Engadget

Get ready to be taken to a dreamworld of mobile podcasting as Myriam and Brad hit up the mics. Or is it a dreamworld of rants? Either way, it'll be magical.

What's in a name? Well, from the looks of this FCC filing, it could be something quite significant for everyone who knows the Netgear appellation. This N300R router has emerged from the commission's Washington enclave bearing On Networks branding, along with a spiffy new logo and less boxy look. We found that the new handle was trademarked by the company back in February, so maybe we'll see a corporate rebranding or this is the genesis of a new marque. As far as we're concerned, it can call itself whatever it pleases, as long as it still lets us roam free.

To hell with Instagram. Seriously. It's not that we don't understand the appeal of the photo filter standard bearer, it's just that it lacks a cleverness and visceral quality that InstaCRT has in spades. See, rather than simply recreate retro effect with some software trickery, InstaCRT actually uses the aging titular tech to achieve its goals. The concept, while clever, is actually pretty simple: you take a photo on your iPhone using the InstaCRT app, it's then uploaded to the developer where all the magic happens. Your image is displayed on a tiny 1-inch CRT (harvested from an old-school VHS camcorder) in the company's office, a picture of your photo is then taken with a fancy DSLR, and the resulting image is sent back to you. The results are monochrome, loaded with scanlines and just slightly distorted -- offering a sense of physicality that other photo filter apps just can't match. However, as clever as the concept is, it's equally innefficient and, as more people start using the app, the wait between snapping a pic and getting the finished product back, gets longer and longer. (We had to wait almost four minutes for the image above.) Still, we can't help but fall in love with InstaCRT... at least until the next photo filter app hits the market. Don't miss the video after the break, and hit up the source link to buy it now for $1.99 and see how fast we can crash the developer's servers.

Cisco had grand plans for a Cius tablet on every fast-paced executive's desk, but those dreams appear to have been dashed not long after getting off the ground. Senior VP OJ Winge says the company will "no longer invest" in the design, leaving the already rather creaky Android 2.2-based, 7-inch tablet to an eternal slumber outside of occasional specialized orders. It's not hard to see what hastened the Cius to its early demise, as Winge pins it on companies and customers encouraging a BYOD (bring your own device) strategy that likely brought more than a few iPads and beefier Android tablets into the space Cisco wanted to occupy. Before existing Cius owners start videoconferencing with themselves out of sheer despondence, though, there's a silver lining: the company now expects to take the Cius' firmware all the way from Android 2.2 to 4.0 in one fell swoop near the end of the summer. You may not be living Cisco's 2010-era vision, but at least you'll have Chrome for Android.

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.

If you're like Charles Mangin, you love your iPad or Android tablet, but wish it was a little more Wacom-esque. But why wait for hardware manufacturers to bring the styli to you? Mangin has concocted the PressurePen, a pressure-sensitive stylus that plugs into a tablet's audio jack. The peripheral sends a tone to the tablet based on how far the tip of the pen is pushed in. The tone affects the thickness of the pen stroke, helping you alternate the sizes of lines more naturally than on a standard tablet.

Mangin is shooting for $10,000 over on his Kickstarter page, with a little under a week and around $4,000 left to go. Those who pledge $60 or more will get a PressurePen to call their own. Mangin will also be open sourcing the plans for the pen, so those with access to a 3D printer will be able to make their own shell at home. Video of a PressurePen prototype in action after the break.

Since its IPO earlier this month, Facebook has wasted no time in expanding its empire -- it's already purchased the Karma mobile gifting service and launched a standalone camera app -- and talk about the social network's next steps doesn't seem to be quieting down. The latest rumor, from Pocket Lint, says Facebook is looking to buy the Opera browser as part of its larger effort to compete against Google, Mozilla and other internet mammoths. According to a source at Opera Software who spoke with Pocket Lint, the company is shopping around for potential buyers and has even imposed a hiring freeze. While it's not too hard to believe that Facebook is readying its horse to enter the browser race, this rumor is just that: a rumor. But given the social network's tendency to whip out new features at warp speed, we should have something more solid than speculation soon -- if the Opera purchase story has any legs, that is.

Remember the Cray XK6 at the University of Illinois that drives the National Science Foundation's Blue Waters project? Well, it looks like it's getting a little memory upgrade, sorta. We're not talking a slick new SSD here, or even a sweet NAS, all that computational power requires nothing less than... tape. Okay, so it's actually a full storage infrastructure, and some of it -- 25 petabytes no less -- will be disk-based. The rest -- a not insignificant 380 petabytes -- will be the good old magnetic stuff. The idea is that the disk part will be used for instant access, with the tape section serving as "nearline" storage -- something between an archive and online solution. Spectra Logic is providing the tape, and says it'll take a couple of years to implement the whole lot. Once complete, the system will support the supercomputer's lofty tasks, such as understanding how the cosmos evolved after the Big Bang and, y'know designing new materials at the atomic level. And we thought we were excited about out next desktop.

