All 4 Toys

The PSP Go isn’t even out yet and Sony’s already dishing out the feature updates — PSP firmware 6.10, announced today, allows the slider handheld to tether to your cellphone over Bluetooth for remote internet access. That’s actually a pretty handy feature for a system that relies on network game distribution, don’t you think? That’s not all, however: all PSPs will get a new XMB feature called SensMe which can generate playlists based on “moods,” and the PC-based MediaGo software is being updated as well. Not a bad haul — we’ll let you know when it goes live. SensMe video after the break.

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The new Dell Latitude Z a.k.a Latitude Z600 is now available for purchase in the US. Weighing at only 4.5 pounds and measuring at 0.57-inch thin, this 16-inch ultra-thin business-oriented laptop sports an either Intel Core 2 Duo SU9600 1.6GHz or a SU9400 1.4GHz processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM and Intels GMA 4500MHD graphics.

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Mmm, pancakes. While moms might be responsible for giving us our first taste, it’s the humble robot that makes these golden-brown discs of battered splendor available for mass market binging. A promotional video from ABB Robotics shows how its FlexPicker robots installed at a HoneyTop foods facility can accelerate production while simultaneously improving hygienic conditions. Four gigabit Ethernet cameras are mounted in front of each robot to locate the pancakes running down the conveyor belt. Software allows the bots to recognize and grab overlapping pancakes and then stack the ‘cakes for easy packing. A software reconfig allows for quick production changes from pancakes to pretty much anything the robot can grasp including Soylent Green ration wafers. The video starts slow, but delivers with an impressive 400 pancakes per minute sorting routine — see it after the break.

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Well, well, what’s this? We were just sent what looks like a rough draft of HP’s Winter 2009/2010 consumer catalog, and it’s got details on three as-yet-announced machines. The most interesting is the Pavilion dv3 with TouchSmart, which has a 13.3-inch touchscreen, but there’s also confirmation of that previously-leaked Pavilion dm1 11.6-inch CULV thin-and-light and the monster Pavilion dv8 with an 18.4-inch screen and a new mobile Core i7 processor. That’s a pretty strong lineup to back the new Envys, we’d say — and for whatever reason, we’re fascinated by this new trend of sticking touchscreens on regular laptops. We’ll see if the dv3’s TouchSmart 3.0 build is any more usable or sensible than Lenovo’s take on the idea soon enough, we hope — for now, check out the whole catalog in the gallery.
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Well well, turns out rumors sometimes do come true. The widely speculated end to O2’s exclusivity of the iPhone is now upon us and Orange is the first competitor to throw its hat into the ring. The company has not yet released tariff pricing, but there’s a tantalizingly small release window, as availability is promised “later this year.” At least there’s finally some competition when it comes to the iPhone in the UK, and we can also probably look forward to T-Mobile joining in on the fun. Let the price war begin!

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This sort of burst out of nowhere today, but word is that a new Nikon D3s will hit on October 15 — the crew at NikonRumors puts it at “99 percent probability.” The D3s is expected to add 1080p video and an odd 14fps frame rate to the D3, as well as a 1.6x crop mode, but other than that we don’t know too much. We’ll keep you updated, it looks like the leaks are coming fast and furious.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

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You know, sometimes at Engadget, we feel compelled to cover a story not because it’s particularly new, or newsy, or relevant to the topics of the day. Sometimes, you just have to cover something because it’s amazingly cool. Enter this completely awesome video from the musician Denkitribe, wherein the DS, Korg DS-10 software, the software’s formant synthesis, and the natural talents of said musician are used to replicate the vocals from Daft Punk’s hit “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” There’s not much we can put in text which this doesn’t lay out in song. Check the whole thing after the break… you’ll thank us later.

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Amazon is now offering the Palm Pre Phone for $99.99 (with new service plan).That’s a good deal because Sprint is offers the phone for $150. To refresh your memory, the Palm Pre features a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field; 8 GB of storage (approx. 7 GB available for user), Sprint’s 3G network provides reliable data services on the road, while Wi-Fi connectivity offers extra speed when available,3.1-inch touchscreen display, Slide-out QWERTY keyboard, new Palm webOS platform.

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We’d heard that Archos had teased an Android-based phone when it launched the new Archos 5 Internet Tablet, and now we have video proof. We don’t speak French well enough to translate what’s being said here (or, really, translate anything other than “le singe conduit l’autobus”) but that spec sheet isn’t too hard to figure out: we’re looking at a 1GHz ARM Cortex processor under a 4.3-inch 854 x 480 screen in 10mm thin titanium casing with what looks like a front-facing camera. Yeah, not too shabby at all, especially considering Archos has that interesting media layer running on top of Android already — let’s hope we find out even more soon. Video after the break.

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