Advent Vega goes on sale in the UK, promptly sells out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashgear (1), (2)  |  PC World  | Email this | Comments

The Fit is a well regarded car here at Engadget HQ, models finding their ways into the garages and parking lots of three separate staffers, all of whom are now saying things like “ooooh” and “shiny” while looking at the lovely blue model Honda brought along to show off at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It’s just a concept at this point, delivering the current standard 100 miles of range while managing a 90mph top speed, more or less matching the Nissan Leaf we recently sampled and inspiring us all to call our electricians for quotes on quick-charger installs. Sadly we have plenty of time to save up for those, with the Fit EV not hitting production until sometime in 2012, and Honda not making any promises about US availability. To that we say “boo.”

Honda shows off Fit EV concept at LA Auto Show, we hope to see it again originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Autoblog  | Email this | Comments

Think you’ve been gaming on the PC for awhile? If you can’t vividly remember gushing over this thing (and scrounging up pennies from under the couch in order to finance one), move along. If, however, you’re still the proud owner of an attic-bound Belkin Nostromo n52, you can definitely prepare yourself for a healthy dose of nostalgia here. After co-developing Belkin’s n52te Speedpad a few years ago, it looks as if Razer has now fully taken over the gamepad by today introducing the Nostromo. Yeah, just Nostromo. The design is certainly a familiar one, boasting a 16-button keypad, a soft-touch rubberized wrist pad, 16 fully-programmable Hyperesponse gaming buttons and an eight-way directional thumb pad. As for improvements, you’ll get the ability to switch instantly between eight keymaps (up from three), and the flexibility of storing up to twenty gaming profiles (up from the previous limit of ten). It’s available to order now for $69.99 / €69.99, with an estimated ship date of November 29th worldwide. You know, in plenty of time to stuff your own stocking.

Continue reading Razer Nostromo gaming keypad supplants Belkin’s n52te Speedpad, does it proud

Razer Nostromo gaming keypad supplants Belkin’s n52te Speedpad, does it proud originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Razer  | Email this | Comments

Russia working on a national OS, Linux ‘at the end of its life cycle’? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink SlashDot, Open…  |  cnews.ru  | Email this | Comments

Toyota and Tesla have been spotted holding hands behind the school gym on numerous occasions and now, finally, the result of their long hours working together in the craft room are being shown to the world. It’s the RAV4 EV, announced earlier this year and finally unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Current pre-production models are delivering 100 miles per charge but apparently still need some climate-proofing to ensure that the 2012 version will hit that range regardless of conditions. That’s a big deal for a big SUV, and of course it’s a big deal for Tesla, which is providing the powertrain. It’s also a good news for Elon Musk, surely injecting some much-needed funding to the company and, as he says, introducing other benefits as well:

We’re giving Toyota a window into the entrepreneurial, Silicon Valley culture and, vice versa, we’re getting a sense for the Toyota production system… I think we’re learning a lot form Toyota, bidirectionally, in this process and I think that helps us with the Model S. Having access to Lexus components in the supply chain is also helpful.

In other words, expect the production Model S interior to be a little less fanciful and a little more familiar.

Toyota debuts 100 mile Tesla-powered RAV4 EV, Musk says it ‘helps us with the Model S’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Autoblog, Autoblog Green  | Email this | Comments

You know, we’d love to meet this Ramesh Raskar character. Possibly even shake his hand, or secretly become injected with a pinch of his DNA. You see, he’s devoted his life to proving that the impossible is actually possible, first conjuring up a 6D “super-realistic” image system just over two years ago. Now, he’s onto bigger and better things… things like cameras that can see around corners. Granted, this concept isn’t exactly a new one — LIDAR-equipped robots have been discovering hidden objects for years, but the mere thought of cramming this technology into a camera has us salivating. Auntie Beeb has a new piece up on the technology, and it actually does an exceptional job of explaining the technobabble. Put simply, the created prototype utilizes an ultra-short, highly intense burst of laser light (a femotosecond laser, if you have to know) to light up a scene; from there, it bends around corners and bounces back, using algorithms to figure out what’s inside of the room based on the bounce points. We’re guessing it’ll still be a few decades before this gets wrapped into a mid-range DSLR, but we’re cautiously hoping for a working mockup at CES 2015. Seriously, we just marked it down. Don’t disappoint us, guys.

MIT’s laser camera can photograph around corners, render your camouflage useless originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Twitter (@austinmann)  |  MIT  | Email this | Comments

Panasonic’s DMC-GF1 proved itself as a tasty go-between, filling the gap between high-end compact and DSLR. The GF2 will soon arrive and, according to Photography Blog, if anything it slots in a little closer to the compact side of things thanks to a new user interface that ditches many buttons and dials in favor of touchscreen menus. This will drive some users mad, but ultimately the up-rated features here still make this a worthy choice over the GF1, including video recording at 1080i60 and a new body that’s a fifth smaller and seven percent lighter than before despite still containing a pop-up flash, 12.1 megapixel sensor, and image quality that’s about as good as you’re going to get out of a shooter this size.

Panasonic Lumix GF2 reviewed: smaller, simpler, and arguably better than the GF1 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Photography Blog  | Email this | Comments

At this point we’re completely amused that the Droid 2 Global has managed to leak out, get advertised, go on sale, and even arrive in customers’ hands without so much as a PR peep from Verizon, so we leapt at the chance to get a quick hands-on with it last night here in NYC. Nothing here you wouldn’t really expect, and we weren’t able to run any performance tests on the speedbumped 1.2GHz processor, but we were able to solve the mystery of that camera bulge: turns out the Droid 2 Global is a hair thinner than the standard Droid 2, and the bulge pops out just enough to make up the difference. It’s not dramatic, by any means — if we hadn’t been looking, we probably wouldn’t have noticed. Oh, and it’s definitely running Blur on top of Android 2.2, so you know, that’s “awesome.” Anyway, at the rate we’re going we’ll have a full review up and this thing will be discontinued before Verizon ever formally acknowledges it, so hit the gallery for a quick hands-on with The Droid That Doesn’t… Exist.

Motorola Droid 2 Global hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The POV.HD video system is a new offering from V.I.O positioned as a more professional-grade alternative to other film-through-hell helmet cameras such as the GoPro HD or Drift Innovations HD170. Its two-ounce IP67 certified camera sports a six-element glass lens and a native 1080p CMOS sensor that can capture a 142 degree field-of-view — claimed to be the widest on the market — in full HD at 30fps. The head unit can also be adjusted to record 720p at 60fps with a 92 degree FOV for faster shots. A separate recording unit features Texas Instruments’ latest Da Vinci DM368 processor and supports a real-time video pipeline while storing up to 4.3 hours of 1080p H.264 video footage on a 32GB of SDHC. It’s also equipped with a two-inch LCD viewing screen with exposure and footage tagging controls. Priced at $600, V.I.O is currently accepting pre-orders, which if made between November 15th through December 17th, are guaranteed to arrive by December 22nd — just in time for your family’s’ homebrew holiday response to Jackass.

Continue reading Rugged POV.HD video system captures 1080p through anything, for a price

Rugged POV.HD video system captures 1080p through anything, for a price originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PR Newswire  |  VIO-POV  | Email this | Comments