Hasta La Gadget!

In a sudden retch of pigmentation, Sony just spat out the “Carnival Colors” collection of PSPs. Starting March 5th in Japan, the new colors matched with a 2200mAh battery will set you back a tax-inclusive price of ¥19,800 (about $223). Otherwise, you can drop ¥24,800 (about $279) for the 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo (Mark2), PSP pouch, wrist strap and cloth bundle. Now go ahead, revel in your paganism before ritualistically prostrating yourselves at the feet of the Lord Knight of consumer electronics. Mmm, feels good doesn’t it?

[Via Akihabara News]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Sony adds four new PSP “Carnival Colors” to worship originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The San Francisco freak folkers, regular riding buddies of Devendra Banhart, silence concerns about the genre–deemed precious by some–on new LP. The set of obscure late-hippie folk covers is utterly convincing: a dignified and noble bow from youths to elders.

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Originally posted at Crossfade

While our experience says otherwise, we really hope that the practice of launching buggy smartphones hasn’t been institutionalized. The Wall Street Journal just published a report about the “bumpy launch” of the BlackBerry Storm — a handset that WSJ sources say sold some 500,000 units in the first month following its global release. Not bad, but well off the 2.4 million launch pace seen by the iPhone 3G — the phone the Storm had hoped to unseat as sales champ. The WSJ speculates that the relatively timid response stems from buggy or otherwise “clunky software” that crippled the user experience and performance at launch only to be (partially) corrected later via software updates. An abysmal scenario which echos the buggy 2.0 software that accompanied the iPhone 3G at launch.

Now, instead of pleading for mercy at the feet of disgruntled consumers, RIM co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, calls the post-launch scramble part of the “new reality” of making complex cellphones in large volumes. A Verizon spokesman noted that return percentages are measurable in single digits (standard for a smartphone) adding, “The sales and performance of the device have lived up to our expectations.” Fine, but when expectations are high that the consumer experience will be poor, somehow that doesn’t sound like a victory to us.

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM CEO: Buggy smartphone software is the “new reality” originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard to tell from the absolutely riveting two minute and seven second video (hosted up after the break, just so you know), but somehow or another, the gurus at Macpod Software managed to get a T-Mobile G1 to control a robot. Actually, the code used to pull it off is hosted up for download, but a fair bit of robotics knowledge is necessary to pull it all together. The best part? Forknife just loves cupcakes — sorry, we couldn’t resist.

[Thanks, Corey]

Continue reading Video: T-Mobile G1-powered Forknife robot goofs off, eats cupcakes

Filed under: Cellphones, Robots

Video: T-Mobile G1-powered Forknife robot goofs off, eats cupcakes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile has HotSpot @Home, Sprint has AIRAVE, and Verizon has its Wireless Network Extender, leaving just AT&T among the States’ big four carriers without a launched WiFi or femtocell solution for extending signals into the home — but it looks like that’s finally getting close to changing. We know that they’ve been in the process of trialing some units recently, and tipsters have observed that there’s now a pretty slick site launched on AT&T’s domain for its 3G MicroCell, an indication that they might be looking to go retail eventually. There’s quite a bit of detail here; from the picture, we can make out that the unit comes from Cisco (versus Samsung for Sprint and Verizon), and like its competitors, the MicroCell will require a broadband connection to operate. It’ll cover up to 5,000 square feet, allow up to four simultaneous voice or data connections (locked down so that your neighbors can’t pilfer the signal), and most interestingly, will only work with 3G phones. We’ve heard that femtocells are more difficult to manage in a 2G GSM environment than in CDMA and WCDMA — hence the 3G requirement — but the cells offered by Sprint and Samsung only offer 2G coverage, so AT&T’s arguably got an advantage here. We still don’t know exactly when this is coming or for how much dough, but the site makes mention of a “3G MicroCell service plan,” so we’d count on a fee for the pleasure of extending AT&T’s network on their behalf. Follow the break for AT&T’s full rundown of the device.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Details on AT&T’s 3G MicroCell: everything but the date and price

Filed under: Cellphones

Details on AT&T’s 3G MicroCell: everything but the date and price originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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