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Intelsat retires Marisat-F2 satellite after 32 years of service

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The Marisat-F2 satellite may not have garnered quite the fame of other mission-defying spacefarers like the Mars Opportunity rover (it even seems to have been a bit camera shy), but it's earned it's own little place in the history books nonetheless, with it stretching its original five-year design life to a hefty 32 years of service. That apparently made it the oldest commercial communications satellite still actively operating in space but, sadly, that streak has now come to an end, with Intelsat announcing that it has decommisioned the satellite and is using its remaining bit of fuel to raise it to "disposal altitude" in order to keep it out of the way of other satellites. Originally built by Hughes Aircraft in 1976, the 700-pound satellite had been primiarly serving ships at sea and scientists at the South Pole, who were using it for internet access in more recent years, since it had actually proven to be more capable than the two other more recent satellites serving the area.

Intelsat retires Marisat-F2 satellite after 32 years of service originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T kicks off BlackBerry Bold sales on the web

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Some stores have already let a few slip out the door a day early, but for those of us who haven't left our parents' basements since 1989, turns out there's now a sweet alternative to heading down to the brick-and-mortar. The BlackBerry Bold's now up on AT&T's site ready to ship for $299.99 after rebate on a two-year contract, so go ahead and whip out the plastic. If you haven't been using a Curve or an 8800 lately, prep your unsuspecting thumbs with some hardcore workouts -- and if you have been using a Curve or an 8800, get those freakishly muscular, overbuilt digits out of our sights.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

AT&T kicks off BlackBerry Bold sales on the web originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Time names the 23andMe retail DNA test ‘Invention of the Year’

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Time Magazine has released its annual Best Inventions issue, and topping the list is the 23andMe retail DNA test, a kit which which offers consumers 23 clinical reports on their genetic risk for everything from Psoriasis to Prostate Cancer. It may not be as well known as last year's iPhone (or YouTube the year before that), but the $399 package might signal a significant revolution in preventative medicine... or it might bring mankind a disturbing new form of eugenics. Whatever you use it for, the process couldn't be easier: the kit comes with a tube that you spit in and mail back to the company, which in a mere 4 - 6 weeks will notify you that testing is complete. As you wait for the results to be posted online you might want to spend some time contemplating the ethical dilemmas posed by this technology.

Time names the 23andMe retail DNA test 'Invention of the Year' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple chimes in to debunk those Mac mini / iMac rumors

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There was a day during an age not far removed from our memory in which Apple would remain dead silent on any murmuring going on regarding its wares -- clearly, that day has passed. In a rather unprecedented move, an actual spokesman named Bill Evans emerged from the Cupertino cocoon in order to put to rest all those wildly speculative rumors going on about new iMacs and / or Mac minis. Quite frankly, he uttered that "[Apple's] holiday line-up is set." Our take? This move is likely being made in order to assure prospective holiday shoppers that buying now is "safe," and that new gear isn't just weeks / days / nanoseconds away. C'mon, you know a well-oiled machine like Apple doesn't want all sorts of about-to-be-outdated Mac inventory clogging its supply chain when Macworld rolls around, don'tcha?

[Via CNET]

Apple chimes in to debunk those Mac mini / iMac rumors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wireless USB startup WiQuest shuts down, leaves the standard in limbo

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Let's be honest -- Wireless USB has never been much more than an afterthought. Sure, we've seen it pop up on a few laptops and USB hard drives, but it's never grabbed hold the way that, say, Bluetooth or WiFi has. On top of that, the underlying technology behind WUSB (that'd be Ultra-Wideband, or UWB) has yet to find favor in the market, with the surging WHDI stealing most of the limelight in the wireless HD arena. At any rate, one of the (only) companies keeping Wireless USB alive has kicked the bucket, as startup WiQuest officially shut its doors after being unable to concoct a "one-chip solution that was capable of delivering the upper-band support necessary for worldwide acceptance." Granted, Wireless USB isn't quite six feet under, but it's safe to say one foot is planted in the proverbial grave.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Wireless USB startup WiQuest shuts down, leaves the standard in limbo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel Core i7-equipped Falcon Northwest Mach V gaming desktop hands-on

