After a brief delay, looks like CyanogenMod 5 is now out for the HTC Dream, Magic and Sapphire, also known as the T-Mobile G1 and myTouch 3G. The release is labeled as experimental, so take care not to flash it onto your work phone, and G1 owners should back up their data as they’ll need to install a little something called the DangerSPL (which has phone bricking potential) and perform a full wipe. If you’re the kind of individual who doesn’t shy away from software explicitly labeled “danger,” get cracking on that rooted Eclair at the source link.
Update: Can’t get through? That’s because the sheer willpower of Android early adopters is crushing websites hosting the CM5 ROM like so many stale pretzels. Cyanogen is retweeting alternative options if you simply can’t wait for things to quiet down.
Cyanogen 5.0.7 experimentally brings Eclair to G1, myTouch 3G — caveats apply originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve stumbled across any number of MacBook Air KIRFs, but it’s not often we see a worthy representation of Cupertino’s heftier model. Never underestimate Shenzhen. This “Dragonfly QT Pro” not only features a familiar aluminum alloy shell, the 14-inch, 1366 x 768 netbook’s also got Ion 2 switchable graphics ahead of its Acer and ASUS cousins. A 1.66GHz Atom D410 and 1GB of memory help pump out 1080p video while keeping case temperatures at a lap-happy 36 degrees Celsius, while a 160GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and HDMI (take that, Mini DisplayPort) round out a 4.2 pound, roughly $3000 RMB (about $440) package. Shame it only gets 2 hours of battery life, eh?
Keepin’ it real fake: MacBook Pro knockoff rocks Ion 2, thinks itself fly originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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M.I.C. Gadget | 
Shanzaiben | Email this | Comments
Feast your eyes upon the bloated list of horrific wares we’ve dug up from the dregs of the ‘net for you this fine, delicious afternoon. Most of these “gadgets” are of the home-making variety, so will you waste your money on the R2-D2 vacuum, telling yourself that it’ll motivate you to do that spring cleaning before fall arrives? Or will you lay down a bit of cash for the “toilet sound blocker” which spares you the intense, buzz-killing embarrassment of allowing other people in the vicinity to hear you flushing the toilet? Will you instead reach into your wallet to make the USB seat cooler your own (you know, since seats are so very hot)? No? Well, there’s some other, even less interesting crap available too. Enjoy. Oh, and be sure to check out the Chicken Burger USB hub. It’s the breast.
Read – R2-D2 vacuum
Read – Toilet Sound Blocker
Read – USB seat cooler
Read – Soccer ball headphones
Read – Windshield mount
Read – Chicken Burger USB hub
Crapgadget: countdown to extinction, home edition originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Valve promised that Steam on Mac would arrive in April. As you’re no doubt aware, April is nearly over. Does that make Steam… vaporware? Not quite. Put away the Caruso sunglasses for two more weeks, because our friends at Joystiq just received a one-line email reading: “Valve today announced the public release of Steam for the Mac is May 12. Please stay tuned for more information.” Oh well — at least you’re not waiting for Steam on Linux, and you can always stock up on Razer peripherals while you endure the delay.
Steam for Mac opens a portal to May 12, steps through originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, it looks like it’s the season for automakers to show off electric bicycle concepts, with Volkswagen now following Lexus’ lead with its own “Bik.e” concept. Unlike Lexus’
hybrid concept, this one is a full-fledged electric bicycle (sans pedals), and it boasts a few innovations of its own, not the least of which is that it’s able to fold up and fit where you’d normally store a spare tire. It’s also apparently able to be charged using your car’s DC current in a pinch in addition to a standard AC outlet at home, and it promises to deliver a range of 20 kilometers on a full charge, along with a top speed of 20 kilometers per hour. What’s more, it seems like Volkswagen is actually looking at commercial possibilities for the Bik.e, although it’s not making any firm commitments just yet. Head on past the break for a quick look at the bike in action, and some dancing.
