Sure, Taito is a veritable grandfather of the arcade world, but ¥15,800 ($209) for a nostalgic iPad Space Invaders box with one lonely einzelkind fire button? Atari also has some standing in this business and its worthy alternative costs just $60, while even the genre-founding iCade now seems a bargain at $100. Anyways, check out the video after the break to see an old Japanese bloke waiting patiently for his refund.

Continue reading Taito InvaderCade for iPad brings invasive price tag (video)

Taito InvaderCade for iPad brings invasive price tag (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like the Samsung Hercules name won't live on in mobile infamy, after all. Canadian carrier Telus is now the second (and last) company to shed the Greek God title in favor of the more traditional Galaxy S II moniker -- albeit with its own unique twist, of course. The company's got an official page up for its forthcoming flagship, dubbed the "4G Samsung Galaxy S II X." Talk about a mouthful, right? The device mirrors T-Mobile's version rather closely, improving upon the original model with a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, HSPA+ download speeds of up to 42Mbps and -- here's where it gets interesting -- a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU. We're still unsure of the chipmaker responsible for supporting the AWS 4G radio, but our money's on the Qualcomm APQ8060. The ever-frustrating "coming soon" is attached to the page, which seems to be fairly common practice with new phones lately; regardless, we imagine enough people will be willing to forgive and forget once their future toy decides to show up.

4G Samsung Galaxy S II X coming to Telus, still as Herculean as ever originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We haven't heard much from outspoken former Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci since he left the company back in March of this year, but it looks like he's now ready to get back into the PC business in a slightly different role. Lenovo confirmed today that Lanci is joining the company as a consultant to "help develop and accelerate Lenovo's worldwide consumer business." Initially, those efforts will be mostly focused on Lenovo's integration of German PC manufacturer Medion, which it acquired in June for $907 million, but it sounds like this is more than just a short-term gig -- he does get to stay in Italy, though. Head on past the break for Lenovo's complete statement.

Continue reading Ex-Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci joins Lenovo as a consultant

Ex-Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci joins Lenovo as a consultant originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Downloaders of the Windows 8 Developer Preview have been proving their mettle the best way they know how: by getting it to run on systems it was never really intended for. Brent and the folks at Codesnack win the Real Utility trophy for their successful Boot Camp installs. Josh Blake gets the Damn I Look Good By Candlelight trophy for making the OS run on the MS Surface in his living room. Meanwhile, Marcin Grygiel has awarded himself the I'm HARDCORE!!! title for somehow getting it to run on a PC with just 128MB. Treat yourself to some intimate video evidence after the break.

[Thanks, Prashanth]

Continue reading Windows 8 ain't fussy: runs on Macs, Surface, 128MB RAM, banana peel (videos)

Windows 8 ain't fussy: runs on Macs, Surface, 128MB RAM, banana peel (videos) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world's largest mobile operator and the heretofore scrappy WiMAX provider have linked arms to accelerate the rollout and adoption of time-division LTE (TD-LTE) across China. While there's little chatter about an infrastructure build-up itself, China Mobile and Clearwire have established an agreement "to cultivate a robust device ecosystem that supports multi-mode, multi-band devices with minimum component complexity and cost," with particular emphasis on the common 2.5GHz spectrum. More specifically, the collaboration will work to build up a high volume of TD-LTE chipsets and devices for commercial availability in 2012. If Sprint were to purchase (or make a significant investment in) Clearwire, this deal could be especially important, but for the time being, the company is finding some independence from the uncomfortable love triangle that's brewing between itself, Sprint and LightSquared. While there's no telling what sort announcement will come on October 7th, it's nice to see Clearwire secure an international lover that's willing to commit to a shared LTE vision. You'll find the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Clearwire announces deal with China Mobile to accelerate TD-LTE deployment

Clearwire announces deal with China Mobile to accelerate TD-LTE deployment originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hmmm, wonder what brought this on? Sony's gone and changed the lingo in its PSN user agreement to require binding arbitration to settle any future disputes -- making it much harder for disgruntled customers to get their day in court. Want to keep your right to sue? You can opt out of the arbitration requirement by sending a letter to Sony's lawyers saying you'll be keeping your courtroom entry card, thank you very much. Additionally, the change won't affect class-action litigation started by August 20th of this year. That means people whose privacy was compromised in the great PSN outage of 2011 that already filed suit needn't be concerned. For the rest of you, we'd advise breaking out the pen and paper ASAP if you wanna keep the halls of justice open for future complaints.

New PSN user agreement makes it harder to sue Sony: class actions out (sort of), arbitrations in originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here is an odd detail we noticed while taking a closer look at Apple's knowledge base article explaining how multiple displays can or cannot be connected to current Macs. It lists both "Mid 2011" and "Late 2011" versions of the Thunderbolt-equipped iMac. As far as we know, however, Apple hasn't released or even announced an iMac for late 2011, indicating that such an announcement might be just around the corner.

