Spam Flood Blog: Interesting Stuff

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Interesting Stuff

6/13/2007 12:20:00 PM

Filed under: Gaming

Only took 'em a couple of years, but Microsoft is finally taking a bit more of a proactive approach to its perennial "ring of death" problems of overheating 360s. Yeah, that means instead just doing the towel trick to get your 360 up and running again, you can send your Xbox off to Microsoft, and they'll actually improve the cooling internals -- in some countries anyways. MaxConsole had been getting some reports of French Xbox 360s getting this special treatment, and now they've got the first solid proof from Czech reader Ikari. We're no cooling experts, but it sure looks fancy in there!

[Thanks, Dutchman]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/microsoft-beefs-up-xbox-360-cooling-freaking-finally/#comments

6/13/2007 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: Cellphones

What's better than a black Samsung UpStage? Why, the very same handset in red, of course. As rumored last week, Sprint has chosen June 18th as launch day for its freshly re-colored UpStage. While nothing new is under the hood, we know some of you out there will appreciate this new -- and perhaps prettier, depending on taste -- iteration of this two-but-really-should-be-one-useful-faced handset. Pricing is set at $99 on a two-year deal and $50 service credit.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/sprint-rolls-out-samsung-upstage-in-red/#comments

6/13/2007 11:40:00 AM

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

In at&t's latest missive on the iPhone, they rehashed a bunch of well-known information about the device, just to make sure those who signed up for the "notify me" emails are well prepared for the June 29th launch -- though, of course, actual launch day info is nowhere to be found. At the bottom of the email, it's casually mentioned that you'll need an iTunes account to set up your iPhone. This should come as no surprise to those familiar with the practices of Apple, who regularly confines its users to fairly enclosed systems out of "ease of use" or "privacy" concerns, but anyone who was hoping to manage the iPhone and its contents with open and free (as in free speech) software should probably give up hope now and just bow to Big Brother. Or make friends with a really good group of hackers.

[Warning: subscription required]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.coadget.com/2007/06/13/itunes-account-required-for-iphone-setup/#comments

6/13/2007 11:20:00 AM

We don't have a Vista Business DVD of our own to confirm this one, but we'll just stick with the tried and true "it's on the internet, so it must be true" mantra. Apparently a blogger named Kwisatz has uncovered a "secret" photo embedded into the hologram that encompasses the Windows Vista Business DVD. This being Microsoft, the photo naturally depicts three total nerds, grinning excessively at their own cleverness. Of course, this could be a total Photoshop, but somehow we find such an embedding eerily plausible, so we're going to stay cautiously optimistic that this is real. Hit up the read link for full res versions of the discovery.

[Thanks, Gordon]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/microsoft-embedding-nerdy-photo-in-vista-dvds/#comments

6/13/2007 10:46:00 AM

Filed under: Laptops

Your idea of the Lenovo buying experience has probaas probably been all but tainted if its latest ThinkPad T61 was, er, would have been your first machine from the company. According to an incredibly long thread over at Notebook Review, more than a few would-be customers are getting progressively angrier as each passing day goes by without any sign of their new laptop. Apparently, a number of manufacturing hiccups are delaying the process, and some users are even reporting ship dates into the first week of September. Moreover, it seems that some loyal users even received consolation emails that tried to explain the delays and apologized by offering up a free accessory and a chance to easily cancel the order. So if you've had a T61 on order since day one and weren't already aware of all this behind the scenes turmoil, do yourself a favor and take a very deep breath before hitting the read link.

[Thanks, Craig]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/irate-would-be-lenovo-customers-seeing-delays-on-thinkpad-t61/#comments

6/13/2007 10:26:00 AM

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller is no stranger to hacks 'n mods, but unless your drawing skills are on par with Mr. Todd McFarlane, you won't soon be duplicating these on your own. Both the Spartan and Covenant wireless controllers are splashed in artwork by none other than the Spawn man himself on "high-quality, scratch and wear resistant plastic," and include a limited edition Halo 3 figurine to boot. Moreover, those who aren't down with wrapping their palms around a third-party controller shouldn't fret, as these special devices are first-party through and through. Lastly, an equally rare headset looks to also be available, but it skips the McFarlane makeover in favor of a simple Halo 3 logo. All three units are tentatively set to ship the first week in September for a stiff $59.99 apiece, but after waiting this long to finally have Halo 3 spinnin' in your console, you might as well complete the experience.

