Netgear announces NeoTV 550 & 350 HD Media Players plus other networking goodies

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/netgear-announces-neotv-550-and-350-hd-media-players-plus-other-ne/

This week Netgear made a battery of new product announcements related to home entertainment and Powerline networking. On the media side, the NeoTV 550 & 350 HD players look a lot like last year's Digital Entertainer Elite, minus the 500GB of internal storage and access to VOD services like CinemaNow. Both are however capable of playing a robust list of codecs in full HD from a variety of attached sources like USB, eSATA (in the case of the 550) or SD storage, as well as streaming content from UPnP, DLNA or WMP11 networks. The 550 adds in support for external Blu-ray drives and BD-Live too, all for $219, which should appeal any of the poor souls with an unused standalone drive.

Three new Powerline kits -- AV 200, AV 500, and AV+ 500 -- were also announced to help consumers avoid the pain of stringing Ethernet in every direction. The entry level AV 200 appears to improve on the previous HDXB101 kit by offering the same theoretical 200mbps in addition to push button security enhancements and greener power consumption. The AV 500 kit provides the same and ramps the networking speeds to up to -- you guessed it -- 500mbps, while the "+" version throws in a pass-through filtered AC socket to avoid sacrificing precious outlets. Priced all below $200, every kit will available by mid November for all the fall home networking networking your heart could desire. Peep the galleries and PR below for further details.

Gallery: Netgear NeoTV 550 & 350 HD

Gallery: Netgear Powerline AV 200, AV 500, and AV +500

Continue reading Netgear announces NeoTV 550 & 350 HD Media Players plus other networking goodies

Netgear announces NeoTV 550 & 350 HD Media Players plus other networking goodies originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung 90 and 30 series LCDs work hard as computer monitors, play hard as 1080p HDTVs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/samsung-90-and-30-series-lcds-work-hard-as-computer-monitors-pl/

The dividing line between computer monitor and HDTV grows ever thinner. Samsung is announcing two new series of multi-function monitors, displays that handle the computing you need with sizes ranging from 21.5- to 24-inches, 1920 x 1080 worth of pixels, and a response time of 5ms. But, they also handle the entertainment you want, with HDTV tuners, built-in speakers, and even remote controls. The $420, 24-inch 90 Series offers LED-backlighting and a retina-punishing 5,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, while the 21.5-, 23-, and 24-inch 30 Series makes do with a paltry 70,000:1 dynamic ratio at prices ranging from $270 to $330. All these genre-benders are shipping now, perfect for your dorm room escapades.

Continue reading Samsung 90 and 30 series LCDs work hard as computer monitors, play hard as 1080p HDTVs

Samsung 90 and 30 series LCDs work hard as computer monitors, play hard as 1080p HDTVs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Viking Modular's SATADIMM jacks an SSD into your memory slot

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/viking-modulars-satadimm-jacks-an-ssd-into-your-memory-slot/

Explaining the differences between DRAM and non-volatile storage is about to get that little bit harder, thanks to Viking Modular. The company's decided to "borrow" the DIMM form factor for its latest enterprise SSD offering, equipping it with a 240-pin array to draw power from your spare memory slots. Of course, you'll still need to hook up a SATA cable to get data flowing to this SSD -- at a very respectable 260MBps for both read and write -- but we must admit we're in love with the very idea of it. This new design offers another option for consolidating storage right onto the motherboard and should help case modders yearning for ever-slimmer enclosures. Alas, the SATADIMM is only available to enterprise and OEM clients for now, but we can't think of any reason why it won't test the consumer waters as well -- if not by Viking, maybe someone else?

[Thanks, David]

Continue reading Viking Modular's SATADIMM jacks an SSD into your memory slot

Viking Modular's SATADIMM jacks an SSD into your memory slot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Viewsonic ViewPad is an OlivePad rebadge?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/viewsonic-rebrands-7-inch-android-olivepad-as-viewpad/

Remember when Viewsonic was a respectable company? It made modest but reputable monitors that seemed to define the product category. Now the company is slapping its colorful finches onto just about any OEM device it can grab. Next on the agenda is the 7-inch Viewsonic ViewPad tablet, expected to launch at the big IFA show next week with an Android OS and 3G and WiFi connectivity. Thing is, the device leaked to Pocket-lint (pictured above) is the very same tablet known since July as the Olive Pad VT00, aka, "India's first 3.5G Pad." So line up now if you like your seconds served stale and without originality.

Viewsonic ViewPad is an OlivePad rebadge? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MIT Seaswarm autonomous robots coming soon to an oil spill near you (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/mit-seaswarm-autonomous-robots-coming-soon-to-an-oil-spill-near/

Think of it as an autonomous, swarming, photovoltaic legion of seagoing Roombas (or don't, if you're easily upset). The Seaswarm project at MIT takes a thin, hydrophobic material and drags it behind a robot outfitted with GPS and WiFi for determining its location and communicating within a swarm. When deployed, the group finds the outer edges of an oil spill, and works its way into the center, coordinating the cleanup with minimal human interference. The material itself can take on twenty times its weight in oil. And yes, the whole thing is re-usable. According to researchers, 5,000 of these relatively low cost devices could have cleaned up the BP oil disaster in a month -- which is more than we can say for Kevin Costner! See it in action after the break.

Continue reading MIT Seaswarm autonomous robots coming soon to an oil spill near you (video)

MIT Seaswarm autonomous robots coming soon to an oil spill near you (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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