| Black and Decker screwdriver senses your hand movement to adjust speed, direction (video) Aug 16th 2012, 13:31  Were you feeling the need for new tech to replace the switches that control direction and speed on your cordless screwdriver? Us neither, but we're not the braintrust at Black & Decker, which just launched the Gyro 4V Max, the "world's first motion-activated screwdriver." The company put an InvenSense MEMS gyroscope in the new model, so all you have to do to change the direction or speed is rotate your drilling hand one way or the other in varying amounts. After you've polished off that Ikea shelf, it should be ready the next time you haul it out of the toolbox, with a Lithium-ion battery that stays juiced for as long as 18 months. Judging by the video below the break, it actually looks pretty clever, and at $40, why not start dragging your tools out of the stone age? Continue reading Black and Decker screwdriver senses your hand movement to adjust speed, direction (video) Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household Black and Decker screwdriver senses your hand movement to adjust speed, direction (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Sony Reader gets a new design, Evernote integration and a free Harry Potter book for $129 Aug 16th 2012, 13:00  In the market for a new e-reader? One could certainly do worse than Sony's Reader line. The company's been packing features onto its devices, and the already leaked latest entry is no different, with upgrades over its predecessor, packed into a newly redesigned body with bigger, better looking buttons. Sony's promised more intuitive touch with the Reader PRS-T2, smoother zooming and improved page turning, this time out. On the sharing side of things, Evernote functionality joins the fray here, letting users save their favorite passages to the service. Users can also post passages from books, along with corresponding covers and other identifying information to Facebook, if you're the sort who loves to share such literary info. On the store side of things, Sony's offering up browser-based account access now, so when users buy books on their desktop, they'll get pushed to the reader. The PRS-T2 offers up 2GB of storage, two English and four translation dictionaries (though, contrary to its name, doesn't do so in an Austrian accent), two months of battery life (WiFi off) and the customary six-inch Pearl E-Ink display for $129. Oh, and Song's also throwing in a free copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, for good measure. The PRS-T2 starts shipping today. More information on the subject can be found after the break. Continue reading Sony Reader gets a new design, Evernote integration and a free Harry Potter book for $129 Sony Reader gets a new design, Evernote integration and a free Harry Potter book for $129 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | NVIDIA announces $299 GeForce GTX 660 Ti, lets Kepler walk among the people Aug 16th 2012, 13:00  It's taken NVIDIA a mighty long time to squeeze its Kepler GPU into something more affordable than the GTX 670, but it's finally happened -- the mid-range GTX 660 Ti is out and available to purchase for $299 on boards from EVGA, Gigabyte, ASUS and the usual suspects. Some buyers may complain that's $50 more than the 560 Ti, while others will no doubt be reeling off their CVV codes already. For its part, NVIDIA claims the 660 Ti is the "best card per watt ever made" and that it beats even AMD's higher-priced Radeon HD 7950 at 1920 x 1080. Check out the slide deck below for official stats, as well as for examples of what the card can do with its support for DirectX 11 tessellation, PhysX (particularly on Borderlands 2, which you may well find bundled free) and NVIDIA's TXAA anti-aliasing. We'll wait for independent benchmarks in our review round-up before making any judgment, but in the meantime it's fair to say that this 150-watt card comes fully featured. For a start, it has just as many 28nm CUDA cores as the GTX 670, the same base and GPU Boost clock speeds, the same 2GB of GDDR5 and indeed the same connectivity. The only sacrifice is memory bandwidth: all that computational performance is limited by a 192-bit memory bus, compared to the 256-bit width of the 670. Judging from those specs, we'd expect it to be almost 670-like in performance, and that's going to be pretty impressive. Continue reading NVIDIA announces $299 GeForce GTX 660 Ti, lets Kepler walk among the people Filed under: Desktops, Gaming NVIDIA announces $299 GeForce GTX 660 Ti, lets Kepler walk among the people originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Humble Bundle returns with five pay-what-you-want games for Android, Mac, Windows and Linux Aug 16th 2012, 12:47  So let us get this right. You can pay what you want, and get another stack of games for your Android -- or, indeed Mac, Windows or Linux machine? And help charity? And this is actually proving very popular? Yes, Fieldrunners, Bit.Trip Beat, Uplink and SpaceChem, are the latest games to get the Humble Bundle treatment on the aforementioned platforms (the latter two are tablet-only when buying for Android). Oh, and if you're generous enough to pay above the average, you'll unlock the Spirit platform-puzzler, too. We're finding it pretty hard to argue with, especially as you get to decide the distribution of cash (between charity, the hardworking devs, or the platform-providing Humble). Judging by the real-time stats on the site, people aren't holding back on the cash, either. Still not convinced? Hop on the free-for-life video after the break to see the games in action. Continue reading Humble Bundle returns with five pay-what-you-want games for Android, Mac, Windows and Linux Filed under: Gaming Humble Bundle returns with five pay-what-you-want games for Android, Mac, Windows and Linux originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  JoyStiq |  Humble Bundle | Email this | Comments | | AT&T developing tech to help parents keep teenagers from texting and driving, hopes to save lives Aug 16th 2012, 12:17  By now, you're likely aware of some of the repercussions that come with shooting an innocent text to a friend while being behind the wheel. Well, in an effort to keep these unfortunate accidents from ever occurring, the AT&T Foundry's been hard at work, hoping to come up with solutions to help with this serious matter. Most recently, the Rethink Possible outfit showed off an application that's currently in the works; one that allows parents to track their teenage drivers' every move, as well as remotely turn off calls and disable all messaging features -- which the carrier says will be a great compliment to its DriveMode app. It's worth noting the unnamed application was being showcased on one of Cupertino's slates, but AT&T's said it's willing to work with "device makers, car makers and developers," as the ultimate goal is to ultimately "encourage more solutions." There's a video past the break for your viewing pleasure, and we think it's worth all of its 197 seconds of airtime. Continue reading AT&T developing tech to help parents keep teenagers from texting and driving, hopes to save lives Filed under: Cellphones, Software AT&T developing tech to help parents keep teenagers from texting and driving, hopes to save lives originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink The Verge | AT&T | Email this | Comments | | TiVo Premiere 4 is official, brings four tuners and 500GB of storage for $250 Aug 16th 2012, 12:00  The TiVo Premiere 4 DVR that broke cover a few days ago has been officially confirmed by the company, with exactly the specs indicated. In case you're not familiar, it's a quad tuner DVR that ships with a 500GB hard drive and standard TiVo remote, slotting in below its big brother at retail -- the 2TB and THX-endowed Premiere XL4. The smaller hard drive is something that Doug Bieter, director of retail sales, says solves the Sunday night log jam of shows, even if its less of a multi-season archive, and with MoCA and Ethernet still coming along for the ride makes it particularly ideal for multiroom setups with that extender that's still due to arrive soon. The Premiere 4 will start shipping right away and will cost owners $249 along with a one year commitment to service at $14.99 or lifetime service for $499, check TiVo.com, custom installers and Best Buy Magnolia stores near you to snag one. Continue reading TiVo Premiere 4 is official, brings four tuners and 500GB of storage for $250 Filed under: Home Entertainment TiVo Premiere 4 is official, brings four tuners and 500GB of storage for $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | TiVo | Email this | Comments | |
