Mysterious Android MID poses for yet more pics, reads Engadget
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted August 24th 2009 1:03PM
posted August 24th 2009 1:03PM
You know, if you're trying to get our attention, there are worse ways to go about it than by releasing photos of a mystery gadget proudly displaying our homepage. And though there is no credible word yet on the origin of all these Android MID pics that keep making the rounds, there has been much speculation. As SlashGear points out, the device has more than a passing resemblance to the Wallet, which France's eviGroup has been threatening to lay on the world since back in May (a 5-inch touchscreen device touted as "halfway between a cellphone and a TabletPC"). And if that isn't enough, someone named focus3G has been furiously posting new pics of the thing on his Twitpic account for two weeks now -- we've contacted him for an explanation to no avail (not yet, at least). But what do you think? Hit the gallery below, and let the speculation begin.
Read - Wallet MID gets closer to release, US launch possible
Read - Even more photos of unknown Android MID appear
Read - Wallet MID gets closer to release, US launch possible
Read - Even more photos of unknown Android MID appear
This is clearly 800x480 right? So it's running "Donut"?
Oh my word.
That screen is beautiful.
Like liquid crystals on a display.
very pretty
This is THE device ive been waiting for. I started to think I was going to have to just get a MID and cell phone seperate. If this thing really does pack storage, sd card, 800x480, sim card, and Android I'll pay almost anything to get it. That 5inch screen is beautiful.
It has some design features that seem the exact copy of the ipod touch...
Yes, square screen, metal bezel ...
it is made from matter...
I think apple has a patent on matter, plastic, square and electrons...
KIRF!
f-in fanboys
KIRF?
The matter is fake?
oh come on guys..
you can't honestly be calling him a fan boy for pointing out that it has a beveled chrome border and black bezel.
it DOES LOOK LIKE AN IPHONE. jeez.
I think microsoft PROVED with the zune HD that a touch screen device DOESN"T need to look like an apple product. and that it can look much better.
this does not.
Wow guys really? I'm definitely not an Apple fanboy, but I can see that it has a close resemblance to an iPhone or iTouch. When I first glanced at it, I actually thought it was the new Apply tablet that has been rumored about. You don't have to be a fanboy to point out obvious look a likes.
So everything with a chrome border must be a copy then? Because a bezel is kind of required, you know to make the thing fit together and once you said that everything with a chrome bezel must be a copy of apple, well then everything with a matte bezel must now be a clone of the zune... where exactly does this lead? Nowhere good, why can't people just try to make good looking products without have 'copycat' screamed at them from every direction. Feel free to call a cheap knockoffs a 'copy' because that's what it is, but can we please leave that out when someone comes along with an obviously interesting product that some thought has been put into?
That's not what I'm saying at all. This actually resembles the iPhone.. It has nothing to do with it just having a chrome bezel, it actually reminds me of an iPhone.
Again, I am not an Apple fanboy, I for the most part despise Apple. But I can see how this resembles an iPhone, without blatantly being a fanboy.
And how could it not look like one? It has a large screen that makes up most of the device, which usually results in a glass front. On any touch device, and to make the thing fit together it needs a bezel that they've happened to make chrome. If it had a circular button below the screen I could see your point but by your logic every rectangular touch screen device with a shiny bezel is a rip off of apple.
agreed- the metal bezel should be gold or blue steel so it does not resemble the iphone/ipod touch so closely.
...and my above post was ended with '/sarcasm' break- but I should have known better than to put it in brackets.
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Stupid Google, make Google Earth for Android already! Idiots! (see the second picture if you're wondering what I'm talking about)
OSX 1.5 can't use the Google Earth plugin? Hahahahaha
(it might be a mistake from Google, but still, hahahaha)
@10minutehobo: Say what? I was saying it's stupid that google earth doesn't work on google's own operating system when there's an app for it on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Where did you get OSX 1.5 from that?
Gah. I meant 10.5.