What a potential iMac refresh might include at this point is hard to say. Apple could bump the line with Sandy Bridge processors, much like it's expected to do for the MacBook Pro in the next few weeks. But it seems more likely Apple might be considering using the upcoming six-core Sandy Bridge E processors, which are slated to be released around mid-November.

The Sandy Bridge E processors are four- or six-core hyper threaded variants of the existing Sandy Bridge processors. The main advantages of the E series include clock frequencies that reach to nearly 4GHz in Turbo mode, a larger L3 cache, and a four-channel memory controller that would offer the ability to put much more RAM into an iMac. Its accompanying X79 chipset also supports 2x16 up to 4x8 PCI Express graphics and Intel's Rapid Storage Technology RAID controller.

Apple may have a tough time cramming all that power into the iMac's all-in-one chassis, though. The chip's TDP maxes at 130W and uses an optional closed-loop water cooling system. Still, a guy can dream, can't he?

UPDATE: So, our friends at Macworld and MacRumors noted that Apple apparently refers to the education-only 21.5" iMac as "Late 2011." However, it does not come equipped with a Thunderbolt port, so it shouldn't be compatible with any Thunderbolt displays, let alone two of them. (Frankly, we wouldn't consider August as "late" in the year, either.)

Since we don't know what think of the error—and it's Friday night—we're just going back to our six-core iMac dreams.

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Research in Motion may be preparing to slash prices on its BlackBerry PlayBook in the near future: the 16GB model is being sold at half-price to employees of the cell carrier Rogers in Canada, according to Boy Genius Report. RIM acknowledged it would begin cutting prices during its earnings call yesterday, though specifics on deals for consumers have yet to be revealed.

The 7-inch PlayBook was not well-received upon its launch in April, when it was priced starting at $499 for a 16GB WiFi-only model. Since then, Sprint canceled plans to carry a 4G version of the PlayBook, and RIM announced during its earnings call Thursday that fewer than 200,000 units have shipped—about the same as the HP TouchPad before its everything-must-go $99 sale.

RIM noted during the call that it plans to drop the price of PlayBook to motivate sales, and the cuts have already trickled out to employees of Rogers. The workers can get their hands on the 16GB model for CAN$249, up to the largest 64GB model for CAN$399.

The company hasn’t said for sure that those prices will cross over to consumers, and it's still expressing some confidence that the next version of the tablet’s QNX-based operating system will spur consumer interest (as might the inclusion of native e-mail and calendar apps). RIM plans to announce a trajectory for the PlayBook as well as QNX-based BlackBerry smartphones at DevCon in October. But we'd keep half an eye on the flash-sale sites, just in case there's another tablet mad dash.

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Judge Richard A. Posner isn't known for his genteel treatment of parties whose arguments he doesn't agree with. When an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union began to make his opening statement at a Tuesday oral argument, Posner cut him off after 14 words. "Yeah, I know," he said dismissively. "But I'm not interested, really, in what you want to do with these recordings of peoples' encounters with the police."

The topic was the constitutionality of the unusually strict Illinois wiretapping law, which makes it illegal to record someone without his consent even if the recording is done openly and in a public place. The ACLU was asking a panel of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to strike down the law on First Amendment grounds.

But Judge Posner wasn't having it. "Once all this stuff can be recorded, there's going to be a lot more of this snooping around by reporters and bloggers," he said.

He was particularly worried that allowing recording would impact police work. "I'm always suspicious when the civil liberties people start telling the police how to do their business," he said. He speculated that gangs would love the ACLU's argument because recordings would make it easier to discover and retaliate against informants.

Posner may find himself on the losing side of the argument. Both of Posner's fellow Seventh Circuit judges seemed more receptive to the ACLU's argument. They reserved most of their fire for the government's attorney. "The statute criminalizes any audiotaping without regard to expectations of privacy, even if those events that are being audiotaped occur in the open, in public, for anyone to see and hear and otherwise observe," one of the judges said. "It's extremely broad."

The government lawyer gamely argued that limiting recording actually protected speakers' First Amendment rights by allowing them to control who heard their speech. But he may be swimming against the tide.

Last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit handed down a unanimous ruling in the Simon Glik case. That case held that Glik had a "clearly-established" First Amendment right to record the actions of the police on the Boston Common, and that police officers should have known this when they arrested him. Civil libertarians are hoping a second ruling in Illinois will help cement the principle that audio recording is an activity protected by the First Amendment.

