Seiki 50-Inch 4K TV Eyes-On: How the Hell Is a TV This Beautiful So Cheap?

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5994765/seiki-50+inch-4k-tv-eyes+on-how-the-hell-is-a-tv-this-beautiful-so-cheap

Yesterday, Chinese OEM Seiki officially priced its 50-inch Ultra HD TV at $1500, making it the cheapest 4K television in the history of absurd resolution. It's cheaper even than the last round of super-cheap Chinese 4Ks we saw. The price is so low, in fact, and the brand name is so unfamiliar, that you had to wonder if this television was a joke—or worse—a piece of garbage. I'm one of the first people in America to see this mythical creature, and I'll tell you right now: I can't believe my eyes.

We got a chance to watch 4K content on Seiki's 3840 x 2160, 120Hz LED beast for about 30 minutes today, and it was totally breathtaking. Much of the footage was stock 4K so, you know, it was amazing and perfectly shot and calibrated. But even with that knowledge in mind my brain was bombed by the clarity and detail of the picture. It's hard to get over the thrill of squinting at a TV up close and not seeing a pixel or a blur.

While watching footage of a tokyo cityscape, I could see the tiniest details like, for example, a tiny train navigating its way through skyscraper canyons. I also watched a 10-minute clip of animated video designed to be representative of 4K video content, and it was totally enrapturing. The TV was only 50-inches, but the picture was so immersive that you could've told me I was in movie theater.

Now, this wasn't a full, formal test of the TV so we can't argue for sure that it's a keeper, but for a 4K, it is unbelievably cheap. Please remember, too, that there isn't a whole lot of 4K content out there, but a lot of big companies like Sony are planning to start delivering large amounts of it within the next year. 4K is a fairly safe bet for the future. Investing in a 4K panel doesn't seem as crazy today as it did a few years ago. The power of the television's 4K-scaling engine will also be a very important measure of its worthiness and we haven't seen any 1080p content on it yet.

Seiki also told us that there would be a one-year, no-questions warranty. The company is hoping to have a 65-inch 4K TV ready by mid-summer.

Now, the TV is cheap in part, because it doesn't come with any bells and whistles. It's just a straight up beautiful panel with three HDMI inputs. The simplicity is a clear rebuttal to Sony, Samsung, LG, et al, and we're willing to bet that Seike is is right about one thing: People don't really care about connected TV crap and 3D or even a brand name enough to spend $25,000 on a TV. People just want simple, beautiful televisions they can afford. What good is a television the price of a sports car? Sure, at $1500, Seiki isn't gonna going to make any R&D money—but the company might actually sell some TVs. We're intrigued.

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Panasonic Lumix GF6 announced for the US, shipping in June for $600

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/16/panasonic-lumix-gf6-ships-in-june/

Panasonic's latest entry-level Micro Four Thirds cam appears to follow the design language (and perhaps usability) of its GF predecessors, but at least it's got WiFi, right? We'll hold out on passing further judgement until we have the camera in hand, but if past models are any indication, you'll definitely want to try the Lumix GF6 on for size in a retail store before handing over a cool 600 bucks. That said, there are some major improvements here -- there's NFC and WiFi functionality, as we mentioned, and the 1,040k-dot LCD is certainly a step up from the GF5, as is the top sensitivity of ISO 25,600. There's also a dedicated mode dial (always a plus), a pop-up flash and a bundled manual-zoom 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. The new MFT camera, which was announced for Japan just last week, will be hitting US retailers in June.

Filed under: Cameras

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KidDIY: 2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge aims to shape future of innovation

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/15/stem-initiative-2013/

The New York Hall of Science is hidden away in the Corona corner of Queens, N.Y., a primarily Hispanic neighborhood below the city's 7 subway line. Pupuserias and bodegas line pedestrian-filled 111th Street as it leads to the open swath of land occupied by the hall, making the sudden appearance of Cold War-era space rockets all the more jarring -- they jut into the sky, taking advantage of Queens' lack of skyscrapers. Not that 50-year-old rockets are at home anywhere in New York City, but they serve as a fitting backdrop for the day's event: the culmination of the 2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge.

The challenge aims to enable America's youth of today to become tomorrow's innovation leaders. In so many words, the US government is hoping these kids won't just go on to create the next big shooter franchise, but, say, the next iPod. Or the next SpaceX, perhaps.

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Titan supercomputer to be loaded with 'world's fastest' storage system

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/16/titan-supercomputer-to-be-loaded-with-worlds-fastest-storage-system/

If you figured Titan's title of the world's most powerful supercomputer would give the folks at Oakridge National Laboratory reason to rest on their laurels, you'd be mistaken. The computer is set to have its fleet of 18,688 NVIDIA K20 GPUs and equal number of AMD Opteron processors paired with what's said to be the planet's speediest storage system, making its file setup six times faster and giving it three times more capacity. Dubbed Spider II, the new hardware will endow the number cruncher with a peak performance of 1.4 terabytes a second and 40 petabytes of storage spread across 20,000 disk drives. Behind the refresh are 36 of Datadirect Networks' SFA12K-40 systems, which each pack 1.12PB of capacity. For more on the herculean rig's upgrade, hit the jump for the press release.

Filed under: Misc, Storage, Science

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BitTorrent Surf plugin launches in beta on both Chrome and Firefox

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/16/bittorrent-surf-plugin-beta/

After four months in the alpha incubator, BitTorrent has released its Surf file-sharing plugin in beta not just for Chrome, its initial browser, but for Firefox as well. In an effort to make downloading and discovery easier, the new plugin has a status window for monitoring file progress plus a recommendation engine that'll offer suggestions based on search terms. BitTorrent claims the results "prioritize legitimate content" and will "help creators and fans connect." With ventures like SoShare, Sync and live-streaming in the works, this is yet another sign that a brand (arguably) once synonymous with illicit activities is at least trying to go legit.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: BitTorrent (1), (2)

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