TouchScreen posts
One lucky Chinese blogger was kind enough to share his Dell Mini 3i unboxing experience beyond the Great Firewall, just a tad before Dell officially announced their first-ever smartphone. What's interesting is that the China Mobile version comes with a special stylus for the capacitive touchscreen -- a very handy tool for writing Chinese -- but there's been no mention of this accessory for the Brazilian 3iX. Dell's also bundled a 3.5mm adapter for the mini-USB port in case their handsfree isn't good enough for your audiophilic ears. Yeah, too bad about the missing headphone jack, but don't let this deter you from checking out the Mini 3i's full glory after the break.
Dell Mini 3i officially set for imminent launch in Brazil and China
It would appear those leaked and unintentional early peeks at Dell's first foray into smartphones did not happen in Brazil and China by accident. Hans Erickson of Dell Latin America has announced the decision to "give priority" to those two countries, who will be first to experience the Mini 3i's Android glory, with China receiving devices "in the coming days" and Brazil getting 'em later this year. Interestingly, China Mobile will be making do without 3G, while Brazil's Claro will be offering a 3G-enabled handset. Dell remains mum on pricing and the rest of the spec, though all the information so far indicates that Brazilians will be able to buy the same WiFi-packing FCC-certified 3iX handset that's heading to the US. Either way, we've got another heavyweight's presence in the smartphone market, and we'll be even happier once we know what Dell's value-add will be.
Update: Official Dell press release is out making it clear that this is just the "initial" smartphone from Dell.
[Via Yahoo! Brazil, thanks Marcos R.]
Update: Official Dell press release is out making it clear that this is just the "initial" smartphone from Dell.
[Via Yahoo! Brazil, thanks Marcos R.]
Gallery: Dell Mini 3i official pictures
ViewSonic VPC08 keeps Windows XP, clamshell style alive
The xpPhone isn't even out yet and already it has competition. ViewSonic has announced its own take on the idea of a phone with Windows XP as the OS, in the form of the VPC08. With an Intel ULV processor, half a gigabyte of RAM, and 8GB of storage, it has just about enough to let you run XP productively, and once you open up the clamshell casing you'll find a 4.3-inch display and a full QWERTY keyboard to do it with. The outside is adorned with a 2 megapixel camera, plus a 2-inch screen and numeric keypad for your old school phone needs. An asking price of $800 and what we suspect to be pretty atrocious battery life will likely be the biggest hindrances on this device's path to respectability, but all the same, we totally wanna play with one. You should mosey on past the break to find a picture of the retro-looking externals.
[Via Cloned In China]
[Via Cloned In China]
Dell Mini 9 modded into motion sensitive, touchscreen tablet (video)
True, this ain't the first Dell Mini tablet hack we've laid eyes on -- but what we do have here is a pretty sweet mod by MyDellMini forum member "rock99rock" (must be his confirmation name). In addition to replacing his Dell Mini 9 display with a touchscreen kit, our man re-jiggered an ActionXL motion sensing controller to allow the screen to rotate as you rotate the device. Not bad, eh? Hit that read link for some real radical instrucciones -- but not before checking out the enthralling video after the break.
[Via Liliputing]
[Via Liliputing]
Keepin' it real fake, part CCXL: HTC Hero gets iPhone flair
It's just like the old riddle: what looks like a Hero, thinks it's an iPhone, and does double-duty as an old-school FM handheld? Why, it's the TVG3 -- and when combined with some prototypical shanzhai flair, its (con)fusion of attributes from all over the cellphone space make this one a stunning exemplar of KIRFness. Behold! 3.2-inch touchscreen, G-sensor (aka gyroscope), dual sims, Bluetooth, WiFi, built-in TV tuner, HTC looks and an almost-iPhone UI: not bad for $130, eh? In case you won't be in Shenzhen any time soon, you can get a closer look after the break.
[Thanks, Jules H]
[Thanks, Jules H]
New iMac and MacBook touchscreens debut, thanks to Troll Touch

Troll Touch -- the fun little company with the unfortunate name -- have announced more of their award-winning analog resistive touch kits for 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs as well as unibody MacBooks. Prices for the iMac kits themselves start at $1099, or you can order new machines with the kits pre-installed starting at $2299. For laptop owners, your touchscreen kits start at $699. Not cheap at all, but you know what the song says: You've got to pay the troll's toll. Delivery slated to begin before December 1, 2009. If you've never seen a video of someone using a touchscreen, you're in for a treat -- we included one after the break. You're welcome.
Read - iMac touchscreens
Read - MacBook touchscreens
Read - iMac touchscreens
Read - MacBook touchscreens
ASUS delivers Eee PC T91MT to Amazon.com, completes world tour
It was only two weeks ago when the ASUS T91MT -- the first-ever Windows 7 convertible netbook -- dropped by Amazon's German site, and now the Eastern wind from Taiwan has finally reached US soil. Amazon.com buyers are offered pretty much the same configuration as their European counterpart: Intel Atom Z520, 8.9-inch multitouch swivel screen, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium. While there's only one color option available for now, those who're cool with white will be spoiled with a 32GB SSD -- twice as much as the German version yet $200 cheaper. Any students out there going to pick one of these up for some improved note-taking before Christmas exams?
[Thanks, Bernard]
[Thanks, Bernard]
Sony and Atracsys develop 3D interface for ORs, sci-fi franchises (video)

