Engadget

Caustic Graphics develops ray tracing at gaming speeds

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 12:57PM

The ray-tracing technique for generating 3D images is an extremely processor-intensive proposition that doesn't lend itself to gaming (or real-time anything, for that matter), but all of that may be about to change. Caustic Graphics, a San Francisco-based start-up founded by former Apple employee James McCombe, claims that its dedicated ray tracing card will produce photorealistic graphics at a rate 20 times faster than products currently available. And if that weren't enough, their new CausticRT platform has the potential to perform the operations a whopping 200 times faster -- possibly fast enough for a photorealistic gaming platform. The second generation technology should be unleashed sometime in mid-2010, while the CausticOne card will get its official announcement on April 23 of this year.

[Via Business 2.0 Press]

Dexim's Shu-Lip turns your new iPod shuffle into the thumb drive it's dying to be

by Paul Miller, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 12:36PM

With the promising intro of "when a shuffle kisses a Mac..." we were hoping for something a bit more exciting, but we suppose Dexim's new Shu-Lip will have to do. In completely straightforward and boring fashion, the Shu-Lip is designed to plug into the end of the new iPod shuffle and transform it from miniscule DAP to completely run-of-the-mill thumb drive, replacing that clunky audio-jack-to-USB dongle that the shuffle comes with. Naturally, with such short notice from Apple, it seems like Dexim merely has the renders and a price locked down so far -- the Shu-Lip will ship for $10 whenever it's ready.

[Via iLounge]

Engadget's recession antidote: win a set of Razer Moray earbuds!

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 12:05PM

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We'll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we've got a set of Razer Moray noise isolating earphones (in black) on offer, able to adequately replace those lackluster stock 'buds that came with your current media player. Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting!

Special thanks to Razer for providing the gear!

The rules:

Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for "fixing" the world economy, that'd be sweet too.
You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one Razer Moray earphones set. Approximate value is $39.99.
If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 13th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
Full rules can be found here.

VIA's VX855 Media System Processor handles the 1080p

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 11:48AM

Big news, folks -- 1008p is about to hit the minuscule PC market, and VIA's making darn sure it doesn't miss the boat. Hot on the heels of HABEY's BIS-6550HD announcement, VIA has stepped in to formally introduce its VX855 Media System Processor, which aims to bring hardware-based 1080p decoding to VIA-based rigs. The highly integrated single chip package sucks down just 2.3 watts and provides hardware H.264 video acceleration when snapped in alongside a VIA Nano, C7 or Eden processor. Other specs include a 400 to 800MHz FSB speed, support for up to DDR2 800 memory (4GB maximum), six USB 2.0 ports and the company's own Chrome9 graphics set. There's no mention of when this bugger will find its way into shelf-bound rigs, but we're hoping Computex sheds some light on the situation.

[Via HotHardware]

Gallery: VIA's VX855 Media System Processor handles the 1080p

Zypad mil-spec wrist PC gets a refresh

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 11:26AM

Looks like the Parvus wrist computer we last saw almost three years ago has received an upgrade. The Zypad WR1100 is a 3.5-inch color touchscreen device aimed at the defense industries, soldiers of fortune (who, surprisingly enough, make a large part of our readership), futuristic Boy Scouts, and anyone else who needs a Linux device strapped to their wrist. Aside from a high strength / low weight fiberglass-reinforced nylon-magnesium alloy housing designed to take a licking in the field, this wrist-worn bad boy rocks 256MB memory, 128MB flash storage, various connectivity options (including WiFi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee), a GPS, a compass, biometric fingerprint sensor, and an accelerometer that puts the system in standby when the arm is hanging down beside the body. Let us take a moment to ponder the irony of the inevitable Quake mod this device will certainly see at some point in the near future.

[Via CNet]

Continue reading Zypad mil-spec wrist PC gets a refresh

iriver's Dicple D35 and D31 remind us of just how much we'll never understand

by Paul Miller, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 11:02AM

For a company that pretty much just makes PMPs, iriver manages to pull off an incredible quantity of surprising product moves and design choices. Its new Dicple D35 and D31, for instance, square off any of the sexiness and sleekitude of previous iterations, like 2007's D5. The devices seem to be getting inexplicably thicker, the screen bezel has become more prominent, and iriver just doesn't seem to care. However, the software has certainly come a long way from those electronic dictionary days, with widgets, advanced multimedia features (like DMB and radio recording), handwriting recognition and PIM functions -- all of which we have little idea as to the functionality, since the spec list is in Korean, and we don't imagine iriver plans on shipping this sort of stuff to the States any time soon. Still, we can dream.

[Thanks, Alex]

Read - iriver D31
Read - iriver D35

Gallery: iriver's new Dicple D35 and D31

Disney's latest LCD TV gets mauled by Stitch

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 10:40AM

Somehow or another, Lilo was completely left out of this arrangement, but as you can tell, there's no room beside Stitch anyway. Disney's latest 20-inch LCD TV has been decidedly commandeered by one of its (er, only?) most popular blue alien characters, and if you can look past that gaping mouth up top, you'll notice a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, HDMI and VGA inputs, a built-in TV tuner, dual five watt speakers and a bundled remote. Oddly, we're told that this royalty-laced set will be priced at an amazing ¥100,000 ($1,015), so you best be sure 1) your kid is a true, hardcore fan and 2) money ain't a thang.

