Amazon's Kindle for iPhone hits the App Store

Sure, Amazon could pit the Kindle squarely against phone- and PDA-based e-book apps, but why not play both sides? The company had previously mentioned its desire to embrace non-Kindle devices in its digital delivery ecosystem, and the first fruits of that labor have now hit the iPhone App Store. The uncreatively-named Kindle for iPhone allows you access to all of your Kindle content right from the comfort of your iPhone or iPod touch, and if you have the good fortune of owning an honest-to-goodness Kindle, Whispersync will kick in to keep your location synchronized between readers. It's a huge win for owners of both devices, considering that the Kindle's still just a little bit big to be carrying everywhere you go, but your phone -- well, if you don't have that everywhere you go, you're just plain weird. [Warning: iTunes link]

[Via The iPhone Blog]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Amazon's Kindle for iPhone hits the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: iPhone watch

Panasonic's CES 2009 Viera HDTVs get US pricing and dates

Panasonic announced a slew of Viera TVs at CES, and although we already knew when they'd be making their Japanese debut, US info has been hard to come by. That's starting to change: pricing details are leaking out, and CNET and HDGuru have managed to assemble a pretty exhaustive list of what to expect and how much it'll cost. Of interest, Panny's still going strong on the plasma tip, so those of you aching for the best picture possible but unwilling to shell out for the dead-ended Kuro will still have plenty of options -- there's a set at every point between the 42-inch 720p X1 at $899, the 50-inch 1080p S1 with a nicer NEO-PDP panel for $1,799, the 50-inch THX-certified G10 with VieraCast for $1,999 and the as-yet-unpriced, one-inch thick wireless 54-inch Z1. As for LCDs, it's a similar story at smaller sizes: you've got sets ranging from the budget $499 720p 32-inch C12 to the $1,099 120Hz 1080p 37-inch G1 with Motion Focus and a 20,000:1 contrast ratio. Check all the info at the read links; we'll be scouring the wire praying for news that Panny's bought up the Kuro tech from Pioneer.

Read - HDGuru
Read - CNET

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Panasonic's CES 2009 Viera HDTVs get US pricing and dates originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: iPhone watch

Eye-Fi does video with new 4GB Explore Video and Share Video cards, launching an iPhone app

Just like Eye-Fi promised in January, the WiFi SD card maker is adding video sharing to its repertoire. The new Explore Video and Share Video cards bring video sharing and 4GB capacities to the existing photo sharing lineup. The new cards go for $99 and $79, respectively, while the old 2GB Eye-Fi Home and Eye-Fi Share cards have been marked down to $49 and $59 each. The cards can handle uploads to YouTube and Flickr, and are built for HD uploads, and naturally the Explore card adds the hotspot service and geotagging on top of regular service. You can pre-order the cards today, and they should be shipping by the end of the month. Eye-Fi is also releasing a free iPhone app (as promised) this week, which works with your existing Eye-Fi account (yeah, you need to own a card) and allows you to upload iPhone shots to the same 25 services the SD cards work with, along with the computer syncing Eye-Fi is known for.

Gallery: Eye-Fi does video with new 4GB Explore Video and Share Video cards, launching an iPhone app

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras, Portable Video, Storage

Eye-Fi does video with new 4GB Explore Video and Share Video cards, launching an iPhone app originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: iPhone watch

Sony outs BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 Blu-ray players, new BD HTIBs

Hope you didn't just pull the trigger on a BDP-S350, 'cause we get the feeling Sony's two newest standalone BD decks are going to make you yearn for the next best thing. Here in Las Vegas, the company has just come clean with the Profile 2.0 BDP-S360 and BDP-S560, the latter of which includes integrated WiFi for tapping into BD-Live content and downloading future firmware updates sans an Ethernet cable. Also, the unit is fully DLNA-ready, handles DVD upscaling, bit-streams audio via HDMI, decodes Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio and plays nice with external media loaded up on a USB drive. As predicted, the lower-end BDP-S360 is essentially the same player sans WiFi.