You know what the world needs? Another company peddling their take on the touch interface as being "just like Minority Report!" Sun, Raytheon, Oblong -- it's a pretty obvious press hook (as well as a pretty awesome area of research), but every once in a while some such technology does come around that begs for a closer look. A collaboration between Sony Europe and Atracsys (a Swiss company specializing in optical tracking) ICU is a dual camera-based system that tracks and analyzes body movements in three dimensions, in real-time. Initially designed for use with a computer in a sterile operating theater, the interface not only notices subtle changes in the position of your body, arm, hand, or finger position, but it's also determine rough age, sex, or facial expression of the user. We're guessing that this bad boy has some novel gaming potential as well (count on the folks at Engadget to bring everything down to their level)! PR / videos after the break.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1 scores mixed reception

Read - Photography Blog review
Read - Wired review
Read - Imaging Resource review
Read - Electric Pig review
Sony Ericsson lets XPERIA X10 videos and press shots loose
If you weren't up all night following Engadget (and why wouldn't you be?), the first place you'll want to visit this morning is our extensive hands-on of Sony Ericsson's inaugural foray into Android territory. There you'll find the full XPERIA X10 announcement details and spec sheet, which is highlighted by a 4-inch capacitive display and a deeply customized user interface. With plenty of time to go before that first quarter of 2010 release date, though, we thought we'd get the anticipation revved up a few notches with a selection of handsome images of the device below, and a pair of videos -- one a spit-polished advertising promo, the other a useful demo of Speed Forge 3D -- after the break.
Gallery: XPERIA X10 official pictures
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 announced, we go hands-on

Sony VAIO L touchscreen humiliates presenter on live TV (video)

You know what they say in show biz: never work with children, animals, or gadgets. And if you must, make sure that you test drive your consumer electronics before going live. As you can see in the video (after the break), the kids on one overseas morning show failed to heed the last bit, to humorous results. For our part, we're inclined to believe that the unresponsiveness of the Vaio L All-In-One touchscreen herein is pilot error of some stripe, but either way the man on screen handled it like a real pro. Besides, we've seen far worse bloopers on Japanese television -- really, after the whole Yukio Mishima seppuku mess, it's hard for us to take any of this stuff too seriously. Video(s) after the break.
[Via Sony Insider]
[Via Sony Insider]
Soyea's MID Z5 features an Atom CPU, 3G, and a significant price tag
Sure, there are some of us who like to play around -- and a first-generation Android MID might be lots of fun to those folks -- but how about the peeps out there that need a portable Internet device with serious muscle? Soyea's Z5 features a 5-inch (800 x 480) resistive touchscreen, 1.2GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, WiFi, 3G (from China Telecom) and Bluetooth 2.0. A dual boot device, this bad boy eschews the cell phone OS du jour for both Windows XP and Linux -- and since you're liable to fall in love with this thing (and quickly max out the storage) the included microSD slot should take the sting out of the mere 8GB SSD. But that ain't all! It also rocks stereo speakers, a webcam, a VGA port, and mini USB. Of course, a device this serious has a serious price to match -- expect to pay 5,999 Chinese yuan (roughly $879) from Amazon China. Available in black and white, we have one more pic for you after the break.
[Via Electronista]
[Via Electronista]
Albatron's 42 inches of optical touch monitor get examined on video
While Dell and HP were busy holding a competition to see who could do a worse job of announcing their new optical multitouch displays, Albatron was crafting away a 42-inch monstrosity to completely steal their thunder. The optical part refers to a pair of CMOS sensors embedded in the bezel which are responsible for touch detection, a cheaper alternative to your typical capacitive and resistive tech, which requires an extra USB connection between the monitor and computer. Although some issues were found with Windows 7's multitouch implementation, the promise of recognizing more than two fingers with the proper software support and the general responsiveness of the unit whet our appetite for more. Alas, nobody dares speak of a price, but a 1080p 22-inch model is already available for $450, in case you wanted to add to your touchy-feely shortlist. The video after the break contains the hands-on and a little mystery -- why is there Bulgarian handwriting on the whiteboard in the background?
HP Pavilion dv3 with multitouch screen spotted in the wild, we go hands-on

Our curious British fingers managed to stumble upon a European HP Pavilion dv3 blessed with Windows 7 and multitouch on both the screen and the trackpad. The keyboard was great to type on with negligible flex, but the trackpad suffers from the same glossy issues on other recent HPs -- although it responded to our multitouch gestures better than the capacitive screen did. Our major annoyance came from the attempts to rotate pictures on the screen: we learned the hard way that the laptop (or Windows 7 itself) seemed to prefer more exaggerated rotation gestures than the MacBooks -- perhaps one would get used to it over time. The hinge is fairly solid, but we still preferred holding the screen while touching it. On a brighter note we totally dig the inclusion of an HDMI port and an eSATA port, plus you'll get up to seven hours of sweet battery juice from this 2.24kg (4.94 pounds) machine. Read on for our hands-on video and photo gallery.




























