Hasta La Gadget!

Housed in a wooden, painted prototype case, the Notion Ink Adam tablet is rough. But with Pixel Qi dual-mode screen tech on one arm and Nvidia’s Tegra 2 on the other, it’s one of the most exciting devices at CES.

We’ve seen a fair share of Android 2.0 tablets at CES, some of which share not only Android 2.0 with the Adam, but the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, too. But what they don’t have is a Pixel QI transflective screen, a 10.1-inch panel that can switch between backlit LCD mode and low-power electrophoretic reflective mode, which looks more less like E Ink, and which actually gets easier to see in direct sunlight.

We got our first good look at this screen tech this morning, and we covered its weaknesses: the LCD colors aren’t as vivid as a plain LCD’s and suffers at some viewing angles, and the reflective mode suffers from the glossy screen’s glare, but in both modes, it’s good enough. (And Notion honcho Rohan Shravan says he’s working on a fix for the latter issue.) What this means is that no matter what you’re using the device for—browsing the web over 3G, reading an ebook, watching a video—you can switch between screen modes depending on your environment or preference.

As I said before, the device is still in development, so you’re seeing protoype hardware (there’s prospective second model with a curvier exterior, too), untouched software (Rohan promises a custom interface, with a solution for text input other than the awkwardly sized standard keyboard), and unoptimized performance (Android 2.1 should help the interface move a little more quickly). We’ll get a fuller picture of the device come Mobile World Congress in February, as well as pricing info—though we’re assured we’ll be “very happy” about it.

Anyway, you can stack these caveats as high as you want, and the Notion Ink Adam is still taller, if just for this reason:

We repeat: The bullet’s in the chamber. E Ink is going to die.

Continue reading LG Rumor Touch hands-on

LG Rumor Touch hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At one point in time it seemed like iriver had a monopoly on insane, imaginative designs. Sure, it was mostly centered around PMPs, but iriver’s stuff in its heyday was fun enough to make even a screenless MP3 player seem interesting. Lately, however, things seem a little more conservative. Take this iriver Story, for instance: it’s a sexy device that seems very on par with other e-readers on the market… and that’s about it. We played around with it a bit on the show floor, and found the keyboard to be pretty great, the design solid and slim, and the software pretty slow. With all the extra function-specific buttons on the keyboard, there’s less of the arbitrary UI navigation limitations posed by some of the more simplistic e-book readers, but there’s nothing so amazing or useful on the device that it would tempt the Kindle faithful. We’re particularly worried about book load times, but it’ll take some more time with the unit to really see how it stacks up across the board. For now you can check out a video walkthrough of the device after the break.

Continue reading iriver Story e-reader hands-on

iriver Story e-reader hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we approached the just-introduced Viliv P3, we were cautiously optimistic that we were looking at a phone. Needless to say, our hopes would go on to be mercilessly dashed, but in the wake of the carnage, we were still left with an intriguing PMP with a big AMOLED display and an 800MHz Cortex A8 processor. You could argue that the most compelling feature, though, is that it clocks in at just 9.8mm thick — a full 1.7mm thinner than the Nexus One while still managing 800 x 480 resolution. It felt a little creaky, but we were assured that the unit on hand was an early prototype — and honestly, we’d even be willing to take a little creakiness on a production model if you get this kind of thickness (or lack thereof) in return. It’s also got 720p TV-out, storage up to 32GB, optional T-DMB and DAB tuners, an exposed microSD slot on the bottom, and — check this out — Windows CE dual-boot capability, although the unit here only had Android installed. Stuff an HSPA radio in there and call it good, guys. Follow the break for a quick video of the P3 in action.

Continue reading Viliv P3 is like the Zii Egg of devices that don’t run Plaszma OS (hands-on)

Viliv P3 is like the Zii Egg of devices that don’t run Plaszma OS (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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D-Link’s Boxee Box might be the Tegra 2-powered star of CES, but it’s not the only hardware running Boxee — NUU Media’s NUU player runs the grown-up version of XBMC on an Atom processor alongside some other custom apps. It’s also got a 160GB local hard drive and runs a WebKit browser, compared to no local storage and Mozilla on the Boxee Box. What’s more, there’s also a Skype app and Bluetooth support, so you’ll be able to make and take calls from the couch using a headset. Of course, all that means it’ll cost “around $300” instead of the Box’s “under $200” when it launches around March, but we know some of you might spend the extra coin for the more home theater-rack friendly form factor alone. Pics in the gallery, video after the break!

Continue reading NUU Player runs Boxee on Atom

NUU Player runs Boxee on Atom originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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