Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation (Україна має талант / Ukraine's Got Talent)

Amazing video:
Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation (Україна має талант / Ukraine's Got Talent)

Kseniya Simonova is a 24 year old Ukranian sand animation artist. She won top prize from “Ukraine’s Got Talent” as much £75,000.

Her drawing method is to use fingers to create a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table, lighted by candles.

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ASUS Eee PC 1218 trades veil of secrecy for popular design award

Well, will you look at that. In its haste to proclaim itself winner of a 2010 Red Dot design award, ASUS has inadvertently or perhaps intentionally announced the brand-new netbook that received it -- the Eee PC 1218. She's a beaut, too, with a slim, one-piece aluminum shell that evokes the MacBook Air but still packs a substantial number of expansion ports. There aren't any hard specs quite yet, but the above shot shows it'll come with a webcam and chiclet keyboard, and in a second pic after the break we can make out three USB sockets, Ethernet, VGA, a pair of 3.5mm audio jacks and an HDMI port -- the last of which possibly suggests a dedicated GPU (here's hoping an Ion 2) for HD video playback. Oh, and lest we forget, ASUS says it's also got a soft-touch plastic underside, for all you coffee-swilling, netbook-slinging butterfingers out there. No word on pricing or availability.

Continue reading ASUS Eee PC 1218 trades veil of secrecy for popular design award

ASUS Eee PC 1218 trades veil of secrecy for popular design award originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google, Sony, Intel & Logitech's TV project to be unveiled next month as Dragonpoint?

The conclusion to the sudden flurry of rumors around Sony HDTVs featuring Android, Intel Atom processors and Logitech-designed QWERTY remotes may be near, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports the project will be revealed during Google I/O next month. The latest wrinkle for the supposed product is a name, "Dragonpoint," for the new flavor of Android destined to operate on displays, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. It's obvious that Google wants search in the living room, Sony needs something to overcome the app (Samsung is back on the list of possible partners) and widget powered competition, and Intel needs a home for its CE4100 chips to show off their power outside of a demonstration for once, but we'll have to wait and see what they've cooked up to know if we need any of that in our next HDTV.

Google, Sony, Intel & Logitech's TV project to be unveiled next month as Dragonpoint? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:45PM EST!

It's been an incredible week in news, and we're getting ready to break it all down, podcast-style. Won't you join us? We'll be live at 5:45PM EST, but the chat below is open, so settle in and get comfy!



P.S.- And hey, don't forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone apps if you're out and about and can't join in on the Flash-based fun below. Is that deeply ironic today? Yes, it is.

Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:45PM EST!

The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:45PM EST! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft confirms, kills Courier in one fell swoop

Well this is depressing. Word has just gone fluttering out of Redmond that work on the Courier project -- a heretofore rumored dual-screen tablet which rightfully set the tech world ablaze -- has been spun down by the company. Here's the official line from Frank Shaw, Microsoft's VP of corporate communications:

At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It's in Microsoft's DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The "Courier" project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.

All very sad, of course. So how did we get here? And was this thing ever really real to begin with? After all, it's hard to kill something that never lived. Well here's the deal, according to a source familiar with the situation: the Courier did indeed start life as a potential new product category for the company, one which was being incubated internally with very real plans for a marketable device. It seems, however, that things just didn't manage to take shape, and word was handed down very recently that the incubation period had reached its conclusion -- sans product -- and resources would be directed elsewhere. Now, that doesn't mean that we won't see some of this technology turn up in other products which Microsoft has in the pipeline (the company does keep quite a few balls in the air), but it does mean that those rendered videos of the Courier in action will remain, unfortunately, renders. As far as the Engadget team is concerned, there isn't a dry eye in the house right now -- but the Courier will always remain in our hearts as one of the finest unicorns that ever unicorned across our screens.

Microsoft confirms, kills Courier in one fell swoop originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canon AE-1 Program SLR gets a digital retrofit

A classic SLR film camera gutted and given a digital upgrade -- blasphemy? Maybe, but there's no denying that this mod by Diego Monge is plenty impressive. He started out with a Canon AE-1 Program SLR, and apparently simply stuffed the guts of a compact digital camera of some sort inside, resulting in what he calls the AE-1 Program Digital -- a 9-megapixel camera complete with image stabilization, a functional flash, and 4GB of memory (non-removable, it seems). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any details on the build process, let alone a how-to, but you can at least get a glimpse of it in action in the video after the break.

Continue reading Canon AE-1 Program SLR gets a digital retrofit

Canon AE-1 Program SLR gets a digital retrofit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe's CEO: Jobs' Flash letter is a 'smokescreen' for 'cumbersome' restrictions

There's no official transcript yet, but the Wall Street Journal just live-blogged an interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, in which he responded to the Steve Jobs "Thoughts on Flash" letter posted this morning. Substantively, Narayen didn't offer much we haven't heard Adobe say before, but his frustration with Apple is palpable even in summary form: he called Jobs' points a "smokescreen," said Flash is an "open specification," and further said Apple's restrictions are "cumbersome" to developers and have "nothing to do with technology." What's more, he also said Jobs' claims about Flash affecting battery life are "patently false," and suggested that any Flash-related crashes on OS X have more to do with Apple's operating system than Adobe's software.



Perhaps most importantly, Narayen reiterated that Adobe is fundamentally about making it easier for devs to write multiplatform tools -- a stance Jobs specifically took issue with in his letter, saying multiplatform tools lead to bad user experiences. Apple and Adobe and the rest of us can argue about battery life and performance all night, but that's clearly the central philosophical difference between these two companies, and we doubt it's ever going to change. That is, unless Adobe absolutely kills it with Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 -- and given our experiences with Flash on smartphones and netbooks thus far, we'll be honest when we say that's going to be a major challenge. We'll link over to the full transcript when it goes up, but for now, hit the source link for the liveblog.

Adobe's CEO: Jobs' Flash letter is a 'smokescreen' for 'cumbersome' restrictions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony taken to court over PS3 'Other OS' removal

Sony forced PS3 owners into a tough decision with the mandatory 3.21 firmware update: either lose online play, or forgo Linux support. On Tuesday, Anthony Ventura chose door number three -- and filed a lawsuit in California, asking the judge for class-action status. The complaint quotes Sony executives on numerous occasions saying how vital and important the "Install Other OS" feature was to the game console (it's a computer, remember?) and claims breach of contract, false advertising, and several other causes of action against the entertainment giant. Sure, a lawsuit was bound to happen, given the number of angry PS3 owners out there, but here's the thing: there's no telling whether the court will grant a class-action certification here, and even if the case gets that far it's pretty unlikely to force Sony to turn the feature back on -- instead, customers will probably receive a token amount in damages while the lawyers get their full fees. For example, a rare, successful class-action suit against Palm -- filed in 2004 -- got Treo 600 owners only $27.50 in store credit, five years later. Meanwhile, we hear European PS3 owners just have to ask for their money back -- which, we promise you, is the fastest way to put an end to your Linux-based PS3 nightmares. Either that, or just wait for Geohot to make it all better.

Sony taken to court over PS3 'Other OS' removal originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget app update: iPhone app passes the 1m download mark, Android and webOS get an update!

Hey cats and kittens, here's an exciting little piece of news we wanted to share with you. Thanks to the love and support of our readers, our iPhone app has just crossed the million downloads mark in the App Store! That is, of course, just iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users -- we're growing our numbers steadily across BlackBerry, webOS, and Android formats as well. And Speaking of Android, we've got a little update that's available right now in the Market which should fix those nasty force close issues some users were seeing. If you're still having issues, make sure you reach out to us -- we really love the feedback! We've also just issued a webOS update, so look for that on your Pre or Pixi. We have even more stuff in the pipeline as far as apps are concerned, including a major forthcoming iPhone update, as well as updates and tweaks for the other existing apps... and we're at work on a dedicated iPad application as we speak!



Yes, exciting times are ahead people, but for now, you can grab our current offerings right here:

• iPhone / iPod touch / iPad


• Android


• webOS


• BlackBerry

Engadget app update: iPhone app passes the 1m download mark, Android and webOS get an update! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Poseidon floating power plant features wind turbines, location for Waterworld II

We've seen plenty of attempts to harnass the movement of the sea for power, including underwater turbines and Searaser pumps, but those technologies are sadly unreliable. Denmark's Floating Power Plant has thought of that, however -- ingeniously outfitting its 350-ton Poseidon platform with wind turbines as well as the underwater variety, so it can harvest energy even when the sea is calm. As stability is a major concern, the company took design cues from oil rigs, so this bad boy should hopefully stay right-side-up even in the most perfect of storms. According to Inhabitat, the company is pegging energy costs between 10 and 15 Euro cents per kilowatt hour -- competitive for the continent. This thing is currently stationed off the coast of Lolland in Denmark, although with any luck they'll be all over the world soon enough, at which point we will use them as bases from which to launch our futuristic, dystopian undersea armies.

Poseidon floating power plant features wind turbines, location for Waterworld II originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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