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Benchmarks and reviews of Intel's Core i7 processors are pouring in, and while mere mortals must wait till later this month to get their hands on the hardware, we spent much of our weekend working overtime with Crysis, Fallout 3, and Age of Conan on an $8,238 Core i7 965-equipped Mach V gaming desktop from boutique PC manufacturer Falcon Northwest. It's got the works and then some: liquid cooling, dual ATI Radeon 4870X2 graphics cards with 2GB of RAM on-board, 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, Blu-ray, HD-DVD (yes, you read that right), and over a terabyte of storage. Based on our dozen or so hours of grueling, utterly boring hands-on tests, all three games were plenty playable maxed out at 1920 x 1080 resolution with 4x anti-aliasing -- only Crysis ever dipped below 40 frames per second, and we never saw Fallout 3 under 60. We sincerely hope you appreciate the backbreaking, soulcrushingly hard work we do for you -- more photos and benchmarks in the gallery.

Gallery: Intel Core i7-equipped Falcon Northwest Mach V gaming desktop hands-on

Intel Core i7-equipped Falcon Northwest Mach V gaming desktop hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 7 installed on a new MacBook Pro, sparks fly

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It's a next-generation operating system and mirror all in one!

[Thanks, Brian H.]

Windows 7 installed on a new MacBook Pro, sparks fly originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GSM-only BlackBerry Storm clears the FCC

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Folks in North America don't have too much cause to get excited over this one, but anyone planning on buying a BlackBerry Storm from, say, Vodafone, can now rest a little easier knowing that the less-than-secret GSM-only version of the phone has cleared the all-important hurdle that is the FCC. There's not exactly any other surprises to be found here, naturally, but if it's test reports you're after, you can find plenty of those by hitting up the read link below.

GSM-only BlackBerry Storm clears the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YoYotech Fi7epower MLK1610 PC is really, really fast

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YoYotech is making no bones about their Fi7epower MLK1610 PC: according to them, it's "the fastest PC in the world," and "officially," at that. Well then. The dubious value of such claims aside, the so-called "completely insane" MLK1610 houses an Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition CPU (overclocked to 3.73GHz) atop an X58 chipset, 9GB of DDR3 RAM, an 80GB Intel X25-M SSD, 1TB standard hard drive, a Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM, and it's all sitting on ASUS' P6T motherboard. P7etty sweet, right? It's probably worth the £3,995.85 (about $6,337) you're going to have to spend to make it yours, too. Oh -- did we mention what a looker it is?

[Via Tech Digest]

YoYotech Fi7epower MLK1610 PC is really, really fast originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pioneer forecasts even wider net loss, names new president

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As the flagging economy wreaks havoc on just about every mega-corp out there, the latest to publicly admit to being affected is Pioneer. After posting a rather significant loss earlier this year, the company is now guiding to a wider-than-forecast net loss of ¥78 billion ($789.9 million) for the year to March 31, blaming the surging yen and the slowing economy. The company is scheduled to nix its unprofitable plasma-panel operations by February and slash 2,000 jobs this fiscal year in order to counter the bleeding, and it looks as if former president Tamihiko Sudo is one of the first bigwigs to fall. As of November 16th, Susumu Kotani (pictured right) will take over that role, though we can't imagine he's looking forward to grabbing the captain's chair in such a turbulent environment.

