We're pretty fond of new ways to integrate smartphones with car stereos here at Engadget, which is why we're particularly intrigued by a new Kickstarter project called Dash. Unlike MirrorLink, which reflects a phone's interface onto a larger touchscreen, this nifty creation puts the smartphone front and center in the stereo itself. While the Dash will initially support only the iPhone 4 / 4S and iPod Touch -- which connects via the dock connector -- the company seems ambitious to target other platforms in the future.

The Dash comes in two parts, the double-DIN stereo itself, along with a detachable aluminum faceplate that's held to the main unit with neodymium magnets. The only interface element is a volume knob, as every other interaction is performed on the iPhone's 3.5-inch display -- just promise to keep your eyes on the road when you sort through your tunes. The stereo contains four 50W channels and two 2V preamps. The Dash is currently projected to ship in July for $300, but a $250 donation serves as a discounted preorder right now. It'll be available in a variety of colors, which you can peep in the gallery below, and be sure to check out the project's video after the break.

It remains to be seen when or if they'll turn into actual products, but The Daily reports that Microsoft is at least working on getting its Kinect technology shoved into laptops. While details are light, the iPad-based publication says that it's seen a pair of prototypes that "appear to be Asus netbooks running Windows 8," but which have had their webcams replaced with an array of sensors that run along the top of the screen (a set of LEDs are said to be at the bottom). The Daily also says that it's confirmed with a source at Microsoft that the devices are indeed official prototypes of a Kinect-enabled laptop, and it unsurprisingly suggests that Microsoft would likely license the technology to laptop manufacturers rather than build its own hardware.

If you're gonna be late to a party, you should at least be fashionably late. That's the mindset behind Toshiba's entry into the dedicated e-reader space with its new 7-inch BookPlace DB50. Toshiba hopes adding an e-reader alongside its existing AT200 and Thrive tablets will push more eyeballs towards the 100,000 or so titles in its BookPlace online bookstore. The ¥22,000 ($284) BookPlace DB50 sports a TFT-LCD screen with an LED backlight, a 1GHz Freescale i.MX535 processor, 8GB of internal flash memory and a microSD slot. The device also measures 120mm wide, 190mm tall, 11mm thick and weighs 330 grams (11.6 ounces), with battery life rated at up to 7.5 hours. Toshiba did not mention the operating system in its release though the hubbub in the Interwebs is that it will use customized versions of Linux and Android Gingerbread. The Japanese debut is pegged for February 10th and the company is apparently considering a release outside the country, too.

Fresh off the publication of its latest tablet report, Strategy Analytics has come out with a new batch of statistics on the global mobile market. In a report published yesterday, the research firm crowned Apple as the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume, on the strength of the 37 million iPhones it shipped during Q4 2011 -- good for 23.9 percent of the market. Samsung wasn't too far behind, though, with 36.5 million smartphones shipped during the quarter, comprising 23.5 percent of the market. Nokia finished in third place, with 19.6 million smartphones and a 12.6 percent market share, though it fared notably better among handset makers on a global (i.e., smartphone and feature phone) level. According to Strategy Analytics, the Finnish manufacturer shipped 417.1 million handsets for the full year, 113.5 million of which were shipped during the fourth quarter of last year. For the year, Nokia accounted for 26.9 percent of the market, followed by Samsung, which shipped 327.4 million units shipped during 2011 and finished with a 23.1 percent market share. As for Apple, it accounted for 8.3 percent of the market in Q4 (its best showing, according to Strategy's metrics), with 37 million quarterly shipments. You can find more details in the pair of press releases after the break, or at the source link below.

Sometimes we like to tell ourselves it's not, but in the end, it's all about the Benjamins. We tried to get someone named Benjamin on this podcast to underscore this point, but, you know, he had other plans. Tune in for this special Rich Dad, Poor Dad edition of the Engadget Podcast: we'll let you decide which dad is which.

