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You'll need a leather jacket for this retro e-bike
If you're worried that the future will make us lose our sense of style, you should check out what the e-bike industry has been up to. In order to accommodate the electric motors and batteries, designers have thrown off the shackles of minimalist design to make retro-styled vehicles that ooze '50s B-movie chic. Vintage Electric's new Cruz is one such offering, boasting a 1900's motorcycle design and a top speed of 36 miles per hour.
Velocity Micro unveils tiny Edge Mini desktop, Cruz D610 and Q610 tablets
Velocity Micro was busy this December, and it's not about to let up with CES right around the corner. At the forefront of its Las Vegas launches is the Edge Mini. While we're sure some companies might take issue with the PC builder's claims of having the world's smallest desktop, there's no denying that the extra-small Edge's 4 square inches of surface area and 1.5-inch thickness let it slot easily into a home theater. A Core i3 won't make the Edge Mini the most powerful tiny desktop, either, although its $499 asking price may not be an obstacle for those willing to buy the PC when it ships next week. The tablet crowd also gets its fill with a pair of 10-inch Cruz tablets (pictured after the break). The D610 and Q610 respectively use dual- and quad-core, 1.5GHz Allwinner processors that help keep the starting price down to $199, a company spokesperson tells us. Velocity Micro expects both Cruz models to ship toward the end of March with Android 4.1 inside. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Velocity Micro Cruz T408 review
It's no secret that the market for Android tablets is crowded – and getting more so every day. Just ask Samsung, Acer, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo, Pandigital and, oh yes, Verticool. We could keep going, but you get the point: it's a big market out there, one with wildly varying prices and features. And just recently a little company called Amazon made its move in a big way with the Kindle Fire, an Android-powered $199 portal to its corner of the cloud. The world's largest online retailer clearly thinks competing on price is a way to stand out from the pack. Velocity Micro, maker of the 8-inch Cruz T408, wholeheartedly agrees. It's coming to market with a $199 slate, hoping to capture some attention of its own. Can it succeed? Read on to find out. %Gallery-135786%
Velocity Micro Cruz T410 Gingerbread tablet will run you a penny under $300
Looks like the T408 has company. Velocity Micro today announced the Cruz T410, the bigger brother to the recently unveiled eight-inch T408. The 10-inch tablet rocks similar specs as its smaller sibling, including a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, Android 2.3, a front-facing camera, WiFi, and pre-loaded Amazon content. The budget Android tablet will be available this month, running $299.99 -- $60 more than the T408, but still fairly affordable in the tablet world. Press release is after the break.
Velocity Micro intros Cruz Tablet L37, P38 and L510 Android tablets at CES
Whatever eLocity can do... Velocity Micro can do better? Maybe! The aforesaid company has just revealed a trio of new tablets: the 7-inch Cruz Tablet L37, the 8-inch Cruz Tablet P38 and the 10.1-inch Cruz Tablet L510. From smallest to largest, the L37 is equipped with a 1024 x 600 capacitive touchpanel, 802.11n WiFi, 4GB of internal memory, front / rear-facing cameras, optional 3G, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and a micro-HDMI out port. The P38 is effectively the same, but it relies on a 1024 x 768 resolution display. The L510, as the resident Big Boy in the bunch, gets equipped with a 1366 x 768 resolution display, NVIDIA's Tegra 250 chipset and a 1GHz dual-core CPU. The whole lot is expected to ship with Amazon's Kindle app pre-installed, and Android 2.2 or 2.3 will be running the show. There's no mention of exactly when these guys will be out and about, nor how much each will cost, but you can catch the full release just past the break.
Velocity Micro's 7-inch Cruz T301 Android 2.0 tablet surfaces on Amazon, shipping now for $250
It's like a Cruz Tablet, but with a T301 thrown into the mix. All jesting aside, we'd wager that the vast majority of simpletons wouldn't spot the differences between the existing Cruz Tablet and the T301 at a glance, and honestly, we wish Velocity Micro would've done a little work to remedy that. For whatever reason, the 7-inch slate is shipping with Android 2.0, and while the 800 x 600 capacitive touchpanel sounds lovely indeed, it's hard to get riled up for such a stale operating system. For those unconcerned with the luxuries present in Eclair and Froyo, there's an 802.11n WiFi radio, built-in Kindle app and a user replaceable Li-Ion battery that could last up to ten hours on a good day... or so the company says. Without question, the highlight here is the price -- at just $249.99, it's definitely creeping down into LCD e-reader territory, with a lot of bells and whistles to boot. She's shipping today if you're so inclined.
Velocity Micro's 7-inch Cruz Tablet now shipping for $300
Not kosher with ponying up $500+ for an Android tablet? You've got options, kid. Velocity Micro's Cruz Tablet has finally hit the shipping stage, and sure enough, it's doing so in the month that was promised back in September. $299.99 lands you a 7-inch Android 2.0 tablet with an 800 x 480 capacitive touch panel, 512MB of RAM, 12GB of total storage, 802.11n WiFi, inbuilt speakers, a headphone jack, mini-USB port and a rechargeable Li-ion good for around ten hours of use -- or so they say. Of course, you'll be stuck accessing the Cruz Market rather than the bona fide Android Market, and you can forget about embedded 3G. But hey, it's three Benjamins sans any sort of life-altering contract. And that's got to count for something, right? [Thanks, Anonymous] %Gallery-107893%
Velocity Micro Cruz Reader hits stores, Cruz Tablet hitting in October along with more in January
Like everyone else, Velocity Micro's about to cannonball into the tablet pool with the hope of making a big splash. Its first product, the $199 Cruz Reader is already boxed up and arriving on store shelves this week. The seven-inch tablet / e-reader runs Android 2.0 and comes preloaded with Borders' e-book application. We got a chance to check out the device this morning, and while we're impressed with the solid build and rubbery back, it's fairly heavy at a pound and the glossy screen results in less-than-excellent viewing angles. Still, it shows a lot more promise than the Pandigital Novel and Augen GenTouch 78 -- we'll never like resistive screens on this sort of device, but we were able to turn pages by tapping as well as scroll relatively well by dragging a nail down the screen. There's no access to the Android Market, but Velocity has its own Cruz Market and preloads some apps like Twidroid. But the tablet buck doesn't stop there for Velocity Micro. The Cruz Tablet that we've been hearing about since April will hit a "major electronics retailer" in October for $299. The Tablet we saw today wasn't working, but we nabbed some shots of the hardware below. This one will have a capacitive screen; however, the company isn't planning on rolling it out with Android 2.0 -- it feels the 600MHz processor isn't quite powerful enough to handle that Froyo and Flash goodness. Not to worry: its future eight- and 10-inch capacitive tablets, which will be announced at CES, are going to be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU and run Android 3.0. Told you it's aiming for a big splash! Hit the break for a short hands-on video of the Cruz Reader and stay tuned for a full review of that one soon. %Gallery-102016%
Velocity Micro Cruz Reader and Tablet up for pre-order at Borders
We don't need to explain in any great detail just how badly the world needs another e-reader and tablet option, but you're wasting your time wishing for fewer selections. Case in point: Velocity Micro has just placed its Cruz Reader and Cruz Tablet up for pre-order at Borders, with both units boasting 7-inch displays and seductive price points. The Reader is going for $199.99 and should ship out by the end of next month, while the Tablet is $100 more and could be at your doorstep a fortnight before Halloween. Hit the source link if you're in desperate need of a specifications reminder, but be sure and hide that credit card if you're looking to avoid any and all impulse buys. Press release after the break. [Thanks, Charles]
Velocity Micro shows off $199 Cruz Reader
We haven't heard much about Velocity Micro's Android-based Cruz Reader since it sort of came out of nowhere back in April, but it's now finally nearing a release (sometime in August), and the company is starting to show it off a bit more. As expected, the Cruz Reader is just one of a series of tablets from the company and, despite the "reader" moniker, is actually more of a full-fledged Android tablet, complete with support for apps, games, web browsing, and other tablet-like activities. Velocity Micro is playing up the reader angle though, and has announced a partnership with Borders and Kobo to deliver ebooks to the device. Somewhat confusingly, however, it will be joined later in August by the $299 Cruz Tablet, which opts for a 16:9 capacitive display, adds 4GB of internal storage and an 8GB SD card, and Flash support, which the Reader apparently doesn't have (we're not quite sure what that means OS-wise). Rounding out the initial group is the kid-friendly Cruz StoryPad, which boasts a spill-resistant case and will run $149. Head on past the break for a look at the Cruz Reader on video, and the complete press release.
