Last week we gave the Apple loyalists in attendance a chance to rip and rag the iPhone 4, and this time around we’re doing the same for Motorola’s best frienemies. The Droid X is without question the largest Droid in the family today, and calling it a showstopper on Verizon would probably be understating things. Now that it’s been on the market a few months, we’re curious to know how you early adopters like (or dislike) it. Did the massive screen end up being too large for comfort? Anything you’d tweak software-wise? How’s the VZW service been? Might your world change if Android 2.2 ever hits in official fashion? Go on and let us know how you’d alter this behemoth down in comments below — but give it some real thought first, cool? Cool.

How would you change Motorola’s Droid X? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the wide-collared world of the 1970s, it wasn’t yet clear whether the future of interactive technology would rest in the hands of the PC or video game companies (I attribute this confusion to excessive exposure to ABBA combined with the well-documented brain-melting effects of Three’s Company plots). But most of my early exposure to electronics certainly came from the latter camp. We had the original Pong game and the triangular, holster-housing Telstar Arcade. I stared with mouth agape as my adult cousin received an Atari 2600 for his birthday (no fair!). For my birthday a few years later, my parents got me an Intellivision.

The flame wars between Intellivision and Atari were the Mac vs. PC arguments of their day, and George Plimpton was the closest thing the Intellivision fans had to Steve Jobs. I would take pictures of the screen for some Astrosmash contest Mattel Electronics ran as well, to obtain different rainbow-adorned badges from Activision for games like Kaboom!, Freeway! and River Raid! In any case, video game consoles weren’t the only extra box that graced our TVs. One day, a beige box showed up with a simple switch that transitioned between the broadcast channels we received and a new service delivered via microwave transmission. It was called Home Box Office.

Continue reading Growing up Geek: Ross Rubin

Growing up Geek: Ross Rubin originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Calvin, who needs a replacement for his recently broken Switztool 6-piece screwdriver kit. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I’ve always used a Switztool 6-piece screwdriver for my computer work. I love how it retracts all the bits into the screwdriver. But it just bit the dust after a very heavy fall. Just want to know from other fellow readers: what’s the best screwdriver (or kit) out there for DIY computer work and electronics hacking?”

Quite an interesting question, indeed. We’d probably recommend a kit with a 00-sized Philips screwdriver for getting those laptop bolts out from the casing, but desktop-specific ones are certainly allowed. And… go!

Ask Engadget: best screwdriver kit for DIY computer work? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, you’ve been waiting for a Mophie Juice Pack for your iPhone 4? You’re not alone. Well, we have word that it’ll be available as soon as next week for $79. We even managed to get hands on with a prototype that looked and felt pretty tight considering the fact that it doubles the iPhone’s non-removable battery. The Juice Pack Air features pass-through USB charging and sync with iTunes, an integrated 4 LED charge status, and a standby switch the shuts off the juice turning the appendage into a rather attractive (albeit, heavy with a 1500mAh capacity battery), soft-grip case. Now you know.

Mophie Juice Pack Air: coming to double your iPhone 4 battery next week originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m proud to announce Hack3rcon, the official Hackers For Charity conference. In this day and age, it’s hard to justify another conference. But the fact is that small, local “minicons” are critical to our community. They’re great paces to network, meet new people and learn without the expense associated with the bigger cons. Hack3rcon boasts great speakers, excellent events and a great heart — proceeds will support the efforts of Hackers For Charity.

The con will take place on Oct 23-24, 2010 at the Charleston Civic Center, alongside CharCon, a gaming conference that will interest many of you as well. Tickets are $40 for the whole weekend.

We will have an HFC booth set up where we’ll be selling shirts, vinyls and thanks to Muts and the Offensive Security team, we will giving away BackTrack 4 RC1 DVD’s.

Hack3rcon will focus on low-level tool-centric “how to” talks and not high-level awareness. Current Speakers include:

1. Dave Kennedy a.k.a. Rel1k
2. Adrian Crenshaw a.k.a. Iron Geek
3. Dennis Boas  **classified**   =)
4. Martin Bos a.k.a purehate
5. Pwrcycle
…and many others.

Lee Baird will be facilitating a Hacker Village, where you can get  hands-on training through instructional labs from an experienced mentor.

Irongeek will be running a capture the flag contest for you to try out your skills for a chance to win a fully loaded netbook.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, network and have fun while doing something positive for the world around you.

If you’ve been holding yourself back during these early rounds of the smartphone wars in anticipation of Windows Phone 7, your wait just got a tiny bit shorter. Today Microsoft is announcing that its fancy new mobile operating system has been released to manufacturing, making the idea of you holding an actual WP7 device in your hands that much closer to reality. The finished product is now rolling out to partners around the world where it will be getting carrier and manufacturer tweaks and additions, and going through the kind of pre-launch testing you would expect for a release of this scale. If you had any doubt that the Windows Phone 7 onslaught was close at hand, feel free to abandon them now.

