Hasta La Gadget!

Dahon, maker of folding bikes, has shown off a rather ingenious and incredibly useful little gizmo at the Eurobike show. The BioLogic FreeCharge is a little silicone-encased box which hooks up to your bike’s generator hub and siphons off power for charging your gadgets. The unit comprises a battery and circuitry to both store electricity and to smooth the inevitable bumps and spikes in the generator’s output.

Then you simply plug in your cellphone or iPod to the USB port, juicing the GPS as you ride. The time to a full charge is three hours, but the most likely use for this is topping-off, keeping your gadgets going indefinitely as you trundle along. And think about cycle touring: you can charge iPods, phones and even camera batteries, freeing you from the tyranny of camp-sites and power outlets. Fantastic, and $100 when it ships in March 2010.

Charge your iPod with your bike [Bike Hugger]

Intrigued by the thought of some SpursEngine-powered video encoding promised by the Leadtek Winfast HPVC1100 external video encoder that first cropped up way back in May? Then it looks like you’re now in luck — if you live in Japan, that is. According to Akihabara News, the device will finally be hitting store shelves in the country sometime this month, and set you back a somewhat hefty ¥40,000, or about $430 — although we’re sure that’s more than acceptable for some folks looking to save some time in the field. Still no word on a release ’round here, unfortunately, although that should be a fairly solid bet if the company’s WinFast PxVC1100 PCI-E card is any indication.

Filed under: Peripherals

SpursEngine-based Winfast HPVC1100 video encoder hits Japan this month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You read right. Sony’s Walkmen are selling more units than Apple’s all-powerful, all conquering iPod. In the week ending August 31st, Sony’s share of portable music player sales hit 43%. The iPod struggled at a terrible 42.1%. Is Sony’s W-series Walkman bringing back Sony’s glory days of the 1980s?

The answer is, predictably, no. It also shows that the financial sector’s obsession with market share is flawed at best. The figures, reported by Bloomberg, give figures for market share in terms of units sold, not in terms of revenue or profits. Here are the prices quoted: Sony’s players all come in at under ¥1000 ($108), whereas Apple’s range from ¥8,800 ($95) to ¥47,800 ($516). Clearly, then, Sony is outdoing Apple at the bottom of the market, but has nothing to rival the top-end (cough netbook cough).

Further, these figures completely exclude the iPhone because it is a “wireless handset” (unlike the iPod Touch, which, wait…). Apple itself has reported dropping sales for the iPod as the iPhone and iPod Touch sell more and more. In fact, sales of vanilla music players fell 13.5% last year in Japan. So the takeaway from this seems to be that Sony has gained victory by challenging a weakened, diminishing enemy and beating it. Well done.

Does this remind you of anything? Barely six weeks ago, Apple was found to sell a huge 91% of computers over $1000.

We’ll finish with a quote from the Bloomberg article, invented by analyst Kazuharu Miura:

“Sony has gained customers seeking less expensive products and those seeking high quality by broadening its lineup.” [emphasis added]

Sony Walkman Outsells IPod for First Time in 4 Years [Bloomberg]

Look, we don’t mean to rain on the 6.5 parade — it’s not even coming out until next month, after all, and both Microsoft and its hardware partners all have a lot riding on its success since competitive pressure from RIM, Nokia, and others is arguably as strong as it’s ever been. Thing is, all signs point to an extraordinarily tight schedule for getting Windows Mobile 7 into customers’ hands hot on the heels of 6.5’s release — and that means both hardware and software need to be very real by now, in the hands of testers, developers, and engineers responsible putting the finishing touches on the platform.

As a key part of its corporate renaissance, Motorola’s made no secret of the fact that it’s placing a heavy emphasis on Android going forward, putting WinMo’s continued role (especially outside Asia) within the company in jeopardy. Thing is, well-trained eyes at UX Evangelist have found a Moto software engineer’s job experience on LinkedIn with app development and migration to Windows Mobile 7 beta — yes, beta — listed front and center. The project’s mentioned for a device codenamed “Caesar,” which would slot in nicely with Moto’s trend of assigning ancient rulers’ names to smartphones ahead of release. We have no idea what Caesar might be, but if everything we’ve heard is true, odds are good that it’d have to comply to Microsoft’s so-called Chassis 1 specifications that require ample touchscreen resolution and processor power. And if 7’s seriously in beta, that means it’s moving right along with a mid-2010 release totally plausible. Sholes repping the Android camp and Caesar holding down WinMo 7? Sounds good to us.

[Via MobileTechWorld]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Motorola’s WinMo ambitions not dead yet: ‘Caesar’ on the way with WinMo 7? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know what would be nice? If Nokia’s Booklet 3G actually made us feel as uplifted and inspired as the music in this fancy new promo video does. And why is it shown running Windows 7 Media Center, which will likely tax the 1.6GHz Atom Z530 and presumably integrated graphics beyond usability, but there aren’t any shots of the Ovi apps in action? Aren’t they the reason we’re supposed to get all excited about paying a huge markup for this thing? And — will using it make our hands look like that? We found only questions in the video beyond the break, but we’re sure some of you have answers.

Continue reading Nokia Booklet 3G gets its very own promo video

Nokia Booklet 3G gets its very own promo video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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