Archive for August 24th, 2009

As sure as the sun, Mobile-review’s Eldar Murtazin managed to nab a very early look at the still yet-to-be-announced Nokia N97 Mini, and as if we needed another reminder, the FCC filing wasn’t kidding with that 1:1 scale. Turns out it only takes “around a centimeter” difference to earn the “mini” nomenclature in Finland, and in addition to that peculiarity, the company’s apparently managed to make the keyboard actually worse than its predecessor — no small feat, if you ask us. Of course, we haven’t had a chance to try it ourselves yet, but the prognosis so far isn’t so good. Perhaps more interesting is good ole’ Eldar’s teasing about a number of other touchscreen Nokia devices, some without keyboards, that’d target the same segment as the N97 Mini, including one he’ll be revealing and previewing tomorrow — and no matter what it is, we can all but guarantee with supreme confidence that it’ll have a more compelling raison d’être than this thing.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 Mini previewed: not so mini, not so great originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We trust you’re reading this on your R2-D2 case mod PC with matching Star Wars-themed Skype webcam, all of which you acquired using your awesome mind control powers (learned with the assistance of your Force Trainer). And as all this goes down, you are undoubtedly surrounded by a full compliment of Star Wars Mimobot flash drives. But wait! What if we told you the company has extended the line, now offering C-3PO, Wicket, and an all new Darth Vader (complete with creepy old Anakin Skywalker face when the helmet’s removed)? These guys are $39.95 each and come complete with audio clips, wallpaper, a keychain attachment, and more. HIt that read link to see for yourself. What more could you possibly ask for? Wedge Antilles?

Filed under: Storage

Mimoco is back with more Star Wars thumb drives originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who said Microsoft’s mobile strategy has to be limited to Windows Mobile? Redmond has just announced OneApp, a comprehensive framework for delivering apps on a variety of featurephones — largely in emerging markets — where processor horsepower and memory are both at a premium. The solution is deployed in harmony with partners (carriers, primarily) that work to offload app processing and storage into the cloud and keep the on-phone footprint as small as possible (Microsoft is quoting a scant 150K for the OneApp executable itself). At present, OneApp is up and running on South Africa’s Blue Label Telecoms where subscribers have access to Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, and RSS apps among others; more launches are planned around the world “within the next year” at which point an SDK will be made available to devs who want in. Behind the scenes, the app is based on web standards — think Palm’s webOS — and is currently compatible with a variety of S60-based Nokias, Sony Ericsson featurephones, and Samsung’s U900 Soul. And no, don’t worry, this isn’t Windows Mobile 7.

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft delivers OneApp app framework for featurephones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Engadget’s resident former attorney, my first instinct when I sat down to re-read Apple, AT&T’s and Google’s FCC filings regarding Google Voice was to put on my lawyer hat and try to find inconsistencies that might shed some additional light on what had actually happened — if Apple’s account differed from AT&T’s, for example, perhaps those subtle differences would reveal the actual truth. This proved to be much more difficult than I had imagined, however: not only had Google redacted the most interesting part of its statement, I came to a profound realization after just a few moments of work.

I don’t care.

Each of the responses was long, dense, and polished to a high-gloss shine that made each company’s actions seem not only rational and justified, but almost inevitable in a way — as I wrote at the time, Apple isn’t exaggerating when it says that these are entirely new problems, and simply reading the individual letters paints a fairly sympathetic picture of how this whole chaotic process ended up in such disarray. But that’s a perspective that assumes deeply-rooted interest in the systems and procedure of the App Store, a perspective that assumes there’s a good reason we should be looking to lawyers and government regulators to figure out what’s going on with the most exciting and vital software market that we’ve seen in a long time.

Continue reading Editorial: Apple, the FCC, and the sideloading solution

Editorial: Apple, the FCC, and the sideloading solution originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Normally, we’d take a look at something like this and say, “yeah, could be real, could be fake.” Goodness knows there are enough mega-talented graphic designers in the world with the free time to craft this. Here’s the thing, though: this phone / MID hybrid — the latest in Nokia’s Internet Tablet series — has already been outed enough times so that we know this has to be a genuine press shot. If we had to guess, Espoo fashioned it in preparation for its Nokia World event in Germany early next month where the N900 will presumably be announced into officialdom; there’s no sign on when or how the T-Mobile USA version will be unveiled, but we’re getting pretty amped for it.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia N900 puts on makeup, does hair for leaked press shot originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Zune HD box contents spotted at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know, if you’re trying to get our attention, there are worse ways to go about it than by releasing photos of a mystery gadget proudly displaying our homepage. And though there is no credible word yet on the origin of all these Android MID pics that keep making the rounds, there has been much speculation. As SlashGear points out, the device has more than a passing resemblance to the Wallet, which France’s eviGroup has been threatening to lay on the world since back in May (a 5-inch touchscreen device touted as “halfway between a cellphone and a TabletPC”). And if that isn’t enough, someone named focus3G has been furiously posting new pics of the thing on his Twitpic account for two weeks now — we’ve contacted him for an explanation to no avail (not yet, at least). But what do you think? Hit the gallery below, and let the speculation begin.

Gallery: Mysterious Android MID poses for yet more pics, reads Engadget

Read – Wallet MID gets closer to release, US launch possible
Read – Even more photos of unknown Android MID appear

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Mysterious Android MID poses for yet more pics, reads Engadget originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Simon — the creation of Georgia Tech labs and Dr. Andrea Thomaz — is a robot with an articulated torso and anthropomorphic hands — and a head that will stop you in your tracks. This handsome little fellow was designed to help study human – robot interactions, and he will be learning different social skills over the coming weeks and months. We don’t have many details as to what Simon spends his time doing, other than hanging out looking insanely cute, but check the video of him in action after the break — and by “in action,” we definitely mean putting a blue block into a little blue bucket super, super slowly.

Continue reading Simon the robot wins award, is super cute, seems pretty boring to hang out with

Filed under: Robots

Simon the robot wins award, is super cute, seems pretty boring to hang out with originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you want a little more desktop real estate, eh? You could replace your existing screen with a bigger, higher resolution one, but sometimes a bigger monitor can just be, well, a little too big. You could always go with a secondary or tertiary monitor, but sometimes your desk is just too small. In that case a little USB auxiliary monitor is just right, and MIMO’s latest, the 710-S and 720-S, are slimmer, sexier, and far more portable than ever. We thought that would make them perfect for anyone with a Goldilocks complex and slinky laptop, but the truth is, sadly, a little more complicated.

Continue reading Nanovision MIMO 710-S and 720-S USB monitors hands-on

Filed under: Displays

Nanovision MIMO 710-S and 720-S USB monitors hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The default BlackBerry browser has long been laughably sad, but it looks like things are about to get better: RIM’s just acquired Torch Mobile, the developers behind the Iris mobile browser. If you’ll recall, Iris is a well-received WebKit-based browser for Windows Mobile that offers tabbed browsing, touch, and a skinnable UI — and we hear it does a pretty good job rendering pages as well. Of course, since it’s Windows Mobile-only at the moment it’ll be a while before BlackBerry fans actually see any results from this acquisition, but it’s nice to see RIM taking some big steps to address what’s become a major shortfall with the platform — and hey, maybe that extra time is what it’ll take to add the promised full Flash and Silverlight support to the system. Yep, lots of solid potential here — now if only RIM would build in proper IMAP support, we’d be all set.

[Via MobileTechWorld, thanks Ike]

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM buys Torch Mobile, BlackBerrys might finally get a decent browser originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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