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28 Aug 2010 08:25:00 EDT

We can't say we'd ever heard of StreamTV, but all the company had to say was "Tegra 2 Android Froyo tablet" to get us to meet up with them in NYC earlier today. The Philadelphia start-up is planning to bring its Elocity A7 -- essentially a re-badged Compal's NAZ-10 -- to an Amazon order page near you, and from what we saw during the hour-long demo it may just be a contender for your stashed away $399. The 7-inch tablet has an extremely responsive 800 x 480 resolution, capacitive touchscreen -- yes, multitouch worked in the browser and photo gallery -- with a front-facing 1.3 megapixel cam on the left bezel. We actually got to make a quick Fring video call to one of the other tablets in the room, though it was rather lagging since we were running over it all 3G. Surrounding the tablet is an SD card slot along with USB and HDMI ports, the latter of which did come very handy for hooking up the tablet to a 22-inch HDTV and watching an extremely smooth 1080p clip. (Thank you 1GHz Tegra II-720 CPU!) Speaking of, we also got to play a racing game, Asphalt 5, on the device, though the accelerometer steering was a bit flaky. Besides that, we've got to say the entire tablet experience was pretty smooth -- you can see for yourself after the break and in the upcoming episode of the Engadget Show -- but the unit we saw was running Android 2.1. The SteamTV's CEO says they'll only be shipping 2.2-running units come October and with a supplemental GetJar app store since it cannot preload Google's Marketplace because of restrictions. He also tells us they'll be including an HDMI cord and wireless keyboard in the box -- all for $399. It all sounds rather promising, but so do all these future Android tablets! , Gallery: StreamTV Elocity

28 Aug 2010 11:15:00 EDT

, Unlike lots of other media streaming devices we've seen, this one is pretty straightforward: the USB dongle plugs into your PC or Mac, the receiver plugs into your TV's HDMI input, and what you sees and hears (on your computer) is what you gets (on the TV). The Wireless USB connection will stream video up to 720p and still images up to 1080p, as well as stereo sound. Available now from Amazon and whatnot for $150. PR after the break.

28 Aug 2010 16:20:22 GMT+00:00

Dell Inc.'s (NASDAQ.DELL) love-affair with Google's Android mobile platform continued beyond Streak as the PC maker took a plunge into the US smartphone market by launching Android-powered Aero. Dell, which earlier launched Streak, ...

28 Aug 2010 23:11:00 EDT

, Fujitsu's announced a new laptop, the Lifebook AH530 GFX. An update to the already available Lifebook AH530, this one's got an external graphics card with 1GB of dedicated video memory. Other than that, it boasts the exact same specs as the previous model -- a 15.6-inch glossy LCD, optional Core i3, i5, or i7 CPUs, up to 8GB of RAM and an up to 500GB HDD, a choice of Blu-ray or DVD drives, and HDMI output. There's also WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, three USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, and gigabit ethernet onboard. They're set to start hitting shelves in the end of August, but no prices have been released yet. Full press release follow. , ,

28 Aug 2010 11:01:26 GMT+00:00

The sudden change in attitudes toward social media among our oldest surfers likely has a lot to do with its saturation among younger demographics. While social networking overall has grown quite rapidly, among our oldest netizens it has not. ...

28 Aug 2010 12:46:38 GMT+00:00

The Facebook application for iPhone now has over 100 million active monthly users, according to the latest reports. Tech focused site Redmond Pie points to a recent post on the Facebook Developer Blog which reveals more than 150 million people actively ...

28 Aug 2010 14:25:24 GMT+00:00

Apple's preparations for its Sept. 1 event have kicked into high gear, with signs that the announcement will focus on music. Rumors suggest either revamped iPods or possibly a new Apple TV. Apple's Sept. 1 event in San Francisco will most likely ...

28 Aug 2010 07:02:42 GMT+00:00

A firm owned by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen today sued Apple, Facebook, Google, YouTube, and seven other companies, charging them with infringing patents filed more than a decade ago. ...

28 Aug 2010 05:02:26 GMT

YouTube has started YouTube's Movies in the UK this week, adding 400 movies to the catalog right at launch. The movies will either be free and ad-supported or on-demand, costing a certain fee to rent or buy. YouTube is making the movies available thanks to agreements with Sony Pictures, MGM and a revenue share with the UK video service Blinkbox. 165 movies from Blinkbox will be ad-supported, and the service will share ad revenue. The titles normally cost £1.99 per rental. The move follows YouTube's slow and delicate expansion into online rentals in the United States, which has so far been a disappointment.

28 Aug 2010 05:19:07 GMT

Joel Tenenbaum, the graduate student who was convicted of illegally sharing 30 tracks via P2P will appeal his already reduced fine, says his lawyer. Tenenbaum was originally fined $675,000, but the fine was reduced to $67,500 during the summer, after a judge deemed the original penalty unconstitutional and "excessive." The student says he still cannot pay the reduced fine, and is seeking a further reduction. If Tenenbaum gets his way, the RIAA says they will appeal any reduction. "Sixty-seven-and-half thousand dollars only sounds reasonable because it was so much before," said the student.

