Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and new Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on: thinner than the iPad 2, dual-core power, TouchWiz 4.0
You know who took the
iPad 2 launch pretty seriously? Samsung, that's who. Just as
we had heard, the company's executives were impressed by Apple's ability to slim down its tablet and, well, it turns out that it took it as a challenge to come up with some thinner tablets of its own. That's right, in addition to the
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 that we have seen repeatedly teased over the last few weeks the company's announcing a totally revamped
Galaxy Tab 10.1, and both slates are incredibly thin yet very well spec'd. On top of that, both will be the first Honeycomb tablets to stray from the pure Android 3.0 experience and add what Samsung's taken to calling its TouchWiz UX or TouchWiz 4.0. We've got all the details and some hands-on impressions waiting below, so hit the break!
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Toshiba updates STOR.E external HDDs to USB 3.0, sees no lightning and hears no thunder
Allegiances are being drawn and battle plans laid out as the
USB 3.0 vs.
Thunderbolt war truly begins. Toshiba is, for the moment at least, staying friendly with the USB side, announcing updated versions of its STOR.E external HDDs, both packing
Superspeed tech. On the smaller side is the ALU 2S, packing a 2.5-inch HDD internally that has up to 1TB on platters. If you need a little
more you can step up to the Steel S, another external unit containing a 3.5-inch HDD with up to 2TB of storage. That one, unfortunately, will require an external power supply, while the littler ALU 2S will get by with only a USB cable. Both feature metal exteriors, increasing their usability as impromptu bludgeons, and both are slated to start shipping before this first quarter is through -- which should mean any time now.
Continue reading Toshiba updates STOR.E external HDDs to USB 3.0, sees no lightning and hears no thunder
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Live from Samsung's CTIA event!
We're in the door for Samsung's
CTIA Wireless 2011 press conference, one of two blockbuster events today (the other, of course, being Sprint a little later on). We're expecting both phone and tablet news here, so hang onto your friends, your loved ones, and your computers -- this is going to get interesting. Follow the break!
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Firefox 4 is officially released, how are you liking it?
Enterprising readers have probably been rocking the four-point-oh release of
Firefox since it slipped out
a little early last night, but now you can get yourself that same, fully-legit version from a new, fully-legit address. The browser's live and, as you can see from the rolling download counter Mozilla has set up, a couple-hundred-thousand of you have already got it going on. So, what are your thoughts? Let your voice be heard in the poll and comments below.
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Vodafone UK posts pre-order page for Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
Sony Ericsson's next great thing, the
Xperia Play, has just appeared on Vodafone UK's pages as its newest pre-order treat. Scheduled for a
March 31st launch with a price tag of £free if you're willing to pony up £35 or more a month on a two-year contract.
Vodafone's Xperia Play will ship with six preloaded games including Crash Bandicoot, Fifa 10, Star Battalion, Tetris, Sims 3, and Bruce Lee on the included 8GB memory card -- and includes some unnamed "desk stand" if pre-ordered before April 1st. We're kinda curious if any of you out there are going to jump on this newest Android 2.3 toy, so feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.
[Thanks, lewis]
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Logitech launches Squeezebox Controller app for Android phones and tablets
We're not certain this is the "ground-breaking new product"
Logitech was hiring Android engineers for, but
Squeezebox fans packing an Android tablet or phone have something new to download now that an official remote app is available. It gives full control over WiFi to all the Squeezeboxes you can fit in your home and brings the usual controls, metadata and album artwork from player to your mobile's screen. While we're still keeping our fingers crossed for a
Vizio-style Android music box in the future if you have a 2.1 or later device in hand and a Squeezebox
Touch,
Boom,
Duet or similar on the end table, you'll want to head directly to that Market link below or check out the full description on Logitech's site.
