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Thursday, February 05, 2009

Progressive Automotive X-Prize competitors roundup

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/04/progressive-automotive-x-prize-competitors-roundup/

With about three weeks left to go, the Progressive Automotive X-Prize has already got 25 submissions (20 names have been publicly released) with creators ranging from college students to large auto makers already in the game. Here's the deal with the contest: the cars must be production-capable and fall in with federal safety guidelines, and it's got to be possible to produce and sell 10,000 of them annually, with a working business plan in place for this to happen by 2014. The car must deliver at least 100 MPGs, and CO2 emissions can't exceed 200 grams per kilometer. The prize for the competition is ten million dollars. We've seen some of these in the past -- Aptera's 2e, MDI's AirCar, and the Tata Nano are all on offer -- but there are a few new guys, too. Some of the more interesting entries are the totally rad looking diesel Avion which has gotten up to 103.7 miles per gallon, Kinetix Motors' diesel-electric hybrid E4 Sports Hatch, which should cost less than $25,000 with a top speed of 95 miles per hour. The company also claims the sporty ride goes from zero to sixty miles in 6.1 seconds. Finally, there's Physics Lab of Lake Havasu Green Giant, an electric truck that gets 50 miles per gallon on its battery, with plans to bump that figure to 100 miles per gallon using other sources of energy. Check out the gallery of other prospects, and hit the read link for the full, delicious list.

Gallery: Automotive X-Prize

Filed under: Transportation

Progressive Automotive X-Prize competitors roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Memoir officially brings 8 megapixels to T-Mobile

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/05/samsung-memoir-officially-brings-8-megapixels-to-t-mobile/

At some point, T-Mobile decided it wanted to play in the megapixel big leagues by rolling out the Motorola ZN5 and Samsung Behold, but why stop at a measly little 5 megapixels? The long-rumored t929 Memoir from Samsung has now been officially announced for T-Mobile USA's funky 3G bands, featuring a full touchscreen, TouchWiz user interface, integrated AGPS, full HTML browser, and -- of course -- that glorious 8 megapixel sensor with xenon flash. No word on pricing or availability just yet, but we're told we can expect it some time this month.

Gallery: Samsung Memoir officially brings 8 megapixels to T-Mobile

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Memoir officially brings 8 megapixels to T-Mobile originally appeared on E! ngadget< /a> on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox Live tallies 1 million Netflix Watch Instantly activations, 1.5 billion minutes served

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/05/xbox-live-tallies-1-million-netflix-watch-instantly-activations/

Bad news first: there might be a bit more competition than you expected for that home theater giveaway. Good luck bringing down Netflix's shooting star though, as if last week's good news train wasn't enough comes news that over a million Xbox Live Gold members have already downloaded and activated the Watch Instantly app since its NXE debut last November. That's more than 10% of Netflix's just announced 9.4 million subscribers who've already watched over 1.5 billion minutes of TV and movies through their consoles. They're not the only ones happy, while streaming may be eating into DVD rentals, Xbox Live Marketplace rentals are up 174 percent year over year. The streaming library is up to 12,000 titles, with a "growing percentage" in high definition, for the rest of the celebratory details check the full PR after the break. Nothing left for us to say but congratulations and hey, if you get a minute, could you fix Nilay's HD streaming on the Xbox? Thanks.

Continue reading Xbox Live tallies 1 million Netflix Watch Instantly activations, 1.5 billion minutes served

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Xbox Live tallies 1 million Netflix Watch Instantly activations, 1.5 billion minutes served originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP to publicly release Mi Edition Ubuntu installer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/05/hp-to-publicly-release-mi-edition-ubuntu-installer/

We're actually pretty high on HP's Mini 1000 Mi Edition, which trades in XP for a custom Ubuntu build with a slick, polished interface, and it looks like early Mini 1000 owners can now get in on the action as well -- a Mi Edition installer will soon available for download. If you're currently running Mi Edition or know someone who is, you can actually build an installer flash drive right now, but we'd wait for the official Windows-based utility to appear in the next few days. No guarantees that HP's Mi Edition installers work with any non-Mini 1000 machines out there, but given the proliferation of drivers and tools for hacking OS X onto various netbooks, we're definitely hoping the community takes to hacking the much more open Mi Edition the same way.

[Via Download Squad]

Filed under: Laptops

HP to publicly release Mi Edition Ubuntu installer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fujitsu adds AT&T 3G to slew of LifeBooks, promises EV-DO in Q2

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/05/fujitsu-adds-atandt-3g-to-slew-of-lifebooks-promises-ev-do-in-q2/

Evidently Fujitsu's decision to offer its LifeBook U820 convertible mini laptop with integrated 3G has been a raging success; otherwise, we're a bit uncertain as to why it would share the love with four other siblings. Starting right about now, WWAN lovers can order up a LifeBook T5010, T1010, P1630 and / or T2020 with built-in support for AT&T's BroadbandConnect HSUPA network. For those who like to live on the CDMA side of life, the outfit is planning to add EV-DO support in Q2 of this year, though we're not told which carrier will be selected to carry that torch.

Gallery: Fujitsu adds AT&T 3G to slew of LifeBooks, promises EV-DO in Q2