Archive for October 2nd, 2009

We’ll withhold judgment until we have a far more intimate encounter with the device, but at a glance, the HTC Pure — AT&T’s branded, customized version of the Touch Diamond2 — might carry the least-exciting industrial design of any variant launched thus far. Considering the business-oriented clientele, that might not be a big deal for the phone’s bottom line — but when you take a look at the slightly better-equipped Imagio that’s about to launch over on Verizon, we would’ve liked to have seen something with a little more spunk here. At any rate, it seems Pure units are starting to flow into AT&T retail locations, which inevitably leads to some time in front of the bright lights and camera; AT&T was mentioned as one of Microsoft’s global launch partners for Windows Mobile 6.5 on October 6, so if we connect the dots, we’re guessing this is the phone that’s gonna make it all happen. So where’s that Touch Pro2, then, eh?

[Via wmpoweruser.com]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

HTC Pure starting to show up in AT&T stores, not for sale just yet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even though we have yet to see the long-hinted 100GB and 200GB prototype Blu-ray discs as real products, TDK is looking beyond that, ready to display 320GB ten-layer platters at CEATEC 2009 that can be read and written with current blue laser technology. Key in stacking so many layers is improving the transmittance of the outermost layer as seen above – that nearly clear one on the right doesn’t require a more powerful laser to get through. The only thing we can’t see? When or if any of these will actually be released.

[Via Hot Hardware]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage

TDK stacks 10 layers on a single 320GB disc originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so we’ve been hearing whispers all morning that Palm and Sprint are gearing up to launch the Pixi on October 20th, and while we hate to be the bearer of bad news, we’ve been in contact with sources who would definitely have a better perspective on this phone’s launch, and the word is that the aforementioned date is not accurate. So when will the Pixi launch? We’d still say it’ll be well before the holidays — and now that the Pre is down to $79, we’re hoping it’ll be super cheap. Fingers crossed.

Palm Pixi to launch on October 20th? Not so fast. originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We haven’t heard much from LG about its new GW620 Android phone since it got official with it back in mid-September (and at IFA before that), but it looks like it’s now made an official outing in France, where plenty of folks were on hand to get an up-close look at it. As expected, LG hasn’t followed the route of HTC or Motorola with some heavy Android customizations, but the handset itself should still turn a few heads nonetheless with its brushed aluminum look, and what appears to be a better than usual QWERTY keypad (or AZERTY in this particular case). Unfortunately, that gets paired with a resistive touchscreen, but the rest of the specs are thankfully less disappointing, including a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash, a microSD card slot for expansion, and a standard headphone jack. Still no indication of this one making its way over here, but you can get a closer look at it by hitting up the link below, and check it out on video courtesy of the folks at Le Journal du Geek after the break.

Read – CNET France hands-on
Read – Le Journal du Geek

[Via android.hdblog.it]

Continue reading LG GW620 Android phone spotted in the wild, on video

Filed under: Cellphones

LG GW620 Android phone spotted in the wild, on video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, the Acronym GT-J14 won’t even charge your iPhone, but at first glance we loved the idea: take a stylish GORE-TEX jacket and throw in a couple slick features aimed at the eager urban technophile, including a so-called Gravity Pocket (accessible by a zipper on your forearm, contents can be dropped directly into your hand using a draw string — demonstrated about 2:25 into the video after the break) and our personal favorite, a magnet that holds your headphones in place while you take that important phone call. We were feeling pretty good about this one, that is, until we finally tracked it down: azitastore.com lists it for €735 (yes, that’s around $1,068). This is clearly only for those of you who put the word “disposable” in “income.” Looks like we’re going to have to find another way to keep our Lady Gaga headphones safe and secure, after all…

[Via Gadget Review]

Continue reading Acronym’s PMP-loving jacket keeps your earbuds safe, murders your bank account

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Acronym’s PMP-loving jacket keeps your earbuds safe, murders your bank account originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still have a bit more room on that keychain ring next to your DAP, photo frame, Atari controller and, um, keys? Then you might want to keep an eye out for Navin’s new miniHomer GPS compass, which won’t give you actual turn-by-turn directions, but will at least point you towards up to five different locations of your choosing (including your car’s spot in the parking lot). To ensure the device keeps on ticking during particularly arduous trips away from your car, the miniHomer is also waterproof to IPX7 standards, and it promises a “low power consumption,” although Navin doesn’t seem to be making any firm promises about battery life just yet (it’s recharged via USB). It also isn’t saying anything about a price, but it looks like this one should be out sometime in November.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, GPS

Navin miniHomer keychain GPS will lead you to your car, won’t help find your keys originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today is the day that the BlackBerry-toting Mac faithful have been waiting for. After years of “making do” with less-than-desirable options like PocketMac and Missing Sync, RIM has taken it upon itself to finally release a home-cooked solution for Mac users who simply want to back up their devices without having to install a virtual machine or revert to a Windows PC. Well, it’s been a long month and a half since they first announced it was coming, but BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac has finally landed (officially, we mean), and we’re glad to say it definitely gets the job done. Check out our full impressions and a quick rundown of the big features over on Engadget Mobile!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac now available, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The OpenPandora kids have dropped us a line to say that yes, finally, “after a lot of serious tweaking,” it looks like Pandora is ready to roll. And as an added bonus, they’ve given us a little demonstration of the open source game platform rocking a Dreamcast emulator. Not that you’ll be able to play The House of The Dead 2 flawlessly on the thing — apparently the CPU suffers from some sort of floating point unit problem and a great many texture / blending modes are not supported. So don’t abandon that Dreamcast Tablet just yet. As far as getting your hands on the handheld yourself, here’s the skinny: of the four thousand devices in the initial lot, there are about a hundred units unspoken for and still available for pre-order. Priced at $330 each, if you’re interested you’d better jump now — there won’t be another batch until 2010. In the meantime, you can see that Dreamcast emulator we told you about in action after the break.

[Thanks, Devon]

Continue reading Pandora rolls into production this month, emulates Dreamcast now

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Pandora rolls into production this month, emulates Dreamcast now originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s announced it will support Breast Cancer Awareness month by outing two new bundles — and both of them are super pink. The first bundle will include a Berry Pink 10.5-inch Vaio W with an Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive, plus a matching sleeve and mouse. The second bundle will include the special edition Rose Pocket Edition reader with a gold clutch case, plus download codes for four e-books. Sony has said it will donate $110,000 to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation in conjunction with October sales for these bundles. The Vaio W bundle will run you $499, while the reader bundle is $199. Both can be ordered now at Sony Style.

[Via Slashgear]

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Sony outs pink Vaio W, Pocket Reader bundles for Breast Cancer Awareness Month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E-book readers have certainly been getting better and cheaper lately, but it looks like display-maker AUO thinks there’s still plenty of room for improvement, and it’s now promising to cut the price of ‘em fully in half within two years. The key to that, obviously, is to make the displays cheaper, which AUO says it can do by not only improving the technology, but by taking advantage of the sheer scale of its production capabilities. That, it says, could allow for a $150 e-book reader by next year, and a $100 reader by 2011. What’s more, AUO also says that it expects both Amazon and Sony to get “some” of their displays from AUO (with the rest coming from industry leader Prime View) which, if you put two and two together, could pave the way for some cheaper Kindles and Sony Readers in the not too distant future.

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

AUO aims for $100 e-book readers by 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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