Want to see HTC’s potential answer to your landscape physical QWERTY dreams slide itself open on video? How about the Windows Phone 7 handset with a hidden speaker bar ? You won’t have far to look — both the HTC 7 Pro and 7 Surround star in their own CG clips on YouTube today, and you’ll find both after the break. My, don’t they look fun? The HTC 7 Pro’s also got an official website now, though pricing and availability are still on the lam (save a mention of “early next year” ) and will likely elude us for months. Gallery: HTC 7 Pro press shots Continue reading HTC 7 Pro and 7 Surround strut their stuff in official sizzle videos HTC 7 Pro and 7 Surround strut their stuff in official sizzle videos originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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You know that iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter that you wasted money on ? Yeah, turns out there’s probably a superior alternative available in the wilds of China… well, aside from the fact that it probably lacks an internal authentication chip needed to play back most protected content. Noosy’s iPad HDMI output adapter is fairly simple in design — it plugs into the 30-pin Dock Connector that’s on modern iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, and then allows 720p content to flow directly over HDMI. We’re guessing there’s just a VGA-to-HDMI converter wrapped inside a familiar package, but we definitely like where this is headed. There’s nary a word on how much this will cost you (or what street corner you need to visit in order to find one), but here’s hoping the engineers in Cupertino are paying attention to what consumers are really after. [Thanks, Thomas] KIRFy iPad adapter adds HDMI output, probably balks at DRM’d material originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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There’s certainly been no shortage of studies involving humans’ interaction with robots , but a team of researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences have now made one of the most shocking discoveries to date: babies can be tricked into believing robots are sentient. They made this finding by acting out a skit with a remote-controlled robot in which the robot behaves friendly with its human counterpart. Following the skit, they left the baby alone with the robot and found that in 13 out of 16 cases the baby followed the robot’s gaze, which suggests the baby believed it was sentient. In contrast, babies only interacted with the robot in 3 of 16 cases when they were simply left alone with it without first seeing it interact with a human. What does it all mean? Well, it seems that a robot’s human-like appearance is less important than its behavior when it comes to establishing trust — or that all the robots need to do to take over is get us while we’re young. One of the two. Study shocker: babies think friendly robots are sentient originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …TomTom App for iPhone hits version 1.5, adds further iPhone 4 support and ‘navigate-to-photo’
October 16, 2010 No Comment
TomTom was quick off the mark with multitasking in its iPhone app — and it’s hard to think of an app other than Pandora that benefits more from its inclusion — but TomTom isn’t stopping there. The new 1.5 version adds enhanced graphics to match the new iPhone 4 screen resolution, along with “faster, more-responsive navigation” on that handset. Not good enough for you? Try the new navigate-to-photo feature, a not-a-gimmick-at-all addition that allows you to select a geotagged photo as your destination instead of messing around with pesky addresses and facts . The update is free for existing users, newcomers will have to shell out $50 for the US version. TomTom App for iPhone hits version 1.5, adds further iPhone 4 support and ‘navigate-to-photo’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 06:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …RIM promises to soothe BlackBerry app developers’ woes, says ‘we’re so there’
October 16, 2010 No Comment
There’s no question that the BlackBerry App World hasn’t been quite the runaway success RIM hoped it would be, but the company is far from ready to throw in the towel, and it’s now promising some new measures to woo new developers and make the lives of current ones a bit easier. Some of those initiatives have already been rolled out — like new payment options — while others including a free analytics service will become available to developers in the coming weeks and months. As RIM’s head of application development, Alan Brenner, explains to The Wall Street Journal , RIM has been working for the past two years to make BlackBerrys more developer friendly, and he now says that “we’re so there.” They may not be quite as close as they think, however, as the WSJ also spoke to a number of developers who used words like “horrible” to describe the current state of things, while leading mobile game developer PopCap Games even went so far as to say that “RIM today is not really on our radar.” RIM promises to soothe BlackBerry app developers’ woes, says ‘we’re so there’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 04:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We just received this shot of what is purportedly the inside of the new MacBook Air . Contrary to popular belief , the machine appears to be another 13.3-incher, with the primary modification being extra room for battery cells and apparently no room for a hard drive. Of course, this is only one SKU, so who knows what else Apple has in store. From what we can tell from the photo, Apple is taking its unibody styling and construction and running with it here, not that the MacBook Air was too far off from the MacBook Pro to begin with. The telltale sign is the black