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Haptic belts and other wearable devices that can guide you may not exactly be a new idea -- we've even seen some DIY attempts -- but the US Army testing them? Well, that's something worth noting. As New Scientist reports, the Army Research Office in North Carolina is now working on just such a device (likely more advanced than the one pictured here), and hopes that the belts could eventually be used to remotely guide soldiers on the battlefield. That's done with a combination of GPS, an accelerometer and a compass -- and, of course, the haptic part of the equation, which vibrates or pulses to point the soldier in the right direction, or indicate when they're nearing their target. The idea there being to reduce the need for any handheld devices (at least until thought helmets become a reality), which can both take the soldiers' eyes off the battlefield and potentially reveal their position at night. There's still no indication as to when the belts might actua

You won't be coloring us surprised at the launch of the E-PM1 , but those other two? Well, let's just say we've always been big fans of the elusive trifecta. Olympus just went live with the PEN E-P3 (shown above), PEN E-PL3, and PEN E-PM1, three 12.3 megapixel interchangeable lens cameras with Live MOS sensors, TruePic VI image processors and an ISO ceiling of 12,800. You'll also get a reengineered autofocus system, a 1080i HD video mode, newly designed user interfaces and a variety of Art Filters. The E-P3 is outfitted with an all-metal body and 'the world's fastest autofocus' (really?), while the rear is dotted with a 614,000 pixel OLED touchscreen. The E-PL3 steps it up with a 3-inch tilting LCD, while the smallest and lightest of the PEN line (yeah, the E-PM1) will be shipping in a half-dozen hues. The outfit also revealed a new pair of prime lenses, a camera grip and a FL-300R flash, all of which are detailed in the source links below. The bad news? On

" Update : For our international readers, this post is also available in French , German , Italian , Japanese , Portuguese , Russian and Spanish . - Ed. Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day. Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it. We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project: +Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem

Google has a lot of pictures of people. Google also indexes a lot of content written by people. Ponder those two facts for just a moment and you'll come upon the search giant's Next Big Thing: highlighting authorship. Now, with a little markup magic, Google can not only track you but track what you wrote online, tying it all together so that search results written by you pop up with a picture of you, linked back to your Google Profile. It's a great way to highlight who's up to what online but, if you're not into it, opting out is as easy as doing nothing. Don't add that markup and you're free to keep musing about Muse to your heart's content without those words ever corrupting future vanity searches. Right now the program is rolling out to a select few in a pilot program, but look for it to embrace more personalities in the coming months. Google starts highlighting content creators, will never forget that music blog you had in college originally appear

He's jailbroken the iPhone and been sued by Sony over alleged hacks, and now George ' Geohot ' Hotz is grappling with the biggest challenge of his young career: social networking. After about a week's worth of rumors surrounding his new employment arrangements, Facebook confirmed that it has indeed added the infamous young hacker to its payroll. No word on what Hotz will be doing at the site, but we expect big things, just so long as he doesn't come within 100 feet of a PS3 . Facebook likes, hires iPhone jailbreaker 'Geohot' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | ZDNET | Email this | Comments "

Every other year, aviation fanatics gather in the city of baguettes and burlesque to order airplanes, gawk at concept vehicles, and dream about a better future . The D-Dalus, one of the more bizarre concepts at this year's Paris Air Show, from Austrian research company IAT21, stays aloft using quad contra-rotating cylindrical turbines -- and perhaps a touch of magic. Theoretically creating a completely new category of aircraft, the carbon fiber D-Dalus maneuvers by altering the angle of its blades, giving it virtually limitless abilities to launch, hover, and turn in any direction. An aircraft with this level of flexibility is more suited for military use than consumer applications (you won't be flying home from Paris in a freakish black tube), but could become a key asset for everything from freight transport to search and rescue operations -- on land, at sea, or even in a burning building. We haven't come across any proof that the Dalus can actually fly, but hit up the s

