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A name like 'Lethal Pro' invariably creates a certain set of expectations. Namely, that the product in question is suitable for professional use, and that it least looks like it's potentially lethal. As you can see, this particular all-purpose tablet / smartphone / camera accessory certainly succeeds on the latter count. But can it do more than just double as a prop in a remake of Runaway ? Read on for our full review. Gallery: Lethal Pro v2 Continue reading Lethal Pro v2 review Lethal Pro v2 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Lethal Protection | Email this | Comments "

As we approach the expected mid-2011 launch for a few Chrome OS devices, it seems inevitable that some details are bound to slip out ahead of time -- here's looking at you, Acer ZGB and Seaboard . The latest victim outed by a Chromium bug report is the Samsung 'Alex,' which sports a 1280 x 800 display (probably at 10 inches as previously rumored ; like the mockup above), 1.5GHz dual-core Atom N550, SanDisk SSD P4 of unknown capacity, and 2GB RAM. Also listed are a Qualcomm Gobi 2000 3G card, Bluetooth, WiFi, webcam, and a Synaptics touchpad. Well, not long to go now -- perhaps the Alex might even make a cheeky appearance at Google I/O in two weeks' time? Screenshot of the bug report after the break. [Thanks, Marco] Continue reading Details of Samsung's 'Alex' Chrome OS netbook leaked, Atom N550 in tow Details of Samsung's 'Alex' Chrome OS netbook leaked, Atom N550 in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:19:00 EDT. Pleas

" It's only been a couple days since we first heard about Visa's involvement with Square , but the credit card giant is already making its mark on the mobile payment startup. At the Visa Global Security Summit on Wednesday, Square Security Lead Sam Quigley revealed that the company will distribute an encrypted card reader this summer, which will work exclusively with its mobile payment app. The current reader theoretically scans credit card data to any app, but the encrypted version will only work with Square, which should alleviate VeriFone's concern that the company was essentially distributing 'card skimmers' to anyone with a social security number. Luckily, the new encrypted reader will remain free, giving Square a colossal advantage over VeriFone's Payware Mobile product, which carries a $49 activation fee, in addition to standard merchant fees. Not to mention, it isn't available in white . Square to add encryption to mobile card reader, skimmer

With every passing day, more people are ditching their landlines in favor of using their cellular phones as a combination device. Smartphones are no doubt excellent means of contacting other humans and managing our lives, but some of us miss the simpler days -- when a phone was just a phone. If you're a proud owner of an iPhone but looking to head down the retro road, Kee Utility would like to point you in the right direction. When we first saw the Desk Phone Dock , we were pretty intrigued by its looks but had questions about its practicality. What you see here is the $150 answer. Keep reading to see how well we got on with it. Gallery: Kee Desk Phone Dock Review Continue reading Desk Phone Dock review Desk Phone Dock review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments "

That non-standard charge port on your Tesla Roadster isn't proprietary, it's just outmoded -- but don't worry, a four foot adapter is here to save the day. This new J1772 to Roadster connector bridges the Roadster's 2008 designed charge port to the industry standard J1772 , adopted by automakers and energy firms over a full year after the Roadster's debut. The new coupling cable will juice up your wheels in just four hours at EV stations outputting 70 amps, or in seven and a half hours for the average 32 amp level 2 charger. Native plug access to those thousands of ChargePoint stations will set you back $750, but if you've already bought a Tesla Roadster , that's just another drop in the ($100,000) bucket. Tesla J1772 mobile connector standardizes Roadster, costs $750 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink Autoblog Green | Tesla | Email this | Comments "

Looks real nice, huh? While it appears fit to wear, the craftsmanship and detail involved should discourage real use. Just admire it for the eye catching aesthetics, which include what looks like an 88 anti-tank gun plus some armor plate. Created by artist Phil Noto, this “battleship shoe” can float or shoot projectiles, but it does make for a cool geeky toy on your action figure closet. (...) Read the rest of Battleship Shoe Is Ready For War © Geeky Gadgets , 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Geeky Toys "

