Gadgets

Forwarded from a reader who goes by "Delons." (Credit: Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET) Big Red looks to be feeling the heat to get its take on Samsung's new Galaxy S4 into the hands of customers. Verizon customers have begun to report receiving notifications from the carrier that their new Android superphones have shipped earlier than expected. Related storiesSamsung Galaxy S4 (review)Where and when to buy the Samsung Galaxy S4Samsung plans a hard-core Galaxy S4, says report While I've yet to see video footage, I can only assume that many happy dances have followed receipt of these emails. The Galaxy S4 on other carriers, including Sprint and AT&T, has been available for a few weeks now. Originally we were told to expect Verizon to get the Galaxy S4 into consumers' hands by the end of the month. That date was later bumped up to the 23rd, and it now looks like the phones will arrive even a ... [Read more]Related Links:AT&T confirms April 25 release for Galaxy S4 pre-ordersSamsung plans a hard-core Galaxy S4, says reportVerizon opens preorders for Galaxy S4 16GBRadioShack sells Samsung Galaxy S4 on April 27Where and when to buy the Samsung Galaxy S4

The Arduino Yún (Yún means "cloud" in Chinese.) Arduino At today’s Bay Area Maker Fair, Arduino announced its new board, the Arduino Yún. The board is an Arduino Leonardo running Linino, a Linux fork based on OpenWRT. The board is Wi-Fi capable, which Arduino hopes will encourage people to use the boards to make cloud-ready projects. In an official statement the company explained: “Historically, interfacing Arduino with complex Web services has been quite a challenge due to the limited memory available. Web services tend to use verbose text based formats like XML that require quite a lot or ram to parse. On the Arduino Yún we have created the Bridge library which delegates all network connections and processing of HTTP transactions to the Linux machine.” Earlier this week, another company called Spark Devices also launched a similar idea on Kickstarter called Spark Core, putting forward a Wi-Fi capable board for Arduino projects that permits wireless programming and the ability to interface with Web services. The company had originally asked for $10,000, and has since raised over $300,000. (The campaign ends June 1). Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Xan, who wants Cintiq functionality without paying Cintiq prices. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I'm a student and I'm considering staying on to do graphic design, and I really like the look of Wacom's Cintiq devices. Unfortunately I couldn't afford one even if I sold a kidney, so I was wondering if I could turn an Android tablet into a cheaper version? I figure a device like the Galaxy Note 10.1 with its Wacom digitizer would be a good fit, so is there a way to do it? Thanks!" We're sucking in air through our teeth, as we're sorry to say, we can't think of a way this could be done successfully. There's a few problems like no software, a lack of bandwidth and doubts over the accuracy of a tablet to replicate such a sophisticated piece of hardware. That said, perhaps the forthcoming Surface Pro software update might solve this problem altogether, but an Android tablet? We're not so sure. But if there's anyone out there who has made it happen and wants to share their revelation, why not leave a note below? Filed under: Peripherals Comments

If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a new handset from Sony to the US and UK, updates to Nokia Creative Suite and three new (and very inexpensive) smartphones from Blu Products. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of May 13th, 2013. Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Sony Comments

Streetlight Manifesto's new record, The Hands That Thieve, is an instant classic in the ever-shrinking world of really stellar ska music simply by virtue of being a Streetlight Manifesto album. But what "Ungrateful" brings to the table is something a little subtler; it's a great Catch 22 song.Read more...

The quantified self movement's gaining steam, with companies creating all sorts of gadgets to track our activity levels, sleeping habits and even what's going on inside our heads. Melon's an EEG headband that taps into your brain's inner workings to show you how well you maintain mental focus. We actually saw Melon's prototype predecessor last year when it was called Axio, and while this new band packs largely the same components, the design's been refined to a much thinner profile. As before, its got a trio of electrodes for sensing brainwaves, a NeuroSky chip for filtering out extraneous electrical noise and Bluetooth 4.0 for offloading data wirelessly. It sends data to iPhones (Android's in development) running the Melon app, which translates that info into a focus graph -- generally speaking, the higher the neural activity in your pre-frontal cortex, the higher your level of focus. Users then input contextual data tags like time of day, type of activity and the surrounding environmental conditions to allow them to track variables that may affect their focus. Filed under: Wearables Comments Source: Kickstarter

Before there was a Porsche Panamera plug-in, there was the 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid. And while the Panamera S E-Hybrid might make it to market first, the 918 is on the way, too. This week, Porsche revealed new details about the race-inspired track rocket, which serves as its most advanced, expensive sports car ever. .. Continue Reading Porsche reveals more details on upcoming 918 Spyder hybrid Section: Automotive Tags: Hybrid, Porsche, Supercars Related Articles: Porsche reveals more details on upcoming 918 Spyder hybrid Porsche ups the ante with new Panamera S E-Hybrid All-electric Porsche on the horizon (NEW PICS) Porsche 918 RSR – 767 hp hybrid racecar unveiled in Detroit Hybrid Drive for the Porsche Panamera – the fuel efficient Gran Turismo Porsche Plans Cayenne with Hybrid Engine

There are probably a lot of things you learned in school that you don't even remember, but the "order of operations"—also known as PEMDAS—is likely to be one that stuck with you; you'll mess up even simple equations without it. The catch? Well, it's wrong. Read more...

Want some more tech to put on your face? Neither full-on goggles like the Oculus Rift nor slender no-AR-yet specs like Google's Glass, CastAR takes a whole different approach to modified-reality tech by slapping tiny projectors on your face, and The Verge got to take a peek.Read more...

When Valve's first hardware hire, Jeri Ellsworth, tweeted back in February that she was fired from the company, we were disappointed but also intrigued by what she meant by "time for new and exciting projects." Well we finally saw what she's been up to here at at Maker Faire 2013. It's called Cast AR, and it's a pair of 3D augmented-reality glasses that she and fellow co-worker Rick Johnson were developing at Valve before leaving. The model we saw is still in the early prototype stages, but the concepts are already in place. Perched atop a pair of active shutter glasses are a couple of miniature LCD projectors, which bounce images from a connected computer onto a special reflective surface at a 120Hz refresh rate. A camera module sits on the eyewear's bridge and monitor an array of infrared LEDs embedded in the reflective surface. This allows for quick and accurate head tracking. Stay tuned for our video interview with Jeri Ellsworth and take a look at our hands-on gallery below. Developing... Gallery: Cast AR hands-on at Maker Faire 2013 Filed under: Gaming, Wearables Comments