Arkansas school has an 11-year-old IT department — no, really, an 11-year-old

March 31, 2008

Seeing as our high school network hijinks pretty much led to semi-permanent suspension, our barren hearts were actually warmed by the story of 11-year-old Jon Penn, who has been in charge of his elementary school's 60-machine network since last year. The previous network administrator at the Arkansas school simply up and left, leaving the IT systems in shambles -- and in the hands of Jon's mom, the school librarian. Jon's since scrubbed the aging Windows 98 machines of their accumulated viruses and spyware, and he's installed a firewall and virus / spam filter to keep things clean while he works out a plan to move to Windows 2000 and centralized system management. Right now though, Jon's got his hands busy doing everything from fixing everything from paper jams to revising server configurations, and it sounds like he's having a ball -- he says he's been testing out virtualization products lately, and he's studying up for A+ technician certification this summer. Looks like school's a lot more fun when you're running the show, no?

[Via Switched]

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Written by Nilay Patel · Filed Under Widgets

Palm Centro hits the magical one million mark

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm's miniscule and wallet-friendly Centro has managed to reach one million units sold since its launch last September. It got its legs working as Sprint and AT&T's gateway smartphone at that fantastic $99 pricepoint, and now it's making a bid for world domination in major markets in Europe and Asia. The one million sales have it nipping at the heels of recent superstar smartphones, the two million plus HTC Touch and the four million plus iPhone, not bad company in the least.

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Written by Paul Miller · Filed Under Widgets

BUG+EDU educational discounts unveiled for little hackers

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Bug Labs announced in January that it'd be busting out a BUG+EDU program for getting units into the hands of impressionable youngsters, and now that they've sold out of the first crop of units they're getting those educational discounts off the ground. Students (with relevant ID) can now purchase modules at a 10% discount, while K-12 schools and secondary education institutions can buy Bug for 25% off. K-12 schools can also participate in Bug giveaways, while undergrad and postgrad programs can develop coursework in conjunction with Bug -- long story short, some kids out there are going to get themselves some fun edumicatin'.

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Written by Paul Miller · Filed Under Widgets

General Dynamics UK touts near real-time 3D maps for soldiers

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It looks like soldiers could one day have their own tab key of sorts to call up detailed, 3D maps at will, at least if the folks at General Dynamics UK have their way. As Physorg reports, they've developed a "near real-time" 3D map system that makes use of an array of different technologies including LIDAR, thermal imaging and x-ray backscatter techniques to not only display buildings and streets, but objects and people inside buildings as well. The use of LIDAR also promises to provide measurements of doors, windows, and alleys with "millimeter accuracy." All that obviously makes the system, dubbed Masthead, slightly less than portable, however, although General Dynamics says it'd be able to be carried in the back of a military vehicle or civilian 4x4, or in a plane for that matter. Of course, like most such projects, General Dynamics isn't just setting its sights to military applications, with it also touting Masthead's potential benefits for police forces in planning security measures for large events, to name one example.

[Via Physorg]

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Written by Donald Melanson · Filed Under Widgets

Hitachi intros short-throw CPX3 WXGA projector

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Displays

It looks like Hitachi is aiming to give those normally confined to XGA projectors a bit of a boost, with its new CPX3 model not only boasting a slightly more home theater friendly WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution, but some short-throw capabilities as well. Exactly how short that throw is isn't clear, however, with Hitachi only going so far as to describe the projector as boasting a wide-angle lens that'll let you use it "close to the screen with no obstructions." Apart from that, the 3.9-pound projector is fairly standard fare, with it packing 2,000 lumens of brightness, HDMI input, and a built-in 1 watt speaker, along with some security measures sure to please more business-minded types. While there doesn't appear to be any official word on a price from Hitachi, a couple of retailers seem to already be selling it for around $1,000.

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Written by Donald Melanson · Filed Under Widgets

Nokia WiMAX N810 appears in the wild

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Handhelds

The WiMAX version of Nokia's N810 internet tablet has already popped up on Nokia's European site, lending creedence to all those whispers about a CTIA debut tomorrow, and now we've got units showing up in the wild, which is probably a good sign. There were apparently some other shots of this bad boy on Flickr, but they've since been removed -- let's hope tomorrow brings us some official beauty shots, eh?

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Written by Nilay Patel · Filed Under Widgets

LiMo Platform Release 1 gets loosed, R2 to come later this year

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Cellphones

Don't look now, but mid-2008 is almost here, and for those waiting intently for the release of a LiMo SDK, you're one step closer to having your dreams realized. Announced today, the LiMo Foundation has made available what it calls the "first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices." According to Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, the consortium is hoping that R1 will "spur rapid innovation and contributions from all LiMo members," and it's restated that software development kits for Native, WebKit and Java operating environments are set to launch during the second half of this year. Not one to sit idly, the entity has also announced that Release 2 is currently "being specified and developed," and should escape testing and greet the real world in late 2008.