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Senator asks DOJ and FCC to do their jobs, provide friction for AT&T / T-Mobile tie-up
There's always one. Back in the winter of 2009, Senator Kerry
made public his request for Fox and Time Warner to keep the Bowl Games online, and one Chuck Schumer took to writing
an open letter to Steve Jobs regarding the iPhone reception woes that eventually led to a dedicated press event (mostly) disputing the matter. Now, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is urging the FCC and DOJ to "take a close look at the proposed
AT&T and T-Mobile merger," noting that the outcome would undoubtedly have a huge impact on consumer choice, price and service in the wireless industry.
Of course, it's not like these two wouldn't be doing just that in the coming months, but it's good to see a fire starting early in Congress to make sure due diligence is done. Having a carrier that provides service to 42 percent of all US wireless subscribers has the potential to seriously shift the economics of things, and potentially more interesting are the implications of a rejection. In fact, many are suggesting that AT&T will likely have to sell off major assets and promise expansion to rural / poor areas in order to gain approval, which ties in nicely to Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead's own comments
regarding concessions. We're also hearing that regulators could take as long as 18 months to fully investigate, and you can bet we'll be following the play-by-play as it all unfolds.
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'Hummer' handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong
Remember when Steve Jobs had a dig at Apple's mobile competition and proclaimed that "
no one" would buy their
Hummer-like 4-inch-plus smartphones? Well, going by the latest
NPD data, that group of "no ones" among US smartphone consumers is now a meaty 24 percent. Separating handsets into screen categories of 3.4 inches and below, 3.5 to 3.9 inches, and those above 4 inches, the stat mavens discovered that the midrange is holding steady, but smaller-screened devices are starting to lose out to their jumbo-sized brethren. No prizes for guessing that Android-powered devices were behind that big sales increase, with the HTC EVO 4G and Motorola Droid X leading the way, followed by Samsung's multivariate Galaxy S range. Now, care to tell us more about our mobile future, Steve?
[Thanks, Skylar]
Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget. Continue reading 'Hummer' handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong
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Aldebaran to create all-terrain disaster relief robots, make a hero of Nao?
We've seen Nao
bust a move and
play a little footy, and now its creator is making plans to take
its bots off-roading in the name of disaster relief. Aldebaran robotics recently announced its intention to invest in and develop a range of robots that can traverse rocky roads to help in hazardous situations, citing the tsunami in Japan as a catalyst for the move. The company's yet to state how it will make this happen, but says it's already made contributions to Cap Robotique, the "French cluster dedicated to the development and innovation in the field of service robotics." If you ask us, we're all for Nao gettin' a little dirt under its nails, as long as it can still
serve Fosse. Full PR after the break.
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Live from CTIA's day one keynote with FCC chairman Julius Genachowski
We're seated in the auditorium for
CTIA Wireless 2011's first keynote session, featuring FCC chairman Julius Genachowski -- who's frequented CTIAs in years past -- along with the bosses of Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, and Sprint. Needless to say, these are a bunch of heavy hitters about to take the stage... and we're curious whether they'll be saying a peep about AT&T's planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Tune in after the break!
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Apple slinging iPad 2 to 25 more countries this Friday, even more next month
Still having trouble locating an
iPad 2 here in the US of A? Grab your passport, bub. Starting on Friday, March 25th, Apple will start hawking its
latest and greatest tablet in 25 other nations, with sales to begin at 5PM local time through Apple retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers (or 1AM online). 'Course, this is a move we've been expecting all along, but at least the folks in Cupertino seem to be wasting no time in expanding availability. You can find the full list of nations just after the break, but if you're situated in Hong Kong, Singapore or South Korea, it looks as if you'll have to wait until April. A real downer, we know.
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Sony Ericsson's latest Xperia Play ads are disturbing, yet awesome (video)
Kristen Schaal has eyeballs. Red, fiery eyeballs lusting for the blood of her enemies on the battlefields of the
PlayStation Suite. Yes, Sony Ericsson is keeping up the
fine tradition of freaking us the hell out with its Xperia Play ads, this latest round starring an innocent-looking lady with a devilish demeanor. Skip past the break for those vids and if you're wondering why Kristen's so psyched about the Play, check out our
very latest hands-on with the device -- it's coming to Verizon with
stock Android, don't you know!
