March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Sony Ericsson’s new Android-based phone interface, like those from other cellphone manufacturers, integrates Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and other social-networking services into one unified portal on your portable. The difference is that Sony Ericsson’s interface–UXP (formerly known as Rachael)–actually looks useful.
The company plans to launch a slew of new Android-based phones this year. Top of the list is the Xperia X10 (confusingly, it carries the same codename that UXP used to have: Rachael). It’s a device with a 4-inch touchscreen, a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and 8.1 megapixel camera that will be available this quarter. The company will also introduce the Mini, a compact phone with a 2.6-inch display that will be available in a touchscreen-only version as well as one with a slide-out keyboard.
But it’s UXP that forms the heart of these phones’ experience. Sony Ericsson has been working on the UXP interface for more than two years, the company says.
“We have done extensive skinning of the Android platform because we really wanted to make it a bespoke experience,” says George Arriola, head of user experience for Sony Ericcson.
Sony ’s UXP interface attempts to do the same thing as its rivals, such as Motorola’s MotoBLUR: namely, aggregate social networking feeds such as Facebook and Twitter into one stream, integrate that data with your phone address book and contacts and personalize the multimedia experience.
“We took a very sophisticated PlayStation middleware and shrunk it to fit the Android OS,” says Arriola.
Palm was the first of the smartphone [...]
March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
We know from a brief spat of iPhone 3GS controversy that OpenGL ES 2.0 brings a new level of immersive realism to 3D gaming on mobile devices, so Android developers (and users, for that matter) should be delighted to hear that a new release of the official Native Development Kit exposes its capabilities to anyone targeting Android 2.0 or higher. As a refresher, the so-called NDK is a bolt-on to the standard Android SDK that gives folks the ability to write and compile critical pieces of functionality in native code, closer to the processor without that pesky Java virtual machine standing in the way — in other words, it’s exactly what gamers and game devs need to make Android a serious gaming platform, and better access to badass 3D capabilities are a fun little piece of the puzzle. The latest NDK’s available for download now — so seriously, hurry up and go wow us with your revolutionary first-person shooter. Git!
Android NDK hits Release 3, brings OpenGL ES 2.0 access to devs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / 2 Comments
The Apple iPad’s Oscar debut on millions of TVs may have been the talk of the town Monday morning, but not for long. Rival PC maker HP has launched a sneak attack on the iPad.
HP released a video introducing its tablet called the Slate that will run Windows 7 operating system and support Flash–a jab at the iPad, which will not display Flash-based sites or videos.
“With this slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand,” posted Phil McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer for HP’s personal system group on the company’s blog. “No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices.”
HP did not reveal pricing or availability for the device, though it has indicated the Slate will be available this year.
Since the announcement of Apple’s iPad in January, PC makers are rushing to offer tablet devices that can position themselves between the 4-inch touchscreen smartphone and the 12-inch netbook or laptop. They say tablets could be ideal for web surfing, checking e-mail, reading e-books and viewing personal media while sitting on a couch.
Dell has said that it will launch a family of tablets, the first of which will be a PlayStation Portable sized device with a 5-inch screen codenamed Dell Mini 5. Dell hasn’t disclosed pricing or availability for its product yet. Apple’s iPad starting at $500 will go on sale April 3.
Though HP has not released the specs yet, the company’s video shows a device that’s closer to the [...]
March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / 2 Comments
The Apple iPad’s Oscar debut on millions of TVs may have been the talk of the town Monday morning, but not for long. Rival PC maker HP has launched a sneak attack on the iPad.
HP released a video introducing its tablet called the Slate that will run Windows 7 operating system and support Flash–a jab at the iPad, which will not display Flash-based sites or videos.
“With this slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand,” posted Phil McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer for HP’s personal system group on the company’s blog. “No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices.”
HP did not reveal pricing or availability for the device, though it has indicated the Slate will be available this year.
Since the announcement of Apple’s iPad in January, PC makers are rushing to offer tablet devices that can position themselves between the 4-inch touchscreen smartphone and the 12-inch netbook or laptop. They say tablets could be ideal for web surfing, checking e-mail, reading e-books and viewing personal media while sitting on a couch.
Dell has said that it will launch a family of tablets, the first of which will be a PlayStation Portable sized device with a 5-inch screen codenamed Dell Mini 5. Dell hasn’t disclosed pricing or availability for its product yet. Apple’s iPad starting at $500 will go on sale April 3.
Though HP has not released the specs yet, the company’s video shows a device that’s closer to the [...]
March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Like clockwork, we’ve just been dropped a line by T-Mobile USA asking us to join them for a very special media event to check out the HTC HD2 — “a larger than life entertainment powerhouse” — in fabulous New York City on the evening of March 16. That lines up nicely with the company’s earlier assurances that we’d see a launch in March — but what day in March, exactly? Well, we’re hearing from a number of tipsters (including trusted sources) that the 24th is the day this thing breaks loose at retail, so set your watches and calendars accordingly — assuming you haven’t been wooed into Windows Phone 7 Series’ tender, loving grasp, that is.
T-Mobile invites us to ‘come experience the HTC HD2′ on March 16; release on the 24th? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Apple iPad’s Oscar evening debut on millions of TVs may have been the talk of the town Monday morning but not for long. Rival PC maker HP has launched a sneak attack on the iPad.
