Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Your 2 hourly digest for Engadget

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RIM: another limited-edition developer device coming later this year
May 1st 2012, 19:17

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Before wrapping things up at the BlackBerry 10 Jam keynote, Alex Saunders lobbed out a whale of a tidbit: the Dev Alpha may be joined by another, "very limited-edition" version of a BlackBerry 10 device much closer to the platform's official launch. According to the VP, developers who have received the Dev Alpha will be able to trade up to the new version at an unspecified time. With Alex accentuating the fact that there would be an incredibly limited number of these devices available, we imagine we'll see some extra strings attached to this offering, but no specifics have been revealed so far.

RIM: another limited-edition developer device coming later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP reclaims top spot in PC sales, market as a whole climbs 21 percent
May 1st 2012, 18:55

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Well, Apple's reign atop the list of the world's top PC makers was short lived. After clawing its way into the lead, if you counted the iPad as a PC, HP is back atop the heap -- even with Cupertino's tablet-inflated numbers. According to Canalys, the Palo Alto company shipped 15.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, barely sneaking passed Apple by 40,000 computers. Of course, remove Apple's 11.8 million iPads, and it's not even a competition. Lenovo, Acer and Dell rounded out the top five, with the total market shooting up 21 percent over the same time last year. However, there is plenty of reason to believe we won't see client PC fly out the door at such an incredible rate. Amazingly, according to Canalys, tablets accounted for 40 percent of all PC shipments in the US. For more details check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading HP reclaims top spot in PC sales, market as a whole climbs 21 percent

HP reclaims top spot in PC sales, market as a whole climbs 21 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM offers developers $10,000 incentive for certified apps
May 1st 2012, 18:34

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At BlackBerry World 2012, RIM is bumping up the stakes for its developers by putting more money where its mouth is, announcing a $10,000 guarantee to get potential coders excited to hop onto Team BlackBerry. If you get your app certified on App World and don't earn ten grand in the first year, RIM will cut you a check for the difference. Of course, incentive programs are nothing new in today's increasingly competitive development world -- Research in Motion has offered free phones and PlayBooks in the past, and Microsoft is known for throwing cash at big-name developers to beckon them to Windows Phone, for instance. The guarantee, however, is certainly a unique approach to entice new devs to BlackBerry 10. As these programs often do, there is one catch: to qualify, you'll need to not only earn quality certification, you'll also have to generate $1,000 on your own accord. All of this is part of a $100 million investment in its new ecosystem, and should help spark some developer interest in the lead-up to Waterloo's upcoming platform refresh. If you think you've got what it takes, start thinking up those million-dollar ideas right now.

Joseph Volpe contributed to this post.

RIM offers developers $10,000 incentive for certified apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM: Don't worry, BlackBerry 10 devices with keyboards are on their way
May 1st 2012, 18:16

Those decrying the death of the BlackBerry keyboard can officially put their mourning on hold. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins addressed the matter during today's keynote -- but just in case the QWERTY-inclined weren't quite convinced by the sentiment, a spokesperson for the Canadian smartphone maker has brought some reinforcement, telling Phone Scoop that, while early BlackBerry 10 devices will be focused on the virtual, physical keyboards will also be making their way into the mobile OS's ecosystem. Now we can all type a collective sigh of relief.

RIM: Don't worry, BlackBerry 10 devices with keyboards are on their way originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 14:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LASR: behind the curtain of the Navy's robotics laboratory
May 1st 2012, 18:00

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I don't know all that much about the Naval Research Laboratory when I arrive in DC for "the public's first opportunity to look inside" the space's new $17 million Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR). I give the cab driver the address, and he casually tells me that it "stinks," illustrating this notion with a universally familiar hand gesture. He means it literally, too - that you can smell the place, simply driving by in a cab, with the windows up. He says this with such assurance, such gusto, that I fully expect it to smell like the city dump. A wall of stink.

It's not much to go on, but it's something. And while I can thankfully report that his reaction was a bit overstated - at least on this particular day - there's certainly a distinct odor to the place. It's a sprawling 130-acre complex that sits sandwiched between the 295 freeway and the waters of the Potomac River; a series of nearly identical big, white buildings facing inward toward a grassy courtyard. On the way in, a space with what appears to be crushed cars is visible from the freeway.

Continue reading LASR: behind the curtain of the Navy's robotics laboratory

LASR: behind the curtain of the Navy's robotics laboratory originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chris Fenton follows up scale model Cray-1A with 3D-printed electromechanical computer, of course
May 1st 2012, 17:47

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Fans of the homebrew electronics scene may well be familiar with the name Chris Fenton, he of the DIY laptop and a working scale model of the Cray-1A supercomputer. Now he's back with yet another ambitious project: he's set out to build a fully functional electromechanical computer using a 3D printer to fabricate all the parts. That's still a ways from being completed, but Fenton has already finished one key component of it: the punch card reader. Head on past the break to see it in all its whizzing and buzzing glory.

Continue reading Chris Fenton follows up scale model Cray-1A with 3D-printed electromechanical computer, of course

Chris Fenton follows up scale model Cray-1A with 3D-printed electromechanical computer, of course originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 13:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alleged Galaxy S III pops up again, with rounded glass and GT-I9300 branding
May 1st 2012, 17:28

Alleged Galaxy S III pops up again, with rounded glass and GT-I9300 branding

Well, the leaks and rumors just won't stop coming and, while we were initially pretty dismissive of the rounded glass design it just keeps cropping back up. We're still note entirely convinced this is, in fact, the Galaxy S III (or the Next Galaxy) but the consistency of the leaks is making us slightly (but only slightly) less skeptical. SamMobile scored a pair of shots from Mr. Blurrycam's cousin, Sir Softfocus, that look quite similar to the photos we've seen circulating for the past few weeks. What's more, the site has an image of the settings page which labels this rather interesting looking handset as the GT-I9300. We've still got some concerns, though, that lead us to believe this is, most likely, a prototype device. Chief among those issues is the physical home button, flanked by a capacitive menu and back key. We'd say it's a pretty safe bet that we're looking at three entirely software-based buttons in the final product, just like the version spotted in the Vietnamese video. One more image after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Alleged Galaxy S III pops up again, with rounded glass and GT-I9300 branding

Alleged Galaxy S III pops up again, with rounded glass and GT-I9300 branding originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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