[Thanks, Calvin]
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Wi-Fi Alliance launches hotspot certification program, aims to ease cell-to-WiFi handoff woes
If you've been paying even a slight bit of attention to carriers over the past year and change, you'd know that a
number of 'em are resorting to
citywide WiFi networks in order to relieve some of the stress being placed on their 3G networks. It's definitely a viable solution for a problem that requires oodles to time (and far too many signatures) to plant new cell sites, but there's a looming issue: compatibility. Naturally, the Wi-Fi Alliance is all over it, today launching an initiative to transform the user experience in hotspots. The Wi-Fi Certified hotspot testbed will address authentication and provision of service for public WiFi networks, essentially acting to "facilitate the seamless handoff of cellular traffic from smartphones, tablets and other portable electronics to WiFi, helping service providers manage demands on constrained licensed spectrum." We're told that the program will allow devices to "discover and automatically choose networks based upon user preferences, operator policies and network optimization," and in many cases, they'll be automatically granted access to the network based upon credential mechanisms, such as SIM cards. Hard to say what this will mean for limits and structuring, but we're bound to find out more as the 1H 2012 target launch date draws nearer. Full release is after the break, per usual.
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Verizon Wireless CEO 'not interested' in buying Sprint, won't waste time opposing T-Mobile / AT&T merger
Well, isn't this just something. It only took Sprint a matter of hours (on a Sunday evening, no less) to push out a
detailed list of gripes concerning the
proposed AT&T / T-Mobile USA tie-up, but Verizon Wireless won't even be wasting its time. According to an interview with
Reuters ahead of CTIA, VZW CEO Daniel Mead confessed that his company wouldn't be lobbying the FCC or any other entity to stop the inevitable, noting that "anything can go through if you make enough concessions." That's a pretty bold quote in and of itself, but of course, this
is coming from the man who made an awful lot of those so-called
concessions in order to
pick up Alltel a few years ago. Continuing on, he blasted out this gem: "We're not interested in Sprint. We don't need them." In other words, there's nary a chance in Hades that America's
current largest wireless carrier will be making a bid to keep it that way by shelling out for The Now Network. Why? Quite simply, he'd rather focus on being the most profitable US carrier rather than the largest. Not exactly what you'd expect coming from Verizon Wireless' CEO, but hey -- if he's down for the competition, we're down with watching from the sidelines.
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UK 4G spectrum set to be auctioned off next year
Ofcom, the UK version of the FCC, is currently sitting on two fat bands of prime 4G spectrum, at 800MHz and 2.6GHz, but it won't be doing so for long. This morning has seen an announcement from the independent regulator that it's looking to sell off those airwaves to the highest bidder, as early as 2012, pending the conclusion of a consultation on how to ensure the auction helps promote, rather than stifle, competiton. The 800MHz band comes directly from spectrum freed up by the country's transition to digital television, and together with the 2.6GHz is equivalent to three quarters of
all the mobile spectrum the UK uses today. The usual suspects of O2, Vodafone and
Everything Everywhere will be vying for prime position in the next wave of superspeedy internet ... we just wonder how 3G-centric network Three will react to the news.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Tascam outs new DR-07 Mark II audio recorder, touts adjustable mics
If you're in the market for a quality
audio recording device to capture demos somebody other than your mother would listen to, here's your chance to get those songs past her and out into the real world.
Tascam, maker of professional music studio equipment, has just announced their newest addition to the recording family, the DR-07. Depending on what you'll be recording, the device allows the user to capture sound in XY or AB configuration using the adjustable dual microphones -- the XY adjustment for a tight stereo recording and AB for ambient, larger noise. The Mark II comes bundled with a 2GB microSD slot, features 17.5 hours of battery life and grabs MP3 audio at up to 320 kbps or WAV audio at up to 96 kHz. If you're interested in picking one of these up, hit up the more coverage link and drop the $150.
