Korg debuts pocket-sized Monotron analog synth, and we want it (video) Don't take this the wrong way -- we're glad to be in Las Vegas with all our friends at
CTIA, playing with new handsets
from Samsung and
Motorola. But as you know, we also love us some new
music gear, especially when it sounds good -- so we wouldn't exactly mind being in Frankfurt for Musikmesse right now, either. Currently on display at Korg's booth, Monotron is a two AAA-powered, pocket-sized analog synth featuring a ribbon keyboard, VCO, VCF, and LFO controls, and the same analog filter found in the Korg MS-10 and MS-20 -- and it sounds great. Check it out in the gallery below and and in the video after the break to see / hear the thing in action. Look for it in May for about $67.
Continue reading Korg debuts pocket-sized Monotron analog synth, and we want it (video)
Korg debuts pocket-sized Monotron analog synth, and we want it (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Samsung Wave is world's first DivX HD phone, Galaxy S in a hurry to be world's second Want some
DivX-encoded 720p goodness on your fancy new
superphone? Samsung will be the way to go, at least in the short term. The Korean company has announced that its
Bada-infused
Wave handset will be the first phone with certified support for DivX HD playback, with the freshly announced,
Android-driven,
Galaxy S following up at an unspecified point in time. Guess we're finally going to get the content to do justice to those
spectacular Super AMOLED displays. Hit up Engadget Spanish for the full PR while we get to work on transcoding our entire DVD collection.
Samsung Wave is world's first DivX HD phone, Galaxy S in a hurry to be world's second originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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LG X300's slack-jawed hands-on You know, we see a lot of ultraportable laptops these days, it's not like it's virgin territory for us, but we'd say the last time we were this blown away by a form factor was the
VAIO X, or maybe the
Adamo XPS in all its weird-hinge glory. LG's X300 is simply thin. Cramming 11.6-inches of screen and premium netbook parts (2GHz Atom Z550, HDMI out, up to 2GB of RAM and 128GB SSD, even some 3G and Bluetooth for good measure) into a 0.68-inch thick form factor is impressive, but we're even more struck by how insanely light this thing is -- it feels more like holding an e-book reader in hand than a laptop. The plastic build feels very solid, and the textured pattern on the back falls into the realm of "premium," not "gaudy." The keyboard isn't the best action-wise, but there's zero flex because there's nowhere to go. Our biggest concern is the trackpad: it's nice and big, but there's a "virtual" click mechanism where you tap to click the button portion and get a haptic response -- it might be the evolution of the "click pad" concept, or it might be a pain in the ass. Even the screen was bright and quality, though too glossy for our taste. We're told the laptop is headed to the US, but we're not sure when -- hopefully soon, since it's
starting to ship internationally this month. Check out a video walkthrough after the break.
Continue reading LG X300's slack-jawed hands-on
LG X300's slack-jawed hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Live from CTIA 2010's day two keynote with Dan Hesse Hot off the killer
HTC EVO 4G announcement yesterday, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is helping to lead up CTIA's day two keynote session today alongside Clearwire boss William Morrow, Deutsche Telekom chief René Obermann, and more. So sit down, pour yourself a hot cup of something, and enjoy -- this should be a good one!
Continue reading Live from CTIA 2010's day two keynote with Dan Hesse
Live from CTIA 2010's day two keynote with Dan Hesse originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MetroPCS bringing LTE to Las Vegas this year, Samsung doing infrastructure and first LTE handset: the SCH-r900 Look out folks, we're about to go LTE, and it's not from where you were expecting:
MetroPCS is building out an LTE network in "various metropolitan markets," with Las Vegas due to go online first in the second half of 2010. Samsung will be doing the infrastructure work, and is running the presser here at CTIA, with a pretty impressive display of room-based LTE show of force. Samsung, as previously announced, will also be building
the first 4G handset for the network, dubbed the SCH-r900, though they aren't sharing any other details about the device at this point. Samsung ran a quick demo of 4G performance using some laptops and a couple of racks of LTE parts (we'll have video up momentarily), and was also running some sort of LTE prototype (pictured above), though we don't know squat about it. PR is after the break.
Update: There's video after the break! Witness those blazing 4G speeds for yourself, you'll be amazed
and astonished. Or at least mildly entertained.
