Engadget

T-Mobile's myTouch 3G launch event: pre-orders now available

by Paul Miller, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 11:08AM

We're here at T-Mobile's myTouch 3G launch event -- quite a bit subdued compared to the G1 launch, but still a T-Mobile extravaganza all the same. In the meantime, you might be happy to learn that the phone is now available for pre-order, with a guaranteed August 5th delivery date if they order before the 28th. Notes from the launch talk with Denny Marie Post and Cole Brodman:

myTouch is about "self expression." Like when you did drawings with crayons for your mom: sure, it sucked, but it was the self expression that mattered. Apparently.
Cole is talking up the Google love and the Android ecosystem. A "strong Google partnership."
Cole says we'll have "more Android devices out this year."
Denny sees it as a more desirable device and potentially more attractive to new adopters of smartphones. "Boundless possibilities" for individualization. They're showing a few videos, which seem to be app-centric as far as individualization goes. "If it could sweat for me, it would."
A few apps being highlighted: Wikitude, Sherpa, a few exercise apps, imeem, YouTube uploads, Qik (my buddy's iPhone can't do that), Twitter, a ringtone editor. A few Google services mixed in, naturally.
They're both showing off their own devices and how they've personalized them. Denny is a big fan of Zombie Run, which she plays with her 15-year-old son at the mall. Best mom ever?
T-Mobile, in partnership with Google, will help put a "lens" on the Marketplace to help users find the good apps. Going to offer an "app pack" to highlight a particularly useful selection of apps. One of the highlighted application partners will be Sherpa. Also working on improved payment options: will include a direct bill option to post app purchases directly to your T-Mobile bill.
Shipping the phone with a zippered case and a cloth screen-polishing sleeve (like we've seen already).
Matching service plan warranty with device warranty, and working on retail experience / consumer training, including in-store appointments.
No current plans to bring HTC Hero to the US.

And that's it! We're heading down now for a hands-on -- stay tuned!

Soundblock: a marginally heinous dock connector iPod speaker

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 11:06AM

It's hard to guess why one would consider this device over that Lego-inspired alternative we peeked last Spring, but those obsessed with Elecom or born with an innate fear of stackable blocks can certainly opt for the Soundblock. Designed specifically for the fourth generation iPod nano, first generation iPod touch and any other iPod that ships sans an integrated speaker, this here speaker clicks into the dock connector and can be ordered in one of ten different colors. The pain? ¥4,000 ($42), which seems about a Jackson and a half too steep for our tastes.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

OCZ cranks clock speed, DRAM on Vertex Turbo SSD

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 10:42AM

While every other solid state drive maker is thinking of snazzy new model names to slap on their next-gen wares, OCZ Technology is actually breaking up the monotony with its Vertex Turbo SSD. While we won't go so far as to say that these things are overclocked ('cause let's face it, they aren't), OCZ has bumped the core clock speed and the SDR DRAM cache to 180MHz (compared to 166MHz on the original). These drives also posses a custom firmware designed specifically for performance junkies, and the company claims that users will see read and write speeds of up to 270MBps and 210MBps, respectively. We're still waiting to hear back on pricing, but you can expect capacities of 30GB (32), 60GB (64), 120GB (128), and 250GB (256) to hit the shelves in short order.

Update: We've just received pricing from OCZ:

30GB - $139.99
60GB - $249.99
120GB - $409.00
250GB - $774.99

Motorola's ROKR ZN50 touchscreen slider could be a winner

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 10:16AM

Right around this time last year, we actually had lofty hopes that Motorola would get its handset business in gear and shock us all with an ultra-potent, completely refined smartphone. Here we sit today, still waiting. Still, we can't pass up an opportunity to throw Moto's hardware design team a bone, as the ROKR ZN50 is downright sexy from any angle. The music-centric, full touchscreen slider packs a 3.2-inch panel (427 x 240 resolution), automatic screen rotation, shake to switch tracks, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, Bluetooth stereo headset support, SRS WOW HD audio tech and a battery good for 30 hours of audio playback. There's also a T-DMB TV tuner, 4GB of inbuilt memory, a microSDHC card slot, 3.2 megapixel camera, an e-dictionary and support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Sadly, it seems as if the phone is being reserved for the Korean market, but seriously, can you imagine this hitting North America with Android loaded on? Motorola: you're this close.

[Via Unwired View]

Incandescent bulbs making a comeback, GE still launching new LED lights

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 9:51AM

On the eve of Christmas 2007, quite a few obituaries for incandescent light bulbs were penned. News was slow, time was short and Congress had just outlined a new energy plan that would essentially force these energy-wasting bulbs out by 2012. Now, however, legions of scientists are racing the clock to develop new incandescents that will still meet the upcoming guidelines, with a Deposition Sciences technology paving the way for a post-2012 model from Philips. Without drowning you in technobabble, let's just say that said tech has seen 50 percent efficiency gains in the lab, which is more than enough to please even the most outspoken tree hugger in Washington. In related news, GE has issued two more LED light bulbs: the 7-watt Energy Smart LED PAR20 and 10-watt LED PAR30. Both of 'em are aimed more at commercial customers than at actual homes, but you'll be hard pressed to find a better option for lighting up your makeshift basketball court.

Read - Incandescent bulbs stage comeback
Read - GE Energy Smart bulbs

Limited-color OLEDs could operate with 40 percent less power, look just as stunning

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 9:23AM

You know that fancy flat-panels can display more colors than the human eye / mind can even interpret, right? Thanks to our hard-wired limitations, a certain facet of boffins across the way are developing a method that would scale back the amount of colors used in an OLED screen in order to shave energy usage even further. Johnson Chuang of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia has worked with colleagues in order to conjure up sets of colors that "slash the power consumption of an OLED panel by up to 40 percent, with minimal effect on how people perceive an image." In theory, at least, this breakthrough could lead to longer battery life in cellphones, PMPs and all manners of portable devices. As Chuang puts it: "Say you're running low on battery and you want to use Google maps to get home; switching to an energy-aware color set could make your battery last longer." Don't pretend that doesn't interest you.

BlackBerry App World now home to 2,000 applications, RIM pretty stoked

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 8:51AM

It may have some 48,000 or so to go before it catches the runaway leader in app choice, but doubling up its catalog after launching just 3.5 months ago ain't nothing to scoff at. As RIM suffers through the traditional growing pains with its fledgling BlackBerry App World, it has managed to amass around 2,000 programs for users to love, hate or feel completely indifferent about. According to Jeff McDowell, vice president of global alliances, that number is apt to rise when it goes live in Italy, France, Germany and Spain this month. Also of note, Mr. McDowell declined to say just how many downloads had taken place, but he did note that RIM was "very happy" with the response. Unfortunately, we're not so certain that the company is eager to raise that 2,000 figure to something much higher, with ole Jeff spouting off that "[it doesn't matter] whether it's 40,000 or 2,000 [apps], you've still got a broad range of choice." We're willing to bet the public sees that a bit differently -- right, public?

[Via Electronista]

HP Mini 110 netbook goes pink and white, adds Broadcom's HD video acceleration

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 8:21AM

It's July 8th which means the white swirl and pink chic editions of HP's Mini 110 netbooks are available. Unfortunately, the addition of color over the base-black models will cost you an extra $20. More importantly, this commonly speced netbook with choice of Atom N270 or N280 processors and integrated GMA 950 graphics is also getting an HD video boost thanks to a $30 option for Broadcom's Crystal HD Enhanced Video accelerator. That should make HD video playback silky smooth without taxing the CPU (and battery) too much. Of course, it looks like you'll have to give up your favorite media player and use the bundled ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre software if you want to take advantage of the acceleration. A small price to pay for portable, 10.1-inch LCD-backlit access to all your MKV, MOV, MP4, AVI, WMV, and TS/M2TS files -- or at least as many as you can fit on 160GB of HDD or 32GB of SSD storage. Pink and white models pictured after the break, for free.

[Via PortableMonkey, thanks David]

Continue reading HP Mini 110 netbook goes pink and white, adds Broadcom's HD video acceleration

Panasonic HDC-HS350 allows you to record over 30 hours of HD

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 7:55AM

If you liked the HDC-TM350, then we can pretty much guarantee you'll be a fan of the HS350, unveiled by Panasonic today. Essentially identical to its elder brother -- but for the hard disk bump on its right side -- the new AVCHD camcorder ups internal storage from 64GB to 240GB and retains all other salient features: 10.6 megapixel 3MOS sensor, 12x optical zoom and SDHC expansion up to 32GB per card. The increase in storage allows for over 30 hours of continuous full HD recording, meaning that your battery will give out long before you need to fiddle with your storage options. No word on the when, where and how much questions, but if we had to guess we'd say soon, everywhere and plenty.