[Via Joystiq, thanks Mark]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/todd-mcfarlane-designs-wireless-halo-3-controllers/#comments

6/13/2007 10:04:00 AM

Filed under: Household

Ripping a page straight from James Bond, enterprising hacker sprite_tm built this knock-activated door unlocker to help out a friend who wanted to keep his access to a room in his apartment building a secret. The system listens for a particular pattern of knocks speakeasy style and triggers a decidedly low-tech unlock mechanism when you enter the right knock-code -- it winds a rubber band around the lock handle. We're not certain if we buy the backstory here (what happens when the landlord sees a giant motor gaffer-taped to the inside of the door?) but the idea is pretty sweet, and we're even thinking of a mod to make the door scream "TWO BIIIIIIIITS" when we knock "Shave and a Haircut".

[Via Hack A Day]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/knock-operated-door-unlocker-keeps-you-on-the-dl/#comments

6/13/2007 9:44:00 AM

Filed under: Displays

Get ready for personal projection kids now that Epson and Philips have released this tiny joint reference design. Immediately available for OEMs, the 0.47-inch (diagonal) 3LCD panel is capable of projecting an 800 x 600 pixel image with the aid of Philips' 2.8 x 1.4 x 1-inch driver and 1.7 x 2.5-inch Ujoy lamp system. Perfect for portable gaming systems, camcorders, and PMPs assuming somebody picks this up for mass production. Hear that Microvision, the big boys are comin' for ya.

[Via Impress]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/epson-and-philips-ready-mini-projector-for-portable-gaming-and-b/#comments

6/13/2007 9:14:00 AM

Filed under: HDTV

Hot on the heels of their PAVV plasmas come three new PAVV LCDs. The 40-, 46-, and 52-inch models all bring a 1080p resolution to the game with 3x HDMIs and a sweet 17,000:1 contrast -- barely nudging out the trio of Bordeaux LCDs unveiled back in March. These sets also feature ACAP, as in Advanced Common Application Platform for interactive television -- part of the ATSC spec we're familiar with Stateside. However, at the moment these sets are S.Korea-only tagged â©3,200,000 (about $3,424) for the LN40M92BD, â©4,200,000 (about $4,494) for the LN46M92BD, and â©5,400,000 (about $5,779) for the LN52M92BD.

[Via Akihabara News]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/samsungs-bordeaux-pavv-lcds-17-000-1-contrast-and-acap/#comments

6/13/2007 8:58:00 AM

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We've noticed that the folks at Porsche Design have been branching out to new endeavors of late, but this joint venture takes brand extension to an entirely new level. The group has apparently partnered with Germany's Metabo to unveil the Multihammer P'7911 power drill, which "combines all the essential functions of a drill with the power of a pneumatic hammer," sports a carbon fiber / aluminum housing, and includes an impeccably balanced grip that makes this bad boy easier to handle. The 705-watt device has no problem with scratches here and there from drilling through concrete, stone, wood, and steel, and the five different function settings allow you to tweak the tool for the job at hand. No word just yet regarding the (presumably lofty) price, but be sure to leap on through to see this luxury power tool hard at work.

[Via Sybarites]

Continue reading Porsche swerves to the power tool realm with P'7911 Multihammer

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/porsche-swerves-to-the-power-tool-realm-with-p7911-multihammer/#comments

6/13/2007 8:01:00 AM

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables

An inventor with no medical background looks to have already made quite a name for himself with his X-Finger prosthetic device, which gives folks that have lost fingers a full range of motion without relying on robotics. To control the device, the wearer simply pushes against a lever with the remaining portion of their finger, which sets the knuckles into motion, apparently providing enough force to hold a coffee cup or clutch a golf club. While inventor Dan Didrick's already churning out 100 fingers every 45 days, according to The Naples Daily News, he's apparently far from meeting the demand, for which he says he needs about $11 million in funding. Presumably, that'd also help reduce the cost of the mechanical digits, which currently run a cool $10,000 per finger.

