You might think, given our recent bout of attentiveness toward wristwear, that we’re starting to develop an Enwatchet subsection, but that’s not entirely accurate. It’s just that when we come across such wild and quirky designs, there’s nothing to be done but share them with the world. Case in point: the Cabestan Nostromo watch, inspired by the ship from the Alien movie. In the words of its own designers, the Nostromo combines traditional watchmaking with “retro-futuristic audacity,” and when we gaze upon its exposed vertical mechanics, we can’t exactly argue otherwise. With a titanium case, Superluminova phosphorescent coating for dusky situations, and side windows (see them after the break), this is as appealing a watch as any geek can dare to imagine. Sure, you could probably buy a sports car for less than the 150,000 Swiss Francs ($141,400 in American currency) asking price, but it’s not like you can strap a Porsche to your wrist, now is it?

Continue reading Cabestan’s Nostromo watch is geared for success

Cabestan’s Nostromo watch is geared for success originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Price Range:$245 – $1650
Description:Combining in-camera assistance and supreme ease-of-use with Nikon’s renowned technology, the D3000 is the ideal choice for people looking to upgrade from their point-and-shoot camera to a digital SLR. Extending the D3000’s excellent performance is Nikon’s exclusive Scene Recognition System, Active D-Lighting, continuous shooting up to 3 frames-per-second, advanced 3D Color Matrix Metering II, and 11-point selectable autofocus. Extensive in-camera image control is available using Nikon’s Picture Control System, which allows users to customise key digital image characteristics to suit personal preferences. For additional creative control, the D3000 includes comprehensive in-camera editing functions via its Retouch Menu that enhance photos with a variety of effects — without the need for a computer. Whether it’s grabbing point-and-shoot snapshots or exploiting techniques commonly used by more advanced photographers, the D3000 offers an easy, inviting way to experience the world of digital SLR photography and obtain beautiful pictures.
Manufacturer:Nikon
Model:D3000

Now that we have clarity with regard to a Windows Phone 7 update on the HD2 (sorry, folks), let’s move on to the next contentious platform: Nokia’s N900 and MeeGo. As Nokia’s only Cortex-A8 handset, there’s plenty of hope that Nokia sees fit to upgrade the N900 to MeeGo once the unified Maemo and Moblin OS is ready for consumers. Hope all but crushed yesterday after CNET reported the following from an unnamed, but apparently official Nokia source:

“Maemo on Nokia N900 is not upgradeable to MeeGo.”

We ran this past Ray Haddow, Senior Manager within Nokia Communications who took the quote back to the project team in Finland. According to Ray, the “the door is not closed” with regard to MeeGo on the N900 — a final decision has not been made. This also echos the words of Valtteri Halla when he announced the MeeGo repository in early March. In response to questions at the time, this one-bodied half of the MeeGo Technical Steering Group had this to day:

“N900 is a natural tool for Nokia to drive MeeGo support for our designs and for the ARM CPU architecture in general. We want to have baseline HW that is powerful, easily available for anyone and form-factor stuff so that one HW works for most platform and application development needs.

That said, please do not take this yet as a commitment to fully productise MeeGo on N900. I am quite confident that we will end up having a really good developer distro for N900 already but committing to stabilise a consumer-grade MeeGo 1.0 (first half this year) for N900 is another story. That is a product business decision beyond my scope. Also, we do not yet know about MeeGo 1 release content. I am not yet sure if I would be personally ready to let my Maemo5 go for the first MeeGo release in my daily N900 use. Let’s see.”

So, looks like another long game of wait and see, eh?

Nokia: MeeGo “door is not closed” on N900 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WiFi-controlled sentry robots have been our playthings for a few years now, but sure as Sunday morning, they don’t help us get much work done. Why would you, when you can discreetly spy on your house, kids and neighbors from the convenience of a web browser? That’s what we thought. But now, there’s a robot to assuade your guilty conscience: the G182, a complete VoIP webcam system built on top of a pseudo-Roomba. Sure, a Roomba-cam isn’t really anything new, but while you wait for the real deal to shake off its economic funk (if it ever does), this yellow disc is the next best thing. For the low, low price of $500, you can once again feel like you’re accomplishing something — vacuuming floors and yelling at the kids to do chores — while dodging the daily grind. Full specs and loads more pics at the source link.

Chinese manufacturer sticks IP webcam on robot vacuum, calls it a day originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nothing sells papers (or ads) like turning a little corporate competition into something personal. Case in point, a New York Times piece from the weekend titled “Apple’s Spat With Google Is Getting Personal,” that opened with this rather ominous, one-sentence paragraph:

“It looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Cue the orchestra. The lengthy piece chronicling the relationship between the Silicon Valley titans was formed by two dozen interviews with industry watchers, investors, and current and former employees covering a timeline spread that began with Google and Apple working in harmony to prevent Microsoft’s domination of online services and mobile devices. It ends with Apple’s patent lawsuit against HTC that reeks of a proxy battle against Android and Google. According to the NYT then, the heart of the dispute is betrayal, or Jobs’ belief that Schmidt (a former Apple board member) “picked his pocket” by developing cellphones that “physically, technologically and spiritually resembled the iPhone.” Here’s how one especially feisty encounter is described:

“At one particularly heated meeting in 2008 on Google’s campus, Mr. Jobs angrily told Google executives that if they deployed a version of multitouch – the popular iPhone feature that allows users to control their devices with flicks of their fingers – he would sue. Two people briefed on the meeting described it as “fierce” and “heated.”"

And that’s just the beginning. Read the rest after the break.

Continue reading Apple vs. Google gets personal: “Steve Jobs simply hates Eric Schmidt” (video)

Apple vs. Google gets personal: “Steve Jobs simply hates Eric Schmidt” (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For those among us finding it hard to decide what blisteringly fast DDR3 sticks to pair with their Core i7, Intel has decided to do its own compatibility certification list (see link below). And since the happiest memory maker is usually the one atop the pile, we have to imagine Kingston is feeling pretty sunny right now, as its 2.4GHz HyperX memory kit has scooped the top spot away from Corsair’s 2.33GHz offering. Running at 1.65 volts and offering 9-11-9-27-2 timings, this is now officially the RAM to own if you’re after headline-grabbing stock speeds. We also love the fact Kingston acknowledges “benchmarkers” as a distinct group alongside gamers and enthusiasts — finally some appreciation for those misunderstood souls. Whatever you describe yourself as, you’ll be able to get on the latest speed bandwagon in the second quarter of this year. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Kingston’s 2,400MHz HyperX memory kit offers the world’s fastest Intel-certified RAM

Kingston’s 2,400MHz HyperX memory kit offers the world’s fastest Intel-certified RAM originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While it might have been a pipe dream back in ‘09, Taiwanese display manufacturer AU Optronics is firmly committed to blasting our eyeballs in 2010, with a monstrous 65-inch HD LCD panel ready for all the 3D and pseudo-3D content (we’re looking at you, G-Force) you have on offer. AUO isn’t hedging its bets on this one, either; at FPD China 2010, the company announced that they’re using a polarized solution with cheap, $2 to 3 glasses to generate the 3D effect. Sure, polarized is the preferred method for most theatres, but it’s often more expensive than active shutter tech for an in-home user — and can come with some serious visual tradeoffs like permanent ghosting or halved vertical resolution. We won’t know for sure until we get hands-on, but either way, expect to see AUO’s panels in a branded 3D HDTV near you early next year, or just a few months before HDI drops a 103-inch monster of its own.

AUO’s 65-inch 3D HDTV panel headed for the conveyer belt in 2H 2010, boasts polarized specs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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