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Friday, May 28, 2010

Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/28/toshiba-airswing-ui-puts-you-on-the-screen-with-your-data/

We've seen a Minority Report-esque interface or two hundred by this point, but Toshiba's AirSwing really caught our attention. Using little more than a webcam and some software, this bad boy places a semi-transparent image of the operator on the display -- all the easier to maneuver through the menus. And according to Toshiba, that software only utilizes about three percent of a 400MHz ARM 11 CPU -- meaning that you have plenty of processor left for running your pre-crime diagnostics. There is no telling when something like this might become commercially available, but the company plans to bundle it in commercial displays for malls and the like. Video after the break.

Continue reading Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data

Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 02:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel Core i7-875K and Core i5-655K unlock multipliers, better performance

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/28/intel-core-i7-875k-and-core-i5-655k-unlock-multipliers-better-p/

Intel's back in its familiar saddle today with the unveiling of a pair of new CPUs, marking the start of a new K-series that will cater to the overclocker inside all of us. The Core i7-875K is a 2.93GHz quad-core unit, which can scale heights of 3.6GHz via Turbo Boost, or even higher if you have the patience, tenacity and appropriate cooling to make it happen. Review action for this chip shows it to be Intel's premier offering short of the enthusiastically overpriced and overpowered Core i7-980X. Even more affordable will be the Clarkdale-based Core i5-655K, which trots along at 3.2GHz (with a 3.46GHz gallop option), but response to it was a little more muted. It's a dual-core CPU, after all, and if you don't plan on exploiting that unlocked multiplier to achieve some madness above 4GHz, you might be better off looking elsewhere. In amidst all the mad benchmarking, we've also found a review of a Falcon Northwest i7-875K rig as well, so give it all a read if you're mulling over a desktop upgrade.

Read - Tech Report
Read - AnandTech
Read - PC Perspective
Read - Hot Hardware
Read - TweakTown
Read - Legit Reviews

Intel Core i7-875K and Core i5-655K unlock multipliers, better performance originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Autonomous quadrocopter flies through windows, straight into our hearts (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/28/autonomous-quadrocopter-flies-through-windows-straight-into-our/

We don't know whether we should be terrified or overjoyed. We've just come across a video demo from the University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Lab that shows an autonomous quadrotor helicopter performing "precise aggressive maneuvers." And trust us when we say, nothing in the foregoing sentence is an overstatement -- the thing moves with the speed and grace of an angry bee, while accompanied by the perfectly menacing whine of its little engine. See this work of scientific art in motion after the break.

[Thanks, William]

Continue reading Autonomous quadrocopter flies through windows, straight into our hearts (video)

Autonomous quadrocopter flies through windows, straight into our hearts (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 04:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel mulling WebM hardware acceleration in Atom CE4100 chip

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/28/intel-mulling-webm-hardware-acceleration-in-atom-ce4100-chip/

Hey Google, shall we try the other box? Maybe it has hardware acceleration built in for your new WebM video format? Intel's Wilfred Martis has told IDG News that his company is keeping a close eye on Google's new VP8-based format, and should it prove popular enough, hardware acceleration for it will be built into the CE4100 and other Atom chips headed to TVs and overpowered cable boxes in the future:

Just like we did with other codecs like MPEG2, H.264 & VC1, if VP8 establishes itself in the Smart TV space, we will add it to our [hardware] decoders.

Not exactly astonishing news, as Google TV is still likely to proceed on those chips with WebM getting decoded by software in the mean time, but at least Intel's absenteeism from the WebM hardware partner list can now be explained as simple precaution, rather than some deeper division between the companies.

Intel mulling WebM hardware acceleration in Atom CE4100 chip originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 06:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia sells just 100,000 N900s after first five months: so?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/28/nokia-sells-just-100-000-n900s-after-first-five-months-so/

Look, the N900 might be sitting at the top of Nokia's handset pyramid in terms of capabilities, but as we've said all along, the N900 is not a mass-market device. Nokia's been very clear that the N900 was launched as a means to strengthen its Maemo development community (on the path to MeeGo we now know). And by all accounts, it's done just that while winning a rabid fanbase of nerds in the process. Nevertheless, Reuters uses Gartner's estimate of less than 100,000 units sold in the device's first five months as proof that Nokia can't mount a challenge to RIM and Apple. True the numbers are paltry compared to the 8.75 million iPhones Apple sold from January to March. But a more apt comparison might be the oft noted Nexus One sales that reached just 135k units moved after 74 days. Regardless, in its defense, Alberto Torres, head of Nokia's solutions business said that "Sales have substantially exceeded expectations." So yeah, Nokia has problems, but the N900 ~~isn't~~ wasn't one of them.

Nokia sells just 100,000 N900s after first five months: so? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 05:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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