Have we finally found a tablet match for the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note? ViewSonic sent around a teaser for its "Touch and Connect" series prototypes, including a 22-inch "smart business tablet monitor," powered by what appears to be Ice Cream Sandwich. The giant touch-enabled device will be joined by a Windows 8 multi-touch display, new cloud computing solutions, high-end laser projectors and some interactive electronic billboards -- all set to make their debut on June 5th at Computex. More details will no-doubt be forthcoming in Taipei, so do stay tuned. And you may want to hold off on those giant tablet acquisitions in the meantime -- we have less than two weeks to wait for what could just be the largest mainstream tablet to date.

Owners of the Xperia Play, it's time to curl up with a teddy bear and your favorite ice cream -- just as long as it's not in sandwich form. After the sudden and unexplained disappearance of the "PlayStation Phone" from the Android 4.0 upgrade list yesterday, Sony has followed it up with a full confirmation accompanied by the usual explanation. As you may have already guessed, the manufacturer tells us that after extensive testing, it was determined that "a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smartphone on Ice Cream Sandwich... in this instance the ICS upgrade would have compromised stability." Sony went on to discuss that it received similar feedback from the developer community after releasing a beta ROM. Still, after being told repeatedly that the entire 2011 smartphone lineup would receive the update, we can't help but be a bit heartbroken by the news.

In the same breath, however, Sony also updated its timeline for the rest of the lineup that is still on schedule to receive upgrades to Ice Cream Sandwich: the Xperia arc, neo, mini, mini pro, pro, active and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman will begin receiving their refreshes next week. The Xperia S is still on track for an end of June rollout, with the Xperia P closely following it and the Xperia U sometime in the third quarter. It's just unfortunate that the good tidings must be balanced out by equally horrible news, depending on which device you own.

It's a strange feeling, receiving such a keenly anticipated phone to review. The hubbub of launch events, hands-on previews and heated debates suddenly dies away, leaving you with one small and intensely silent cardboard box. In this instance, the packaging contained the "marble white" version of the Galaxy S III (not the more daring "pebble blue") alongside one burning question: apart from all the hype, do this handset's paper credentials translate into a product that is worthy of serious cash and a 24-month commitment?

Those credentials are certainly more subtle than those of other recent devices. There's no unusual camera, stand-out display or unibody build. Instead, we get an abstract design statement about the phone being "inspired by nature" alongside a list of incremental hardware improvements such as a quad-core processor, as well as fresh additions to Samsung's customized Android 4.0 skin. As it turns out, these specs forgo immediate swagger in favor of creating a solid workhorse of a smartphone that is intent on attracting a long-term following. Read on and you'll discover just how it pulls that off.

Samsung Galaxy S III review

A lot's bubbling in the Law & Order sector of technology news this week, and you know these guys will get you hyper-informed on the ins and outs of patents, patent trolls, and the definition of "obviousness" as it applies to the lives of both the dinosaurs and the pioneers of said sector. If you're not into that stuff, we can't blame you, and for you we'll play along with Maker Faire from home and wax meta on Finnish phone companies. From our studio, to your home, it's The Engadget Podcast.

Host: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Orbital - Never

04:45 - Google officially closes deal for Motorola Mobility
11:55 - HP cuts 27,000 jobs, profit tumbles 31 percent in Q2
19:07 - Jury issues verdict in Android suit, finds that Google doesn't infringe Oracle patents
21:20 - ITC says again that Apple and RIM don't violate Kodak patent
23:53 - Nokia 808 PureView sample images: a moveable feast in 41 megapixels
28:37 - Nokia World broken up into smaller events, bumped up to September 5-6
32:25 - ASUS Zenbook Prime UX21A preview
35:17 - Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, in pictures: 3D printers, unicorns, tesla coils and zombies (video)
46:08 - Incantor brings World of Warcraft to real life (hands-on)
51:05 - gTar iPhone guitar hands-on
53:33 - Apple applies for optical stylus patent, Hell reports coldest day on record
55:33 - Obit: Eugene Polley, co-creator of the wireless TV remote, passes away aged 96
56:54 - Listener questions





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Get ready, folks. We've got quite the treat for you this week. Not only do we have a brand spanking new issue of our weekly for your peepers to consume this weekend, but we've redesigned said e-publication as well. Of course, the real star this week is the Summer Gear Guide. That's right, our editors have painstakingly selected their top choices in all of the major categories to keep you blazin' the balmy trail with the best gadget arsenal possible. To go along with the refined digs, we introduce some new pages this week, too. Time Machines will test your geek cred by removing the easily identifiable logos from a classic device for your trivia pleasure. We'll also go eyes-on each week with some quite dapper offerings to satisfy the design nerd inside us all. Speaking of recent additions, we break down our recent hands-on impressions while Reaction Time offers some thoughts on next-gen gaming and upcoming releases. Switched On chats about what's next for Facebook, the Stat tallies the rise of mobile apps in the last year, Fusion-io CEO and Chairman David Flynn admits his love of Flowbee in the Q&A and Sean Pryor returns for The Strip. So, what are you waiting for? Hit the download link below that you fancy the most and you'll have a copy of this week's e-magazine before you know it.

