Technology Nirvana

When we had the downright magnificent opportunity to toy with Philips' latest PMP line here in the States, we immediately noticed that the GoGear Opus stood out among the rest. The crew over at TrustedReviews recently spent some quality time with the 8GB version of that very unit, and while they found the audio quality to be "excellent," they seemed rather disappointed -- if not irked -- by everything else in the package. For starters, the whole solution just felt boring, with critics noting that its biggest problem was a lack of "excitement." Granted, none of this would matter at a rock-bottom price point, but for $100, there's an awful lot of competition. As we found during our short time with the player, these folks also noticed that the user interface was simply "old-fashioned," and that video playback was nothing to write home about. The bottom line? Unless you score some kind of spectacular deal, your PMP dollars are probably best spent elsewhere.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Philips GoGear Opus reviewed: solid audio, but painfully boring originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 18:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Could a new Roomba be hitting the streets? Tipster Kason Jinkaid writes:

Not sure if this excites you, but I heard from a Costco salesperson
that they’re getting new Roombas “soon”, though that could mean
months. They aren’t stocking the ones they’ve been carrying (model
550). Also Woot just sold off a bunch for 535s for ~$100 less than
what they usually sell for, so are probably clearing out inventory.

If anything, you can get yourself a cheap 550 or 535?

I doubt sincerely this means the arrival of the square Roomba we talked about last week but it could mean a refreshed model going out to big box stores. We’ll investigate a bit.

At this past week’s Google I/O event in San Francisco, Google brought a contraption it calls the “Holodeck,” for event-goers to experience. Basically, it’s a near-360 degree way to view Google Street View in fast motion, high definition video. Danny Sullivan posted a bunch of pictures of the thing earlier in the week.

Unfortunately, Google only allows it to show the area at and around the actual Google campus in Mountain View, as I’m sure it doesn’t want any legal complaint from those caught sunbathing in their backyards. Also, while it does zoom past the area where the Google Goats were kept, it unfortunately failed to catch any of them on tape. Luckily, I did that for you a few weeks ago.

Google’s Holodeck isn’t quite as cool as the Star Trek Holodeck, but give them a few years, I’m sure they’ll figure out how to do that as well.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Look, we fully understand that September 5th is a long ways out, but don't think for a second that Microsoft isn't inking every last detail of its Zune HD launch in stone. That said, Windows expert and all-around good guy Paul Thurrott has been "told" that this very player will ship exactly on the fifth day of the ninth month of this year. Needless to say, that jibes with Microsoft's official line ("this fall"), but sadly, we've no other information to go on at the moment. In other words, feel free to pencil this one in, but keep that eraser handy -- cool?

[Via Zune Boards, thanks Joel]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Microsoft's Zune HD shipping on September 5th? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 17:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft "guru" Paul Thurott says the Zune HD launches on September 5. Mind you, this info comes fresh from the Zune forums, so we'll slap a rumor on it for now with the caveat that it matches our earlier post about a September launch window. [Zune Forums - Thanks Joel]

In the tradition of the Atari ring comes this gold Optimus Prime ring from deviantartist =Dans-Magic.

It's the perfect gift for that special someone. That same special someone who's willing to wait hours and hours in line with you at a premiere so you can go into the theater to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and ogle Megan Fox half-naked on a motorcycle. [Geekologie]

Music service Last.fm, which was bragging about server uptime a week and a half ago, shuts its doors for the afternoon, claiming “datacenter temperature issues beyond our control” required them to go offline. The outage began around 12:30 pm PST, so we’re at two hours and counting. Updates are on their Twitter account.

The twitter from May 20:

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Look, LED light bulbs are fanciful, great for Ma Earth and a fine addition to any home, barber shop or underground fight club. But let's be honest -- even the guy that bikes through blizzards to get to work and wears garb that he grew in his basement isn't apt to shell out $120 a pop to have what's likely the most efficient light bulb American dollars can buy. Enter Chunlei Guo from the University of Rochester, who has helped discover a process which could morph a traditional incandescent light bulb into a beacon of burning light without using nearly as much energy as before. In fact, his usage of the femtosecond laser pulse -- which creates a "unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament" -- could enable a bulb to increase output efficiency in order to emit 100-watts worth of light while sucking down less than 60-watts of power. Per usual, there's no telling when this new hotness is likely to hit the commercial realm, but one's thing for sure: we bet GE's paying attention.

[Via Physorg]

Filed under: Household

Ultra-powerful laser could make incandescent light bulbs more efficient originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 16:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The folks at Energizer are updating their Energi To Go line of rechargeable battery life extenders to encompass the iPhone 3G and solar power.

The first new entries, two form-fitting, rubberized AP Charger battery packs for the iPhone, had me thinking of Incase Power Slider.

They're not as eye-catching as the Incase, but they're not as expensive, either. It's $50 for the AP1000 and $80 for the beefier, longer-lasting AP1500. Weigh your options, battery pack wants and desires accordingly. Also, in the case of the AP1500, Energizer promises to double the battery life of a typical iPhone charge.

In the aforementioned solar power category comes the SP1000 and SP2000, for $50 and $100, respectively. Boasting 500 charges each, these solar cells include a set of tips so that you can charge all manner of GPS devices, MP3 players and cellphones out in the wilds of suburbia. Or camping in the woods too, if that's your thing. More tips are available online, should the included six not meet your needs. The SP line even charges via indoor light sources, although not as quickly as the advertised 6-hour charge time in direct sunlight.

In all, there will be about 10 new additions to this line of battery packs and chargers coming in June, Energizer tells us, courtesy a new partnership with XPAL Power. Not much else to say on XPAL save a brief mention in our glorious Gadget Deals of the Day series.

Right now, orbiting at 250 miles above Earth's surface, we have a permanent crew of six astronauts at the International Space Station, a first in the history of space exploration.

Both the Russian MIR and United States' Skylab had a permanent crew of three. The International Space Station also had three astronauts until last Friday, when ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk arrived onboard the Soyuz TMA-15. Together with the other three existing members, they have become the Expedition 20 mission crew, the first 6-member resident crew ever in a orbital outpost. [Hyperbola]