Voltaic makes tons of solar-charging gear, from laptop bags to backpacks, but what are those living in a post-PC world to do? Well, the company just unveiled its Spark Tablet Case -- a thin, padded tote designed for your iPad or other slate that can generate 8-watts of power in sunlight. In addition to directly charging your iPad in about 10 hours, it can also bank the Sun's rays in a universal battery pack, for use when those fluffy things in the sky don't cooperate with your outdoor computing schedule. Optionally, the included V39 USB Battery can be charged (as you may have guessed) via USB, for extra insurance. The Spark is available now for $299 and extra battery packs can be had for $99. Check out the gallery below and the PR after the break. Gallery: Voltaic Spark Tablet Case and V39 USB Battery Continue reading Voltaic Spark Tablet Case powers your pad with the Sun's rays Voltaic Spark Tablet Case powers your pad with the Sun's rays originally appeared on Enga

That super thin Eee PC X101 that we manhandled back at Computex is just about ready to make its retail debut. Starting in July you'll be able to pick up one of these MeeGo -running crimson clamshells for $199 or, if you're a fan of desktop apps, Windows 7 versions (X101H) starting at $310. Inside the base model you'll find a 1.33GHz, single-core Atom N435, a six-cell battery, and a small SSD (probably of the 16GB variety). Unfortunately, the two most important details -- can it cut a cake and will it blend -- remain unanswered. Slim ASUS Eee PC X101 to hit shelves next month originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Notebook Italia , DigiTimes | Email this | Comments "

Shortly after MasterCard announced plans to become entangled with Google Wallet (and a few months after those ambitious Isis plans were shelved ), it looks as if the aforesaid company is diving into yet another mobile payment arena. And this time, it's personal. MasterCard and CSI Enterprises already offer a smattering of customized business cards for those with highly specific needs, and soon that partnership will extend to iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS. We've confirmed that the CSI Virtual MasterCard app is currently scheduled to launch in July, presumably enabling folks with a GlobalVCard to use their mobile device of choice to make payments. What's interesting here is the inclusion of RIM and iOS; there's no BlackBerry device (nor iOS device) on the market today with NFC , which leads us to believe one of two things: that's either changing by July, or this here service won't rely on NFC at all. Needless to say, we'll keep you posted -- nothing like ano

LaCie, a company that's no stranger to employing aluminum and high profile designers on its external storage drives, is back at it today with the announcement of a pair of new HDDs. The P9220 Mobile and P9230 Desktop drives -- one's thin and portable, the other's chunkier and stores more data, guess which is which -- harness the creative minds at Porsche Design to deliver... well, some pretty tamely designed peripherals. We guess it's all about minimalism and letting the scratch-resistant aluminum casing speak for itself, but we still kinda feel like the Porsche guys did this on a Thursday lunch break. As simple as it is, the look of these drives still managed to impress the guys at CrunchGear , whose hands-on coverage can be read at the link provided below. If you want to get to grips with one yourself, the P9220 starts out at £89.90 ($105 in US) for 500GB and will also have a 1TB option soon, whereas the P9230 costs £99.90 / $120 for a terabyte or £129.90 / $160 for

Mitsubishi's new Real LCD-22BLR500 TV is hardly the first set packed with a built-in Blu-ray recorder and hard drive, but it's certainly one of the smaller ones we've seen. The 22-inch 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit display is probably too tiny for your average living room, but cramming the 500GB HDD and optical dive in the base helps it keep a thin profile and a stable footprint that could fit perfectly in a small bedroom or dorm. Around back are a bevy of inputs, including a USB jack, a pair of HDMI ports, an SD slot, Ethernet, and i.Link. Sadly, this compact all-in-one TV will be a Japan-only affair when it hits shelves on July 21st for around ¥110,00 (about $1,360). Mitsubishi's new all-in-one set crams 500GB HDD and Blu-ray recorder into tiny package originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink CrunchGear | Mitsubishi | Email this | Comments "

Samsung's beautiful-but-pricey Series 5 Chromebook too rich for your blood? Fear not, cloud-dwellers. Acer just announced that its Chromebook, dubbed the AC700, will go on sale in the states this month for $349.99, to be followed by a 3G-equipped version later this summer. If you're part of the niche market that would happily live in Chrome OS in exchange for instant-on access, be advised that it runs on an Atom N570 processor and 2GB of RAM, and has 16GB of flash storage, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, two USB 2.0 ports, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. We'll be curious to see how the build quality compares to the Series 5's, though for some people, that $70 price gulf will render that a moot point. PR after the break. Gallery: Acer AC700 Chromebook Continue reading Acer's AC700 Chromebook coming to the US this month for $350, 3G model arriving later this summer Acer's AC700 Chromebook coming to the US this month for $350, 3G model arriving later this summer origin

Turns out those leaked shots we saw of Sony's new VAIO Z laptop were right on the money as the company showed it off officially today for the European press. The specs reveal a 13.1-inch 'ultramobile' notebook that comes in at under 1.2kg with a 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, 1600x900 screen (the press release mentions an optional Full HD display) and sheet battery borrowed from the earlier VAIO S for up to 7 hours of computing. Onboard it features only Intel's HD Graphics 3000 solution but the VAIO Z beats other ultralights with its Power Media Dock, which contributes the power of an AMD Radeon 6650M GPU with 1GB of dedicated memory connected via Light Peak when more polygons have to be pushed. The dock sports one USB 3.0 hookup plus additional USB, VGA and HDMI ports, and a slot for either a DVD or Blu-ray drive. There's no word on price yet, but it is promised to ship by the end of July in Europe so if the full specs (included after the br

There are plenty of reasons to want to monitor what's going on in the ocean, from whale migration, to the recent stylistic resurgence of hot crustacean bands. There are certain inherent difficulties, however, in creating a powerful underwater microphone, namely all of that water you've got to contend with. A team of scientists has taken cues from the design of orca ears, in order to develop a powerful microphone that can work far beneath the waves. The researchers developed membranes 25 times thinner than plastic wrap, which fluctuate as sound is made. In order to operate at extreme depths, however, the microphone must fill with water to maintain a consistent pressure. So, how does one monitor the minute movements of a membrane hampered by the presence of water? Lasers, of course! The hydrophone can capture a 160-decibel range of sounds and operate at depths of 11,000 meters, where the pressure is around 1,100 times what we're used to on earth. So if the orcas themselves ev

Up till now, the ranks of 3D-capable smartphones were neatly organized by territory: Japan had the Sharp Aquos SH-12C , the US had the HTC EVO 3D , and Europe had the LG Optimus 3D . Now it's all getting a tiny bit messier (and more competitive!) with HTC's announcement that the EVO 3D has boarded a transatlantic liner and is en route to the green shores of Europa. Available 'broadly' across the old continent, this Android 2.3 handset touts a 4.3-inch display with qHD (540 x 960) resolution and an added parallax barrier layer that allows it to deliver a glasses-free 3D effect. We call it an effect because real 3D it ain't, but at least it'll allow you to review the three-dimensional pics you snap with the included pair of 5 megapixel autofocus cameras. There's also a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon purring within for the performance obsessives and a generous 1730mAh battery -- perhaps the biggest advantage that we can see for this phone over the similarly specce

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 , the benchmark Android tablet device at this moment in time, is coming to the UK on August 4th. Samsung's just made the launch date official, announcing that both WiFi and 3G variants will be hitting 'a range' of British stores almost exactly six weeks from now. Alas, no pricing details have been revealed yet, but you can look forward to an exceedingly slim (8.6mm / 0.33-inch) slate sweetened with Honeycomb ( 3.1 ) software and dual-core Tegra 2 performance. The 3G variant will also include a 21Mbps-capable HSPA+ radio, which would be called 4G if it were in the hands of overzealous American carriers. The TouchWiz UI will be large and in charge on the British Tab 10.1, augmented with Samsung's Social, Readers, and Music Hubs, as well as access to NVIDIA's Tegra Zone . We're also reminded about the neglected Galaxy Tab 8.9 in the press release, which should be arriving in the UK 'later in the year.' Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Ta

Space nerds, get your browsers ready -- UrtheCast will soon be streaming HD video of Earth straight from the ISS . The system will actually consists of a pair of cameras, one still and one video, that will be mounted on the Russian arm of the station. The still shots will be very wide, covering about 30 miles with a resolution of 18-feet per pixel. Much more exciting will be the three feet per-pixel stream of 3.25fps video that will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You probably won't be able to see yourself waving as the ISS passes overhead, but you should be able to spot your cardboard box fort house. The feeds won't be your typical boring NASA fare either -- you'll be able to search, rewind, and tag objects or events, and UrtheCast is providing APIs for developers to build upon the service. The project won't be launching until June 28th, so bide your time by checking out the video and PR after the break. Continue reading UrtheCast to stream live HD footage of E