Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Dr. Zilog - My Girls

Hear the podcast

00:01:40 - Toshiba's JournE touch multimedia tablet (updated with hands-on video!)
00:12:15 - Toshiba BDX2000 Blu-ray player coming November for $250, gives HD-DVD the final cold shoulder
00:19:16 - Sony VAIO X slimster hands-on
00:26:03 - Video: Xperia Pureness (codename Kiki) announced
00:38:05 - HTC Hero heading to Sprint October 11th for $179.99, no chin in sight (update: exclusive to Sprint)
00:43:44 - Video: Nokia's N900, N97 mini, X3, X6 and Booklet 3G hands-on roundup
00:52:50 - LG BL40 Chocolate Touch hands-on
00:59:06 - AT&T rolling out MMS to iPhone on September 25, tethering 'in the future'
01:02:42 - Apple holding 'rock and roll' themed event, September 9th
01:06:55 - Eyes-on Panasonic's Full HD 3D plasma and Blu-ray combo
01:10:05 - Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker hands-on: Ubuntu like you've never seen it before


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Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 162 - 09.04.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's been a long time coming, but there's finally light at the end of the tunnel for Mac-toting BlackBerry fans -- BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac is scheduled for release this month, and a beta version has already leaked out. Unlike a certain scrappy competitor's hacky solution, BBDM lets you sync with iTunes, Address Book, and iCal without any monkey business, and you'll also be able to manage and install applications and other files right from your desktop. We haven't tried the beta (we're not pushing our Snow Leopard luck), but we hear it's stable -- do let us know how things turn out if you're brave enough to install it.

[Thanks, bighap]

Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac leaks out in beta form originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the introduction of the iTunes Music Store, Apple brought the business model of buying music online to the masses at 99 cents a song. iTunes changed the dynamic of the music business: consumers re-discovered the single and no longer had to buy a whole CD to get the one song they might want. It's a model that's worked well: I've bought a lot of music from the folks in Cupertino over the years, and so has everyone else: Apple's one of the largest music retailers in the industry.

Having said that, Apple's model isn't the only one out there. Microsoft, Real, Napster and others have all tried to push the subscription model that allows users to consume as much music as they wish from a catalog of millions of songs for a monthly fee. Some services, such as Microsoft's Zune Pass, also allow users to keep a certain number of songs each month in unprotected format. Although subscription services will likely continue to need be protected by some sort of DRM I don't really have an issue with that. Technology like DRM should be used to create new business models, not protect old ones.

Continue reading Entelligence: Stream on

Filed under: Portable Audio

Entelligence: Stream on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smule, the guys who made Leaf Trombone and Ocarina, just ported Auto-Tune—the software T-Pain and Auto-Tune the news uses to make music gold—onto the iPhone. Holy crap is it awesome.

Here is my sample recording. I never heard the original, obviously, so I did my best at freestyling. What's cool about this is that all I had to do was select the track, hit play and basically go freeballing on the lyrics that popped up. Sometimes the lyrics popped a little too fast, but hey, what're you gonna do.

But the fact that you can make your own track, then share it with your friends (or Facebook or Myspace) with just a few clicks is amazing, especially so since it's authentic Antares Auto-Tune technology. As a bonus, you can see the Auto-Tune the News guys with T-Pain allude to the existence of the app in their latest installment:

The Price is $3, and I definitely got $3 worth of fun out of it. [iTunes]

i.TV 2.0 get a little closer to being the only TV app you need, with a refined UI, push notifications, and the big one: built-in TiVo remote, the first of several they're planning to add. Plus, it's less crashy. [iTunes]

Konami's mascot kart racing game Krazy Kart Racers materialized on the iPhone App Store last night. Why would you possibly want to pay $8 for a 3D kart racer on iPhone, if you're not one of the few people dying for a successor to Konami Krazy Racers on GBA?

Well, the roster includes not only Pyramid Head, but Robbie the Rabbit from Silent Hill, making this officially the creepiest kart racer ever. In fact, the App Store description says, "If you have trouble staying on course try using Robbie the Rabbit. He's a bit slow but easiest to control." He's not just in the game, he's the beginner character!

