20-Gigabit Wireless Data Achieved By Crossing Laser Beams [Wireless]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/413393817/20+gigabit-wireless-data-achieved-by-crossing-laser-beams

How do you make a wireless transmission that is as fast or even faster than most fiber-optic data passages? With laser beams of course! According to a Technology Review piece, super smart people at Battelle research in Columbus, OH figured out a way, using millimeter wave technology, to send data at speeds up to 20 gigabits per second. They even field tested 10 Gbps at up to 800 meters. Even accounting for Ohio's unnervingly flat terrain, this is several hundred times farther than a wireless transmission of that bandwidth had ever reached before.

Rather than dick around in the 10-gigahertz frequency space—higher than most of today's phones and wireless data products, but still in the realm of conventional radio—the Battelle team figured out how to create a 100GHz frequency by "modulat[ing] data on two low-frequency laser beams, then combin[ing] the two." I knew crossing the streams of a proton gun could be bad; I did not know crossing laser beams modulated with data signal could be this good. I suppose the breakthrough does bode well for wireless devices, but I can't imagine how any of this could run off of a lithium-ion battery. And, hey, wouldn't laser phones make us all go blind? OK, smart people, please start talking, cuz I'm definitely over my head on this one. [MIT Tech Review via KurzweilAI.Net]

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T-Mobile's CAMEO frame shows holiday snaps while you're still taking them

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/412779742/

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays

It's been nearly a year since Parrot announced its DF7700 GPRS-endowed picture frame, said to possess the mystical ability to pull photographs straight out of the ether. Now T-Mobile has pledged to bring Parrot's magic frame to the US as the CAMEO, a $100 device that, when coupled with a $10/month service fee, can be the recipient of picture-bearing messages. When you get bored with that feature (or that fee), there's a mini-USB port plus slots for SD/MMC cards that will enable it to accept pics in a more traditional manner. Its 7-inch screen has a 720 x 480 resolution and is surrounded by an interchangeable leather border guaranteed to look cheap in any decor -- not just those with golden mirrors astride marble mantelpieces.

[Thanks, Mark]

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HTC's Touch HD gets very early review, called an iPhone killer in German

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/412812716/

Filed under: Cellphones

Not even a fortnight after HTC's Touch HD went official in Germany, out pops a review from Deutschland calling it the best thing since sliced bread. Okay, so maybe our translation skills are a bit off, but one thing's for sure -- it was hailed as the first "iPhone killer to deserve that name." Right off the bat, reviewers praised the TouchFLO 3D interface for masking Windows Mobile, and of course, the expansive display was drooled upon numerous times. Additionally, critics praised the Opera browser while scolding Internet Explorer, and while it's hard to say for certain whether the battery life was remarkable, it definitely seemed to get their vote of approval. Of note, the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack was also loved, making us weep while thinking of what could have been with the T-Mobile G1. At any rate, it seems pretty clear that the Touch HD is going to rock some socks off, but we're trying to push it out of our minds until it becomes available on this side of the drink. Too bad that approach isn't working at all.

[Via WMPowerUser]

Read - Early Touch HD review
Read - Video showing off Stocks tab

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Sharkoon's SATA QuickPort Duo gives product category some credence

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/412942355/

Filed under: Peripherals, Storage

When the SATA HDD Stage Rack launched last October, we figured it would just be a one-off gizmo that all of four or five people would pick up. A year later, we're staring at a smattering of iterations from a number of companies. Sharkoon's own attempt at beefing up this apparent product category looks to be a pretty solid product, as the SATA QuickPort Duo gives owners the ability to slam in two 2.5- / 3.5-inch internal SATA hard drives and connect them up to a PC via USB 2.0 or eSATA. Unfortunately, the €47 ($64) price tag is a touch on the high side, but it is the Cadillac of the bunch, you know.

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NPD says 30% of iPhone 3G buyers switched carriers, Google Street View and more said to be in 2.2 firmware

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/412977668/

Filed under: Cellphones

The NPD Group offered a bit of insight into the carrier-jumping habits of original iPhone buyers way back when and, as you might expect, it's now back at it and taking a stab at determining exactly where the iPhone 3G's users are coming from. According to the group, between July and August of this year, 30 percent of iPhone 3G buyers ditched their existing carrier to buy the phone, which is a somewhat significant uptick from the 23 percent of consumers overall that switched carriers during the same time period. Of that 30 percent, 34 percent of 'em switched from Verizon, 24 percent came from T-Mobile, and 19 percent came from Sprint. That same report also pegs the BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl, and the Palm Centro as the next best selling smartphones. In related news, the 2.2 firmware beta floating about has apparently turned up a few more hidden surprises -- namely, support for Japanese emoji icons, an off setting for the auto-correction feature and, purportedly, support for Google Street View in the Google Maps application, although there's unfortunately no screenshot evidence of the latter feature just yet.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - CNET News, "30 percent of iPhone 3G buyers dump existing carriers"
Read - Mac Rumors, "iPhone 2.2 Hidden Features: Google Street View, Em! oji, Aut o-Correction Off"

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MSI's 10-inch Wind winds up in Best Buy

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/413144771/

Filed under: Laptops

We knew it would be going down, but the formal announcement has finally been made: MSI's Wind will soon be gracing store shelves at Best Buy. As early as "right now" if you're lucky enough, the 10-inch netbook can be procured at your local BB (no word on Future Shop), and we're told that it'll pack a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, Windows XP Home Edition, a 10-inch WSVGA (1,024 x 600) display, GMA950 graphics set, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 120GB hard drive, 3-cell battery (sigh...) and a black or white motif. You might expect to just snag one real quick like for $399, but don't expect to leave without being hassled for one of those Product Replacement Plans. Fun, fun! Full release is after the break.