Furthermore, the folks on the 7 team have managed to cram a few last minute goodies into the OS, one of which we’re particularly excited about. As you probably know from our in-depth preview of an early version of the software, we had a lot of issues with overflowing Facebook contacts in our phone. Microsoft has now solved that problem by enabling a contact filter system which looks for pre-existing matches to your Facebook contacts. If it doesn’t find a match, it doesn’t pull that contact into your address book (kind of like how Android filters Facebook friends). It’s a welcome addition and should make the Facebook / Windows Phone 7 combo a lot more palatable to a lot of people. Furthermore, Microsoft has added functionality into the People Hub which will allow you to “like” someone’s posts, and you’ll be able to comment directly onto someone’s Wall right in the hub. The company has also made tweaks and fixes focusing on feature discoverability (another issue we pointed out in the early look), along with the expected set of polishing and finish you’d expect from a product that’s gone gold master.

Windows Phone 7 goes gold master, begins rolling out to partners for final launch preparations originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve didn’t mention it during his keynote just now, but in addition to bringing AirPlay music streaming to iOS 4.2 and iTunes 10, Apple’s also opening the tech up to third parties, with a few big names already on board. That means you’ll be able to stream music from iTunes, your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to speaker docks, receivers and stereos from companies like Denon, Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, JBL and iHome, complete with song, album, and artist info and album art. That certainly makes the system much more flexible, especially since you can stream to multiple speakers at once — and damn, building a mix-and-match whole-house audio system just got incredibly easy. We’re definitely digging for more info on this and some release dates for compatible gear, we’ll let you know.

[Thanks, Iain]

Apple’s AirPlay music streaming coming to third party speaker docks, receivers, and stereos originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs just pulled out the world famous “one more thing” for nothing other than… a new Apple TV. It’s now a streaming-focused device (as we predicted months ago) in a small matte black enclosure we’re calling “the hockey puck.” It has HDMI, Ethernet, optical audio, and USB plugs around back, and of course 802.11n for the cable-averse. Inside there ain’t much — there’s no local storage, which makes this thing an entirely different beast than old Apple TVs, relying entirely on the “cloud” for content. Those new streaming HD TV rentals from ABC and Fox will be a mere 99 cents, while first run HD movies will be a less thrilling $4.99. Other services include Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, and Mobile Me, along with Rotten Tomatoes integration in the movie catalog. You can also stream from your computer, if you miss those old hard drive-sourced days of yore, but iOS 4.2’s AirPlay also enables streaming from an iPad straight to an Apple TV for something much more surreal. The best news? Apple will start shipping this sucker four weeks from now for $99.

Update: We just got confirmation from Apple that the new Apple TV will be streaming 720p video only (no big surprise there), and that existing Apple TVs won’t be getting an upgrade to the new cloud-based software (again, not a shocker).

Update 2: Can’t imagine life without a 160GB hard drive? The original Apple TV is still on sale at the Apple Store for $149. [Thanks, Josh]

Continue reading The new Apple TV for $99

The new Apple TV for $99 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Current iPod touch wasn’t thin enough for you? Look no further than… well, the new iPod touch just announced today. Naturally, Apple has re-upped its “iPhone without the phone” to include the Retina Display from the iPhone 4, an Apple A4 core, 3-axis gyroscope, Game Center, and FaceTime support thanks to the addition of a front cam. Oh, and speaking of cams, it’s also got a rear cam capable of HD video — but you’ll be paying a bit more than you will for that cute little nano: $229 for 8GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB (yep, 16GB and 128GB are both no-shows). Ships next week, pre-orders start today; follow the break for the full press release.

Check out our full live coverage here!

Continue reading iPod touch gets revamped: retina display, FaceTime, HD video recording

iPod touch gets revamped: retina display, FaceTime, HD video recording originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has just revealed its 6th generation iPod nano, which has been outfitted with just about the boldest redesign the portable media player has experienced yet. Gone is the clickwheel, to be replaced with a touchscreen interface and a shuffle-esque square form factor. It’s now 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter. Hard volume buttons on the side and a clip on the back provide the minimal hardware accouterments to that multitouch touchscreen, while the inside provides enough juice for 24 hours of audio playback. Seven total color variants will be up for grabs, including a Product RED option, with prices set at $149 for 8GB of storage or $179 for 16GB and pre-orders being taken today.

P.S. — If you were looking for that awesome camera the nano used to have, stop. It ain’t there anymore. We’ve also noted that there’s no video playback to be found anymore, either.

Continue reading iPod nano redesigned: smaller, lighter, better and costing $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB

iPod nano redesigned: smaller, lighter, better and costing $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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