Engadget

Sick and tired of all those suits hogging the iDevice wireless printing fun? Or your original alternative finally conked out? Then Lantronix's new "Home Edition" of its iPhone / iPad friendly xPrintServer is for you. If you already have a USB printer, simply plug the little guy into it, and hey presto, you can print from you iOS device. Lantronix says you don't even need the host computer to be switched on. While there's support for up to two networked printers, the added bonus is that it'll make your old USB beast appear like one too (handy for the laptop). What does the office-like experience cost? Just 99 expensable dollars. Print off a pre-order via the source.

As cool as lasers are, so far there are precious few commercially available display devices available that use them. That may change with this new green semiconductor laser diode announced by Sony and Sumitomo, capable of the brightness necessary to replace the more expensive light sources used to fill in the middle of the RGB setup. According to the two companies, it's the world's first one capable of over 100mW power at 530nm, which they think will make it a fit for both advanced projectors and compact light projectors. Check after the break for more details on how the technology came to be -- drawing heavily on Sumitomo's production techniques and Sony's GaN laser technology developed with Blu-ray -- we'll let you know when there's a LaserVue or REDray setup priced for general consumption.

Calxeda may have been given the bum's rush by HP's Project Moonshot, but the company isn't taking it lying down. It's released benchmarks for its ARM-based server technology that claims it's 15 times more power-efficient than the comparable Intel Xeon. Rigging up a 1.1GHz Energycore ECX-1000 with 4GB RAM against a 3.3GHz Xeon E3-1240, the former consumed only 5.26 W compared to the 102 W of Intel's high-spec chip. While it certainly wasn't faster, power efficiency is a key concern for data centers looking to keep costs down, and if the trend continues, Santa Clara will come to regret AMD's recently announced love-in.

Sony has been caught unawares by a legal change in South Korea, which prevents under-18s from being asked for their names or ages for the purpose of account authentication. No sooner had the company announced a half-price sale at its PS Store and then it was forced to pull the whole thing down in order re-work the interface and make it compliant. It's expecting to reopen it sometime "this year," but in the meantime the Store is strangely still accessible to PSP and Vita users of any age, while multiplayer and other PSN functions will continue to run on PS3. There must be a lawyer somewhere for whom this all makes complete sense, and hopefully they work for Facebook.

Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com.

TV producers always think they can sneak a fast one by us and our eagle-eyed readers. Little do they realize that together we are a near unstoppable force, capable of spotting, identifying and mocking nearly every use (and misuse) of tech on TV. A tipster caught this un-branded tablet on a recent episode of Continuum and, after a little bit of sleuthing, we were able to identify it as the Iconia Tab W500. Without the company's branding it was a little tough to pick out exactly what this slate was, but the off-center placement of the Windows logo and unique looking webcam gave its identity away. Sorry Canadian television, you'll have to try harder to sneak a device by us.

[Thanks, Reece]

Fire. Meat. Beer. The recipe for a barbecue has barely changed since the start of recorded time, but that doesn't mean technology can't get in on the party. BBQ Guru has released the CyberQ WiFi, a wirelessly enabled temperature control that lets you fiddle with your griddle using a mobile device. You can relinquish your spot in charge of the fire but still control how rare your steak will come out (when someone else goes and gets it). Even better, if you nod off during the Superbowl, it'll send you an email alert thanks to its built-in web server. It'll install onto most standard grill / smoker types and will set you back $295 with an additional fan and grill adapter and is available from today.

Australia's federal court has fined Apple for "deliberately" misleading customers on local 4G capabilities of its latest iPad. The Cupertino-based company recently agreed to the terms, which included AU$2.29 million fine and a cool AU$300,000 in costs. Despite its 4G claims, Apple's new iPad can't connect with existing Antipodean next-generation phone networks, although it can hook up to US-based networks. Apple offered refunds for any customers that felt deceived and even adjusted its advertising to reflect its cellular capabilities, but the judge still deemed that the company had contravened Australia's consumer law in the ensuing confusion. Fortunately, Apple still has plenty left in the bank.