HP released a video introducing its tablet called the Slate that will run Windows 7 operating system and support Flash–a jab at the iPad, which will not display Flash-based sites or videos.
“With this slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand,” posted Phil McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer for HP’s personal system group on the company’s blog. “No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices.”
HP did not reveal pricing or availability for the device though it has indicated it will be available this year.
Since the launch of Apple iPad in January, PC makers are rushing to offer tablet devices that can position themselves between the 4-inch touchscreen smartphone and the 12-inch netbook or laptop. They say tablets could be ideal for surfing the web while sitting on a couch or could double up as a e-reader and personalized video viewing device, in addition to checking e-mail and web browsing.
Dell has said that it will launch a family of tablets, the first of which will be a PlayStation Portable sized device with a 5-inch screen codenamed Dell Mini 5. Dell hasn’t disclosed pricing or availability for its product yet. Apple’s iPad starting at $500 will on sale from April 3.
Though HP has released the specs [...]
March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
The ability to remotely schedule DVR recordings hasn’t hit every Comcast system yet (c’mon Ann Arbor) but that hasn’t stopped the company from delivering version 2.0 of the Comcast Mobile app on iPhone (Blackberry is “coming soon,” no word on webOS, Android or WP7 plans) complete with the aforementioned myDVR manager, an improved TV Guide browser, push notifications for emails and voicemails and more. Comcast Voices blogger Scott McNulty has put together a pretty thorough video demo, embedded after the break (also there for comparison, our video walkthrough of the original release), so give it a look while we doublecheck… again to see if our DVR has gotten a new firmware update, or punch the read link to go straight to the App Store and download.
[Thanks, Simon]
Continue reading Comcast Mobile 2.0 for iPhone flashes remote DVR scheduling skills on video
Comcast Mobile 2.0 for iPhone flashes remote DVR scheduling skills on video originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
The debut of the iPad television commercial was a surprise during last night’s Oscars, and so were some of the clues revealed inside the ad.
Specifically, one shot (above) showed the possible price range of iPad e-books, and another (below) revealed where documents will be stored in Apple’s software.
The iPad commercial showed the True Compass: A Memoir novel for $14.99, the novel I, Alex Cross for $12.99, and Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World… One Child at a Time for $7.99.
By way of comparison, those same titles cost $19.25, $9.99 and $7.19, respectively, for the Amazon Kindle.
As for documents, the ad shows that the iPad keeps documents inside a folder marked “My Documents” inside the iWork app — the same folder name for the documents folder on a Mac. That’s nothing mindblowing, but we weren’t aware of the nomenclature prior to the ad.
We’ve put in a query to Apple’s public relations to ask whether the details shown in the ad are accurate. We’d assume they are, because the numbers look realistic. (And if they turn out not to be true, we can expect some fussy consumers to file a complaint with the FTC.)
A hat tip to 9 to 5 Mac’s Seth Weintraub for being the first to spot these clues.
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March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
Let’s step into the time warp, shall we? Specifically, we’d like to go back to our interview of AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega at MWC last year when we asked him about the carrier’s support for Android (or lack thereof):
Chris: Okay, and expanding on that a little bit, I heard you speak at CTIA last year and you mentioned that… you mentioned basically the same comments about Android at that time. You said that you thought that it was promising, you liked what you saw, but that was at a time when there were a lot of questions about why AT&T wasn’t in the OHA. I’m wondering if your thoughts, your opinions have changed since then. Has AT&T’s direction with Android changed at all?
Ralph: No, actually, I think that they have been somewhat validated in that… we like the Android as an operating system on its own, but we want to make sure that we have, and customers have the option, to put applications on that device that are not just Google applications, so when the G1 came out and T-Mobile launched it, it’s primarily a Google phone. And we want to give customers the choice of other applications on that device, not just the same Google applications.
Chris: So you’re basically waiting for Android to be de-branded, so to speak?
Ralph: Well, to be open. (Laughter.) Right? I mean, the whole idea behind Android is that it’s gonna be an open OS, and so I don’t wanna roll [...]
March 8th, 2010 / Gadget-News / gadgets / No Comments
For the last month, I have been testing out Lensbaby’s new fisheye and soft-focus optics, two glass cores which are drop-in replacements for the optic which comes inside the Lensbaby composer. The Lensbaby composer itself is a lens with a ball-and socket arrangement which allows the front section to be twisted in any direction and place the focus “sweet-spot” anywhere in the frame. This is combined with an optic which is heavily blurred away from this spot, leading to some dreamy, tilt-shift-like photos.
Standard Lensbaby Composer on Panasonic GF1. Sharpening, auto-levels applied
The new fish-eye and soft-focus optics replace this blurry-edged glass for some new effects. The fisheye is a 12mm ƒ4 lens with a massive 360º angle of view, enough to catch both your feet and the brim of your hat in the same shot. Trying it out on a Panasonic GF1 (via adapter, although there is a proper M4/3 mount version), it gives a mild distortion, and a very low contrast image. You can twist and turn the Lensbaby, but as the Micro Four Thirds sensor only see the center portion of the image from the lens, it doesn’t make much difference.
It also fooled the camera into underexposure when indoors. As the lens is all manual, for both focussing and aperture (in fact, you have to use a magnetic “pen” to drop in and retrieve separate aperture rings), this isn’t [...]
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