E-Z Life

So it seems like the new thing for manufacturers is to gather a bunch of platform champions (read: developers and bloggers) in a room, wax poetic for an hour or two about strategy, and — here’s where it gets awesome — give out or loan hot, new devices to everyone in attendance. Google’s done it, Palm’s done it, and now Nokia’s getting in the game by handing out pre-production N900s on extended loans at its Maemo Summit event last week, and that inevitably means that we’re going to be seeing a ton of unboxings and reviews over the coming days. This particular unboxing comes to us courtesy of Slashgear, which notes that the devices are currently running non-final firmware even though the hardware is the same stuff we’ll be seeing on shelves in the next few weeks. It’s looking great so far — but then again, so did the N97 in its muted black box prior to release, so we’ll withhold final judgment until this one’s been thoroughly vetted for awesomeness.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia N900 unboxed, and no, you can’t unbox your own (yet) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Canon held off about as long as it could, but it finally caved to the pressures of adding a pressure-sensitive screen to one of its Digital ELPHs. The SD980 IS goes down as the first-ever touchscreen PowerShot, offering a better-than-average set of specifications, a few color options, an attractive size and a 720p movie mode that helps to set it apart from some of its VGA-quality contemporaries. We took the cam for a quick spin just to see how Canon’s adaptation of the touchscreen felt in real-world use, and we’ve posted up our impressions — along with a few sample galleries and a raw 720p video clip — just beyond the break.

Continue reading Canon PowerShot SD980 IS unboxing and impressions

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon PowerShot SD980 IS unboxing and impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

If there’s one thing scarier than going to the hospital for some potentially harmful harmfulness, it’s getting sicker due to some minor slip-up in the carefully-observed hygiene practices of your own personal Zach Braff M.D. That’s where Vioguard’s newly shipping UVKB50 self-sanitizing keyboard comes in, with a proximity detector to let a set of freshly sanitized keys slide out for use by a health care professional, which slide back once they’re not in use to get re-sterilized with anti-bacterial ultraviolet light. The $899 pricetag isn’t too bad given the application, but it probably won’t be making our own cubicles safer any time soon. Video of the keyboard in action is after the break.

Continue reading Vioguard’s self-sanitizing keyboard means maybe we don’t all have to die this year

Filed under: Peripherals

Vioguard’s self-sanitizing keyboard means maybe we don’t all have to die this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Developers at Yamaha seem to be having plenty of fun with their iPhones — at least, that’s the impression they’ve made this year at CEATEC. Not only have we seen an app that lets you boss around a robotic chanteuse, but they’ve also put together a little something called Finger Piano Share. Don’t let the video fool you, folks — this is more than just a MIDI controller. Supporting up to ten users at once, this guy not only lets you remotely play your MIDI-enabled Disklavier via Wi-Fi, but you can record your little jam sessions (using the location-aware augmented reality app Sekai Camera) for playback whenever someone goes to the site of the original performance. Sounds like a recipe for a disastrous conceptual art piece if we ever heard one! Video after the break.

Continue reading Finger Piano Share plays your Disklavier via WiFi (video)

Filed under: Cellphones

Finger Piano Share plays your Disklavier via WiFi (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We kind of doubt the departure of Genentech’s former chief executive from Google’s board of directors will close all of this out in the FTC’s eyes, but if you were curious about the impact of said probe, here’s your answer. Just two months after Google’s Eric Schmidt peaced out from Apple’s board due to a “conflict of interest,” Arthur Levinson has left Google’s board for presumably the same reason. Schmidt is still obviously fond of Sir Levinson, noting that he has “has been a key part of Google’s success these past five years,” and while he’s exiting the board, he’ll “always have a special place at Google.” So, now that all of this is cleared up, can we finally move on without worrying that the aforementioned search giant will buy up the world’s remaining inventory of dark fiber, fuse into Apple and create a telepathic iPod that would rule the world until the dawn of the Robot Apocalypse?

[Via New York Times]

Filed under: Software

Arthur Levinson departs Google board amid FTC probe originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments