Verizon suffering ‘nationwide’ data outage
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Having a little trouble checking in on your tweeps this morning on your Droid? Is your new Pre Plus not syncing with Facebook, or your Storm2 acting a little too calm? The problem seems to lie with Verizon, which is suffering from a “nationwide” data outage at the moment. The reason we keep putting that in quotes is because we in NY are not affected (our Droid is connecting just fine) but Verizon representatives have confirmed the issue, while people in various places all over the US are unable to connect according to the forums we’ve been perusing this morning. Verizon indicated it does not have an ETA for when things will be fixed and, sadly, it doesn’t have any status message on its site, but we’d advise not calling and bothering the support folks about this — based on how long we were on hold we’re guessing they have their hands full at the moment.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Verizon suffering ‘nationwide’ data outage originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MSI’s race car inspired F Series packs NVIDIA Optimus, we go hands-on
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
While MSI didn’t have an official unveiling of the new F Series laptops at CeBIT, the 14-inch FX400 and 15.6-inch FX600 models and their NVIDIA Optimus placards were the first thing that caught our eye at the company’s booth. In typical MSI fashion, it looks like there will be a number of configurations of the two models, but it appears that both with pack Core i5 processors and use NVIDIA’s technology to automatically switch between the integrated and discrete GeForce GPU. While there’s no word on availability, an MSI rep on hand suggested that the systems would start somewhere in between $800 to $1,000. That doesn’t sound too bad, though the early units we got to play around with were a bit plasticy and the keyboards could sub as a trampoline. Those issues aside, we’re quite excited that MSI’s been added to the Optimus team, and that the company has designed a fairly nice looking chassis with a (thankfully) non-glossy lid.
Gallery: MSI F-Series hands-on
MSI’s race car inspired F Series packs NVIDIA Optimus, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/msis-race-car-i…
NVIDIA’s Optimus technology shows its graphics switching adroitness on video
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Explaining automatic graphics switching and the benefits thereof can be a somewhat dry affair. You have to tell people about usability improvements and battery life savings and whatnot… it’s much more fun if you just take a nice big engineering board, strap the discrete GPU on its own card and insert an LED light for the viewer to follow. NVIDIA has done just that with its Optimus technology — coming to a laptop or Ion 2-equipped netbook near you — and topped it off by actually pulling out the GPU card when it wasn’t active, then reinserting it and carrying on with its use as if nothing had happened. This was done to illustrate the fact that Optimus shuts down the GPU electrically, which is that little bit more energy efficient than dropping it into an idle state. Shimmy past the break to see the video.
Continue reading NVIDIA’s Optimus technology shows its graphics switching adroitness on video
NVIDIA’s Optimus technology shows its graphics switching adroitness on video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/nvidias-optimus…
Nokia and Alpine integrating handsets into cars, bringing Ovi Maps to your dashboard
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
What’s the one biggest hurdle to throwing out your dedicated GPS nav unit and going ahead with the free turn-by-turn navigation offered by your smartphone? If your answer was that most phones don’t have the great big screens or easy installation systems of some satnav devices, look out, because Nokia’s about to shake up your world all over again. Alpine has just announced its partnership with the Finnish giant aimed at integrating Nokia handsets — complete with free Ovi Maps navigation — into car dashboard systems. Yes, that means you can use your superb six-amp speaker system to boom out music or voice nav instructions from the phone, as well as your in-dash 7-inch LCD for showing you the right way home. There’s further interaction with widgets keeping an eye on your fuel levels and engine condition, leading to location-based services such as the phone notifying you of the nearest and cheapest petrol station. Connectivity is done over either USB or Bluetooth, and Nokia promises that this Terminal Mode will be showing up in its phones in the very near future. The sooner the better, we say.
Nokia and Alpine integrating handsets into cars, bringing Ovi Maps to your dashboard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Roger Ebert dramatically regains his voice with help from CereProc (video)
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Roger Ebert, perhaps best known as the Hardy to Siskel’s Laurel during his days spent thumbing up and down criticisms at films, has achieved a technological miracle of sorts. After a series of cancer treatments and operations left the man mute and without a lower jaw, Ebert regained his voice in dramatic fashion on Oprah, of all places. A company called CereProc has recreated his voice through its text-to-speech technologies assisted by decades of recordings captured from his television appearances and DVD movie commentary tracks — not exactly applicable to everyone with speaking disorders. Nevertheless, check the clip after the break to witness the impact his semi-recovered voice has on his wife, Chaz. While it definitely needs tweaking, the results are pretty remarkable.
Continue reading Roger Ebert dramatically regains his voice with help from CereProc (video)
Roger Ebert dramatically regains his voice with help from CereProc (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AT&T CEO: iPad will be mostly used on WiFi, won’t drive many new 3G subscriptions
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
We all know by now that AT&T has secured the rights to furnish US iPad owners with 3G connectivity, but apparently the market desire for that service won’t be quite as big as we might have expected. That comes straight from Randall Stephenson himself, AT&T CEO and eternal believer in the power of i-branded devices, so it may have some legitimacy to it. Surely Randall’s dearest wish would be to announce his network is about to be overwhelmed by new subscribers, and the rather cooler news has already caused a small dint in AT&T’s stock price. Then again, this is hardly shocking news given that 3G on the iPad can be had on a month-by-month basis without contract, and in truth any subscriptions related to it would have to be achieved by AT&T’s own ingenuity — which, judging by its CEO’s comments, won’t be suffering any undue exertions any time soon. Not only that, Randall’s also taken the opportunity to advise us that higher data rates are likely for intensive users of unlimited 3G data plans — whether on the iPad or on smartphones. Way to endear yourself to the masses, dude.
AT&T CEO: iPad will be mostly used on WiFi, won’t drive many new 3G subscriptions originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/atandt-ceo-ipad…
The apocalyPS3 ends in global resurrection, ARM chip at fault
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
The early belief that the PSN was spreading a brickitis infection to PS3s around the world has turned out to be not quite accurate. Yes, PSN was inaccessible over that extremely stressful day (for PS3 owners, the rest of us have been quite fine, thank you), but we’re hearing from Eurogamer that the villain in this story was an ARM chip inside the console — the very same one, in fact, that led to a few Zunes losing their minds back in 2008. The big problem here was simply a bit of hardware that couldn’t get its bearings straight after expecting 2010 to be a leap year, and the arrival of March 1 “fixed” everything for all eight affected PS3 SKUs (of a total of eleven). That leaves Sony with four years to make sure this problem isn’t heard from again, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be placing blame for the real 2012 apocalypse firmly on Howard Stringer‘s shoulders.
The apocalyPS3 ends in global resurrection, ARM chip at fault originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/the-apocalyps3-…
Nokia 5230 Nuron excites the T-Mobile nervous system
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Nokia 5230 Nuron excites the T-Mobile nervous system originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/nokia-5230-nuro…
Nokia adds Skype to Ovi Store, foreshadows death of regular phone calls
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Skype for Symbian. A freely downloadable application that allows you to converse with your Skype-equipped friends over a WiFi or 3G connection. Seriously, why would you ever make another cellular call again? Nokia’s just announced the addition of the online communications client to its Ovi Store, meaning that now more than 200 million users worldwide have access to essentially free calls over their beloved Symbian S60 5th handsets. You knew there was a reason to stay loyal to that stale user experience and here it is. There’s not much else to say here, we’re off to sell whatever stock we have in mobile network operators while you should click the source links for the full list of compatible handsets. High fives all around.
Nokia adds Skype to Ovi Store, foreshadows death of regular phone calls originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/03/nokia-adds-skyp…
