Filed under: Cellphones

Those of you torn between having an SNES emulator and vibrating icons need worry no more -- a team of iPhone hackers led by the illustrious Nate True has just posted an iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreak. There are some hacker politics between the iPhone Dev Team and Nate involved, and the jailbreak is currently only for Windows users with previously-jailbroken 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 iPhones, but it's still sweet, sweet freedom. We're busy getting it up on one of our iPhones here at Engadget HQ, we'll let you know all the gory details when we're done.

[Via TUAW]

Update: We tested it to a spec jailbroken 1.1.2 phone, as the app requested -- it works alright.

 

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Remember that yeast-and-sugar-powered generator from Dr. Cedrick Ngalande of Malawi we spotted a while back? Ol' Ced's back with a video of the system in action -- and an explanation of how it works, to boot. Just as most of you guessed, the system is powered by the yeast / sugar mix giving off CO2, leading to a pressure imbalance which tips the center of gravity and causes motion. What most of you didn't guess, however, is how freaking slowly that would happen -- check out the video after the break, and then wake up and wipe the drool off your face, slick.

[Via BoingBoing]

Continue reading Video of the yeast-and-sugar powered generator in action: experience the power of boring

 

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Our mediocre efforts at "photography" are bad enough with a full-on viewfinder, so we shudder to think what might come out at the other end of a session with this here artsy EazzzY USB camera stick concept -- which is exactly why we're so interested. Designed by Sungwoo Park and featured over on Yanko Design, EazzzY probably hasn't a chance at ever making it to market, but we can imagine quite a few hipster types that'd jump at the chance to do some shooting-from-the-hip with this colorful thing. And that's really what matters.

 

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Filed under: GPS

We don't often catch sight of units like these until after they've already begun the usual cycle of re-brands and ever so slight changes, but the folks at Empower apparently decided to shake things up a bit and give everyone an early peek at its latest trio of personal navigation devices, which are now available to OEM/ODM and other "private-label customers." Those devices include the P2000, P2200 and P2800, each of which boast 4.3-inch touch screens, along with built-in Bluetooth handsfree functionality and support for traffic advisory data. The P2200 ups things slightly from the base model with an integrated digital camera, while the top-end P2800 adds a wireless rear-view camera for some help backing up, as well as some added iPod connectivity. No word on any companies that have picked 'em up just yet, but Empower itself seems fairly confident in them, with it set to sell all three under its own PowerPlay brand. Look for the P2000 to be the first of those available in March for $299, with the P2200 and P2800 set to follow sometime in the second quarter of this year for $399 and $499, respectively.

 

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

There's no telling how legitimate these shots might be, and it's quite clear that these screens won't be giving us any juicy details about Windows 7 anytime soon, but we couldn't pass on images that purport to be the first from a super-secret test build of Windows 7 seeded to "key partners." So, anything to see here? Not that we can tell, from the looks of things we're looking at a copy of Vista with the name "Windows 7 Ultimate" tacked on, but there's no telling what's happening under the hood. We know we can't wait to pay another few hundred dollars for a barely noticeable upgrade to Vista that will re-break all driver support, how about you?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

 

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Filed under: Storage

It looks like Western Digital's hard drives are about to get a good deal denser, with the company now rolling out its first 3.5-inch WD Caviar drives based on 320GB-per-platter technology. That, as the company points out, is the very same areal density seen recently in WD's 160 GB-per-platter 2.5-inch Scorpio drives, which topped out with a total of 320GB of storage due to the obvious size constraints. While the 3.5-inch drives have plenty more room to grow than their smaller counterparts, Western Digital seems to be starting things out slow, with only a single-platter 320GB drive available at the moment. That'll apparently be followed by upgrades across WD's various product lines throughout the year, including drives at "additional capacity points.," Unfortunately, the company doesn't seem to be ready to specify exactly what those points may be just yet, although The Inquirer speculates that we should see three-platter 1TB drives from the company before everything is all said and done.

[Via The Inquirer]

 

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Filed under: Features, Storage, Networking

One of the more more interesting, albeit minor, announcements at Macworld was Remote Disc, Apple's method to undermine the need to bundle an optical drive with the Air. To our chagrin, Apple also undermined the ability to do much fun or useful with the disc sharing system. Here's what you need to know about Remote Disc, top to bottom:

• The Remote Disc installer is 42.3MB for Mac, and takes almost 86MB of space! AND it requires a restart of the host Mac. (Windows, ironically, does not require a restart to begin sharing media.)
• You have to ask permission to use the drive every single time, there's no client whitelist or anything like that. Even if you've already asked permission on that drive and disc, if you stop using it and come back to it, you have to ask permission again.
  
• Every time you ask permission as a Remote Disc client, the host gets a popup asking if it's cool to share your drive. You can, of course, accept or decline (but the only way to stop getting prompts is to turn off disc sharing).
• Ejecting the disc on the client side does not eject it on the host side.
• Ejecting it on the host side, however, gives a host-side prompt about the disc being in use. You can override and eject, however.
  
• To reinstall or boot from CD using Remote Disc, the host must use the installed Remote Install Mac OS X application. It's a fairly simple process, but sharing an install CD over a wireless network is asking for trouble. It took an absurd amount of time (nearly 10 minutes) to boot over 802.11g. You need bandwidth.
• To remote boot from a shared CD, hold the option key while starting up. You'll be presented with a BIOS-level WiFi / network selection that looks surprisingly unpolished for Apple (but works with WPA and advanced WiFi crypto all the same)

Bummer for media:

• You can browse the file contents of DVD discs, but you cannot actually play that media back over the network.
• You can't rip DVDs over the network using a tool like Handbrake.
• You can't even browse a music CD or listen to tracks. Don't even think about burning a disc remotely.
  
• Remote Disc appears only to be able to share CD / DVD drives and CD / DVD discs, not high capacity / HD optical drives.
• We tested sharing a regular DVD over an HD DVD drive, no luck. Data CDs on DVD drives worked fine though.

We've heard of some client firewalls harshing on Remote Disc, but we didn't see any issues when testing. Despite its shortcomings, it did work exactly as advertised, and with zero fuss. We miss anything?

 

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Filed under: Wireless, Networking

AT&T, continuing to be the open, giving, and free-wheeling loony that it is, has decided to bestow cost-free access to its 10,000+ WiFi hotspots (for its broadband subscribers, that is). Effective immediately, if you're tossing money the company's way for any high-speed access, you can hop onto wireless networks in retail shops, restaurants, and airports free of charge... provided they're AT&T networks. We know its a lot to handle, but get this -- the telco has also upped the speeds of its U-verse service to a whopping 10 Mbps downstream / 1.5 Mbps upstream configuration, undoubtedly warming the hearts of AT&T subscribers hankering for a little more bandwidth to sustain their ever-increasing 'net needs. It's like the holidays all over again.

Read - AT&T To Deliver Free Access To Nation's Largest Wi-Fi Network
Read - AT&T Boosts Bandwidth Choices and Speed with 10 Mbps Offer for U-verse Customers

 

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Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/Apple_I_Need_My_Wireless_Access'; Ouch, we just tested and confirmed that one of the smallest (and thus likeliest to fit) USB EV-DO modems around, the Sprint / Novatel U727, won't even come close to fitting in the cramped, foldaway USB port on the MacBook Air. Most flash drives will probably be okay, but it looks like 3G users will either need powered USB hubs or a USB extension cable to get online where WiFi isn't available (read: most places).

 

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Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment

If you thought that only digital cameras were getting treated to biggie-size rollouts in the leadup to PMA next week, check out the announcement of 17(!) new AQUOS LCDs from Sharp. First up, there are 13 new models in the D series. You guessed it, folks: customers get to mix and match a rainbow of colors across the 20, 26 and 32-inch sizes. Other than the sheer number of choices available, nothing really catches our eye in these units: 1366x768-pixels and 1500:1 contrast; the 26V and 32V models get the addiiton of AQUOS Familink (CEC). If you need a little bigger display, move on down the cereal LCD aisle and check out the four new E series AQUOS models. No color choices here, which we guess means at these sizes you're more interested in looking at the images than the casing. There are four new models coming in at 37, 42, 46 and 52-inches. Bigger means better in these 1080p panels, with a contrast of 2000:1, 120Hz frame rates and low reflectivity glass. Initially available in Japan, with no prices announced yet.

 

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