For early adopters who have already taken delivery of their shiny new Cowon S9, they’ve already sucked down one firmware update to fix some of the more obvious issues. Now, there’s round number two (v2.06) to endure. The company has loosed the second firmware update for its just birthed PMP, with this one adding JPG album art support (for files with the .jpg extension) and fixing a bug that occasionally caused a system reboot after the “remove hardware from PC” message appeared. Most notable, however, is the new inclusion of Bluetooth speaker support, meaning that this device can now stream tunes to BT-enabled sound systems sans cabling or any other black magic. Tap the read link to get your download a-goin’.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Cowon S9 firmware update adds Bluetooth speaker support originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 23:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seems like the holidays are always good for sparking up a discussion on camcorders — after all, what better time to have one than when everyone in your extended family’s family is gathered together at your house? Take a break from the turkey and gift bags and give Chaz’s question some thought.

“I’ve been looking for a decent HDD-based camcorder. I just want to use it for normal everyday use, and maybe to record some live performances, like dance shows and stuff like that. I’m not looking to spend a fortune, and I’m obviously looking for the biggest bang for my buck. Thanks for any advice!”

Chaz might just be onto something here, as these memories you’re making this week will be lost forevers and evers unless someone pulls out the camcorder and lights up the red light. If you’ve recently purchased a hard drive-based camcorder, why not toss in your advice? As for us, we’ll point to Samsung’s SC-HMX20C and simultaneously ask you to send in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com.

Filed under: Ask Engadget, Digital Cameras

Ask Engadget: Best consumer-level HDD camcorder? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Green

Extending the controversy between Tesla Motors and Top Gear even further, Jeremy Clarkson has offered his own opinion regarding the issues of the Roadster’s battery capacity and brake failure while being run ’round the Top Gear test track. Remember that the BBC already admitted that neither of its test cars actually ran out of juice, suggesting that the scene was filmed to show what would happen if it actually had. Clarkson’s comments don’t quite jive with that assessment, though, as he says, “We never said once that the car had run out of power. The car had to be pushed into the warehouse because you are not allowed to drive cars into a building. We calculated that it would have run out of power after 53 miles but they can’t argue with that because that is a fact.”

One area on which we agree with Clarkson is that it doesn’t matter why the Roadster’s brakes failed. Clarkson says, “Nobody gives a flying **** how the brakes failed. Whether it was a blown fuse or not, they were still not working.” On the other hand, whether the now infamous scene of the electric car being pushed into a garage was to show what would happen in the event of a drained battery or because Clarkson wasn’t allowed to drive it into the building (seriously, when did that ever stop them?), that image is now indelibly etched into the minds of Top Gear fans, for better or for worse. Thanks for the tip, Doug!

[Source: Telegraph]

Clarkson fires back over Top Gear/Tesla controversy originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Porsche, Toys

If you’re scurrying around town in a new Porsche, you won’t have your kids barreling down the hill on any old Toys R Us plastic sled, now are you? That’s why the automaker’s merchandising division, Porsche Design, has come out with this Sportster children’s sled, just in time for the holidays. It’s made of aluminum and can support up to 220 lbs, so it’s good for fat kids Dad, too. It’ll even fold down if you’re heading to the slopes in a Carrera 4 instead of a Cayenne. Unfortunately, getting anything with the Porsche Design name on it doesn’t come cheap, and this one sells for $490.

[Source: Gentleman's Gadgets via Luxist]

Dashing through the Snow on a one Porsche open sleigh originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal

California hasn’t been able to borrow money for months, and according to the state’s treasurer, it will run out of money in February or March if it doesn’t pass a budget and get some income flowing. The majority Democratic legislature has sent Governor Schwarzenegger a budget that contains a suite of “revenue enhancements” that the Democrats call fees, not taxes. In addition to a jump in the state sales tax and personal income tax, there’s also a provision to apply a per gallon gas “fee” of 39 cents.

The biggest problem with the proposed budget is the way in which it was passed, which relies on the definition of the word “tax”. Democrats used a simple majority vote to pass the proposed budget, instead of the mandatory 2/3 majority needed to pass new taxes, because they say “it does not technically increase the amount of taxes on Californians.” For instance, because the gas “fee” would be set aside for transportation projects only, it isn’t a tax, it’s a user fee, and so it doesn’t require a 2/3 majority vote.

Call it what you want, Californians would be paying more money, so Republicans have vowed not to support what they call increased taxes. Citizen’s groups have also promised to sue the state if Schwarzenegger signs the proposed budget as is. The other problem is that Schwarzenegger has already vowed to veto it, but not over the tax vs. fee issue. He said he’ll let other people sort that out – what he really wants are bigger cuts in spending before he’ll approve anything. The budget discussions resume on Friday as lawmakers work to have something done by year’s end. Thanks for the tip, Fed!

[Source: Yahoo!]

California legislature passes budget with a $0.39 per gallon gas “user fee” originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons, BMW

Buyers in the upper echelon of the luxury segment are increasingly demanding all-wheel traction on their rides, and BMW has evidently grown tired of seeing would-be customers flocking to rival automakers like Audi and Mercedes-Benz to get what they want. So for the first time in the model line’s history, the new BMW 7 Series will be offered with all-wheel drive.

Engineers in Bavaria have reportedly worked hard to keep the 7′s rear-drive dynamics intact, and have opted to fit the xDrive system with a 30:70 rearward bias instead of the 40:60 in other applications. xDrive-equipped 7s will also get a slightly higher ground clearance and Hill Decent Control, a system usually reserved for serious off-road vehicles. The option will be available on all versions of the 7 save the smallest diesels and gasoline engines that we don’t get in North America anyway, fetching a €2500-2800 premium (in European markets) over conventional rear-drive versions. BMW is testing the 7 Series with xDrive in snow-draped locales before the option is offered in other markets starting at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October 2009, after which Quattros and 4Matics will be looking over their shoulders.

[Source: Automobilwoche and BMW Blog]

BMW to offer 7 Series with xDrive AWD in late 2009 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A nasty rumor had been making the rounds about Intel, something along the lines of it wouldn’t sell its Atom CPUs to netbook vendors without its 945 chipset in tow. If true, the move would essentially act to block graphical entrants such as NVIDIA from making a move into the netbook GPU space. An unnamed Intel spokesman chimed in on the whispers today by outrightly denying the claims, telling InternetNews that “there is nothing preventing vendors from using [NVIDIA's] Ion platform; [Intel] sells Atom as a standalone processor, or as a package with chipset.” ‘Course, it’s not like Intel hasn’t pulled similar tricks before, and to say that the chip maker’s relationship with NVIDIA has been dysphoric is understating things dramatically. Still, it sounds as if the company’s in the clear here, but we’re still waiting to see a wicked Atom + Ion combo in a shipping product before we believe the hatchet is entirely buried.

Filed under: Laptops

Intel put the kibosh on anti-Ion hubbub, welcomes standalone Atom sales originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iTS, Apple TV, Holidays

All day on December 25, TUAW presents “Now What?” We’ve got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

The Apple TV launched almost two years ago and has yet to really “take off.” That’s OK, with more and more downloadable HD content, improved support for stuff like podcasts and Airtunes and some awesome third-party solutions, the Apple TV can easily become a great media center.

Did Santa bring you an Apple TV this year? These are my tips for making it even more awesome!

Boxee It

I’ve made no secret about my unabashed love for boxee, the awesome media center with a social kick that can run on your Apple TV. It should be no surprise that my first piece of advice is that you set-up boxee on your Apple TV as soon as you get it connected to your TV and home theater.

Need an invite? If you don’t have a friend to ask, check out the boxee forums, hit up the boxee Twitter feed or pester me (@film_girl) and you should be able to get one pretty quickly. On January 8th, 2009, boxee will be opening up the alpha for everyone.