Continue reading MetroPCS bringing LTE to Las Vegas this year, Samsung doing infrastructure and first LTE handset: the SCH-r900
MetroPCS bringing LTE to Las Vegas this year, Samsung doing infrastructure and first LTE handset: the SCH-r900 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GM's two-seater EN-V concept makes 'urban mobility' hip again We'll confess -- the Segway
did a lot of damage to urban mobility as a whole, but General Motors (of all companies) might have just mended a wound we thought un-mendable. Unveiling today in Shanghai, the two-seater EN-V concept is a play on last year's altogether riveting (albeit forgotten)
P.U.M.A., and yes, it seems as if some of those design cues have worked their way into this one as well. The Electric Networked-Vehicle was engineered to "alleviate concerns surrounding traffic congestion, parking availability, air quality and affordability for tomorrow's cities," and they're also fully capable of transforming this place we call Earth into a next-generation Epcot. A trio of designs made their debut -- Jiao (Pride), Miao (Magic) and Xiao (Laugh) -- and we're told that twin electric motors and "dynamic stabilization technology" allow 'em to turn on a dime and operate autonomously (!) using integrated GPS. The Li-ion batteries can be juiced from a conventional wall outlet, and the expected range is around 40 kilometers on a single charge. Best of all? There's built in wireless of some sort, enabling your fellow EN-V owner-friends to keep track of your late-night escapades if you so allow. We know -- you'd buy one of each if these were available today, but mum's the word on when (or if) they'll ever hit the production line; meanwhile, expect something called a "Malibu" to remain in the product pipeline for the better part of next decade.
GM's two-seater EN-V concept makes 'urban mobility' hip again originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Samsung's N150 netbook picks up some Corby branding, Starburst color Spotted first crawling its way
through the FCC, then on the
floors of CES and most recently at WMC with some
LTE inside we're going to go ahead and say the Samsung N150 has earned its new stripes, err rainbow colors. Trying to add some brightness to its well stocked
Pine Trail netbook line up, Sammy has gone and painted the $379 10.1-inch N150 in Flamingo Pink, Bermuda Blue and Caribbean Yellow, though kept its internal 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 250GB hard drive and 1GB RAM unprimed. Interestingly, in some countries the netbook has acquired Samsung's affordable mobile phone
Corby brand, though here in the U.S. that doesn't seem to be the case. We'd probably just stick with the black hue, but that doesn't mean we couldn't go for some sort of tropical-flavor candy right about now.
Samsung's N150 netbook picks up some Corby branding, Starburst color originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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T9 Trace lets you Swype through your text messages You may or may not yet be aware of the Swype virtual keyboard (comes
preloaded on the Cliq XT from Motorola), but you'll definitely be hearing about the T9 Trace from
Nuance. This is because, although it's fundamentally the same thing as Swype (but from a different maker), the T9 Trace is on offer from the company behind the
T9 predictive text dictionary that pretty much everyone from your 7-year old nephew to your octogenarian grandpa has used. The big idea here is that you trace out the word on your virtual keyboard without lifting your finger off, with short stops at each letter you want to add being taken for input. Once you get over the seemingly unintuitive idea of abandoning those woodpecker taps for the grace of tracing, it promises to be a real fun and rapid way to input text. Nuance has bundled the whole thing with error correction, word prediction and auto-completion, while supporting 70 languages. The company has yet to tell us when the T9 Trace will be showing up on phones (touchscreens only, for obvious reasons), but you can check out video of the competing Swype implementation after the break.
Continue reading T9 Trace lets you Swype through your text messages
T9 Trace lets you Swype through your text messages originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nokia N8 being announced mid-April We've just been told by a trusted source that Nokia will announce a new flagship device dubbed N8 in the middle of next month. That's not around any major trade shows that we're aware of, but it is just before the company's Annual General Meeting in Helsinki -- and naturally, it doesn't hurt their relationship with major investors to have just introduced a killer new device. For what it's worth,
we just saw a leaked photo yesterday morning of a Symbian^3-based phone purporting to be the N8, so this lines up rather nicely, doesn't it? Announcement certainly doesn't equate to availability in Nokia's world, so until we hear otherwise, we'll assume that Eldar Murtazin's claim of a September retail launch is likely accurate.
[Image via
IT168]
Nokia N8 being announced mid-April originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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UK VHS sales more than double in 2009, Bill Cosby enjoys the attention
The way we see it, unless you're old enough to have taped a world premiere Smiths video off of 120 Minutes (probably "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before") you have no business hoarding
VHS tapes. But maybe you are enamored with their many charms: actual
tape that gets taut, stretches, or simply loses signal over time, resulting in color bleeds and ghastly images; bulky physical media; cardboard cases that stain and tear quickly and easily. Well, you probably live in the United Kingdom, then! According to a report by that nation's Entertainment Retailers' Association (ERA), while music sales dropped by 0.8 percent in 2009 (the lowest decrease in five years) and all other video fell by by 10.6 percent, VHS sales more than
doubled, from 44,377 in 2008 to 95,201 last year. Of course, everything is relative -- while PC games, for instance, declined nearly 25% last year, some 6.4 million titles were sold. Even so, this is no small potatoes when you realize that almost all the sales were attributed to Bill Cosby's Razzie Award-winning classic. What do you think, guys? Time for a
Leonard Part 7?
UK VHS sales more than double in 2009, Bill Cosby enjoys the attention originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sony's 3D glasses rated at 55 Alice in Wonderland viewings per charge As we get closer and closer to being run over by a
wave of 3D televisions, Blu-ray players, and assorted peripherals, we can start to see more of the details of that oncoming rush. Most recently revealed is the battery life of
Sony's active shutter glasses. As we've
reported before, Sony is diving face-first into 3D technology for the home and each face that wants to follow along will need a pair of $133 TDG-BR100 or TDG-BR50 glasses perched upon it. Both models will manage 100 hours of active viewing before running dry -- less than half the 250 hours Panasonic is
pledging for its peepers, but more than double the 40 hours for NVIDIA's option. 100 hours sounds like a lot, sure, but coming hot on the heels of Nielsen's
35 hours per week of television report, we're thinking you'd better keep that recharger nearby.
