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We haven’t heard a solitary peep out of IXI Mobile in a hot minute, even though its Ogo line — once a member of Cingular’s lineup — had found some niche popularity among teens and the deaf community. We’d even thought they’d gone into R&ampD hibernation, actually, but apparently not — they’re innovating. They’re innovating so much, in fact, that they’ve innovated themselves right out of the landscape clamshell form factor that made the Ogo famous. This Inventec-sourced CC-10 we just spotted in the FCC looks more Centro than Ogo, though all of the original’s features — notably strong IM and social networking support — carry on through to the new model. At any rate, we can say that IXI doesn’t intend to break back into the North American market — at least not with this exact unit, anyway — since GSM 1900 and Bluetooth are the only features it bothered testing.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Ogo CC-10 throws time-tested formula to the wind, goes portrait QWERTY originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

cin62 writes “The number of Internet scammers offering fake versions of the anti-swine flu drug Tamiflu has surpassed those selling counterfeit Viagra, reports CNN. Since the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, was declared a global pandemic last month, there has been an increase in the number of Web sites and junk emails offering Tamiflu for sale. ‘Every Web site that used to sell Viagra is now selling Tamiflu. We are pretty sure that the same people are making the Tamiflu as are making the Viagra,’ said Director of Policy for the UK’s Royal Pharmaceutical Society.” This news fits in nicely with a report Wired ran a couple weeks ago about the hysteria behind H1N1.

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Original post by Soulskill

There are a few clever pranks here. I particularly like the Mentos stealth geyser. From the Mischief Makers’ Manual.

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Original post by Chris Connors

jadoon88 writes to share a series of old Atari 7800 games that have been unofficially open sourced. “Remember Dig Dug or Centipede or Robotron? They used to be favorites when Atari’s 7800 series was still around. Since the era of those consoles is over, and a different world of interactive reality gaming has taken over, Atari has unofficially released source code of over 15 games for the coders and enthusiasts to admire the state-of-the-art (because this is what it was back then). During those times, nobody would have imagined in their wildest dreams the games that Atari’s developers floated into the gaming thirsty market and instantly swept across continental boundaries. But things changed soon after that and a company once regarded as one of the most successful gaming console manufacturers and developers faded away in the pages of our technology’s hall-of-fame.”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

It’s been nearly a month since the launch of Palm’s newest handset, the Pre. Since then, we here at Engadget have heard some vague and hard to substantiate claims of hardware failures — cracked screens, a little broken plastic here and there — but nothing on a large scale, so far as we can tell. We thought it was about time to turn it over to you the readers (the ones lucky enough to have a Pre, anyway), to tell us how the phone is holding up physically. Is it tough as nails or is it falling apart? Poll is after the break.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Poll: How’s your Palm Pre holding up? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Laura June

That’s not an adjective in the title, “Awesome Grant” is the actual name of the grant, from the Awesome Foundation, of Cambridge, MA. Each month, they give away $1,000 to someone who wants to do something… well awesome. Here’s how they define what they’re looking for:

Awesomeness is often overlooked by mainstream culture, which tends to rehash the same broadly appealing but mediocre creations. Thankfully, there is the web.

Awesomeness is more the product of a creator’s passion than the prospect of audience or profit. Awesome creations are novel and non-obvious, evoking surprise and delight. Invariably, something about them perfectly reflects the essence of the medium, moment, or method of creation. Awesomeness challenges and inspires.

You enter the proposals on their site and they only need to be 500 words. If you get accepted, you even get access to workspace to realize your project (if you live in the Boston area).

If any of our readers submit a proposal that gets excepted, please let us know. We’re sure there are plenty of awesome ideas bouncing around the noggins of Make: Online readers.

