In The Wild -- Engadget

in the wild posts

Samsung's YP-R1 spotted in the wild leering at kids

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 10th 2009 at 3:26AM

We like bubble-gum icons and ginger bread men holding "Touch Me!" signs as much as any predator. It's just not the first motif that comes to mind when choosing an interface for what otherwise looks to be yet another mainstream digital media player. Perhaps Samsung's YP-R1 is targeting 9-year old Korean girls -- however, that sure looks like a brushed metal box to us, not teddy-bear taffeta affixed to a Mickey Mouse effigy as we'd expect. Otherwise, the YP-R1 is the same 2.6-inch touchscreen 400 x 260 pixel player with up to 32GB (€149 for 8GB model) of storage we've already seen only now with an expected September ship date, at least in France. One more shot after the break. What can we say -- this is what you get when we hope to be surprised.

Continue reading Samsung's YP-R1 spotted in the wild leering at kids

Verizon-branded Samsung Glyde 2 becomes star in Blurrycam photoshoot

by Ross Miller, posted Jul 5th 2009 at 12:02PM

Samsung's launch of the Glyde was, well, far less than stellar -- but hey, second time's a charm, right? Shots have surfaced from HowardForums of what's apparently the Glyde 2 / u960. Looks like we've got a more expansive keyboard that makes better use of space on the bottom slide out, some TouchWiz action on the screen, and unsurprisingly a nice, big Verizon logo just above the screen. Nope, we don't have a release date or official confirmation of any sorts, so for now just hang tight on the farthest edge of your seat and feel free to browse the other shots of the device in the gallery below.

[Via Phone Arena]

Gallery: Verizon-branded Samsung Glyde 2 becomes star in Blurrycam photoshoot

iriver E200 lands in the wild, might not have been worth the wait

by Paul Miller, posted Jul 5th 2009 at 4:55AM

Sure, we know that whenever we hear the word "aluminum" we're supposed to go all weak in the knees, but iriver hasn't really astounded us with this materials-tweaked rehash of the E100. Still, the OLED screen on the upcoming E200 has been bumped to 2.8-inches, so that's kind of nice, and while the capacitive touch buttons aren't a big win over the original rocker, at least the chassis seems thinner now. Check out the read link for some purported press shots that manage to be quite a bit more flattering.

[Via PMP Today]

Video: Palm Pre caught playing with GSM SIM in Vietnam

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 30th 2009 at 7:12AM

Having the Palm Pre on Sprint might be good for Americans driving their pick 'em up trucks down the CDMA data highway, but it doesn't do Europeans (or Palm's bottom line) any good over in the Old World. Now we've got video and images of a GSM-loving Palm Pre on the loose in Vietnam. Why 'Nam? Easy, as workers gain more rights and higher wages in China, manufacturers of all our fancy consumer electronics are heading further south in search of cheap labor. While this doesn't mean a damn thing regarding launch, it's still good to see a functioning GSM Pre in the wild on the way to launch sometime before the end of the year, possibly sooner. Video after the break, as the saying goes.

[Thanks, Enzo]

Continue reading Video: Palm Pre caught playing with GSM SIM in Vietnam

BlackBerry Curve 8520 with T-Mobile branding walks in front of a camera

by Ross Miller, posted Jun 15th 2009 at 4:14PM

A BlackBerry 8520 bound for T-Mobile? Really, we're not surprised, having heard whispers not too long ago, and while not yet official, some gung ho Crackberry forum members have posted some shots of the branded phone in the wild, with just a dash of Mr. Blurrycam stylings for good effect. No indication of a release date here, but if you're really jonesing for a new 2.5G BlackBerry, last we heard it was coming fourth quarter of this year.

Update: That white trackpad isn't quite what it seems. According to the original poster, it's just a plastic covering. We hate to disappoint anyone who actually dug the new shade.