Sony's 3D glasses rated at 55 Alice in Wonderland viewings per charge originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Telecom Egypt loses revenue, government helps by banning international VoIP
State-owned Telecom Egypt hasn't been doing well lately, last week announcing 2009 voice call revenues dropped 13 percent from the year prior. It's not hard to see cheap/free
VoIP calling as a primary reason, and so what do you do if you're a state-run commercial enterprise trying to make a profit? Why, you make the competition illegal of course. Egypt has specifically banned mobile international calls made through VoIP, immediately affecting the country's three mobile carriers (Vodafone, Mobinil, and Etisalat). However, according to the
AFP the law states that "all international calls must pass through state-owned Egypt Telecom," meaning at-home Skypers would also be out of luck. For its part
Skype believes that " it should be up to consumers, not regulatory authorities, to choose the winners and losers in the communications space." We're guessing its customers would agree, but we're still waiting for their response -- damn lag.
Telecom Egypt loses revenue, government helps by banning international VoIP originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Inbrics M1 gets Android 2.1 and CPU bump to 1GHz, insists on being called a MID It looks like a smartphone, it has a smartphone's form factor,
operating system, and an extra-slim slideout QWERTY keyboard, yet Inbrics still insists on calling the M1
a Mobile Internet Device instead. When the company's not busy
sinking its own battleships, it appears to be doing actually beneficial stuff, such as cramming a new 1GHz Samsung CPU inside its device. The original 800MHz unit was the thing that worried us most during our otherwise praise-filled
hands-on experience with the M1 at CES, so it's a good sign to see it getting a bit of extra brawn ahead of launch. The software has also moved with the times, with Android 2.1 being the current OS on tap, which should look rather nice on that 3.7-inch OLED display. The M1 will have WiFi, but no cellular connectivity is planned just yet. It's all dependent on having a Western vendor pick up the hardware and infuse it with its own requirements. Although at CES we were told to expect the M1 in March, the current timetable is for a July launch in Korea and US availability by the end of the year, provided Inbrics finds a partner for the device.
Netbook News have also finally squeezed a price out of the company and have been told to expect it in the "low $200" range. Sounds kinda promising, don't you think?
Inbrics M1 gets Android 2.1 and CPU bump to 1GHz, insists on being called a MID originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Avatar disc opens up online-only extras until ultimate edition arrives in November, 3D next year
Fox continues to pull back the layers of its release schedule for
Avatar after yesterday's press event with director James Cameron, producer James Landau and Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers (above) as
Reuters indicates the Blu-ray 3D version will arrive next year. What does 2010 hold for the
most dedicated fans of Pandora? While the
DVD and Blu-ray editions due April 22 will arrive stripped clean of any extras whatsoever, a registration code slipped in the case will give owners access to "The AVATAR Program" to view bonus content online, adopt a "virtual hometree" among the million being planted and other enticements to
string them along connect this release with an ultimate edition due in November. Check the press release after the break for all the details and see if you can resist the urge to triple dip.
Continue reading Avatar disc opens up online-only extras until ultimate edition arrives in November, 3D next year
Avatar disc opens up online-only extras until ultimate edition arrives in November, 3D next year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tromso students put together the best interactive display wall we've seen yet (video) Take everything you thought you knew about multitouch and throw it out. Okay, keep
the Minority Report stuff, but throw everything else out. What we're looking at here is a
22 megapixel display, stitched together from the output of no less than 28 projectors (7,168 x 3,072 total resolution), which just happens to respond to
touch-like input in a fashion even Tom Cruise would find fascinating. You don't have to actually touch the wall, floor-mounted cameras pick up your gestures in 2D space and a 30-node computer setup crunches all the computational and visual data to deliver some buttery smooth user interaction. For demo purposes, the makers of this system grabbed a 13.3 gigapixel image of Tromso and took it for a hand-controlled spin. See the mesmerizing show on video after the break.
Continue reading Tromso students put together the best interactive display wall we've seen yet (video)
Tromso students put together the best interactive display wall we've seen yet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MOTO touchscreen comparison recruits robotic implements for heightened precision (video) So you saw that the first
MOTO smartphone touchscreen comparison was done with a fleshy humanoid controlling the testing finger and discounted it as scientifically flawed? Well, MOTO's back and this time the arm of judgment is operated by a coldly mechanical and ruthlessly precise robot -- a machine in itself, we'll assume the robot is intrinsically immune to developing fanboy tendencies. Joining the iPhone, Droid Eris, Droid, and Nexus One of the earlier test are Palm's Pre and RIM's BlackBerry Storm 2, whose results you can see at the source link below. The full test methodology is also explained there, including a list of the drawing apps used, which were selected with a view to minimizing smoothing algorithms that may prejudice the outcome. We're not gonna tell you who won, you have eyes of your own after all, and will just direct you after the break for the full robot-on-smartphone video action.