Moving on, we've got a new pair of 5.1-channel Blu-ray HTIB systems: the BDV-E300 and BDV-E500W. Both bundles include a BD-Live-capable (Profile 2.0) Blu-ray player, while the BDV-E500W sports integrated S-AIR wireless audio capabilities. In other words, your rear speakers will get their signal sans cabling, and those who opt for the BDV-E300 are getting a kit that's S-AIR-ready, meaning that you can add modules in the future to get the same wireless support. Both sets also include Sony's Digital Media Port for controlling peripherals like Apple's iPod and Sony's own Walkman line, and the BRAVIA Sync technology ensures that HDMI-CEC lovers are taken care of. The models also bring along the firm's Xross Media Bar (XMB) interface, a USB port for loading up media and an easy-to-follow setup DVD. As for pricing and availability, we've broken all that down below.

• BDP-S360 Blu-ray player: shipping this summer for around $300
• BDP-S560 Blu-ray player: shipping this summer for around $350
• HT-SS360 component home theater system : shipping in May for around $350
• BDV-E300 Blu-ray HTIB: shipping in June for around $600
• BDV-E500W Blu-ray HTIB: shipping in June for around $800
  

Catch the release in full just after the break.

Continue reading Sony outs BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 Blu-ray players, new BD HTIBs

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless

Sony outs BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 Blu-ray players, new BD HTIBs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: iPhone watch

Melinda Gates secretly pines for iPhone, actually doesn't even like Africa

In a recent Vogue interview, Melinda Gates confided that she's battled some iPhone envy in her day: "Every now and then I look at my friends and say 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone'." It's just too bad for her that Apple is forbidden fruit in the Gates household. "There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids," said Melinda. Stay strong, Mrs. Gates, we're hearing good things about Windows Mobile 7. Oh, and we made up that part about Africa.

Filed under: Cellphones

Melinda Gates secretly pines for iPhone, actually doesn't even like Africa originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: iPhone watch

Apple rumor Monday: Nehalem Mac Pro, new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule in FCC, Mac mini box

Lots of Apple rumors today following the weekend whispers of a March 24 desktop hardware event, and they fall neatly along the plausibility spectrum:

• First up, we'd say a bump of the Mac Pro to Intel's upcoming Nehalem-EP Xeon processors is looking quite likely -- famed OS X hacker netkas was poking around in a test build of OS X 10.5.7 and found support files for i7 chips lurking about, as well as drivers for ATI's Radeon 4000-series GPUs. If you're making a chart, this one's right up there with an NVIDIA-powered iMac refresh -- it's a pretty obvious move.
  
• Second, new entries for the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule have popped up in the FCC, and while the listed dimensions are exactly the same as the current editions, there are no model numbers and something internal has to have changed enough to raise ol' Sammy's brows. That could be as simple as a new radio hardware supplier or bigger drives, but if we were placing bets, we'd say both units are getting updated for simultaneous 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation -- Apple's really high on 5GHz for laptops and Apple TV, but the iPhone and iPod touch are 2.4GHz-only. Let's call this one even odds, shall we?
• Lastly, a new picture of that improbable five USB port Mac mini has surfaced, this time purporting to show the outside of the box. Considering the Photoshop wars the last image of this thing set off, we'd say this is the least likely candidate for a Philly Schills reveal, but then again, Apple's been pretty leaky lately.

That's everything we know -- anyone else have something to share with the group?

Read - Ars Technica on the Mac Pro
Read - New Airport Extreme FCC listing
Read - New Time Capsule FCC listing
Read - One More Thing Mac mini image [Via TUAW]

Filed under: Desktops, Wireless

Apple rumor Monday: Nehalem Mac Pro, new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule in FCC, Mac mini box originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: iPhone watch

LG recalls 30,000 830 Spyder handsets for crappy 911 connections

While things like copy and paste, multimedia messaging and video calling are nice extras to have, there's really only one thing that's most important when it comes to a reliable cellphone: the 911 functionality. Evidently, around 30,000 LG 830 Spyder handsets aren't having the easiest time dialing for help, with a product recall noting that a huge swath of 'em have "difficulty sustaining a connection or have poor voice quality on calls to emergency 911." It should be noted, however, that LG's actually being really, really proactive here, as it has only received a single report (and no injuries) to date. The Spyder phones affected have software versions T83LGV03 and T83LGV04, and you can hit the read link if you suspect yours is amongst that 30,000.

[Via textually]

Filed under: Cellphones

LG recalls 30,000 830 Spyder handsets for crappy 911 connections originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: iPhone watch