Havok physics engine comes to Android 2.3, demoed on Xperia Play (video)

Havok physics engine comes to Android 2.3, demoed on Xperia Play (video): "

Great graphics are often a component of great video games, but fancy physics can help too, and last week Havok announced that it was bringing those to Android, along with all of the requisite development tools. That means smartphones with Android 2.3 or up can potentially enjoy the same procedural animations and pretty dresses that we've enjoyed on PC and home console for years, and as the first gamer-centric smartphone with Gingerbread on board, Sony Ericsson's forthcoming Xperia Play got to be the first to demo them. Watch a pickup plow through road hazards, a gorilla get catapulted across a football field, and an Assassin's Creed-esque warrior run, jump and climb with the best of them in the video above. Oh, and just so you know, we got a (very brief) hands-on with all three demos in person at GDC 2011 last week, and each was practically enjoyable enough to be an Android game of its own. The realistically bouncing ball's in your court, developers. Don't let us down.

Continue reading Havok physics engine comes to Android 2.3, demoed on Xperia Play (video)

Havok physics engine comes to Android 2.3, demoed on Xperia Play (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 23:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony's NGP at GDC 2011: more video of the quad-core marvel in action

Sony's NGP at GDC 2011: more video of the quad-core marvel in action: "

The headline just about says it all -- we've got some new footage (as opposed to what we've seen before) of Sony's NGP for all you gamers to drool over. Today at GDC 2011, we saw a live demo of Uncharted, Little Deviants, and the NGP's augmented reality capabilities. We were, once again, impressed by Sony's latest piece of gaming hardware, but don't take our word for it, see for yourself in video footage above and after the break. And, oh-by-the-way, we gleaned a few new tidbits about the handheld powerhouse that developers may want to know -- retail game cartridges will be only 2GB or 4GB in size (notable because the average PS3 title is 9GB), and Sony recommends that devs looking to port PS3 titles to the NGP should simplify their models, shaders and textures to make them work. Now if only Sony would spill the beans about how much the thing'll cost.

Gallery: Sony NGP developer presentation at GDC 2011

Continue reading Sony's NGP at GDC 2011: more video of the quad-core marvel in action

Sony's NGP at GDC 2011: more video of the quad-core marvel in action originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Confirmed: Tegra 2-equipped Samsung Galaxy S II is coming

Confirmed: Tegra 2-equipped Samsung Galaxy S II is coming: "

We've confirmed with our own sources what was almost an established fact already: there will be a version of Samsung's 4.3-inch Galaxy S II Android smartphone relying on a dual-core Tegra 2 chip for its processing. The second-gen Galaxy S launched at MWC this year with Samsung's own Exynos dual-core solution at its heart, but it seems that yields of that chip haven't been good enough to sate the expected high demand for the handset. So, in steps NVIDIA with its soon-to-be-ubiquitous Tegra 2 -- which runs at the same 1GHz as Exynos and offers comparable performance -- to fill in the supply gap. The decision as to which part you'll get in your next Samsung smartphone will depend on which territory you're in, with Americans and Brits likely to get first bite at the Exynos cherry.



[Thanks, Anshul]

Confirmed: Tegra 2-equipped Samsung Galaxy S II is coming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 now available, may or may not make its way to tablets

Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 now available, may or may not make its way to tablets: "

Back in June at Computex, Microsoft announced the successor to Windows CE -- Windows Embedded Compact 7 - and it's finally hitting the general availability mark today. The guys in Redmond posted a 180-day trial of the final WEC7 bits yesterday, and while it is unclear when it was released to manufacturers, ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley notes that the digital signature on the bits is February 19th. So, what does it all mean? Well, you'll definitely want to check out our Windows Embedded Compact 7 explained post, but we should start seeing the new OS powering phones (don't forget WP7 is built on the Win CE kernel), medical devices, retail systems, and maybe even some tablets soon. As for the latter category, you may rememeber that we saw that WEC7 prototype tablet above at Computex, however while some like ASUS promised early on that it would use the software for its EP101TC, it quickly ditched that idea and went with Android. Our guess is that will be the case for most out there, but the lightweight OS, which now can run on ARM V7 architecture, has built-in support for Silverlight for Windows Embedded and Flash 10.1, clearly has advantages over Windows 7 on tablets at the moment. Hit the source link for some more details, and we'll make sure to keep an eye out for new devices running the new wordy OS.

Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 now available, may or may not make its way to tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$200 'Mini' NMR detects cancer faster and cheaper than full biopsies

$200 'Mini' NMR detects cancer faster and cheaper than full biopsies: "

Detecting cancer could be on the verge of getting a whole lot cheaper -- and better. Researchers at Harvard and MIT have come up with a device that, using a needle to get a tissue sample, has achieve 96 percent accuracy despite having a cost to produce of just $200. It's called a mini NMR (for nuclear magnet resonance) and also gives results in under an hour, giving the good or bad news on a smartphone display. The cost, simplicity, and portability could make it much easier for cancer to be caught and diagnosed early, but naturally it still has a good bit of testing left before it'll be ready for prime time.

$200 'Mini' NMR detects cancer faster and cheaper than full biopsies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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