Continue reading MOTO touchscreen comparison recruits robotic implements for heightened precision (video)
MOTO touchscreen comparison recruits robotic implements for heightened precision (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HTC HD2 launches on T-Mobile USA as Sprint EVO points, laughs What a rough ride it's been for the US launch of the
HD2. Now available on T-Mobile several months after making its European debut, it arrives less than 24 hours after the
4G Sprint EVO was announced for a summer release, and a week after we received confirmation that it
won't be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7 OS when devices start landing
later in the year. So $199.99 plus a 2 year commitment for this Windows Mobile 6.5 device is just crazy talk. Our advice: wait a few months and snap up the glorious hardware for pennies and then install your favorite
cooked ROM.
HTC HD2 launches on T-Mobile USA as Sprint EVO points, laughs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dell looking outside of China for 'safer environments,' according to Indian PM The
Hindustan Times cover this morning has a generous space dedicated to Google's
exit out of China and related efforts at
redirecting mainland users to its Hong Kong hub, but couched cosily inside that story is perhaps an even bigger one. Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh is quoted as saying that Dell is considering taking its $25 billion's worth of business elsewhere, possibly India:
"This morning I met the chairman of Dell Corporation. He informed me that they are buying equipment and parts worth $25 billion from China. They would like to shift to safer environment with climate conducive to enterprise with security of legal system."
Michael Dell's outfit already has one manufacturing plant in India, and the man himself has been on a charm offensive in the country this week meeting and greeting local officials. It could well be, however, that Dell is just seeking to play China and India off one another to get itself the most favorable manufacturing deal, but it's still interesting to find such a high profile protestation against the supposedly enterprise-choking climate and uncertain legal system in China. It appears that Google's wrangle with the Middle Kingdom's leadership has forced consumer electronics execs to reevaluate their strong reliance on China, and the (very) long-term effects could indeed be a shifting, or at least diversification, of manufacturing away from Yao's homeland.
[Thanks,
Piyush]
Dell looking outside of China for 'safer environments,' according to Indian PM originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sense UI ROM available for Droid; is nothing sacred? It seems that man's mad quest to
unite Sense UI and Droid continue at breakneck speed. This next bit of evidence comes from the blurrycam of
AllDroid forum member Greek35T, and befitting its status as an experimental Alpha release, there are a few hiccups. Data is available when 3G is enabled, but not voice (although a quick perusal of the forum has indicated that at least one user has had success placing 3G calls -- but none receiving them). Bluetooth is also out of the question, for the time being -- as is airplane mode and the GPS (although aGPS seems to be working fine). That said, you do get Flash (as a rousing game of Alien Attack demonstrates). See for yourself after the break -- or hit the source link to try it out for yourself. You know, if you're crazy like that.
[Thanks, Steven]
Continue reading Sense UI ROM available for Droid; is nothing sacred?
Sense UI ROM available for Droid; is nothing sacred? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lee Kun-hee returns as chief of Samsung Electronics It sure pays to be a white collar criminal in Korea. Especially when you're the son of the founder of Samsung.
Lee Kun-hee, the disgraced former chairman of the Samsung Group, is returning to the
chaebol as the head of Samsung Electronics -- Samsung's largest division and of primary interest to us gadget nerds. Remember, this is the man
convicted of tax evasion only to be pardoned (twice!) by South Korean presidents with all jail time deferred. His latest pardon was issued so that he could
help South Korea win a bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. In an effort to stave off criticism from a local population that is at once proud of Samsung's global success but concerned with its immense power over all things Korean, Mr. Lee played the fear card in announcing the reason for his return:
"[The] best companies in the world are collapsing. We don't know what is going to happen to Samsung too. In the coming 10 years, businesses and products that represent Samsung today will mostly disappear."
Never mind that analysts are predicting the most profitable year ever for Samsung Electronics. So what'll it be South Korea:
BubiBubi or
pitchforks?
Lee Kun-hee returns as chief of Samsung Electronics originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mythos XTR-50 speakers exude aircraft style, remain grounded by price tag Let's get this out of the way: at 38mm (1.5 inches) thick, these Mythos XTR-50 speakers are not the "world's thinnest," no matter what manufacturer Definitive Technology might have you believe -- JVC dropped
31mm satellites onto our secret wishlists just last fall. But unless you live in Japan, the Mythos XTR-50 may be the thinnest speakers you can actually buy. Made completely from aircraft grade
aluminum, the enclosure houses six domed drivers and a tweeter, themselves shaped from aluminum, and connected with copper-covered aluminum wire. Why all the aluminum, you ask? The obvious reason is that -- in
moderation -- it's lighter and stronger than alternative materials, which contributes to these satellites' luscious curves, but it also means that the entire assembly acts as a
giant heatsink. Logical design -- who would have believed it. Too bad the units cost $700 each, and you'll need at least two -- if not five -- to get the full effect.