Continue reading MSI's 10-inch Wind winds up in Best Buy

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Mitsubishi's RDT201WDL DisplayLink monitor now available

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/413315227/

Filed under: Displays

Laptop user looking for some dual-display action? Mitsubishi's new DisplayLink-equipped RDT201WDL WIDE LCD is a 20.1-inch wide-format monitor that features a USB hub, built-in Ethernet and WSXGA+ (1,680 x 1,050) resolution. Energy-conscious consumers will enjoy the on-screen energy meter and three levels of power usage, and we can all appreciate the fact that this monitor uses up to 36 percent less juice than a traditional LCD (in addition to the traditional savings DisplayLink provides by skipping the discrete graphics card). This item is currently available in Japan, and there's no word yet on a Stateside release date.

[Via Business Wire]

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Sharp shows off 52-inch solar-powered LCD TV at CEATEC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/413354294/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

We've seen some fairly fascinating things at CEATEC this year, but this one could be the biggest game-changer of 'em all, if you'll allow us just one buzzword. The LED-backlit 52-incher you see above comes attached to a not-at-all convenient solar floor panel which presumably provides at least some of the energy required to power this thing. We've no clue how close the design is to being viable for the commercial realm, but we'd say Sharp's definitely headed in the right direction here.

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SlingCatcher gets unboxed, our hearts beat ever faster

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/413475375/

Filed under: Home Entertainment

After seemingly endless delays, it looks like the SlingCatcher is finally making its way into the world, as evidenced by this grainy unboxing at the SlingCommunity forums. Sure, it looks exactly the same as the prepro boxes we've toyed with, but we won't lie -- we've been waiting for this box with breathless anticipation ever since it was announced at CES 2007, and combined with the recent launch of the Sling 2.0 software, the Slingbox PRO-HD, and the seemingly-imminent launch of the the Sling.com video portal, Sling's ending the year strong. Click on for a few more pics, and don't worry -- we'll be blowing this thing out as soon as we get our hands on one.

[Thanks, Christopher]

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Eee PC modded by Intel engineers to boot in five seconds

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/413594324/

Filed under: Laptops

Sure, we've seen projects like SplashTop boot a stripped Linux build quickly, but Intel engineers at the recent Linux Plumbers Conference took things a little father last Thursday, starting up modified versions of Fedora and Intel's own Moblin Linux on an SSD-equipped Eee PC in just five seconds. That's all the way to an idle CPU and disk, not cheating and starting a window manager while background services thrash in the background, mind you -- and it's fast enough that the splash screen was removed from both distros. The changes are being sent back to the Moblin and Fedora trunks, but if you're curious, a detailed overview of the changes awaits at the read link.

[Via SlashGear]

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Yahoo Exec Makes Yuil: Looks Like Cuil, With Better Results

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/350919233/

It was only a matter of time. Cuil, the “massive” new search engine that was supposed to be able to keep up with Google, has just gotten its first knockoff. It’s Yuil, a Yahoo-powered mashup that looks almost exactly like Cuil. And, oddly enough, Yuil might actually work better than its much-hyped predecessor.

In a surprising (and hilarious) twist, Yuil is actually the product of Yahoo VP of Platforms, Sam Pullara, who is using the site to show off Yahoo’s recently-released BOSS API. BOSS is unique among search engine APIs, giving developers an unprecedented level of control over results generated by Yahoo’s search engine. And while Yuil isn’t really doing anything new with its search results, they’re more relevant than the occasionally bizarre ones we’ve been getting from Cuil.

Developers are only just starting to tap into the power afforded by the BOSS API - we’ll probably see dozens of similar search engines like this pop up over the next few months. The difference between these, and the generic API-based engines we’ve seen before, is that developers will be able to manipulate and reorder the results to make them more meaningful - something that APIs from most other search engines prohibit.

Update: Looks like someone in the Yahoo or Cuil camp doesn’t have a sense of humor. Pullara has just updated his blog to say he’s taken Yuil down:

“Yuil is dead. However, you can always get the same great search results here.”

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Nokia Plunks Another $150 Million Into Venture Fund

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/351166226/

Nokia doesn’t want to miss the next wave of mobile technologies so it is doubling down on its venture investment activities. The cell phone giant is putting another $150 million to work in Nokia Growth Partners, a fund in which it is the only limited partner. This brings the total capital in the fund to $250 million (Nokia initiated the fund with $100 million in 2004). That is in addition to a $100 million fund of funds also run by Nokia Growth Partners on behalf of Nokia, which is used to sprinkle cash around to other VC firms.

So far the fund has done best investing in mobile chip companies, some of which have been acquired by ATI (BitBoys for $44 million), Broadcom (Global Locate for $143 million), and Dolby (Coding Technologies for $250 million). But it is also an investor in mobile video service Kyte. Generally, it is a alter-stage growth fund that looks for companies with a product ready to ramp up.

The new cash comes at a time when the mobile Web is generating excitement again in Silicon Valley. Most of that excitement right now surrounds the iPhone. Throwing around a little cash to encourage startups to develop cutting-edge apps for Nokia phones is not a bad strategy. The fund will also invest more heavily in China and India, where mobile growth far outstrips the U.S.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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