[Photo courtesy of Lexey Swall / Naples Daily News]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/non-robotic-x-finger-replaces-lost-digits/#comments

6/13/2007 7:07:00 AM

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

There was a time (about 3 months) when these 7-inch ultraportables from Kohjinsha were all the rage in ultra-portable circles. Now however, we've got a $600 VIA's NanoBook coming out in an endless stream of OEM offerings on top of that supposed $200 Eee PC from ASUS. Hell, even Samsung slapped a decent keyboard onto their Q1 Ultra UMPC for thumbing around. Still, Kohjinsha's back with a second generation K600 model which gets a big bump to Intel's new A100 processor for XP/Vista and adds T-DMB television while remaining true to its â©800,000 (about $859) price tag. Not bad. Read-on for more pics.

Continue reading Kohjinsha's K600 gets an Intel A100 and DMB TV

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/kohjinshas-k600-gets-an-intel-a100-and-dmb-tv/#comments

6/13/2007 6:39:00 AM

Filed under: Laptops

Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, we've got pics-a-plenty from Dell's new Inspiron lineup. Better yet, French forum lesDelliens proclaims to have the specs on not only the 1520, 1521, 1720, and 1721 already churning in the rumor mill, but also on a new 14.1-inch 1420. Everything certainly looks kosher but you'll have to judge for yourselves. Click-though for a glimpse at the purported specifications (via machine translated French) or just click into the gallery below. Mmm, so many pretty pictures.

Gallery: Pics and specs of Dell's new Inspirons

1720/1721

1720/1721

1720/1721

1720/1721

1720/1721

Continue reading Pics and specs of Dell's unannounced Inspirons: HHDs, Blu-ray, and RAID?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/pics-and-specs-of-dells-new-inspirons/#comments

6/13/2007 5:59:00 AM

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Toshiba brings it in bulk today with their latest Dynabook, the Santa Rosa-based Satellite WXW. At 8.6-pounds and more than 2-inches thick, this 17.1-inch sled packs 256MB of DirectX 10-capable GeForce 8700M GT graphics -- the new top-o-the-line 8M-series GPU from NVIDIA. The display touts a 1,680 x 1,050 pixel resolution with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300, ±R dual-layer DVD burner and loads of in-and-outs under its glossy red finish. Yes, even HDMI for a quior a quick digital-out to your new flat panel television. Available starting today in Japan with 1GB DDR2 / 120GB disk configurations starting at ¥219,800 or about $1,805.

Gallery: Toshiba's 17-inch WXW with GeForce 8700M GT graphics

[Via Impress]

Read -- Toshiba
Read -- NVIDIA press release

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/toshibas-17-inch-wxw-with-geforce-8700m-gt-graphics/#comments

6/13/2007 5:30:00 AM

Filed under: Displays, Robots

Thanks to a beautiful marriage between digital signage company Fastrak and interactive voice response specialist Message Technologies Inc, consumers will soon be able to converse with in-store talking heads who will provide product information along with what we can only assume will be subliminal messages to max out your credit cards. These so-called Virtual Sales Associates will be positioned near particular items of interest ("Steve recommends you only buy iPod-brand MP3 players: always look for the apple!"), and are said to be capable of holding limited "natural language" conversations about said product. To include window-shoppers in their diabolical advertising schemes, retailers can also mount a VSA behind the glass and offer browsers a phone number for chatting up the salesbot. This is good news indeed for retailers like Best Buy, who will soon be able to not only automate the process of providing customers with fake pricing information, but also begin planting the seeds of those rip-off warranties even earlier in the sales pitch.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/virtual-sales-associates-poised-to-harass-interactively/#comments

6/13/2007 4:28:00 AM

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio, Storage

Standing in stark contrast to their "sense and simplicity" corporate slogan, we bring you the full line-up of Philips' Swarovski gear mentioned earlier. Available in August, the latest crystal-laden kit takes "technology to a fashionable new level for women." Perfect for little girls who grew up in a generation of Hello Kitty body fat meters and breath testers. Now go check the prices after the break sweetie. Better yet, have your oily man-servant do it, that's why you pay him.

