Toys & Gadgets

There’s no easy answer to erasing a staggering trillion-plus dollar deficit in a federal budget, but you’ve got to start somewhere — and Obama’s looking at the nation’s wireless carriers as cash cows just waiting to be milked. The President’s proposed budget for 2010 calls for an increase in spectrum license user fees from $50 million to $200 million, with further increases to $550 million over the course of the next decade, all of which would be on top of the billions carriers have already shelled out in spectrum auctions. A good way to bring in some extra cash? Yeah, probably, but considering that carriers will be more than happy to pass the increases on to consumers, let’s just be straight: it’s a tax.

[Via El Reg]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Obama’s proposed 2010 budget juices carriers for more cash originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This may look like a beloved iMac, but make no mistake, it’s just a shell of its former self. CGCC forum member Logicdustbin decided to gut the all-in-one and replace its innards with a Sega Dreamcast and 15-inch LCD monitor. The result? The iCast, a beautiful homage to simpler times. Hit up the video after the break to see this Fronk-en-shteen in action, playing a game that’ll assuredly prepare our children for a post-apocalyptic world.

[Via hack a day]

Continue reading Apple iMac murdered, reborn as all-in-one DreamCast mod

Filed under: Gaming

Apple iMac murdered, reborn as all-in-one DreamCast mod originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the Big 3 seem to be visiting Washington on an all-too-regular basis trying to secure funding for future success, $25 billion in loans set aside to promote electric car usage in America has been sitting untouched for nearly two years. As the story goes, the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program was established in 2007, but administrations have been toying with ideas about how to use it until present day. Some 75 applications from hopeful companies have been whittled down to 25, but there’s no telling how long it’ll be before we hear who’s getting the cash (and when). Many are irate that this dough is still sitting idle, but we tend to agree with the “let’s wait until we find truly remarkably beggars” approach before it’s just handed out to those without a viable plan. The takeaway? Electric vehicles may still end up progressing as planned despite the current economy, but only if brilliant plans can cut through miles of red tape.

Filed under: Transportation

$25 billion in electric vehicle loans still waiting for perfect beggars originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 07:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Endless Ideas’ original BeBook wasn’t exactly the same smash hit as, say, Amazon’s Kindle, but the company’s hoping to refocus some of the spotlight back on itself next week in Germany. According to a succulent teaser page on the company’s website, it has proudly announced that the next-gen e-reader will be on display at CeBIT, bringing with it WiFi and 3G capabilities, touchscreen navigation and wireless RSS support. Sadly, we’re not giving any pictorial clues, but we are told to expect “a complete redesign.” Consider our interest piqued.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Endless Ideas launching next-gen WiFi BeBook at CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are some people of means who are desperate for everyone to know they are people of means.

They (men and women) wear gold chains to adorn their leathery necks. They (men and women) wear earrings that sparkle like the eyes of an orgiastic llama. And they (men and women) …

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Adobe Systems released an update to the flagship CS4 version of Photoshop to squelch a number of bugs that could crash or slow down the image-editing software.

The 11.0.1 update (downlads available for Windows and Mac OS X) deals with the following issues, according to Adobe:

• …

Originally posted at Underexposed

The Sony X-Series Walkman.

(Credit: Sony)

Amazon UK now includes pricing and a vague shipping date for the British release of the Sony X-Series Walkman announced at CES 2009.

Amazon offers a window of two to five weeks for the expected shipping date. As far as pricing goes, you might …

Now this is more like it. Our favorite dude in the world (AKA the FedEx guy) just dropped this slab of nasty Apple magic on our doorstep. Not only is this system kitted out with a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and a 2.93GHz CPU, but the screen is — yes — anti-glare. We’re actually kind of stoked to put this one through its paces and see just exactly what it feels like (since we’ve already seen the other two new unibody models). And of course, we’re very eager to know just how robust that non-removable battery really is. So we’ll be covering the 17-incher a little more in-depth in the coming days, but for now, get a load of the unboxing.

Filed under: Laptops

MacBook Pro 17-inch unibody unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Score a day's worth of deals at Sam's Club with a one-day membership pass.

(Credit: Sam's Club)

Want to stock up on batteries, toilet paper, rice, and other bulk essentials? Head to your local warehouse club.

Of course, normally, you have to pay an …

Originally posted at The Cheapskate

Well, that was pretty anticlimactic. Seagate, which filed suit against SSD-maker STEC back in April — claiming the company infringed on four of its patents for SSD interfaces — in March after talking quite a sizeable game about similar possible actions against the big boys (Intel and Samsung), has just dropped the claim. Seagate said that the case against STEC was “no longer worth pursuing” because economic conditions are now so bad that STEC isn’t really selling many of the SSDs in question. That all sounds a little like saying “Monopoly stinks, let’s play something else” when you’re losing so bad you only have Baltic Avenue left, but maybe that’s just us.

Filed under: Storage

Seagate drops patent suit againt SSD maker STEC, runs home crying originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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