Gallery: Disney's latest LCD TV gets mauled by Stitch

[Via CNET]

ARM-based netbooks primed to invade Computex?

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 10:18AM

Steppin' out in the world, are we ARM? Shortly after hearing that OLPC was eying the brand for processors in the XO-2, Digitimes is now reporting that ARM-based platform makers including Qualcomm and Freescale are looking to unveil netbooks at this year's Computex trade show in Taipei. Granted, none of this has been confirmed just yet, but we're hearing that a model with Freescale's i.MX51 CPU (the ARM Cortex A8) and a version with Qualcomm's Snapdragon CPU (to be manufactured by Wistron) will be on hand. Not shockingly, in the same breath we're told that NVIDIA Tegra-based systems will appear "at a later time." So, is Computex the show where Intel finally takes a little heat in the netbook market? And no, VIA didn't (and doesn't) count.

Australian continues to hone $300,000 flight simulator

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 9:57AM

Ha, and you thought your HotSeat Chassis was the next best thing to paying way too much to carry an appropriate amount of luggage on your next jaunt to paradise. Australia's own Matthew Sheil has been tinkering on his own personal flight simulator for over a decade now, but the latest iteration is just too good to ignore. Aside from setting a Guinness world record for his efforts, the man has poured over $300,000 into recreating the flying experience of a 747-400, which is dirt cheap compared to the $60 million that professional simulators generally run. Sheil flies virtually with legions of other enthusiasts around the world, and each year he hosts 15 folks as they rotate on an around-the-world flight that Qantas sponsors and where donation money is funneled to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Hit up the read link to get a real gist of what this thing is capable of, and feel free to go in with stupid high expectations.

MSI Wind U115 rated at 15 hours of battery life, torn apart for its trouble

by Paul Miller, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 9:33AM

MSI's never been a slouch when it comes to its Wind series, but this new U115 seems to be something else entirely. In tests done by the folks at Eee-PC.de, the laptop ranged from 5.5 hours to 15 hours of battery life, based on level of usage. Even 5.5 hours is good for continuous use, but we could imagine all sorts of happiness with 15 hours of battery -- like camping. The laptop gets some of its battery mojo from its hybrid storage system, which allows the laptop to run entirely off of its 8GB of SSD memory, with the 160GB hard drive spun down to save power. The SSD is user-replaceable, if you don't mind a little warranty voiding, and the folks at nvision have thrown caution to the wind in ripping apart their U115 for our viewing pleasure.

[Via liliputing]

Read - Eee-PC.de
Read - nvision

Lenovo's ThinkPad X61 Tablet selling for a song, or $649

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 9:12AM

Eager to pick up a $2,000 laptop for $649? What if we told you that said computer was a sturdy, reliable ThinkPad X61 Tablet that you can even doodle on when the workday's done? For a limited window of time, you can hit up the read link and toss in a sweet little $150-off coupon in order to bring the bottom line down to $649 on a new tablet PC, and that pittance will buy you a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo L7500 CPU, Vista Home Premium, a 12.1-inch XGA display, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, WiFi and an eight-cell battery. So, hot or not?

[Via LogicBuy]

Video: Kindle 2 sees the wrong end of a laser, recommends you don't panic

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 8:53AM

If there were anything a frequent traveler needs more than a towel (and money, and identification, and maybe a cellphone...) it's a Kindle 2. To celebrate its ability to provide free access to the world's great information repository from absolutely anywhere (within in the United States that has cellular access), Adafruit Industries has turned the K2 into something of an ode to Douglas Adams's great epic: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. After a little burning action courtesy of its Epliog 35 watt laser (which we've seen in action before), the e-book reader now sports the most valuable advice ever given to a man (or alien). Sadly it still won't give you directions to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but it will at least let you download and start reading it in under a minute. Ford Prefect would be proud.

Continue reading Video: Kindle 2 sees the wrong end of a laser, recommends you don't panic

Durabook's D15RP semi-rugged laptop unboxing and hands-on

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 8:26AM

It's been awhile since we've seen the latest in a Durabook around these parts. GammaTech sent along a new D15RP to be part of a little feature we're brewing, but we thought we'd go ahead and give you a quick peek at the thing first. It wasn't quite as gratuitously packaged as the Toughbook we also recently aped, but upon seeing the logo on that box we admit to thinking for a moment we'd accidentally received a set of fresh kicks from K-Swiss. So far using it feels like using a real laptop, as opposed to the sensation of typing on an ammo case you get with the Panasonic, but we'll leave the full comparisons for another day. Until then, enjoy some pics.

Gallery: Durabook DR15P

Zer01 is the new, contract-less MVNO that will bring VOIP to the mobile masses

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 7:59AM

2008 marked the end for many a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), most going under in a flood of bankruptcies or getting consumed but their parent networks. It sure seems like no company in its right mind would want to wade back into that graveyard, but Zer01 is thinking differently, pledging to launch a new network within a network next month at CTIA 2009. Its services will be provided by AT&T, but it'll undercut the competition with a combination of a $69.95 monthly unlimited voice and data plan and a complete lack of contracts, as well as unlimited international calling (to 40 countries) for just an extra $10. What's the catch? The company will rely on a VOIP application for routing of all calls, and right now that app only works on Windows Mobile. That'll be a roadblock for many, and given AT&T's somewhat limited (and generally flaky) 3G data coverage we're a little concerned about call quality, but just the same can't wait to see how this one turns out.

[Via Unwired View and PC Magazine]

Crapgadget: "Wow... just, wow" edition

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 7:34AM

A buffalo USB speaker? Really? Someone thought this was a good idea? How's about a completely unlicensed Mickey Multifunction Webcam? You know, for doing lots of random crap, just not very well. Or what about an MP3 pen that helps you learn Mandarin? Yeah, 'cause that's totally beneficial in more than three locations on Planet Earth. Or, if you're still not sold, how's about a USB bamboo fountain that'll be a surefire catalyst for adding mold and mildew to any room? Believe it or not, all of these are real products that you can exchange hard-earned dollars for, though obviously we wouldn't recommend it. Cast your vote below for the most jaw-dropping of all.

Read - Buffalo USB Speaker
Read - MP3 Pen
Read - USB Bamboo Fountain
Read - Mickey Webcam

Samsung's P3 PMP gets imported, reviewed, adored

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 7:02AM

Oh jealousy, you are a vile beast. While the Korean market has had access to the spicy P3 touchscreen PMP for months now, long enough for Samsung to release a complete revision of the firmware, we're still stuck waiting for the ambiguous "first half of this year." The impatient can always import, exactly what Pocketables has done, giving its gray-market gadget the full review treatment. Its design is found to be similar yet much more attractive than the earlier P2, size comparable to Cowan's S9, 480 x 272 touchscreen brilliant, and the UI snappy and intuitive. Negatives? Sound quality was found to be good, but not great out of the box (able to be fixed with a suite of tuning options) and the lack of video output is a slight handicap. Overall, the P3 sounds like the perfect competition for the S9 and just the PMP for our envious hearts -- if only it came in green.

Gartner posts worldwide mobile OS numbers for 2008

by Thomas Ricker, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 6:28AM

This table pretty much speaks for itself as a snapshot of the year in smartphones that was 2008 (according to Gartner) -- a breakout year for the category particularly in the US. As you'd expect from the smartphone device tallies we saw yesterday, RIM and Apple have the momentum largely at the expense of Symbian's declining market share and the stagnation of Windows Mobile in an otherwise growing market segment. Palm's also a bit of a surprise showing 42.2% growth for the year. With any luck, Palm could turn this table upside down in 2009 with a successful global launch of WebOS. Regardless, you can bet that developers are paying particularly close attention to these numbers as they decide where to best align their resources for maximum financial gain.

Video: Apple logo modded as secondary LCD

by Thomas Ricker, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 5:33AM

The only thing more certain about an Apple fanboy than his unwavering trust in the infallibility of Steve Jobs is his affinity for the Apple logo. You'll see it prominently displayed on the bumper of his VW or on the backside of her MacBook where it glows in the conspicuous brilliance of latte-superiority. So it's no surprise to see said logo modded yet again, this time, with a fully functional LCD display thanks to the efforts of Eddie Zarick. Honestly, seeing the iTunes Visualizer pumped through that Apple mask looks pretty sweet. You seeing this Jonny Ive?

[Thanks, Chris T.]

Continue reading Video: Apple logo modded as secondary LCD

Fish USB Hub looks like something the cat dragged in

by Laura June, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 4:59AM

It's cute, it's useful, you're totally going to want one! Well, maybe not, but the Fish Shape 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub still could make your life a little cooler if you're in the market for a USB hub. It's purple, the eyes are LEDs, and it's sure to be boatloads of fun -- as long as you keep it out of Heathcliff's way, that is. Really, what more could you ask for? This little dude can be yours for a mere $10.99.

Keepin' it real fake, part CXC: TESO starts aping MacBook Air, quits early

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2009 at 4:36AM

Astoundingly enough, we haven't actually seen a barrage of MacBook Air clones. Which is pretty remarkable given that, you know, it's a Cupertino-designed product. With such a huge opportunity staring it in the face, China's own TESO decided to see what it could whip up, and what it whipped sits pictured above. Iconic glossy white Apple coat? Check. Impossible to miss MBA styling? Check. One single lonely USB port? Check. Too bad it threw in some low rate keyboard and a mismatched battery cover on the underside -- we were almost totally digging this. Sike.

[Via PMPToday]