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Dolby introduces lighter, cheaper 3D glasses to better compete with RealD and IMAX
Dolby has been working on getting the cost of its 3D glasses down since bringing Infitec color shift technology
to theaters back in '07 and it couldn't wait for CinemaCon 2011 next week before announcing the new models seen above. These should please theater operators by being cheaper than the
old ones -- down to $12 or less per reusable pair from $17 last year and $27.50 the year before that -- and hopefully cinemagoers by being lighter, with a new multilayer optical film from 3M and redesigned frame to help block extraneous light. There's also RFID tags to help keep them from walking out of the moviehouse, and it claims they will fit over 98 percent of prescription glasses. So far
RealD has lead the market with its cheaper glasses,
multiple styles and home HDTV cross-compatibility, while IMAX is synonymous (usually) with big screens, but if theaters start passing down that savings in the form of lower ticket prices we might pick out a Dolby screen
among the other 3D theater competition the next time we head to the theater.
Continue reading Dolby introduces lighter, cheaper 3D glasses to better compete with RealD and IMAX
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Samsung's ultrathin 11.6-inch 9 Series laptop appears in Italy, gets hands-on treatment (video)
We told you it was coming, and now it's here: the
11.6-inch little brother to Samsung's ultrathin
9 Series laptop. As we expected, the 900X1A sports a Core i3-380UM processor, 2GB of RAM, and 1366 x 768 resolution, but instead of the anticipated 64GB of memory, it's rocking the same 128GB SSD as its older sibling. We've yet to hear when the new 9 Series will make it across the pond, but it should be available in Europe starting April 1st for €1,200 -- and, if you like 'em small and skinny, you can check out a video of the 900X1A after the break.
[Thanks, Marco]
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Adobe patches Flash flaw with Acrobat / Reader update
Armageddon averted. Exactly as promised, Adobe has rolled out a fix this week for the zero-day
security vulnerability in Flash that had us sweating the world was about to come crashing to an end. It's a somewhat circuitous route to getting your system patched up, however, as you'll need to download an out-of-cycle update for Acrobat and Reader -- the other software affected by this issue. Still, a small price to pay for protecting yourself from the evils of the internets.
[Thanks,
Paul]
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BlackBerry PlayBook priced at $500 for 16GB WiFi model, pre-orders begin today (update: available April 19th)
In the dead of night ... pre-orders happen. RIM has snuck out the first official pricing for its 7-inch
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and,
true to its promise, it costs less than $500. A cent less than $500. The 16GB WiFi-only PlayBook is now up for pre-order at Best Buy and is coming to a vast list of other retailers soon. Staples, Office Depot and RadioShack are among the popular US store chains, while AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will also carry the tablet. No T-Mobile on that list. Canadian pre-orders for the same model are now live as well,
also at $499.99, albeit in the local dollar currency. A 32GB WiFi model will set Canucks back C$600 and the 64GB model is C$700, which might be indicative of US pricing too if price parity is maintained throughout the range. The
almost full press release (still no release date) follows after the break.
Update: A second press release has confirmed full US pricing for the WiFi versions: 16GB is $500, 32GB is $600 and 64GB is $700. Scheduled to be available on
April 19th!
Continue reading BlackBerry PlayBook priced at $500 for 16GB WiFi model, pre-orders begin today (update: available April 19th)
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HTC Pyramid turns around, shows us a qHD visage
Okay, so a
dual-core, large-screened HTC phone isn't quite the unique event it was this time last week, but that shouldn't preclude the
Pyramid from vying for our gadget lust. Today, a picture of its front end has made its way to
GSM Arena, where a careful analysis of it side by side with a Desire HD confirms the same 4.3-inch screen size, but a likely resolution bump all the way up to qHD (or 960 x 540). A 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm chip and a 4.3-inch qHD display are the two crowning features on HTC's
EVO 3D, so this looks to be its brother for another carrier. One last note of import is the home icon you see below the blurred-out applications menu -- that's stock Android fare right there. It doesn't necessarily mean the Pyramid will ship with
stock Android, but we can dream, can't we?