Video: ASUS Eee Keyboard gutted, soldering secrets revealed

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 7:25AM

Oh the carnage! A prototype ASUS Eee Keyboard made a wrong turn at Albuquerque only to end up gutted in a French orgy of gadget terrorism. Nine screw removals later and we see the stand-alone PC with its 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen splayed, 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor and all. Unfortunately, easy access does not mean easy upgrades as the RAM is soldered to the motherboard. Other notables are the Silicon Image HDMI transmitter that allows 1080p playback over HDMI and 1880mAh battery that should provide an estimated 1 hour and 40 minutes of use before hitting the mains. Blogeenet also has a pretty thorough video overview of ASUS' customized UI running on XP; after the break, son.

Continue reading Video: ASUS Eee Keyboard gutted, soldering secrets revealed

Thanko Silent Keyboard EX might sneak up on the unalert

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 6:56AM

So you've bought your Silent Mouse EX and now want to pair it up with a similarly radical text input device? Thanko is keen to make that choice as easy and obvious as possible, and has now updated its venerable Silent Keyboard with the EX moniker and an extra shot of quiet. The value of cutting 16.5 dB from the sound of a keyboard tap is somewhat lost on us, but Thanko seems to think it is precisely $52.79. Bundle the two sort-of-silent peripherals together for $77 and you might just save enough money to buy a decibel meter, which will be the only thing capable of telling the difference.

[Via Akihabara News]

LG's 12 megapixel GC990 Louvre flagship with Schneider-Kreuznach optics records our puzzlement in HD

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 6:19AM

If you're the type who values specs above all else then lean in close, LG's GC990 Louvre is about as spec heavy as it gets. Taking its industrial design and UI cues from the GC900 it will replace later this year, LG's newest flagship brings yet another 12 megapixel camera to market. LG's promising "zero shutter lag" while using respectable Schneider-Kreuznach optics with auto- or touchscreen-focus, a xenon flash, claimed ISO 3200 sensitivity (from a tiny cellphone image sensor?), and the ability to record 720p video at 30 fps. It'll also geotag your snaps thanks to on-board GPS. Fine, just remember that 12 megapixel images shot at full quality will result in massive (up to 18MB) files that must then be stored and transmitted to your favorite image sharing sites -- a waste of time and treasure unless you plan to blow up and crop those well-lit images. Anywho, rounding out the specs are LG's S-Class featurephone UI running atop an auto-rotating 3.2-inch (16:9 aspect) touchscreen display, WiFi, Bluetooth, DivX and Xvid video support, a TV-out jack, and support for media sharing with DLNA standard devices. Picture of the backside camera just beyond the read link.

Genius EasyPen and MousePen graphics tablets play on both sides of the fence

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 5:33AM

Genius, a regular purveyor of cheap and cheerful technology, has today announced a pair of "dual platform" tablets that play nice with both Windows and Mac OS. The EasyPen i405 comes with 28 programmable hot keys, a software bundle, 4 x 5.5-inches of real estate and a $79 price tag. This is trumped by the MousePen i608, which throws in an optical mouse, a 6 x 8-inches working area and -- best of all -- one more hot key to program. Bargain hunters out there might want to prick up their ears, as the MousePen is already available at Amazon and Newegg at prices south of $60, far below its suggested retail price of one Benjamin -- hey, it's no Wacom, but it certainly won't dent the wallet too bad.

Sony's Stringer dismisses PS3 price-cutting threats by noisy Activision CEO

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 4:15AM

We can attest that Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony, is a pretty nice guy. But all the PS3 price-cut chatter from industry analysts and gaming execs seems to have the man riled as he tries to keep Sony afloat. Responding directly to Robert Kotick's threat to stop developing Activision titles on the PS3 (and PSP) due to the console's relative high price, Stringer told Reuters, "He likes to make a lot of noise. He's putting pressure on me and I'm putting pressure on him. That's the nature of business." When asked about the logic of not cutting prices, Howard said, "I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make -- how's that for logic." True, until the 45nm Cell processor launches allowing for a cheaper, cooler running slim PS3 later this year, right Howie... wink, wink?