T-Mobile myTouch 3G spotted in the wild, G1 starting to feel unloved

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 15th 2009 at 3:49PM

Haven't managed to get your hands on an Ion just yet? Hang tight, because a branded myTouch 3G has found its way into the wilds today, which we take to mean that a launch can't be that far off. Actually, it can -- who are we kidding -- but the hopeless optimist in us wants to believe that this is about to happen. The poster over on Android Forums says that this particular device was handed out by someone at Google, not T-Mobile; there's no telling what that really means to us, other than the fact that this is most definitely a "Google experience" Android device just like its older G1 brother (as the "with Google" badge on the back would also suggest). Exchange users, yeah, sorry about that.

[Via TmoNews]

Nokia's E72 and 5530 XpressMusic in the S60-powered flesh

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 15th 2009 at 12:04AM

Seeing how these announcements are going down live in Singapore as we speak, we've got a few sources of live pictures of Nokia's latest announcements coming in off the interwebs already; it's all raw, unfiltered footage, but that's exactly the way we like it around here. We won't know for certain until we touch it, but at a glance, the E72 certainly looks like a worthy successor to one of the greatest phones Nokia has ever made, and the 5530 looks like the 5800 should've looked. What's everyone thinking on these?

[Via The Nokia Blog]

Read - davidlian's twitpic stream
Read - budip's twitpic stream

Lenovo's ThinkPad T400s in the wild, still waiting on an official debut

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 11th 2009 at 11:00AM

Lenovo is apparently slimming down its T400 series ThinkPads, with the new T400s being caught in the wilds of technologyland. Despite looking nearly a century old in these hands-on shots, the laptop seems to be pretty modern under the hood, with SSD, DisplayPort, eSATA, WWAN, a 14.1-inch WXGA+ LED backlit display, 5-in-1 multicard reader... the list goes on. It's all packed in at around 0.83-inches thick (including a built-in disc drive), and under four pounds, which makes Apple sound a little silly for crowing about packing a little SD card slot into its latest unibody lineup. Word is that the build quality hasn't been traded in for the slimness, and while there's no word on price, hopefully it won't be too much more than the T400, which currently starts out at $750.

Olidata Conte ultraportable finally shows itself, looks mighty good

by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2009 at 11:07AM

My, my Olidata -- why on Earth have you been depriving our wandering eyes from this beauty for so long? After being originally introduced at CES, we've heard precisely nothing since... until now, obviously. At long last, the striking Conte ultraportable has found its way outside of the lab over in Italy, sporting an ultrathin frame, chiclet-style keyboard, a bezel that's a bit too wide for our tastes, an HDMI output and a price tag starting at just €799 ($1,129). From what we can gather, a few versions of the machine will be available, one of which sports an SU2700 CPU, 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, a 120GB hard drive, 3GB of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi and a multi-touch trackpad. Another variant is slated to include a Core Solo SU3500 CPU and a 120GB HDD, while yet another gets a Core 2 Duo SL9400 and a 128GB SSD. Peek the read link for a few more looks, including one of the most bizarre advertisements we've ever seen for a mere laptop.

[Thanks, Andrea]

Palm Pre filtering into Sprint stores, indocile employee sizes it up

by Darren Murph, posted May 30th 2009 at 6:28PM

With only days to go before at least four or five Sprint stores begin selling Palm's Pre, we're already seeing at least one employee with some time on his hands give the smartphone a go. Moral of the story? Right about now would be an awesome time to know somebody who can get behind a Sprint counter without using an unlawful amount of force.

ASUS Eee PC 1005HA found in the wild, bests the Seashell in the little things

by Paul Miller, posted May 26th 2009 at 12:28PM

We just got through looking at ASUS's new Eee PC 1008HA Seashell, but it might be the 1005HA that really strikes a balance between form and function. The upcoming netbook has many of the Seashell's stylings, but forgoes the recessed ports, port doors and hokey mini VGA plug to bring a more functional experience while hardly sacrificing the aesthetics. This version in the wilds of Germany also has a 6 cell removable battery instead of the 1008HA's "next-gen" 3 cell integrated battery -- we'll have to wait for the benchmarks to see who is crowned the winner, but anybody who's ever had the joy of swapping batteries on a transoceanic flight has probably already made up their mind.

