Apple Peel 520 gets reviewed: turns your iPod touch into an iPhone, but quirks exist

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/apple-peel-520-gets-reviewed-turns-your-ipod-touch-into-an-ipho/

No one expressly said that the Apple Peel 520 would change your life, but if you play your cards right, that's not entirely out of the question. The mysterious doodad -- which wraps around your iPod touch and holds an extended battery and SIM card -- has caused quite the stir since being revealed late last month, and now it has undergone a full review overseas. Put simply, the device does work as advertised, turning one's iPod touch into a device fully capable of making / receiving calls as well as texts. 'Course, you'll need to jailbreak your device first, and you'll have to deal with a static (read: impossible to adjust) call volume, quirky SMS delivery and blanked messages for missed calls, but hey -- a small price to pay for the upgrade, right? Hit the source link for the full skinny and a video to boot.

Apple Peel 520 gets reviewed: turns your iPod touch into an iPhone, but quirks exist originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NFL mulling microchips in footballs for those life-or-death goal line rulings

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/06/nfl-mulling-microchips-in-footballs-for-those-life-or-death-goal/

The NFL is serious business. So serious, in fact, that the idea of refs getting decisions wrong sends chills up and down Roger Goodell's spine. Yeah, we all know they do it habitually, but the League seems to be considering improving accuracy just a little bit with the help of some tech. Cairos Technologies, a German outfit that's been trying to sell its goal line technology to football (as in soccer) bigwigs for a while, has told Reuters that it's in discussions with the NFL about bringing its magnetic field hocus pocus to the gridiron. The idea would be for the ref to be alerted, via a message to his watch, any time the ball does something notable like crossing the goal line or first down marker. It should be a great aid for making difficult calls like whether a touchdown has happened at the bottom of a scrum, and might even help cut down on the number of frightfully dull replay challenges. Win-win, no?

Original image courtesy of NFL.com

Continue reading NFL mulling microchips in footballs for those life-or-death goal line rulings

NFL mulling microchips in footballs for those life-or-death goal line rulings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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North America's first public-use quick-charge station opens in Portland: 3-handed politician not included

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/06/north-americas-first-public-use-quick-charge-station-opens-in-p/

What's being hailed as North America's first public-use quick-charge station for electric vehicles has just been unveiled in Portland. The station, built by NEC subsidiary Takasago, is installed in a PGE headquarters parking garage and will charge electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries to 80% in about 20 to 30 minutes. So yeah, it's public, as long as you've got a PGE badge apparently. Anyway, the grand opening was led by Governor Ted Kulongoski, pictured above carefully maintaining a safe distance while charging a Nissan Leaf. Guess you can never be too careful when pumping 50kW into a pre-production vehicle. Click through to see a video demonstration of the future, if we're lucky.

Update: We're being told that the quick charge station is installed in a public parking garage that is part of the World Trade Center building in downtown Portland (where PGE's headquarters are). It costs $3 to park, but charging is on the house. Thanks, Chris!

Continue reading North America's first public-use quick-charge station opens in Portland: 3-handed politician not included

North America's first public-use quick-charge station opens in Portland: 3-handed politician not included originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Keepin' it real fake: Nokia's Android N8

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/06/keepin-it-real-fake-nokias-android-n8/

Can you believe we've waited on the N8 long enough for (at least) three KIRF versions to beat it to market? This latest one's pretty special too, as it gives us a glimpse into one of the fevered dream of Engadget commenters: a Nokia flagship rocking Android (2.1, in this case). The iZiNN CJ-3 copies the N8's form factor, styling, and 3.5-inch screen, but throws in an upgrade of its own by going with a higher-res 800 x 480 capacitive panel. Yeah, we're shocked too. A 5 megapixel imager, a budget Rockchip CPU, and an HDMI port fill out the rest of the known specs, while a release in China is expected some time later this month. Anyone know why this thing isn't being built and sold by a legitimate manufacturer?

[Thanks, Ludger]

Keepin' it real fake: Nokia's Android N8 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS' Windows Phone 7 debuts in the wild?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/06/asus-windows-phone-7-debuts-in-the-wild/

Boy, this thing here has more questions than answers attached to it. Presented as the first Windows Phone 7 device to show up in Pakistan, of all places, this angular handset bears a serial number on top and atypical "powered by ASUS" branding on the bottom, leading us to believe that if it's legit, it's certainly a pre-production model. Even so, should you dare to invest some trust into its validity, you'll find plenty of reason to be titillated: brushed metal adorns the front, a rare sight on mobile phones of any description, the top right corner looks suspiciously like it might be housing a front-facing camera, and the display looks very much like an OLED panel to us. Exciting, if true.

[Thanks, Raju]

Update: Turns out the phone in question belongs to the leakster's brother. Perhaps he's an ASUS engineer on vacation in his home town?

ASUS' Windows Phone 7 debuts in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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