Posts Tagged ‘switched on’
Switched On: The 2009 Switchies
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on January 2nd, 2010
The "Sharing is Caring" and the Product of the Year Award goes to the Seagate DockStar, which uses PogoPlug technology from Cold engines. Like the original and recently upgraded PogoPlug device, the DockStar attacks what has been the thorny NAS market with an inexpensive device that allows easy sharing of photos and other files, eliminating tedious uploading. Honorable Mention goes to the Axentra HipServ-powered Netgear Stora, which offers many of the features of Windows Home Server at a fraction of the price of many products using that operating system.
The "Phone So Good It's Smart" Award for Best New Smartphone goes to the Palm Pre, which debuted the well-conceived and elegant webOS. The hardware still needs to match the software with larger screens and a faster processor, but in many ways webOS feels like what the iPhone OS wants to be when it grows up. Honorable Mention goes to the Motorola Droid, which saw a revamped Android paired with a disappointing keyboard, but showed that Motorola is climbing back into the game.
Continue reading Switched On: The 2009 Switchies
Switched On: The 2009 Switchies originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSwitched On: Multi-room music’s rocket ride
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 23rd, 2009
Those approaches, though, now face competition from a new ingredient brand called Rocketboost. While it may sound like a powdered nutritional supplement that Jamba Juice adds to smoothies, Rocketboost uses the second generation of a wireless audio technology dubbed AudioMagic 2G, which developer Avnera claims is the first multipoint to multipoint HD wireless audio platform. Indeed, AudioMagic 2G can support up to five sources and nine receivers -- significantly shy of Sonos's 32 zones, but enough to cover many homes. Each Rocketboost receiver has, at minimum, a button to cycle through active sources, and the standard also supports displays that would enable more flexibility in source selection, particularly AudioMagic 2G has a data channel for sending information about a source and the content it is playing.
Continue reading Switched On: Multi-room music's rocket ride
Switched On: Multi-room music's rocket ride originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 22nd, 2009
Multi-room music has a long history as the province of the wealthy, the corporate, and those with the forethought to build or buy new construction with the structured wiring to support it. But over the past few years a number of companies have tried various wireless technologies to bring multi-room music closer to the masses. Some companies have used proprietary wireless systems while others have used WiFi, and yet others have tried both approaches in different products at different times.
Those approaches, though, now face competition from a new ingredient brand called Rocketboost. While it may sound like a powdered nutritional supplement that Jamba Juice adds to smoothies, Rocketboost uses the second generation of a wireless audio technology dubbed AudioMagic 2G, which developer Avnera claims is the first multipoint to multipoint HD wireless audio platform. Indeed, AudioMagic 2G can support up to five sources and nine receivers — significantly shy of Sonos’s 32 zones, but enough to cover many homes. Each Rocketboost receiver has, at minimum, a button to cycle through active sources, and the standard also supports displays that would enable more flexibility in source selection, particularly AudioMagic 2G has a data channel for sending information about a source and the content it is playing.
Continue reading Switched On: Multi-room music’s rocket ride
Switched On: Multi-room music’s rocket ride originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Switched On: Apple’s song remains the same
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on December 8th, 2009
Lala's shifting strategies through the years may have led many to think that its recent acquisition by Apple would represent radical changes to Apple's music approach. Lala lives on a Web page, streams from the cloud, and gives users, including Google search users, one full free play of any song in its library. But Lala's business model was always, at its core, more like iTunes' than any number of streaming music companies -- from the custom radio of Pandora to the subscription downloads of Rhapsody. Those services, however, have long been better at Apple at fostering music exploration when compared with iTunes' 30-second samples.
Continue reading Switched On: Apple's song remains the same
Switched On: Apple's song remains the same originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSwitched On: The TV is personal again
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on December 4th, 2009
Like a Kindle, iPod nano, or Flip camcorder, the pocketable Personal TV has a straightforward, optimized purpose. And for technophiles who live in a world of Hulu, TV-on-DVDs and Apple TV, it recalls a simpler time when TV content and device were an integrated pair. Turn on the device, press a GPS-style safety disclaimer, and you're watching TV. Apart than power and volume/mute controls, it has only a single front-mounted button brings up the electronic programming guide, which can be navigated by touching and swiping its 3.5-inch touchscreen. A laptop battery-style power status button lights up a series of LCDs to let you know how much charge is left in the device.
Continue reading Switched On: The TV is personal again
Switched On: The TV is personal again originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSwitched On: Chrome’s shine could blind Android
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 24th, 2009
When the T-Mobile G1 was launched, Switched On discussed Google's growing rivalry with Apple. But now Google itself an even more formidable threat to the Android than Apple or even Microsoft. Growing out of the group that created the Chrome browser, Google's Chrome OS creates a relatively lightweight layer of hardware management code primarily for the purpose of running one native app, the Chrome browser. While Chrome OS can take advantage of local processing and resources, the OS foregoes local applications, citing a need to preserve speed, security and simplicity.
Continue reading Switched On: Chrome's shine could blind Android
Switched On: Chrome's shine could blind Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSwitched On: Where the Withings are
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 17th, 2009
The market for Internet-connected fitness gadgets has come a long way since 2000, when SportBrain introduced a pedometer that used a modem-equipped docking base to upload physical activity records. The past few years have seen products for fitness enthusiasts such as the Garmin's ForeRunner watches and the Nike+ system for iPod, but they are now migrating to more casual personal data nerds. Recent tech products like the Fitbit (a modern-day reworking of the SportBrain) can measure your activity throughout the day and night and the Neo Personal Sleep Coach can provide detailed reports on your sleep patterns. But all these products digitally measure efforts at healthier living -- few have digitally measured results.
Continue reading Switched On: Where the Withings are
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Switched On: Where the Withings are originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSwitched On: Next steps toward the IP tuner
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 12th, 2009
As we inch closer to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in January, we come upon the first anniversary of the wedding between television sets and the internet. While there were internet-enabled televisions before last year from HP and others, the online-enabled sets from Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and Vizio marked the real embrace of IP. And it wasn't just about the hardware -- the software included Yahoo's widget architecture and Netflix streaming movies.
Continue reading Switched On: Next steps toward the IP tuner
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Switched On: Next steps toward the IP tuner originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSwitched On: Developing a sense of rumor
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 7th, 2009
Phase 1: Customer Requirements. Disciplined product development requires acute attention to addressing both stated and unstated customer needs and creating products that fulfill the promise of expectations while maximizing profitability for the organization. In our class, we will learn how to ignore these goals and create figments that have incredible gee-whiz factors that safely ignore considerations such as marketplace pricing and target demographics. Students will generate buzz for a three-paneled OLED ereader that is powered by solar energy while acting as a tanning bed for the burgeoning tween market.
Continue reading Switched On: Developing a sense of rumor
Switched On: Developing a sense of rumor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSwitched On: Making book with ePUB
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 25th, 2009
First, unlike PlaysForSure, which was playing catch-up to the already dominant iPod, ePUB is appearing relatively early in the market; it need not break anyone's "stranglehold." Second, after attracting the support of Sony, the format achieved a significant coup with the support of Barnes & Noble, which noted last week that it was "excited" to be supporting the format in its forthcoming Nook e-reader.
Continue reading Switched On: Making book with ePUB
Filed under: Software
Switched On: Making book with ePUB originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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