Author Archives: droidmike

Sprint introduces My Wireless STS service to assist folks with speech disabilities

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

Sprint’s had text-to-speech services on devices like the Samsung Epic 4G for quite some time, and now, looking to build up on that, the company’s introducing its My Wireless STS feature. The new speech-to-speech service aims to help people with speech disabilities by giving them access to an operator-assisted line every day of the week and all year round. Folks wanting to use the My Wireless STS will have to dial *787 from their device, after which a Now Network rep will start a call and repeat every spoken word — or ones that are unclear — depending on users choice. Relay Director, Michael Ellis, says Sprint is “the first in the industry to bring this service to market,” and that the project was developed closely with the help of speech disabled communities. If you’re interested in learning more, there’s a mighty presser waiting on you just past the break

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Tagged mobilepostmini, my wireless sts, my wireless sts service, past-the-break, samsung-epic, speech to speech, speech-disabled, sts, the now network, wireless sts

NHK and JVC develop 120fps Super Hi-Vision projector

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

If your cine-cave is already decked out with the Super Hi-Vision display , the Super Hi-Vision camera , and the Super Hi-Vision-supping antenna , we guess you just need the 120fps Super Hi-Vision projector to complete the set? Guess what? Working with JVC, NHK has developed just that. It might not be much to look at, but that hunk of tech up there comes with the extra frame rate that also makes it play fast nice with the sensor technology NHK was kind enough to develop first. The projector will be giving its first public demos on May 24th , and we hope that 7680 x 4320 resolution will make all those hi-res skate-slams come out a charm. Continue reading NHK and JVC develop 120fps Super Hi-Vision projector NHK and JVC develop 120fps Super Hi-Vision projector originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 15:29:00 EDT.

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Tagged 120fps, develop-120fps, entry, first-public, hi-speed, highresolution, jvc, makes-it-play, need-the-120fps, nhk, super, super hi-vision, superhi-vision, your-cine-cave

ZTE confirms the Score M has a backdoor, hopes to patch up soon

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

Who knew that owning a ZTE Score M would mean living life on the edge? ZTE has confirmed that the MetroPCS phone has a backdoor vulnerability which could let a less-than-scrupulous hacker get root-level control over the Android 2.3 phone — and because it’s a unique app baked into the firmware, the login credentials won’t change as long as the exploit survives. Other ZTE phones, like the Skate , supposedly face the same hole as well. The company says it should have a patch ready to push over the air in the “very near future,” but it hasn’t said why the app existed in the first place. Either way, if you currently pocket the Score M or one of ZTE’s other recent Android devices, we’d keep watch for any suspicious goings-on until a fix is in place

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Tagged cellphone, cellphones, change-as-long, entry, exploits, hole-as-well, metropcs, over-the-air, score, skate, zte score m, zte skate

Google patent application could give Project Glass one true ring controller to rule them all

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

Let’s face it: right now, the head nods and other rudimentary controls of Google’s Project Glass are mostly useful for looking good , sharing photos and not much else . A US patent application submitted last September and just now published, however, raises the possibility of more sophisticated control coming from your hands. A ring, a bracelet or a even a fake fingernail with an infrared-reflective layer would serve as a gesture control marker for a receiver on heads-up display glasses. Having this extra control would give the glasses-mounted computing room to grow by learning gestures, and it could even depend on multiple ornaments for more sophisticated commands — at least, if you don’t mind looking like a very nerdy Liberace . We can imagine the headaches a hand-based method might cause for very enthusiastic talkers, among other possible hiccups, so don’t be surprised if Project Glass goes without any kind of ring input.

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Google patent application could give Project Glass one true ring controller to rule them all

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Tagged bracelets, google project glass, handgestures, heads-up display, hud, patent, projectglass, uspto, wearablecomputer

Plex shows you how to make your TV shows look great with its new Local Media Agent

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

Out friends at Plex have shuttled out a new Local Media Agent that’ll enable you to make your TV shows look great. The updated software lets you add show and season posters, banners, background art, theme music and individual episode thumbnails to your recorded shows to make each one really, really good-looking. It’ll happily handle PNG and FLAC files for those lossless enthusiasts and it’ll even overlook a messy file structure to get everything looking great. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to catalog our Community episodes with thumbnails of Dean Pelton’s outfits. Plex shows you how to make your TV shows look great with its new Local Media Agent originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 09:41:00 EDT

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Tagged banners, even-overlook, get-everything, happily-handle, local media agent, local-media, plexmediacenter, season pictures, seasonpictures, xbmc, your-recorded

Distro Issue 41: a visit to the Lowcountry’s Twelve South, TiVo Premiere XL4 and HTC EVO 4G LTE

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

It’s the most wonderful time of the week once again, pals. Like most seven-day periods, this one comes to a close with the latest issue of our e-magazine for your gadget reading pleasure. Front and center this time around, our own Darren Murph pays a visit to the South Carolina HQ of accessory maker Twelve South to chat about making a big splash while staying small. On the review side of things, we take a gander at the TiVo Premiere XL4 and the HTC EVO 4G LTE to see how they stack up and we go hands-on with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Sounder’s iOS app. Reaction Time makes an appearance too — taking a long look at Max Payne 3 while listing this week’s must-have game releases.