Gallery: Philips' Active Crystals range features Swarovski, who else

Continue reading Philips' Active Crystals range features Swarovski, who else

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/philips-active-crystals-range-features-swarovski-who-else/#comments

6/13/2007 3:22:00 AM

Filed under: Portable Audio

Here ya go media streamin' fans, the Voiis mini Pocket Messenger Phone. The class 1 Bluetooth device allows you to interact with Skype and MSN Messenger calls as well as iTunes and Windows Media Player music within a 100-meter (max) radius of the included base station. It packs a built-in mic as you'd expect as well as what appears to be a standard mini-jack to connect your choice of headphones. The battery should last for 6-hours or 72-hours on standby. Available June 12th in Japan for an expected ¥15,900 or $130. Click-on for a few more pics.

Continue reading The Voiis mini Pocket Messenger: for Bluetooth putzing around the home

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/the-voiss-mini-pocket-messenger-for-bluetooth-putzing-around-th/#comments

6/13/2007 2:16:00 AM

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Storage

Hopefully this is the last time we'll be forced to post on this topic, but we're not holding our breath: now InformationWeek -- which quoted an Apple executive this morning stating the polar opposite -- is reporting that Sun's ZFS file system IS in fact included in Leopard, albeit with a number of huge caveats. According to a company spokesperson seeking to clear up Brian Croll's "misstatement," while HFS+ continues to be the primary system used in OS X, ZFS has been coded in as a latent, "read-only option available from the command line." An IW reader claims to have accessed the system through Disk Utility's Erase menu, and states that "ZFS is only available on non-boot drives on Sun systems, so this is also the case for Leopard" -- seemingly reinforcing Croll's later assertion that Apple is really only "exploring it as a file system option for high-end storage systems with really large storage." So there you have it: Sun's Jonathan Schwartz wasn't pulling our leg after all, even if ZFS fanboys won't be pleased with the (presumably) final word on this.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/leopard-does-does-not-use-zfs-part-iii-it-does-kinda/#comments

6/13/2007 12:20:00 AM

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household

The UK's now showing off what it claims to be the "first" zero-emission home design or, more specifically, the first to meet "level six requirements" of the Code for Sustainable Homes set to go in effect in the year 2016, according to the BBC. Designed by Kingspan Off-Site, the so-called "Lighthouse" design includes, among other things, solar panels on the roof and a biomass boiler on the inside that runs on various organic fuels, with a waste separation system also included to weed out trash that can be burned to provide additional power. The house also packs in additional insulation to cut down on heat loss, and boasts a "wind catcher" for ventilation in the summer. While those measures will apparently help to reduce the house's annual energy bill to just £31 ($61), the house itself will demand quite a premium over less efficient homes, costing about 40% more, although Kingspan says that'll come done if they're produced en masse.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/uk-unveils-zero-emission-lighthouse-home-design/#comments

6/12/2007 10:43:00 PM

Filed under: Storage

It looks like Samsung's not the only one trying to build a better NAND flash chip, with Toshiba now joining the fray today with news that it's made some advancements of its own. Much like Samsung, Toshiba's apparently managed to cram more storage into roughly the same size chips by changing the way the various elements are stacked, in this case busting things out into three dimensions. According to Toshiba, the so-called "pillars" of stacked memory elements can be squeezed into a tighter space thanks in part to some shared peripheral circuits, although that apparently comes at the expense of a longer and more complex manufacturing process. What's not clear, however, is exactly how big an increase that'll translate to in terms of bits and bytes, nor is there any indication as to when we might actually see some NAND units based on the technology.