Mythos XTR-50 speakers exude aircraft style, remain grounded by price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Corsair's 100GB Force SSD scorches the test bench with its blazing speed The name's Force,
SandForce. Corsair's making it kinda easy on us to spot
its first SandForce-controlled SSD, and there's no reason it should be bashful about it, given that the SF-1500 is currently
the fastest SSD processor around. The F100 in question has the SF-1200 onboard, offering a lesser 285MBps read and 275MBps writes (oh, such measly specs!), but that also means you might,
might, actually find a way to afford one. The
TweakTown crew took one for a spin recently and were happily surprised to find little in the way of performance difference between SandForce's supposedly enterprise-class SF-1500 and consumer-class SF-1200 -- both sped ahead of the
Intel X25-M G2 and Indilinx Barefoot-controlled drives. The speed conclusion was clear cut, and with pricing for the 100GB F100 projected to be as low as $400, the value proposition doesn't look too bad either. The 200GB variant is expected to land somewhere around $700 when Corsair's Force SSDs make it out to retail in a few days' time.
Corsair's 100GB Force SSD scorches the test bench with its blazing speed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Conceptual 'CTRUS' football gets loaded with sensors, don't need no pump We've heard of soccer balls that
play a tune when kicked, sure, and we're pumped to see
the World Cup in 3D, but it's not often that someone comes up with a serious technological makeover for the sport that's nearly as old as life itself. CTRUS, however, is just that -- a theoretical revolution in soccer that begins with the all-important ball. To start with, a reinforced elastic structure means that CTRUS doesn't require any air. (So long, pump.) Next, GPS and RFID chips keep track of the ball's position at all times, and tell it to light up in different colors when it scores a goal or is accomplice to a nefarious violation. (Farewell,
referee.) Last but not least, the sphere itself will report back with accelerometers that measure the ball's kick force and travel speed, and a camera that could (with magical software stabilization, of course) actually film action from the
ball's own POV. Sadly, the ball is just a concept from an undercover marketing agency, but since we're dreaming, we urge its creators to add a second camera. Just imagine just how immersive it would be to have your face booted in
at 130km/h in glorious 3D. Or, just peek the concept videos after the break.
Continue reading Conceptual 'CTRUS' football gets loaded with sensors, don't need no pump
Conceptual 'CTRUS' football gets loaded with sensors, don't need no pump originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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China Telecom launching Palm Pre, BlackBerry handsets this summer We've been
hearing that China Telecom would be
grabbing hold of Palm and RIM's respective stables of smartphones since early last year, but at long last we've some official quotes to prove those whispers correct. According to a new report over at the
Wall Street Journal, Chairman and Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu has affirmed that it will offer an undisclosed amount of BlackBerry devices in China this May, while Palm's
Pre (no word on the
Pixi) will hit this July. These deals could certainly bode well for the carrier; as it stands, it's going up against China Mobile -- which
already sells BlackBerry handsets -- and China Unicom, which is
home to Apple's iPhone. Unfortunately, pricing details weren't available, but we're guessing those will pop sooner rather than later.
China Telecom launching Palm Pre, BlackBerry handsets this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sierra Wireless pledges undying affection, support for Windows 7 Device Stage Yes, we know you haven't exactly been
champing at the bit to make use of Windows 7's
Device Stage, but that might just be because you haven't had an opportunity, as manufacturers have to proactively register their hardware to let you make use of the streamlined device management service. Thankfully for mobile broadband users,
Sierra Wireless has just volunteered. Starting today, all Sierra Wireless AirCards will automatically integrate with Windows 7 to allow you one-touch access to connectivity, support and firmware updates -- with the tradeoff that it also provides carriers a branded spot on your computer that "can be remotely updated to support marketing campaigns." We're not terribly worried about Verizon and kin selling us new phones, to be sure, but we're always a wee bit cautious of providing
another back door into our road warrior lives.
Sierra Wireless pledges undying affection, support for Windows 7 Device Stage originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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BlackBerry Pearl 9100 surfaces yet again, this time with specs Rumors of a low-end
BlackBerry Pearl 9100 have been swirling (or at least slightly agitating) as far back as
November of last year, but it looks like we're now finally starting to get a clearer picture of some of the phone's actual specs. As we'd heard previously, this one comes equipped with a SureType keypad (no
QWERTY version to be seen yet), and a trackpad instead of a trackball. According to
Tech Digest, it will also boast 3G connectivity, along with a 3-megapixel camera, and a design that's said to be a "fair sight sleeker" than current BlackBerry Pearls. Still no indication of pricing or availability, unfortunately, but it seems like this one is getting about due for a release.
