Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Don’t worry, after gorging yourself on yesterday’s turkey, you don’t have to move much to take advantage of these deals. Check out Gearlog’s online finds for Black Friday.

1.This is a great find for TV and movie collectors. Best Buy is having a sale on box sets of movies and DVDs. Get at least 50 percent off of great collections like the 6-disc set of Rambo or the entire Sex and the City collection. [Via Bargainist.com]

2. I usually post something from Amazon’s Friday specials, but since it’s Black Friday, Amazon is definitely having some good sales today. You can get DVDs and CDs for as low as $4.99 each. There’s really way too many deals going on here, so make sure to check out Amazon’s Web site.

3. Ambient Devices is offering 20 percent to 30 percent off of select items with the coupon code INTHEKNO∅. This offer includes Baseball ScoreCast, Football ScoreCast, the 7-Day Forecaster (above), and the Ambient Umbrella. These deal lasts until December 16, so you have a little bit more time, but don’t wait too long.

And finally, don’t miss PCMag.com’s Ultimate Bargain Hunt–exclusive discounts for games, gadgets, software, and hardware from a bunch of our favorite companies, just for today.

Original post by Jennifer Bergen

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hope you’re eager to break into that Halloween candy early, because you’ve got some (re)celebrating to do. If you’ll recall, we first heard that laptops accounted for over half of US retail computer sales back in 2003, and in June of 2005, we found that it was somehow worth getting jazzed over once more when it happened again. Here we are in the latter half of 2008 shaking our heads in disappointment, as IDC has amazingly discovered that notebook shipments into the US market have exceeded the 50% threshold for the first time evar. Go ahead and stock up on rave supplies early — we get this weird feeling that we’ll be doing this same song and dance in 2010 or so.

[Image courtesy of DayLife]

Laptop shipments exceed desktops in US for the not-exactly-first time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Networking

Alright Minneapolis, you’ve had your fun. Now it’s time for another swath of Comcast markets to indulge in the lavish joys that only DOCSIS 3.0 can provide. For those unaware, the aforesaid technology enables 50Mbps internet to be delivered over the cable company’s infrastructure, which brings it up to speed (ahem) with offerings by fiber-based carriers Verizon and AT&ampT. In the next few weeks, the DOCSIS 3.0-based “Extreme 50″ option will bring 50Mbps up / 5Mbps down to subscribers in parts of New England, Philadelphia and New Jersey. Better still, the company announced its intentions to bring the $139.95 per month service to ten other big markets where it will reach “about 10 million homes and businesses in the next few months.” Oh, and if that’s just too much intarwebz for you to handle, an “Ultra” 22Mbps downstream service will be available for $62.95 per month.

[Via Reuters, image courtesy of TheRedWoodMotel]

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Original post by Darren Murph

New storage products usually involve gadgets that are bigger, faster and cheaper as disk drives keep packing in more and more data and prices keep on dropping.

However, EMC’s Iomega, well-known for such personal disk storage products as the Zip and Jaz drives, is coming out with new products that are smaller — yet “bigger” in capacity — and cheaper.

Iomega recently introduced the StorCenter ix2, a 1TB-capacity network storage drive with a desktop footprint that the company describes as “smaller than a large dictionary.” The price: $300.   (Cheap, cheap …)

The StorCenter iҲ comes in 1TB and 2TB ($479) versions and provides a centralized network storage repository that can be used in the home to share, secure and protect data and files, including databases, photos, MP3 files, videos and financial records.

It’s ridiculous how cheap these things are, but it is what it is. It’s a great value for the consumer.

The iҲ includes built-in support for Bluetooth, UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certified devices; it even sports an integrated iTunes server.

The ix2 includes security software from RSA, also owned by EMC.

More at eWeek.com.

Tags: bluetooth, data, emc, iomega, rsa, storage, storcenter ix2

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets, Household

We already know that a solid chunk of Britons use mobile internet while in the throes of passion, and now Captain Obvious (today known as Nokia) has awkwardly landed to tell the world that Americans do too. A recent survey, which we can only imagine was absolutely thrilling to conduct, found that some 53% of working Americans “have been interrupted by a work-related phone call or e-mail while in the bathroom.” Furthermore, some 23% have allowed a call / e-mail to interrupt them while on a date, but that’s probably because 59% of those polled never, ever turn off their mobile. Just think — the next time your buddy answers with a hint of stress in his / her voice, there’s a statistically significant chance that you’re barging in on some seriously personal business.

[Image courtesy of Flickr]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets, Household

We already know that a solid chunk of Britons use mobile internet while in the throes of passion, and now Captain Obvious (today known as Nokia) has awkwardly landed to tell the world that Americans do too. A recent survey, which we can only imagine was absolutely thrilling to conduct, found that some 53% of working Americans “have been interrupted by a work-related phone call or e-mail while in the bathroom.” Furthermore, some 23% have allowed a call / e-mail to interrupt them while on a date, but that’s probably because 59% of those polled never, ever turn off their mobile. Just think — the next time your buddy answers with a hint of stress in his / her voice, there’s a statistically significant chance that you′re barging in on some seriously personal business.

[Image courtesy of fletchy182]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Call us devilish, but we just can′t help but love these types of stories. Here we have yet another overly confident group of researchers grossly underestimating the collective power of the hacking underground, as gurus from all across Europe have joined together to announce “the first commercial communication network using unbreakable encryption based on quantum cryptography.” Interestingly enough, quantum cryptography has already been cracked in a kinda-sorta way, but that’s not stopping these folks from pushing this claim hard to government agencies, financial institutions and companies with distributed subsidiaries. We’ve no doubt this stuff is pretty secure, but the last time we heard someone utter a claim similar to this, we saw him uncomfortably chowing down on those very words merely months later.

[Via Physorg]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

JVC has pushed out a release today clarifying some of the claims it made back at CEDIA 2008, and by and large, it’s things that prospective buyers will want to hear. The company introduced an HD foursome of projectors in Denver earlier this month, but apparently, some of the specifications it included weren′t, shall we say, final. Looking specifically at contrast ratio, we see the DLA-HD750 and DLA-HD20 jumping from 30,000:1 to 50,000:1, the DLA-RS10 going from 17,000:1 to 32,000:1 and the DLA-HD350 doubling up from 15,000:1 to 30,000:1. Also of note, JVC is now highlighting the 16-step fixed aperture in the DLA-HD750 and DLA-RS20 that “helps eliminate extraneous light that can reduce contrast levels and allows adjustment of brightness to suit user preferences.” As for updated prices, you can expect to pay around $6,000 for the DLA-HD350, while the DLA-HD750, DLA-RS10 and DLA-RS20 come in at $8,000, $6,000 and $8,000 in order of mention.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Well, wouldn’t you know it? Just after we bash Qualcomm for talking up its second color mirasol-based design before shipping the first, along comes a little justification of our actions. Over in San Francisco, said company is trumpeting an item that we first heard about back in May, but regrettably, it doesn’t sound as if we’re any closer to getting a release date. What we are told is the device’s name: the Freestyle Audio Soundwave Ltd. Edition, or — more formally — the FA300. It′ll boast a 0.9-inch color mirasol display, a waterproof casing, built-in Bluetooth, and a whole host of other niceties that we’re sure to find out about before the next decade dawns. ‘Til then, we’d suggest a hearty helping of patience.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Robots

Your regular, inefficient robot legs getting you down? Maybe you should check in with researcher Jonathan Hurst and his robo-leg project under development at Oregon State University. Apparently most jointed legs driven by motors have a tough time recycling energy due to a lack of snapback from proper tendons, but Hurst’s work hopes to clear all that noise up. By utilizing a new design powered by steel cable tendons with built-in springs, roboticists want to get closer to the 40 percent retention of energy our fancy human legs get up to. While a student at CMU, Hurst created “Thumper,” a single leg attached to a boom that puts his theories in motion, and he’s collaborated on bi-pedal models more recently. The hope is to eventually create robots with more natural, animal-like gaits, which will allow them to run towards or chase their human victims and terminate them with a more ruthless intensity. Check the video after the break to see exactly what we mean.