The Awesome Foundation

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

one-man orchestra writes “I’m the sole programmer of a small, multi-platform, commercial audio program (a spectrogram editor). After over 6 months on the market, I realized that the program would never just sell itself, and that I need some real marketing done for it. Being a one-man orchestra is becoming increasingly difficult; I only can devote so much time to marketing, my skills in that department are lacking, and I’d much rather spend more time coding. Despite my lackluster part-time marketing effort, I still manage to make a modest living out of the sales. My logical assumption is that with someone competent taking care of that part, revenue could greatly scale up. But what’s the right way to go about doing this? What type of people/company do I need to contact? What to expect? What to look out for?”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

Get out your Bill Gates commemorative calendars folks, ‘cause it looks like we now have a few more dates to mark off on the road to Windows 7 availability. While Microsoft still isn’t saying anything official itself just yet, a number of different sources are reporting that the company has set July 10th as the date for the final gold build of Windows 7, while the big release to manufacturing date is apparently on track for July 13th. Of course, things could still change if there′s a major bug or other problem encountered, but barring any disasters, that’ll likely be the same build that finds its way onto your PC this fall.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Windows 7 release to manufacturing reportedly on track for July 13th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Hugh Pickens writes “Retired University of Tennessee Professor Dr. John Reece Roth has been sentenced to four years in prison after he allowed a Chinese graduate student to see sensitive information on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. In 2004, the company Roth helped found, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, won a US Air Force contract to develop a plasma actuator that could help reduce drag on the wings of drones, such as the ones the military uses. Under the contract, for which Roth was reportedly paid $6,000, he was prohibited from sharing sensitive data with foreign nationals. Despite warnings from his university’s Export Control Officer, in 2006, Roth took a laptop containing sensitive plans with him on a lecture tour in China and also allowed graduate students Xin Dai of China and Sirous Nourgostar of Iran to work on the project. ‘The illegal export of restricted military data represents a serious threat to national security,’ says David Kris of the US Department of Justice. ‘We know that foreign governments are actively seeking this information for their own military development. Today’s sentence should serve as a warning to anyone who knowingly discloses restricted military data in violation of our laws.’ During his trial, Roth testified that he was unaware that hiring the graduate students was a violation of his contract. ‘This whole thing has not helped me, it has not helped the university,’ said Roth. ‘And it has probably not helped this country, either.’”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

It was only a few months ago that we were fielding rumors about Sony’s CyberShot DSC-HX1, and now we’re struggling to keep our credit card at bay each time we waltz by one in the local camera shop. Today, Sony Insider has pointed out that the outfit may be readying a new duo to complement the megazoom: the DSC-TX1 and DSC-WX1. If the latest whispers prove legitimate, the TX1 will boast a 10 megapixel sensor, 4x optical zoom, 3-inch LCD, 720p movie mode and a price tag somewhere south of $400. The WX1 should check in as a lower-end model with 10 megapixels, a 5x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD and the same 720p movie mode; why exactly it’ll be cheaper we’re not sure, but that’s the good word at the moment. E-tailer Provantage already has listings for both cameras up, so it seems as if it’s just a matter of time before Sony confirms all the good news.

[Via Sony Insider]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Sony readying CyberShot DSC-TX1 and DSC-WX1 cameras? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

On today’s HacDC Blabber list, Trammell Hudson posted a link to this awesome account of British soldiers building a radio in a Japanese POW camp. Trammel writes:

Since they didn′t have a local Digikey or Radioshack, everything had to be sourced from what was available. The caps were made from aluminum foil lining of tea-chests, the resistors were rusty barbed wire with burned tree bark, the rectifiers out of oxidised foil and salt water, they smuggled a tube (”valve″) in the camps and bribed the local Chinese power station operator to slowly step the output voltage up to 130 from 110 volts.

Amazingly they were able to receive the BBC broadcasts! The initial RX design was pretty basic, so they then built a super-het regenerative transmitter, too, but never made use of it.

[FYI: The image I used above is not from this story, just a diagram of your basic DIY foxhole radio.]

Construction of Radio Equipment in a Japanese POW Camp

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

Techdirt has an interesting look at copyright and the idea that an author is the originator of a new work. Instead, the piece suggests that all works are in some way based on the works of others (even our own copyright law), and the system should be much more encouraging of “remixing” work into new, unique experiences. “Friedman also points back to another recent post where he discusses the nature of content creation, based on a blog post by Rene Kita. In it, she points out that remixing and creating through collaboration and building on the works of others has always been the norm. It’s what we do naturally. It’s only in the last century or so, when we reached a means of recording, manufacturing and selling music — which was limited to just those with the machinery and capital to do it, that copyright was suddenly brought out to ‘protect’ such things.”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