BlackBerry Pearl 9100 surfaces yet again, this time with specs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ventev EcoCharge whacks vampire draw, charges two devices for the price of one Thought AT&T's
Zero charger was going to cruise along with no competition? No sirree. Ventev has shown up here in Las Vegas to launch its (seemingly superior) competitor, the EcoCharge. Designed to (nearly) eliminate vampire power draw when no device is connected, this here charger one-ups those "other guys" by having room to invigorate a
pair of mini-USB / micro-USB devices (one of those, plus a full-size USB at the top), and best of all, it won't take up 1.5, 2 or 2.5 slots on your power strip. The company claims that its approach to cutting down on
vampire power drain -- the energy that's wasted when you leave a charger plugged in with no peripheral connected -- is better than other solutions out there, as a unit that
completely kills the power when it's left alone requires an on / off switch or a "wake up" period before it storms into action. The EcoCharge continually pulls 0.025 watts, while Energy Star chargers can go up to 0.3 watts when not in use. Oh, and did we mention that it's shipping right now? Indeed it is -- in micro-USB or mini-USB flavors for $29.99 a pop.
We stopped by the company's booth tonight at CTIA's MobileFocus event, and we learned that an Apple-centric version is just weeks away from shipping. As you'd expect, the bottom plug will be a dock connector, though the USB port behind the flip panel will remain all the same. We're told that the company will be doing its best to get the charger into Apple's sales channels, but you'll be forced by pay $5 more for that version over the other guys. Guess that
10 percent Made for iPhone tax hasta be paid by someone, right?
Ventev EcoCharge whacks vampire draw, charges two devices for the price of one originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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SanDisk 32GB microSDHC vs. SanDisk 4GB microSDHC... fight! We know which one
we'd rather take -- but alas, we came packing the meager 4GB card in our personal phone as we sauntered up to SanDisk's booth at a CTIA press event this evening, not that juicy
32GB bad boy right above it. At the top there you can see the silicon that goes into each and every 32GB microSDHC to come out of the foundry, and it's pretty insane: 8 layers of 32nm 3-bit-per-cell memory. The SanDisk rep we spoke to said that other companies not capable of pulling off the 8 layer trick will be at a significant disadvantage, since they'll need to go with a higher density at the brutal cost of a lower yield rate -- and as we all know, a chunk of silicon that's failed QA is little more than a paperweight (and not a very effective one at that). We'll take three.
SanDisk 32GB microSDHC vs. SanDisk 4GB microSDHC... fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HP EliteBook 8740w pumped up with Intel Core 2010 CPUs, ATI / NVIDIA graphics Fear not mobile workstation lovers, it may have taken HP a bit more time to refresh its 17-inch
EliteBook 8740w, but it's officially here now and ready to champ at the bit with a combo of cutting edge features / specs. We'll start with the externals first -- the 7.8-pound, magnesium-alloy chassis is covered in the same gunmetal finish as the other
recently-announced Elitebooks, and the 17-inch HP Dreamcolor screen is nothing short of stunning. It has 64 times the colors of other displays and can be ordered with HP's Mobile Display Assistant color calibrator. Inside the workstation is rather frightful -- it can be configured with a choice of Intel Core i5 or i7 processors and [either] ATI 's newest FirePro M7820 or NVIDIA Quadro FX GPUs. While the 8740w starts at $1,999, the $3,899 spec'd version happens to be HP's most powerful mobile workstation
ever with a quad-core Core i7 processor, 7,200rpm 320GB hard drive, and NVIDIA Quadtro FX 3800M graphics with 1GB of DDR3 RAM. We were told that the 8740w would be shipping in early April, but it appears that you can order them up right now at the source link.
HP EliteBook 8740w pumped up with Intel Core 2010 CPUs, ATI / NVIDIA graphics originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Origin's Eon15 gaming laptop offers less bang, saves more buck While some high-profile custom PC vendors are
on their way out, Origin PC is just getting started. The company recently launched the
Genesis, a desktop that melts gamers' faces at the same time it incinerates their wallets, and the
Eon18, a laptop that... honestly does just the same. Come to think of it, flame seems to be a recurring theme for the company, but before you work yourself into a burning hot rage because of your inability to afford Origin product, consider the new Eon15. With only room for a single powerful mobile graphics chip and a single storage drive, it won't be setting new 3DMark or I/O benchmarks like its cousins, but it will let you get away with a 1080p screen, Core i7-820QM processor, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, a GeForce GTX 285M and even a snazzy paint job for a merely
painful, rather than excruciating, price. Configurations start at $1,900 -- hey, it's not like you were gonna be using those paychecks for anything else, right?
Origin's Eon15 gaming laptop offers less bang, saves more buck originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Alienware's Core i7-980X-infused Area-51 desktop gets reviewed, puts other rigs to shame Surely you recall that snazzy new Alienware Area-51 desktop that
popped up last week with Intel's flashy
Core i7-980X Extreme Edition within, right? The benchmarking gurus over at
Hot Hardware have since put the stratospherically priced ($4,569 as tested) rig through its paces, and suffice it to say, there's hardly a machine on the planet that's faster than this rig today. Put simply, the test machine -- which was equipped with a pair of ATI Radeon
HD 5970 cards -- bested every other gaming desktop they'd seen, with the only shortfall coming up in the HDD tests. Naturally, SSD-equipped rivals were a good bit faster there, but nothing's stopping you from swapping out those traditional platters and installing a bit of NAND yourself. Ah, why bother with the details -- if you're looking for "quite literally the fastest desktop PC on the earth," this can definitely be it with the right configuration. Hit that source link for the mind-boggling benchmarks and a hands-on video.
