework

Things are turning upside down in Espoo today. Besides, earnings and reported job cuts of some 1,800 employees, Nokia also announced that it'll be streamlining its development strategy to unify environments for Symbian and MeeGo. Nokia's new approach calls for the adoption of Qt, and only Qt, as its application development framework from today onward. Here's what that means for new N8 owners:

You can buy a Nokia smartphone confident that any improvements introduced later to the Symbian platform, such as the user interface, can be made available to download on your device as well. No need to wait for Symbian^4 - the improvements we were planning for Symbian^4 will be introduced as and when they become available. In fact, we will no longer be talking about Symbian^3 or Symbian^4 at all - it will be one constantly evolving and constantly improving platform.

Sounds like a smart move to us. After all, it's Symbian's UI, and not the OS, that we have the most trouble with -- an issue that Nokia readily concedes. So the faster they can improve it -- even pieces of it in a continuous evolution of the experience -- the better. Nokia also announced support for HTML5 web content and applications for the Symbian and MeeGo platforms in both Qt and the browser. Click through for the press release and to hear Rich Green, Nokia CTO, discuss the new strategy.

Continue reading Nokia ends talk of Symbian^4, adopts HTML5 in Qt framework

Nokia ends talk of Symbian^4, adopts HTML5 in Qt framework originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 06:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung adds prescription lens option to its active shutter 3D glasses

If the only thing holding you back from that new 3DTV purchase was the inconvenience of slipping the 3D glasses over the regular old 2D glasses you already wear, Samsung is the first major manufacturer with a solution now that it's unveiled a prescription version in Korea. The SSG-R2200 models appear to be very similar to the company's other active shutter 3D glasses in various shapes and sizes, but they're made to order from an optometrist. We know this is something several companies have been working on and expect to see these available in the US eventually as well, but we'll have to see a pricetag of some type before we decide if rocking the dual specs or just sticking with 2D is the best option.

Gallery: Samsung Prescription 3D Glasses

Samsung adds prescription lens option to its active shutter 3D glasses originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct! 2010 17 :58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC HD7 review

The screen that just keeps on going meets the OS that refuses to fit on a single display. Yes, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, like Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android before it, is getting treated with a 4.3-inch display from HTC for its launch party. The aptly titled HD7 is, by virtue of Microsoft's stringent hardware requirements, mostly just a stretched-out version of its WP7 contemporaries: it offers the standard 800 x 480 res, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, 576MB of RAM, and a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with a 720p movie mode. So what sets it apart? HTC will have you believe its Hub enhances the buttery smooth WP7 software, while outside the shell there's a handy kickstand for landscape lounging and you do of course benefit from an enlarged canvas for your finger inputs. Join us after the break to discover how much that matters in day-to-day use, along with the rest of our thoughts on the HTC HD7.

This review is primarily of the HTC HD7 hardware. Check out our full review of Windows Phone 7 for our thoughts on the OS.

Gallery: HTC HD7 review

Gallery: Samsung Omnia 7 vs HTC HD7 and 7 Mozart

Continue reading HTC HD7 review

HTC HD7 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Connection Kit marries Bug Labs with 3G, whatever crazy gizmo you dream up

Creative spirits that know their way around an Eclipse project (and, optionally, a soldering iron) but have a deeply-rooted hatred for CDMA will be happy to know that the tinkerers at Bug Labs have announced a new partnership with AT&T, its second with a US carrier after teaming up with Verizon a few weeks back. The core of the program is the new BUG + 3G / GSM kit, featuring per-certified Bug modules ready to work on AT&T's network; that package will in turn build on top of AT&T's existing Connection Kit for developers that includes activated data SIMs and other tools you'll need to build the next great connected device that Engadget will inevitably write about... and hopefully review. So, you know, make sure we're on your list for review units, alright, everyone? It looks like the new modules will be available in January, so start working on those million-dollar ideas -- in the meantime, you can find the full press release after the break.

Continue reading AT&T Connection Kit marries Bug Labs with 3G, whatever crazy gizmo you dream up

AT&T Connection Kit marries Bug Labs with 3G, whatever crazy gizmo you dream up originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD demos next-gen Llano Fusion APU, promises consumer availability in 2011

2011 can't come soon enough, particularly if you're AMD. The company has been attempting to maintain hype behind its CPU / GPU hybrid since last century, but the newest demonstration of its Llano Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) is getting us back in the mood. For those who haven't followed the play-by-play, this here all-in-one chip is expected to hit laptops and desktops at some point in 2011, and the company's most recent demo featured a single chip simultaneously processing three separate compute-and graphics-intensive workloads. Llano was able to calculate the value of Pi to 32 million decimal places, decode HD video from a Blu-ray film and handle some other mysterious task that we may or may not ever truly find out about. Head on past the break for a promotional / informational video, and be sure to re-circle next year on your calendar. That'll be the one... just like your high school football team always thought.