Host: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater, Dana Wollman
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Longview

01:14 - RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10
12:01 - Google updates ToS, shares your data across its services (video)
18:42 - Apple announces Q1 earnings, sets quarterly record with $46.33 billion in revenue
21:14 - Apple's Q1 hardware sales: 37 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs, 15.4 million iPods
30:50 - Microsoft paid Nokia $250 million to adopt Windows Phone, Q4 earnings report reveals
42:23 - Netflix Q4 results: 220k new streaming-only customers, beats earnings estimates (Update: no game rentals coming)
47:30 - Nintendo releases quarterly earnings report: 61 percent drop in profit, grim forecast
55:25 - HP: Open webOS 1.0 arriving in September, Enyo 2.0 framework free to developers today
58:32 - Listener questions






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Distro is 25... weeks old, today! And to celebrate we're debuting a new page that puts you, our readers, front and center. We've been sending out questions over various social networking channels and collecting your answers for the inaugural run of Snap Analysis. Among other things, you weighed in on RIM's CEO switch up, as did our own Darren Murph in his editorial, "RIM's New CEO Isn't the Shakeup It Needed." We have more editorializing coming your way from the desk of Donald Melanson, who's taking the Ultrabook marketing hype to task. Also in this issue, we test drive the BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 and review the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 and Huawei's Honor. Lifehacker's Gina Trapani takes on the Distro Q&A, IRL goes back to CES and Ross Rubin explores Apple's education push. There's a lot to soak up in this issue, so hit the appropriate link below and get to reading!

Freshly anointed RIM CEO Thorsten Heins sat down with Crackberry this week to discuss his vision for the future of BlackBerry, his thoughts on Android and, most strikingly, his recent comments about maintaining the status quo. Shortly after his appointment, Heins issued a video address in which he implicitly claimed that RIM doesn't need an overhaul. "If we continue doing well what we're doing, I see no problems with us being in the top three players worldwide in the next years in wireless," the exec said. At the time, we and many other observers read this as a sign that the Heins era would look a lot like the Balsillie-Lazaridis era, but according to the new CEO, that's not the case. "I was talking about drastic or seismic changes," he clarified. "What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold. My true belief is that RIM has the strength and the assets that we can really succeed in this market." Heins went on to claim that there's already "a lot of change" going on at the company -- citing the company's adoption of QNX as a prime example -- and that there's "no standstill at any moment here at RIM."

During the same sitdown, Heins also reiterated his belief that RIM shouldn't outsource its software needs to Android, because BlackBerry, in his view, is a hallmark of differentiation. "Just take a look where the Android OEMs are," Heins said. "Take a look at their recent announcements and what you will immediately see is there is just no room for differentiation because they are all the same." The exec acknowledged that RIM may be taking the road less traveled, but seemed confident in its ability to rise to the challenge -- even if there are some bumps along the way. "This is not baking cookies," Heins elaborated. "This is building high tech products. From time to time your aspirations and your development timelines hit some bumps in the road that were not foreseen."

Computer meltdown? No backup? Well, at least your tunes are safe. Google Music just gained a new feature that lets you to download your entire library including purchased songs. A simple click in the Music Manager is all it takes to restore your entire collection -- or just your purchased music -- from the cloud. In addition, the web interface now allows you to select and copy multiple tracks to your device of choice. While there are no limitations when using the Music Manager, purchased items are restricted to two downloads each via the web interface. So next time your system crashes go right ahead -- rev up that broadband and fill up those hard drives.

Dear Leader may have blessed his subjects with the gift of 3G in 2008, but in his death he is taking it back... at least temporarily. As part of the country's 100 days of mourning, cellphones have been banned within its borders. If you're caught pulling out a portable to make a call, send a text or get directions to the nearest statue of the departed dictator you'll be charged as a war criminal -- that means serious time in a labor camp or death. Fun! Then again, in a nation where the average income is about $1 a month and cellphone ownership is a highly restricted privilege, we can't imagine too many people have anything to worry about. Sadly, this also means there's one less way to get information out of the already hard to crack territory.

Our friends at Joystiq are members of a privileged club of which we are not. We've both downloaded and installed the mobile version of Steam -- now available as a free beta download for Android and iOS -- but where they found Mac and PC games for sale, along with the ability to chat with friends, browse profiles and read gaming news, we were greeted with red text that states our accounts are not part of the beta. Damn our luck! For those interested to give Valve's handiwork a spin, it seems that downloading and installing the app puts you in the queue for a future invite. Won't you join us in the line?