Toys & Gadgets

We’ve seen some pretty weird stuff in our years on this planet — heck, we’ve revived our own drenched Sony DAP by burying it in rice for 48 hours — but this is easily one of the most bizarre gizmo resurrections we’ve ever come across. As the tale goes, one valiant NVIDIA GPU owner apparently bit on a myth which suggested that a pinch of time in the oven (quite literally, might we add) would repair faulty GPUs that were throwing up oodles of vertical lines. After purchasing another GPU to replace his ailing 8800GTX, he figured he had zilch to lose and gave it a shot; lo and behold, the temporary warmth seemingly melted the solder points and healed micro-fractures that were causing the unwanted lines. We’ve yet to hear how his attempt at returning the new GPU went, but hey, there’s always eBay. Give the read link a look if you’re still in disbelief.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

NVIDIA GPU resurrected after 10 minutes at 425°F originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 21:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are two sides to this coin, the way we see it. On the one hand, the handful of pictures that have just popped over on UMPC Fever demo many of the features we’re expecting to see in new iPhone hardware this summer — magnetic compass, autofocus camera, video recording capability, and a battery percentage meter in the status bar. On the other hand, having a good feel for those rumored features makes it that much easier to mock up ridiculously blurry shots of ‘em in action. The compass seems a little overdone, but then again, it’s not necessarily out of place considering the direction Apple has taken its voice recorder app in 3.0, so we’re going to play the cautiously optimistic diplomat here and say these could very well be real.

[Via The iPhone Blog]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Mr. Blurrycam takes new iPhone’s features for a test drive? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 20:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not quite sure what all was wrong with the original ZEN Mozaic (Mosaic?), but evidently it demonstrated just a bit too much Mondrian. This go ’round, the ZEN Mozaic EZ300 ditches the hodgepodge of button colors and sticks strictly to pink or black, though most everything else remains the same. There’s a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution display, 4GB or 8GB of internal capacity, up to 32 hours of audio playback, MP3 / WMA / WAV / JPEG file support, an FM radio tuner, a five-band custom equalizer and USB 2.0 connectivity. It’s available now for US and UK customers for $59.99 (4GB) / $79.99 (8GB). One more (big) look after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

Continue reading Creative introduces toned-down ZEN Mozaic EZ300 PMP

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Creative introduces toned-down ZEN Mozaic EZ300 PMP originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 19:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With only days to go before at least four or five Sprint stores begin selling Palm’s Pre, we’re already seeing at least one employee with some time on his hands give the smartphone a go. Moral of the story? Right about now would be an awesome time to know somebody who can get behind a Sprint counter without using an unlawful amount of force.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre filtering into Sprint stores, indocile employee sizes it up originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wait, what’s this? ASUS diving head first into the HD media streamer game? Based on images and details acquired by Hardware, we’d say chances are looking pretty good. Reportedly, the aforementioned outfit will showcase its very own media player at Computex next week in Taiwan, and our expectations are already fairly lofty. The O!Play (codename HDP-R1) is said to be a fair bit quicker than competing models, and the file compatibility list is also worthy of laud. Port wise, this one’s packing eSATA, USB, HDMI, stereo audio jacks, optical digital audio, Ethernet and an AC port. If all goes well, we could see this little bugger in European stores by July, with a price tag pegged at €119 ($168). Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if that price nets you an internal HDD, but we’ll find out for sure soon enough.

[Via The Inquirer]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

ASUS to introduce O!Play media player at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 17:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d heard it through the grapevine that Microsoft was gearing up to right the wrong and nix that ludicrous three application limit for Windows 7 Starter Edition, and sure enough, it did just that via The Windows Blog. The company admitted that it was removing the three application at-a-time limit previously slated for inclusion in Win7 Starter “based on the feedback it has received from partners and customers.” (Psst… thanks for yelling, people!) That said, the OS is still severely gimped, with no multi-monitor support, DVD playback, Windows Media Center, remote media streaming, XP Mode or network connectivity. Just kidding on that last one… we think.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Microsoft confirms: no three app limit in Windows 7 Starter originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Credit: Eurogamer.net)

Details of Sony’s new PSP Go have leaked ahead of the company’s Tuesday press conference in a big way, with photos and videos now widely circulating on the Internet. And while we don’t yet have a comprehensive list of the new PSP’s feature list, the leaked info gives us a pretty good idea of what we can expect–including hints of several new games.

