Oh, Ben — how far you’ve come. But now that you’re about to star in your very own web show, don’t ever forget that we had you first. Pleasantries aside, we couldn’t be more thrilled to hear that the man responsible for pushing the art of modding into the mainstream is set to host a bi-weekly web TV show on the subject. The Ben Heck Show will see its first episode published on September 13th, where Ben showcases a mod of a controller for an avid gamer with a serious disability. Future episodes will highlight “projects inspired by the modder community, ranging from mods for a particular need to gadgets that help electronic enthusiasts work and play faster,” which means that you and yours can send in ideas that may end up on the show. Head on past the break for a trailer, and be sure to pencil this one in right beside our own Engadget Show when it comes time for viewing pleasure.

P.S. – Congrats, Ben!

Continue reading The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation

The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPod nano code hints at possible video playback originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Read more here:
Google Answers Searches Before You’re Finished Asking

You hear a lot lately about bringing high-end DSLR functionality to the consumer, mostly thanks to the wild new world of Micro Four Thirds, but Vivitar is really breaking the price barrier with its new $10 point and shoot. The camera shoots to full frame 35mm film (there’s even a 24 shot roll included, roughly equivalent to 512MB), and yet its single button operation and automatic motorized advance should make the high-end shooter accessible to the novice photogs among us. Of course, a built-in flash and auto focus will appeal to the feature hungry enthusiasts as well. The best news? If you buy one of these today, you can actually get a second camera and second roll of film for free!

[Thanks, Michelle]

Vivitar’s new full frame 35mm film camera originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With millions of visitors day, the leading BitTorrent sites are valuable properties. Although none of the big sites have been sold publicly, most of them are easily worth a million dollars.

In recent history quite a few medium-sized torrent sites have changed owners, but these were all deals done within the torrent community, none were conducted in the open.

The first time that an outsider went public with plans to buy a torrent site was last year when Global Gaming Factory (GGF) made a $7.8 million offer for The Pirate Bay, and a $25 million offer to buy Mininova. GGF planned to legalize the sites and turn them into media portals where movies and music would be sold with approval from copyright holders.

Most readers probably recall that the deals with the two largest torrent sites at the time didn’t go through due to funding issues. However, last month GGF CEO Hans Pandeya popped up again, this time with an offer for the largest semi-private BitTorrent community Demonoid. Apparently, he had not yet abandoned his plans.

Demonoid’s owner told TorrentFreak that he was not interested in anything GGF had to offer, so Pandeya had to target other sites to carry out his plans. Interestingly enough, a few days after Demonoid rejected Pandeya’s offer, the Canadian law firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP contacted several other larger torrent sites with similar offers.

In their correspondence the solicitors claim to be working for a U.S. based corporation that is interested in acquiring the assets of the sites in question. The identity of the potential buyer is not disclosed, but considering the timing it wouldn’t be strange if it turned out to be GGF CEO Hans Pandeya.

Torrent sites don’t often get offers from external parties, except the ones from GGF we discussed above. If Pandeya is indeed behind the offer, it would make sense for him to make his approach using the cover of a law firm due to the bad reputation he has built up among torrent site owners.

The torrent sites that have been approached prefer not to be named, but they are among the most visited on the Internet, which is in line with Pandeya’s plans. The only thing that’s different this time is the money being offered. Unlike the millions of dollars that were thrown around previously, the current offers are at the lower end of the scale.

None of the torrent sites that were contacted are interested in selling, so it is likely that we might never know the truth about the mysterious buyer or if he has connections to GGF.

Hans Pandeya was contacted for a comment, but didn’t want to respond on the record.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

Read more here:
Law Firm Puts In Mysterious Offer To Buy Leading Torrent Sites

Continue reading Quo’s latest Mac clone to feature Asetek liquid cooling, Core i7

Quo’s latest Mac clone to feature Asetek liquid cooling, Core i7 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As predictable as the sun rising somewhere over east Japan, the iFixit crew have put their tools and wits to the task of deconstructing the latest generation of iPod touch. Their teardown is still ongoing (exciting, isn’t it?), but here are their observations so far. The new touch is noted as being the easiest to crack open yet, and yes, its retina-busting 640 x 960 LCD is fused to the external glass, just like the iPhone 4. There’s an 11-gram EMI shield between the front end and the battery, accounting for a lofty 10 percent of the portable media player’s weight. Beyond it, you’ll find a chunky 3.44Whr Li-Pol cell, which is soldered to the board as is usual Apple practice, but a novelty here is that the headphone jack isn’t. Great, tie down the thing we might want to replace and untether the one we don’t care about. We’ll keep you updated with any other salient info as it arises, but for now, go check out the source link for more pictures of the undressed iPod touch.

The front-facing camera has been found, as expected, to be the exact same module as built into the iPhone 4. The WiFi antenna is located just under the front glass panel, a position said to have allowed for the new all-aluminum back on the iPod touch. Another shock: the A4 chip that drives the iPad and iPhone 4 is also found on the 2010 touch, and its markings confirm a 256MB RAM allowance.

Continue reading iPod touch (2010) torn down, found to contain an awful lot of battery

iPod touch (2010) torn down, found to contain an awful lot of battery originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Time waits for no infotainment system and GM’s OnStar seems to be well aware of that fact. Plunging headfirst into the social world, the driver assistance service is said to be planning to start conveying Facebook status updates and text messages in an upcoming update, reputedly landing later this month. Text-to-speech translation will be done on incoming notes and voice-to-text is said to be undergoing testing for outgoing updates. So you can tell your friends you’re free as a bird, born to run, rocking the highway, or whatever else, without ever having to speak to them directly or going to the effort of typing anything. The future sure is awesome. Oh, and it might not be all that expensive either, as we’re also hearing that OnStar might make some services completely free to better compete with Ford’s Sync.

Original image courtesy of merriewells (Flickr)

OnStar expected to add Facebook updates and texting soon, might make some services free originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s new hotness is likely invading your desktop web search right now, but what’s Instant search like on a smartphone? We got a good look at a Verizon-based Droid 2 running a prototype version of the auto-complete engine on both WiFi and 3G, and we’re happy to say it’s just about the same — assuming you’ve got a decent connection and a reasonable amount of screen real estate. As you can see immediately above, you’re only getting three Instant results under the search box here, as opposed to the desktop version’s five, and between Android’s notifications bar and the native keyboard auto-complete bar, you can only see a single result without scrolling down — and honestly, this isn’t going to be all that useful at a glance if you’re relying on a screen-sucking virtual keyboard.

The system was speedy enough, however, pulling down not only text queries but also Google Image thumbnails as well, and worked about as quickly as a standard mobile Google run without having to hit a button to complete our search. (The prototype did stop working and had to be restarted when we lost our 3G bars. ) A Google product manager told us it should work in any AJAX-capable mobile browser, and is presently in testing on Android and iPhone, with BlackBerry in consideration given the more-capable OS 6 browser. Expect to see it hit smartphones near you this fall.

Continue reading Google Instant on a Motorola Droid 2, hands-on

Google Instant on a Motorola Droid 2, hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Mushroom announces durable PortaBella wireless bonding device, continues adorable naming scheme

Mushroom announces durable PortaBella wireless bonding device, continues adorable naming scheme originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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