Back at CES, Samsung pulled out quite a few surprises, and no, we’re not referring to its Zoll-infused press conference — although, that performance still gives us the willies. Of all the Korean company’s announcements at the show, which we’ll remind you included an impressive new LTE phone and range of SmartTVs, it was its Series 9 laptop that left us the most stunned. And well, a glance at that picture above should explain why we found ourselves counting down the days until its March launch date. The 2.8-pound system is a complete and total 180 from Samsung’s typical bulky mainstream systems, yet its 0.64-inch thick chassis still crams in quite a bit of horsepower with a Core i5-2537M processor, a 128GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM. It’s also built from some of the toughest stuff on earth, has a backlit keyboard, and an incredibly high quality 400 nit LCD. You see, the $1,699 machine teeters on having the absolute perfect balance of beauty and brawn, and certainty has the core ingredients to compete with that other extremely popular and super thin ultraportable — but when you get it home and out of its fancy box, does it truly have the chops? Or is this just yet another rail thin and expensive Windows laptop that falls short? The time has come to find out – hit the break for our full review.

Continue reading Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review

Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you've noticed that your iPhone or iPod touch's battery life has declined since the iOS 4.3 update, you may find that disabling a few services—namely the Ping social network—will help your battery last longer. More

Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments.

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Medicare rise could mean no Social Security COLA

Uh-oh, it's catching—Warner Bros has seen fit to offer up two Harry Potter films; Life as We Know It; Yogi Bear and Inception to the Facebook audience. Cue status updates on a whole new level from those finally catching up with Inception. Like with The Dark Knight, they can be digitally rented using $3 worth of Facebook credit. [Reuters] More

Surely you’ve heard of graphene, the one-atom-thick layer of pencil lead that has the potential to change the world of computers, batteries and screens? You might want to familiarize yourself with the term “silicine,” too. It’s basically a version of graphene constructed out of silicon, which doesn’t naturally align itself into the same eminently useful honeycomb shape — but, given a little prod here and a layer of silver or ceramic compound there, can do much the same thing, and with better computing compatibility. First proposed around 2007, it’s reportedly been produced twice now by two different teams, which gives physicists hope that it could actually be useful some day. For now, researchers need to figure out a way to easily produce it so detailed experiments can be performed — from what we understand, the good ol’ scotch tape method just won’t do the job.

Silicine might be the new graphene, now that it’s been physically constructed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After dipping a toe in the waters with The Dark Knight, starting tonight Warner is offering five more movies for streaming on Facebook including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Inception, Life as We Know It and Yogi Bear. The deal remains the same, with United States viewers able to pay for a 48-hour viewing window instantly in Facebook credits then enjoy the flick with full functionality on the page, and pause/resume tied to their login on the site. Even with an increasing number of movie titles including recent ones like Yogi Bear that just debuted last week, it’s hard to see any VOD service seriously challenging the current video rental incumbents like iTunes and Netflix, especially one that offers only SD rentals viewable on the PC. What it does offer however is a quick way for Warner to monetize the significant Facebook communities around popular movies, which may be enough to keep this program growing for the foreseeable future. Either way, the pages should be live starting at 1 a.m., check the press release after the break if you need more details.

Continue reading Warner Bros. expands movie rentals via Facebook with five more high profile titles

Warner Bros. expands movie rentals via Facebook with five more high profile titles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Intel rolls out third-generation SSD 320 Series drives

Intel rolls out third-generation SSD 320 Series drives originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You probably point and laugh at your friends when they have big, bulky 3D glasses perched on their noses in theaters. That kind of tomfoolery just won’t do amongst the military brass, who frown at the slightest hint of snickering in the operations room. This new 3D system, called the Urban Photonic Sandtable Display (UPSD), should help. It’s a DARPA project, a fully holographic table (no glasses required) that can be scaled up to six feet diagonally and allows visual depth of up to 12-inches. The technology comes courtesy of Zebra Imaging, which earlier wowed us with some insane 3D printouts, and the data will come from LIDAR systems like this ROAMS bot. No word on when the system will be deployed to the field, but it should allow grizzled commanders and uppity businessmen to find unobtanium deposits, even if they happen to be located right under a big ‘ol tree.

Continue reading DARPA’s Urban Photonic Sandtable Display enables 3D battlefield planning without goofy glasses

DARPA’s Urban Photonic Sandtable Display enables 3D battlefield planning without goofy glasses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A paralysed woman was still able to control a computer cursor with her thoughts 1000 days after having a tiny electronic device implanted in her brain, say researchers who devised the system. The achievement demonstrates the longevity of brain-machine implants. More

In 1969, Jim Henson created a test pilot for the medieval-themed comic strip The Wizard of Id. Check out a clip of this Muppet show that never was. More