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Amazon Appstore for Android goes live, welcomes newcomers with free Angry Birds Rio
In spite of
Apple's grumbling, Amazon's proceeding full steam ahead with the rollout of its
Appstore for Android. The switch has just been flipped and early adopters will be welcomed with a free copy of
Angry Birds Rio, whose Android launch Amazon
scooped all to itself. Beyond day one,
Rio will be a $0.99 app, but others will take its place as the online retailer is aiming to serve one usually-paid app for free each day. A total of around 3,800 applications are available at launch and you'll be able to get on board via either a dedicated Appstore app on Android (sideload link available below) or Amazon's
web interface. The latter offers you a 30-minute Test Drive facility, where you can try out a program you might fancy for your phone before purchasing. Service looks to be US-only for now -- sorry, international users.
Update: The web Appstore has gone down. Don't panic, we're sure it's just teething troubles and not a smiting by the Cupertino ninja collective. In the mean time, the app still looks to be working okay.
Continue reading Amazon Appstore for Android goes live, welcomes newcomers with free Angry Birds Rio
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HTC EVO 3D and EVO View 4G tablet spotted -- on Sprint's website, where else?
Oh, you know
all about them, that much is true, but have you yet
seen the
HTC EVO 3D and
EVO View 4G tablet? No, we hadn't either, until this very moment when another premature information upload on Sprint's website revealed their appearance. Two pre-registration pages exist for the as-yet unannounced products, one for the 1.2GHz dual-core EVO 3D smartphone and one for the 1.5GHz single-core EVO View 4G tablet. Both run Android and are unquestionably set to feature as Sprint's flagship devices in their respective categories. Beyond confirming that the EVO looks like an EVO and noting that the EVO View seems to have a black case rather than the silvery one that the
HTC Flyer (the product it's based on) comes with, there's little new here -- you'll have to wait till Sprint
finally makes all this hardware official over at
CTIA to learn more.
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Robonaut 2 gets unboxed in space, plans for galactic domination
Remember that nondescript
space shuttle that
launched about a month ago -- you know, the one responsible for carrying
this here nondescript humanoid robot into the outer reaches of our galaxy? Well, things went according to plan and the robot has been successfully deployed in the International Space Station, making way for the first ever robot-human space crew. R2, weighing in at 300 pounds with just a torso, head and two arms, costed
NASA and
GM a cool $2.5 million to build, and there's no telling what kind of handling fees were applied when shoving him into his SLEEPR crate. Because of his dexterity, the bot is up above the clouds to help out with chores and assist crew members with science experiments and handling human tools -- easy for us to say, but even easier for you to grok if you slam the play button just after the break.
Continue reading Robonaut 2 gets unboxed in space, plans for galactic domination
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T-Mobile Sidekick 4G by Samsung priced at $99.99 with a two-year contract, we go hands-on
Ready for some serious
Sidekick 4G news? We thought so. First up, we've finally got the official pricing details from
T-Mobile. That's right, come this spring the revived Sidekick will be hitting the
likely-to-be-acquired carrier for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate and two-year contract with unlimited data -- those that opt for the two-year contract but go with a lower-end data plan will have to pay $149.99 for the Android 2.2 handset. Sure, the pricing doesn't sound all that shabby, but how's the actual phone? There was no stopping us from getting our hands all over the first ever touchscreen-equipped Sidekick here at
CTIA Wireless -- hit the break for our impressions and a hands-on video.
Continue reading T-Mobile Sidekick 4G by Samsung priced at $99.99 with a two-year contract, we go hands-on
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T-Mobile's LG G-Slate priced at $529.99 with a two-year contract
Well, here ya go! T-Mobile has finally decided to come clean with the pricing on its 8.9-inch, 3D-capable
LG G-Slate, and well, it isn't cheap. The Honeycomb, Tegra 2-powered tablet will set you back $529.99 after a $100 mail-in-rebate and that's
only if you agree to a two-year contract. Of course, this thing
can record 3D video, connect to
T-Mobile's "4G" HSPA+ network, and output 1080p video, but that still seems like quite a bit of money when you consider you're also locked into paying at least $20 in data every month. Ready to grace us with the WiFi version, LG? Hit the break for the short press statement.
