Rumored HTC tablet project both confirmed and suspended in one fell swoop

Remember those rumored HTC Android / Chrome OS touch tablets that were supposedly being shown behind the scenes at CES? In a brief statement given to Australia’s Channel News, Sales and Marketing Director Anthony Petts not only confirms the existence of the aforementioned project, he also announces in the same breath —
way to be efficient, guys — that the slates are on hold as the company is now “focusing their efforts on a new generation of mobile phones.” He’s not saying never, but don’t get your hopes up for the near future. At any rate, if a 4.3-inch device like the HTC HD2 is still considered a phone by its standards, we can be happy with that — maybe they can try five on for size while they’re at it.

Rumored HTC tablet project both confirmed and suspended in one fell swoop originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Novelty Pop-up Placemats

Novelty%20Pop-up%20Placemats.jpg

Babygadget: Sometimes it feels like we’ll do anything to amuse our children at mealtimes, in the interest of getting ourselves a little peace and quiet to enjoy the food. If you’ve exhausted the possibilities of novelty plates, cutlery, and all the rest of it, it could be time you invested in some pop-up jungle placemats.

The little paper fellows accompanying your kid as he eats are a nice idea in themselves, but when you add in the stickers showing different choices of clothes and faces, well now, you really have bought yourself some adult talking time. Just the thing to keep safely until your next family gathering.

Pop-up placemats – yet another way to keep them happy at the table [Babygadget]

KIST Mahru-Z waits on you very, very slowly

We’ve seen KIST‘s Marhu robot tooling around here before, but now they’re showing off the latest models, the Mahru-Z (with some help from Mahru-M), in some super useful scenarios. Mahru-Z and M have been successfully demonstrating their service abilities by carrying cups of tea, and retrieving toast from toasters and delivering it as well. The Z-version bot is a bit shorter than previous iterations, and also sports different, more dextrous arms. He stands about 4 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 122 pounds. Both bots are networked and use 3D object recognition in their task completion. Overall, the improvements to the Mahru bots are iterative, but it sure is great to hear that one day we’ll have someone to bring our breakfast to us in bed. Video is after the break.

Continue reading KIST Mahru-Z waits on you very, very slowly

KIST Mahru-Z waits on you very, very slowly originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer Aspire 3811TZ and 3811TZG get Greenpeace stamp of approval

So Acer’s new Aspire 3811TZ and Aspire 3811TZG may not be puke-green like Sony’s VAIO W Eco, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t some of the greenest — as in eco-friendly — laptops out there. Part of the company’s thin-and-light Timeline series, the two 13.3-inch laptops have been named by Greenpeace as being completely free of those bad-for-the-environment materials, including PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and BFR (brominated flame retardants). Powered by Intel ULV Core 2 Duo CPUs, they are more power-efficient than most and last longer on a charge. There doesn’t seem to be an official statement from Acer on availability and price on these models, but we assume like the rest of the Timeline bunch there will be models both north and south of a grand.

Acer Aspire 3811TZ and 3811TZG get Greenpeace stamp of approval originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next week’s Apple event to be iLife / iPhone OS 4.0 / tablet trifecta?

We’re realistically no closer to knowing the outcome of next week’s Apple event than we were a week, a year, or a decade ago, but rumors are obviously congealing around the mythical tablet that users, fans, and media have all but willed into existence recently — and our buddy Clayton Morris says that’s indeed a part of the story. Morris reports having spoken with a source at Apple this morning — prior to the company’s invites going out, interestingly — who said that the event would focus on a new version of iLife, iPhone OS 4.0, and naturally, the tablet.

Loosely speaking, you can see how these would all tie together pretty nicely: the seemingly “creative” theme of Apple’s invite rolls into a new version of iLife, and the announcement of a tablet could have implications for how a suite of artsy tools gets used. Rumblings that the tablet is underpinned by a new version of iPhone OS have gone back months, so that would give Apple impetus to tease it at the same time the tablet’s shown off — sans new iPhone hardware, possibly, which the company has done before. It’s also possible that Apple will open source its entire catalog of software and shut down, buy an island nation, or do nothing at all — but in fairness, there’s an awful lot of logic to what Clayton’s saying here. We’ll know soon enough.