[Via GameDaily]

Trimble Outdoors app will make an adventurer out of your T-Mobile G1

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 2:46AM

Trimble may make plenty of GPS-equipped devices of its own aimed at adventure-minded folks, but its Trimble Outdoors software has also made quite a few cellphones a bit more outdoors-friendly, and it's now finally found its way to the T-Mobile G1. As with on some other phones, the app will let you plan your trip online and sync it up with your G1, and give you the ability to geotag pictures, log your trip and share it with others, take text and audio notes and, of course, simply use it as a full-fledged GPS navigator. That won't come free, of course, but the $19.99 app price sure is a good deal cheaper than a separate outdoors GPS device, and you can grab it right now from Android Market.

Google announces Chrome OS, coming to netbooks second half of 2010

by Ross Miller, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 12:59AM

We can't believe it's actually here, but after hearing whispers of a Google OS for what seems like ages now, the company's now gone official with its plans. According to the official developer blog, it'll be an open source, lightweight platform that can "power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems," and will be capable of running on x86 (that includes Intel Atom) and ARM chips. Addressing potential overlap with Android-based netbooks, the official line is that "choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google" -- a pretty wild statement to make, but hey, it's still all Google. A large portion of its fresh out of beta Google Apps suite already supports an offline mode, so we guess the groundwork's laid out. The company says it's currently working with a number of OEM manufacturers and that it'll initially appear on a number of netbooks coming to market sometime in the second half of 2010. Excited? We are.

Video: USB powered chainsaw makes short work of a fake plastic tree

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jul 8th 2009 at 12:24AM

As far as USB gadgets go, this is one of the more unique ones, that's for sure. And while we usually don't have much opportunity to play with chainsaws 'round these parts (not in an official capacity, at least), the recently launched usbchainsaw.com has us wondering: perhaps we could stand to be a little more bloodthirsty in our Engadget labs torture testing -- if not for reasons of journalistic excellence, then at least for our own gratification. Of course, the i.Saw product website has all the hallmarks of a hoax -- but at least the video has provided some inspiration for the next time we're ready to wig out during a staff meeting. Check it out yourself after the break.

Continue reading Video: USB powered chainsaw makes short work of a fake plastic tree

Sprint no longer selling Pre over the phone

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 7th 2009 at 11:09PM

We've just received word from Sprint that starting tomorrow, July 8, folks will no longer be able to call into telesales to order a Pre over the cold comfort of the phone. We're told the move is being made so that the carrier "can focus inventory in sales channels where customers have the best opportunity to experience Ready Now, and we can deliver the best purchasing experience," which can be interpreted a couple of ways: either telesales are hurting Sprint's ability to properly stock local stores, they're not happy with the out-of-box experience new customers are getting without the in-store VIP treatment, or a combination of the two. Feel free to continue calling Sprint if you just want to chat or talk about how your barbecue went on the 4th, of course -- just don't expect to get a Pre out of it.

The Daily Roundup: here's what you might've missed

by Ross Miller, posted Jul 7th 2009 at 10:40PM


	Google brings Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and Talk out of beta (updated) Guess what, internoodle? Google Apps is officially out of beta.		Sony Vaio W netbook now official in US, coming August for $499 And yes, according to the Sony reps we talked to, this time they really do mean to call it a netbook,
	Creative Zii and Zii EGG touchscreen players with HD cameras served up by FCC Guess who's back? Creative. Hard to believe, we know, but the company we've all but forgotten looks ready to make a comeback.	Other news of import Acer's 11.6-inch Aspire Timeline 1810T: a netbook we can finally embrace? Killzone 2 / Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundle hitting Best Buy now Video: Nearest Tube iPhone app augments reality with directions
	OPPO's long-awaited BDP-83 universal Blu-ray player now shipping During our time with the player, we were duly impressed with most every aspect.		Verizon BlackBerry Tour review It's been roughly described as a CDMA Bold, but does it surpass its GSM counterpart?
You know you're a videophile if... Sharp intros slate of new AQUOS LCD HDTVs, first LED models included		Palm Pre official on O2 and Movistar in Europe, launch "in time for holidays" LG teases next-generation Chocolate for August unveiling

Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle now available

by Laura June, posted Jul 7th 2009 at 9:41PM

The Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle -- which we took for a joyride around the streets of New York City last month -- can now be yours, as it's officially on sale. The eco-friendly bike has a horsepower rating of 13.7, with torque at 31 ft/lbs, and weighs about 280 pounds. With a top speed of about 50 miles an hour, the bike's got a 45 mile range before needing a 3 hour recharge. It's not the most powerful of motorcycles to be sure, but it's got plenty of style, and it can be yours for about $12,000.

[Via Coolest Gadgets]