Barb Dybwad   Year:by , posted Jul 25th 2005 at 11:20AM   Source Site:engadget

We caught the secret prototype of this a few weeks ago, and now M-Audio has announced this unit, complete with a name change its officially the Microtrack, a CompactFlash-based handheld 2-channel audio recorder. At $499 its on the expensive side for something that doesnt have any internal storage, but what sets this apart from the average DAP with line-in is its built-in mic preamps with 48V phantom power (it also ships with an included stereo electret microphone). Itll record at 24-bit/96KHz resolution to WAV or direct to MP3, the latter of which is handy as a songwriters tool because you can dump files right from the device to your computer via USB 2.0 and send them to your bandmates/collaborators. The Microtrack is also sporting a S/PDIF input so you can grab the output from digita...

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Ryan Block   Year:by , posted Jul 25th 2005 at 11:20AM   Source Site:engadget

Bad credit! No credit! Were practically giving these things away… but make sure you pay that bill, or the little black box connected to your brand new used cars electrical harness will prevent the thing from starting. Yup. So while used car dealerships may have been rolling with Payment Protection Systems On Time device for a while now, we can understand why since at least one dealers delinquent payment rate went from down from 35% of customers to an astounding 5%. Hey, used car dealers usually have names like Crazy Larry, not ones like Stupid Larry. [Via SPTimes] ...

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Barb Dybwad   Year:by , posted Jul 25th 2005 at 11:20AM   Source Site:engadget

Dude, this is so, like, totally postmodern and stuff. And um, recursive. Charge your iPod shuffle in this iPod shuffle from Escher BrightonNet. It uses two standard alkalines to give your little white stick some juice. ...

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Marc Perton   Year:by , posted Jul 25th 2005 at 11:20AM   Source Site:engadget

Were not sure what to make of Creatives DMP FX100 audio player. While the player can be found on some European Creative sites, including those in the U.K. and France, Creative doesnt seem to be going out of their way to promote it. You wont find it in any site navigation, searching yields almost nothing, and the team at GenerationMP3 admit that they stumbled on it by chance (you can still find it via cached Google pages, which indicate that it was on the U.K. sites navigation at some point in recent history). From the looks of it, the FX100 is a budget flash player, which tops out at 512 MB at a price of ?100 ($120). With no FM radio, voice recorder or line in but with a display, a form-factor of just 1.1" x 2.8" x 0.65" and the ability to take AAA batteries it looks like a stripped do...

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Marc Perton   Year:by , posted Jul 25th 2005 at 11:20AM   Source Site:engadget

While Microsofts marketing team was hooting and hollering on stage in Atlanta as they announced that Longhorns official name would be Windows Vista, at least one person was stewing back in Redmond. No, Ballmer wasnt peeved that they lost his invite to the Atlanta shindig; the title of crankiest man in Washington State was officially awarded to John Wall, head of Redmond-based tech services company Vista, Inc. Walls company owns a trademark on the name "Vista," and hes now considering his options, which could include taking his neighbor to court though hed like to at least chew the fat over the back fence first. "Were going to consider our options and talk to them," he told the Seattle Times. Wall isnt alone. Among the companies that could be affected by the new name are La Jolla, Califo...

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Barb Dybwad   Year:by , posted Jul 25th 2005 at 11:20AM   Source Site:engadget

Tee hee… okay, we couldnt resist giving this piece of heartfelt public art some exposure. [Via TUAW, pic by Shira Golding] ...

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Peter Rojas   Year:by , posted Jul 25th 2005 at 11:20AM   Source Site:engadget

Ok, so its only been a few weeks since Orange launched their latest Windows Mobile-powered Smartphone, the C550, but Smartphone France already dug up some details about its successor. The C600 looks like it kicks it up like the C550, with a 1.3 megapixel digital camera and a 320 x 240 pixel LCD screen, far as we can tell, the only major differences (at least according to the specs they have listed) are that the C600 adds support for EDGE and drops the C550s dedicated music playback buttons (which are no bigs if youre not planning to use your phone as an MP3 player). Should be out by September, at least in France. P.S. - Both the C550 and the C600 are more or less followups to the much-loved C500/ SMT 5600, but so far we havent heard a peep about either phone finding its way Statesid...

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Peter Rojas   Year:by , posted Jul 24th 2005 at 7:24PM   Source Site:engadget

Is Nokia going to ditch Symbian and go open source? Nokias practically synonymous with Symbian (they own 47.9% of the company which oversees the mobile OS and release 70% of the Symbian-powered smartphones each year), but the analysts over at ARC think its no longer inconceivable that Nokia might dump the OS altogether and port its Series 60 interface to Linux (sort of like how PalmSource is porting the Palm OS to Linux). Their evidence? Nokias decision to license Microsofts ActiveSync technology directly even though Symbian had already cut a deal with Redmond combined with their recent announcement of the 770, a non-cellphone handheld that runs on Linux instead of Symbian and the potential megabucks theyd save in royalty payments by porting to Linux, has them thinking that it might no...

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Barb Dybwad   Year:by , posted Jul 24th 2005 at 7:24PM   Source Site:engadget

So we peeped one of TViXs hard drive enclosures last year, and some of you were asking about HD support. Heres the latest from them, which does indeed support HD content at up to 1080i, and the form factors been changed up somewhat so that its not really an enclosure anymore its designed to take USB 2.0 external drives as well as flash drive, flash readers and digital cameras via USB host functionality. If youve got a tv tuner it can serve as a settop box, and this time around its also sporting ethernet connectivity for playing files across the LAN. Its doing DVI, component, S-video and composite connectivity, and also has a coax optical audio output. We know it supports WMV9, DivX, Xvid and MPEG 1 and 2, but we dont know when and how much other than "coming soon." [Thanks, Rick] ...

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Ryan Block   Year:by , posted Jul 24th 2005 at 7:24PM   Source Site:engadget

In case you missed any of them, some highlights from the past seven days of Engadget: Features Music Thing: Singing speech synthesizers Caption contest: the LAN party to end all LAN parties > The Clicker: HDCPs Shiny Red Button Caption contest: Big synth for a little man Engadgets Summertime Sand Sculpture Contest: we have a winner! Switched On: The Peerflix challenge: Rip. Flix. Churn. The Engadget Interview: Blake Krikorian, CEO of Sling Media Podcast Engadget Podcast 35 - 07.19.2005 News This weeks wireless standard: SEEMesh Windows Vista is officially official Acers new TravelMate C310 convertible tablet Nokia selling 6682 direct to consumers Numark busts out iDJ dueling iPod mixer Gateway ax...

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Barb Dybwad   Year:by , posted Jul 24th 2005 at 7:24PM   Source Site:engadget

We got an update on the state of the millimeter wave imaging technology being developed by "personal security" company Qinetiq a couple of months ago, and the latest word is that their small scanner for inspecting individuals and small groups will be ready to roll officially in August. Also, as a result of the recent London bombings, the UK government and police force are looking into adopting the scanners for detecting concealed bombs and weapons. A single scanning portal can handle snapping moving images that can "see" through a persons clothes at a rate of 500 people per hour. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the UK government would begin testing the devices immediately upon their availability in August. ...

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