Sunday, October 18, 2009

WolframAlpha iPhone App Is a $50 Super Calculator [Wolframalpha]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/EJCU2P1-8Bs/wolframalpha-iphone-app-is-a-50-super-calculator

Even diehard WolframAlpha fans may balk slightly at the $50 asking price. Then they, like me, might balk some more as they try to figure out why a mobile version of what's in essence a free search engine costs $50.

WolframAlpha folks are billing this as a half-priced graphic calculator, with that added benefit that it plugs into the existing WolframAlpha search engine, but again I keep coming back to the fact that I can point my browser at that web site and it costs me substantially less than $50 to do so.

Said WolframAlpha rep Josh Dilworth in an email to Gizmodo today, "How many people will buy it? We're not sure, but looking at the other apps that are $50+, we think that we're of at least comparable in utility and functionality, if not more. And, part of what the company is also doing is making a statement about the non-trivial nature of WolframAlpha's capabilities, and how much the system has matured since launch."

What better way to show maturity than peg your inaugural App Store app with one of the higher price tags in the whole system. Amiright? Commenters, help a blogger out and let me know what I'd be paying a premium for if I purchased this. [App Shopper via Scoble]




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Posted by Augustine at 9:38 PM

Hitachi exhibits 10-inch glasses-free 3D display

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/16/hitachi-exhibits-10-inch-glasses-free-3d-display/

Hitachi's face-recognizing, power-saving plasma may have been the outfit's show-stopper at CEATEC, but this little bugger here showed some pretty fantastic potential as well. The 10-inch 3D display, more formally known as the Full Parallax 3D TV, one-upped most every other 3D display at the show thanks to its ability to showcase dimensions sans any glasses. Unfortunately, the native resolution is just 640 x 480, and yes, it really is just 10-inches in size. In due time, the outfit hopes to scale up to screen sizes that may actually be appealing to end users by utilizing multiple projectors (each of which with a 800 x 600 resolution), though a 4K x 2K 3D display (of the glasses-free variety) is still probably a couple of trade shows out. At least.

[Via 3D-Display-Info]

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Hitachi exhibits 10-inch glasses-free 3D display originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 9:36 PM

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Squirrel project revealed... as the Square iPhone Payment System

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/twitter-founder-jack-dorseys-squirrel-project-revealed-as-th/

Remember the Square iPhone Payment System we told you about back in August? If you'll recall, the device -- which involves an iPhone app and associated dongle -- enables an iPhone or iPod touch to become a kind of mini credit card reader, allowing payments to be taken on the spot, no matter where you are or how big (or small) the transaction may be. When we'd first reported the device, word on the street was that it was only being alpha tested around New York City, and there wasn't much else to say. Now, we may have a little more insight on just where this device is headed, and who's behind the project.

Jack Dorsey, the man who all but built Twitter in a matter of two weeks, has been working on a half-secret start-up project since around May. His new venture -- dubbed, funnily enough, Squirrel -- is based around the concept of using the iPhone as... yep, a portable, personal cash register; essentially the exact device which Square has created. And that's no accident. In the images we ran of the Square system, you can see a domain name on a receipt: squareup.com. Squareup.com is the domain of the Square System (obviously), and a casual investigation into the site's WHOIS profile reveals registrant info that points to an office in San Francisco, and a contact email address which reads... billing@paybysquirrel.com. Square, squirrel, square... are you getting it? So the cat, er, squirrel appears to be out of the bag. Now the question is whether or not Dorsey and co. can turn this fairly obscure piece of tech into the kind of firestorm which Twitter has become -- and who knows, maybe there'll even be a business model this time.

[Thanks, Little Birdie]

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Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Squirrel project revealed... as the Square iPhone Payment System originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 9:34 PM

MSI retools Wind Box DE200 and DC200, puts 'em up for pre-order

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/msi-retools-wind-box-de200-and-dc200-puts-em-up-for-pre-order/

Well, what do you know? Last we saw MSI's Wind Box DE200, it was sittin' pretty at a booth at CeBIT. Evidently it has seen quite the makeover since that debut, with the latest imagery showing it (alongside the DC200) with far edgier enclosures. We have to say we dig the new digs, but we're most excited about the US pricing and pre-order pages. Both units are still (under)powered by a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, and predictably, both feature 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and Windows XP Home running the show. No firm release date has been nailed down for the US market, but Amazon has 'em both up for pre-order right now at $249.99 (DC200) / $299.99 (DE200).

[Via iTechNews]

Read - MSI press release
Read - Wind Box DC200 pre-order page
Read - Wind Box DE200 pre-order page

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MSI retools Wind Box DE200 and DC200, puts 'em up for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 9:33 PM

Nokia's 5230 inches closer to release, gets spied along the way

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/nokias-5230-inches-closer-to-release-gets-spied-along-the-way/


Nokia's 5230 isn't apt to blow any minds with the likes of the HD2, Droid and XPERIA X3 on the horizon, but for those perfectly content with a touchscreen-based Symbian S60 5th Edition handset, this one sure looks purty. After dipping its toes in the FCC's expansive database just last month, a crop of new in the wild shots have surfaced to show off its 3.2-inch display (640 x 360), 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module and variety of colorful backs. Hit the read link for more pixels if you're so inclined, and feel free to take the "January 2010" release date in with a dose of NaCl.

[Thanks, Daniel]

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Nokia's 5230 inches closer to release, gets spied along the way originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 9:32 PM

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