Sony Ericsson Launches Two Green Phones

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Sony Ericsson released two environmentally-friendly phones and a recycled Bluetooth headset today as part of a new “green” initiative called GreenHeart. One of the phones, the upcoming Naite, may be destined for a US release. (To watch the Webcast announcing the phones, see this GoodCleanTech post.)

The GreenHeart initiative includes setting targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by Sony Ericsson’s supply chain and reducing the overall carbon-dioxide footprint of Sony Ericsson products through various means.

For instance, they’re eliminating paper manuals on their “green” phones, reducing the size of their packaging, using recycled plastics, and using low-power chargers. By 2011, they will volunteer to take back and recycle their used phones wherever they’re sold. They’re also reducing the use of hazardous materials in manufacturing their phones.

The two new phones are the first fruits of the GreenHeart plan. The Naite, which will come in a model that will work with AT&T’s 3G network here in the US, is a mid-range, candybar-style feature phone. It has a 2-megapixel camera, media player, Web browser, Microsoft Exchange e-mail support, Bluetooth, and an FM radio. According to a Sony Ericsson chat transcript, the phone will cost around 159 euros ($222) before subsidy.

GreenHeart’s flagship product, the C901, will not be released in the US, though a Sony Ericsson Web page hints at a “C901a” which could be the US model. That phone has a 5-megapixel camera with xenon flash along with all of the Naite’s other features.

You can check out the full specs for both phones on Sony Ericsson’s Web site.

Sony Ericsson’s announcement follows green initiatives by other mobile phone makers, including Samsung (who call theirs “Blue Earth“) and Motorola (who released the first GreenTech Approved phone, the W233, earlier this year.)

In case you missed our Palm Pre review…

We wouldn’t want you to feel left out of the biggest blockbuster phone launch of the year (or at least this week), so be sure to hit up our behemoth Palm Pre review before all your friends do and start spouting off the spoilers. We heard that Shia LaBeouf totally dies at the end.

Continue on to read the full Palm Pre review

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In case you missed our Palm Pre review… originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DJ Hero hands-on

Activision’s being pretty guarded with DJ Hero at the moment. Not only is it available only behind closed doors at its E3 2009 booth, but even then we weren’t able to get our own hands-on time with the game, relegated instead to playing guitar along with someone else on the deck through that Monkey Wrench / Sabotage mashup. We did, however, get a chance to play take it out of the darkly-lit room and get a good feel of its weight and build quality, which we might add is pretty solid. Click on through for our full impressions and a video showing off the DJ vs. guitar mode.

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DJ Hero hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel snaps up Wind River, looks for that embedded systems edge

Wind River Systems has been doing Android up right for quite some time, and evidently Intel is sick and tired of sitting on the outside looking in. Disregarding that massive EU fine for a moment, the company somehow managed to find time to pen a check in the amount of $884 million in order to fully acquire the aforesaid embedded systems company. The reason? Intel knows the CPU business is morphing into something entirely more elaborate, and it reckons a solid presence in the embedded devices segment (MIDs, UMPCs, etc.) is necessary to keep those profits up in the future. Honestly, such a pickup isn’t really a shock; Intel has shown great interest in being a serious player in the handheld computing market, and its fledgling CE 3100 media processor could also benefit from a respectable layer of software behind it. Meanwhile, something tells us those Wind River guys are gearing up for the weekend of their lives.

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Intel snaps up Wind River, looks for that embedded systems edge originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon Wireless Launches BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230

vzw-bb-flip.jpgNot to be left out of the Palm Pre day hysteria, Verizon Wireless launched a smart phone today. It’s no Pre, though. The BlackBerry Flip 8230 has been out on Alltel for a while, and it’s first cousin to a phone that’s been on T-Mobile for several months.

The 8230 is a BlackBerry Pearl remixed into a (very long) flip phone, with two color LCD displays, a 2-megapixel camera, GPS and Verizon’s 3G EVDO Internet connection. It supports all the latest BlackBerry features, including App World and Media Sync, RIM’s somewhat clunky but effective iTunes syncing solution. You enter text using a Pearl-style hybrid keyboard, with two letters on most keys.

The Flip 8230 will cost $129.99 with a two-year contract and $70 mail-in rebate (so you’ll be paying $199.99 at the point of purchase.) It goes on sale June 19.

nesPod is a combo of two blasts from the past we can really dig

We see tons of casemods, but the NES holds a special place in our hearts and memories, so anything in the black-redish orange-gray combo catches our eye pretty easily. The nesPod — the fine work of flickr user recycledgamer — is made of a gutted NES controller and an iPod mini circa 2004-2005. The back has been carefully cut out to allow access to the screen and clickwheel, and that’s really all there is to it — no intense mapping of buttons, hacking, or anything — just a totally chill casemod. You cool with that? Because we are. There’s a shot of the back after the break. Hit the read link for the full set of photos.

[Via Technabob]

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nesPod is a combo of two blasts from the past we can really dig originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mossberg Confirms, New iPhone Coming Next Week

Apple_iPhone_Pics.jpgReading Walt Mossberg’s review of the Palm Pre is amusing, because Mossberg obviously has the next iPhone and can’t talk about it. Read between the lines: he’s straining to compare the Pre to the un-announced iPhone on his desk. He wants to do it so badly. But he can’t, because that would steal Apple’s thunder.