Continue reading AMD demos next-gen Llano Fusion APU, promises consumer availability in 2011

AMD demos next-gen Llano Fusion APU, promises consumer availability in 2011 or! iginally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile G2 overclocked to 1.4GHz, starts blitzing benchmarks (video)

Well now, that didn't take very long. T-Mobile's G2 (aka the HTC Vision) has been let off its leash, and there's no getting it back now. XDA-developers member coolbho3000 has posted his overclock module, which takes an already fast phone and make it considerably more perky. He started at a modest 1GHz, but kept on pushing up to 1.42GHz -- though there's potential to go even higher. All this despite T-Mobile's attempts at preventing hacking, but certainly seeming to allow allow for a fair bit of tweaking. You can download all you need at the source link, or if you'd rather just live vicariously there's video proof after the break.

[Thanks, Brandon]

Continue reading T-Mobile G2 overclocked to 1.4GHz, starts blitzing benchmarks (video)

T-Mobile G2 overclocked to 1.4GHz, starts blitzing benchmarks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New study http://bit.ly/a9SFtg confirms what I said here http://bit.ly/98xbKV Groupon is UNprofitable for 32%, 40% won't repeat, 13% return

Add Animated Charts to your PowerPoint Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint offers a variety of charts and graphs that you can add to your presentations. These charts will mostly appear as static images on your slides though you can use PowerPoint's built-in animation tools to add some movement and interactivity.

For instance, if you have have added a bar chart on one of you slides, you may apply custom animations to the chart such that each of the bars appear on screen with a fade or, say, a wipe. This support page has more details on how you can animate charts in PowerPoint.

Animated charts, if done well, can help you grab the attention of your live audience. With PowerPoint, you can add some basic animations to your charts but the workflow is not as easy as you would like it to be.

If you are therefore looking for an alternate charting tool that's more intuitive and one that can generate impressive animated charts but in considerable less amount of time, try oomfo.

Oomfo is a free plug-in that lets you create Adobe Flash based animated charts right inside your copy of Microsoft PowerPoint. It supports all the recent versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2010.

It uses a simple wizard – choose a chart type, type the data into the wizard (or you can copy-paste cells from Excel) and it will then insert the chart into your current PowerPoint slide as a Flash (SWF) object. You can place the chart anywhere on the slide or even resize it just like a regular image based chart.

What you see above is a video of a sample PowerPoint chart that was created using Oomfo.

The chart animation plays as soon as the slide appears on the screen and then you can use your mouse pointer to highlight the various data points, something which is not that easy to accomplish in standard PowerPoint.

Related: Find the right chart type for your data

     

This article, titled Add Animated Charts to your PowerPoint Presentations, was originally published at Digital Inspiration under Charts, Powerpoint, Software.

How to Research Domain Names on the Web

Researching domain names on the web is often frustrating because all the good names that are in your mind have already been taken. There are however tools that you help you brainstorm new ideas for domain names and you may sometimes strike gold.

The IANA maintains a complete list of top-level domains (like .am for Armenia or .be for Belgium) that you may consider registering in case the usual .com and .org addresses for your domain are not available.

It's obviously not easy for anyone to search through dozens of domain extensions manually so a tool like iWantMyName should help. With a single click, iWantMyName lets you check the availability of a domain name against most of the international domains* from one place.

Another excellent tool for researching domains is Domai.nr. Give it any word and Domai.nr will suggest some really creative domain names around that word.

For instance, if you are looking for a domain like "awesome", Domai.nr will check the availability of generic domains (like awesome.com) as well as unconventional domains like aweso.me, aws.me, aw.sm, etc. which also make lot of sense in case the original one is not available.

You may also use characters from Arabic, Hindi and other non-Latin scripts when searching for domains on both Domai.nr and iWantMyName.

Wolfram Alpha, the versatile and intelligent search engine, is also a pretty handy tool for discovering clever domain names on your own.

For instance, if you are looking to book a .in domain, you can use a query like words ending with in to determine all the proper English words that can go with the .in extension. Similarly, a query like words containing news will find English words that contain the letter news thus helping you find more variants of the domain name that you may have in mind.

Finally, you should also check out Domize – it may look like any other domain search tool but Domize is actually quite powerful under the hood.

