Olé, Contoso: Windows Phone Marketplace will integrate carrier-branded stores

So we noticed this odd "Contoso" label on Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace press image earlier today, and we finally got to the bottom of it: Microsoft's Todd Biggs says it's a placeholder entry for a carrier-branded section of the store -- instead of having a separate portal and / or store, Verizon or AT&T or whoever can simply sell their content to customers directly through Marketplace. So why Contoso? Todd says it's a random trademark owned by Microsoft used in place of carrier names that doesn't actually mean anything, although we think it suggests adventure, white roadsters, and finely-groomed mustachios. And now you know.

Olé, Contoso: Windows Phone Marketplace will integrate carrier-branded stores originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell joins dog pile, sues five LCD makers over price-fixing allegations

Looks like Dell is getting itself a membership in a club of which AT&T, Nokia, and the US Department of Justice are none too pleased to say they're members. The company has filed suit in a San Francisco court today against four Japanese LCD makers - Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Seko Epson - and Taiwan-based HannStar. The crime at hand? None other than the much-chronicled LCD price fixing cartel. At least two of the aforementioned companies (Sharp and Hitachi) have already come forth to admit involvement and pay fines elsewhere, and now it looks like the troubles are still coming for them and others. If only there was some way the companies could band together to increase profits and help pay for these suits... oh, wait.

Dell joins dog pile, sues five LCD makers over price-fixing allegations originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS T101MT快速動手玩影片，讓你對觸控有直觀的印象 (0 回應)

華碩T101MT在去年底FCC時就見過面了，也是Pine Trial平台中，少數具備觸控的機種。對這款有興趣的朋友，相信之前應該看過官方的影片（......嗯，華碩真的很省工，T101MT的影片與之前T91MT的影片也太接近了吧）。後來又傳出了T101MT觸控的反應與精準度不甚理想的消息，不過在netbooklive網站提到最後的版本有很大的改善，現在觸控機制比上前一個版本是反應靈敏又更為精準。至於是不是這樣，看看底下影片囉。

個人對於價格也是有些好奇，查了一下在購物網站的價格，這款落在1萬八千九百左右的區間。

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Earthquake detection software gains foothold in California

Stanford's Quake-Catcher Network has been up and running since early 2008, but it looks like it's just now starting to reach the critical mass of users that's essential for its success. As you may be aware, the software takes advantage of the accelerometers built into many new laptops to watch for any signs of shaking or vibration, which it then compares with data from other laptops in the same area -- if they're all shaking at the same time, that's a pretty good indication there's an earthquake happening. Until recently, however, there hasn't been enough users in any particular area to produce reliable data, but Stanford now counts more than 450 users in California alone, which has provided it with its first truly viable testbed. Of course, more users would be even better, and you can sign up and download the software at the link below if you're interested in helping out.

Earthquake detection software gains foothold in California originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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客製化也覺得不夠看？那不然都給你設計好了！ (5 回應)

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客製化也覺得不夠看？那不然都給你設計好了！ (5 回應)

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Microsoft’s Game Room for Xbox ‘rewinds’ the hits in our hands-on demo

Microsoft showed off its new retro-tastic Game Room UI for Xbox 360 in playable form at GDC last week. While the "make a virtual representation of a gaming space" idea might seem ripped straight from Sony's Home, there aren't really any actual similarities -- outside of the fact they're both in 3D, at least. You dive disembodied through the different game rooms pretty intuitively, with different company collections on the bottom "level" of the mall-like UI, and upper levels set aside for your own collections of the games. Unfortunately, once you actually select an arcade cabinet, the UI gets rather overly complex, with all sorts of modes you can play the game in, sorts of scores to be tracked and an indecipherable menu tree that makes it a real chore to exit a game. We're sure arcade fanatics, ready to pit their scores against the best of them and looking for truly in-depth functionality are going to love all this, but for us poor simpletons it's a little much to take in all at once. Luckily, Microsoft saved the best for the actual gameplay. Not only does it nicely emulate inserting coins and even entering in codes on a virtual keypad, but when playing games in the non-ranked classic mode there's a "rewind" function accessible at any time with the tug of the left trigger. The screen gets those VHS-style wavey lines and you can mend your errors instead of losing a valuable life or having to start from the beginning. It's perfect for patching over the quarter-munching difficulty of some of these games, and it might even be enough to pull us away from our polygon-drenched gorefests now and then to don an inexplicable bear avatar and spelunk some Crystal Castles. Check out a video of Game Room after the break, and stand by for a launch of the service on March 24.

Continue reading Microsoft's Game Room for Xbox 'rewinds' the hits in our hands-on demo

Microsoft's Game Room for Xbox 'rewinds' the hits in our hands-on demo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WM6.X 手機也可以跑 Windows Phone 7 ……… 的主題喔！ (1 回應)

[撰文：icebin]

微軟已經告訴我們，Windows Mobile 6.X 不可能變成 Windows Phone 7，那麼廣大的 WM 使用者該怎麼辦？現在 XDA 高手 Jaxbot 釋出了 Windows Phone 7 主題供 WM6.X 使用者安裝，透過安裝模仿主題來體驗新的 UI，不過現在還只是 Beta 版。跳轉後有展示影片，看起來跑得有點慢，模仿也只能做到表面，骨子裡還是無法做到順暢的操作感，看來 Windows Phone 7 與 WM6.X 的核心確實不一樣。WM6.1 版本也可以安裝，但是 CPU 速度跟不上的話用起來會很卡。這裡可以下載安裝連結，有興趣的讀者可以試試看。

繼續閱讀全文WM6.X 手機也可以跑 Windows Phone 7 ......... 的主題喔！

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Three Windows Phone 7 Series devices, all in a row

Three Windows Phone 7 Series devices, all in a row originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GigaPan Epic Pro robotic camera mount shipping in April

We found GigaPan's Epic 100 robotic camera mount to be an impressive if not entirely practical solution when we got our hands on it back in May of last year, but it's unfortunately of little use with a full-size DSLR. GigaPan is set to fill that gap with its new Epic Pro model, which it's just announced will be available in April. This model will accommodate DSLR and lens combinations up to ten pounds, and give you a 7.2V, 4300mAH rechargeable battery (as opposed to the AAs used in the smaller models), along with a few new features like a multiple triggering option to take multiple shots at each image position. Of course, the Pro model also comes with a pro-minded price -- $895, to be specific.

GigaPan Epic Pro robotic camera mount shipping in April originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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