If you want high-def footage from your lid you have more choices than ever, but if you're on a budget there just aren't that many. The 720p ContourHD is currently the best value at around $230, but we've received word from GoPro that the company is looking to under-cut that with the upcoming $180 HD Hero 960. We have scant few details about this new model, set for release this fall, but based on the name we're guessing it'll fall short of the current HD Hero's 1080p and offer a maximum of 960p, which should be plenty of pixels for most extremophiles. We also have to figure it will continue with its predecessors boxy stylings, but we'd certainly be happy to see a somewhat sleeker redesign.

GoPro bringing high-def helmet cams to the masses, launching $180 HD Hero 960 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cell carriers that are not AT&T continue to try and piggyback on iPhone and iPad success by offering wireless hotspots marketed towards users of those devices. Clearwire is the latest to take that angle with its newly announced iSpot. The iSpot goes further than similar offerings from other carriers, though, as the hotspot only works with Apple's iOS devices for a very attractive monthly price.

The iSpot can share Clear's 4G WiMAX connection via WiFi with up to eight different devices simultaneously, and for an "initial" monthly service price of only $25 with no contract. Comparable plans from Verizon and Sprint, for the MiFi and Overdrive 4G, respectively, (both of which offer only five simultaneous connections) are $60 per month with a two-year contract.

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Convergence. The buzzword of the past decade is still working its magic across the consumer electronics industry, this time unleashing hot fury on Samsung's freshest point and shoot. The simplistic PL90 touts a 12.2 megapixel sensor, 4x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD around back and a VGA (640 x 480) movie mode with 30fps and 15fps options. The real kicker here is the integrated USB plug, which eliminates the need to tote around a USB cable, a (presumed) SD card reader or a machine with an inbuilt memory card slot. Newcomers to the digital world will likely appreciate the heavy amount of automated features meant to make the best of your terrible photo shoot selections, but considering that Sammy doesn't even mention what breed of flash card this thing accepts, we suspect the pros should keep on keepin' on. Everyone else can get in next month for $149.99.

Gallery: Samsung PL90 point and shoot camera

Continue reading Samsung's 12.2MP PL90 point and shoot packs inbuilt USB plug, 4x optical zoom

Samsung's 12.2MP PL90 point and shoot packs inbuilt USB plug, 4x optical zoom originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft has launched Mobile App Match, a new website that aims to bring together the people who build Windows Phone apps with the people who use them. Developers can post their apps (or video demonstrations of them) so that users can give them feedback before the first Windows Phone 7 devices even ship, while end users can submit their app ideas for developers to build for the new platform.

The site has four main categories: "News" is an amalgamation of various Windows Phone blog posts from various Microsoft employees, "Ideas" is where all the submissions and discussions take place, "Apps" is supposed to showcase various applications (currently there's just one featured), and "Video" is full of user submissions either giving input or asking for it. 

Users can start conversations, exchange ideas, post apps for both feedback and promotion, and vote on new ideas as well as finished apps.

The website is part a larger effort by Microsoft to make sure the Windows Phone Marketplace is full of quality apps in two months when Windows Phone 7 launches. Microsoft has been enticing OEMs and developers from other mobile platforms to give Windows Phone development a shot. The company has also been ramping up efforts to get its own employees onboard by giving each of them a Windows Phone 7 device and by loosening the restrictions so they can easily create apps for the platform. 

Just last week, Microsoft updated its Windows Phone Development documentation on MSDN and posted two new design-focused downloads: UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7 v2.0 and Design Templates for Windows Phone 7. Please, says the company to developers, won't you build some apps?

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We'll be straight with you -- prior to this fine day, we'd never heard of the whiz kids at Waterloo Labs, but we'll be keeping our focus locked on their initiatives from this point forward. Why, you ask? Just look at that bloke above, who is in the middle of asking Mario to leap over a tunnel with a simple eye movement. Granted, we've seen eye-controlled interfaces before, but there's just something -- shall we say... inspirational -- about being able to control your favorite NES titles with your own face. Better still, the crew is providing the full blown how-to down in the source, and if you're not a fan of strapping an array of electrodes on your person, you still owe it to yourself to peek the video past the break. Oh, and it's good to see these guys still have to blow on their NES cartridges to get 'em to work right -- misery adores company, eh?

Continue reading Eye Mario System enables your face to control any NES game (video)

Eye Mario System enables your face to control any NES game (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Step aside, BlackBerrys and iPhones, the American consumer has voted with his wallet and picked Android as his favorite flavor in the quarter just gone. NPD's number crunchers have just announced their findings for Q2 2010, concluding that 33 percent of phones sold during the period had Android on board. This marks the first time in eons (Q4 2007, to be more precise) that RIM has not held the crown of most purchased smartphone OS on US soil, with its BlackBerrys accounting for 28% of the market and Apple's iPhone occupying third spot with 22%. Motorola and HTC are the key suspects fingered for Android's continuing ascent, with the "large screen allure" of their handsets playing well with the buying public. Skip after the break for a more detailed breakdown.

Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.

Continue reading NPD: Android is now top-selling OS in American smartphones

NPD: Android is now top-selling OS in American smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's been a while since we've heard anything from iriver on the e-reader front, so this one isn't a huge surprise. It looks like the Story is getting a nice, compact Touch edition, and while we don't have full specs yet, we do have plenty of photos, and we also know it's going to boast a 6-inch, touchscreen display (which appears to be some type of e-ink), 2GB of internal storage, with SDHC expansion up to 32GB. This one's going to be for the Korean market only, so we don't expect to get our hands on one anytime soon, but we can always dream. Another photo is below, hit the source link for more.

Continue reading iriver Story Touch edition reader shows up on fan site

iriver Story Touch edition reader shows up on fan site originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Castlevania: Harmony of Despair takes backgrounds, settings, and monsters from past games in the series, then invites you and a number of friends to enter each level and wipe them out. It's not a bad concept, but the execution doesn't live up to the promise.

What could have been a game about exploration and loot has been turned into a joyless grind with no story, no real reason to continue playing, and a learning curve that's more of a punishment than an enticement. The more I played, the more I wondered if this was all the game had to offer. Sadly, it never took a turn, it never redeemed itself, and it never made its case for existence.

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It's hard out there for a dedicated e-reader these days, and it looks like Foxit has now found that out first hand. The company has just announced that it's killing off its eSlick e-reader, and says that it will instead focus on licensing its ebook software to other companies -- it notes it won't do both to avoid competing with its partners. That move doesn't exactly come as a huge surprise, however, especially when you consider that the eSlick hasn't received an update since it debuted back in December 2008, and has remained stuck at $199 amid the recent e-reader price wars. Foxit certainly seems confident that its now on the right track, though -- head on past the break for its glass-half-full press release.

Continue reading Foxit kills off eSlick ebook reader, focuses on licensing software instead

Foxit kills off eSlick ebook reader, focuses on licensing software instead originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Say what you will about Nokia's strategy (or lack thereof), but there's no denying that the N900 is one capable gaming machine. Thus, it makes perfect sense for the blokes at Game Gripper to mold a controller specifically for that very handset, no? We've already spent a fair amount far too much time with our made-for-Droid edition, and if you're looking to boost your enjoyment level when playing NES ROMs, you can toss your pre-order in this very second. The company's offering the complete Game Gripper N900 for €14.95 ($20), or the button set alone for €3.95 ($5), with initial shipments expected in around a fortnight. Head on past the break for a taste of that aforementioned Mario action.

Continue reading Game Gripper makes grand entrance on Nokia's N900 (video)

Game Gripper makes grand entrance on Nokia's N900 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The folks over at 9to5Mac have kept up their investigation of FaceTime over 3G with a quick and dirty data usage analysis. Lest you've forgotten, jailbreaking Apple's Quattro permits walled garden escapees to FaceTime each other using dusty old 3G, and now we've got some numbers to show how much of an impact doing so will have on your bandwidth allowance. A 5-minute call resulted in 14.7MB of data transfers -- including both uploading and downloading -- for the 3G-riding iPhone, which breaks down to a rate slightly lower than 3MB per minute. That's not too horrible when you consider some streaming services use that much just to feed you video of England embarrassing itself in global football tournaments. Then again, we'd be remiss not to note that Fring does it at a claimed 1MB a minute and sans the jailbreak -- but who are we to begrudge having more options?

[Thanks, Sam]

FaceTime 3G data consumption tested: about 3MB per minute originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No, you're not looking at a still from a purported UFO video. That's an unmanned drone that the US Navy recently shot down with a prototype laser weapon. While that test was a runaway success, it looks like the Navy is now already going the extra mile -- it's begun work on making its drones laser-proof to guard against such weapons eventually winding up in the wrong hands. That's still in the earliest stages, but the Navy has already recruited California-based Adsys Controls and Texas-based Nanohmics to work on the project, which will apparently allow drones to both spot laser weapons before they're fired and deploy countermeasures to avoid being tracked. Head on past the break to see what happens when a drone gets hit by one of the weapons.

Continue reading US Navy working to make drones laser-proof

US Navy working to make drones laser-proof originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Confirming our FCC-inspired conjecture, here we have a gallery of pictures giving us a detailed look at Motorola's latest (though probably not greatest) Android handset. Just as we posited, this QWERTY slider is bound for AT&T's airwaves and it comes with a Motoblur 2 skin, as seen most recently on the Droid X. We keep telling these manufacturers that bone stock Android and a rapid upgrade cycle would be preferable but they don't listen. You'll have to make do with Android 2.1 when the Sage launches, which can't be too far off from now given that our tipster has had his test unit for a good month already.

[Thanks, Charlie W.]