Other confirmed characters ("confirmed" meaning we see them in screens) include Power Pro-kun, Frogger, Evil Rose from Rumble Roses ( ... ), Sparkster, Pentarou, Goemon, and Tako from Parodius.

Krazy Kart Racers (Konami, $7.99)

Krazy Kart Racing: Pyramid Head vs. Frogger originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Need some ambient music for your next party? Stream some long-play music sets from Mugasha and focus on enjoying the party instead of working on the perfect play list.

Mugasha catalogs long-play electronica sets by prominent DJs. Unlike some music sharing services where you have to pick and choose through songs and create your own master playlists, Mugasha already has the music sorted into sets for you.

You can search for songs and artists to play individual songs, but the song themselves are part of a greater set. You can subscribe to artists to keep abreast of when they release new sets, share your favorite tracks and sets via social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and purchase music when available from iTunes and Amazon.com.

Browsing and listening requires no login, if you want to save favorites and participate in the site you'll need to create an account or login using Facebook Connect.

Logitech has just announced two new Squeezeboxes that stream audio over Wi-Fi: the Squeezebox Radio and the Squeezebox Touch. The Radio is a stand-alone device, while the Touch is designed to work with your existing stereo.

The Squeezebox Radio is the cheaper of the two, coming in at $200. It's got a built-in amplifier and speakers to pump out music streamed from online or from your music collection stored on your computer without needing to plug into your stereo. It'll download from iTunes or stream from Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius or Last.fm. The screen isn't a touchscreen, but it's got six buttons for navigating or selecting what you want to stream.

The Squeezebox Touch is the fancier of the two at $300, and looks just like those leaked pictures. Designed to plug into your existing stereo, it's got a 4.3-inch touchscreen for choosing music to play and viewing album art, and it streams everything that the Radio does. Since it doesn't have built-in speakers, it supports sampling rates of up to 24 bits at 96kHz. It's also got a USB port and SD card slot for listening to music stored on thumb drives or memory cards.

The Squeezebox Radio drops later this month, while the Squeezebox Touch arrives in December.

Limitless Choices: Logitech Brings Your Digital Music Together, Unveils Two New Squeezebox Wi-Fi Music Players
Logitech Squeezebox Radio, Logitech Squeezebox Touch Deliver All The Music On Your Computer, All The Music On Internet Into Your Home;
Feature Streamlined Interface, Facebook App

FREMONT, Calif.

Logitech has finally released info on its upcoming additions to the Squeezebox lineup, and we're happy to share it all with you, dear readers. First up is the FCC-approved Squeezebox Radio, sporting integrated speakers and a 2.4-inch LCD upon which you can view playlists, peruse Facebook recommendations, and even squint at Flickr slideshows. On the higher end is the Squeezebox Touch, with its 4.3-inch touchscreen and outputs to connect directly to your home entertainment system. Both feature 802.11g wireless enabling them to suck tunes of all sorts (including Pandora, iTunes, Sirius, and various internet streams) straight from a Mac, Windows, or Linux machine, but only the Touch will be able to play tracks directly from USB drives and SD cards. The Radio will be shipping by the end of the month for an MSRP of $199, while the Touch (which would look perfect next to your Harmony 1100) is destined for a December release and a higher price of $299 -- despite it having already started shipping in some places. Full press releases after the break.

Continue reading Logitech makes Squeezebox Radio and Touch official

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless

Logitech makes Squeezebox Radio and Touch official originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you like the sound of Pac-Man eating a ghost? Do you like it enough to pay a dollar for it? Namco Bandai announced a new iTunes music label called Namco Sounds, which will add remastered game soundtracks on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month.

The inaugural offerings include a Soul Calibur sampler, called SoulCalibur Suite: The Resonance of Souls and Swords, and sound effect collections from Pac-Man and Xevious. A $3 charge for each "album" isn't terrible -- it's equal to the cost of buying each of the Calibur tracks individually, and it's a fairly small price to pay for the full set of in-game sounds for the other games.

Due to the nature of iTunes, however, individual tracks from the sound collections are spectacular ripoffs. Each sound effect, purchased separately, is 99 cents. We don't need "Special Flag: Get" or the incredibly irritating Xevious theme that badly. Do we?

Namco Bandai's new iTunes sounds will eat up your money originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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