Being that Release Candidate 1 just hit the tubes, we weren’t really expecting a big Windows 7 presence at Computex this year. Much to our surprise, Viliv has announced that it will be showcasing the first official Win7-powered MID at the Taiwan-based show later this week. The heralded S5 will be the lucky device, with a duo of WiMAX-equipped cousins (X70 EX and S7) hanging around to demonstrate live video streaming. Needless to say, we’ll be doing everything we can to drop by and see how things are going.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Handhelds

Microsoft showing off Windows 7-powered Viliv S5 MID at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen we’ve seen the new Devastator robot, Megan Fox disrobing, and various trailers. But what about, you know, the Fallen? Well, this image is him.

Admittedly, this is not as cool as a trailer. And it certainly doesn’t elicit the tingling sensation Megan Fox gives you when she fixes an engine or graces the cover of Esquire.

But it’s apparently a first look, procured by MTV to promote this evening’s MTV Movie Awards, and the thing looks legitimately bad ass (is that an Egyptian style headdress going on up in there?).

And it looks slightly different too, right? Shia LeBeouf explains:

Basically, the Fallen is to them what cavemen, Neanderthals were to us. He’s the ancestor, the first version of this exoskeleton. He’s the first version of this sentient being. That’s what he is. He’s the origins of what they came from.

He also says the Megatron answers to the fallen thanks to a sort of “Emperor and Darth Vader … kind of situation.”

So long as we’re talking Emperor-Vader from the Return of the Jedi, and not that “Noooo!!!” abomination at the end of Revenge of the Sith, that sounds cool enough. [MTV via Film School Rejects]

It’s funny that I should come across this trashcan now, since I just this morning remembered that I tossed a touch of raw meat into the trashcan two days ago.  Two days old raw meat that sits in room temperature makes for a charming smell in the kitchen.  Even after I took the trash bag out, the damage was done, so now my kitchen has a fairly strong odor to it that will take a little while to go away.  Now, if I had this trashcan around, none of this would have ever happened.  The food wouldn’t have spoiled so quickly and I wouldn’t need a face mask to toss things into the trash.

This odd looking trashcan does all this by utilizing a UV light and keeping your trash cool.  If the trash stays cool and you have a UV light to kill off the bacteria, you wouldn’t have nearly as much of a problem with stinky trash.  Of course this is only a concept design, as most brilliant ideas tend to be.  There is also the snag that adding that much technology to a trashcan means that you’re going to be paying quite a bit for such a small convenience.  For now, we’ll just have to attempt to remember to take out the trash a bit sooner when we toss away something that could spoil.

Source: OhGizmo

Way back in 2006, a young, eager Jason Chen brought the world word of a Yoda Back Buddy that mimicked the training scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Now Darth Vader, ever the envious Sith Lord, wants in on the action too.

Kind of demeaning for the ol’ baddie, no? I mean, turning one of the most celebrated villains in cinema history into some kind of $40 gimpy clinger-on… I mean, it’s almost like an out-of-touch filmmaker taking a storied franchise, reshooting key scenes with poorly planned updates and cut footage from 1977, and then selling the resulting schlock back to us as if it were the second coming. I mean, if that actually happened. Did it?

But back on task. If this were an Anakin Skywalker Back Buddy, and it resembled Hayden Christensen, I might not be so critical. It’d be more fitting, is what I’m trying to say.

This Darth is available for pre-order and ships in August. [Star Wars Shop via OhGizmo]

Let me save you $100 with a tip. The wind, old as time and completely free, will push your kid around the pool on a rubber raft faster than this inflatable speedboat.

Plus, the wind doesn’t require huge expensive D batteries, of which this inflatable cash sink requires eight.

The wind also dissipates eventually, takes up no room in your garage, and won’t pop or become mangled when your kid—innocent and adorable, yes, but naive as fuck—tries to use this thing on the lawn when he gets bored in the pool.

Still not convinced? The 360 degree movement, all at a neck-breaking 2MPH, is too much to pass up? OK, then, purchase away. Just be sure to send us a picture of the thing in six months when it’s stuffed in a closet next to your Snuggie collection. [Cooolest Gadgets]

When you’re lazing about in the pool, that is the one time you should never ever be lacking music.  Without music, you’re left listening to your own thoughts or even worse, birds.  We all know that’s no fun and not fulfilling in the least.  You need music to play and loudly.  Well with this speaker around you can float it right alongside of you and never have to worry about getting out of the water to crank the volume.  Just add a little alcohol to the mix and you have the perfect at home vacation.

Since it uses Bluetooth, you’ll have to have an MP3 player with Bluetooth or a phone with MP3s on it, such as an iPhone.  As long as you have that handy, it’ll play your music, but be sure to keep it within 30 feet of the speaker.  When a call comes in, it’ll just stop playing music.  One down side to setting your device so far away is that in order to skip a song you would have to get out, unless you get a waterproof case for that as well.  You can pick up the speaker for $40 on Chinavasion.

Source: Technabob

We know the Mini 1101 is the more business-centric of the new HP netbooks, but unless the company has a sudden change of heart, it looks like you’ll be getting the base configuration or nothing at all. Starting today, HP is enabling eager consumers to purchase one of the $329 machines, but the only “customization” options are external accessories and peripherals. Hit the read link to see if what’s offered fits your bill, and if not, the Mini 110 XP and Mini 110 Mi alternatives should be popping up soon.

[Thanks, Richard]

Filed under: Laptops

HP’s Mini 1101 up for order, customizations nowhere to be found originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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JMicron is preparing to debut its new NAND flash controller at Computex, and with it the company intends to boast it can slash SSD pricing by 50% in time for the holiday season.

Officially labeled the JMF612, the chip is targeted at a “new generation of NAND flash chips built using smaller process geometries that will be entering the market soon.” Vague! The JMF612 chip will reportedly use an ARM9 core in a 289-ball TFBGA package, supporting up to 256MB of DDR or DDR2 DRAM as an external cache. Technical!

But my brain hurts now. Put simply, if this lofty rhetoric isn’t just hot air up our ass, it means half price SSD by Christmas or thereabouts.

Of course, there’s that brick wall looming on the horizon, but I guess we’ll deal with that headache when it arrives. [DailyTech via Engadget]

We always heard that where there is a will, there is a way. Said mantra has never been more exemplified than in the video past the break, as someone halfway across this great planet has seemingly procured what could be the very first shipping N97. Still, we’d like to point out a few things here: first, Nokia has yet to officially ship these things, so there’s at least a sliver of a chance that by mashing play, you’ll actually be watching a KIRF unboxing, and in turn, supporting terrorism. Also, we can’t understand a word the unboxer says, so again, he could be explaining just how elaborate of a fake it is, and we’d never know. Needless to say, you should definitely proceed at your own risk.

Update: Seems another fellow got one, and he’s got pictures to prove it.

Continue reading Nokia’s N97 unboxed on video — somehow, someway

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s N97 unboxed on video — somehow, someway originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Either Eric Cartman has started eating electronics or the design folk at Sony have some explaining to do regarding how they thought up the PSP Go. [Thanks, Joel!]