If you are looking for a light portable keyboard, the new Scosche freeKEY Bluetooth keyboard might well be worth a look. Its constructed from flexible silicon making it waterproof and enabling it to be rolled for easy storage and transportation. Scosche has designed the freeKEY keyboard for tablet and smartphone users who occasionally might require a full QWERTY keyboard. The freeKEY Flexible Keyboard connects to the device using Bluetooth and will automatically re-pair to your device the next time the freeKEY keyboard is required. Watch Scosche’s promo video for their new keyboard after the jump. (...) Read the rest of Scosche freeKEY Flexible Keyboard (video) © Geeky Gadgets , 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Gadgets , Smartphones , Tablets "

You remember the Enertia , right -- that sweet electric motorcycle from Brammo ? Well, a few years back the company slapped some dirt bike tires on this silent cycle (seen above) and taunted the world with the possibility of an Earth-friendly offroad ride. Such a creation never made it to market, sadly, but it looks like the company may finally be ready to deliver. The bike hounds over at Asphalt & Rubber were digging through the AMA MiniMoto SX supercross race list of entrants when they spotted the Brammo name... which is odd since the Oregon-based company's current vehicles are all street-only affairs. Guess Zero Motorcycles better watch its back, there may be new challenger for king of the electric dirt bike hill. We won't have to wait long to know for sure -- the Brammo team will be launching its latest creation through the muddy, hairpin turns at the South Point Arena in Vegas next week. Brammo taking its electric motorcycles offroad in Vegas next week, puts Zero on

Well, it looks like the record quarters from tech companies just keep on coming -- this time it's Microsoft, which just reported $16.43 billion in revenue in its third-quarter results, a jump of 13 percent from the previous year, and well ahead of analysts' expectations. Net income clocked in at $5.23 billion, a whopping 31 percent increase from the previous year, with Microsoft citing strong sales of Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect as key driving factors. The company also reiterated that it's sold a staggering 350 million Windows 7 licenses so far, and said that its Entertainment & Devices Division has grown a full 60 percent year-over-year -- again, largely fueled by those record-setting sales of Kinect and continued strong sales of Xbox 360 consoles and Xbox Live. As for Windows Phone, Microsoft unfortunately isn't providing much in the way of specifics -- on its earnings call, it only went as far as to say that 'product reviews are good' and 'custome

We've gotten multiple clandestine clues that Sprint would sell the Xoom -- a calendar entry here, an accessory there -- but there was nary a confirming peep from the Now Network itself. Until today, when it announced that it would join the legion of retailers peddling the Wi-Fi version of Motorola's tablet for $599.99 on May 8th. That's right, the carrier will start selling folks the sweet Honeycomb slate soon enough, but a Xoom sans Sprint cellular data is a bit of a letdown. One question, Mr. Hesse , when will we get one with WiMAX? PR's after the break. Continue reading Sprint starts selling Motorola Xoom WiFi (not WiMAX) May 8th for $600 Sprint starts selling Motorola Xoom WiFi (not WiMAX) May 8th for $600 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Sprint | Email this | Comments "

" To us, Prague will always be the Eastern European capital of roast duck, potato dumplings and tasty, cheap pilsner. But come 2015, the former Soviet Bloc city will also become home to the world's most powerful laser , as part of the European Union's Extreme Light Infrastructure project. According to plans released by the European Commission , the laser will produce peak power in the exawatt range (equivalent to one trillion megawatts). So, for a very small fraction of a second, the beam will generate one million times more power than the entire U.S. electric grid. Believe it or not, that's plenty of time to conduct experiments that could reveal new cancer treatments and ways to deal with nuclear waste . Breakthroughs in either category would be incredible for the €700 million (about $1 billion) project, which also includes future plans to build two similar lasers, and a third that's twice as powerful the Prague installation -- roughly the same current draw as an

