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Sony Alpha A55 and A33 hands-on
You didn't expect us to let something as delicious as Sony's all-new Translucent Mirror Technology slide by without us playing with it, did you? The freshly announced and priced A55 and A33 Alpha DSLRs slipped out in Taipei this morning, where our crack Engadget Chinese reporters were at the ready with their own picture-taking equipment. Early feedback describes the electronic viewfinder on these shooters as beautiful and very bright, though some rainbow-effect artifacting starts to become apparent if you shift your viewpoint. The bodies of the two new cameras appeared identical in the hand, with the big differences contained within, such as the A55's faster 10fps burst mode. The A33 is still no slouch at 7fps, though, and video of it chewing through pictures at that rate can be seen after the break. We've also got a sample from the camera itself showing off that fast continuous autofocus. All in all, our Chinese brethren found themselves mildly disappointed that Sony didn't go for a radical physical redesign given the internal rearrangements, but the performance and feature sets were nothing to complain about.%Gallery-100249%
Terror in Taipei: Computex taxi drivers watch live TV, video chat while cruising
It's a Christmas miracle that Joanna and I survived the week in Taipei. Not because our brains nearly exploded from the wealth of non-functioning Windows 7 tablets we saw, but because most of our cab drivers found themselves -- um, preoccupied -- while on the job. Over here, deep within a WiMAX hotspot, it's not uncommon to see cabbies video chatting and watching live local TV over-the-air while driving, and since you'd never believe me sans pics, I've got a handful of those as proof. Call it culture shock, or call it reckless -- we're calling it "America needs to get with the program and catch up to Asia."%Gallery-94369%
Engadget dines at Taipei's Windows 7-themed restaurant (video)
Taiwan may be a comparatively small place, but it's well known for a few things: incredible eats, incredible technology, and the best Little League World Series teams this planet has ever seen. We're experiencing the best of those first two this week at Computex, and since we were all the way over on the other side of the planet, we couldn't help but stop by the Windows 7-themed eatery that opened up for just a couple of months surrounding the nation's only hosted consumer electronics show of this magnitude. The place, as we were told by the one and only Andy Yang from Engadget Chinese, is Taiwanese through and though. It typically goes by 100 Seafood, but for a couple of months it has been transformed into a 64-bit dining location with Windows 7 wallpaper, stickers, banners, and even mugs. Each day there's a special menu item that sells for just NT$77 (around $2.38 in the US), but considering that said special was some form of intestines on the evening that we showed up, Engadget and company sprung for dishes with a bit less relation to the digestive system. In all seriousness, the grub hit the spot after a long day on the trade show floor, and the take-home mugs for us media folk made the journey even more worthwhile. Now, to see if the lid closes over if we don't activate the thing in 30 days... Take a trip to this magical place yourself in the galleries below, or do one even better and jump past the break for a video! %Gallery-94338% %Gallery-94337%
Engadget is live from Computex 2010!
Nǐ hǎo! Okay, that's about all the Chinese we have learned here in Taipei during the past 12 hours, but we promise you we're going to be much more adept at tracking down the latest tablets, laptops, and other computing goodies coming out of Computex 2010 (or what we have taken to calling Tabletex 2010). It all officially kicks off tomorrow morning with ASUS, MSI, ARM and NVIDIA press conferences, so you can expect some exciting liveblogs and then a serious amount of hands-on posts coming your way. Until then we'll be mentally and physically preparing by stocking up on gadgets at the Guang Hwa computer mall and eating some incredibly tasty noodle dishes! P.S. - Keep an eye on our constant Computex coverage right here.
Taipei gets 1,000-strong fleet of WiMAX-equipped taxis
Looking for something else to be envious of now that in-flight WiFi is starting to be more readily available? Then look no farther than Taipei, which has just announced the roll-out of a 1,000-strong fleet of WiMAX-equipped taxis. Alright, so a short cab ride might not send you into the same sort of internet withdrawal that a five hour flight does, but we're not ones to turn down mobile broadband when it crops up in places normally reserved for a bit of down-time or "conversation." Best of all, the in-taxi WiMAX will apparently be free during the initial stage, although VMAX Telcom hasn't yet decided if it will charge a fee in the future. No word on any expansion plans beyond the initial 1,000 cabs just yet either, but the service will apparently be limited to the greater Taipei area -- at least until VMAX's WiMAX coverage expands to other parts of Taiwan. [Thanks, Tim] Update: Our pals at Engadget Chinese have informed us that in-taxi WiMAX will unfortunately only be used provide internet access to small touchscreen devices installed in the cabs, not to your laptop.
Intel is clandestinely selling Core i5 and new i7 chips in Taiwan (video)
Well, clandestinely is perhaps too strong -- and long -- a word for it, but the fact is that Intel's thoroughly roadmapped and unnecessarily delayed desktop refresh has already happened for folks in Taiwan. Our buddies at TweakTown even went to the trouble of putting together a video of Taipei's computer market, which didn't seem to suffer any shortages of Lynnfield parts. In US currency, the prices above are $204 for the Core i5-750, $296 for the i7-860 and $593 for the i7-870, which at least confirm earlier indications on the matter, but come on Intel, if you're not going to announce these things, at least start selling them on the sly over here too.
Sony inks deal with Taiwanese dev consortium
Sony has made big strides in developer relations in Taiwan, as the Taipei Times reports the manufacturer has signed a new deal with Taiwanese developers in an effort to help boost the PS3's and PSP's presence in the region. It's been down due to consumers flocking to the cheaper Wii and, consequently, causing the development manpower to follow. Through this new deal with Sony Computer Entertainment Asia, six different independent developers will work on PlayStation products. The Taipei Times implies that digital content on the PS3 and PSP Go is likely to result. In addition, the deal will see the Taiwanese government subsidizing development costs by 40%, hopefully making Taiwan a much more attractive place to make games.