Alienware's Core i7-980X-infused Area-51 desktop gets reviewed, puts other rigs to shame originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dell Aero first hands-on! Here she is, folks -- Dell's first-ever Android device destined for a Stateside release, and AT&T's
second overall handset (the first being the
Backflip) with a Google-based operating system. At CTIA's MobileFocus event, we were able to brush up against a fully functional
Aero (shown beside a
Mini 3, just for your information), but we left without seeing the actual home screen. The closest we came to witnessing
Android 1.5 boot up was the typical
AT&T intro screen, and once that popped up, our presenter promptly popped the battery out in order to stop what would've otherwise been a truly momentous occasion. We begged and pleaded for a few interface shots, but Dell insisted that AT&T was holding an invisible gun to its head in order to keep the screen dimmed. We were told that the interface was still being tweaked, and the carrier simply wasn't ready for the world at large to take a peek.
Outside of that, we learned that this will indeed be the planet's lightest Android phone ever when it ships (believe us, it was
light), and while v1.5 will be onboard, Dell seemed confident that 2.1 (and beyond) would be made available shortly after launch. We were also told that it would ship with a 5 megapixel camera (a step up from the Mini 3's 3 megapixel shooter), an undisclosed amount of internal storage, a new color / design scheme (the one you see here will be the only shade available at launch) and a 2GB microSD card bundled in at purchase. You'll also find a good deal of AT&T baked into the OS, but it's not like you should be surprised to hear of carrier meddling. Finally, we were informed that pricing would be set by AT&T, and that it would be shipping "soon" -- far sooner than "six months from now" -- from both AT&T and Dell channels (though not available unlocked from the latter). There's also the possibility that Dell could arrange some sort of Aero /
Mini 10 combo deal for those looking to really sink their teeth into a hefty AT&T contract, but there's nothing substantial to go on just yet in that department. Enough chit-chat -- give the gallery below a look to see what's coming your way.
Dell Aero first hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Switched on: Giving fax the axeEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Today's smartphones handle voice conversations, short texts, email, instant messages, and tweets from around the globe. They are moving toward real-time translation of languages -- and if the batteries malfunction, they can even send smoke signals. But if there is one staple of communication that has seemed immune from "app-ification," it is the fax machine. This dial-up dinosaur has proven so resilient that it seems certain that the mutant cockroaches surviving humanity may find some use for 14,400 bits per second document transmissions. However, a recently launched $3 app for the iPhone may be the harbinger of the demise of the fax, or at least for one of its most common rationales.
Continue reading Switched on: Giving fax the axe
Switched on: Giving fax the axe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wi-Fi Alliance touts first ten 802.11n-certified mobiles, some likely headed to Sprint / Verizon Bona fide
802.11n took
long enough to get here, but now it's just a matter of time before it becomes all-too-familiar on everyday smartphones. We've already seen
a handful of 802.11n smartphones hit from LG and Samsung, but here at CTIA the Wi-Fi Alliance has come out swinging with an announcement touting the debut of ten WiFi n-certified handsets. Granted, the release is focused more on the blossoming of 802.11n as a whole rather than specific details about those ten mysterious phones, but a separate report from
PC Magazine notes that those that have already passed through the FCC are all packing CDMA radios. Put two and two together, and you start to realize that Sprint and Verizon may soon be trumpeting the carriage of some of the planet's first 802.11n phones. But hey -- who needs WiFi when you've got
WiMAX, right
Dan?
Wi-Fi Alliance touts first ten 802.11n-certified mobiles, some likely headed to Sprint / Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Samsung trots out Modus Bluetooth headset, complete with dual mics and multipoint
And you thought the
Bluetooth headset was
gone forever. Samsung Mobile's keeping the dream alive here at CTIA by introducing the "convertible-style" Modus -- a noise cancelling BT headset that's able to convert for Bluetooth stereo connectivity on a whim. It's also equipped with a pair of microphones and multipoint technology, the latter of which enables users to have the device synced to two handsets and respond to whichever rings first. Samsung's also tossing a stereo earbud headset in the box for those times when monaural just ain't cuttin' it, and the built-in rechargeable battery (which gets juiced via micro-USB) can go for six hours strong before petering out. Shame there's no mention of a price or ship date, but it's probably for the best -- remember that pact you made with your SO to keep your ear free of foreign objects?
