Archive for November 15th, 2009

Sony Ericsson UK’s got a new pre-registration page for the Xperia X10, and along with it what appears to be a brand new, February 2010 expected launch. It’s hard to say for sure, but as far as we can tell this page is new, and last we heard the target window was a much broader “first half 2010.” Can’t say we’re anymore excited about this than before, but far be it for us to get in the way of a truly die hard fan community. At least you have a better idea of when to break the bank now.

[Thanks, Matej]

Filed under: Cellphones

Xperia X10 launching February 2010 in UK, says Sony Ericsson site originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a word of caution to anyone out there with an itchy credit card finger: signing up for a contract with Verizon just became a considerably more binding affair thanks to a big boost of its contract early termination fee from $175 to $350. Rumored for a few days now, the change became official as of yesterday, which means that anyone who bought an “advanced device” prior to the 14th is in the clear. The advanced device list can be found on Verizon’s site, and as you might expect, it’s a little broad and ridiculous — winners like the Versa, Exilim, and Glyde are on there, so they’re obviously not just referring to smartphones. They throw you a bone by reducing the ETF by a stout $10 for every month of the contract you successfully hurdle, but that still leaves you with a $120 ETF 23 months into a 24-month deal… so yeah, just be careful out there and don’t do anything rash, alright?

Filed under: Cellphones

Don’t shop drunk: Verizon’s $350 ETF is now live originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no reason to panic just yet, but apparently a good amount of people are having trouble with the external speaker on their Motorola Droid cutting out for no reason. It seems to be software-related, and sometimes a reboot fixes it temporarily, but it’s a scary problem for people relying on the handset as an alarm clock (or, you know, to receive calls), since you never know when it will strike next. For its part it seems that Motorola is replacing handsets that have the issue, though that’s no guarantee of escape from the clutches of silence. Let’s hope Motorola updates us with a software patch or some other serious solution soon — people need to hear that robotic “Droooiiid” alert sound — and meanwhile let us know if you’ve been seeing a similar issue.

[Thanks, Bryan]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Droid experiencing external speaker problems, could be a software issue? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As much fun as it is seeing the RAmos W7 in the wild, all legit and everything, what’s more exciting is seeing that Android-specific 600MHz Rockchip CPU in action again. This time it appears to be handling some pretty snappy web browsing to some fairly hefty pages, and then diving into what looks to be Flash video in an externalized, overlain player of some kind. The Android Archos 5 does a similar thing for media playback, but it’s not plugged into the browser like this, and we really haven’t seen many devices attain these sorts of browser speeds at this resolution. Sure, there’s still plenty more OS to see, but it’s good to see both of these products making a bit of good on their promises. Check out the video after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

Continue reading RAmos W7 spotted blazing through Android

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Video

RAmos W7 spotted blazing through Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not super familiar with the term “steamrolling along” as it applies to device launches, but apparently it’s good news for Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad tablet. Mike dropped the news on a recent episode of Steve Gillmor’s “Gillmor Gang” podcast (like “Gilmore Girls,” but with less inter-generational drama), saying that he’s not sure where the rumor of cost being too high came from, since costs continue to come down. The “$300 to $400″ price range he’s quoting is a bit higher than we’d heard previously, but it still sounds pretty good for a 12-inch touchscreen device. He also made mention of “soft revenue” and “sponsorships” on the device, akin to the revenue Firefox gets from its Google search box, and added that it won’t impact the user experience. Outside of those tidbits Mike says they’re working on making it “perfect,” and that there should be some big news about the device coming shortly. Video is after the break, CrunchPad discussion starts at the 39 minute mark.

[Via UMPCPortal]

Continue reading CrunchPad is ‘steamrolling along,’ will cost between $300 and $400

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

CrunchPad is ‘steamrolling along,’ will cost between $300 and $400 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sometimes when we see the seemingly slow advance of Honda’s ASIMO, the inherent limitations of WowWee toys, or the purposefully limited one-off research projects of universities, we start to give up hope of being super best pals with a humanoid robot this century; hope of partaking in whimsical 80s movie hijinks, hand-in-metal-hand. This little video of the Korean Institute of Advanced Science and Technology’s recent advances on its HUBO project therefore serves as a bit of a “hope refresher,” allowing us to once again re-imagine those aforementioned scenes of whimsy with a metallic bot that can handle a sword and walk at an almost-useful pace, while inexplicably wearing a smallish, visored helmet. Sure, there’s a long way to go, but we’d just like to say that when the robot apocalypse doesn’t happen and we realize how much we really have in common with these machines we’ve built to look like us, that somewhere in late 2009 this video helped us keep on believing.

Continue reading KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet

Filed under: Robots

KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It makes sense to release your mostly-theoretical (so far, anyway) desktop OS-based slider handset with the world’s newest and best version of Windows, but it when your slider handset is dubbed “xpPhone” things become a bit more muddled. But that’s the word from Pocketables, who’s been in touch with ITG and learned that the MID / phone will not only ship with a Windows 7 option, but also be available in 4.3-inch, 4.8-inch and 7-inch screen sizes. There’s also rumors of price ranging from $500 to $700, but what we’d really like at this point is a bit of a demo of this thing in action — especially now that there’s a similar ViewSonic-branded device breathing down its neck.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

ITG’s xpPhone gets options for larger screen and Windows 7, loses sense of identity originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like the wait for a real HD PMP is finally over: Hallods of Japan has just released their F43 MP4 player featuring a 4.3-inch 1280×720 screen, easily beating other sub-5-inch, 480p screens found on big names like the Archos 5 and Viewsonic’s VPD400. Under that sharp screen is 8GB of internal storage and a hot-swappable microSD slot, along with a battery life of about four hours and ten hours for video and music, respectively. Like many PMPs out there the F43 supports videos encoded in MPEG4, FLV, RMVB and DivX-WVGA. Sure, there’s the ironic lack of HDMI output, but for ¥16,800 ($188) this is still a pretty good deal. Let’s just hope Hallods will send them over to the US soon.

[Via i4u]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Video

Hallods F43 MP4 player packs a 4.3-inch 720p screen, outed in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well. Apple’s won its copyright infringement claim against Psystar in California. Anyone surprised? As we’ve been saying all along, the key argument wasn’t the OS X EULA or Psystar’s failed monopoly claims, but pure, simple copyright infringement, since Psystar was illegally copying, modifying, and distributing Apple’s code. Psystar was also dinged for circumventing Apple’s kernel encryption in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, but that’s just another nail in the coffin, really. There’s still some legal fireworks to come, as Apple’s various other claims like breach of contract, trademark infringement, and unfair competition weren’t addressed in this ruling, but those are all secondary issues now — and we’d expect this ruling to have quite an impact on the other case currently ongoing in Florida. We’ve broken down the highlights of the ruling after the break, hit up the read link for the PDF and follow along.

[Via Groklaw]

Continue reading Apple wins copyright infringement case against Psystar in California

Filed under: Software

Apple wins copyright infringement case against Psystar in California originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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