[Via TG Daily]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/toshiba-announces-new-3d-nand-flash-technology/#comments

6/12/2007 9:09:00 PM

Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage

For fans of Jack and Meg, it's probably a long-standing dream of yours to purchase the Icky Thump album on limited edition thumb drives complete with cartoon renditions of the rockers, but even if it that understandably bizarre scenario never actually crossed your mind, you can still make it a reality. Apparently, the White Stripes are offering up their latest album on two fairly rare USB drives, each sporting 512MB of internal space, an artistic rendition of one of the band mates, and thirteen rockin' tracks in Apple Lossless format. Only 3,333 of each will be created, and while just one will run you a whopping $57.50, you may as well grab the duo for a discounted $99. Of course, we're still not entirely certain if these things are actually licensed by the band, but it's safe to assume that a seven nation army of fans will have these bought up before the legal teams can even get their case together.

[Via BoingBoing]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/white-stripes-album-sold-on-limited-edition-usb-drives/#comments

6/12/2007 8:03:00 PM

Filed under: Household, Networking

Microsoft has just announced a tasty banana for all you code monkeys out there, in the form of the first publicly available download (well, for non-beta testers at least) of the widely anticipated Windows Home Server operating system. Release Candidate 1, as this build is known, is said to offer a number of improvements over previous betas, and is the first version that participants in the Code2Fame Challenge can use to work on their entries. So go ahead, get your download on, and try to whip up some WHS add-ins that'll net you a portion of the $50,000 prize package.

[Via Windows Home Server Blog]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/windows-home-server-rc1-available-for-download/#comments

6/12/2007 7:43:00 PM

Filed under: Transportation

From the same company that let consumers create their own ads belittling it as an eco-terrorist and worse, comes a new promotional stunt that earns one lucky winner the right to drive home in a vehicle that's been scratched up by several thousand fellow contestants. Billed as the "world's first ever Scratch Car-d," the specific Captiva that Chevrolet gave away in the UK's Covent Garden this morning spent two months getting coated with the same silver latex used to make instant-win lottery tickets, which was then divided up into 16,995 tiny boxes to reflect the Captiva's price in pounds sterling. No word on who ended up with what's bound to be a pretty atrocious-looking vehicle, but we're sure that this one won't be too hard to spot on the streets of London.

[Thanks, Omar]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/chevrolets-scratch-car-d-captiva-cum-lottery-ticket/#comments

6/12/2007 7:17:00 PM

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

Ah, the sweet aroma of competition in the air. That's what we've gotten a whiff of after catching an (admittedly grainy) shot of what appears to be an internal Blu-ray writing / HD DVD reading combo drive from Hitachi. The GGW-H20N should have no issues playing your favorite high-definition films on either format, and it can also burn 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs, BD-R, BD-RW, and the typical flavors of writable DVDs and CDs. Reportedly, the drive will also boast a speedy SATA interface and will posses a read rate of up to 6x and burn rate of 4x, but the most important detail (read: worldwide release details) was unsurprisingly omitted. Bring on the price drops.

[Via FormatWarCentral]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/hitachi-showcases-internal-ggw-h20n-blu-ray-burner-hd-dvd-read/#comments

6/12/2007 6:51:00 PM

Filed under: Gaming

As much as we'd like to believe we'd act as bravely as 15-year old Damian Fernandez in the face of burglars ransacking our house, the sad truth is that even equipped with Fernandez's samurai sword, we probably would have ended up more like his sister Deanne -- watching the action through slits in the closet door. Damian and Deanne were home alone in Hialeah, Florida earlier this month when a pair of young male assailants forced their way inside and began swiping valuables such as their parents' jewlery. But when one of the men busted into Deanne's room looking for her PlayStation 3 only to find an empty box, Damian was waiting outside with his blade of steel (artist's rendition pictured above), ready to deliver a crushing "strike" to the guy's chest. Long story short, Damian chased both idiots out of the house and down the street, where a police K-9 unit was later able to locate 21-year-old Javier Cotera cowering behind a palm tree. It's not clear if Cotera -- who's now out on bail -- has flipped on his buddy yet, but we can be pretty sure that both dudes are now the laughingstocks of the rest of their criminal associates.

