| Storage Options pads out its budget ICS slate lineup by two Jun 13th 2012, 15:22  We know, we know. More Android tablets. But if you're in the UK and looking for a budget Ice Cream Sandwich slate with reasonable specs, you might want to listen up -- Storage Options has added two Android 4.0 tablets to its already-crowded lineup. The 8-inch Scroll Engage, at £130 ($200), slots between the existing 7-inch Excel and 9.7-inch Extreme models, with the same Cortex A8 1.2GHz processor and 1024 x 768 resolution. However, the eight-incher packs new Mali-400 dual-core graphics and doubles the RAM to 1GB. The bigger 9.7-inch Elite matches these, but totes a larger IPS panel at the same resolution, alongside 16GB of storage -- twice the amount found on the existing Extreme. A slightly heftier £200 ($305) price tag seems to be the only other difference between the two tablet siblings. So, before ponying up those pounds sterling, hit up the sources to suss out all your options. Continue reading Storage Options pads out its budget ICS slate lineup by two Storage Options pads out its budget ICS slate lineup by two originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  Electronista |  Storage Options (1), (2) | Email this | Comments | | Insert Coin: The Kick, an iPhone-controlled camera light Jun 13th 2012, 15:00 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.  Lighting in photography or movie making is often the reserve of pros who can either afford a studio's worth of equipment or who have the know-how to generate just the right effect with one light. Rift's Kick light mostly tackles the latter by using a control you (probably) already know how to use: your iPhone. If you opt for the WiFi-toting Kick Plus model, an iOS app can control one or more lights for basics like brightness and color temperature -- but it really comes into its own when you want a dash of color or to record video. A Kick can sample color from a palette, a video or directly from the iPhone's camera; temporal effects like a lightning storm can spice up an amateur horror movie. If you're only looking for a straightforward white light to back up production for a traditional camera, the Kick Basic will let you control the rudiments from buttons on the light itself. Unless you're just looking for a sticker reflecting your support, every pledge tier is directly tied to buying a Kick light in advance. Early buyers can put down $89 to get a Kick Basic in black or white, or $139 for the Kick Plus. The more you buy, the cheaper it gets: $180 or $280 will land a pair of Basic of Plus lights, and stores can pay $4,300 or $6,500 to get a hefty 50 units of either model. If you're starting on a small-scale movie production or just have to have properly-lit subjects for street photography, head on over to the Kickstarter source link and chip in. Continue reading Insert Coin: The Kick, an iPhone-controlled camera light Insert Coin: The Kick, an iPhone-controlled camera light originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Kickstarter | Email this | Comments | | Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display review (mid 2012) Jun 13th 2012, 13:55  Product categories come and go, grow and wither, revolutionize the world and then slowly fade into a state of cold, quiet, everlasting obsolescence. It happens all the time, sometimes over the course of just a year or two (see: netbooks) and, while companies have made billions by establishing truly new categories, rarely has anybody rocked the world by splitting the difference between two very closely aligned ones. That's exactly what Apple is trying to do here. The company's MacBook Pro line is one of the most respected in the industry for those who need an ostensibly professional laptop. Meanwhile, the MacBook Air is among the best (if not conclusively the best) thin-and-light laptops on the market. Now, a new player enters the fray: the MacBook Pro with Retina display. It cleanly slides in between these two top-shelf products, while trying to be simultaneously serious and fast, yet slim and light. Is this, then, a laptop that's all things to all people, the "best Mac ever" as it was called repeatedly in the keynote? Or, is it more of a compromised, misguided attempt at demanding too much from one product? Let's find out. Continue reading Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display review (mid 2012) Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display review (mid 2012) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | |
