Whoever it was at Sony HQ that decided to pursue “military contracts” as a revenue source, kudos! Mere days after the US Air Force expressed interest in expanding its PS3 supercomputer, we’re hearing glorious Britannia’s Royal Navy has conscripted 230 PSPs into duty as revision aids for its trainee sailors. Loaded with maths and physics materials, the PSPs can be used in a bunk, have familiar controls for the young and mostly male recruits, and are considered pretty tough to break. The underlying reason for this move though is cost cutting: by making the training course more intensive, the Navy is saving on teaching time. Given that the UMD drive won’t come disabled — which is hoped to encourage the sailors to take better care of the device — the future this paints is of marines who’ve spent more time with a freebie handheld console than with a pro instructor. At least they’ll have a great stable of captured monsters to show for it.

[Thanks, pankomputerek]

Sony PSPs enlisted as study aids by the Royal Navy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not enough variety in your Zune HD color palette? How about a friendly dab of magenta and purple to mix up the proceedings? Microsoft’s Zune Store is now showing some grayed out selectors for purple and magenta color options for the player, which will apparently be available on December 1st – just in time for something or other. No word on whether these will be available for both 16GB and 32GB versions, but pink already representing on the 32 gigger, we’d really hope Microsoft would spread the love down to the cash strapped.

[Thanks, Jerel]

Zune HD getting magenta and purple flavors on December 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not enough variety in your Zune HD color palette? How about a friendly dab of magenta and purple to mix up the proceedings? Microsoft’s Zune Store is now showing some grayed out selectors for purple and magenta color options for the player, which will apparently be available on December 1st – just in time for something or other. No word on whether these will be available for both 16GB and 32GB versions, but pink already representing on the 32 gigger, we’d really hope Microsoft would spread the love down to the cash strapped.

[Thanks, Jerel]

Zune HD getting magenta and purple flavors on December 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite the distant memory that is film for most people, most DSLRs have plenty in common with their film-based ancestors, at least when it comes to form factor. Not this Nova DSLR concept. Conceived by Erin Fong, the idea is to allow for all sorts of hand holds thanks to the dual movable arms, and the controls at the fingertips seems surprisingly convenient. We’re sure there are all sorts of technical limitations holding something like this back, but after suffering severe kitted-out DSLR fatigue on multiple occasions, we could really get into something that makes a bit better use of how we regularly hold our non-imaging devices. Now if someone would just clean that lens already!

Continue reading Nova DSLR concept reminds us that cameras need not be boring

Nova DSLR concept reminds us that cameras need not be boring originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A little bit of emulation is a basic rite of passage for a modern day device that allows open software development, and the N900 is no different. We first saw the device rocking some SNES way back in September, but apparently Nokia couldn’t pass up an opportunity to demonstrate the phone’s prowess and put up its own video of a few emulators in action. Unfortunately, while emulators are completely legal, the ROMs that run on them are rarely legit, and despite Nokia’s odd assertion in the video that “most publishers allow individual title usage provided that the user is in possession of the original title,” the phone giant has since pulled the video from the internets, and Nintendo is reportedly looking into the matter. Of course, N900 emulatin’ is still easy to come by from third parties — check one out after the break.

[Thanks, Nirvan]

Continue reading Nokia shows off SNES on N900, quickly thinks better of it

Nokia shows off SNES on N900, quickly thinks better of it originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXLIV: Zoho’s E72 is made in China, has Finland doing a double-take

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXLIV: Zoho’s E72 is made in China, has Finland doing a double-take originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Archos releases developer edition firmware for Internet Tablets

Archos releases developer edition firmware for Internet Tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Archos releases developer edition firmware for Internet Tablets

Archos releases developer edition firmware for Internet Tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re going on the assumption here that the lads and ladies over at QiGi haven’t actually heard that “smartbooks” have a vaguely defined look and feel, as the outfit’s latest handheld definitely looks nothing like the smartbooks that we’ve seen emerge over the past few months. In fact, the Windows Mobile 6.5-equipped device looks more like a MID than anything else, boasting a 5-inch 800 x 480 display, only a few face-mounted buttons and 1GB of memory. Hit the read link if you’re interested in a poorly translated review, and good luck finding one of these in the open market (at least with an English-language operating system).

QiGi’s Smartbook is more like a WinMo 6.5-powered MID originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spintronics — much like Cook-Out milkshakes and cotton candy for all — seems like a pipe dream at this point. We’ve been beaten over the head with theoretical miracles, but we’re getting to the point where it’s put up or shut up. Thankfully, a team of Dutch boffins are clearly in the same camp, and they’ve been toiling around the clock in order to achieve spin polarization in non-magnetic semiconductors at ambient temperature. The amazing part here is that “temperature” bit; up until this discovery, spin polarization was only possible at levels of around 150 K, or at temperatures far, far cooler than even your unheated basement. If spintronics could effectively be enacted at room temperature, all those unicorn-approved phenomena we mentioned earlier would have a much greater chance of sliding into the realm of reality. Here’s hoping they get this stuff ironed out prior to 2012.

Spin polarization achieved at room temperature, elusive miracles now less elusive originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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