[Via PC World, image courtesy of DayLife]

Pioneer forecasts even wider net loss, names new president originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Magellan suspends development on Maestro Elite 5340 connected GPS

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First comes the fallout at Dash, and now this. Apparently GPS manufacturers are finally caving to the realization that the vast majority doesn't want yet another monthly fee tacked on in the form of a connected GPS -- particularly when so many of the non-connected navigators work so well. TWICE has it that Magellan has "suspended development" on its Maestro Elite 5340 with Google Local search, noting that even though it "believes there is great promise in connected navigation, in the near term, consumers have shown an unwillingness to pay a steep price for PNDs, especially with the recent economic downturns." If you'll recall, we actually toyed with this very unit back at CES, and sadly, it seems those hands-on shots are as close as any citizen outside of the company will ever get to it.

[Via GPSTracklog]

Magellan suspends development on Maestro Elite 5340 connected GPS originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Judge sides with Fisker in Tesla arbitration case

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It started out with allegations of stolen secrets and quickly gave way to plenty of jokes involving "bad karma" before ultimately winding up an in arbitration, and it now looks like the legal tussle between Tesla Motors and Henrik Fisker of Fisker Automotive has finally come to a close. That lawsuit, as you may recall, had accused Fisker (who worked on Tesla's WhiteStar sedan) of stealing Tesla's hybrid technology and using it in Fisker's own car, the Fisker Karma. The judge in the case apparently couldn't disagree more with Tesla's claims, however, and has now cited "overwhelming" evidence in ruling in Fisker's favor. For it's part, Tesla simply said that, "we disagree with the ruling, and we're focused on producing and shipping cars to our customers," while Fisker is expectedly taking the opportunity to gloat a bit, saying that the ruling "completely vindicates" Fisker.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

Judge sides with Fisker in Tesla arbitration case originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone gains battery life, camera flash, loses sex appeal with FastMac’s iV

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Why yes, FastMac -- we want 24 hours of talk time, 72 of audio, 20 of video, and 31 days of standby on our iPhones and iPhone 3Gs. Throw in a camera flash that doubles as a flashlight, and the ability to charge a USB device like a Bluetooth headset right off the phone, and you've got a deal on this iV charging kit of yours! Oh, there's a catch? It's a wee bit bulky, with an aesthetic similar to that of mophie's Juice Pack? Hey, it could be worse. This largification -- along with $79.50 -- is apparently the price you pay for digital endurance.

[Via Macworld]

iPhone gains battery life, camera flash, loses sex appeal with FastMac's iV originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DSi taken for a spin, wept over for lack of homebrew

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Yes, you've seen the unboxing and all other manner of granular coverage for Nintendo's new DSi handheld, but now you can see the thing in action via the magic of YouTube. Embedded below is the requisite unboxing, a helpful browser speed test and a hopeless attempt at sticking in the R4 cart for a bit of homebrew. The good news is that the Japanese DSi fires up an English DS game just fine, so those slightly-confusing region lock concerns can be put to rest -- certain DSi-specific games won't work for everybody else, but the DSi fires up regular DS games from wherever with no problem. Import away!

[Via DS Fanboy]

Continue reading DSi taken for a spin, wept over for lack of homebrew

DSi taken for a spin, wept over for lack of homebrew originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pioneer’s 37-inch KRL-37V KURO LCD reviewed: other LCDs should be scared

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Anyone remotely familiar with the KURO brand knows that with it comes the expectation of awesomeness (and a large price tag), and the question on everyone's mind has been: will the KURO LCD line live up to the name? According to TrustedReview's critique of the 37-inch KRL-37V, the answer is a resounding "yes." The reviewers put together five long-winded pages detailing the ins and outs of this here set, but in general, they found that it produced better pictures than most other LCDs on the market today, and that's saying something. Sure, it wasn't without its flaws -- there were occurrences where odd color tones popped up in SD footage, black levels weren't astonishing and the viewing angles weren't the greatest -- but the colors in HD were simply terrific. 'Tis a shame we North Americans will have to wait until sometime next year before we can even have a look for ourselves, but those in Europe may want to give this one some serious attention.

[Via HDTV Lounge]

Pioneer's 37-inch KRL-37V KURO LCD reviewed: other LCDs should be scared originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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