Continue reading T-Mobile's LG G-Slate priced at $529.99 with a two-year contract
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LG's T-Mobile G2x announced, available 'later this spring' (update: preloaded with Tegra Zone)
Why, hello there. Shortly after our
sneak peek on the CTIA show floor, T-Mobile lifted its magenta curtain and announced the G2x, aka LG
Optimus 2X elsewhere around the world. Despite the lack of LG's custom UI (which will no doubt be welcomed by Android purists), this 4G stock Froyo device will come preloaded with goodies like Qik,
Need for Speed Shift HD, T-Mobile TV, and DTS Ultra Mobile sound enhancer. Specific prices and dates have yet to be revealed, but we now have confirmation that the G2x will be "available nationwide later this spring," so the
previously rumored April 20th launch might still be on track. Full press release after the break.
Update: Our friends over at
NVIDIA also informed us that the G2x will be the first phone to be shipped with
Tegra Zone preloaded. Makes sense considering this is yet another of those delicious dual-core Tegra 2 devices that are flooding the market these days.
Continue reading LG's T-Mobile G2x announced, available 'later this spring' (update: preloaded with Tegra Zone)
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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play for Verizon hands-on (video)
Well,
we knew it was coming, and tonight at CTIA we finally got our dirty little hands on
Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play for Verizon. It's pretty much what we expected: an Xperia Play that's lacking a SIM slot but displaying a couple of Verizon
tattoos logos. The front-facing camera is still on the menu, along with a tasty serving of
Gingerbread -- Android 2.3.2, to be exact. Strangely, the custom skin we saw during
our hands-on at MWC was nowhere to be found on Verizon's model, being replaced instead by what appears to be the stock Gingerbread UI with some Sony Ericsson wallpapers and widgets. The Xperia Play app was on full display on the demo phones, which came preloaded with Ashphalt 6, Bruce Lee, Crash Bandicoot, Star Battalion, Madden '11, and The Sims 3. Take a peek at our gallery below, and poke your way past the break for our hands-on video.
Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia Play for Verizon hands-on (video)
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Windows Phone 7 hack brings instant app resumption, mobile multitasking to the masses
Looking for a little snappier response when jumping to and fro between apps on your
WP7 device? Well, do we have just the hack for you -- a dev from
Windows Phone Hacker, Jaxbot, did some poking around in the Window's Phone registry and found a way to instantly resume apps, no muss, no fuss. By setting the "DehydrateOnPause" registry key value to zero, he got rid of that pesky app
dehydration / rehydration process altogether. Keep in mind there may be some "undesirable" side effects from force-feeding your device
multitasking (ADD?)
ahead of schedule and you'll need a developer-unlocked device to access the registry, so only advanced users need apply -- you taking notes,
Mr. Ballmer? Hit up the source link for the full monty, and check out the hack in action after the break.
Continue reading Windows Phone 7 hack brings instant app resumption, mobile multitasking to the masses
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Blame the 2010 elections for your parents being on Facebook, Twitter
Most of the so-called "young folks" would argue that Facebook lost its innocence the day that parents were invited to play along, but there's no question that politicians would disagree vehemently. A recent study published by the number crunchers at
Pew Internet found that over half (54 percent, if we're being precise) of adults "used the internet for political purposes in the last cycle, far surpassing the 2006 midterm contest." A total of 58 percent hopped online for political news, while one in five (22 percent) used Twitter or a social networking site for "political purposes" in 2010. Taken as a whole, a staggering 73 percent of online adults took part in at least one of these activities in 2010, and judging by the power of these networks in the recent Middle Eastern / African
uprisings, we get the impression that figures will only be rising in elections to come. Too bad you can't "Like" a politician to give them your vote -- haven't these polling places realized what century we're in?
