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We’re not sure what tea they’re being served in the Far East these days, but the peeps at Lenovo have somehow convinced themselves to let go of the legendary 13-inch ThinkPad X301 and replace it with the 14-inch T410s by the end of the year. Ouch. While you mop up the tears pooling around your boots, here’s Marketing Director Wang Lipin’s reasoning: with the T400 series capable of offering more powerful CPU and GPU at a similar portability but much lower price (we’re talking about a $980 difference between the T410s and X301 base models, at the time of writing), the X300 series has since lost its special place in the ultraportable category. It’s tough to argue with figures like that, and hey, at least that’s one less temptation for the sake of your piggy bank. Or so we’re left to tell ourselves. Lenovo ThinkPad X300 series to be phased out, replaced by T400 this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time again — the Engadget Show is back in a big way this Saturday, April 24th at 6pm ! This time around, we’ll have the world renowned roboticist Dr. Dennis Hong on hand for a stirring discussion on robotics — as well as the progress on our future robot butlers. What’s more, GDGT co-founder and Engadget editor emeritus Ryan Block will be joining the round table and our own investigative reporter Rick Karr will be back with a head-scratching report on the war in the music industry over net neutrality. You can also look forward to some fine, fine music from Neil Voss and mind-numbing visuals from NO CARRIER . We’ll be streaming the whole thing direct to you via the internet, but we’ll also be doing tons of giveaways at the live show only , so make the trek and join us at The Times Center in person. If you’re geographically incapable of joining us in New York City, just hit up the stream and tweet comments directly to the show! If you’re wondering about what kind of giveaways we’ve got in store, one lucky audience member will walk away from the show with this insane ATI Eyefinity rig . Yes. Seriously. Note: The show time has been moved back an hour, so it will be starting at 6PM ! See below for more details. The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center , part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are — as always — free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served… so get there early! Here’s all the info you need: There is no admission fee — tickets are completely free The event is all ages Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 3:30PM on Saturday, doors will open for seating at 5:30PM, and the show begins at 6PM You cannot collect tickets for friends or family — anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we’re full, we’re full The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break) The show length is around an hour If you’re a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at : engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we’ll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com. Subscribe to the Show: [ iTunes ] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [ Zune ] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [ RSS M4V ] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically. Continue reading The Engadget Show returns this Saturday, April 24th with roboticist Dr. Dennis Hong, Ryan Block, and much more! The Engadget Show returns this Saturday, April 24th with roboticist Dr. Dennis Hong, Ryan Block, and much more! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On , a column about consumer technology. Today’s smartphones handle voice conversations, short texts, email, instant messages, and tweets from around the globe. They are moving toward real-time translation of languages — and if the batteries malfunction, they can even send smoke signals. But if there is one staple of communication that has seemed immune from “app-ification,” it is the fax machine. This dial-up dinosaur has proven so resilient that it seems certain that the mutant cockroaches surviving humanity may find some use for 14,400 bits per second document transmissions. However, a recently launched $3 app for the iPhone may be the harbinger of the demise of the fax, or at least for one of its most common rationales. Continue reading Switched on: Giving fax the axe Switched on: Giving fax the axe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Well this is something. According to Peter Kafka at All Things D , as well as a few tipsters, Microsoft has all but confirmed the existence (and likely actual launch) of the Courier tablet. In a post on the site by Thomas Kohnstamm (or The JobsBloggers, hard to say) touting Microsoft innovation, this passage was originally posted: Do you already know everything about Project Natal and the Cloud? Is Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ jaw-dropping TED talk on augmented-reality Bing Maps and Photosynth last month’s news? Then check out some of the online chatter surrounding new releases of Window Phone 7 series handsets, Internet Explorer 9 and the upcoming Courier digital journal.” That last bit — you know, about the Courier — was linked to our recent post which revealed a handful of images, video, and possible factoids on the device. Though that bit of the writeup has been canned, you can see that the post was tagged “courier,” and the original text is still hanging around RSS (as seen above). So, does this mean Microsoft is getting close to actually giving us some meat on this thing? We can’t know for sure if the info above is 100 percent solid… but it’s certainly telling that this thing is on the lips of Microsoft employees who also happen to work on PR campaigns for the company — and they moved quickly to get it offline. What do you guys think? [Thanks, Ian] Microsoft Courier existence confirmed on the company’s JobsBlog? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

