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Continue reading The state of household robots in Japan: looking pretty great

The state of household robots in Japan: looking pretty great originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that the Nintendo 3DS is announced using a parallax barrier display, we bet that many of you were hoping to see a 10-inch 3D tablet or laptop with a similar glasses-less display. Hell, we were… until we actually saw Sharp’s prototype 10.6-inch parallax barrier display here at IFA in Berlin. Unfortunately, the panel at this larger size suffers from some very serious vertical shadows (check the video) unless you’re right in the sweet spot and alligned with the barrier’s precision slits at a distance of about 20 inches. Even then, it’s very hard to maintain your position, and the 3D effect isn’t all that dazzling. Fortunately, this 3D (640 x 768) panel also functions in 2D (1280 x 728) mode. Guess a 3D tablet that requires glasses isn’t so crazy after all. Wait, yes it is.

Continue reading Sharp’s 10.6-inch parallax barrier display makes us love our 3D glasses (video)

Sharp’s 10.6-inch parallax barrier display makes us love our 3D glasses (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to Apple’s UK website, iOS 4.1 will hit on Wednesday, September 8th. The US website still displays the non-committal “Coming Soon” message, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled. We’re going to go ahead and guess that all those shiny new iPods will come to retail that day too… but don’t hold us to that one. Like we said, it’s only a guess.

[Thanks, Luca]

iOS 4.1 confirmed for September 8th on Apple’s UK website originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not much happened this week apart from a local fruit company holding a small event, a minor industry get-together in Germany, and Samsung releasing a giant Galaxy S. Yeah, yawn. Josh, Paul, and Nilay will be on hand at 4:30PM EST to talk it all over, so get cozy in the chat below and we’ll see you then!

P.S. And don’t forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone clients as well, if you’re out and about and you can’t join in on the Flash-based fun below.

Update: It’s over, and man, that was a crazy one. Don’t worry if you missed it, we’ll have the regular podcast post up tomorrow!

The Engadget Podcast, live at 4:30PM EST! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we first caught wind of LG’s “180-inch plasma” we were understandably enthused (and just a little skeptical), but our excitement was quickly ruined with word that LG was merely sticking nine 600Hz 60-inch plasmas next to each other and calling it a day. We got a glimpse at the “multi-vision display” (LG shorthand for “a bunch of screens next to each other”) today, and it’s still decently impressive in its own right. LG’s managed to get the seams between the screens down to a mere 1.5mm, and while the lines are still noticeable, they could be a lot worse. While they lines certainly get in the way of entertainment, it actually provides an interesting effect when donning the 3D glasses — almost highlighting the effect of depth. LG has some pretty boring plans for the screens, like digital signage and education, and we’ll be sticking to projectors for our big screen needs, but we’re still saying a 180-inch straight-up, no funny business plasma would be pretty stellar.

LG’s 180-inch plasma that wasn’t originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Straight from the crack team of tweakologists at Cocoanuts comes YourTube HD 1.2, with newly-minted support for importing downloads directly to your iPod library! Much like its smaller sibling, YourTube 2 (available soon!), YourTube HD will be able to seamlessly integrate your favourite YouTube videos with your mobile media machine! Our …

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YourTube HD 1.2 – Add To Library!

Maybe we’re a bunch of idiots, but while the Flip and its ultra-simple camcorder ilk have certainly made shooting video simpler and more accessible for the masses, we still find many of these cameras surprisingly unintuitive or just “blah” at doing what they do (Kodak’s otherwise excellent Zi8 and PlaySport cameras come to mind) when it comes to UI. After playing with the horrendous Flip Slide HD, we were almost sure touchscreens would act as another obstacle to using these things, but of all people, Sony has come to the rescue. We found the original Bloggie line very unimpressive, but this new Bloggie Touch crop is exactly as easy to use as you’d imagine a one button device would be.

That big record button on the front? You press it, and it records stuff. The responsive touchscreen UI takes care of secondary issues, like playing back that stuff you recorded, swapping resolution (it shoots at up to 1080p), setting a timer, and more detailed settings, with four well placed icons, while a touch slider operates the digital zoom. If you hold the camera like a still camera and tap the camera shutter button now naturally placed on the top you can take 12.8 megapixel stills (okay, we lied, there are two buttons, three if you count the on / off button). Despite the slim, sexy design of the camera, Sony still worked in a pop-out USB plug and a full sized HDMI jack. Even the $180 / $200 price (for 4GB or 8GB of storage) is surprisingly good. Just a reminder, in case you’d forgotten: the Bloggie Touch is built by Sony. We’ll be looking forward to its October launch.

Sony Bloggie Touch preview: an actually simple ’simple camcorder’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The problem with the future is that it’s always 3 to 5 years away. Nevertheless, what you’re looking at is what Philips and Dimenco, a small company of ex-Philips engineers, say will be coming to the consumer television market as early as 2013 — earlier if you’re in the professional advertising business or just want to view your family photos on a small 3D photo frame. Just remember that Philips has been showing off variations of the glasses-free technology behind this prototype lenticular lens television for years, so we’re not getting our hopes up. Nevertheless, Dimenco assured us that the path to the consumer market for its 3D display is clear.

So how did it look? Well, it was ok, we guess. It doesn’t have that in-your-face pop of the current generation of 3D televisions that require 3D glasses. The effect is more subtle (or maybe the content was). Our biggest problem was with the sharpness of the display. Although the 56-inch prototype CCFL LCD was 4k (that’s 4 times the resolution of your Full HD TV) the image we saw was coarse in appearance due to the lenticular lens required to refract the left and right images for each eye. Having said that, the lenticular lens technology used is certainly better suited for non-stationary viewing. While the border around objects on the screen tended to shift quickly and blur (see the video after the break) when looking at the panel frombetween any of its 15 viewing angles (spread across a 120-degree arc), at least it didn’t exhibit those horrible dark vertical bands seen when changing your angle even slightly while viewing 3D panels based on the parallax barrier method of glasses-less 3D. Still, it was hard to find the viewing sweet spot and honestly, given the option to sit in front of this display and a 4k panel “limited” to 2D, we’d have to opt for the latter. Get back to us in 3 to 5 and see if we feel the same.

Continue reading Philips Dimenco glasses-less 3D TV of the future, hopefully our future

Philips Dimenco glasses-less 3D TV of the future, hopefully our future originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We still have memories — some would say nightmares, but we digress — of hanging out at a neighbor’s house and taking turns playing matches of Mario’s Tennis, our biological ocular displays assimilated into a rubber mask that engulfed our brains and left us in a permanent state of viewing the world in red wireframe. Crude 3D though it may be, it’s still a part of history we must accept, and if you happen to own a Virtual Boy, we have just two things to say to you. One: we’re insanely jealous. Two: if you ever need to know how to rip it to shreds for repair / stress relief, iFixit’s got you covered. In the world of Man with Screwdriver vs. Game Console, yet again Man wins. Seems a perfect ending to a week that featured Atari 2600, Nintendo Famicon, RCA Studio II, and Magnavox Odyssey 100. Check out highlights in the gallery below, or hit up iFixit for the whole shebang.

iFixit celebrates Friday with teardown of Virtual Boy, the greatest game console man has ever known originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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