Hasta La Gadget!

Apparently people are really falling hard for this whole “thin” fad, and Gigabyte’s design department is the latest victim. The new Booktop M1305 (pictured) sports a CULV Intel processor and a 13.3-inch screen, putting it squarely in the land of MacBook Air and ThinkPad X300-style thin-and-lights, while also managing a disc drive and room for up to 8GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the new Myou netbook is actually Gigabyte’s ThinNote S1024, which weighs under two pounds, measures less than an inch thick, and still leaves room for a 10-inch screen and 6 cell battery. It should be shipping in the next few months for an estimated $600 pricetag. Video of the surprisingly excellent form factor is after the break.

Read – Booktop M1305
Read – Myou

Continue reading Gigabyte shows off thin-and-light Booktop M1305 and super slim Myou netbook

Filed under: Laptops

Gigabyte shows off thin-and-light Booktop M1305 and super slim Myou netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the automotive world, coachbuilding is the age-old business — recently making a resurgence among the extraordinarily wealthy, interestingly — of taking established, off-the-shelf production models and turning them into totally customized, bespoke works of art. Commissioning a coachbuilt car is one of the most excessive displays of materialism known to modern man, but at the end of the process, at least you’ve got a functional keepsake and an heirloom that can be kept in the family for generations. Cellphones, though — let’s just say they don’t have the same staying power that an exotic car has, which makes luxury manufacturer Mobadio’s new Grand 350PRL a tough sell. The previously-rumored phone represents the first model in the company’s new Grand Line, which introduces a new industrial design distinct from its other two lines, but let’s concentrate on what’s really going on here: it’s a dressed-up E71. Mobiado has taken a great (and great-looking) smartphone that can be easily had for under $300 and applied enough sapphire, stainless steel, and mother-of-pearl to raise the sticker well into “if you have to ask” territory. Sure, if that’s your thing and you’ve already put a couple coachbuilt Ferraris in the garage, be our guest — but don’t come running to us when you realize that the E71 has a better keyboard anyway for a trivial fraction of the price.

[Via Unwired View]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Mobiado’s Grand 350PRL is a fancy E71 remix originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amidst some wishful musings, Dennis Crowley – blogger, NYC resident and co-founder of the nerd-gasmic Foursquare – has come up with possibly the most fantastic use of “augmented reality” yet. He wants to use an iPhone to play real-life Ghost Racers.

If you have played Super Mario Kart, you’ll know the score. In single-player time trials you get to race against yourself. Your previous best race is replicated by a ghost version of you, and the goal is to beat it. Crowley suggests that a mashup of the iPhone’s GPS capabilities and the Nike+ pedometer could bring this to the streets:

Ghost racers.  Think: Super Mario Kart time-trials, except you’re running against a ghost version of your best time on the map.  I know the Garmin already does this, but make it social… show me the best times of my friends or other local users.  (I really really want to do this for skiing one of these days).

There seems to be no reason, bar a little programming, that this couldn’t be done. Think about it: bike races against friends who aren’t even there, with the tension of Mario Kart somewhat replicated by, say, coded beeps in the headphones to tell you if you are winning or losing. Or, what about racing against Steve McQueen’s famous car-chase in Bullit? Like I said: fantastic. Now we just have to work out how to build a real-world Red Shell, and stars would be pretty helpful for whacking those delivery vans out of the bike lanes.

Idea [Teen Drama via Kottke]

To quote our Engadget Chinese editor, Andy Yang, “Tegra really rocks!” Our team in Taipei grabbed a video of the 8.9-inch Mobinova Elan in action and came away seriously impressed. NVIDIA is really pushing the HD playback and gaming capabilities of this Tegra-based netbook smartbook machine. In fact, we saw it running a 1080p trailer as smooth as silk. Now we know what you’re thinking, Windows CE… ugh. Remember, CE (and Android for that matter) runs on the ARM-based Tegra whereas XP, Vista, and Windows 7 won’t. Besides, NVIDIA was showing a custom UI with an OS X-like application launcher along the bottom. No word on price yet or availability but we’ll update you when we’ve got more. Video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Tegra-based Mobinnova élan running Windows CE rocks our world

Filed under: Laptops

Video: Tegra-based Mobinnova élan running Windows CE rocks our world originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you had any doubt about the reach of Nokia, the world’s leading mobile handset maker, then check this: Nokia just announced the simultaneous June launch of its flagship N97 in more than 75 countries. We already had hints of this for the US and Western Europe but it’s good to have it official. And with N97 chatter on the uptick recently, we’re expecting to see this 3.5-inch QWERTY touchscreen slider running S60 5th sooner rather than later.

Update: Available June 19th for £500 sim-free in the UK or June 26th if you want it bundled with a contract. Anyone else seeing local launch dates?

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 hitting 75 countries in June (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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