Aussies and Brits have been waiting awhile for either a truly broad LTE launch or to get any LTE at all. That wait is coming to an end, but not without some grousing. UK Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey has alleged that any slow movement stemmed from carriers that have "threatened to sue" regulator Ofcom if it's too hasty and does something they frown upon. Needless to say, that remark has ruffled a few feathers: one of the earliest expected British LTE providers, Everything Everywhere, tells Pocket-lint it has "no appetite" to take Ofcom to court and drag 4G deployments through the mud. Things are going a little more smoothly in Australia, if on a later timetable. The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, now expects Australia to auction off 700MHz and 2.5GHz wireless frequencies in April 2013. That could lead to a very long wait for wider 4G service in the country, but at least the 700MHz support will be good news for device makers that don't want to be mired in disputes over LTE devices they've brought over from the US.

Drobo's been delivering quality desktop storage for businesses and prosumers for awhile now, but previously, the company hadn't dipped its toe into Thunderbolt waters. But that's about to change with its two new units. The 5D is a BYOD desktop offering with two Thunderbolt ports and one USB 3.0 socket for connecting up to five hot-swappable, 3.5-inch drives to your Mac or PC. It also has an mSATA SSD for data-caching quickness and a variable-speed fan to keep things cool and quiet. We don't know exactly when the 5D will go on sale -- Drobo's not telling until July -- but it'll cost under $850 when it does, and that price includes a Thunderbolt cable.

Meanwhile, the Mini is the first Drobo meant to be taken on the road. It packs up to four 2.5-inch drives in its front bays, plus, like the 5D, there's an mSATA SSD nestled in its underside that serves as a caching tier to speed up your main storage -- all in a 7.3 x 1.8 x 7.1-inch package weighing three pounds when fully loaded. All the drives are hot-swappable, a process made simple and easy with a trick, spring-loaded mechanism (patent pending) that lets users swap drives as they would SD cards. As for connecting the thing to your computer, dual Thunderbolt ports (for daisy chaining) and one USB 3.0 port reside round back along with the power plug and two vents for the Mini's variable-speed fans. Ringing the front face of the Mini are five LED strips that serve as drive indicators and capacity meter to let you know when a drive has failed or you're running out of space. Intrigued? Well, we got a sneak peek at the Mini and a little history lesson about its origins at Drobo HQ, so join us past the break for more.

"Lleasexqllme." SwiftKey 3 won't see that as gibberish, but as "Please call me," thanks to its new spacing prediction that has been repeatedly tweaked since the beta first came out in April. The final version is now available at the Google Play link below with a temporary half-price offer. It also promises a bigger space bar, a dedicated comma key, new themes, smarter punctuation and special character prediction, support for Android backup so you'll never lose the database of learned phrases, and overall less teeth-clenching while you're typing.

There's been no shortage of SNES mods with built-in screens. They almost always tend to overlook one fundamental problem, however: with only one screen, gamers have to either share one tiny LCD or play solo, and neither option will make that Street Fighter II nostalgia trip a pleasant one. Frequent console modder Downing has offered a fix with a key trade-off. Although his Super Famicom-like SNES-001 Advance is decidedly non-portable, each gamepad has its own LCD to show what would normally go to one screen, even with audio. Both controllers are custom-molded creations that still plug in the old-fashioned, wired way. Downing certainly isn't hoarding his creation, despite it being one of a kind. An auction for the console (with a $500 buy-now price) is still well underway as of this writing, making sure that at least two Double Dragon fans will be happy without cutting into their less sentimental roommate's Netflix marathon.

Today was a big day for the wireless world, and we definitely want to discuss it as soon as humanly possible while it's fresh on our minds. Myriam and Brad are going to chat it up about Windows Phone 8 and the other crazy happenstances from this week, so we hope you can join the Engadget Mobile crew for this late-night edition of the weekly podcast!