Gallery: Motorola Sage pictured in glorious detail, on a collision course with AT&T

Motorola Sage pictured in glorious detail, on a collision course with AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's updating its SyncMaster monitors today with the new premium LED backlit 90 series. Most notable is the 24-inch FX2490HD model with integrated TV tuner and inputs in the form of 2x HDMI, D-Sub, and even SCART for Europe -- sorry, no mention of DVI or DisplayPort that we can find. The panel itself sports a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, 5ms response, 1,000:1 contrast, and 250 nits of brightness. Akihabara News adds a few details such as PiP support, a jack for viewing media direct from USB sticks, and support for 7.1 channel Dolby Digital and DTS audio. It should land in the US and Europe as early as this month for around $540.

Samsung's 24-inch SyncMaster FX2490HD monitor doubles as 1080p television originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shameless isn't even the word for it. While some companies try to get away with calling themselves Nokla or BlockBerry, these Chinese KIRFers have no qualms about copying HTC's EVO 4G in its entirety (externally, anyhow). Yes, that includes the Sprint insignia and the promise of 4G, both of which are, of course, amusingly untrue. Not only do you not get that supersonic WiMAX radio, you also miss out on Android, as this EVO rides the WinMo 6.5 gravy train. There's also no 8 megapixel camera, no 720p video, and no mini-HDMI output. But you still get a 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 screen and one of the best copy-and-paste KIRF jobs we've seen to date. See the back of this skilled imitator after the break.

Continue reading Keepin' it real fake: EVO 4G Shanzai edition

Keepin' it real fake: EVO 4G Shanzai edition originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know what you're thinking: not another iPod / iPhone speaker dock. Maybe, but it's way more than that if you listen to Logitech describe it. According to the boys from Cali, the $149.99 S715i "sounds like a beast" with 8 custom-designed, laser-tuned speaker drivers that deliver "next generation," "professionally tuned acoustics" capable of "filling a room" with "bold sound." So yeah, it's just another iPod speaker dock, although that 8-hour rechargeable battery is nice. Full PR and video overview after the break.

Continue reading Logitech S715i rechargeable iPod / iPhone speaker unleashes next generation hyperbole

Logitech S715i rechargeable iPod / iPhone speaker unleashes next generation hyperbole originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so maybe we're only half-kidding about the prospective of having home health robots that can barely multitask, but we're hoping that Intel and GE at least have the heart to equip any domicile servants with a Core i3 or stronger. If you haven't heard, the two aforesaid companies have joined hands this week to create a 50/50 joint venture, one that'll result in the creation of a new healthcare company "focused on telehealth and independent living." Financial terms aren't being disclosed, but the goal is pretty simple: "to use technology to bring more effective healthcare into millions of homes and to improve the lives of seniors and people with chronic conditions." It's a bit unclear at this point what all the duo will be creating, but we wouldn't be shocked to see medical tablets, Core i7 980X-based "medical monitoring PCs" and Moorestown-powered "I've fallen and I can't get up!" neck pieces surface in the near future.

Continue reading Intel and GE form healthcare joint venture, sluggish Atom-powered home servants on the way

Intel and GE form healthcare joint venture, sluggish Atom-powered home servants on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unsurprisingly, given the small company and big ambitions behind the project, the Square mobile payments system got off to a shaky start earlier this year. Hardware shortages were resolved relatively quickly, but setting up the proper fraud prevention infrastructure without transactional limits -- which, shockingly, were disfavored by merchants -- threatened to shelve the little credit card reader for a long while. Not to worry, though, as today the Wall Street Journal has word that Square is looking to be back in business, kicking ass and taking card numbers, before the summer is through. We're now at an advanced stage of said season, so it shouldn't be too long before those dongle-assisted microtransactions start flowing again.

Square payment system is coming back in full force by 'late summer' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah, it may look like the Dell Aero when peeking it head-on, but Motorola's Glam is apt to be far more sophisticated that the self-proclaimed "world's lightest Android phone." Launched today over in South Korea, this Android 2.1-based handset (which we toyed with earlier in the year when it was known as the XT800) boasts a 3.7-inch capacitive multitouch panel (854 x 480), dual LED flash, a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 2.0 connectivity, an HDMI socket, 1GB of NAND Flash, 512MB of SDRAM, an 8GB microSD card, inbuilt GPS and support for a multitude of multimedia formats. Mum's the word on a price, but it should be shuffling over to SK Telecom -- high heels and all -- by the end of August.

Motorola Glam brings Android 2.1, plenty of ritz to South Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony has rolled out an update to the update, which fixes a major flaw found in version 3.41 of the PS3's firmware. An unintended consequence of the patch was that industrious hard drive upgraders found themselves staring at a disquieting error message when swapping out storage units, but Sony has acted swiftly and the very latest data update does not suffer from the issue. It's somewhat unhelpful that the upgrade-friendly firmware is still called 3.41, but we prefer companies that follow the "fix first, pick names later" methodology anyway.

PS3 firmware 3.41 updated, hard drive upgrade problems exterminated originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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