Harman Kardon's MAS 102 stereo has a petite profile, luxury looks and matching $999 price tag

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/04/harman-kardons-mas-102-stereo-has-a-petite-profile-luxury-look/

Harman Kardon has departed from its austere design language on occasion and come up with some questionable aesthetic results, but its latest compact stereo system sports the clean and classic lines for which H/K is famed. Of course, looks aren't everything, so the MAS 102 slings songs at your skull using a two-channel 65W amp, five-inch mid bass drivers, and one-inch waveguided dome tweeters. The MAS 102 also has dual USB ports for accessing digital music and a phono input for those who prefer sourcing tunes from an old school turntable. It's not all sonic bliss, however, as an optional dock (sold separately) is needed to hook up the iDevice of your choosing. That's a glaring omission for a stereo that costs just under a grand -- but forgiving that flaw should be easy for the form-over-function crowd. More info can be found in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Harman Kardon's MAS 102 stereo has a petite profile, luxury looks and matching $999 price tag

Harman Kardon's MAS 102 stereo has a petite profile, luxury looks and matching $999 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 22:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Surface SDK gets input simulator, opens doors to indie devs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/04/surface-sdk-gets-input-simulator-opens-doors-to-indie-devs/

There's one big, table-shaped obstacle to developing apps for Microsoft's Surface: you kind of have to own one. A new Surface 2 SDK, landing this summer, will sidestep that problem with an input simulator so devs can test their code on any Windows 7 PC. You can tap fingers, place tags, or paint "blobs" for your virtual SUR 40 to interact with, and even fake multitouch gestures by "stamping" a finger in one spot then moving a second one. If the Surface you're programming for happens to be movable (though we're not sure who would put a $7,600 computer on hinges) you can also alter the tilt of the display to trigger UI changes. You'll still need access to one of these behemoths to make sure your wares work in the really real world, but at least the preliminary work can be done on any old laptop or desktop. Frankly, this is something we'd have thought would be included from day one -- as they say, better late than never.

Surface SDK gets input simulator, opens doors to indie devs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 22:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung SENS-240 Navigation Tablet is strange and familiar

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/05/samsung-sens-240-navigation-tablet-is-strange-and-familiar/

It's been a few years but iriver just released an updated version of its NV GPS navigator with SPINN UI. Wa... wait a second, that's a Samsung logo. Sorry, this is the Samsung SENS-240, a hybrid car navigation system / tablet that plays nice with your Android-powered Samsung smartphone or, uh, tablet. According to Akihabara News, the SENS-240 uses Bluetooth to take over your voice, data, voice search, and even "video features" from your smartphone when driving. You can then control the SENS-240 using your smarpthone or tablet as an "advanced" remote when idle. The details behind how this works, or why you'd want to do it, is a mystery. We do know that the SENS-240 comes packing 256MB of RAM, USB-host mode, and an SD slot in addition to a 1.43GHz processor (of unknown origins) said to be powerful enough to handle 3D maps, video, or DMB TV on that 7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel display. Oh, and it's Korea-only for now.

Samsung SENS-240 Navigation Tablet is strange and familiar originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 03:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 5 updates expected to be carried over-the-air, at least for the Verizon iPhone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/05/ios-5-updates-expected-to-be-carried-over-the-air-at-least-for/

Having spent a good part of our day yesterday negotiating with iTunes and downloading a whopping 666.2MB file to update our iPhone to version 4.3.3 -- a version, we might add, whose sole claim to fame is the removal of things -- we know well the pains of updating Apple's mobile software. Those aches, however, may soon be coming to an end. 9to5Mac has multiple sources informing it that Apple and Verizon are scheming to start delivering iOS updates over the air from this fall, or just as soon as iOS 5 is made available. Untethered OS updates are a familiar feature to users of other smartphone operating systems and even the iOS-infused Apple TV, but getting Apple's mobile devices up to date has so far always required going through the company's own cable and software.

There's no reason to believe this wireless update feature will be limited to Verizon, mind you -- that's just where the informants are coming from in this instance -- though Apple will almost certainly have to alter the file sizes of its updates. We can't think of many carriers who'll be happy to push more than half a gigabyte of data per user per update. Additionally, since iTunes currently acts as the major backup hub, 9to5Mac speculates Cupertino must be working on a cloud backup service as well, which would seem a very sensible idea. Of course, that doesn't paint a very happy or busy future for iTunes, but so what?

iOS 5 updates expected to be carried over-the-air, at least for the Verizon iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 04:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon Droid X2 and LG Revolution—the First Android Phone With Netflix—Coming May 12 [Unconfirmed]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5798498/verizons-next-android-phones-droid-x2-lg-revolution-and-sony-xperia-play

According to Droid Life, Verizon is getting ready to release an onslaught of Android phones in the next few weeks. Tthe Droid X2, expected to pack a dual-core Tegra 2 chip, and the LG Revolution, a 4G LTE Android phone that's supposed to be the first Android phone with Netflix, are both expected to release on May 12th (next Thursday). On May 26, the Xperia Play aka the PSP Phone is expected to become available on Big Red.

It's shaping up to be a major month for Verizon (who also has their first Windows Phone, the HTC Trophy coming on the 12th) and an even bigger month for Android. Three awesome phones on the heels of the two that just released (Droid Incredible 2 and Droid Charge)? What a pace. [Droid Life]

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