If you're not joining the Galaxy S III bandwagon and aren't keen on feeling completely left out, the ISeeYou app can give you a hand. Mimicking Sammy's SmartStay feature, the app prevents your ICS device from slipping into sleep mode when you're staring at its display. Springing $0.99 for the app nets you control over the frequency and length of the peeks taken by your phone's front-facing camera -- helpful for coordinating with a handset's sleep settings and presumably for optimizing battery life. A free version can be taken for a spin, though it doesn't allow for such fine tuning. Yearning to simulate part of the Galaxy S III experience? Mosey over to Google Play for the downloads.

Unlike many of our friends in Europe, loads more Verizon Wireless customers are about to get turbocharged in time for their new Galaxy S III smartphones to arrive. Big Red is deploying its latest 4G LTE network tech in 46 new cities and expanding coverage in 22 others -- and it's all going down tomorrow. That'll bring VZW's total up to 304 cities across the land of the free two full weeks ahead of the July 4th holiday, giving many people one more reason to celebrate a Hump Day without work. And really, couldn't the world use more reasons to celebrate? Full PR after the break.

After watching Judge Alsup strike down its patent and Java API infringement claims, Oracle seems to be cutting its losses, agreeing to accept $0 in damages from Google. Confused? So was the Judge, who reportedly responded to the proposal by asking, "is there a catch I need to be aware of?" No catch, but Oracle isn't giving up, stating that it's taking its case to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. If successful, the appeal could put the two firms back in Alsup's courtroom, perhaps asking for somewhere between the previously proposed $32.3 million and today's sum total of zilch. We'll let you know when the drama comes around again.

Sprint Guardian has been in the oven for some time now -- we actually heard about it during our interview with John Tudhope and David Owens at CTIA 2012 -- but now, at long last, the service is available. Concerned parents nationwide can locate Guardian on "many" Sprint Android-powered phones through the Sprint Zone. The program itself features apps from Safely and Lookout, enabling parents to "protect their phone-carrying children through location checks and limits on texting while driving or at school." In other words, you can prevent a child's phone from being able to call or text whilst the user is driver, and lost phones can be located more easily. Naturally, such luxuries don't come free: Sprint Mobile Controls, Sprint Drive First and Sprint Family Locator are available as a Family Safety bundle for $9.99 per month for up to five lines on the same account. Or, you know, just give your youngin' a Hamilton each month for not acting like a lunatic with phone in hand.

Been quietly pining for Belkin's couch potato home automation solutions? Well, the wait is (almost) over, as the company has finally put its WeMo Switch and Motion products up for pre-order. You can reserve yours through Belkin or Amazon, with the Switch costing $49.99 and the Motion / Switch bundle setting you back a neat $99.99. Apple likes it enough to add the gear to its home-friendly repertoire in-store on the 26th, while other retailers, Verizon included, will be stocking them shortly afterwards. Rig the Switch up to your WiFi at home and you can control the flow of juice from its outlet via the WeMo iOS app (sorry, no Android love). Add in the motion detector and you can set rules for power control based on proximity triggers. Interestingly, Belkin also reports IFTTT integration, meaning the devices can be used for a lot more than the simple on / off remote commands and scheduling we originally thought. For those with iDevices, the free WeMo app is available now, not that it's particularly useful just yet. Need Mo? Check out the official PR and a promotional vid after the break.

Still haven't been able to satiate your desires to see Joe Belfiore and Windows Phone 8 in action with our coverage of the Developer Summit? Lucky for you, the folks at Microsoft have just put up the whole thing up in video form for you to watch from the comfort of your monitor. So what are you waiting for? Windows Phone 7.8 and 8 won't get here until the fall, but the "sneak peek" is available now at the links below.

Eager to get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy S III with the little Sprint logo on the back? The Now Network is being ever the tease, confirming to us through an official company spokesperson that overwhelming demand has prevented sufficient inventory from reaching store shelves. This doesn't count for early adopters that pre-ordered a 16GB model, however: they'll likely still find the precious new smartphone on their doorstep tomorrow as originally anticipated. According to Sprint, pre-orders for the 32GB version will begin next week, but the carrier isn't completely certain as to when we can expect to see those shipped out -- we'll keep you posted as the news pours in.