Announcement -- Engadget

announcement posts

Reminder: vote for your favorite Kindle design by Monday!

by Laura June posted Jul 31st 2009 at 4:32PM

Our Kindle contest that we're running in cooperation with our good friends at Adafruit Industries and Amazon has drawn to an epic conclusion, and there's simply no other way to put it -- we're blown away. We received literally dozens upon dozens of incredible, art gallery-worthy entries and it was all but impossible to narrow them down to a group of finalists -- but after an entire weekend of mulling, debating, and hand-wringing, we've done the dirty work and narrowed it down to a group of just twenty-three. Now, dear readers, the fate of five Kindles lies in your hands and your hands alone. The laser awaits.

So here's what we need from you: pick your favorite by 11:59PM ET on Monday, August 3rd. That's it. We'll take the five top vote-getters and award each with a 6-inch Kindle engraved with their design -- and of course, we'll post pictures of the finished products before they go out to their lucky owners.

Hit the read link below to view the finalists and cast your votes! Good luck to everyone!

Samsung's Giorgio Armani WinMo smartphone to be revealed June 11

by Tim Stevens posted May 29th 2009 at 8:07AM

Samsung's WinMo Giorgio Armani smartphone to be revealed June 11

Do you speak Italian? We don't either, but we're still pretty sure the above image has something to do with Samsung, Microsoft, and Giorgio Armani, and that the three are set to collide on June 11. Given the earlier talk of a WinMo fashionphone from the trio we're pretty sure what to expect, but wouldn't mind being surprised with some really high-tech business wear. We'll bring you more as it happens, you gadget fashionista you.

[Thanks, Ron]

Palm announcement coming later today?

by Thomas Ricker posted Apr 1st 2009 at 4:41AM

We don't know what it'll be, but Palm is teasing an announcement for later today. As stated on the official Palm blog:

"check back later today (or follow palm_inc on Twitter) for an update direct from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco."

Palm assures us that this isn't some kind of lame April Fools. As such, we're hoping for a release date (by country) and price or at the very least a free, general release of the Mojo SDK. Whatever it is, you'll find the details here just as soon as they are announced.

Global Sony announcement rumored for tomorrow, unicorns practically a lock

by Darren Murph posted Mar 30th 2009 at 9:04AM

Take it for what it's worth, but Smarthouse has it on authority that Sony Computer Entertainment is gearing up to make a worldwide announcement tomorrow, and believe it or not, it could involve the PlayStation 3. Analysts (and patient consumers) have been anticipating a PS3 price drop ever since, oh, December 26th of last year, but we've seen absolutely zero evidence to make us believe that one is coming within the next 24 hours. And as Joystiq points out, each Sony region sets its own PS3 price independently. At any rate, we reckon a joint PS2 / PS3 price slashing could be on the table, but we'd highly recommend not getting your hopes up too high. Who knows -- we could be getting all worked up over a new firmware that unlocks HD DVD support.

[Via Joystiq]

Microsoft announces new strategy of interoperability, jumps on the "open" bandwagon

by Joshua Topolsky posted Feb 21st 2008 at 11:46AM

Someday in the distant future, your grandkids will be hugging their Microsoft Robot Friend, browsing the Weboverse on Internet Explorer 29, and going to a rock concert held by Steve Ballmer's head, and they'll have never known the evil, nasty Microsoft we grew up with. Starting today, Microsoft has dropped a bit of a bombshell on the computing community by jumping on the "open" bandwagon and altering the way they do business with third-party developers. According to a wordy press release issued by the company, the Redmond giant will begin embracing an open attitude by publishing documentation for all of its "high-volume product" APIs free of charge, will detail patents it holds and applications that cover its protocols (to avoid nasty, Linux-like mixups, we assume), and will provide a "covenant not to sue open source developers for development or non-commercial distribution of implementations of these protocols." Sound like big news? They've got a lot more to say on the matter -- hit the read link and learn all about cuddly new Microsoft.

Toyota announces plug-in hybrid for 2010

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jan 14th 2008 at 4:38AM

According to reports, roost-ruling, green automaker Toyota has confirmed plans to launch a plug-in hybrid by 2010. Our man in Japan Katsuaki Watanabe (company president) dropped the bombshell at this year's Detroit Auto Show while detailing the automaker's plans for tackling environmental concerns. Apparently, the new lithium-ion-equipped vehicles will first be made available to Toyota's commercial customers -- such as government agencies. Watanabe gave no indication of when a general consumer rollout would occur. The vehicle, which is a modified version of the ultra-popular Prius, is capable of achieving fuel efficiency of 99.9 miles-per-gallon in EV mode, though it can only sustain pure battery power for about seven miles. The announcement will no doubt come as a total bummer to GM, which has plans to sell its own plug-in, the Volt, around the same time -- though the Chevy vehicle is said to be able to make trips of up to 40 miles on a six-hour charge. It's about time we saw some healthy competition in the green-auto-game -- let's just hope consumers reap the benefits.

Is this the ultraportable MacBook? (Answer: probably not)

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jan 2nd 2008 at 2:01PM

Well kids, it was bound to happen. With Macworld speeding our direction, and all the exciting, unfounded, and wildly hopeful Apple rumors we've been hearing as of late, a doctored (or not doctored) picture was bound to crop up. Well, here you have it -- a rendering, real or otherwise, of the supposed (yet not in any way confirmed) ultraportable MacBook we've been hearing about. It goes without saying that this image is totally unverifiable and probably fake, especially taking into consideration that the point of origin is the first (and only) post of an unknown contributor to the MacRumors forum. As evidenced by the photo, the thin-as-hell MacBook has no optical drive and sports an extra wide trackpad and button, which makes the whole thing look pretty goofy. We're not going to let the fact that this prototype user also seems to be reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons further shake our confidence -- though it's hard to get below zero. Inspect the picture above and draw your own conclusions.

