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After the iPhone 3.0 firmware update, we wondered whether the the next gen iPhone would bring a new chip with support for 802.11n. Now a job posting on Apple’s website is feeding that theory.

We’ve already seen that the newest iPod Touch has a Broadcom BCM4329 chip with support for 802.11n and FM transmission—something missing in our most recent iPhone generation—but we’ve also learned that the hardware is dormant, perhaps to be brought to life by later additions in software support.

A recent Apple job posting teases that such software support might come soon along with some kind of upgrade allowing for 802.11n capabilities in the next gen iPhone, because it’s asking for a Wi-Fi software engineer to join the iPhone team and bring experience in:

• Implementation of 802.11 a/b/g/n & related specifications.
• 802.11i/802.1x Security protocols
• Good understanding of wireless RF technologies & co-existence issues of 802.11 PHYs with other Wireless interfaces like Bluetooth.

Ooh la la. Yes, it’s just a job posting and pure speculation regarding what we’ll see in the next generation of iPhones, but addition of Wireless N capabilities and support are a logical addition and seem rather likely.[Apple—Thanks, A!]

Say hello to “the world’s first production model 3D bio-printer.” What you’re looking at is a machine capable of arranging human cells and artificial scaffolds into complex three-dimensional structures, which result in such wonderful things as replacement liver and kidney tissue, or such simple niceties as artificially grown teeth. All we’re told of the internal workings is that the bio-printer utilizes laser-calibrated print heads and that its design is the first to offer sufficiently wide flexibility of use to make the device viable. Organovo will be the company responsible for promoting the new hardware to research institutions, while at the same time trying to convince the world that it’s not the fifth sign of the apocalypse. Maybe if the printer didn’t have a menacing red button attached to it, we’d all be a little less freaked out by it.

Invetech 3D bio-printer is ready for production, promises ’tissue on demand’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get it? Get it?? Yeah, I bet you got it. [tumblr via tumblr via Super Punch]

The Olds — they’re never happy, are they? Just look at this study conducted by the feared and respected Zogby International. According to a poll, those aged 35-54 are most disappointed by how far technology has come by 2010, having grown up with the concept of that Jetsons robot that automatically brushes your teeth and the promise of Sleeper’s Orgasmatron. Still, 21 percent of Emperor Zogby’s subjects said tech was more advanced than they would have imagined, while another 37 percent claimed we were right on track with our technological achievements. But what about the super old people, you ask? Well go figure, a third of those queried 70 years of age and over said our current tech was basically blowing their collective minds (or, was more advanced than they expected). Said one respondent, “I never know where the next robot attack is coming from.”

Study: middle-aged people unimpressed with modern technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear 2009, thank you for all the stories, the good and the bad ones. Here are the top 10 most popular articles. Now we have to say good bye forever, because 2010 and the new decade are here. So long!

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

As the year comes to a close, it seems appropriate to cast my vote for the best (and some of the worst) gadgets I’ve seen. These are my personal choices for products that I felt were best of breed and really managed to differentiate themselves (or didn’t at all). In no particular order, here are my picks and pans.

Best Phones: This was a tricky category, and I’m not breaking it down into different segments. This is just the best on the market in my opinion — no matter how smart it was considered to be, or how well it did in school.

• iPhone 3GS. It was a simple choice. Take the coolest phones on the market, bump up the memory and make it twice as fast. Add in some new features like a digital compass and toss in an ecosystem of 100,000+ apps. Sure, it’s still locked to AT&T but the iPhone is still the phone that many others aspire to be.
• Palm Pre. At this point last year many had written Palm off entirely. Instead of fading away, Palm came back on strong with webOS, a new way of integrating diverse content called Synergy and two devices launched across the globe. Along the way, the Pre garnered much mindshare from consumers, and Palm showed that you don’t need to clone the iPhone to drive the state of the art forward.
• HTC HD2. When Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5, there was a chorus of groans about more of the same. HTC took up the challenge and proved that there was more to Windows Mobile than slow devices and resistive screens. The HD2 takes Windows Mobile to places never seen before with a capacitive touch screen, a Snapdragon processor and HTC-created extensions that make multi-touch work the HD2’s gorgeous 4.3-inch display. Wrap it all up in HTC’s Sense UI and you’ve got the best Windows Mobile device on the market today.

Continue reading Entelligence: Gartenberg’s best of 2009 in personal tech

Entelligence: Gartenberg’s best of 2009 in personal tech originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now I want you to close your eyes and squint really hard. Because I’m going to tell you about a time that feels ancient, a time when Sony made some of the baddest laptops around.

Way before the internet made the idea plausible, Sony was ripping optical drives out of laptops to make them as portable as possible. One such computer, the $1,500 Sony VAIO PCG-SRX99 (circa 2001), weighed just 2.76lbs and made do with a 10-inch screen.

Inside, it had plenty of power, an 850MHz Pentium III-M, 256MB of RAM, and 802.11b for wireless networking (if you could find a wireless network, that is). Plus it had 20GB of storage, FireWire and even one USB port.

(I’d mention that it ran XP, but that part is a bit too familiar for nostalgic comfort.)

Today, the closest analog to the PCG-SRX99 is a netbook. For about $300 and a weight just shy of 3lbs, you can score a system that, from the outside, is remarkably similar. And on the inside, its clock speed has about doubled, plus there’s anywhere between 4x and 8x the amount of RAM and storage.

But if you were willing to look a bit beyond skin deep, I’d argue that the contemporary smartphone is more similar to the PCG-SRX99 than the netbooks of today. Take the iPhone 3GS. In terms of sheer tech specs, it’s pretty much a midrange smartphone…and it’s about identical to our retro Vaio.

The 3GS has a 600MHz processor and an identical amount of RAM to the PCG-SRX99—256MB. And it holds anywhere from 16 to 32GB in flash storage. Amenities like Wi-Fi (faster 802.11g). Turn to a company like HTC, and you can double the RAM while including a processor as fast as 1GHz.

Still, while Sony’s Vaio PCG-SRX99 couldn’t fit in our pocket, we’ve championed its form in an entire wave of cheap, portable computers today. Oh, and that whole ditching the optical drive idea? Sony spotted that trend a mile away. [Product Page and Review]

Wired has a fairly epic look into a material that could make nuclear power both clean and safe called thorium—named after the Norse god of thunder. Of course, scientists recognized its promise back in the 1950s.

Whereas uranium is extremely rare, requires purification and creates waste that will be with us for hundreds of thousands of years, thorium is extremely common, burns more efficiently in reactors and leaves less, less radioactive waste (that can’t be turned into a nuke).

In fact, if it weren’t for the Soviet Union building uranium reactors in the 60s (and us responding in typical Cold War fashion), we’d probably be using thorium today.

But as Wired explains, thorium may be poised for a comeback. [Wired and Image]

If you were looking for a large and impractical “cellphone,” we just might have some news for you. Hot on the heels of a certain Dell netbook mod, we submit for your approval a 5-inch convertible device that features a QWERTY chocolate keyboard, trackball, and quite possibly Windows XP. We’ve got no relevant data for you, such as manufacturer, price, and release date are all mysteries at this point, but you can see it in action if you like — just check out the videos after the break. As for us, we think we’ll just wait for the xpPhone.

Continue reading BPhone looks like a netbook, acts like a netbook, has ‘phone’ in its name (video)

BPhone looks like a netbook, acts like a netbook, has ‘phone’ in its name (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s an old gem of a trick for anyone feeling lonely, vindictive, or very drunk this New Year’s Eve: with Skype, you can connect any phones in the world, and listen in on the results. Man, what a decade.

Here’s the game, as articulated by Reddit user quicksilver 5:

Here’s a fun trick – download Skype and set up a conference call by calling two of your friends simultaneously. They’ll both answer and be thoroughly convinced that the other has called them. While you sit there at your computer trying to hold back laughter (or with your microphone muted), you can listen to them try and figure out what the hell is going on. If they chalk it up to an accidental speed-dial and hang up, keep calling them and hilarity will ensue.

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1.) Get some SkypeOut credit: To call landlines or cellphones with Skype, it costs money. You need to sign up for SkypeOut and buy $10 of credit—the minimum amount available—which should supply you with hours of phone-to-phone pranking. I had some Skype credit sitting around already, because SkypeOut, in addition to offering local calls for a few cents a minute, offers international calls at extremely low rates.

2.) Choose your victims: Who, of all the people you know, would you like to call one another at an inopportune time? Because you can pick whoever you want. Asshole boss and his terrible ex-wife, at 11:59 on New Year’s Eve? Why not! Two people who you know will be in the same room at the time? Even better. You can add more than two people to a call, but two is the funniest, since it’s less obvious what’s going on.

3.) Organize the call: Under the “Call” menu in Skype, select “Start conference call.” To add someone to the call they need to be in your contacts, so make sure you’ve added your victims to your main Skype list first.

4.) Do it: It may take a couple tries to get them to both pick up, but nobody’s to alarmed by a phantom call or two—they happen all the time. Their caller ID will read “Unknown” or “Private.” After your first call, which your victims will probably write off as a pocket dial, do it again. And again. And again, until things start to feel dangerous. or your conscience kicks in. If you can’t keep quiet, hit the mic mute button in the Skype call window; you’ll still be able to hear the other callers, but they won’t be able to hear you.

And that’s it, asshole. Happy new year. [Reddit, Previously]