Samsung trots out Modus Bluetooth headset, complete with dual mics and multipoint originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AMD 12-core Opterons leaked ahead of launch? Provantage of North Canton (isn't that the birthplace of Marilyn Manson?) is featuring a number of
12-core AMD Opteron processors on its retail website. Obviously, this is well-ahead of the launch -- and subject to the usual caveats -- but if you're a chip-head the info is rather interesting nonetheless. The most expensive of the lot, the Opteron X12 6176 SE (pictured above) is a 2.3GHz processor with an 18MB cache, 105 watts, and it can be yours for $1,485.61. If you're not quite in the mood to break the bank, the X12 6128 SE is a 2GHz chip with 16MB, 80 watts, and it's currently listed at $291. According to
PC World, the processors (codenamed Magny-Cours) should start shipping to retailers "around the time Intel announces the eight-core Nehalem-EX processor," later this month -- even if it appears that someone in Ohio has jumped the gun a little bit.
AMD 12-core Opterons leaked ahead of launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Kyocera Zio M6000 hands-on: you get what pay for It's totally unfair to Kyocera that we played with its new
Zio M6000 mid-tier Android smartphone mere hours after our first look at the
HTC EVO 4G, but while we were excited to see a cheaper phone with an 800 x 480 screen, the end result is pretty disappointing. The device crams that resolution into a 3.5-inch screen, which wouldn't be so bad if the capacitive touchscreen element wasn't so low-end. It seemed both unresponsive and lacking in accuracy -- at times we had trouble even dragging open the notification tray. We were told that we were looking at a prototype of the device, but the crumminess seemed pretty uniform across multiple Zios we tested. The device also seemed just generally sluggish -- we'd think the 600MHz Qualcomm processor could handle Android 1.6 just fine, but perhaps there's some optimization left to do. Kyocera told us that the phone is easily upgraded to 2.0 or 2.1, based on carrier wishes, and that they don't have any plans for skinning it. Ironically, running 1.6 on this high res display actually ends up looking worse than a regular low-res screen, due to the blurry icons and UI elements. The cheap looking capacitive touch buttons aren't much out of the norm for Android, but interesting the phone doesn't have any haptics to let you know if you've clicked one. Meanwhile, the haptic feedback for touchscreen typing is cranked to 11 and significantly unhelpful.
In one final negative note, the phone takes one of the worst pages out of the Palm book and put plastic doors over not only the USB plug but the microSD slot and side-mounted headphone jack as well. On the plus side: this is an incredibly thin and light phone, and we doubt the price (less than $200 or so unsubsidized) probably will be beat in the US for a while. Expect to see it on a low-end CDMA carrier (like Virgin Mobile or Cricket) near the middle of the year. Check out a video after the break!
Continue reading Kyocera Zio M6000 hands-on: you get what pay for
Kyocera Zio M6000 hands-on: you get what pay for originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NVIDIA's Optimus uncovered in Sony VAIO Z, along with TRIM support? Sony's illustrious
VAIO Z may have a so-called "
Dynamic Hybrid Graphics System," but NVIDIA's Optimus it is not.
Or is it.
Notebook Review's own igorstef started digging deeper within the laptop's switchable GPU setup, and lo and behold, it sure looks as if
Optimus is underneath. He went through the painstaking process of installing a slew of new drivers and tweaking some code within select .inf files, and in the end he seemingly found a way to get Optimus drivers working on the new rig. Of course, the debate has been raging on for five pages now, and it still seems inconclusive as to what's really going on behind the scenes. In related news, ZoinksS2k seems to have discovered a way to get Windows 7's
TRIM feature working on his SSD-equipped VAIO Z, and if you're interested in doing some tinkering of your own in either case, you know where to dive in.
[Thanks, Bill]
NVIDIA's Optimus uncovered in Sony VAIO Z, along with TRIM support? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Verizon vs. AT&T: Pre Plus edition Sure, Verizon and AT&T
shout at each other across our TV airwaves all the time, but how often do we get to see two exactly same phones running on both carriers? The
Pre Plus and
Pixi Plus have just such a distinction, and we stopped back by the Palm booth with our Verizon Pre Plus in hand just to prove to ourselves
we weren't dreaming. Naturally we couldn't keep ourselves from a little browser battle (check out the video after the break, the winner may or may not surprise you!), and we even caught the two phones commiserating about that dismal plastic USB jack flap of infamy. Sure, we're
longing for a new webOS device, and have a hard time thinking AT&T will reverse Palm's fortunes alone, but there's something special about this new era we're entering with the likes of Palm and Google where you can (almost) choose your device and then your carrier, not the other way around.
Continue reading Verizon vs. AT&T: Pre Plus edition
Verizon vs. AT&T: Pre Plus edition originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Motorola i1 video tour We checked out Motorola's
i1 last night at a dinner event, but didn't get any decent video for you so we went back to the booth and sorted that out. The i1 is definitely an interesting device, though whether its rugged mil-spec feature set -- we were playing shuffleboard with them last night, seriously -- will appeal to its intended market is still kinda up in the air. Don't get us wrong, it's not like the set is missing a pile of features, but it's essentially a giant glass display and we worry it'd eventually suffer a shattering end. Check out the video tour below and chime in, if you use
iDEN let us know what you're feeling about this.
Continue reading Motorola i1 video tour
Motorola i1 video tour originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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