Archive for May 13th, 2009

We’ve had our eyes on MSI’s answer to the MacBook Air (yeah, we said it!) for a while now — and that includes a shady, late night hands-on photo session live from the Neville Island Motel and a horrifying back-alley vivisection, to boot. Now it looks like the crazy kids at Laptop are dead set on having their say on the X340 13.4-inch ultra-portable — and why not? The more the merrier! According to the reviewer, what this character lacks in processing power, it more than makes up for in price, weight, and battery life — at 2.9 pounds the device is certainly lighter than the Air, and its over three hours on a single charge are none too shabby. Even the 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo processor (coupled here with 2GB memory and running Windows Vista) is characterized as “snappy.” Sadly, the keyboard is said to be flimsy and graphic performance pretty weak — but still, at $899 (price as reviewed) this is sure to be right up some of your proverbial alleys. Interested? Hit that read link for all the gory details.

Filed under: Laptops

MSI X-Slim X340 gets reviewed, loved on – despite the ‘flexy’ keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s been a lot of chatter on both blogs and forums as of late stating that those “real reviewer” units Palm was promising to prospective owners — essentially “everyman critics” — would be sent out some time this week. In fact, some folks have even been spouting off that they’ve received their devices (see the magic above, and one of the source photos which has been cropped and blurred after the break). Well here’s the deal: those units aren’t going out to “real reviewers” before they get into the hands of fake reviewers… namely, the press. In the words of a source at Palm:

We clearly said “we’ll provide you with a current-model phone and data-plan service for six months” and Pre only once it is available, we never said they would get early Pre units.

So, that’s something to consider before you jump the gun on the next Twitpic blast from Joe the Reviewer (though in this particular forum poster’s defense, he did recant). Still, the whole tone leading up to the Pre launch is starting to feel a bit chaotic — we know Palm has to pull the trigger soon, and we’ve heard lots of totally believable rumors, but it is beginning to feel like anything might happen. The basic question we’re turning over in our minds right now is this: does Palm know how to do this right?

Continue reading Palm Pre “real reviewer” units going out? Not so fast.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre “real reviewer” units going out? Not so fast. originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The dreamy, high gloss Crimson Red option for Dell’s XPS 16 — which appeared just a few short days ago to shock and beguile us — has seemingly disappeared into thin air already, leaving us to wonder… was it all just a dream? Will it return once again? Please let this be some sort of cruel, unfortunate mistake.

Filed under: Laptops

Dell seemingly cans sassy Crimson Red XPS 16 option originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s an interesting debate that I’ve had recently. Should product designers aim for the enthusiast or “edge” cases when designing products, or should they instead target mainstream users from day one? It’s an interesting discussion, but I believe that those that say “aim for the edge” and the enthusiast aren’t correct, at least in the long run.

Now if you’re reading this, chances are you’re a bit of an edge case — or at the very least a gadget enthusiast. That’s cool, I’m one as well. In fact, over the last few years I’ve coined three rules that I’ve come to refer to as Gartenberg’s Three Laws of Consumer Electronics. For those of you not familiar with them, they are:

1. There’s a world wide market of 50,000 for any device sold to enthusiasts and early adopters.
2. If Gartenberg sees a product at a demo and doesn’t offer his credit card for purchase immediately, the product is doomed.
3. Even if Gartenberg does offer his credit card, the product may well still be doomed — as Gartenberg is part of the 50,000 enthusiasts that will buy (almost) anything.

(If you’re in the NY area, come on over some time and I’ll show you my collection)

Continue reading Entelligence: Close to the edge

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Entelligence: Close to the edge originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On the surface, the new SCH-W760 looks like a totally typical midrange Korean domestic market slider: 3 megapixel camera, DMB reception, Bluetooth, and a semi-notable 2.8-inch AMOLED display. You know, the usual. A closer look reveals one very interesting feature, though — it features a front cam sensitive to infrared spectrum so that you can hold grayscale video calls in complete darkness. Beyond scaring the poo out of friends with your spooky, grainy, low-res visage and holding the occasional video conference from the confines of an unlit closet, we have absolutely no idea what practical value this offers — but look, ridiculous features are what exotic new handsets are all about. Well played, Samsung. The W760 hasn’t yet been officially announced, though it’ll apparently be coming to SKT, so keep an eye peeled (and bring a flashlight).