Acer Aspire Timeline found in the wild, chilling in Canada and up for pre-order in UK

by Ross Miller, posted May 25th 2009 at 6:59PM

Acer's been largely mum about its new Aspire Timeline laptop since its initial unveiling back in early April, but now it looks like the company's getting ready to roll out the portable to the customer base at large, if these spy shots from a from a Canadian-based Future Shop store are any indication. The list of specs is a bit hard to read, but from what we gather, the 14-inch Aspire 4810TZ-4129 is packing a 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, a DVD drive, WiFi, WAN, a touted 8 hour battery life, and Windows Vista Home Premium. No indication on the price or official street date, however, but if they're being sent to retail, we can't imagine we'll be waiting too much longer. Feast your own eyes on the specs sheet in the image after the break.

Update: Reader Oleg has written in to let us know it's also up for pre-order at UK retail site PC World -- 14-inch for £550 and 15.6-inch for £600.

[Thanks, waterboy99troop]

Continue reading Acer Aspire Timeline found in the wild, chilling in Canada and up for pre-order in UK

HTC Touch Pro2 brandishes Verizon logo, poses for camera with Cedar

by Ross Miller, posted May 24th 2009 at 3:01PM

Not that it wasn't without warning, but we've now got some pretty definitive picture proof that HTC 's Touch Pro2 is set to bask in Verizon's CDMA goodness -- we guess your Sprint friends won't be having all the fun, after all. Also caught on camera here is the HTC Cedar, a CDMA version of the HTC Maple / Snap. It's got a slightly different button layout just under the screen than the Sprint version we recently saw, which itself is different from its initial unveiling. According to 474RPR, who leaked these pics, this one's bound for Alltel's network, which while we don't see any proof from the image, we could totally buy that. Of course, none of these pics give a release date of any sort, so hang tight while we all anxiously wait in unison.

[Via wmpoweruser]

Another Palm Pre in the wild, this time with video

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 21st 2009 at 9:39PM

Because most Pres caught outside Palm's near-clinical demo environments have been doing next to nothing so far, even the faintest hint of actual user interaction on video or in pictures is still interesting at this point. On that note, we present a mister "Doc31" from PreCentral's forums, whose fame, fortune, clout, or pure happenstance appears to have landed him some hands-on time with the most buzzworthy device of the moment. On video, the dude's managed to capture a fleeting moment with the Palm Profile screen new users see, where you'll enter all the requisite information necessary to get the phone syncing with the cloud. Even better, there's not a hint of Mr. Blurrycam in any of the accompanying photos, which is always a win in our book. You know what would be an even bigger win, though? Our own Pre. Follow the break for video!

[Via PreCentral]

Continue reading Another Palm Pre in the wild, this time with video

Palm Pre casually boots from the cold comfort of a blue Corian countertop

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 21st 2009 at 4:30AM

If we were a Palm employee and someone caught us using a Pre in public right about now -- being the bumbling, unsuave fools that we are -- we imagine the conversation would go something like this:

"Excuse me, sir, is that a Palm Pre?"

"What, this? No, it's a RAZR."

"Why does it look like a Pre then? And why does the screen say Palm on it?"

"Ah, uh, [unintelligible] emulator... it's in the App Store. I, uh..."

"You can use the App Store with a RAZR?"

"Yes. Gotta... I'm late for... good talking to you!"

And with that, we'd hurriedly stuff our crap into our Jack Spade (nervously dropping the Pre three times in the process), knock over our triple tall latte, apologize to no one in particular, and run-walk aimlessly away.