[Via digg]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/you-dont-tug-on-supermans-cape-you-dont-spit-into-the-wind/#comments

6/12/2007 6:23:00 PM

Filed under: Handhelds

We already had a pretty good handle on General Dynamics' ruggedized, Flipstart-like GoBook MR-1, but the company's now gotten official with it, and is providing a few more specs and clarifications. While the MR-1 shares much in common with the Flipstart, it has gotten a few significant upgrades, including a 1.2GHz Core Solo U1400 processor, some new wireless options (including WWAN by the end of the year), and a hard drive boost to 80GB, with 16GB and 32GB SSD drives also available as an option. Of course, perhaps the most significant upgrade is its newfound ruggedness, which meets or exceeds MIL-STD 810F specifications for temperature, drop, and vibration tests, as well IP-54 specs for dust and humidity. Getting the biggest boost, however, is the device's price, which will come in a hefty $4,450 when it's released in September.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/general-dynamics-gobook-mr-1-gets-official/#comments

6/12/2007 6:02:00 PM

Filed under: Features

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

Last week's Switched On discussed Lala.com's introduction of free music locker services that sync directly to the iPod (and only the iPod). However, because it believes the sampling capabilities of the original Napster days were key to driving music purchases, Lala is also developing something that is bound to shake up subscription music services such as Napster and Rhapsody -- free and unlimited streaming of user-selected music from major labels.

Once agreements are secured, Lala will essentially be giving away the rough equivalent of Yahoo Music's Unlimited's $5/month PC streaming service.. While Lala's version will have some offline functionality with cached tracks, it doesn''t yet offer tethered or a la carte downloads the way that Yahoo! Music and other PlaysForSure services do.

At its preview launch, Lala will offer access to the complete Warner Music library -- hundreds of thousands of tracks -- and is pursuing agreements with the other major labels, as well as independents. It expects to pay approximately $140 million on licenses in the next few years to spur huge increases in music sales via viral and social network marketing; something that Napster.com's limited free listens were unable to do.

Continue reading Switched On: I'm in ur site, h site, hearing ur t00nz

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/switched-on-im-in-ur-site-hearing-ur-t00nz/#comments

6/12/2007 5:39:00 PM

Filed under: Meta

Here's your chance to show some love for our very own Pete Rojas, who made the dynamically shifting Business 2.0 Who matters now list. He's trailing behind some serious bigwigs, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try our damnedest to push him up the ranks. Seriously, let's see some hustle for the man who redefined hustle!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/peter-in-business-2-0s-who-matters-now/#comments

6/12/2007 5:09:00 PM

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras

Liquid lenses have been kicking around as the Next Big Thing for a while, but outside of cameo appearances in a couple Samsung cellphones, they haven't exactly made waves in the market. That may be in part due to the fact that they can be made smaller and cheaper than conventional optics, but haven't been able to provide zoom or particularly high resolution. All that might be changing, however, as a Fraunhofer Institute team working in conjunction with French firm Varioptic has developed a system of 4 liquid lenses that can snap from 1 - 2.5x magnification at the touch of a button. The system isn't quite ready for primetime yet -- exposure times are still a little long, it can't zoom continuously, and the assembly is a little big at 29mm -- but the team is already considering solutions to those problems and is ready to go to the prototype stage. With all the interest from cellphone manufacturers, we'll bet they solve those problems right quick.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/german-researchers-create-zooming-liquid-lenses/#comments

6/12/2007 4:32:00 PM

Filed under: Announcements

Incredibly, Engadget Mobile's still celebrating its glorious relaunch -- and why shouldn't it? Celebrations mean giveaways, and today, "giveaway" means a shiny new Sanyo M1 for Sprint. Equipped with a full gig of onboard storage, the M1's pretty much a music fan's dream, so why not take a crack at winning it? Click on!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/engadget-mobile-keeps-the-giveaways-going-with-sanyo-m1/#comments

6/12/2007 4:01:00 PM

Filed under: Cellphones

Good news for those of you in Taiwan (and America, too) who can't wait to get acquainted with HTC's Touch, as its creator has reportedly announced that it will be deployed shortly in its "home base," with an American launch to go down before the dawn of 2008. Peter Chou, chief executive officer at HTC, has purportedly stated that it would "only be fitting if the first country in Asia to sell the Touch was Taiwan," and also noted that Chunghwa Telecom would be its "exclusive partner in distributing and retailing the handset" in that country. On the home front, all we know is that the Touch should indeed be found on American shelves before the year's end, but here's to hoping it's closer to today than December 31st.