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Apple has now begun shipping the 27" Thunderbolt Display that the company unveiled in July, and you can plug the 2560x1440 pixel display—which includes a complement of USB, FireWire, Ethernet, and Thunderbolt ports of its own—into any MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, or iMac released this year. Most Mac models support at least two external monitors with a few caveats—the most important being that you cannot daisy chain a Mini DisplayPort monitor to the Thunderbolt Display's Thunderbolt port.

The inclusion of the Thunderbolt port on Apple's Thunderbolt display is an important one, since all Thunderbolt-equipped Macs, save the 27" iMac, have just a single Thunderbolt port. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as a single port can daisy chain six devices. So if you plug a Thunderbolt Display into a Mac mini, for instance, you can plug a 12TB RAID into the back of the display and still have speedy access to its data.

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Less than 24 hours after it went live on Microsoft's site, Steve Ballmer reported a whopping 500,000 downloads of Windows 8 Developer Preview. That's half a million copies, if not eager Windows fans. Well, you can count us among them. Although we were treated to some private hands-on time with a tablet optimized for the OS, we hadn't, until now, had a chance to use it on a laptop -- i.e., the computing environment where we spend most of our time, and the one where we're most used to seeing Windows, in particular.

For the past three days, we've been doing just that: getting acquainted with Windows 8 using the good 'ol mouse-and-keyboard combo. And while that might read like a redundant statement (what recent version of Windows hasn't accommodated a cursor?), Win 8 is a peculiar breed -- It's the first version of the operating system where finger input wasn't an afterthought, but a first-class citizen. It's clear that this time around, Windows is optimized for touch, but we had to wonder if that Windows Phone-inspired UI would present a steep learning curve, if it would get in the way while we tried to go about business as usual. So how's that working out for us? Suffice to say, we're not in Kansas anymore, so find your most comfortable chair and meet us after the break -- we've got oh-so many details to delve into.

Gallery: Windows 8 Developer Preview (user interface and settings)

Continue reading Windows 8 on a laptop in-depth preview (video)

Windows 8 on a laptop in-depth preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Manufacturers and service providers are really kicking it up a notch this week! AT&T will hit us with a big dose of speed on Sunday, Microsoft had a slew of mixed/delicious news for us at Build, and HTC's got its hands in a liiiiiitttttle bit of everything, from releases to maybe OS acquisitions. We'll lay it all out for you here, with an added touch of Volpe to round things out, on the Engadget Mobile Podcast.

Host: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Guest: Joseph Volpe
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Daestro - Light Powered (Ghostly International)

00:01:19 - Samsung Epic 4G Touch review 00:22:48 - AT&T to officially deploy its LTE network September 18th 00:27:18 - AT&T announces Windows Phone Mango lineup coming this fall, existing devices to be updated 00:30:28 - RIM's Q2 earnings report: $329 million in net income, not enough to fend off critics
00:40:17 - HTC Bliss to be called the Rhyme, launching September 20? 00:45:39 - HTC Runnymede and Bliss details sneak out from leak-town 00:57:58 - HTC chairwoman Cher Wang: we might buy a mobile OS, if it feels right 01:05:20 - Motorola Admiral outed as mystery Sprint Direct Connect device, strikes a pose for the camera 01:09:55 - Motorola Electrify coming to US Cellular this month as a rebranded Photon 4G 01:10:50 - LG Marquee for Sprint hands-on (video)
01:13:39 - Sprint axes Premier program, no more annual upgrades for Gold customers 01:20:50 - Ballmer: Windows Phones aren't selling very well, but we're not worried 01:29:00 - Listener questions

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 104 - 09.16.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Flash fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief -- Adobe has confirmed that the next version of Windows will, in fact, support work built on its once ubiquitous web publishing platform. Windows 8 PCs and tablets with x86 or ARM processors will support the platform -- in the more traditional desktop mode, that is. The version of Internet Explorer 10 built for that interface will play nicely with Flash. Those users who opt for the new Metro UI, on the other hand, will be out of luck on the Flash front, thanks to a lack of plug-in support. Between Adobe's work in the HTML5 world and the ability to build Flash-like apps using Air for the Metro interface, however, the company seems to have most of its bases covered in Windows 8 land. Check out evidence of Flash running in Windows 8 after the break, courtesy of Qualcomm.

Continue reading Adobe: yep, your Windows 8 system will support Flash -- sometimes (video)

Adobe: yep, your Windows 8 system will support Flash -- sometimes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google has announced the release of Chrome 14, a new version of its Web browser. The update brings some nice technical improvements under the hood and enables Native Client for end users.

Several key enhancements for Lion have been introduced in Chrome 14 on Mac OS X. Lion's new scrollbar style, which is fully supported in the new version, nicely complements Chrome's minimalist design. Chrome has also gained compatibility with Lion's full-creen functionality. It also offers a separate "presentation mode" that mimics the legacy fullscreen style.