The leaked Qore video is embedded below. Host Veronica Belmont talks to John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, about the forthcoming PSP Go. (Note: The audio is out of sync and exhibits a buzz, but it’s watchable enough–though we wouldn’t be surprised to see it pulled off YouTube soon.)

From the video, here’s what we can glean so far:

…

We’re still not sure where Alienware gets off calling this thing “all powerful” — where do you go from there? — but we certainly like what’s under the hood. This 17-inch M17x desktop replacement, which is due for E3 next week, has started cropping up early and we’ve gotten a quick look at one in the flesh. It weighs in at 11.5 pounds, and packed to the gills it can handle dual GeForce NVIDIA GTX 280M GPUs, an Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad-core processor some fancy overclocking options, and up to 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM. There’s also the lovable GeForce 9400M integrated graphics with HybridPower switching for when you want to turn things down a notch and write a nice, long letter to your mother while milking the overtaxed nine-cell battery for all it’s worth. Outside the raw horsepower, Alienware’s revamped its design, with a hefty aluminum chassis, user-configurable lighting accents and a great many radar-evading accoutrements — oh, and facial recognition for login and timed auto-logout. The display is configurable up to 1920 x 1200, and the laptop can pump out a good many pixels to an external monitor as well — we saw it powering Dell’s almost-ready 2880 x 900 curved display running Crysis with no problem. Other options include Blu-ray, up to 512GB of SSD storage in the dual drive bays, and perhaps best of all: a $1,799 starting price, which includes a GeForce GTX 260M GPU to get your feet wet.

We got to play with the laptop a bit at a recent event, and were seriously impressed with the look and feel of the thing — somewhat of a rarity in the over-plasticized gaming space. As we mentioned, Crysis ran fine, and while the hardcore gamer-on-the-go with endless supplies of cash might be a bit of a rare breed these days, at least they haven’t been forgotten… though they are in store for some serious back problems in later life.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Alienware M17x gaming laptop hands-on: it isn’t quite “all powerful,” but it’ll do in a pinch originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 14:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know it’s been a long, difficult wait, filled with unspeakable hardships and maybe a bit of Saturday brunch, but the Engadget Podcast is here at last to take away the pain and churn through the insanity of this week’s news like a hot knife through imitation butter. It’s just Paul and Josh this week, and things should get even crazier next week as E3 descends upon us all, but we promise to get the gang back together real soon to deliver the sort of off-topic rants and delicious non-sequitors you’ve come to expect from these three beautiful men.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Sweet Dreams

02:07 - Zune HD
17:00 - AT&T expects to sell Palm Pre when Sprint’s exclusivity ends
18:50 - Verizon Wireless to carry Palm Pre, Storm 2 “in about six months”
32:51 - iTunes support confirmed for Palm Pre
42:07 - Palm Pre User Guide: the highlights, so far
43:00 - Android 2.0 “Donut” features demoed at Google I/O
44:52 - Google Ion hands-on and unboxing
45:05 - Android 1.5 update for T-Mobile G1 now rolling out, for real this time
48:36 - Sony Ericsson’s Satio and Aino get handled, Remote Play makes the Aino PSP-like — minus the games
52:35 - “Mole” says UMD-less PSP-Go! is on for E3, slimmer PS3 to follow

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 148 - 05.30.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 14:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This story was originally published on Gamespot.

Update (4:42pm PT): For a more complete examination of the PSP Go, see PSP Go: What we know so far.

Although Sony’s E3 press conference isn’t until 11 a.m. Tuesday, one of its centerpieces appears to have been prematurely …