Archive for June, 2010.
The world of corporate cheap shots has today been enriched in its number with one supersized ad for one supersized phone. BGR reports that Motorola took out a full-page spread in the New York Times on this final day of June, which was ostensibly dedicated to promoting the positives of its mighty Droid X. But Moto has also followed in the footsteps of Nokia in making a not so subtle jab at the latest king of the smartphone realm. According to the ad, one of the most important things about the Droid X is that:
“It comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls.”
Glad we got that established — next Moto will be telling us the alarm clock on its phones works just fine too. Skip past the break for the untrimmed ad.
Continue reading Droid X ad pokes fun at iPhone 4 antenna troubles
Droid X ad pokes fun at iPhone 4 antenna troubles originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
Boy Genius Report | Email this | Comments
We’re learning this afternoon that Microsoft’s Kin line, for all practical purposes, is riding off into the sunset just a few short weeks after its release. Sources close to Microsoft tell us that Andy Lees has rolled Kin into the Windows Phone 7 team and has canceled the existing product’s launch later this year in Europe on news that sales weren’t as strong as expected. Speaking of sales, Verizon’s already-launched Kin One and Kin Two are soldiering on for the time being, but for how long is anyone’s guess. Here’s Microsoft’s official statement:
“We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.”
Interestingly, CNET is reporting that Roz Ho — the exec who masterminded Kin under the codename “Pink” following Microsoft’s acquisition of Danger — will “oversee” her team’s move over to Windows Phone 7 before taking a to-be-determined role elsewhere in the company. For what it’s worth, we didn’t think much of the Kin when we reviewed it — to be fair, we’re not the product’s target demographic, but it certainly seems as though the phones got no love from the tweens, teens, and twentysomethings it sought to win over, either. It’s hard to say how the Kin’s untimely (or is it timely?) death ties into Robbie Bach and J Allard’s departure, but since Lees has his hands more closely wrapped around this project than he had in the past, it stands to reason that there’s a link there. After all, just how bad do sales have to be to kill a project mere weeks into its retail launch? And for NVIDIA, what does it mean that they’ve yet to release even a single blockbuster, wildly successful Tegra device?
Microsoft Kin is dead originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
If you’re the type who gets a little nervous connecting jumper cables to your Accord after you forgot and left the trunk open overnight (again), this is one military gadget you will probably not be coveting. It’s called RAPS: the Remote Auxiliary Power System. US Air Force Spec Ops personnel requested “something like Batman” that would enable them to add some juice to their night vision goggles, GPS units, and Hello Kitty media players while in the field, and this is the result. When thrown over a power line it makes contact with the bare ground and then cuts through the insulation into the live wire within, pulling the power down to an AC/DC transformer built into the spool. This device has proven safe for use in the rain and even underwater, but we’re thinking we’d rather sing “Kumbayah” to ourselves than recharge our iPods in this manner. Video demonstration after the break, which also explains where the power actually comes from!
Continue reading Remote Auxiliary Power System recharges our special forces straight from overhead power lines (video)
Remote Auxiliary Power System recharges our special forces straight from overhead power lines (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Switched | 
Wired | Email this | Comments
Still clinging on to your HTC HD2? Good on ya, cos this WinMo slate’s about to last you a wee bit longer — team HTC Linux has recently made a breakthrough with getting the touchscreen to talk to the HaRET Linux bootloader. In other words, us mere mortals can finally use Linux variants like Android and Ubuntu on the HD2 the way it’s meant to be, although we’re apparently still a few bugs away from a stable release. Until then, enjoy the techno-fueled video demo after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading HTC HD2 caught running Android 2.1 and Ubuntu with touchscreen enabled (video)
HTC HD2 caught running Android 2.1 and Ubuntu with touchscreen enabled (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
xda-developers, darkstone1337 (YouTube) | Email this | Comments
As promised, Nokia and Intel have revealed the pre-alpha version of MeeGo for handsets today, supporting the Intel-powered Aava reference phone and the Nokia N900. What’s most interesting at this early stage is the UI, which appears to have taken a big Nokia-influenced step away from the Intel-designed MeeGo netbook and tablet UI — and we’re definitely detecting some hints of Android and webOS here and there. Seriously, just check out that task switching interface. Of course, MeeGo is open-source, so we’re sure Nokia has some deeper UI customizations in store — like homescreen widgets, which are notably missing here.
On a deeper level, this build of MeeGo includes the base MeeGo APIs, including Qt and the MeeGo touch frameworks, the Firefox-based browser, a photo viewer, and some basic UI elements like the status bar, app launcher, and virtual keyboard. There are pre-built images for the Atom-based Aava handsets available now, but N900 owners will have to do a little building until someone makes an image available. Be warned, though: there’s a long enough list of known bugs, and while that’s totally fine for pre-alpha code, it might not be too fine for your device. That’s not going to stop us from installing this thing, but you be careful, alright? And let us know how it goes. Video of the UI after the break.
P.S. Given that the N8 is destined to be the last Symbian N Series device, we can’t help but feel it’s being overshadowed by MeeGo before it’s even out. Can we pre-pour one out? Is that a thing? It is now.
Continue reading MeeGo for handsets makes its first appearance
MeeGo for handsets makes its first appearance originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
MeeGo | Email this | Comments
Sony has issued a voluntary global recall of 535,000 Vaio notebook computers after reports of a defect in the devices’ temperature control software was brought to its attention. The flaw can cause the notebook to overheat, sometimes to an extreme degree. The recalled products are from the VPCF11 Series and VPCCW2 Series notebook computers, slightly less than half of which are in the U.S. Sony has also offered a firmware patch for the defect, Stacey Palosky, spokesperson for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, told TechNewsWorld.
Less than a month after the release of the Sprint HTC EVO 4G, many of the smartphone’s users recently found their devices rendered completely inoperable. That’s because a firmware update released by Sprint this week seems to have gone badly awry for an unknown number of the customers who installed it. For those customers, the firmware update has “bricked” their phones — a term not so affectionately used for phones that behave more like doorstops than multifunction communications devices. The screen is blank, the signal is gone, the phone is dead.
Regardless of your take on the iPad as a do-everything replacement device for laptops and netbooks, other e-book readers are gaining a substantial foothold. Devices such as the Kindle and the Nook provide access to volumes of literature and documents without having to lug a fully-functional computer around. However, EBRs do not completely replace the need for notebooks and netbooks. Depending on your specific needs, both laptop/netbook-based EBR software and a stand-alone e-book device can be indispensable for portable access to work-related and recreational reading.
Personal computing altered the world forever, and now the digitization of biology is poised to bring about sweeping change. Craig Venter’s recent announcement of the first synthetic genome was a huge milestone, but many outside of Silicon Valley remain unaware of the “do-it-yourself biology” movement. This movement consists of smart engineers who like to tinker in garages, basements and living rooms, hacking the genetic codes of various organisms.
Google has begun rolling out Android 2.2 in over-the-air updates to owners of its Nexus One smartphone. Android 2.2, also known as “Froyo,” has several new features, including a few that target the business market. Updates for other Android smartphones will have to wait until their customized interfaces have been tweaked to work well with Froyo. Froyo now lets Microsoft Exchange administrators enforce corporate password policies across multiple devices. Its developers have added numeric pin or alpha-numeric password options to unlock the device.