Staring at spreadsheets crushed down to unreadable sizes on a 4-inch phone screen is far from pleasurable but, clearly there is a demand. In fact, we've been clamoring for a proper Google Docs app for ages, even though sometimes we're not entirely sure why. It was only a matter of time before Google finally got around to appeasing us mobile workaholics and put an official app in the Android Market. Well, our masochistic prayers were answered -- the Mighty Goog unleashed the new, native Google Docs for Android app and we rushed on over to the Market, clicked the install button, and gave it a whirl. Let's get this out of the way first: there are no offline editing capabilities. The actual editor is just the mobile web app embedded in a neat, little, native Android package. If you try to open an document without an internet connection you'll just get an cutesy error message. If you do have a connection (and exceedingly accurate fingers) you can open and edit yo

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Any experienced planet hunter will tell you: finding exoplanets is the real challenge, where hardened professionals go to test their mettle. These tricky bodies stymie conventional methods - like seeing a planet pass in front of its parent star - because exoplanets often have decades-long orbits, meaning you could spend a lot of lonely nights fruitlessly searching the skies. So scientists at the University of Leicester in England developed a new approach: looking for radio waves emitted when ultraviolet flares light up the atmospheres of planets like Saturn and Jupiter. The flares - auroras - even if invisible to ordinary telescopes, are detectable by radio telescopes like the European Low Frequency Array (or LOFAR, pictured above). The scientists hope those methods will help them discover planetary systems up to 150 light-years away, perhaps even some that can sustain life. And, of course, keep them one step ahead of Richard Branson . [Image credit: LOFAR / ASTRON] New radio wave t

" Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Building technology got a tremendous boost this week as Inhabitat reported on a new type of graphene super paper that is 10 times stronger than steel and six times as light. We also took a look at several remarkable new infrastructure projects popping up around the world - from a self-sufficient floating golf course in the Maldives to London's gleaming new cable car system , to the Netherlands' plan to supercharge its roadways with solar panels . Speaking of hot asphalt, this week the ultra-efficient Alerion race car blazed a trail at the Shell Eco-Marathon, clocking in an incredible 2,564.8 miles per gallon. Meanwhile, Fisker announced that its sexy electric Karma sedan will hit the road this summer, and we were surprised to hear that Marcelo da Luz was forced to pull his solar-powered X of 1 car across Ontario due

Fire : the most primal element. 'It's a living thing,' Robert De Niro once said, 'It breathes, it eats, and it hates. The only way to beat it is to think like it.' Unless you're an artist - then you rig up a series of tubes, pump in some kerosene, and connect it to a Power Glove -like control device. Next thing you know, you're 'fire painting,' making that hateful beast dance and strut for your amusement. 'Its burning can be handled by subtle movements of the sensory data glove for tactile formulation of the fiery image,' the artist explains, 'Thus, the image can be manipulated, yet it constantly escapes control.' To know what it's like to summon flame with a flick of your wrist - while sporting a creepy smiley-face welding mask, no less - see the video above. Painting with fire, thanks to a cybernetic glove (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permal

Find the use of your legs inconvenient? Behold the Geely McCar, an ultra compact, two-door car that still manages to tuck an electric scooter in the back. Geely, the Chinese company that now owns Volvo, is hoping you'll use it for everything from golfing to navigating urban sprawl to traversing the Mall of America parking lot (and then escorting yourself to the Cinnabon once you're inside). The car itself comes in two versions: an all-electric one with a 12kWh battery that claims up to 93 miles on a charge, and a hybrid iteration that promises up to 31 miles on just electric power and 373 on a mix of gas and electricity. The scooter, meanwhile, can last up to 18 miles -- and be swapped out for a wheelchair for people with disabilities. Since debuting at the Shanghai Auto Show, there's been no word on whether the McCar will ship stateside, why this arrangement beats packing your own scooter -- or how much McDonald's loathes that name. Geely McCar comes with an electric