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung’s SCH-W760 features night vision cam for Blair Witch-style video calls originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors of some sort of Sony announcement at E3 have been floating around for a couple weeks now, and it certainly seems like something’s afoot — hot on the heels of that officially non-existent white US DualShock 3 appearing this morning, we’re hearing that a revised PS3 is in the works. It’s not clear exactly what’s going down, but the hot whispers right now say that it’s the long-rumored slimmed-down redesign of the current console, not just a color change or storage bump. That makes a certain amount of sense, given the endless chatter of a price cut and Sir Howard Stringer’s recent comments about the system being too expensive — a trimmed-up redesign is right on schedule with those smaller Cell and RSX chips, and it could still possibly include some of that rumored motion-sensing hardware while driving down costs. On the other hand, after all this speculation and hype it would be a total Sony move to just pump out the same machine in a different color with maybe a new pack-in game, so we’re not holding our breath. Let’s say we’re, oh, “cautiously optimistic.” That work for you?

Update: Sony UK is currently denying the rumor with a curt “We currently don’t have any plans for a redesigned PS3 at this time.” Okay — but what else would you expect them to say?

[Via I4U News; image courtesy of T3]

Filed under: Gaming

Slimmer PS3 in store at E3? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/nintendo/Retro_Mini_Handheld_plays_NES_cartridges’; We’ve seen scads of portable NES mods in the past but still: this is probably relevant to your interests. ThinkGeek’s got a new portable gaming system on offer, the Retro Mini Handheld. It plays all those 8-bit cartridges you’ve had stacked in your room next to your hi-fi since the olden days, and it’s got a pretty attractive look. Sure, the cartridge is essentially bigger than the handheld itself, but that’s part of its charm as far as we can tell. It’s got a 2.4-inch LCD and takes four AA batteries for about 8 hours of game time, and it’s available now for $49.99. There’s one more shot after the break.

[Thanks, Adam]

Continue reading Retro Mini Handheld plays NES cartridges, brings tears of nostalgia to our eyes

Filed under: Gaming

Retro Mini Handheld plays NES cartridges, brings tears of nostalgia to our eyes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pioneer’s decision to axe the Kuro earlier this year set off a wave of gloomy predictions about the future of plasma, but we’ve never really bought into it — and it sounds like the product planners at LG, Samsung, and Panasonic haven’t either. HD Guru asked reps from each company for their thoughts on the state of the plasma market, and the responses were pretty similar across the board: plasma remains the connoisseur’s choice overall, and it still makes up just about half of 50-inch and bigger sales. Of course, that means that plasma’s niche is shrinking and moving higher-end while LCDs more or less take over the rest of HDTV market, but until something like OLED develops into a true competitor we think plasma’s around for a while. Check out the full company responses at the read link.

Filed under: HDTV

Plasma market getting smaller and higher-end, but it’s still alive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 14:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No, we still have no details on any upcoming releases of UMID’s M1, but it seems that a slightly stripped down version — the M1D — is about to appear in Korea. This Mbook boasts a 1.1GHz Atom CPU (the M1 has a 1.3GHz Atom), and lacks both the webcam and the DMB module. Other than that, we’re looking at the same cute little guy we’ve come to know and love. The M1D is launching in Korea next week — but still no word on if or when it’ll ever make its way to the States or elsewhere, or its official price. There’s one more shot after the break.

[Via Pocketables]

Continue reading UMID M1D making its way to Korea any day now

Filed under: Handhelds

UMID M1D making its way to Korea any day now originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 13:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back when we were your age, we had to buy our iPhone 3Gs partway online, then we’d trudge across 17 miles of frozen tundra to the Apple Store to complete the sale — and that’s the way we liked it. Now, you whippersnappers have the option of letting Apple ship the thing straight to your door, you lazy, good-for-nothing bums. Of course, you could do this directly through AT&T for a hot minute now, but if your eyes are particularly sensitive to shades of orange, maybe this’ll be a more pleasant experience for you.

[Thanks, iphonequeen]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Apple Store now taking iPhone 3G orders online originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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