After you’ve updated your Apple TV to the latest firmware, follow my instructions or take a look the information at the ATV USB Creator project page for the the details on making a patchstick. The process is extremely easy and you just need a USB stick (1 GB or more recommended) and a few minutes to get everything up and running.

Once boxee is installed, you can enjoy Hulu (if you live in the US), streaming video from other services, last.fm and playback of other file types that won’t natively play on the Apple TV; you can store those files either on the Apple TV, or that you access from another hard drive.

Learn about the other cool software add-ons

I really love the Awkward TV Wiki, which is a great way to stay abreast of the latest programs and hacks users have created for the Apple TV. Most of these plugins can be installed via a patchstick — like boxee — and they run on-top of the existing Apple TV interface. Some of the coolest utilities, like Couchsurfer, have recently been updated for firmware 2.3.

Although modifying your Apple TV does come with some risks (you might have to do a factory restore if something goes wrong), the methodology of applying said modifications has become much, much easier and you really aren’t putting your Apple TV at risk. Still, keep in mind that Apple won’t provide any technical support for a modified Apple TV (which means, restore it to factory settings before sending it back ).

Try out a new remote, ore the iPhone/iPod touch remote app

One of the most usefulf feature additions in firmware 2.3 is the ability to program a universal remote to work with the Apple TV. If you have a really nice programmable remote, like the Logitech Harmony, you’ve already been able to use it with the Apple TV — but now you can do the same thing with your TV or receiver remote.

Even better, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Remote app [iTunes link] is pretty awesome. The Remote app let’s you control music from your Apple TV — which is fantastic if you want to use the ATV as a music center.

Rent some holiday movies or buy a holiday TV show

‘Tis the season! Rent or buy a Christmas movie directly from the Apple TV! You can also peruse some holiday TV classics, like The Best Christmukkah Ever from the first season of The O.C.

TUAWSo you just got an Apple TV — now what? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The giving souls over at Engadget HD aren’t done yet, as they’ve got a VUDU movie set-top-box awaiting a new owner. If your unwrapping ceremony this morning wasn’t all gumdrops and lollipops like you had hoped, there’s hardly a better way to remedy the situation than to bring home an on-demand movie box. Head on over and drop your name in the hat — Kris Kringle just might have a little somethin’ (more) for ya.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Engadget HD’s Holiday Giveaway: win a VUDU movie set-top-box! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 18:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, How-tos, Holidays

All day on December 25, TUAW presents “Now What?” We’ve got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Some good soul gifted you with a hard drive for the holidays. I can’t think of a better gift! There are two ways to use that extra disk space — the right way, which I’ll get to in a moment, and the way many people do it, which is to just expand their disk space because they are running out of room.

I’m here to tell you that is the wrong thing to do with a new hard drive if you don’t have a backup strategy already. Let’s make a few assumptions here. The new drive has a USB 2.0 interface, or it has a Firewire 400 or 800 interface. It also is at least as large as your primary hard drive. Even better if it is bigger. Use that drive as a backup device, not for more disk space. Old hands around computers already know this, but if you are just getting started, it really is extra important to have all your files duplicated on another drive.

With any computer, stuff happens, like a sudden power surge, a drive failure, or a kid in the house who loves to see how the Mac trash can works. Can you really afford to lose all those pictures, emails, documents and CDs you lovingly ripped to iTunes? I didn’t think so.

Getting a heavy duty back up is not too challenging. If you plug a brand new drive in, your Mac (assuming you have Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) will ask you if you’d like to use it as a Time Machine drive. Time Machine is Apple’s built-in backup solution, and it is great for people who constantly change or update files and sometimes have a good reason to go back and get the old versions. The larger your extra drive, the further you can ‘go back in time’. Time Machine allows you to restore all the data, but it can take several hours and may require your original system DVD if your machine isn’t bootable.

Read on for more…

Continue reading So you just got a hard drive — now what?

TUAWSo you just got a hard drive — now what? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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