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Despite dominating the enterprise server market, Microsoft is struggling to maintain a large presence in the world of Web servers and is seeing its market share decline.

Netcraft, which surveyed more than 485 million websites this month, credits Apache with 65.05 percent of Web servers compared to 15.73 percent for Microsoft’s IIS (Internet Information Services). This is down from 15.86 percent in August and 16.82 percent in July, but the more striking decline has occurred since June 2010 when Microsoft accounted for more than 26 percent of Web servers surveyed by Netcraft.

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With the Tesla Roadster's tenure drawing to a close and a proper two-seat replacement seemingly just a twinkle in Peter Rawlinson's eye at this point, there's something of a coming void in the world of the electric supercar. Artega would love to fill that with the SE. It's an all-electric version of the company's GT supercar, and while the GT will not see a release on American shores, we got confirmation from Artega that the battery-powered SE will -- eventually. The 375 horsepower motor drives the car to 62MPH in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 126.5. Maximum range is 172 miles, but drive the car "more enthusiastically" and you can expect a more realistic 124.

The car was announced earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show and here in Frankfurt we were able to spend a few minutes ogling its curves in a variety of interesting colors, including one model with a cut-away fender showing off the positioning of some of the 16 battery modules. 12 of those are scattered around the rear of the car, while four are up front, giving the car a rearward-biased 40:60 weight distribution. Cost is said to be 150,000 euro, or about $207,000. That's nearly twice the cost of a Roadster. Worth it? We'll see.

Gallery: Artega SE electric supercar

Gallery: Artega SE press shots

Artega SE electric supercar is coming to the US, we go eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anyone who commutes to a big city knows how loud and distracting things can get -- whether it's the whine of a bus engine, a subway car's ca-clank or just that screaming baby seated behind you. Some folks may find cranking jams through their headphones helpful for blocking out the world, while others would prefer a bit more relative silence. Thankfully, in this modern age there exist headphones with noise-cancelling goodness to help you zone out.

Sony hasn't been a stranger to such cans, and recently introduced its $200 MDR-NC200D noise-cancelling headphones; a mid-range option for folks wanting similar benefits of its over-ear NC500D in an on-ear package. The claim is that these pups will reduce "98.2 percent of ambient noise" for up to 22 hours on a single AAA, so we sported the MDRs for the past few weeks as our primary set of headphones to hear for ourselves. You'll find all of the rock blockin' deets just after the break.

Gallery: Sony MDR-NC200D noise-cancelling headphones unboxing and hands-on

Continue reading Sony MDR-NC200D noise-cancelling headphones review

Sony MDR-NC200D noise-cancelling headphones review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever wanted to learn DIY programming on the Arduino, but aren't interested in trawling through stacks of dusty technical manuals? Then pay attention: artist Jody Culkin has produced a paneled primer that explains electrical engineering from Ohms all the way through to building your own dimmer switch. Friendly, informative and most importantly, brief, by the time you've finished it, you'll be dashing down to IKEA to build your own Luxo Jr.

'Arduino: The Comic' will teach you to stop worrying and love programming originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that lawsuit Apple filed against a pair of Queens stores accused of selling fake iDevice accessories? Well, it looks like it's coming to a close. According to Reuters, Cupertino has reached a settlement with the two Chinatown-area retailers, both of which have agreed to hand over all products emblazoned with the Apple name or logo. If the settlement is approved, the two vendors, Fun Zone and Apple Story, will have five days to clear all counterfeit iPod and iPhone accessories from their inventories, along with any allegedly trademark-infringing promotional materials. The defendants, who maintain their innocence, would also be barred from destroying any records of sales, manufacturing or distribution of the unauthorized cases and headphones -- presumably as part of Apple's ongoing crusade against counterfeiters. Apple Story, meanwhile, would have to change its name, which bears an obvious similarity to another well-known outlet. The proposed settlement was filed with a Brooklyn District Court on Thursday and now awaits the approval of US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto. Neither Apple nor the defendants have commented on the case.

Apple strikes settlement with NYC vendors accused of selling counterfeit products originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple appears to be working on a process to allow iTunes users with more than one Apple ID to somehow "merge" them into a single account. The ability to do so will be critical to the early success of the company's new iCloud service, since it relies on Apple IDs for syncing iTunes purchases and other data.

The problem with managing multiple Apple IDs with iCloud first became apparent when Apple launched an early beta of one of its features called "iTunes in the Cloud." It allows users to automatically sync iTunes purchases between iOS devices and computers running iTunes. When you link an Apple ID to your iPhone, for instance, any apps, songs, and iBooks you buy from your computer are automatically downloaded to your iPhone (and vice versa).

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