[Via Medgadget]

Continue reading New robot leg design becomes more human, more deadly

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

There are other ways to view the stars than sitting outside in the cold. Sega already produces the Homestar series of planetarium projectors for the living room, but now it’s upping the ante with the Homestar EXTRA, targeted more at commercial/educational institutions but also to those that have around £350-400 to spare when it launches in December. First off, the EXTRA has 5 times the illumination of the Homestar Pro, which means you don’t have to be sitting in the dark to see the galaxies of stars on your ceiling. They say it will work fine, even with some light in the room. Not only that, we are talking about a serious increase in the number of stars and clusters on offer. The Pro came with a very respectable 10,000, but the EXTRA boasts from 45,000-120,000. These improvements help explain why the new Homestar is bigger than its cousins. The old shooting star function has also been tweaked so that the location changes along with the timing. While this is perfect for amateur stargazers and entertaining the rugrats, there are stoners out there who have just realised what Santa is bringing them for Christmas.-Martin Lynch [Kilian-Nakamura] gadget astronomy

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

The fun has just begun in the Mile High City for Runco, which has followed up its outlandish flat-panel announcement with a replacement to the fabled VX-2 projector. The 3-chip VideoXtreme VX-8 is squarely aimed at those with fat wallets and the word “videophile” stitched into their Ralph Lauren scarfs, evidenced by the superfluous (but very appreciated) video processing capabilities via DHD with Vivix and three SuperOnyx DMDs. Additionally, you′ll find the outfit’s ConstantContrast tech, which delivers frame-by-frame contrast correction, while the CorrectColor brings “complete color calibration for D65 perfection.” For more technobabble on the January-bound unit, hit up the read link — but before you waste your time, let us remind you that this will cost $19,995.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Sony’s 400-disc BD Mega Changer was just a small part of what it had going on at CEDIA, and we couldn’t pass up the chance to photograph its two newest SXRD BRAVIA beamers. The VPL-V≂ and VPL-H∆ projectors didn’t look all that different than previous units in the family, with smooth lines, a rather large body and all of the ports conveniently tucked on one side. At $8,000 and $3,500 (respectively), they ain’t cheap, but even those tags are minuscule compared to similar units just a few years back. Have a closer look in the gallery here at Engadget HD.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Well, took ‘em long enough! Just about a year after JVC initially demonstrated the 4k x 2k DLA-SH4K projector, the firm has finally got up the courage to begin shipments. The beastly device is based on the company’s proprietary 1.27-inch 10 megapixel D-ILA technology and provides a brain-melting native 4,096 x 2,400 resolution. Packed within is a 825-Xenon lamp that generates light output of 3,500 ANSI lumens (and likely murders your energy bill). ‘Round back, you′ll find four DVI-D (dual-link) terminals, an RS-232C port, USB connections and an Ethernet jack for making adjustments via a web browser. We are told it’s available immediately, though we aren’t told the price chances are we couldn’t fit that many zeros into this space, anyway. Full release is waiting beyond the break.

Continue reading JVC ships 4k x 2k DLA-SH4K 10-megapixel HD projector

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Look, we aren’t kvetching about yet another 1080p projector for under two grand, but Epson’s getting a tad carried away by claiming that its PowerLite Home Cinema 6100 is the first 1080p PJ under $2k. Sanyo’s $1,995 PLV-Z700 notwithstanding, this 3LCD beamer is still a pretty good value, offering up a 1,920 x 1,080 native resolution, 18,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and Epson’s exclusive Dynamic Iris system, which allows light to be controlled precisely on a frame-by-frame basis. Additionally, the E-TORL lamp delivers 1,800 lumens to light up even a mildly lit room, and the 22dB operation should keep most folks sufficiently pleased with noise output. As for ports, you’ll find two HDMI 1.3a sockets, an S-Video / composite jack and a VGA connector. Check it this November for $1,999.

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Original post by Darren Murph