Continue reading Blame the 2010 elections for your parents being on Facebook, Twitter
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Apple sues Amazon for App Store trademark infringement
You had to know this was coming. Apple, which is already engaged in a
heated battle with Microsoft for the protection of its "
App Store" trademark, has filed suit against Amazon for its "improper use" of the same. Amazon's
Android Appstore seems to have been intentionally contracted to a single word to differentiate its name, but that difference isn't enough for Apple, which has asked a California court to grant a ruling preventing Amazon's use of the moniker and asking for unspecified damages. Apple claims it reached out to Amazon on three separate occasions asking it to rename its software download offering, but when faced with the lack of a "substantive response," it decided to take things to court. Its big task remains unchanged -- proving that the term App Store is something more than a generic descriptor -- and this was a somewhat inevitable move given Amazon's choice of name. The legal maneuvering, as always, continues.
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Scientists separate plasma from blood with working biochip
Disposable biotech sensors won't let you
diagnose your own diseases quite yet, but we've taken the first step -- a research team spanning three universities has successfully prototyped a lab-on-a-chip. Called the Self-powered Integrated Microfluidic Blood Analysis System (or SIMBAS for short, thankfully), the device takes a single drop of blood and separates the cells from the plasma. There's no electricity, mechanics or chemical reactions needed here, just the work of gravity to pull the fluid through the tiny trenches and grooves, and it can take as little as ten minutes to produce a useful result. It's just the first of a projected series of devices to make malady detection fast, affordable and portable. Diagram after the break!
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EVO 3D specs confirmed: 1080p 2D video, 720p 3D, dual cameras, 1.2GHz dual-core CPU
CTIA snooping is
in full swing today, as the HTC EVO 3D has seen its major specs divulged courtesy of a document within the exhibition halls of the show. True to our
initial scoop and
subsequent spec leak, we're looking at a 3D-capable successor to the
EVO 4G, this one rocking a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (
Qualcomm's MSM8660), a 4.3-inch qHD ( 960 x 540) display, dual 5 megapixel cameras around back, and the sweet, sweet promise of 1080p video playback. That's constrained to 720p for viewing 3D content, but there's no denying this new Sprint smartphone's shaping up to be yet another multimedia powerhouse. Specs of the EVO View tablet have also been snapped, marking it as indeed a Sprint rebadge of HTC's 1.5GHz, 7-inch
Flyer slate. Look for both to become official at Sprint's presser later this week.
Permalink Pocket-lint |
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Same song, second verse: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble for Android's patent infringement
We should've known this was coming when
Microsoft went after Motorola for Moto's supposedly patent-infringing Android devices, and now Ballmer & Co. have their sights set on Barnes & Noble,
Foxconn, and
Inventec for making and selling the
Nook Color. Once again, Microsoft has filed in both the ITC and the Western District of Washington Federal Court claiming that the Android OS infringes its patents, though the patents at issue have dwindled in number from nine to five this time around. Allegedly, the Nook Color is riddled with infringing bits from its tab-using web browser and web-document viewing capability to its text selection and book annotation features. Microsoft has resorted to litigation as a new means to get paid for its patents after year-long licensing negotiations with B&N bore little fruit (unlike those with
HTC, who got with the licensing program). So count this as another clear message to manufacturers -- Android's open-source, but it ain't free.
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Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video)
No goofy
active shutter glasses, no headache-inducing
parallax barrier screens, no optical trickery here. This is a pure 3D display -- unfortunately done at a resolution of just 8 x 8 x 8. It's a hand-built LED cube created by Nick Schulze, powered by Arduino, and driven largely by Matlab. Yes, Matlab, an application you probably deleted less than three minutes after signing off on your calculus final. We can't help you find that installation disc again, but we can encourage you to enjoy the video of this 3D matrix of blinkenlights after the break, and you can get the full details on how to build your own at the other end of that source link.
