When we had the downright magnificent opportunity to toy with Philips' latest PMP line here in the States, we immediately noticed that the GoGear Opus stood out among the rest. The crew over at TrustedReviews recently spent some quality time with the 8GB version of that very unit, and while they found the audio quality to be "excellent," they seemed rather disappointed -- if not irked -- by everything else in the package. For starters, the whole solution just felt boring, with critics noting that its biggest problem was a lack of "excitement." Granted, none of this would matter at a rock-bottom price point, but for $100, there's an awful lot of competition. As we found during our short time with the player, these folks also noticed that the user interface was simply "old-fashioned," and that video playback was nothing to write home about. The bottom line? Unless you score some kind of spectacular deal, your PMP dollars are probably best spent elsewhere.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Philips GoGear Opus reviewed: solid audio, but painfully boring originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 18:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Look, we fully understand that September 5th is a long ways out, but don't think for a second that Microsoft isn't inking every last detail of its Zune HD launch in stone. That said, Windows expert and all-around good guy Paul Thurrott has been "told" that this very player will ship exactly on the fifth day of the ninth month of this year. Needless to say, that jibes with Microsoft's official line ("this fall"), but sadly, we've no other information to go on at the moment. In other words, feel free to pencil this one in, but keep that eraser handy -- cool?

[Via Zune Boards, thanks Joel]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Microsoft's Zune HD shipping on September 5th? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 17:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Look, LED light bulbs are fanciful, great for Ma Earth and a fine addition to any home, barber shop or underground fight club. But let's be honest -- even the guy that bikes through blizzards to get to work and wears garb that he grew in his basement isn't apt to shell out $120 a pop to have what's likely the most efficient light bulb American dollars can buy. Enter Chunlei Guo from the University of Rochester, who has helped discover a process which could morph a traditional incandescent light bulb into a beacon of burning light without using nearly as much energy as before. In fact, his usage of the femtosecond laser pulse -- which creates a "unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament" -- could enable a bulb to increase output efficiency in order to emit 100-watts worth of light while sucking down less than 60-watts of power. Per usual, there's no telling when this new hotness is likely to hit the commercial realm, but one's thing for sure: we bet GE's paying attention.

[Via Physorg]

Filed under: Household

Ultra-powerful laser could make incandescent light bulbs more efficient originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 16:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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.

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.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments