Gadget Talks

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That's right, you can now reserve your place in line to be the first to record four HD cable shows at once on your Windows 7 Media Center. The bad news is that ship date for the InfiniTV 4 is now May 31st. Ceton wasn't willing to share a specific reason for the 60 day delay, but we suspect CableLabs is to blame -- Ceton refuted this and insisted CableLabs has been very helpful, but we don't buy it. The other big news -- for those that were concerned with noise or fitment options -- is that the latest version of the PCI-E card pictured above no longer includes a fan. The InfiniTV name was the result of over 1000 submissions to Ceton's naming contest, of which Gary Petro came up with winner -- the name is not to be confused with Comcast's XFINITY. Future tuners in the line will share a variation of the name, so the dual external tuner would be the InfiniTV ex2 -- for example. But Gary isn't the only one receiving a free tuner, as two more submitters were deemed worthy. Rus Sanchez submitted 94 different product names, while Charles Fraser earned his free card with the funniest submission; Wicked Super, Super Duper, and Super Duper Alleyoopder. The last bit of news out of the Kirkland startup is a littler clarification in regards to the network capabilities of the card. Although you can share the tuners with a small form factor PC on the network, the bad news is that it gets paired per CableCARD, so all four tuners have to go to the same PC. Ohh we almost forgot, the best news of all is that we received our review sample, so stay tunned for a full run down.

Ceton's quad CableCARD tuner for Media Center available for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget HD on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lian Li's PC-T1R Spider case crawls towards a release originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Matt: “I see we just got the latest computer monitors. Take that, South Korea.”
Devin: “Zerg him, comrade”
John: “Our glorious gold farming initiative is the pride of the world.”
Dave: “What?? Doug left CrunchGear?”
Greg: “Our screens may not be larger, but they're deeper. Take that, South Korea!”
Scott:”I always get sniped on de_dust, too. Don’t let it get you down, brother.”

via The Huge Picture where there are 30 more just as funny pictures.

It's not much more than a hard drive with HD media playback abilities, but the Packard Bell Studio ST certainly looks nice, doesn't it? It's Europe-only for now, but we're hoping parent company Acer brings over a US-branded version of this box, which holds up to a 2TB hard drive and can do 1080p out over HDMI with Dolby Digital. Codec support is described as "all main formats," which is a little shady, but we'll be forgiving if it's cheaper than the Western Digital WD TV Live HD.

[Thanks, Matt]

Packard Bell Studio ST media playback drive invades Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While it's a crying shame that Sony's PlayStation Move won't have full four-player support, at least the technology is efficient; our buddies at Joystiq are reporting that the camera-and-wand based motion control game system will only minimally impact game performance. Quizzing Sony's David Coombes, they found out that the advanced image processing required to make sense of your wild, flailing movements will take only 1-2 MB of RAM. Of course, when you consider that the PS3 has only 256MB of fast XDR memory to begin with, that 2MB isn't as "insignificant" as Sony would have you believe, but coupled with the company's claim that the whole shebang takes "under a frame" of the Cell CPU's processing time, we're inclined to think it won't be much of an issue for the end user. Assuming they fix that nasty lag, of course. Check out our full PlayStation Move guide for more details.

PlayStation Move requires only 2MB of RAM, developers breath sigh of relief originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The best money making ideas are always the most simple. It’s a fact and the Apple iPad proves it. [via The Joy of Tech]

Huzzah! Yet another discovery for us to add to our ever-expanding list of "awesome things that'll never actually happen!" Ibrahim Abou Hamad and colleagues from Mississippi State University have reportedly devised a method of charging batteries that could hasten the process rather significantly, and better still, it could provide "an increase in battery power densities" as well. The only problem? Lithium-ion batteries have been disappointing tech users for years, and so long as Energizer and Duracell are calling the shots, we kind of doubt a lot will be done to improve the longevity of 'em. Skepticism aside, the new method involves some fancy black magic surrounding molecular dynamics simulations, and researchers have found a way to boost charging time by "simulating the intercalation of lithium ions into the battery's graphite anode." We know we just went way over your heads on a Friday afternoon, but if techobabble's your thing, all you can handle is right there in the Source link.

Scientists discover method for rapid charging Li-ion batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While it's hard to say if Apple's Magic Mouse really needs "fixing" -- it depends somewhat on your grip -- it's not a huge stretch to say that the slender multitouch device doesn't quite fit in the palm of one's hand. Sensing a market opportunity, Will of MMFixed.com recently decided to come to our collective rescue. For $10, he offers a simple silicone block that matches the mouse's contoured surface nicely, with an integrated suction cup that keeps it securely fastened. While it's not quite a one-size-fits-all solution, it's certainly a lot cheaper than buying one of the new whacky, adjustable mice we've seen recently; and if the idea of ergonomics via marshmallow doesn't appeal to you, you can always try the white bread variety. Video after the break.

Continue reading Make your Magic Mouse oh-so-ergonomic with this pasty silicone grip

Make your Magic Mouse oh-so-ergonomic with this pasty silicone grip originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Odroid handheld game console due early March sportin' Android 2.1

Odroid handheld game console due early March sportin' Android 2.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maemo 5 didn't stand on its own for long before being mashed together with Intel's Moblin, but Nokia's N900 still stands as one of the best handhelds for web browsing. It's hardly the world-beater that Nokia (may have) hoped it to be, but that's not because the internals aren't impressive. We're guessing that only a handful of you made the effort to fork over wads of cash in order to pick an unlocked version up, but if you did, you no doubt have some opinions post-purchase. Is the display living up to your expectations? Are you and Maemo getting along alright? How's that keyboard? We're eager to know how you'd tweak the N900 if you had the keys to the design kingdom, and with MeeGo already being announced, we're forbidding you from suggesting the obvious. Or you can, but we'll be plugging our ears, closing our eyes and humming annoyingly.

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change Nokia's N900? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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