Graphite Kindle DX Launching July 7

July 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Amazon [AMZN] is launching a new Kindle DX next week on July 7. The new model has a higher contrast e-ink screen that allows for clearer text and sharper images. Amazon reports that the display contrast is increased by 50 percent.

The new Kindle DX will be priced at $379 making it $110 lower than the previous version. It has a 9.7 inch screen and is enclosed in a Graphite cover.

“There’s no turning back once you read on our beautiful new Kindle DX screen,” said Steve Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle. “With 50 percent better contrast and darker fonts, you’ll find it easier than ever to read wherever you happen to be, whether it’s outside in bright sunlight or under the low light of your living room. We’re excited to offer the new Kindle DX with free 3G wireless at the lower price of $379.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Tablets

FaceTime over 3G Tested thanks to HTC EVO 4G Hotspot

July 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

When Apple [AAPL] announced FaceTime early last month it was hit with a snag for this year that it can only be used over Wi-Fi. When trying to make a FaceTime call over 3G it simply won’t let you do it.

Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi works well from what we have seen but it does restrict you to a single location while making a FaceTime call. Laptop Mag decided to test FaceTime using 3G. To achieve this the guys used a HTC EVO 4G with 4G switched off. They then used the smartphones wireless hot spot function to create a mobile 3G network, connected with the iPhone 4 to the wireless network which the signal was then sent over 3G to another iPhone 4. The second iPhone 4 was still connected to Wi-Fi hotspot on the other side (but not a smartphone over a 3G connection). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Microsoft Courier Still a Possibility

July 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

When the Microsoft Courier was first introduced last year, the idea behind it looked fantastic. The Courier is a dual-screen device that allows you to colaborate projects with others as well as organise your life. The UI that was demonstrated on video looked easy to use and appeared to be very intuitive. Microsoft [MSFT] never officially announced the Courier although they did announce it’s death.

When I say it was never officially announced, it was but in the same paragraph it was also killed as follows…

At any given time, we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Tablets

Cisco to make Wi-Fi Flip, FaceTime Video Client and More

July 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Cisco [CSCO] is looking forwards to video over the next few years. Over at Cisco Live! a few new details were announced which show where the company wants to go. First up is mention of the next generation Flip camera. The new camera will have Wi-Fi built in allowing you to more easily transfer files between devices or upload to Youtube direct without having to connect the Flip physically to a computer. We could expect to see wireless added to the Flip in time for Christmas although no specific announcement was made.

Another product mentioned is called the Media Experience Engine that allows Adobe Flash to work on the iPhone.

“We have a solution for Steve’s problem,” De Beer said, referring to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has defended Apple’s much-criticized rejection of the Flash media player operating on its mobile devices, and favors using HTML5 instead.

Timing for this service is also unavailable although we could expect it this year. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Camera Gadgets

HTC HD2 gets Android 2.1

July 1, 2010 by 1 Comment

Last week a big milestone was reached in terms of getting Android from Google [GOOG] to run on the HTC HD2. Prior to last week the team working on getting Android on to the HD2 couldn’t get HaRET to function without crashing which meant that Android couldn’t be loaded up. By making some patches the team successfully loaded up HaRET on the HD2.

Moving on a few days and the team now have managed to get Android 2.1 and Windows Mobile 6.5 booting side-by-side on the device. The Android build runs on Ubuntu Linux.

The release is far from being ready at the moment as it has a few bugs that make it unstable. However a few things do work quite well including a responsive touchscreen. As with all ports on to another device, it takes a bit of time to work out the bugs and get it ready to use fully, so we estimate another month or so before it will become usable. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

HTC EVO 4G Update Now Back Online

June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

iPhone 4 Heading to Verizon – More Rumors

June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

First ELSE Smartphone Cancelled

June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Osmos HD for iPad Revealed

June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: iPad

Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro Coming to Vodafone

June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

TRON Lightcycles Available on eBay

June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

iPhone 4 HD Camera Creates Pikes Peak Short Film

June 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

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…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones