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Saturday, December 04, 2010

Verizon trials Home Phone Connect, turns your landline into a cellphone

We're aware of a few third-party products that pull off this trick by connecting to your cellphone via Bluetooth, but Verizon's throwing weight behind its own system called Home Phone Connect that'll connect your home phone into its wireless network. The system -- which seems to be available only to residents of New York and Connecticut at the moment -- includes some sort of base station that connects to Verizon's network on one end and your existing landline on the other; T-Mobile's now-defunct @Home service was similar, but used your internet connection to route the calls rather than the cellular airwaves. Subscribers pay $9.99 to add the landline to a Verizon family plan or $19.99 to grant it unlimited domestic minutes, which seems poised to cut into Verizon's legacy landline business just as much (if not more) than the unique Hub unit that got killed off a while back. Hard to say when (or even if) Home Phone Connect will go national, but these trials are often set up to test the pricing model just as much as they are the underlying technology -- so the question becomes, would you pay $10 more on your Verizon Wireless bill to use your old-school Slimline?

Verizon t! rials Ho me Phone Connect, turns your landline into a cellphone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sigma's mirrorless camera spotted, announcement coming later today? (Update: just a mod)

Is Sigma announcing an EVIL (as in Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens, not malevolent) camera today? Digital Photography Review forum member Ryan Shine seems to think so, and says it's "here" in China. As if to prove his point, we've got a trio of pictures for the mirrorless shooter. Hey, don't say we didn't warn you -- and if it doesn't become official soon, at least there's pictures to enjoy.

Update: We tracked down the source and turns out this is just an enthusiast's modded Sigma DP1, which has been given a Leica M mount. Quite a daring mod, if we may say so.

Sigma's mirrorless camera spotted, announcement coming later today? (Update: just a mod) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sources: Google-branded Chrome OS netbook to launch on December 7th

The headline pretty much reveals the brunt of it, but indeed, it looks like next week Google is going to start talking about how its Chrome operating system is coming along. Multiple sources have told us that Google will be holding some sort of event on Tuesday, December 7th -- we're not sure if it'll be a live event, a webcast, or something else entirely -- and that the shindig will see the launch of that Google-branded Chrome OS netbook we've been hearing about. Again, we've heard that the Atom-powered laptop isn't going to be a mass market device -- there will only be around 65,000 units available to Google's closest "friends and family" -- and that the Cloud-based OS is still very much in a beta, non-consumer-friendly state. It's a bit odd that we still haven't received an invite to this planned event since it's purportedly days away, not to mention it conflicts with the All Things D: Dive Into Mobile Event, but at the time of publishing this post we had yet to hear back from Google's PR team with an official comment.

Of course, this all lines up with TechCrunch's report that Google will be launching its Chrome Web / App Store very soon, as well as yesterday's launch of Chrome 8, which supports those aforementioned Chrome apps. (Companies like TweetDeck have already started demoing their browser apps.) Don't forget that those apps are going to be a large part of the OS, so it would make sense for Google to talk about 'em in tandem. The pieces sure do seem to be fitting together quite well, and while we still have lots of unanswered questions, we're feeling confident that we'll be getting some official answers on all this Chrome-ness very soon.

Update: AllThingsD has also heard a similar December 7th launch date of the Chrome Web Store. The evidence seems to be mounting here...

Update 2: Well, there you have it, Google just sent out invites for its December 7th Chrome event! We will be there!

Image note: As we said last time, that picture above is just our own mockup of what a Chromebook may look like. We even added a Chrome key!

Sources: Google-branded Chrome OS netbook to launch on December 7th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Review: Djay for iPad

The iPad's gorgeous 9.7-inch display has been attracting attention for its musical potential, and the Djay app from Algoriddim has definitely contributed to some of the noise. The guys who brought a consumer-friendly DJing app to the Mac have gone ahead and ported it over to Apple's magical tablet, enabling pretty much anyone to get their shot on the decks. Does Djay for iPad live up to the hype? Read on past the break to find out.

Continue reading App Review: Djay for iPad

App Review: Djay for iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corsair Force series gets 90GB and 180GB brothers, middle child syndrome inevitable

Corsair has added new 90GB and 180GB sizes to its blazin' fast Force Series of SSDs, growing the happy family which already included 60, 120, and 240GB versions in addition to the original 100GB and 200GB options released back in the spring. Unlike its previous siblings, both the F90 and F180 are also available immediately from Corsair dealers for suggested MSRPs of $255 and $430, respectively. Built around the lauded SandForce SF-1200 controller and capable of beastly 285MB/sec read speeds and 275MB/sec write rates, these latest releases are not too small and not too big, making them the perfect Goldie Locks drives of the SSD world. To hear the news straight from Corsair's mouth, check out the press release after the break.

Continue reading Corsair Force series gets 90GB and 180GB brothers, middle child syndrome inevitable

Corsair Force series gets 90GB and 180GB brothers, middle child syndrome inevitable originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 01:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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