| Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G shows off all sides, sticks with new name Aug 20th 2012, 14:10  The saga of Samsung's Galaxy S Relay 4G (né Galaxy S Blaze Q) continues. In this latest episode, we're presented with an annotated set of pictures showing each side of the device -- courtesy of Samsung's very own US support site. Of course, this further confirms the handset's new name, which is just as terrible as the old name. No matter -- if you're a fan of QWERTY sliders this is definitely a phone to keep an eye on. While the full specs remain a mystery, previous leaks have confirmed HSPA+ 42Mbps support for T-Mobile's AWS network, a 4-inch screen (probably not HD) and a dual-core 1.5GHz processor (likely a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4). There's still no word on pricing or availability, but an official announcement can't be far behind, right? Filed under: Cellphones Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G shows off all sides, sticks with new name originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  TmoNews, Phone Scoop |  Samsung | Email this | Comments | | Digispark, Arduino's unofficial kid brother, takes Kickstarter by storm (video) Aug 20th 2012, 13:39  Hobbyist Erik Kettenburg was concerned that the size and cost of Arduino stifled his ability to craft, so he set about developing Digispark. It's an Arduino-compatible board, the size of a quarter, that offers a few pins at around a third of the cost of an Uno -- so you don't have to worry about taking projects apart when you're done. Designed to be fully compatible with the Italian standard, it's packing six I/O pins, 8k memory and a full USB connection amongst other things. The aim is to retail the gear for $12 a piece, and has been so popular that it's made nearly $100,000 in Kickstarter pledges, smashing its original goal of $5,000. We've got video for you below, and you can still throw some cash Mr. Kettenburg's way if you fancy getting your hands on one quickly. Continue reading Digispark, Arduino's unofficial kid brother, takes Kickstarter by storm (video) Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Digispark, Arduino's unofficial kid brother, takes Kickstarter by storm (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Gizmag | Kickstarter | Email this | Comments | | Synaptics enters the keyboard market, announces the ThinTouch keyboard aimed at Ultrabooks Aug 20th 2012, 13:00  More likely than not, when you think of Synaptics you think of its touchpads. Or maybe, if you're a mobile aficionado, you know it for its touchscreens, used in phones like the HTC One X and Sony Xperia P. Now, though, the company is about to start making another kind of tactile product: keyboards. That thing you see up there is ThinTouch, a keyboard Synaptics will supply to PC makers looking for ways to make their Ultrabooks even thinner. Indeed, the keyboard is said to be up to 50 percent thinner than its competitors, and Synaptics' big pitch to OEMs is that a thinner keyboard allows for slimmer PCs, with room for larger batteries (now that we need). The company is also promising stronger backlighting, since the keys sit close to the substrate and there aren't rubber domes blocking the light source. Lastly, there's a capacitive sensor underneath the keyboard, allowing the laptop's touchpad to be disabled automatically while you're typing. (Naturally, this works best if the trackpad is also made by Synaptics.) The company is also developing a feature in which the space bar could be a touch sensor in and of itself, with support for functions like autocomplete. Perhaps our biggest question is how much travel these keys will have -- after all, the last thing anyone needs is another shallow Ultrabook keyboard. Synaptics reps told us the company isn't yet ready to share such technical details, though we did get to compare Synaptics' keys with its competitors (see the image after the break). At first blush, it seemed just as flat, but not flatter, but we'll reserve full judgement until we can use the keyboard for an extended period of time. Also no word on which PC makers will take a chance on the ThinTouch, but Synaptics says the keyboard will start shipping sometime in 2013. Continue reading Synaptics enters the keyboard market, announces the ThinTouch keyboard aimed at Ultrabooks Filed under: Laptops Synaptics enters the keyboard market, announces the ThinTouch keyboard aimed at Ultrabooks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Synaptics spills more details on ForcePad, a pressure-sensitive trackpad coming to laptops in 2013 Aug 20th 2012, 13:00  We spend an awful lot of time in laptop reviews railing against modern trackpads -- you know, the ones that mistake left clicks for right ones, or have a really stiff button mechanism. Well, it looks like relief might be on the way. Synaptics (easily the largest touchpad maker of 'em all) just spilled more details on ForcePad, a pressure-sensitive pad that responds differently depending on how much you bear down with your fingers. Before we get into possible use cases, though, it's important to clarify this: there is no mechanical touch button, meaning those stiff hinges we've been complaining about should be moot. Rather, if you want to "left click" or "right click" you'll need to push against the pad with your finger. When you do this, you'll get the littlest bit of tactile feedback, along with a sound effect. (You can turn those off.) All told, the pad responds to up to 1,000 grams of pressure, and recognizes 64 different levels of sensitivity. As you can imagine, this feature is likely to come in handy with drawing apps, but Synaptics also imagines it being used in gaming. With scrolling, too, you can page through documents quickly or slowly, depending on how hard you press the trackpad. Additionally, the pad recognizes up to five fingers at once, and can tell when you're applying more pressure with one finger than another. For now, Synaptics won't name any future products that will use this technology, so don't put any stock in that Lenovo machine used in the first demo video below -- it's just a U300s retrofitted with a ForcePad. But, a company rep did say we'd start seeing ForcePad-enabled laptops at CES in January, so expect lots of notebook news then. Continue reading Synaptics spills more details on ForcePad, a pressure-sensitive trackpad coming to laptops in 2013 Synaptics spills more details on ForcePad, a pressure-sensitive trackpad coming to laptops in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | CE-Oh no he didn't!: Tesla's Elon Musk calls the Fisker Karma a 'mediocre product at a high price' Aug 20th 2012, 12:30  "I don't think very highly of Henrik Fisker," Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, told Automobile magazine in a recent interview. Musk was recalling events leading up to a 2008 lawsuit in which Tesla accused Fisker of pilfering its hybrid technology to build the Fisker Karma. Musk isn't a fan of the automobile, and suggests its creators put form over function. "It's a mediocre product at a high price," he says. "[Fisker] thinks the most important thing in the world -- or the only important thing in the world -- is design, so he outsourced the engineering and manufacturing." Still, Musk concedes that Fisker's eye for aesthetics paid off in some respects. "It looks good," he said. "Particularly from the side it looks good." The magazine gave Henrik Fisker a chance to respond, who said that he was "delighted that Elon thinks the Karma is a good-looking car," and stressed that Tesla and Fisker are targeting different customers with two "totally different technologies." He was quick to address the firms' previous legal squabbles too, "to set the record straight, Fisker won in court... a judge threw out the case and awarded costs to Fisker." True enough, but in light of recent events, we can think of at least one Karma owner who might agree with Musk. Filed under: Transportation CE-Oh no he didn't!: Tesla's Elon Musk calls the Fisker Karma a 'mediocre product at a high price' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Autoblog | Automobile Magazine | Email this | Comments | |