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Absinthe's "so-easy-your-grandma-could-do-it" jailbreak tool just got an update to version 2.0, enabling support for a handful of Apple portables running iOS 5.1.1. Absinthe 2.0, which was developed by the "Jailbreak Dream Team" (Chronic-Dev and iPhone Dev) joins Redsn0w's tool, and will support all iPhone and iPad versions, with the exception of iPad2,4 -- the most recent iPad 2 variant, shipping with a 32nm A5 chip. The jailbreak tool can also be installed on iPod3,1 and 4,1 models. Assuming your iOS device is up and running with firmware 5.1.1, you can hit up the source link after the break to get your download on. AppleTV (second gen) users can get in on the fun too, with the latest version of Seas0npass for 5.0.1.

Paid for subscriptions from RealNetworks you didn't ask for a few years ago? You may be eligible for a refund. Washington State's Attorney General sued the company over a free trial of its Rhapsody music service, which had a pre-ticked box for additional content that went unnoticed by many who signed up. When clients stopped the trial without also canceling the extra options, charges often accumulated in the hundreds of dollars before being seen. While admitting no wrongdoing, RealNetworks agreed to discontinue the boxes, comply with federal laws and give refunds to any customers who signed up that way between January 2007 and December 2009. If that might be you, expect a postcard from RealNetworks or check their website to apply for a refund. Hopefully you'll be less, um, ticked.

Leap Motion unveiled its new gesture control technology earlier this week, along with videos showing the system tracking ten fingers with ease and a single digit slicing and dicing a grocery store's worth of produce in Fruit Ninja. Still, doubts persisted as to the veracity of the claim that the Leap is 200 times more accurate than existing tech. So, we decided to head up to San Francisco to talk with the men behind Leap, David Holz and Michael Buckwald, and see it for ourselves. Join us after the break to learn a bit more about Leap, our impressions of the technology, and a video of the thing in action.

Leap motion control technology hands-on

Sometimes you just don't feel like getting up to flip through that Yacht Rock playlist on Spotify while your Apple slate rests comfortably in its dock. Satechi is looking to prolong your relaxation with its BT Media Remote for your iPhone, iPad or Mac. The accessory does exactly what you'd expect -- it allows you to peruse your audio and video libraries on a Bluetooth-enabled iOS device while connected to a TV, docking station or your car's stereo. On top of the usual remote functions, the accessory can be used as a remote camera shutter control for those all-important group shots and the home button can summon your smartphone's personal assistant. Interested? You can snag yours now for a mere $40 via the source link below.

Although PayPal's mobile payment system started out small with a Home Depot deal, that snowball is quickly rolling itself into a boulder. Starting next month, 15 extra US retailers will be happy to see you slap down your smartphone (not literally, we hope) instead of a credit card. The selection leads us to think a lot of smartphone owners like to shop for wearables -- Aéropostale, Foot Locker and JC Penney are in the batch, along with others -- but there's a few useful exceptions, like Barnes & Noble, Jamba Juice and TigerDirect. At least a total of 20 merchants are expected by the end of year, and as with Home Depot, you won't need special hardware besides an Android or iOS device to spend your hard-earned cash. We'll just be thankful we won't have to buy our yogurt with actual cash, like savages.

SpaceX's Dragon is rapidly approaching its historic meeting with the International Space Station. It's due to begin its first docking procedure at 7:30am ET, and NASA is streaming footage from both the ground crew, the ISS and the private craft itself. Once within a safe range, the station will extend its robotic arm and draw the Dragon in to dock -- with the hatch being opened tomorrow. We've embedded the video after the break so you can watch along at home, popcorn in hand.

[Image credit: SpaceX]

Now, we're not saying Google's elite are actually aliens managing human social affairs, but if you were our reader Ben who ran into a crew of Project Glass-equipped Googlers breaking for drinks at a Los Gatos wine bar, it might seem like a possibility. Beyond filing tons of paperwork, the team is clearly expanding quickly and most recently took part in the Google+ photographer's conference to show off what POV pictures and video (even if that's most of the functionality so far) could add to the world of photography. They wouldn't let Ben try on a pair, but Vic Gundotra reiterated that it was positioned as not to interfere with conversations, and make images appear to be floating in front of your eye. There's video of the photography presentation after the break (jump to about 45 minutes for the first person pics and video), as well as a few more pictures on Google+, but we'd keep a pair of special black sunglasses and bubblegum handy just in case.

[Thanks, Ben]