Read - HTC launch in Taiwan
Read - HTC launch in USA

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/htc-touch-to-launch-first-in-taiwan-us-bound-by-years-end/#comments

6/12/2007 3:29:00 PM

Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets

Ok, it's time to coronate the Engadget mascot -- we know how you've waited to find out whose character is going to appear on Engadget (and take home the Wii). We're just as stoked as you. Whenever you're ready, the winners are posted after the break.

Continue reading Winners of the Engadget Mascot contest!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/winners-of-the-engadget-mascot-contest/#comments

6/12/2007 2:58:00 PM

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

While yesterday's WWDC may have been relatively uneventful for those keeping an eye out for hardware refreshes, Steve made sure he showed off the desktop of Leopard in as much detail as possible. Interestingly, the newfangled dock he managed to brag about may have looked a tad familiar, and as a clever user over at Maxasia points out, it is. According to him, the dock revealed yesterday sports a "troubling resemblance" to Sun's Project Looking Glass. Of course, Apple's icons do look a bit less grainy, but especially when you consider the silver platter that the shortcuts seem to hover over in both iterations, you can certainly start to to see the similarity. But hey, it's not like Apple hasn't been down this road before, right?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/leopard-dock-resembles-suns-project-looking-glass/#comments

6/12/2007 2:29:00 PM

Filed under: Desktops, Peripherals

Just months after Philips went nuts and introduced a plethora of new input peripherals, Kensington is pulling a similar move by launching its colorful Ci Lifestyle Collection of wireless mice and keyboards. Each device was designed to be as thin as comfortably possible, sport advanced power saving abilities, and easily fit into the road warrior's bag of choice. Kicking things off is the $34.99 Ci70 wireless mouse, which comes in around 35-percent slimmer than common competitors and touts an automatic sleep mode to save those batteries. The $39.99 Ci70LE simply adds a dash of colorful (and bubbly) design, while the $34.99 Ci75m gets even smaller for the mobile crowd. The $39.99 Ci85m sports a QuickStart feature that powers the mouse up as soon as the PC turns on, and opts for an ExpressCard receiver instead of the USB dongle that its less expensive siblings rely on. For those looking for a keyboard / mouse combination, the Ci70 Wireless Desktop Set throws a Ci70 and a low-profile keyboard together in a convenient $79.99 package, and those who've already warmed to the cutesy allure will be delighted to know that all of the aforementioned devices are currently available for pre-ordering.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/kensington-launches-ci-lifestyle-collection-of-input-peripherals/#comments

6/12/2007 1:58:00 PM

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

For those looking to make the leap to home automation whilst making sure that elegance is taken into account, Control4 is hoping its newfangled Home Controller HC-300 will fit the bill. The relatively low-cost IP-based home controller offers up a multitude of serial, infrared, and video sensing ports, plays nice with standards-based communication technology including Ethernet, WiFi, and ZigBee mesh networking, and can dictate multi-room music, smart lighting, advanced temperature control, and security without breaking a sweat. Most notably, however, is its ability to output the graphical user interface in sparkling 720p, meaning that you will no longer be ashamed of flashing your home controller's GUI on the big screen. Additionally, Control4 revamped the device by adding an anodized black aluminum chassis and a glossy black faceplate, and it plans on shipping these things out sometime in July for a respectable $699.

