T-Mobile Galaxy S III hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/21/t-mobile-galaxy-s-iii-hands-on/

T-Mob's variant of the Galaxy S III made its in-store debut on this very day, and we just had a chance to go hands-on with the flagship smartphone. The carrier brought the handset down to the Metropolitan Pavilion for Pepcom's baseball-themed shindig and we just had to get our greasy paws all over its shiny Pebble Blue shell -- and it is a serious fingerprint magnet. Aside from that, though, it's hard to take issue with such a slim and marvelously engineered device. The plasticky build quality does leave something to be desired, but it's something we've become accustomed with Samsung devices. We've also got to give it to Sammy for getting carriers, including T-Mobile, to leave well enough alone. Other than the innocuous logo on the back there are no physical differences between this version of the S III and its 4.8-inch cousins on other networks. There's no keyboard, redesigned corners or rejiggered buttons. Truth is, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between Big Magenta's variant and the international version.

Gallery: T-Mobile Galaxy S III hands-on

The only obvious changes come once you fire the device up, and you'll have to dig around a bit to find them. T-Mo has added a few apps to the standard Samsung Suite. Most of them are relatively inoffensive, but if you're the type who was taken aback when you discovered My Verizon Mobile on your LTE Galaxy Nexus, you might not be a happy camper. On board you'll find T-Mobile TV, Name ID, Access T-Mobile, Mobile HotSpot and Visual Voicemail -- pretty standard additions. Our brief time with the device turned up no surprises. Performance was snappy -- apps opened without a hitch and webpages loaded as fast as the congested wireless in the room would allow. If you're a Carly Foulkes fan with an upgrade on tap you could do worse than to pick up the Galaxy S III (which is available today) for $279.99. Though, that price tag is, admittedly, a bit hard to swallow. Be sure to check the video after the break.

Continue reading T-Mobile Galaxy S III hands-on (video)

T-Mobile Galaxy S III hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD launches Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, demands rematch with NVIDIA

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/22/amd-radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition/

If you've been missing out on the graphics card wars of late, then here's a quick rundown. AMD launched its high-end $549 Radeon HD 7970 at the end of last year, and it reigned comfortably for a few months until NVIDIA came out with the masterful GeForce GTX 680. That would have been the end of the matter, at least for this product cycle, except for one crucial factor: time. Having reached the market so much earlier, AMD has now had six months to not only tweak its drivers but also its 28nm silicon. That process has already culminated in 1GHz cards at the low- and mid-ranges, and today it leads to the (slightly predictable) announcement of a Radeon HD 7970 'GHz Edition' -- priced at $499 and expected to be available from a range of board makers from next week. To keep you amused in the meantime, there's plenty of detail in the gallery below and after the break.

Gallery: Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition official slide deck

Continue reading AMD launches Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, demands rematch with NVIDIA

AMD launches Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, demands rematch with NVIDIA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Valve announces Steam for Schools, helps teachers create educational Portal 2 levels

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/22/steam-for-schools-helps-teachers-create-educational-portal-levels/

Who ever said being a scientific guinea pig couldn't be educational? With Steam for Schools, teachers can now use Portal 2's level editor to create lessons focused on boosting critical thinking, spatial reasoning and problem solving skills. Announced at the Games for Change festival in New York City, the educator edition of Steam comes with a free copy of Portal 2 and the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker. Students and teachers alike can use the tools to create puzzles, but distribution is handled by teachers alone. (That's right, kids -- no level sharing unless the teach says so.) An accompanying website serves as a gathering place for teachers to collaborate, and aims to provide sample lesson plans centered on science, technology, engineering and math. If you're an educator who can't wait to bring a Portal-assisted physics lesson to life, see the links below to sign up for the ongoing beta. Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to "study."

Valve announces Steam for Schools, helps teachers create educational Portal 2 levels originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All-carbon solar cell draws power from near-infrared light, our energy future is literally that much brighter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/22/all-carbon-solar-cell-draws-power-from-near-infrared-light/

What's this orange-like patch, you ask? It's a layer of carbon nanotubes on silicon, and it might just be instrumental to getting a lot more power out of solar cells than we're used to. Current solar power largely ignores near-infrared light and wastes about 40 percent of the potential energy it could harness. A mix of carbon nanotubes and buckyballs developed by MIT, however, can catch that near-infrared light without degrading like earlier composites. The all-carbon formula doesn't need to be thickly spread to do its work, and it simply lets visible light through -- it could layer on top of a traditional solar cell to catch many more of the sun's rays. Most of the challenge, as we often see for solar cells, is just a matter of improving the energy conversion rate. Provided the researchers can keep refining the project, we could be looking at a big leap in solar power efficiency with very little extra footprint, something we'd very much like to see on the roof of a hybrid sedan.

All-carbon solar cell draws power from near-infrared light, our energy future is literally that much brighter originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:52:00 EDT. Please see our te! rms for use of feeds.

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AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition review roundup: a big, bad bruiser of a graphics card

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/22/amd-radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-roundup/

You know the routine: we looked this revamped card's spec sheet a few hours ago, so now it's time to find out how it fared in independent tests and whether it's worth the $499 outlay. On the face of it, this powerhouse of a card ought to be a champ, since it comes $50 cheaper than the original's launch price (although that non-GHz Edition has now dropped to $449) and brings crucial improvements in clock speed and memory bandwidth. In practice? Well, it wins -- but only on points. Read on for more.

Continue reading AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition review roundup: a big, bad bruiser of a graphics card

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition review roundup: a big, bad bruiser of a graphics card originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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