Seriously folks, what’s up with these prototype iPhones falling out of nondescript white vans and ending up on eBay in the shadiest of manners? Just months after we saw an original iPhone prototype (ancient OS included) pop up on The ‘Bay, now we′ve got one of the world’s first iPhone 3GSs on there as well. According to the highly ranked eBay seller, the “guy” he “got it from” actually stumbled upon it at an airport, and rather than doing the nonsensical thing of hitting up lost and found, he decided to make the most of the sudden opportunity. According to the new owner, an Apple Genius has confirmed that it is an iPhone 3GS, but due to its prototype nature, they can’t help him get past the “Connect to iTunes” screen. In other words, it’s an incredibly rare brick. If that sounds like just the thing to complete your collection, you can visit the road to overpaying through the read link below.

[Via ElectricPig]

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Let’s Make Robots is a popular site for robot hobbyists. They’ve been running two build contests on the site which are now in their finals. Rik, a community member writes:

The LMR Dagu Mr. Basic Challenge invited makers to create any robot from a basic four wheel platform (provided by community sponsor Dagu Electronics). Entries vary from spectacular light shows (using Nixie tubes) to fire fighter to mouse droid (as seen on Star Wars). Three money prizes are at stake. All community members are invited to judge the entries.

The Oddbot LMR Video Challenge is sponsoring creative videos of home made robots. The criteria for “robot” are stretched far enough as to give any one a shot at the lavish prizes. The resulting videos are very funny and creative. The prizes consist of robots and components that Oddbot built and collected over the years. He must now part with them as he moves from Australia to China to become a pro.

I love the sense of humor, and fun, expressed in a lot of the entry bot designs and videos.

Let’s Make Robots

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

A recent eulogy for open source’s relevance to cloud computing by Redmonk analyst Sephen O′Grady caught the attention of Matt Asay, who breaks down the difficulty of this David and Goliath problem. “In a world where horsepower matters more than the software feeding those “horses,” in terms of the entry cost to compete, and where big vendors like Amazon and Google are already divvying up the market, the odds of a small-fry, open-source start-up challenging “Goliath” are slim. It’s not a new argument: Nick Carr has been suggesting for some time that only a few, big companies can afford relevance in this hardware-intensive business. Given this fact, O′Grady thinks the best we can hope for (and he thinks it’s pretty important) is “a loose coalition or confederation of [open-source] projects and vendors that will together comprise an increasingly viable top to bottom alternative to some of the cloud providers today.” He includes projects like Puppet (Reductive Labs) and Hadoop in this mix, but is careful to point out that he doesn’t see a full-fledged, open-source alternative seriously challenging the closed platforms of Google, Amazon, Salesforce, and the other mega-clouds.”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

Many outlets are reporting on the recently released results of the various experiments and observations of NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander. Most notable is the discovery of nighttime snowfall on the planet, lending credibility to the idea of an active water cycle hypothesized based on earlier data collection. “The papers rely on evidence from a variety of the instruments on the lander, and the description of the data provides an impressive catalog of the various ways that Phoenix could prod and query the Martian pole. In the months before Martian winter shut the lander down, it managed to dig a dozen trenches, taking soil samples from each. These samples went into wet and dry chemistry labs, had their conductivity tested, and were even examined using an atomic force microscope. Meanwhile, cameras and a LIDAR system (a laser-based range detector) scanned the surroundings. The overall conclusion is that the northern pole has an active water cycle. This had been suggested by a variety of evidence from orbital sensors, as well early images returned from Phoenix. It’s also not a huge shock, given the seasonal growth and retreat of the polar ice cap. Still, Phoenix provided some significant details on the cycling of water in the area where it landed.”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

1sockchuck writes “A major power outage at Seattle telecom hub Fisher Plaza has knocked payment processing provider Authorize.net offline for hours, leaving thousands of web site unable to take credit cards for online sales. The Authorize site is still down, but its Twitter account attributes the outage to a fire, while AdHost calls it a ’significant power event.’ Authorize.net is said to be trying to resume processing from a backup data center, but there’s no clear ETA on when Fisher Plaza will have power again.”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

The tradition of improvising a chess set from whatever’s on hand is probably as venerable as chess itself. Chess culture is chock-full of sets put together from odds and ends of every description, but here I’m only focusing on sets built from mechanical and electrical bits–mostly nuts, bolts, and washers of various flavors. If you’ve got a good one I missed, please do link it in the comments.

