Hasta La Gadget!

I like the new Windows Mobile 6.5 interface, specially the new home screen, which is brilliantly executed. Running on the new HTC Touch Diamond 2, everything looked smoother, cleaner, and matched the iPhone’s lick factor.

While everything seems to have been touched up, simplified, and polished to no end, what really makes this version of Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t the new, revamped browser—which uses the engine deployed in 6.1 but feels a lot faster and has a good new interface—or the honeycomb start screen—which I don’t find particularly impressive—or the cleaner UI designed for one-finger operation or the speed or the touch gestures.

To me, what really makes this new operating system great is the new home screen, combined with the lock screen. The lock screen doesn’t look very good aesthetically—somehow, the elements don’t appear tight enough—but it allows you to see what’s cooking in your digital life with just one glance. Turn the screen on and you will see whatever pending alerts, mails, calls, short text messages, or any other element that requires your attention. No need to get deeper into the phone applications. From there, if you want to drill down, just slide-to-unlock the notification and you will be taken straight to the info.

Once you unlock your phone, you are taken to the home screen. This is the true jewel in the operating system: A simple list of categories which let you access information without having to get into the phone applications. It sounds like the lock screen, but from here you can get deeper into the information itself. Here’s how it works:

When you slide your finger over the list, it scrolls like it’s passing through a visor. The visor transforms the text line into the information itself, so if you go through “text”, it will show you the last received text message. Once you are looking at that, you will effectively have access to all your SMS messages right on that screen: Just swipe your finger like passing the pages of a book and it will change the text message. The same happens with all the other categories. There is even a custom “Favorites” category, that would allow you to navigate through whatever you want to put in there, from weather reports to Messenger’s messages.

Then you have the start menu, which is accessible through the now-obligatory Windows flag start button, which must be present in all Windows 6.5 cellphones. Microsoft calls this the “start experience.” I call it: “about time something makes sense in your damn phones.” The start page shows all your available applications displayed as icons in a honeycomb. You can scroll up and down the honeycomb to start apps. No more start menu. The honeycomb is supposed to make it easier to see the icons and click on them. It works well.

Of course, Windows Mobile 6.5 is not perfect. I doesn’t seem to support multitouch, for example. However, it’s a huge leap over the previous fugly versions, which were completely unpalatable. If it fulfills its promise, this one will make Windows users think twice before getting an iPhone or an Android phone.

From this first touch on, it looks like Microsoft is back in the game. They don’t have the upper hand yet, but they are clearly waking up. We will see what happens and how deep these changes really are once it gets released.

Barcelona — Samsung’s new Omnia HD continues the South Korean company’s quest to shoehorn big things into small boxes. Following rumors of an ill-conceived 12MP cameraphone comes this oversized handset which is capable of both recording and playing back 720p video.

Seen above is a snap of the phone in action, shooting its bolt in excitement. In person, the sharpness and resolution is quite impressive, although as I said the handset is a little on the bulky side. But you’re not limited to the built-in screen — the Omni HD can play movies back in full 720p on an HDTV. The catch is that you can only do it via Wi-Fi.

Yes, I was just as surprised when I found out. You’ll need some form of wireless access point hooked up to your TV — the Eastern European engineers on the Samsung stand suggested either and Xbox or a PS3. I asked him if you could just run a cable. He turned the phone around in his hand, searching for a port. "No LAN port" he said, chuckling, "No use case!"

I would attribute this rather splendid quote but, as I was writing down the chap’s name my pen rather surprisingly ran out of consonants. Suffice it to say that the engineer’s name contain enough Ws and Js to win any Scrabble game.

Otherwise, the phones scores high on specs: The camera will also shoot 8MP stills (of course — it’s a Samsung), the big screen is actually 3.7" big, video codecs include DivX, XviD, H.263, H.264, WMV (why?) and MPEG4, there is built in GPS, a compass, an accelerometer and a couple of stereo speakers. Price is as yet unknown, but be assured that this phone does just about everything it’s possible for a phone to do.

Product page [Samsung]

Hey, you! VAIO P modder! Hold up on that HSDPA hack just a minute — er, on second thought, you should probably proceed, ’cause Sony isn’t about to take back your current machine when this Gobi-equipped model ships. Quite curiously, Sony has announced here in Barcelona that its VAIO Z, VAIO TT and VAIO P laptops will soon be embedded with Qualcomm’s Gobi, which provides both EV-DO Rev. A and HSDPA support on a single module. As it stands, Sony’s US model VAIO P only supports Verizon Wireless’ mobile broadband network, which should leave a pretty bitter taste in the mouths of early adopters. There’s no mention at all of when Sony plans to start shipping these oh-so-connected machines (nor if they’ll be coming to US shores), but we’re hoping it’s sooner rather than later.

Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

Sony bringing Gobi WWAN module to VAIO Z, TT and P originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Barcelona — Last year at the Mobile World Congress, we started to see the iPhone copycats, essentially stock cellphones onto which had been grafted a cursory touch screen. Most of these phones made little use of touch — they used the standard menus and UI conventions they had always used.

A year passed and manufacturers realized that people weren’t buying the iPhone because you could touch it. They were buying it because of what it did when you touched it. It was intuitive and, above all, not annoying. So this year at MWC 09 we are seeing the results of this realization — some real UI improvements.

LG’s new flagship, the Arena, was launched today and shows that the company has been working hard. The Arena has all of the features you would expect, from camera (5MP with autofocus and flash) to YouTube integration to a big, bright 3" screen. But LG is most excited about its new 3D user interface, which achieves a decent smoothness thanks to hardware acceleration and a processor from AMD. Check out the (official) video below.

To picture the UI, think of a multi-touch, on-screen Rolodex. LG calls it Reel Scrolling, which is cutely accurate, although perhaps a little gimmicky. That processor means that the phone can also handle some proper movie codecs, playing back both DivX and Xvid movies (the favorite formats of BitTorrenters everywhere). The handset also includes Dolby Mobile, a certification for mobile devices from the Dolby Labs, as you’d expect. It really doesn’t add much.

Lastly, LG seems to get it when it comes to web services. Instead of trying to force us to use proprietary services, the Arena is all about what’s out there already. If you like Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, you’re in luck. In fact, the Arena is a solid all-rounder. It’s doing what has to be done in a post-iPhone world — making something more than just good enough, with a splash of open-ness that Apple will never deign to match.

Product page [LG]

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got a Microsoft PC gaming pack, which includes a SideWinder X8 mouse, a SideWinder X6 keyboard, a LifeChat LX-3000 headset, a custom mouse pad, plus PC versions of Fallout 3 and James Bond: Quantum of Solace. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Check after the break for some photos of the prize!

Special thanks to Microsoft for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one Microsoft gaming pack.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. (That means if you win this contest, you have to respond by Thursday, February 19th, 2009 to claim your gear).
• Entries can be submitted until Monday, February 16th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Continue reading Engadget’s recession antidote: Win a Microsoft PC gaming pack

Filed under: Announcements

Engadget’s recession antidote: Win a Microsoft PC gaming pack originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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