Hasta La Gadget!

File this one away in the “man, I should’ve thought of that” category. Here at Mobile World Congress, Oberthur Technologies is making a name for itself by introducing the planet’s first motion detecting and handset-independent SIM card. SIMSense, as it’s so eloquently named, could open up a whole new world of interaction with phones that don’t come with any sort of accelerometer built in. For instance, a user could simply shake their cellphone upon receiving a second call in order to send out a pre-written SMS that explains the situation. Or they could navigate phone menus by simply moving or tapping. Or, better still, they could program their handset to dial an emergency contact if it detected a sudden fall while close to the person’s body. There’s been no indication of anyone grabbing this thing and running with it, but we can’t imagine this not making it out to the commercial realm.

Filed under: Cellphones

Motion detecting SIMSense SIM card opens new world of possibilities originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not quite sure if you’re seeing what’s happening here, but Apple and RIM are working themselves right into the time-out corner. We already heard earlier today that Palm would be joining Adobe’s Open Screen Project — which, by the way, guarantees Flash 10 support on the Pre — and now we’re told that Nokia is following suit. What it all boils down to is this: Google, Microsoft, Palm, and Nokia are all expected to release platforms or handsets in the coming year or two which will support Flash 10, all while Apple’s iPhone attempts to limp by with… YouTube support. Granted, we have heard that the suits at Cupertino are in talks to make it happen, but we’ve yet to hear as much at MWC. Also of note, it seems that a similar deal including RIM is also pretty far off, so BlackBerry users should probably order their daily dose of patience as well.

[Via Macworld]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia also joins Adobe initiative, Flash 10 for (almost) all originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We saw the rough’n’ready Archos 10 get reviewed mere days ago, and now the company’s back with the Atom-powered Archos 10s, a new 20mm thin netbook with 3.5G functionality, 1GB memory, Windows XP Home and up to 160GB storage. Additionally, the company has designs on a 17mm-thin, 9-inch tablet based on Intel’s Moorestown MID platform, to see the light of day sometime this year. This guy will include the Intel System Controller Hub chipset, up to 160GB storage, VOD and hi-def video playback, and digital TV reception. The Archos 10s should be available sometime in April, at a price to be announced.

[Via UMPC Portal]

Read – “ARCHOS announces new generation innovative MiniPCs based on Intel Atom Processor” (Warning: PDF)

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Archos announces new Moorestown-based netbook, 9-inch tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cyber Sport’s Orbita Mouse doesn’t want to be just another regular, boring mouse — and its newness goes way beyond looks. We don’t review too many mice around these parts, but this one seemed to call for some special attention, so we’ve spent the last few days trying to give it our exclusive overload treatment. This is not a mouse you can just unwrap and use, in more ways than one. Read on for our full impressions, and some glorious photos of this little dude in action.

Gallery: Cyber Sport Orbita Mouse

Continue reading Cyber Sport Orbita Mouse review: It’s pretty weird

Filed under: Peripherals

Cyber Sport Orbita Mouse review: It’s pretty weird originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve had our eyes peeled for ARM Cortex-based netbook news, and now among the action this week at MWC ’09 we’re getting our first look at Sparrow, a Cortex A9 processor aimed squarely at netbook manufacturers. This is a multi-core update to the Cortex A8 (processor of choice for the Palm Pre and Pandora), and it’s been speculated that this could be the processor for the next generation iPhone, with “at least triple the computing power of the ARM11 processors found in the [current] iPhone and T-Mobile G1.” Toshiba, Pegatron and Wistron are all said to be showing demos of their ARM-powered netbooks at the conference this year, with a company spokesman saying that Ubuntu for ARM will go public in April, with Sparrow phones coming to market sometime in 2010. Additionally, companies like Adobe, On2, and Symbian are said to be “tuning their apps to run on the latest cores from ARM” as we speak.

[Via Gadget Mix, Mac Rumors]

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops

ARM debuts Sparrow multicore netbook processor originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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