Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
Engadget are reporting that the HTC EVO 4G update (the one that bricked a few smartphones) is now back online and available for download. We assume that the update has been modified with code to prevent further bricking of the smartphone.
The update is available now and you can grab it from the update menu on your HTC EVO 4G. [Read more…]
We thought that with the iPhone 4 announcement out of the way (with no Verizon announcement) that we’d hear the end of it till next year when the iPhone 5 gets announced. However, Bloomberg has kept the rumours alive by saying that Verizon [VZ] will get the iPhone in January 2011.
Of course you need to take this rumour with a pinch of salt as we keep on hearing it over and over with no announcement or indication that it’s happening. I’m not saying it wont happen eventually, but for now it seems like the AT&T [T] and Apple [AAPL] agreement that runs till 2012 is still firmly in place sadly. [Read more…]
We first had the chance to see and test the First ELSE back at CES at the beginning of this year. When we had a look we thought it had a fantastic UI and was an excellent device.
The first ELSE is/was, a Linux based device that was due to launch this year. However, due to a few delays and other problems the smartphone is now being cancelled. Instead, the software running will attempt to be licensed by other companies to get the platform out there.
Due to critical delays in deliveries and the current status of the project, the board has now decided to cease any further investment towards manufacturing of the First ELSE mobile device and to concentrate efforts only on licensing the ELSE Intuition platform and technology in order to realize its potential upside.
A video has been uploaded to Youtube that demonstrates Osmos HD that is being released on July 8th.
The video goes over a couple of levels and shows an excellent and challenging game. The game requires strategy to play and cannot be played with speed.
We also hear that as well as an iPad version launching there will also be an iPhone version following within a month or so. [Read more…]
Vodafone has added the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro to it’s website. No release dates have been provided and it isn’t available to pre-order just yet. We suspect that it wont be too far away though now that the coming soon page is now active.
The Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro has a QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel camera and GPS built in. Weight wise it comes in at 120 grams making it quite light. By utilising a QWERTY keypad, it allows for text entry to be a little quicker for those who prefer not to use a virtual keyboard on their smartphone.
The X10 Mini Pro wull come with Android running on the device although it wont be the latest Android 2.2 at launch from what we understand although 2.2 hasn’t been ruled out for a future update. [Read more…]
We’re not 100% convinced that these will be actually made, but a company – the one behind the recent Batpod replica, is claiming to be selling five street legal TRON Lightcycle replicas.
The Lightcycles are being built with the exact same specs of the movie bike except the lack of a light trail obviously. Each bike comes in black and there will be five made available numbered 001 – 005 with a sixth 000 model as a prototype. Each will have accent colours of either red, blue, yellow, green and orange.
Each bike will be custom built and be supplied with either an electric motor or a high performance gasoline engine. The transmission also can be suited to the buyer.
The back cover opens up at the push of a button and there is a neon glow that exits from the back of the bike to resemble the lightcycles colored light trail from the original game. These bikes will also come with a TRON style helmet (Not DOT Approved)
Yesterday we posted a link to a video sample of a short film created and edited with the iPhone 4.
Another video has been uploaded that also used the iPhone 4 to capture video. The video captured was of the Pikes Peak held on June 27. This time the iPhone 4 was placed in an Owle Bubos to capture the video. That device is a mount for the camera that allows you to attach different lenses to the iPhone 4 and hold it more comfortably. It isn’t clear what, if any, extra lenses were used on the mount, or if everything captured was just through the regular iPhone 4 lens. Either way, it’s impressive to see what kind of quality you can get from a smartphone camera. [Read more…]
ASUS has announced the ASUS Eee PC 1215N. The new 12 inch netbook is classed as falling in to the multimedia category. It comes with an Intel Atom D525 processor inside along with a next generation NVIDIA ION graphics processor that allows for higher performance in terms of graphics to be achieved.
The Intel Atom D525 is actually a dual-core processor allowing it to handle tasks more comfortably than the previous single core models.
The NVIDIA ION graphics processor allows for 1080p video to be played back on the 1366 x 768 screen without problems or glitches according to the press release. [Read more…]
The iPhone 4 antenna problem is recognised by Apple [AAPL] although they still believe it works just fine.
With my own iPhone 4 I have found results that vary. In a good signal area the bars do not shift at all no matter what right or wrong way I hold the phone. The problem only seems to surface in bad signal areas where bridging the two antennae together causes the already weak signal to drop. It really isn’t a huge issue from my own testing and hasn’t limited the way I use the phone. Occasionally the signal blobs out but not really any different to other smartphones or regular mobile phones I have used.
Either way, Apple has a support document in place that emphasizes that the signal is overall better than previous iPhone models. Also the company confirm that under no circumstances should a free bumper case be handed out. The full text can be found below. [Read more…]
The Wired iPad app is dropping in price. The first edition of the app cost $4.99. Conde Nast are dropping the price by a dollar which knocks 20% off the price taking it down to $3.99. It’s not a huge saving by any means, but at least it’s a little cheaper than it was before.
The reason the company are changing the price appears to be related to experimenting to see what price point works the best. The June issue that cost $4.99 sold 95,000 digital copies at that price. Perhaps the new version will sell more, we won’t know till this time next month.
Conde says it will be experimenting with digital magazine pricing for months to come. But Wired editor Chris Anderson, who wants us to know that he doesn’t control his magazine’s sales price, makes the common sense argument: Digital editions should cost less than physical ones because there’s no distribution cost.
The Samsung Galaxy S range of smartphones will eventually get an upgrade to Android 2.2. Out of the box they are supplied with Android 2.1, but the official Twitter account mentioned yesterday that all device will be updated at some point.
As well as getting the Android 2.2 upgrade, the smartphones will also be able to install Adobe Flash 10.1 allowing flash content to be used on the device.
Several phones classed as Galaxy S devices are being launched in the US with each network rebranding the devices. Yesterday we saw several of these which include the Samsung Fascinate for Verizon, Samsung Epic 4G for Sprint, Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile and the Samsung Captivate for AT&T. [Read more…]
On June 23rd, the day the Apple iPhone 4 started to get delivered and see criticisms of antenna problems, Apple [AAPL] posted three jobs on their website asking for Antenna Engineers for the iPhone and iPad.
It isn’t clear if Apple posted the job openings in response to the criticisms received, or if they just happened to be posted the same day issues were found. [Read more…]
