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Hands-on with SWTOR's Jedi Knight on Tython
Last month, Massively was invited to LucasArts for a whole day's experience with BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. One of the perks of living on the West Coast is that I get to attend all these awesome in-depth Silicon Valley events and really expand on Massively's sessions at various conventions! For all my enthusiasm, I have to admit I approached this hands-on with no small amount of trepidation. I'm a huge Star Wars fan (I still play Star Wars Galaxies!), but I fell out of "expert" range on the saga a decade ago. Like many of you readers, I've been wary of the hype and even warier of delusions of grandeur on the part of game companies trying to do justice to the IP. I was really afraid that it wouldn't be as good as I'd hoped and that I'd walk away disappointed. And given the parts I saw, SWTOR's not as good as I'd hoped. It's better. %Gallery-108535%
LG GW990 hands-on video
You'll know this device as the 4.8-inch revolutionary intent on making us fall madly in love with MIDs all over again (or should that be for the first time?). Good thing then that we now know it as the device that bears a thousand Engadget fingerprints. The Moorestown-powered GW990 from LG has finally become official and we have to say it is exactly the huge slab you might imagine it to be. In terms of specs, it comes with 16GB of built-in flash memory and 512MB of RAM, with 720p video output possible should the 1020 x 480 screen resolution not be enough for you. Chunky, sturdy and curved in all the right places, it's an appealing device even if it suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Powered by Moblin and primarily marketed as a 3G device, we were told by LG that -- behind the 1,850mAh battery and alongside the MicroSD expansion slot -- your SIM can make a home, and some such AT&T appendages have already been spotted inside this... smartphone? The UI at present is just a standard S-class layered on top of Moblin, giving us no cause for excitement, but we were reassured that LG will be offering many other OS options when the device shows up in the second half of this year. Anyhow, enough blabbering from us, check out the gallery below and don't forget the vid after the break. %Gallery-82086%
Toshiba NB205 hands-on, looking rather sweet
Laptop's just put up its hands-on of Toshiba's latest 10.1-inch netbook, the NB205. They're giving it pretty high marks as far as design goes, calling the keyboard and trackpad "stellar," and the battery "promising." It boasts an LED-backlit LCD which they're pretty fond of, and we have to say we're really liking the metal look ourselves. The NB205 will come in two configurations, with the higher-end boasting an Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB of RAM and an 160GB hard drive with Windows XP Home. The lower end model can be had for $349 (it's got a plastic, non-island style keyboard), while the metal, higher end model will will run $399 (the former will come in pink, white, blue and brown, while the latter will be available in black only). There is one more shot after the break; hit the read link for video of it in action.
Hands-on with Dell's Latitude XT2 tablet
Official word just arrived this morning of Dell's Latitude XT sucessor, the Latitude XT2, and Laptop Magazine's already spent some quality time with the tablet. They note the XT2's aesthetic similarity to the previous model, but point out a few standout upgrades, most notably the 12.1-inch LED backlit capacitive touch-screen, which they say is significantly brighter than the last iteration, and the up to 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ULV SU9400 CPU (with a Montevina chipset). They also point out that the finger navigations are "smooth as butter" -- but hit the read link for full details and video of the tablet in action. The Latitude XT2 is going to have a starting price of $2,399.
Motorola Capri, a.k.a. the RAZR slider, previewed
The guys over at PhoneScoop have sure made the site live up to its name today: not only did they get some serious hands-on time with Motorola's upcoming RAZR slider -- codenamed Capri -- they also got to preview the next version of Moto's much-maligned Synergy UI that will show up in such models as the Canary and the SCPL. At least on paper, the Capri seems to offer a very compelling feature set that will probably attract anyone into the RAZR lifestyle- you're getting a model only slightly thicker and heavier than its clamshell counterpart, but which sports a 2.0 megapixel camera, A2DP-capable Bluetooth, and what sounds like a greatly improved user interface. Especially noteworthy in the overhauled Synergy is an address book that seems to work much more intuitively than past iterations (remember the one on the StarTAC?), allowing you to organize entries by name and search for contacts using multiple letters. Although Phone Scoop was only testing a pre-production model, they have identified some potential problems to watch out for on the final version, such as the unusually crappy quality of what should be a decent camera, and most importantly, a spring-assisted slider that's difficult to activate due to the raised antenna bulge so familiar to RAZR owners. Click on if you want to peep a few more snaps, but you're really doing yourself a disservice if you don't head over to PhoneScoop for the full gallery and a very thorough write-up...
