Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Android Honeycomb / Motorola Xoom hands-ons: widgets, Grocery IQ, and Monster Madness (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/android-honeycomb-motorola-xoom-hands-ons-widgets-grocery-iq/

Fully-functional Xooms with complete (or seemingly complete) builds of Honeycomb are out in force here at Google's event in Mountain View today, and a bunch of partners are hanging out to demonstrate the tablet apps they've been working on. We checked out both Monster Madness -- a game that's been on Xbox 360 and PS3 for some time -- and Grocery IQ, both of which obviously bring very different experiences to the table (unless you consider grocery shopping "a game," which some of us admittedly do).

Though we thought we detected some stuttering and lag from Monster Madness when it was demoed on stage, the experience up close and in person was much smoother -- definitely 100 percent playable. We double-checked and confirmed that the tablet game is a 100 percent content port from the console games, you're not missing anything here. It features three control modes that let you toggle between two on-screen analog sticks, one stick, and a fully accelerometer-based mode that most users probably won't consider practical because you've got to tilt the screen too much. Interestingly, the developer noted that there's a low-res mode that he actually toggled in an area of the game with a lot of water because it tends to slow down, despite the fact that it's running on Unreal Engine and is fully optimized for multiple cores. Could it be that game studios are already pushing the limits of this hardware from day one?

Moving onto Grocery IQ, it's basically a fancy shopping list with coupons -- it's already on both iOS and Android phones, and odds are good you already know what it is. What was really interesting, though, was that we got a full demo of "application fragment" layout switching between landscape and portrait views (the app has a two-pane view for tablets) and the process of adding and removing widgets. As with some of the first-party widgets we've seen, Grocery IQ seems to have done a good job making its widgets visually rich and engaging -- particularly the coupon browser, which appears as a stack of rotating coupons with color graphics. See videos of both products after the break!

Continue reading Android Honeycomb / Motorola Xoom hands-ons: widgets, Grocery IQ, and Monster Madness (video)

Android Honeycomb / Motorola Xoom hands-ons: widgets, Grocery IQ, and Monster Madness (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Xoom first benchmark: 1823 in Quadrant

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/motorola-xoom-first-benchmark-1823-in-quadrant/

We're unabashed spec junkies here at Engadget, and can you blame us? There are mountains of new devices every year, and it helps to have bullet points and numerical differentiators to cut through the fluff. That's why we're happy to say we got the chance to run the Quadrant benchmark on Motorola's Tegra 2-powered Xoom, and have a number with which to compare it against the many competitors sure to breech Android's bow soon. 1823 is the magic number -- which doesn't quite compare to the LG Optimus 2X -- but that's with a non-optimized smartphone version of Quadrant running the app on the tablet's sizable 1280 x 800 display, no less. What's more, Quadrant cleared up some of the codename confusion we've seen out of Moto as of late, as it turns out the Xoom also identifies itself as both Trygon and Stingray. Good to know!

Motorola Xoom first benchmark: 1823 in Quadrant originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally A Phone That has it ALL!

Source: http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/02/02/finally-a-phone-that-has-it-all/

The concept of slender phones with large faces was tossed out of the window thanks to iPhone and brigade. We like our phones meaty with healthy real estates and all the nuances; nothing short of a super-powerful computer in our palms. So here's The “perfect phone,” one with a huge display, slide out keyboard, mouse-esque controls and Windows 7.

Designer: Lin Jian Feng

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Yanko Design Store - We are about more than just concepts. See what's hot at the YD Store!

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atMonitor is a Comprehensive Free System Monitoring Tool [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5749229/atmonitor-is-a-comprehensive-free-system-monitoring-tool

atMonitor is a Comprehensive Free System Monitoring ToolMac OS X: atMonitor is a free system monitoring tool that gives you highly detailed, real-time information about your Mac, running processes, and just about any system information you could want to know about.

atMonitor is like your Activity Monitor—the free utility that comes with your Mac—on steroids. Not only do you get additional information in the main application window, but you also get a floating HUD with an overview of your system activity and menubar stats as well. One of the coolest features of atMonitor, however, is that you can assign a script to run if any process reaches a certain level.

If you're looking for a more powerful system monitoring tool for your Mac, atMonitor should fit the bill. While you can download and use it for free, atMonitor does accept donations should you want to support its further development.

atMonitor is a Comprehensive Free System Monitoring ToolatMonitor | via MacWorld via One Thing Well

You can contact Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Stream Media To Your iOS Device With the TS-x12 From QNAP [Storage]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5749138/stream-media-to-your-ios-device-with-the-ts+x12-from-qnap

Stream Media To Your iOS Device With the TS-x12 From QNAPQNAP's newest NAS series has more storage (up to 8TB) and is faster (Marvell 1.2GHz CPU, 256MB of RAM, and gigabit Ethernet ports) than others before it. But what makes the new series really different?

The TS-x12 (which includes the single drive TS-112, the dual drive TS-212, and the TS-412 with four drives) can stream media to your PS3 and Xbox 360 with UPnP, and iOS and Android devices over Wi-Fi or 3G. There's no word on the price yet, but QNAP says they will hit stores later this month. [iPodNN via Engadget]

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