[Via PhoneScoop]

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Written by Darren Murph · Filed Under Widgets

Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile demands Engadget Mobile discontinue using the color magenta

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Cellphones

So last week Deutsche Telekom, owners of the global T-Mobile brand, sent Engadget a late birthday present: a hand-delivered letter direct from their German legal department requesting the prompt discontinuation of the use of the color magenta on Engadget Mobile. Yep, seriously.

Granted, we get nastygrams from angry tech companies practically every day, but rarely regarding anything that's not some piece of news we published that they're livid about having out in the open. And irony of ironies, this whole use-of-magenta thing is precisely the topic we took up last year on behalf of DT.

We spoke with David Beigie, vice president of corporate communications for T-Mobile US, who offered: "As a trademark owner, from time to time Deutsche Telekom looks at usage that could lead to confusion in the marketplace. The letter sent by DT merely outlines these perspectives and is meant to simply open a dialogue. Engadget continues to pioneer forums for discussion of wireless industry developments and innovation. T-Mobile respects the role Engadget and its readers play in advancing dialog on these important topics."

So in the interest of that open dialog we've posted Deutsche Telekom's letter below, as well as a handy guide to allay any confusion should you suddenly find yourself disoriented and trying to buy your next SideKick or MDA from Engadget Mobile.

P.S. -Not an early April Fool's joke.

#comparechart { border: 2px solid #333; border-collapse: collapse; } #comparechart td { padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; margin: 0; line-height: 1.3em; } #comparechart th { font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 4px; background: #eee; } #comparechart th.mainth { border-bottom: 1px solid #333; font-size: 1.2em; } #comparechart td.red { background-color: #f08c85; } #comparechart td.green { background-color: #b3e2c4;

	Deutsche Telekom	Engadget Mobile
Cellphone carrier	Yep	No
Distributor of telecom equipment	Yep	No
Likely to be mistaken for T-Mobile / Deutsch Telekom	We certainly hope so	No
Former state-owned monopoly	Yep	No
Has something against US 3G	Apparently	No
Has more than five friends	Might not anymore	Yep

Gallery: Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile demands Engadget Mobile discontinue using the color magenta

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Written by Ryan Block · Filed Under Widgets

HP goes all out with Blu-ray-packin’ Pavilion laptops for Europe

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Laptops

HP's not one to let its laptops sit on the shelf too long without a revamp, and it's now let loose yet another raft of updates for its Pavilion line, albeit only in Europe for now. The big news here is the addition of Blu-ray drives across the board, which obviously replaces the HD DVD option previously found on the models they're replacing. That desirable feature finds its way onto the new Pavilion dv2800, dv6800 and dv9800 series models, which boast 14.1, 15.4, and 17-inch displays, respectively, along with your choice of Core 2 Duo or Turion 64 X2 processors, integrated graphics or NVIDIA GeForce 8400M or 8600M (depending on the model) and even a Blu-ray burner on the 17-inch model. If you're looking for something other than a traditional laptop, HP's also busted out an update to its monster HDX-9000 desktop replacement series in the form of the HDX-9300, and a new Pavilion tx2300 tablet PC (only the former boasts a Blu-ray drive). Otherwise, you can expect the HDX-9300 to pack Penryn T8100 or T9300 processors, 3GB of RAM standard, and a beefy NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS graphics card, while the tx2300 rolls in with a Turion 64 X2 TL-60 processor, 2GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 graphics, and a DVD burner standard. No word on pricing or availability for any of 'em just yet, unfortunately, nor is there any word of a release 'round these parts.

Read - Notebook Italia, "HP Pavilion dv2800, dv6800, dv9800 with Blu-ray"
Read - Notbeook Italia, "HP Pavilion HDX9300 and tx2100 tablet PC"

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Written by Donald Melanson · Filed Under Widgets

DisplayLink releases beta drivers for OS X

March 31, 2008

Filed under: Displays, Peripherals

Folks hanging on the Mac side of life have surely been waiting in tense anticipation for DisplayLink to become OS X friendly, for like, ever. As promised, the first drivers have emerged in order to give Intel-based Macs (yes, MacBook Air and Mac mini are included) the ability to connect with up to four monitors over USB. Granted, the beta software has no 2D acceleration and no OpenGL 3D acceleration, but both limitations are known and will hopefully be ironed out in the final release. So, what are you waiting for? Tap the read link below to get your download on -- but be sure to read up on the documentation before forging ahead without a care in the world.

[Thanks, Mike]

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Written by Darren Murph · Filed Under Widgets