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Distro Issue 41: a visit to the Lowcountry’s Twelve South, TiVo Premiere XL4 and HTC EVO 4G LTE

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Tagged dustin-harbin, dvr, engadget distro, issue41, reactiontime, review, switched on, tablet-magazine, twelve-south, weekly magazine

Insert Coin: Chameleon adaptive home screen replacement for Android tablets

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line. If you’re an Android tablet owner, you’re likely very familiar with the drill: after you unlock the device, you’re presented with a static home screen full of apps and widgets, which may or may not be relevant to your current need

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Insert Coin: Chameleon adaptive home screen replacement for Android tablets

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Tagged after-the-break, apps, chameleon, check-the-video, google play store, insertcoin, launcher, tablet, video

iRig Mix ships to iDevice-carrying DJs, Android app compatibility looks unlikely

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

If virtual DJs aren’t your thing, you might be pleased to hear that the iRig Mix mobile music mixer is now shipping. You can forgo hefty price tags and still mix your own tunes for $99.99 with up to two iDevices at a time, audio from guitars, MP3 players, CD players and the like. In addition to physical controls for volume, gain, treble and bass, the mixer is accompanied by a roster of free apps to help with production, performing and recording. For Android fans wondering where their own version of these apps are, IK Multimedia thinks the Android audio engine has too much latency ( check the comments section ) to handle its real-time processing, but consoles you with the fact that the hardware is compatible with most devices

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Tagged app, audio, audio-engine, entry, ios, ipad, ipod touch, irig mix, irigmix, mix, mixer, mobile-music, multimedia, press

Thefuture.fm launches iPhone app for discovering DJ mixtapes, hopes to steal Spotify’s thunder

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

Internet radio purveyors from Spotify to Rdio keep upping the ante with more playlist features and design overhauls , and the competition for your ears’ attention is only getting fiercer. One of the newest players is Thefuture.fm (formerly known as Dubset), which launched last month with a focus on DJ-curated mixtapes. Today the service outed its iPhone app, which includes a “smart search” feature for finding mixes by song or artist and lets users sync their web accounts with saved playlists for listening on the go

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Thefuture.fm launches iPhone app for discovering DJ mixtapes, hopes to steal Spotify’s thunder

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Tagged competition, formerly-known, iphoneapp, known-as-dubset, music-service, musicapp, musicapps, musicservices, rdio, thefuture.fm, upping-the-ante

Toshiba strains metaphors, carries its laptop range over the Ivy Bridge

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

Toshiba is announcing a slate of new machines that all sport Intel’s Ivy Bridge internals. The more austere Dynabook Qosmio T752 sheds the color-changing shell of its predecessor in favor of brushed aluminum. The AV-centric machine sports a TV Tuner and Blu-Ray drive in addition to its 15.6-inch LED-backlit 1366 x 768 display, a 1TB HDD and 8GB of RAM — all playing second fiddle to that 2.3GHz Core i7 CPU. You can also pick up the glasses-free 3D Qosmio T852 with an autostereoscopic display and a Dynabook T552, with all of those fun features stripped out, but promising a slightly (five hour) more longevous battery life. At the same time, the company is outing a Regaza home-entertainment PC that comes hitched to a 23-inch 1920 x 1080 display, the same 2.3GHz Ivy Bridge chip and a pair of TV tuners, one analog and one digital. We’ll see these arrive in stores in Japan starting May 25th, with pricing and availability over here currently in the wind

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Tagged dynabook, entry, glasses, its-15-6-inch, machine-sports, over-the-ivy, qosmio-t852, toshiba

Water-damaged Fujifilm X100 torn apart for fun and education (but mostly fun)

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

James Maher had the unfortunate luck of placing his bag and prized Fujifilm X100 in a “dry” container on a fishing trip that didn’t keep its contents very dry. Maher survived his harrowing voyage on the SS Hit ‘em Hard, but his camera did not. Thankfully, the photographer didn’t let his shooter die in vain

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Water-damaged Fujifilm X100 torn apart for fun and education (but mostly fun)

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Tagged adventure, camera, disabled, entry, fuji, fujifilm-x100, fujifilmx100, inside-the-x100, jamesmaher, teardown, time-dissecting

Liquidware debuts Amber, a customizable Android development tablet

Posted on May 18, 2012 by droidmike| Leave a comment

It’s likely overkill for those interested only in some basic tablet modding , but the folks from Liquidware ( no strangers to the DIY scene) have a new bit of kit that should please those looking to take on a more ambitious project. Dubbed simply Amber, the kit is described as “80 percent of the way to a tablet” — you’ll get a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, a 7-inch capacitive display and a customized version of Android 2.3, but no pesky casing to get in the way of any other additions you see fit to add. That convenience comes at a bit of a cost, though. The Amber will set you back anywhere from $983 to $1,674 depending on the kit you choose.

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Liquidware debuts Amber, a customizable Android development tablet

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Tagged amber enhanced, development kit, developmentkit, diy, industries, kit, likely-overkill, more-ambitious, should-please, video