When you’re suffering from a case of NDA-itis that badly, it’s no surprise when things slip out around the edges. In this case, Mossberg confirmed that Apple will indeed release an iPhone next week. And did I mention that he probably has it?

“I’d note that the new iPhone to be unveiled next week will have lots of added features that could alter those calculations,” he writes.

Wording is important here. He couches many of his other iPhone predictions in “I expect” or “rumor” language: “I expect to see an iPhone with up to 32 gigabytes of memory, video recording, a higher-resolution camera, a compass, and greater operating speed. Plus, there are persistent rumors that Apple will announce at least one iPhone at a drastically lower price than $199.”

But the first sentence is declarative, definitive: that new iPhone is to be unveiled next week. Not “expected to” or “rumored to.” We’ll be there, on Monday morning at 10 AM PT, and we’ll be liveblogging.

Indicator-6 Nixie clock is handsome, functional, Khruschev-approved

Hoping to relive the days of the Cold War — you know, without the air raid drills? The handiwork of someone called Fred Niell (a character from a John le Carre’ spy novel if we ever met one — and we have), the Индикатор-6 (“indicator-6”) uses gas-filled Nixie tubes to display the time. This timepiece is definitely more sane and sober in appearance than most of the clocks we see ’round here, and would look great in your study next to your cigar box and framed, autographed picture of Winston Churchill. What better way to keep track of the passing hours as you spend your twilight years writing your memoirs detailing your time in MI5? This hand-crafted chronometer sells for $275. Either hit the read link to order, or go to the safe house tonight at the stroke of midnight. You should already have the pass phrase. Video after the break.

Continue reading Indicator-6 Nixie clock is handsome, functional, Khruschev-approved

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Indicator-6 Nixie clock is handsome, functional, Khruschev-approved originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How To Get The Most Out Of Your Palm Pres Battery

small-pre.jpgThe Palm Pre is a great device, but the battery needs a little help. Like with the iPhone, you shouldn’t expect this phone to last more than a day or two on a charge. Palm gave us these useful tips for making the Pre’s battery last longer. We tried them, and they made a big difference.

Log out of IM, especially AIM. There’s a bug in the AIM client that sucks up battery way too quickly (Palm’s fixing it) and the Google Talk presence alerts also use battery, though less than AIM. Remember, you can’t just throw the IM program’s card away; you have to click on “Sign Out” in the IM applications.

Turn on Wi-Fi. Sounds unintuitive, right? Well, the Pre doesn’t have the greatest Sprint reception of anything we’ve ever tested, and it actually has a relatively power-efficient Wi-Fi radio. When the Pre’s Wi-Fi is running, it uses Wi-Fi rather than 3G to make Internet connections. So connecting via Wi-Fi saves battery rather than wasting it.

Change your e-mail settings. By tapping on the upper left corner of the screen in the e-mail program, you can pop down a menu that lets you change e-mail preferences. For accounts where you get relatively little mail, set them to push. But for accounts where you get an e-mail every five minutes or more often, set them to check every 15 minutes. That will save battery.

With these battery tips, you’ll definitely get more than a day’s use out of each charge on the Palm Pre.

Video: NVIDIA Tegra’s GPU gets busy with HD video and full-screen Flash — Intel 945GSE shrugs, kicks dirt

If you didn’t believe the Tegra hype — 25 days audio, 10 hours of 1080p video on single charge — already then pull up a stool, son, NVIDIA wants to tell your a story. TechVideoBlog sat down with Gordon Grigor, NVIDIA’s Director of Mobile Software to see Tegra’s little Atom smasher in action. So sit back while Gordon smoothly streams a 720p MSN HD trailer off the web (over WiFi) then switches over to Firefox to take Flash for a spin at full-screen. Gordon also clarifies earlier confusion over Tegra’s ability to handle HD video; see, the Tegra 600 can do H.264 video at 720p while the Tegra 650 can decode 1080p. Gordon also gives some more insight into memory configurations. It seems that the OS (either Android or Windows CE in single or dual-boot configurations) will be embedded with minimal on-board storage like those early Eee PCs. RAM will also be limited to about 512MB on base units going as low as 256MB and as high as 1GB in future (unannounced) devices. A 512MB model limits Firefox to about 3-4 opened tabs at a time. All of this is meant to keep prices down below $200 (or less when subsidized by carriers). Also of note is how the Tegra’s GPU assists in rendering pixels anytime they appear on the display. In other words fonts, Firefox pages, scrolling, and of course video playback all benefit from an extra boost by the GPU. Check the video after the break to hear Gordon make some not so subtle jabs at Intel’s relatively power-hungry Atom processor.

Continue reading Video: NVIDIA Tegra’s GPU gets busy with HD video and full-screen Flash — Intel 945GSE shrugs, kicks dirt

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Video: NVIDIA Tegra’s GPU gets busy with HD video and full-screen Flash — Intel 945GSE shrugs, kicks dirt originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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