Hasta La Gadget!

Few reporting on Microsoft are as plugged in to the day-to-day happenings in Redmond as Mary Jo Foley. So much so that she’s apt to write an entire column (or two) about internal Microsoft reorganizations — moves that can be telling from a company attempting to seamlessly integrate its Zune, Xbox, Media Center, and Windows Mobile products, services, and experiences. While you might find it interesting that Enrique Rodriguez has left the company in the latest shakeup to hit MS’ Entertainment and Devices unit, the following sentence presented as fact is what caught our attention:

“Pink is the codename for both the set of premium mobile services and one or more Windows Mobile phones aimed at the teen/twenty-something market.”

Of course, what she’s referring to is the infamous Project Pink, the mystery whatsit said to be emanating from the Microsoft Premium Mobile eXperiences (PMX) group built around the people and technologies nabbed after the Danger acquisition. We’re also intrigued by the discussion of Pink in a separate breath from the consumer build of Windows Mobile 7. This makes us wonder if Microsoft is working on a three-pronged strategy that will result in targetted Windows Mobile 7 business and consumer devices as well as Pink phones specifically aimed at teens and twenty-somethings. Mary Jo Foley speculates that the Pink devices might be the first to run Microsoft’s new premium Pink services but still be WinMo 6.x based — if true then we could see a launch this quarter, no need to wait for Windows Mobile 7 which isn’t expected until the end of the year. How many days until Mobile World Congress again?

[Thanks, Pratik]

Microsoft Pink targeting teens and twenty-somethings, devices launching in Spring? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our Intel Arrandale / Clarkdale review bonanza was sprinkled with a few graphics benchmarks, but there was never a concerted effort to break down the specific upgrades on the 45nm GPU that comes as part of the new CPU package. That omission has now been corrected by Bit-tech, who’ve delved deep into the murky waters of embedded graphics and report that Intel’s focus appears to have been firmly on video playback. Noting full bitstreaming, (our HD editors inform us that’s a big deal), Blu-ray with picture-in-picture, and HDMI 1.3a support, the lads commended the “very smooth” 1080p playback of h.264-encoded video. While their conclusion about gaming was less glowing — finding that Intel’s latest gen only keeps up with older hardware — they couldn’t help but recommend the new processors on account of their feature-rich video playback and energy efficiency. More benchmarks at the source link.

Intel GMA HD graphics review deems them excellent for video, mediocre for gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Any book-light will work with your e-reader, but a purpose-made one will at least grip properly to the slim top of your Kindle, Sony Reader or Nook without wobbling loose. And if you own an actual Kindle, the Kandle is the perfect aesthetic match.

The clip-on LED Kandle costs $40 (current sale price $25) and folds down into a small, white, pocket-sized pod. A glance a the photos shows that it casts the usual cold light that comes from LEDs, a crying shame when all you want is the warm and cosy 3,000 Kelvin of an incandescent bulb, something easily done with a filter.

Still, as book lights go, this one looks pretty good. I remain a fan of reading in the almost-dark, choosing to believe that this will exercise my eyes (just as exerting any other muscle will improve its tone), and not destroy them as everybody in the world likes to (mistakenly) tell me. And when I’m actually in bed, I read from my iPod Touch so as not to disturb the Lady. One day, though, when I am single an almost blind, I shall buy myself a Kandle.

Kandle LED Book Light with new WideLip grip designed for the Amazon Kindle [Amazon via Oh Gizmo]

Business cards work because most everyone has them. And if they don’t, it doesn’t matter: the transaction still works with a single card. Electronic business cards, like Poken, do not work. And they never will until everybody you want to swap details with is using the exact same application or widget.

But that isn’t stopping Poken from trying. The Poken itself is a little USB keychain in the shape of a “cute” character, with a large, fold-out hand. To exchange details, each Pokenator (we made that word up) must flip open the hand and then touch it to the other Poken in an annoying this-is-what-the-hip-kids-are-all-doing high-five.

Once precious bodily fluids have been successfully intermingled via RF, a light will flash green and you can promiscuously move on to the next hot thing in the room, for up to 50 different people. Once back at the computer, you can plug in and enjoy all the new contact details, as well as profiles for most social networking sites.

There are two main Poken models, the Spark and the Pulse. The $20 Spark is Poken-only, and the $35 Pulse also has 2GB of flash memory. Both, we predict, are doomed to failure, although the Poken FAQ does address the problem of critical mass: The entry points out that no cellphone based interchange has worked because they are unwieldy, or don’t work cross platform. We’d agree, and add that for this to even begin to work, the device and software should be ubiquitous.

So we present our solution. Apple should build this in to the contacts app of the iPhone and iPod Touch. So many people already have these that the tipping point has already been reached. But that software has to be already there, baked in, and not even a free download from the app store.

Poken Beta [Poken. Thanks, Alan!]

There’s little point in trying to disguise our interest any time a 4.8-inch multifunctional device is mentioned, so let’s get straight to the good stuff here. Cowon’s V5 HD already got a little teaser video and a full spec dish ahead of its Korean launch, but for the vast majority of us non-Korean folk, this PMP remains a distant and unfortunately mysterious object of desire. Sure, we know it can pump out 720p and has HDMI and Composite outputs, but what’s it like to use? The video after the break does a pretty thorough job of going through the UI, and though it alarmed us with its extensive stylus use, we were eventually soothed by some buttery smooth video playback. Go check it out.

[Thanks, x3v]

Continue reading Cowon V5 HD gets extensive UI video demo

Cowon V5 HD gets extensive UI video demo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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