Hasta La Gadget!

There’s little doubt that Yahoo Widgets took the HDTV market by storm at CES, in fact by the end of the first day of the show, it was news if a manufacturer didn’t announce the feature. Initially we didn’t understand what all the fuss was about, but after spending some time with the Widgets, we started to see the light. Unfortunately something has changed in the past five months and now that we have it in our home to play with, it just doesn’t seem the same. The one word we’d use to describe the difference is “laggy” — check out the video after the break to see for yourself. The demos at CES were down right snappy, but even in our hard wired tests connected to the internet via a 20Mbps FiOS connection, the widgets loaded so slow we’re not sure we’d actually even use ’em. To make matters worse, because most people don’t have internet connections behind their HDTV, they’re going to need some sort of WiFi adapter to make this work. The Samsung 7000 series HDTV we tested has an optional USB dongle that sells for $80, but we couldn’t even get it to work despite the hour of our life we wasted on it.

Continue reading Hands-on with Yahoo Widgets on a Samsung 7000 series HDTV

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Hands-on with Yahoo Widgets on a Samsung 7000 series HDTV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 12:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you did your last case mod with some old spray paint and a Christmas stencil, you might be a cheap geek.

1. This stunning Dell Crystal monitor gives an instant upgrade to any office. While it originally sold for $999, Dell is now letting it go for only $499. It’s a 22-inch display with a tempered glass frame, and offers a 1680-by-1050 top resolution, a 2-millisecond response time, and a 2000:1 contrast ratio. The monitor also incorporates a webcam and four speakers.

2. Buy.com has a great price on a Verbatim portable hard drive. Get 160GB of storage in an easy-to-carry package for $46.49, with free shipping. If you need to carry around files for work and a miniature flash drive isn’t nearly large enough, check out this handy Verbatim drive.

3. If you could use some blank DVDs, you’ve got to go with the jumbo size. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Take a look at OfficeMax, which is selling 100 packs of Verbatim DVD+R discs for $24.99. Sounds good, right? It sounds even better when you see that the Verbatim 50 pack is selling for $34.99. So you need the giant size. Buy in bulk, son.

Evidence continues to mount that Apple will deliver a touchscreen tablet next year, with an analyst laying out solid reasoning for this rumored device to become a reality. It appears more likely to be an oversized iPod Touch, not a tabletized MacBook.

“Between indications from our component contacts in Asia, recent patents relating to multi-touch sensitivity for more complex computing devices, comments from [chief operating officer] Tim Cook on the April 22 conference call, and Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi along with other recent chip-related hires, it is increasingly clear that Apple is investing more in its mobile-computing franchise,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a research statement issued to clients.

Apple’s next step in mobile computing will likely be the release of a touchscreen tablet featuring a 7-to-10-inch display sometime in the first half of 2010, Munster predicts.

Apple enthusiasts have been gossiping about a Mac tablet since July 2008, when the first rumor about the fabled device surfaced at MacDailyNews. Since then, a stream of clues, rumors and statements from Apple suggest this product will indeed join the Apple product family soon, as Gadget Lab has been reporting for several months.

Apple itself has steadfastly refused to confirm or deny any hint of an Apple tablet.

While in theory Apple could simply make a larger-screen iPod Touch, Munster believes creating a tablet will be more complex. He speculates the operating system will be a hybrid between the iPhone’s mobile operating system and Mac OS X. Or, Apple could optimize a version of Mac OS X for the multitouch interface.

Price range? Munster is guessing between $500 and $700, positioning this device as Apple’s response to netbooks.

At its recent quarterly earnings call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook said the company had no plans to release a netbook, calling the device category “junky.”

“For us, it’s about doing great products,” Cook said. “And when I look at what is being sold in the netbook space today, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens and just not a consumer experience … that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly.”

Other indications that it’s an upsized-iPod-Touch–style tablet in the works (rather than a “junky” netbook) involve Apple’s recent hiring of several chip designers, as well as its acquisition of PA Semi to develop mobile processors.

Would a touchscreen tablet be worth putting the Mac brand on? We think so.

Apple Tablet in 2010 [Silicon Alley Insider]

See Also:

• Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives …
• Apple COO Reveals Plans for Touch Tablet — Kinda
• Apple Quietly Recruits Chip Designers for In-House Tech
• Apple’s Core Could Soon Include In-House Chips
• iPhone 3.0 Event Revives Tablet Rumors
• Rumor: Mac Tablet Coming Fall 2009
• Intel Germany ‘Confirms’ Apple Tablet
• Leaked: Apple Filing Illustrates Multitouch Tablet Technology …
• Apple Rumors: Snow Leopard in June, Touch Screen Netbook This Year …

llustration of an imaginary iPhone tablet: Flickr/vernhart

The Palm Pre and iPhone are sucking all of the air out of the smart phone world, but that doesn’t mean everyone else has gone on vacation. At a press event yesterday, AT&T showed off two of their new smart phones, the Samsung Jack – the latest in Samsung’s Blackjack line – and the BlackBerry 8900.

The Jack looks like it’ll be a great Windows Mobile phone for messaging and Microsoft Exchange syncing. It’s comfortable and well designed, feeling quite similar to the BlackBerry Bold or 8900. There’s a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back, and the phone has both 3G and Wi-Fi. The keys are large enough, and feel good under your thumb. The Jack doesn’t have a touch screen, which makes it feel a little faster than other Windows Mobile devices; as I clicked through the menus, it responded well thanks to the 528 Mhz processor. The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1 right now, but AT&T reps said it will be upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5. For $99.99 with a two-year contract, you’re getting a great deal with this phone. That said, I still like the Nokia e71x a little more.

AT&T’s BlackBerry 8900 is very similar to T-Mobile’s model, which we reviewed and loved. The main difference is that the AT&T model doesn’t let you use voice over Wi-Fi, but does come with a subscription to AT&T’s network of Wi-Fi hotspots for data use only. Otherwise, this is a great device – terrific keyboard, sharp screen, and a $199.99 price that’s $100 below the BlackBerry Bold because the 8900 lacks 3G.

Both the Samsung Jack and the BlackBerry 8900 are available on AT&T right now.

Sure, it’s no Zaurus, but Sharp’s new RD-PM10 certainly is a looker. It packs a 4.3-inch WQVGA screen, QWERTY keyboard and 8GB of storage into a pretty delightful form factor, and while it’s only designed for light e-dictionary and media playback duties, with Windows CE 5.0 as the backbone, we could imagine it doing a whole lot more with a bit of extra oomph under the hood. There’s a microSD slot for expansion, pretty great codec support, and a 360,000 KRW (about $288 US) list price.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Handhelds

Sharp’s MIDtastic RD-PM10 electronic dictionary originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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