If you’re interested in making your own and want some guidance, Mother Earth News has a nice tutorial.

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Original post by Sean Michael Ragan

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We′ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we′ve got a Transformers Bumblebee Nintendo DS Starter Kit, which includes a protective Nintendo DS Lite Armor sleeve and universal stylus. We′ll also be throwing in a Megatron strylus just for fun! Read the rules below (no skimming — we′re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that′d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Transformers Nintendo DS Lite Starter Kit and one (1) Megatron stylus.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, July, 3rd, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Announcements

Engadget’s recession antidote: win a Transformers Nintendo DS Lite Armor case and stylus! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Laura June

An anonymous reader writes “Now that some little time has passed, and the hype has died down a bit, I’m wondering if anyone has taken the $500 plunge and gotten a Kindle DX. From the academic-paper-reading-geek perspective, is it worth the money? How well does it work with PDFs, and is it easy to get them on and off? I haven’t been able to find any good reviews on the interweb that address its usability as I would like to use it.”

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Original post by timothy

Engineers are one step closer to developing an optical computer, following the successful creation of an optical transistor from a single molecule.

Original post by Gearlog

It’s your holiday weekend America — how are you going to spend it? We’ll tell you how: by listening to Engadget Podcast 153 over, and over, and over. What better way to utilize your extra day off and barbecue-packed good times than by putting Josh, Paul, and Nilay on repeat for you (and your friends′) enjoyment? Check out the ‘cast this week as the boys explore the ups and downs of the Olympus E-P1, Dell’s MID plans, and field a handful of questions from our handsome, intelligent, and just basically awesome listeners. You won’t be disappointed.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Virt - Katamari on the Rock

Hear the podcast

00:02:10 - Olympus E-P1 hands-on, test shots, and mini-review
00:10:26 - Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 gets officially detailed, priced for US market
00:14:22 - Wii MotionPlus impressions: it works, but so far the games aren’t worth the fuss
00:24:45 - Dell working on iPod touch-esque Android MID, says WSJ
00:32:08 - Android 1.5 gets official SDK for native development
00:38:10 - Video: Mobinnova élan sporting a custom Tegra UI
00:47:30 - Video: NVIDIA Tegra’s GPU gets busy with HD video and full-screen Flash — Intel 945GSE shrugs, kicks dirt
00:47:30 - Verizon BlackBerry Tour unboxing
00:50:17 - BlackBerry Tour hands-on, wild sibling confrontation with Curve and Bold
00:53:00 - RIM CEO: “SurePress is here to stay”
00:57:00 - 13-year-old trades iPod for Walkman, reports on mysterious ancient artifact
01:04:55 - iPhone 3GS review
01:07:15 - Palm Pre review

Subscribe to the podcast

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
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Download the podcast

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Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 153 - 07.03.2009: Independence Day edition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Trent Wolbe

Most cell phones are provided with a very basic wall-wart charger, and you usually have to pay extra for a proper charging dock. The bundled charger is often unsightly in use, being just a transformer with a cord strung out to an end table or something where the cell phone rests. If you have a cat who likes to chew through cords, as I do, this can be more than just inelegant–it can be totally impractical. It’s also a good project if you just hate, for aesthetic reasons, loose power cords strung out across the furniture.

A similar product is for sale at ThinkGeek, and that’s where I got the idea. The nice thing about my version is that it requires no tools to mount or demount, being suspended by the plug on the charger itself. So you can quickly move it around to whatever outlet you want or take it with you when you travel. Plus it costs all of nothing to build.

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Original post by Sean Michael Ragan

You have to ask whether they’ve really thought this through: using a giant robot rat to find disaster survivors. Victims might just decide to stay where they are.

Original post by Gearlog

Jake Lazaroff writes “According to the ͩ News Archive, the charter for the XHTM˺ Working Group &mdash set to expire on December 31st, 2009 &mdash will not be renewed. What does this mean? XHTM˺ will never be a ͩC recommendation, so get on the HTML 5 bandwagon now. According to the XHTML FAQ, however, the ͩC does ‘plan for the XML serialization of HTML to remain compatible with XML.’ Looks like with HTML 5, we’ll get the best of both worlds.”

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Original post by timothy