It says 10.4.* on that picture.
whats the purpose of this thing? and if your going to come out with a product at least try to be original and come up with a unique design this thing is big and ugly android wont help either. imo
like ur mom
C'mon engadget this is an old picture it was clearly taken on Aug 11th 2009 at 12:57AM and its already the 24. Way to be 13 days behind.
OT Can this run Donut?
I bid $150 (USD).
$1, Bob.
Suck it!
Possibly that new rumored Archos 5 update with android
lack of USB expandability (ports) and SD card, etc kills it for me. sad story.
Agreed, a SDHC card slot would be very nice on one of these types of devices. (It looks to thin for USB, so OBEX will have to do).
looks awesome.
Got the iPod touch thing going on with the shiny chrome curved back.
well that thing is just... lovely
could indeed be that Archos Android Tablet thingy
Can it run flash well? Why is it so hard to get a good touch screen devices (about 7") that can run flash well?
Because flash is such a high level plugin. Also flash for video, the encoding is pretty high so to decode pretty much takes a large portion of the CPU. This is the reason for the design of the Tegra chips to solve these problems by divide and conquer.
I know I know. It was more of one of those asking to the wind type questions. The better question would be "why are my thoughts, ideas, and desires always 1 to 2 steps of where are at technologically?"
Wow some brutally bad English in my last response there.
@Templarian
I had Flash on my Audiovox Maestro running PPC2002 almost 10 years ago. I also remember showing some video clips and flash applications to co-workers who couldn't see the point of video on "such a small screen". Of course once the IPod Video came out they wouldn't shut up about how cool it was to watch a movie on it and how unprecedented it was. They also said podcast a lot, like they were rolling the letters around in their mouths like a lifesaver.
Come on Engadget, pull up your Apache logs and look at the identifier section. What's it identify itself as?
So many WANTs these days....
iPhone OS is becomming a dinosaur, and I will be quite surprised if they announce any updates to it at the Sept. iPod event.
mhh... I actually think that this is the apple tablet^^
Running android? fat chance...
An Apple tablet running Android?
Heh.
"mhh... I actually think that this is the apple tablet^^ "
No, this is an actual product, unlike the Apple tablet, which is just a recycled rumor that receives way too much attention, when we have real devices like this one to look at.
But hey, why let reality crowd out more apple rumor stories.
If this were the Apple Tablet I might actually be excited for an Apple product for once.
What. Is. A. "MID".
media interface device
"MID" stands for Mobile Internet Device. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Internet_Device
I bet overheating is an issue. I'm not impressed. Android doesn't impress me one bit. Google should focus on competing with Bing, not phones. Anyways, Google seems to de-evolving...
Google competing with bing? That would suggest that bing is better and has a larger market share...
lol android lets be real here Google's ugly phone OS cant stand up to the might of that which is apples iphone and soon to be windows 7 mobile ahahahhahahah.
seriously is it me or do it seems like Google has its hand and absolutely everything nowadays FCC will be watching closely.
It's totally legal to have your hand in everything.
It's another to totally control one thing, and use that control to force your way into other markets, or drive others out. Also, no one cares about iPhone OS in terms of "might" because it will only ever appear on one piece of hardware: the iPhone. And not everyone likes or worships Windows Mobile as being the pinnacle of mobile computing like some fanboys try and present it as.
That said, I don't like Java and I don't like a lack of a physical keyboard.
no one cares about iPhone OS in terms of "might" because it will only ever appear on one piece of hardware: the iPhone.
and android appearing on hundreds of phones makes it fall under the category of windows soon enough Google will saturate the market with it making it less appealing like windows.
Err, if anything it'll displace Windows Mobile as it improves by virtue of costing the hardware manufacturers nothing to license.
That and it being open gives HTC and the like far more control to develop things like the Hero ROM. Personally I like having a choice in smartphones that isn't "Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile, Windows Crippled Smartphone, Blackberry, or Symbian."