[Thanks, stem]

UK OQO announcement early next month?

by Conrad Quilty-Harper posted Nov 24th 2007 at 11:42PM

OQO has been sending out invitations to a London press conference which will include a pre-launch unveiling of an unspecified product. They're also announcing what jkOnTheRun calls an Anytime / Anywhere Computing Environment, which is so vague that it could mean almost anything. The CEO of the company will be at the event too, so we know this probably isn't going anything as insignificant as a point update to existing models.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

T-Mobile USA making announcement about 3G on December 6?

by Conrad Quilty-Harper posted Nov 24th 2007 at 5:19PM

If we ignore all the nonsensical parts of this Inquirer article, then we see that T-Mobile USA might be about to make an announcement regarding their US 3G offering. According to a rep, the company will be making an announcement on December 6th on the subject, which sounds to us like the Government might have finally shifted off of T-Mobile's turf. That's all the relevant details we have, so set your calendars if 3G networks news announcements are your kinda thang.

[Thanks, Frank P.]

Steve Jobs in Berlin tomorrow, France on Thursday?

by Joshua Topolsky posted Sep 18th 2007 at 6:35PM

Now, we know how hot-under-the collar you guys get when we note El-Jobso's movements in Europe, but news is news, people. Just as speculated yesterday, it appears that the Apple honcho is working his way across Europe, moving nation-to-nation to spread the good word of iPhone wherever his New Balance touch ground. Not content with just launching the device in London for the O2 network, the company is taking this show on the road, traveling to Berlin on Wednesday where Jobs and his turtleneck will supposedly announce a partnership for the iPhone with T-Mobile. Expect EDGE, lots of screen touching, and Steve saying, "OH-, eine weitere Sache." Then, as we hear, it's off to France for some sightseeing. Just kidding... about the sightseeing.

[Thanks, Floris]

Steve Jobs arrives in London: jeans, turtleneck and New Balance expected soon

by Joshua Topolsky posted Sep 17th 2007 at 4:12PM

Listen folks, if you had even a slight bit of concern that tomorrow's "Mum is no longer the word" announcement from Apple was going to be anything less than monumental, you can now put those fears to bed. Steve Jobs, AKA El-Jobso, AKA the Jobs-man, AKA Jobbers is in London as we speak, undoubtedly standing in front of a full length mirror and practicing saying, "Oh, one more thing," with a fake British accent. You have been warned: there will be at least one human being in England tomorrow wearing stonewashed jeans and your dad's turtleneck.

Is this Orange's French iPhone?

by Joshua Topolsky posted Sep 17th 2007 at 12:49PM

As we quickly approach Apple's "mums the word" event in London, the reports have been flying in concerning all sorts of carriers rocking the iPhone in the very near future. Now, we've got France's Orange joining O2's supposed UK deal and Germany's Vodafone / T-Mobile juggle. The rumors are saying we can expect a €300 French iPhone (sans 3G and unlimited data plans) on November 29th, with an announcement during the Apple Expo in Paris on September 24th, though the picture we're seeing clearly shows the blurry-as-all-get-out phone touting the T-Mobile carrier name. They say it's roaming, we say; don't sign anything yet.

[Via TechCrunch]

Is HTC's "major announcement" a multi-touch device?

by Chris Ziegler posted May 30th 2007 at 4:26PM

The plot is starting to thicken ahead of HTC's press conference on the fifth of June -- and as we suggested before, it appears that the company does indeed have its sights set on stealing some of Apple's thunder. As far as consumer electronics releases go, the crown for the month of June had pretty much been handed to the iPhone; yeah, pretty much any Apple release is considered something of a landmark event, but one of the iPhone's big draws is its support for multi-touch. So what if HTC were to announce its own multi-touch device -- based on the lovely Elf -- just days before the iPhone's release? A little deflating for Apple, yeah? Smartphone Thoughts is reporting that HTC plans to introduce said device at its June 5th event with the intention of releasing it quickly on a global scale. Microsoft was showing off its "Shift" touch-based interface not long ago; while we don't know that the rumored HTC device uses it, this could all work out very nicely indeed considering the cozy relationship Microsoft and HTC enjoy.

New Zune at Microsoft event on Monday?

by Conrad Quilty-Harper posted May 5th 2007 at 2:33PM

It sounds as if Microsoft is planning to announce something Zune related on Monday, with iLounge reporting that the company is planning an event which will be centered around the announcement of an entirely new Zune. Since there's no other information we'll lapse into wild rumor mode and say that it could be anything from a free with subscription flash-based model in a new form factor, to a simple tweak on the current model that dumps the DRM, adds support for useful WiFi, podcasts, and more codecs, and drops the price (we wish.) Let's just hope it's not anything as trivial as a new color: we'll see on Monday.

[Via Cliczune]

TiVo Series 3 appears on TiVo's page

by Ryan Block posted Aug 24th 2006 at 1:41AM

It's not like they're treating the Series3 like some well-kept secret or anything, but it's kind of nice to finally see TiVo acknowledge their new dual CableCARD equipped high def DVR, even if it's only just a form on their site for getting more info when the device is released, and a silly tagline: "Combine the best of both worlds: the Emmy® award-winning TiVo® service with high-definition television for the ultimate home theater experience. Experience HD digital cable like never before." Don't act like it's nothin', even the hard hearted are eagerly awaiting this one.

[Via Zatz Not Funny, thanks Adam]