Taiwan casts robots in Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber seen kicking himself repeatedly
The University of Science and Technology in Taiwan's announced that they're putting on a very special performance of The Phantom of the Opera on December 27th, in which the two leads will be played by robots. The lead bots (named Thomas and Janet) can both walk, and have silicon facial "muscles" that help them mimic human expressions and mouth movements. There will be two additional robotic thespians, Ringo, a jazz drummer, and Pica, a painter, that move on wheels. The Center for Intelligent Robots at the University says that while they've developed the robots for entertainment purposes, they plan to move toward applying them in service fields. As if upstaging Sarah Brightman with a robot isn't service enough already.[Thanks, Tim]
2nd Qualifying round of the official 3v3 Arena Tournament ends
In the midst of the hubbub over the Worldwide Invitational 3v3 Arena tournament and the MLG PC Circuit tournaments in San Diego and Orlando, the official 3v3 Arena Tournament seems to have fallen by the wayside -- At the least, people don't seem to remember it much. It looks like it's looking to burst back onto the scene in a big way, though, as Blizzard announced the end of the 2nd qualifying round of the tournament today. The next round will see the winning teams from the 1st and 2nd qualifying rounds facing off in live matches in Boston, Madrid, Seoul, and Taipei in the coming months. The list of first round winners has some familiar faces in it already. MLG San Diego winners Frag Dominant will be competing in the Boston event, WWI winner Council of Mages will be competing in Seoul, and WWI runner up Improved Clicks will be headed to Madrid. There's no word yet on which teams won the 2nd round, or when the next round's matches will take place, or whether we'll get live streaming from the events. We'll be sure to let you know all the details right here as soon as they're available though.
PTS begins HD broadcasting trial in Taiwan
Just months after BBC HD headed to Taiwan on Chunghwa Telecom and Vastar Cable began HD IPTV trails in the same region, in comes word that local public broadcaster PTS has fired up its first OTA HDTV trial. Currently, the signals are only covering the metropolitan areas of Taipei and Kaohsiung, but if all goes well, we could see it spread to other regions in the near future. Reportedly, the Taiwanese government has provided PTS with an $88 million subsidy in order to "establish a nationwide HDTV broadcast network in three phases," and from what we can gather, the HiHD channel will enable residents to watch the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in high-definition later this summer. 'Grats, Taiwan![Via DigiTimes]
HTC opens 'HTC Care' customer service center in Taiwan
While AT&T went and hired an extra 2,000 or so customer care representatives in preparation for the iPhone launch and Sprint gave its CSRs a rest by nixing some 1,200 customers, HTC is hoping that a new support facility in Taipei will boost awareness and trust in the brand. Reportedly, the center will provide customers in Taiwan with a comprehensive range of services including "personalized consultations on new and existing HTC products, warranty repairs, and other valuable after-sales support." Notably, the HTC Care facility promises "speedy turn-around times" for all items sent in for repair, and unlike Apple's $29 rental fee, HTC customers can look forward to a free loaner should their handset fall ill. Click on through for more snapshots of the sparklin' facility.
Taipei also to go WiFi-phone with Taipei Easy Call
It would seem you can't keep a good use for a good municipal WiFi project down. Not long after news broke about Anaheim taking telephony to the 2.4GHz airwaves by way of EarthLink's newly deployed WiFi network, more news broke that ten companies are standing behind a new Taiwanese initiative called Taipei Easy Call. From some accounts it sounds suspiciously like a UMA rollout, but apparently the Taipei city government plans to use WiFi VoIP calling service to replace more expensive fixed-line service at hundreds of schools, and city offices by as early as the end of August -- while rolling out for general consumer use as well, of course. We assuming they're gonna be using Taiwan's big WiFi rollout to handle the Wifi haul; Taipei hopes to have as many as 200,000 citizens sign up for service with Taipei Easy Call, which we don't think is at all unrealistic should software be developed for WiFi-enabled handsets, and assuming the local cellphone carriers don't throw and severe hissy fits.[Via GigaOM]
Engadget Chinese does Computex
You didn't really think that just because the Computex trade show is going on halfway around the world, we wouldn't send a crack team of reporters to cover the event, did you? While our US staff neglected to renew their passports in time for their flights, the folks over at Engadget Chinese (traditional or simplified, your choice) were just a hop, skip, and jump away from Taipei, Taiwan, so they've graciously stepped up to the plate and provided the coverage necessary to make us feel that we're right in the thick of it. They've already posted a number of booth tours of your favorite companies, like Intel (who've apparently rented out an absolutely mind-boggling swath of hall), Sandisk, Toshiba, and, um, A Data, with the latter company's tour proving that our Asian colleagues have the same unhealthy obsession with cartoon-inspired gadgets as we do. Don't worry, we'll keep you apprised of the highlights from this year's show, but for the full in-your-face Computex experience, chinese.engadget.com is the place to be.Read - IntelRead - SandiskRead - ToshibaRead - A Data
Sony to strut PS3 at the other TGS?
Sony is devoting one quarter of its booth space at the Taipei Game Show (the other TGS) to the PlayStation 3, according to the Chinese-language Commercial Times. It is not clear if Sony intends on displaying the unit behind glass, with nothing playable and no demos, similar to the console's appearance at CES. Considering the torrent of info unleashed from magazine scans lately, it sounds like Sony may be ready to give us more than a little peak. Heck, one quarter of their booth sounds like Sony is gonna be a little frisky.[Thanks, mike]