[Via CEPro]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/control4s-home-controller-hc-300-outputs-gui-in-hd/#comments

6/12/2007 1:27:00 PM

Filed under: Desktops

Seeing as the last time we heard from HTPC-manufacturer Moneual it was pimping the million-dollar Jewelry PC, the $695 base pricetag on its new Inovy series of desktops seems downright frugal. The machines, available in six colors, feature liquid-cooled 64-bit dual-core Athlon 4400+ processors, integrated NVIDIA 6100 graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a vertically-mounted dual-layer DVD burner that adds a little flair into loading your optical media. No word on where any other ports or bays might be located, but seeing as the Inovy tech specs boast of a 2.88MB "floopy" drive port, our guess is that the company is still locking some things down. Moneual says the units were available as of June 1 and are only being manufactured in runs of 1,000 for each color, so those looking to bring a little glitz to their living rooms had better hurry.

[Via ChipChick]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/moneual-inovy-desktops-spice-it-up-in-six-colors/#comments

6/12/2007 12:57:00 PM

Filed under: Displays, GPS, Transportation

Despite cries of privacy invasion from the city's many drivers, interactive entertainment / advertising / navigation platforms are still being rolled out in New York's 13,000+ cabs, with major player TaxiTech's eTaxi solution the latest to receive approval from the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission. One of four companies certified by the TLC to fill a mandate requiring these rigs in all cabs by October, TaxiTech has teamed up with hardware partners Apriva, Ingenico, and Grey Island Systems to offer a very polished looking setup centered around a 15-inch touchscreen capable of delivering a whole slew of valuable infoswag. (Click here to check out a video of the eTaxi interface). Like Digital Dispatch's SmartCab system before it, eTaxi gives passengers the ability to track their route in real time (no more pricey "shortcuts" for unsuspecting tourists), kick back to some ad-supported video or music content, bone up on historical info about the city, and even pay their fare with a credit card, tacking on a pre-calculated tip with the push of a finger. Sounds pretty convenient to us; let's just hope we don't have to start eating part of the multi-thousand dollar per car annual fee it's costing cab companies to install these luxuries.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/taxitechs-interactive-etaxi-system-approved-for-nyc-cabs/#comments

6/12/2007 12:36:00 PM

Filed under: Laptops

Much as they did back at the time of Vista's launch, Sony decided to refresh a bunch of its laptops in one fell swoop, today announcing no less than 21 new VAIOs in four different model ranges. Those include the VAIO A, BX, FZ and G series, which each get upgrades of varying degrees. The top end of the lot are the VAIO A series laptops, which pack 17-inch displays (1920x1200 on the higher end model), T7100 or T7300 Core 2 Duo processors, up to 2GB of RAM, two 120GB hard drives, an optional Blu-ray drive, and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics. Taking things down a notch, the FZ series laptops each boast 15.4-inch displays, along with Core 2 Duo processors and slightly smaller hard drives, while the VAIO BX models will give you a choice of 14.1 or 15.4-inch displays, Core 2 Duo processors, up to 2GB of RAM, and a max 120GB hard drive. Rounding out the line-up is the VAIO G, which is lightweight in more ways than one, boasting a 12.1-inch display, a Core Solo U1400 processor, 1GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive. Look for all them to roll out in Japan over the course of July, with them starting at just ¥109,800 ($900) and going all the way up to ¥400,000 ($3,285).

[Via Impress and Akihabara News]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/sony-busts-out-vaio-upgrades-aplenty-in-japan/#comments

6/12/2007 12:05:00 PM

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Apple, HD DVD and Blu-ray

Yesterday when Steve showed us 10 of his favorite new Leopard features, he left out at least a couple we were a little more than interested in: HD DVD and Blu-ray support. While Tiger does have support for HD DVD and Blu-ray drives, it's not able to play back Hollywood movies from either format. Someone at MacRumors has discovered that the new ~~DVD~~ Movie Player.app in Leopard now includes preferences for both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Sure, Tiger included a preference pane for "HD", but this was for discs with H.264 encoded HD video created in Apple's DVD Studio Pro -- or the like. Of course, this isn't the only thing needed to add next-gen Hollywood movies to Leopard, but we're hoping Apple can pile on the rest before October, like AACS, HDCP, VC1 and of course an actual drive shipped with a new Mac.

[Via AVSForum]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/leopard-to-support-hd-dvd-and-blu-ray/#comments

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