28 Aug 2010 05:37:25 GMT

Microsoft has said this week that the upcoming Xbox 360 software refresh will "significantly" improve the sound quality of the headsets. The update is expected this fall, alongside the launch of the Kinect motion control system. With the software update, Microsoft will "upgrade the codec and audio infrastructure that underpins the quality of voice communication from Xbox 360 to Xbox 360, and should make for clear chat between gamers when they play online," says Xbox Live Studios boss Jerry Johnson, via Eurogamer. Explaining further, Johnson says: "The codec we used when we first launched was a low bit rate codec and we stuck with that." Concluding: "We launched and we said we required broadband. We required a 64k connection, which not many people think of as broadband any longer. But that was the minimum requirement to run the service at the time. "It's time for us to move on. Especially if we want to think about broadening - a crackly headset on the top of your head – not what people think of when they talk about popular entertainment." Voice communication was started by Microsoft in 2002, with the launch of Xbox Live.

28 Aug 2010 05:57:43 GMT

The online Australian retailers Quantronics and Ozmodchips have been ordered by a Federal Court in Australia to halt all sales, imports and distribution of the PSJailbreak USB dongles. PSJailBreak will allow owners of any version of PS3 to run backups of PS3 games as well as homebrew applications. The $170 mod is a piece of software stored in a USB drive. By inserting the thumb drive into your PS3 you'll be able to install and run the launcher application in seconds without permanently modifying the console or its software. The PSJailBreak application also included a backup tool which allows users to backup their game discs to the PS3 hard drive. Movies whether DVD or Blu-ray, or previous generation PlayStation games aren't supported by the tool. The backup manager can also be downloaded for free. So far, the companies have switched the status of the item to "no stock," not yet completely removing the listings. Quantronics' site says: "Unless a continuation of orders or permanent injunction is granted to Sony Computer Entertainment, this product page will be returned and sales will resume on the 31st August 2010."

28 Aug 2010 00:01:21 GMT+00:00

Google added new functionality to its real-time search engine, and moved it from an obscure feature buried in the options on the left pane of the standard Google search, to its own Web site. The new Google Realtime can be a ...

28 Aug 2010 06:02:16 GMT+00:00

With the launch of Facebook Places, users need to figure out if this service is a cool new tool or an overbearing feature best avoided. The social networking site's new location-based feature , dubbed Places, ...

28 Aug 2010 02:01:39 GMT+00:00

Online product reviews have always been a little sketchy; you never know who actually writes them, whether there's a hidden incentive, or if it's a company shill in disguise. But now that the FTC has cracked down on ...

28 Aug 2010 00:45:47 GMT+00:00

The Internet giant, striving to counter the growth of Facebook, brings in Rohit Khare, whose firm had built innovative tools for social media. Respected Internet researcher Rohit Khare is one of several new faces at Google charged with helping the ...

28 Aug 2010 04:11:42 GMT+00:00

Just a few short years ago, Facebook was the exclusive province of postmillennial college undergraduates. Well, move over. The Woodstock generation -- and their parents -- are moving in. The phenomenal growth of Facebook, ...

28 Aug 2010 06:19:07 GMT+00:00

In less than two days of introduction of Voice in Gmail or Google's new internet-based phone service saw an exponential surge in calls crossing one million all over the world from US and Canada, where it is available free. "Over 1000000 calls placed ...

28 Aug 2010 06:02:16 GMT+00:00

In less than two weeks, the bidding war for grid-storage vendor 3Par has nearly doubled from $1.15 billion to $2 billion with Hewlett-Packard's latest tit-for-tat bid against Dell . The two technology behemoths are ...

28 Aug 2010 06:02:16 GMT+00:00

A firm owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed a lawsuit against Google, Apple, Facebook, and other companies alleging that they have violated patents related to search, multimedia, ...

27 Aug 2010 14:03:43 GMT+00:00

A huge particle detector to be mounted on the International Space Station next year could find evidence for the anti-universe often evoked in science fiction, physicists said. An ambitious experiment to search for antimatter galaxies and elusive dark ...

27 Aug 2010 02:22:57 GMT

Following in the footsteps of the Droid X, which was rooted within a week of launch, the XDA Dev team has announced they have rooted the Motorola Droid 2, just 14 days after its launch. The initial rooting method is not easy, however, and will require decent background with ADB. For more info on ADB, check here: ABD Wiki page. After the device is rooted, users can then install custom ROMs, as well as have access to Superuser controls. For now, there are not custom recovery images for the Droid 2, so installing a custom ROM is impossible. Says a XDA Dev member: "This is needed to install custom ROMs, which as of now, there are none. That means you won't be able to install any third-party Android ROMs on your rooted Droid 2. [Yes], they will be on their way at some point, but right now, the main appeal to rooting the Droid 2 right now is to use root-only applications, and remove the bloatware that Verizon has thrown on the device." If you are interested, you can view the full instructions here: Root the Moto Droid 2

27 Aug 2010 02:58:42 GMT

During an interview with MCV, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai ruled out an all-digital future, at least for the PlayStation 4, saying the console will still use optical media. Sony was generally criticized for launching the PSPGo handheld, which removed the company's proprietary UMD drives, and turned everything digital, forcing gamers to purchase and download their games through the PlayStation Store. When asked if the PS4 would use a similar strategy, Hirai responded: "We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn’t as robust as one would hope. There’s always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium." "To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme." Earlier in the month, it was revealed that Sony is already preparing games for the upcoming PlayStation 4, the console which has not even been announced yet. Many expect a 2012 launch date for the next-gen console.