Continue reading Volkswagen rolls out foldable ‘Bik.e’ electric bicycle concept
Volkswagen rolls out foldable ‘Bik.e’ electric bicycle concept originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We don’t see too many
USB-to-S/PDIF converters ’round these parts. Really, who but the most insane audiophile (the type who thinks they can discern frequencies well outside the human range) actually needs one — especially when they can cost as much as a new laptop? But then again, insane audiophiles (as well as, quite frankly, the plain ol’ insane) do read this space, so we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that an outfit called Audiophilleo has put together something called, oddly enough, the Audiophilleo 1 Advanced USB to S/PDIF Transport. Even gadget blog editors who still listen to their old Big Audio Dynamite cassettes can appreciate something as feature-packed as this: not only does it handle up to 192KHz / 24bit audio (with drivers for Windows, OS X, and Linux), but the manufacturer developed its own USB firmware and output stage hardware (in this instance, it looks like “off the shelf” just didn’t cut it). This thing even has a JitterSimulator, so you can, you know, make sure Jitter is being eliminated. Or simulated. Or something. Sounds awesome, right? Is it $900 of awesome? We’ll let you decide that for yourself.
Audiophilleo 1 USB audio to S/PDIF converter is really high-end, really expensive originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Audiophilleo | Email this | Comments
Well, will you look at that. In its haste to proclaim itself winner of a 2010 Red Dot design award, ASUS has inadvertently or perhaps intentionally announced the brand-new netbook that received it — the Eee PC 1218. She’s a beaut, too, with a slim, one-piece aluminum shell that evokes the MacBook Air but still packs a substantial number of expansion ports. There aren’t any hard specs quite yet, but the above shot shows it’ll come with a webcam and chiclet keyboard, and in a second pic after the break we can make out three USB sockets, Ethernet, VGA, a pair of 3.5mm audio jacks and an HDMI port — the last of which possibly suggests a dedicated GPU (here’s hoping an Ion 2) for HD video playback. Oh, and lest we forget, ASUS says it’s also got a soft-touch plastic underside, for all you coffee-swilling, netbook-slinging butterfingers out there. No word on pricing or availability.
Continue reading ASUS Eee PC 1218 trades veil of secrecy for popular design award
ASUS Eee PC 1218 trades veil of secrecy for popular design award originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ubergizmo | 
ASUS Design, ASUSTeK | Email this | Comments
It’s been an incredible week in news, and we’re getting ready to break it all down, podcast-style. Won’t you join us? We’ll be live at 5:45PM EST, but the chat below is open, so settle in and get comfy!
P.S.- And hey, don’t forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone apps if you’re out and about and can’t join in on the Flash-based fun below. Is that deeply ironic today? Yes, it is.
Update: And we’re done — that was a wild one! We’ll have the regular podcast post up tomorrow if you missed it, and we’ll be back next week as always.
The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:45PM EST! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A classic SLR film camera gutted and given a digital upgrade — blasphemy? Maybe, but there’s no denying that this mod by Diego Monge is plenty impressive. He started out with a Canon AE-1 Program SLR, and apparently simply stuffed the guts of a compact digital camera of some sort inside, resulting in what he calls the AE-1 Program Digital — a 9-megapixel camera complete with image stabilization, a functional flash, and 4GB of memory (non-removable, it seems). Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any details on the build process, let alone a how-to, but you can at least get a glimpse of it in action in the video after the break.
Continue reading Canon AE-1 Program SLR gets a digital retrofit
Canon AE-1 Program SLR gets a digital retrofit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well this is depressing. Word has just gone fluttering out of Redmond that work on the Courier project — a heretofore rumored dual-screen tablet which rightfully set the tech world ablaze — has been spun down by the company. Here’s the official line from Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of corporate communications:
At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The “Courier” project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.
All very sad, of course. So how did we get here? And was this thing ever really real to begin with? After all, it’s hard to kill something that never lived. Well here’s the deal, according to a source familiar with the situation: the Courier did indeed start life as a potential new product category for the company, one which was being incubated internally with very real plans for a marketable device. It seems, however, that things just didn’t manage to take shape, and word was handed down very recently that the incubation period had reached its conclusion — sans product — and resources would be directed elsewhere. Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t see some of this technology turn up in other products which Microsoft has in the pipeline (the company does keep quite a few balls in the air), but it does mean that those rendered videos of the Courier in action will remain, unfortunately, renders. As far as the Engadget team is concerned, there isn’t a dry eye in the house right now — but the Courier will always remain in our hearts as one of the finest unicorns that ever unicorned across our screens.
Microsoft confirms, kills Courier in one fell swoop originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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