The FCC wants you to help it kill bogus ISPs, and its primary weapon is its Consumer Broadband Test , released to the world last week. 150,000 people have already done their part, giving a glimpse at some early statistics describing just what the state of American downloadin’ looks like. Average download from the Ookla test is a respectable 11.5Mbps and upload is 2.09Mbps, but if you look at the spread of those results a full half of test takers have a rather more pedestrian 4Mbps maximum download. An early map is included below showing results by state but, as Ars Technica points out, many of the “surprise” dark green entries (like Georgia) have only had a few-thousand respondents thus-far, and you can figure most are in-the-know enthusiasts paying extra to get their digital goods more quickly. It still remains to be seen exactly what the FCC will do with all these stats, because it doesn’t seem to be releasing data tying speeds to ISP just yet. Hopefully that’s coming. 150,000 take part in FCC’s broadband census, do their part for the greater good originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Just when you were hoping things would get better for the bickering search giant and nation-state, along comes apparent word from Shanghai-based Chinese Business News (via Bloomberg), citing an anonymous Google China employee, that the company is looking into closing up shop on April 10th. That’s a far cry from what we heard late last week, that it would stay in the country , albeit in a potentially modified form. Frankly, this is quite sketchy and no one anywhere is corroborating, but according to the report, an announcement is expected on Monday, March 22nd. Better get used to the idea of Bing-powered Android devices . Google China could be ceasing operations in April, says report originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Whether for real or for show, Google tried to make the world believe it would use Android OS as a bargaining chip during the company’s terse, slow negotiations with China. Now, the company has seemingly abandoned that option. During an educational webcast about the future of Google’s mobile business, CFO Patrick Pichette told viewers that he expected the company’s Android platform to do well in China despite all the recent threats and ultimatums in the country. “The Android platform is available to everybody,” said Pichette, “and China is obviously another great market in which Android should flourish.” Good to hear that Google and China are finally in accordance , right? Thing is, with China circumventing Android’s default search engine, Google’s stance against Chinese censorship of search depended on taking Android handsets hostage. But if the OS is indeed available to everybody, that’s not going to happen. The mobile market might one day be dominated by Android, but if Google doesn’t step up, mobile search will go to competitors more willing to play wallball with the Great Firewall of China. Google says Android should ‘flourish’ in China, effectively concedes a point originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

For those among us finding it hard to decide what blisteringly fast DDR3 sticks to pair with their Core i7, Intel has decided to do its own compatibility certification list (see link below). And since the happiest memory maker is usually the one atop the pile, we have to imagine Kingston is feeling pretty sunny right now, as its 2.4GHz HyperX memory kit has scooped the top spot away from Corsair’s 2.33GHz offering . Running at 1.65 volts and offering 9-11-9-27-2 timings, this is now officially the RAM to own if you’re after headline-grabbing stock speeds. We also love the fact Kingston acknowledges “benchmarkers” as a distinct group alongside gamers and enthusiasts — finally some appreciation for those misunderstood souls. Whatever you describe yourself as, you’ll be able to get on the latest speed bandwagon in the second quarter of this year. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Kingston’s 2,400MHz HyperX memory kit offers the world’s fastest Intel-certified RAM Kingston’s 2,400MHz HyperX memory kit offers the world’s fastest Intel-certified RAM originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

According to the Wall Street Journal , Google is making headway with its plans to stop filtering search results in China . Quoting Eric Schmidt as saying that “something will happen soon,” the latest report is that Google is engaged in negotiations with multiple government agencies in China, and the likeliest scenario at this point is that the search giant will remain in the People’s Republic, though it may be in a slightly altered state. “There will be a way for Google to not pull out 100%” says a source familiar with the ongoing discussions, who expects that El Goog will find a patchwork arrangement by which it’ll be able to maintain some parts of its business running while no longer adhering to China’s censorship fiat. For its part, China is keeping up its tough posturing, with the latest statement from its IT ministry describing Google’s plans as “unfriendly and irresponsible” and warning that the company will have to bear the consequences of its actions. What appears certain at this point, however, is that there’ll be no going back to censored Google search results, which is a win in our books whatever the final outcome. Google to stop censoring Chinese search results ’soon,’ China warns of consequences originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

PrimeSense was formed in 2005, and unless you’re a sickly obsessed silicon junkie, you’ve probably never heard of them. All that changes today. We sat down with the company at GDC to learn more about the chip that it produces, and we left with an imagination sore from being stretched so severely. Put simply, the company manufacturers a microchip that, when paired with off-the-shelf optics, can create a 3D grid that a computer can understand. The purpose here, as you can likely glean, is to enable PlayStation Eye -like interactions, or as the company suggests, a “more natural” way to interface with devices you use every day. Rather than grabbing the remote to switch channels or snapping up that HTPC keyboard in order to flip through your stored DVD library, PrimeSense would rather you kick back on the sofa and gently flick your hands in order to turn to this week’s Gossip Girl or sort through those classic horror flicks. It’s important to remember that PrimeSense isn’t in the business of creating hardware, but today we were shown a reference design that looks an awful lot like an enlarged webcam. The device is completely USB powered, and while the unit shown in the images and video here was obviously a standalone device, we were told that it would be possible to integrate the solution into displays and the like in the future. They also mentioned that the depth location — which enables it to map out a room and detect your entire body — was done on-chip, with only the associated middleware taxing the CPU. Still, they’ve had success running this on Atom-level processors, so there’s certainly no big horsepower hang-up preventing it from hitting up a variety of markets. More after the break… Gallery: PrimeSense motion control demo at GDC 2010 Continue reading PrimeSense talks full-body motion control at GDC, gives us a video demonstration PrimeSense talks full-body motion control at GDC, gives us a video demonstration originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink