Chrysler may be struggling with vehicle styling and interior quality, but the gang in Auburn Hills sure does love the gadgetry. Sirius satellite TV, heated and cooled cupholders, and Swivel-N-Go seating will soon be joined by in-car Internet access. The Washington Post reports Chrysler will utilize cell tower signals and a mobile phone account to make the radio a WiFi port, giving passengers access to the web. The technology will be offered as a dealer add-on for existing models later this year, and it will be available as a factory option at some point after that. With Chrysler bringing web connectivity to cars and trucks this year and Ford following suit in mid-2009, it looks like access to Autoblog will soon be available everywhere.

 [Via Autoblog, thanks Andrew]

"Garth Freeman, CEO of Australia's first WiMax operator, sat down at the recent International WiMax Conference in Bangkok and unleashed a tirade about the failings of the technology, leaving an otherwise pro-WiMax audience stunned. His company, Buzz Broadband, had deployed a WiMax network over a year ago, and Freeman left no doubt about what conclusions he had drawn. He claimed that 'its non-line of sight performance was "non-existent" beyond just 2 kilometres from the base station, indoor performance decayed at just 400m and that latency rates reached as high as 1000 milliseconds. Poor latency and jitter made it unacceptable for many Internet applications and specifically VoIP, which Buzz has employed as the main selling point to induce people to shed their use of incumbent services.' We've previously discussed the beginnings of WiMax as well as recent plans for a massive network in India.

[Via Slashdot]

We suppose the line of thinking with the DSUS DS-400GB is that you're probably already eying your rear-view mirror plenty, so why not just split off a third and throw a 4-inch GPS nav unit up in there? Not a bad idea, but don't you want to be looking forward -- not behind you -- when considering your next turn? Not that it's of any consequence, anyway, this thing's straight outta China with no US release or distro (yet).

via engadget 

• 4-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen display which slides out and flips over for the cellphone interface
• Up to a 1GHz VIA C7M ULV processor and 4GB of DDR2 memory
• Dual, Windows XP / Linux Qplus embedded OS
• Unspecified cellphone radio
• Maximum 1.3-inch 60GB hard disk (or 4GB SSD) and miniSD/microSD expansion
• 7-hour battery (or 90-hours at low power)
• 802.11b/g WiFi, Blueooth 2.0
• 2x USB, docking port, stereo speakers, QWERTY thumbpad and mouse
• What looks like a 5 megapixel camera
• DMB mobile television and external GPS add-on

All that tech allows the HDPC to function as a portable SatNav device, handheld gaming rig, cellphone, UMPC, PMP, eBook reader, digital camera, etc. Did we already tell you that it will cost less than $500? Oh right. See the unit in-hand after the break.

Quanta Computer Inc., a leading contract maker of laptop computers, and OoVoo, a maker of video chat software, are announcing plans Monday to take high-definition videoconferencing to the living room with a gadget that plugs into the HDTV and connects it to the Internet.

Users of the Quanta Video Messenger will be able to hold chats from the comfort of their living rooms with others with the device as well as anyone who is running OoVoo's software on a PC.

It's expected to be available later this year for a price that's affordable for consumers, said OoVoo Chief Executive Philippe Schwarz. A prototype of the gadget, recently displayed at OoVoo's New York headquarters, was the size of a hardback book and had connectors for a high-definition webcam and audio. It was unclear whether the final product will ship with a webcam and mike.

OoVoo is also in early discussions with U.S. phone and cable companies about the possibility of building the videoconferencing function into their set-top boxes, Schwarz said.

Home appliances for videoconferencing have been famously elusive: AT&T demonstrated a picturephone in the 1960s, but no company has managed to crack this market.

Video chatting with software like eBay Inc.'s Skype has become popular on personal computers, but setup can be difficult, since the software needs to interface with a webcam, microphone and loudspeakers or headset. Video quality has been lagging, partly because of limited processing power and partly because home broadband connections generally have low upload speeds.

Meanwhile, companies like Tandberg and Cisco Systems Inc. make high-definition videoconferencing or "telepresence" equipment for corporate customers. The video quality is excellent even at low upstream speeds, but the pricing puts the equipment out of reach of consumers: a Tandberg appliance that turns an HDTV set into a conferencing setup costs $9,520.

The Quanta Video Messenger will support a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels at 30 frames per second, Schwarz said.

In a demonstration, engineers at Quanta's offices in Taiwan used a prototype of the appliance to connect to a PC in New York running ooVoo's software. On the receiving end, the video quality appeared to be closer to DVD quality than true high definition, and fast movement caused the picture to break up when connected at 512 kilobits per second, a typical upstream speed for a U.S. broadband connection. Doubling the upstream speed improved the image.

Skype has a High Quality Video feature that allows chatters with certain webcams to transmit at a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, the same as a DVD, at 30 frames per second.

On the Net:

http://www.quantatw.com

http://www.oovoo.com

http://www.tandberg.com

According to a report on the lately-talkative Acer, the company's first iteration of Eee PC-competition will be somewhat cheaper than ASUS' current (and future) sticker prices. In a scant article, speculation abounds that the first wave of Acer-made 8.9-inch laptops will be priced around $350 to $400, while ASUS will market its 8.9-inch micro-top for $50 to $100 more. Word on the street is that Acer will launch its cheapo solution sometime in May, but ASUS will preempt the introduction with an April landing for the 2nd generation Eee. Of course, we're looking forward to the glorious future where laptops are simply free, all men live in harmony, and multi-colored unicorns once again roam the Earth.

 engadget

We previously gave you a heads-up on what could be the features of Sony PlayStation 3 Firmware 2.20. Now, a new report ups the ante by revealing yet another cool feature.

PC World recently revealed that PS3 FW 2.20 will support "Portable Copy". Essentially, it strengthens the bond of Sony's console with its handheld counterpart, the PlayStation Portable, by allowing movie sharing.

Portable Copy lets users create standard-definition versions of Blu-ray movies and transfers them to the PSP.

This goes with other enhancements that BD-Live, otherwise known as Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, will bring.

We'll keep an eye out for more information on this exciting development. Keep checking back here with us to make sure you don't miss it.

[Via QJ.net]

Take that WD, Toshiba, and Hitachi. Fujitsu just returned from exile with a claim to the biggest fastest laptop-disk throne. The 3Gbps SATA-equipped MHZ2 BJ series measures in at a standard 9.5-mm and spins at 7,200rpm with a 16MB cache and 25dB idle noise level. Average seek times are listed at 10.5-ms for data reads and 12.5-ms for writes while drawing 2.3 watts of power. Oh sure, a couple of 2.5-inch 500GB disk drives have already been announced. But most of those measure in at a non-standard 12.5-mm making them unsuitable for the majority of laptops on the market today. Sales of the new MHZ2 BJ-series begins in June.

Update: Oops, almost forgot about Samsung's Spinpoint M6 which does hit the 500GB mark in a standard 9.5mm-height package.

engadget 

The University of Michigan's COM-BAT most definitely isn't the first mechanical animal to get its inspirations from the bat, but it's probably the best equipped to play a vital role in modern day warfare. A select group of Wolverines have been blessed with a $10 million grant from the US Army in order to concoct a "six-inch robotic spy plane modeled after a bat [that] would gather data from sights, sounds and smells in urban combat zones and transmit information back to a soldier in real time." Purportedly, the critter will eventually boast a bevy of sensors, miniature microphones and detectors for picking up nuclear radiation and poisonous gases. Even more interesting, creators are hoping to implement "energy scavenging," which would enable the bat to stay charged from wind / solar energy along with vibrations and "other sources." So much for being nocturnal, eh?

engadget