Continue reading Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video)
Permalink Crunchgear |
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Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 specs and Honeycomb UI tweaks leak out before its official launch
You didn't have any doubt that
Samsung was going to bring its new
Galaxy Tab 8.9 to CTIA, did you? Well, this thing is definitely coming
very soon. We snuck onto the show floor this afternoon, and while we didn't find the actual tablet, there was a serious amount of Galaxy Tab 8.9 signage. We couldn't get a close look at the placards, but the guys at
PocketNow had better luck. Not only does the 8.9-inch display have a 1280x800-resolution, but the tablet itself is said to be incredibly thin -- it measures just .33-inches thick and weighs 1.03 pounds. It also looks like the 8.9 will be the first
Honeycomb tablet with some noticeable interface customizations -- one of the signs showed a new "Live Panel" and a "Mini App" tray. All that certainly makes this one a bit more interesting -- we're assuming we will be hearing all the official details at Samsung's press conference tomorrow, so stay tuned!
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Nokia Astound for T-Mobile coming April 6th for $80 (hands-on with video)
Want to know where those next 150 million Symbian devices that Nokia wants to sell are going to come from? Well, here's a little sliver of your answer. We've just swung by Nokia's swank dinner event well outside
CTIA's convention center grounds in Orlando tonight to check out the official introduction of the
rumored Astound for T-Mobile. Make no mistake -- this is a straight-up
C7 in every sense of the word, featuring the same 3.5-inch AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera, and 720p capture as the original announced last year atop
Symbian^3 -- so the only real differences are the T-Mobile branding (or should that be AT&T branding?) tastefully featured along the bottom chin and a slight platform bump to Symbian^3.1, which we're told features "some, but not all" of the PR2.0 update's features like portrait QWERTY support and a refreshed browser. Interestingly, the carrier will be offering WiFi calling on this one -- just as it did on the
E73 Mode -- and you'll be able to do unrestricted video calling over Qik thanks to the front-facing cam. Look for it to launch on April 6th for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on contract (and pre-orders start tomorrow). Follow the break for our hands-on video and Nokia's press release.
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Is your Thunderbolt having LTE mobile hotspot problems?
We'd been excited to use our
HTC Thunderbolts as integral parts of our show setup here at
CTIA this week -- only thing is, the mobile hotspot capability is
kind of important if we're going to make that happen. On one occasion while reviewing the device last week, we noticed that the phone's radio was cycling between LTE and CDMA-only coverage, dropping the data connection to the tethered devices altogether each and every time, effectively rendering the hotspot capability useless -- thing is, we only saw it happen once. Well, this week at the show, we've got two Thunderbolts on hand and they're both exhibiting exactly the same behavior... and they're doing it consistently, which sadly means there'll be no LTE for us at this week's festivities. A quick check of Verizon's official support forums confirms that other users are seeing the same behavior, so it seems to be a real problem; we'll let you know when we hear more. In the meantime, follow the break for a video demo of the issue.
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Firefox 4 slips out ahead of tomorrow's official release
The
official launch day may still be tomorrow, but those not willing to wait can now grab the final version of
Firefox 4 for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux straight from Mozilla's FTP server. That follows a last minute RC2 revision that was just released on Saturday, which has presumably been all but unchanged for the now final version. Hit up the appropriate link below to start downloading -- just try to act a little bit surprised if anyone tells you about it tomorrow.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Cobra Tag Bluetooth key tagging system to ship in July, iRadar and PhoneLynx coming to Android
Cobra's taking a step back from its usual array of radar detectors to make a showing down in Orlando, and as such, today's announcements are all about mobile. The company's Cobra Tag system -- which popped up initially back at CES -- has just been given a price and release date. The Bluetooth tagging system will be keeping track of your car keys (and other miscellaneous items) starting in July, with a Bluetooth key fob linking up with a smartphone app in order to constantly monitor the position of anything it's connected to. All's that required from you is a BlackBerry or Android smartphone, $59.99 and a mindful personality. In related news, the outfit's also making available the previously announced
iRadar application for Android, which is used to link your smartphone and radar detector, as well as the
PhoneLynx for Android, which enables users to use a landline handset while tapping into Android voice minutes. Hit the source links if you're hungry for more.
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