Domize lets you search domains in bulk and that too in a very interesting manner. You can say [parrots,pigeons,crows] in one query and it will find the domain availability for all these words separately but in one go. Or you can frame a query with a set of words like [red,blue][balls,berries] and Domize will check the availability for all the various combinations like redballs, redberries, blueballs, etc.

Domains expire after some time and if the current owner chooses not to renew them, they are released in the open market for others to grab. You can use a tool like Domain Monitor to track the status of one or more domains and the service will send you instant email alerts as soon as the status /whois information of any of these domains is changed.

Also see: Precautions before buying Web Domains

[*] Some of these country-level domain extensions can only registered by citizens of that country and hence may not be available to you.

     

This article, titled How to Research Domain Names on the Web, was originally published at Digital Inspiration under Web Domains, Internet.

Bookmarklet Turns Any Webpage Into a Whiteboard

Social sites like Twitter and Facebook have made it easy for you to quickly share news articles, blog posts, etc. around but wouldn't it be nice if you could also add some of your own commentary to the page before sharing it with the world?

Well, there's a new and interesting web app called markup.io that can help you here. It instantly turns any web page into a virtual whiteboard where you can add text, draw shapes, arrows or even do some freehand drawings. Here's a quick demo:

Related: More tools for annotating web pages.

While you are on a site, hit the markup.io button on your browser bookmarks toolbar and it will float a set of drawing tools one that page. You can scribble over the page now and when you hit publish, all your drawings and annotations are saved to a unique URL that you can now pass along in your social circle.

If you make a mistake, you can use the usual keyboard shortcuts -- ctrl+z will undo your previous action while the backspace key will remove the element from the page.

Markup.io is available in the form of a bookmarklet so there's no need to download or install anything and it's compatible with all browsers except for IE 6 (which you shouldn't be using anyway). Thanks Richard.

Also see: Collection of useful Bookmarklets

     

This article, titled Bookmarklet Turns Any Webpage Into a Whiteboard, was originally published at Digital Inspiration under Annotate, Bookmarklets, Whiteboard, Internet.

A Prototype Greenhouse Demonstrates the Future of Farming on the Moon

A portable, collapsible greenhouse inspired in part by a crop-producing system at a South Pole research station could someday provide fresh vegetables and other foods in future manned lunar or Martian outposts. Working in conjunction with private industry, the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) has set up a demo lunar greenhouse to demonstrate how a hydroponic system could grow peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes and other crops for colonists on other planets.

The 18-foot, membrane-sheathed system collapses into a 4-foot wide disk for easy packing on an interplanetary mission. When extended, it is fitted with water-cooled lamps and seed packets prepped to sprout without soil. They hydroponic system needs little oversight, relying on automated systems and control algorithms to analyze data gathered by embedded sensors that optimize the controlled ecosystem. The whole system takes just ten minutes to set up and produces vegetables within a month.

The design is similar to that of a greenhouse housed at the U.S. South Pole Station in Antarctica, which was built by the same company that is collaborating with the CEAC on the lunar greenhouse. But the lunar greenhouse would possess some interesting technical twists that would make it even more sustainable. Water for the system would be derived from the attending astronauts' urine, CO2 produced by their breathing, and fiber optics could pipe sunlight into the chamber from outside, dispensing with the need for power for the sodium vapor lamps (ostensibly a future lunar base would be built underground to shield it and its inhabitants from solar weather, cosmic radiation, and small meteorites).

But while designed for use hundreds of thousands of miles away, the technology could also have applications here on the ground. Engineers working on the project think the tech could enhance urban farming techniques, bringing food production out of the fields and into population centers. The emphasis on self-contained, self-sustaining systems in space could also inform efforts to make agriculture as efficient and sustainable as possible.

[Space]

Micron introduces V100 LCOS projector, WQVGA in an 8.5cc package

Projector-phones are still a rare commodity, despite the array of tiny projectors available to shove in the things. Micron is now beaming a picture of its hat into the ring, announcing the V100 LCOS projector. It's a wee thing, measuring just 33 x 31 x 12mm, pumping out five lumens of light at a resolution of 320 x 240 while pulling down just 1.5 watts of power. The big deal here is integrated circuitry that takes care of any processing required to display images, meaning no additional drain on your already over-taxed mobile processor. No word on availability or what this will cost manufacturers to stuff in their devices, but we'd like to see a few more pixels out of it before it goes mainstream.

Micron introduces V100 LCOS projector, WQVGA in an 8.5cc package originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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