hinge, though it also appears Apple has done away with the drop-down side ports. Based on our own professional squinting ability, there are USB plugs on the left and right sides, Mini DisplayPort and an SD card reader on the left, and a power plug on the right. Of course, since the screw holes are facing us, we’re probably looking at this from the bottom, so flip all of those around if you want to imagine using this thing (because, of course, the power plug will be on the Apple-standard left side). We also have it on good authority that the rest of the machine has been restyled in modern unibody style, including the large single mouse button, but that the screen is still like the current MacBook Air, instead of the edge-to-edge glass with black edges. Also, it’s apparently running the same Core 2 Duo SL9400 processor of the current generation MacBook Air — possibly further proof that this is a very early prototype (our source says the model dates back to at least April). We’re working on getting more images and information, but for now at least two things seem (relatively) clear: Apple hasn’t forgotten about the MacBook Air, and 13.3-inches isn’t going out of style just yet. Hopefully we’ll know for certain next week ! [Thanks, anonymous] Gallery: Is this the new MacBook Air? Is this the new MacBook Air? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 01:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Eizo may not be aiming this one directly at average consumers, but there’s nothing stopping you from picking up its new 17-inch FlexScan T1751 monitor to make your industrial-style mutlitouch dreams come true. As you can sort of see above, this one can either be used upright or titled nearly flat, and it packs a non-widescreen, 5:4 aspect ratio — albeit with a slightly disappointing 1,280 x 1,024 resolution. The monitor will work with a touch pen and gloved hands, however, and you’ll get a decent 178 degree viewing angle, along with a 1,500:1 contrast ratio, a pair of built-in 0.5W speakers, a headphone jack and, true to its industrial nature, a non-scratch surface made of reinforced glass. No official word on a price or release date, unfortunately — Eizo is simply telling folks to check with their local distributor for details. Continue reading Eizo rolls out 17-inch FlexScan T1751 multitouch monitor Eizo rolls out 17-inch FlexScan T1751 multitouch monitor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 00:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Ah, the age old alphabetical dessert guessing game. Pretty soon we’ll have more future Android versions named than existing ones on the market. And you know what? That’s okay, because we’re hungry. Apparently the President of ARM, Tudor Brown, spilled the vanilla beans to Elizabeth Woyke of Forbes , saying that Android 4.0 will be called “Ice Cream,” and while it seems like a bit of an obvious choice for an “I” dessert, that’s never stopped Google’s crack naming crew before. ( Donut , anybody?) Somehow we get the feeling that Google spends a lot less time thinking about potential names for desserts than we do, and that’s alright: they’ve got a lot of OS work to do. Us? We just have to whine about Android fragmentation for an hour or so a week on the podcast . Hardly a full load. Android ‘Ice Cream’ the sweet toothed followup to Honeycomb? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s the first BlackBerry to ship with BB OS 6 , and it’s the first to boast both a touchpanel and a conventional slide-out QWERTY. But is it capable of standing up to the rest of today’s modern smartphones? We definitely had a few bones to pick with RIM’s latest flagship device when we reviewed it a few month’s back, but if you’re a regular, you’ll know that this segment isn’t about us — it’s about you, particularly if you own a Torch. Are you satisfied with the revised OS? Happy with the touchscreen response? Would you have bumped the screen resolution? Changed the keyboard in any way? Thrown a CDMA module in for Sprint / Verizon support? RIM’s betting quite a bit on this new operating system (and this new design), so feel free to sound off in comments below with ideas on how you’d change things for version two dot oh. Keep it classy, though — cool? How would you change RIM’s BlackBerry Torch? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 22:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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June was a lifetime ago, we’ll give you that, but surely you can’t forget those 16 Optimus-based laptops that NVIDIA teased us with at Computex , right? Right . At any rate, MSI has just come clean with a delightful pair of them, the FX700 and FR700. Both of these beasts boast 17.3-inch widescreen displays, the company’s own anti-scratch, anti-smudge coating and a design that actually looks fairly attractive given the hugeness. The former also includes up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, a Core i5 processor, NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 425M (1GB), HDMI / VGA outputs, 320/500/640GB hard drives, a DVD SuperMulti drive, four USB ports (two of the SuperSpeed variety), a 5-in-1 card reader, inbuilt webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, gigabit Ethernet and a 6-cell Li-ion that’ll probably exhaust itself long before you’d like it to. The FR700 includes most of the same specifications, but opts for integrated Intel graphics for those who aren’t planning to dabble too long in Crysis . Per usual, MSI’s keeping quiet when it comes to pricing and release details, but we’d be shocked if they didn’t find their way onto retail shelves pre-Christmas. MSI gets official with 17.3-inch FX700 and FR700 multimedia laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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