Next week’s Apple event to be iLife / iPhone OS 4.0 / tablet trifecta? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tiny ninjas unbox the Nexus One on Google’s dime


Wondering where Froyo is? It seems the boys and girls in Mountain View took a quick breather to commission one of the crazier stop-action short films we’ve seen in a while — and probably the craziest stop-action unboxing we’ve ever seen. If you questioned the Nexus One’s real ultimate power before watching this, you won’t any longer. Follow the break for video!

[Thanks, NordicOten]

Continue reading Tiny ninjas unbox the Nexus One on Google’s dime

Tiny ninjas unbox the Nexus One on Google’s dime originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aperion Home Audio Link promises to let you go wireless with ease

Looking for a wireless home audio system but not interested in adding any additional docks, speakers or sound systems to your humble abode? Then you might be the sort of individual Aperion is targeting with its new Home Audio Link (or HAL, naturally), which promises to simply let you stream audio from any device to the audio system of your choice (up to three of them, in fact). Similarly to the Mint Studio iPod dock we checked out a few months back, this one passes over WiFi in favor of the plain old 2.4GHz band, which the folks at Gear Patrol say held up plenty well in their tests, with no signs of interference or distortion to be found. Somewhat notably, you can also use the system to wirelessly connect a powered subwoofer, and Aperion is apparently planning on introducing some new subwoofers of its own complete with built-in USB ports to make setup even easier. No timeline for those just yet, but you’ll be able to snag the Home Audio Link on January 28th for $150, with additional receivers available for $70 apiece.

Aperion Home Audio Link promises to let you go wireless with ease originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePRWeb, Gear Patrol  | Email this | Comments

Boeing 787 Dreamliner achieves airworthiness

Boeing announces a major milestone in testing of Dreamliner–its initial airworthiness.

ITG xpPhone gets a price, more pretty pictures

If you’re China-based and you think there might be an xpPhone in your future, we’ve got some news for you: according to an email from ITG, the device will cost from 3,000 – 4,500 Chinese RMB (or about $400 – $650), depending on options. Funny how the world works — put Windows XP on a laptop and it’s yawn city, then you go and put the same OS on a handset and the thing is a bona fide curiosity. We also have a few new shots of the thing, and now we’re we won’t be stingy with ’em. Take a look below to get your Ya-Ya’s out.

ITG xpPhone gets a price, more pretty pictures originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Mobile 7 megarumor: LG Apollo and HTC Obsession running flagship ‘720p’ specs, Zune Phone Experience

Alright, this is some wild, heavy stuff, but the folks at WMExperts have compiled what they believe to be true about Windows Mobile 7, including a whole bunch of previously undisclosed info and even a couple of flagship phones. We can’t vouch for the rumors, but there’s a ring of truth to plenty of it, and most of the rest of it we want to be true. First off, Microsoft is approaching the revision with two flavors: Windows Phone Seven Business Edition, and Windows Phone Seven Media Edition. The former is a stripped down OS that will allow OEM overlays like HTC’s Sense UI, and includes lower minimum specs — though a WVGA “minimum” is nothing to get angry about. Meanwhile, it sounds like the Media Edition is the quasi-“Zune Phone” we’ve been dreaming of, with a heavy emphasis on HD media playback and capture, along with social networking activities like Xbox Live, Facebook and Twitter. Other features include cloud-style services on the Business Edition side for live manipulation of stored data, a long with a location-aware platform dubbed “Orion.”

This all sounds great, but what’s really exciting is what Microsoft is dictating should be in some of these Media Edition phones. The first two to break cover are the LG Apollo and HTC Obsession. The Apollo is a 3G worldphone (EV-DO and HSDPA) that runs a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 processor and a 3.8-inch AMOLED 1280 x 720 WXGA display. The phone also is purported to have a 10 megapixel camera capable of 720p video recording. Meanwhile, HTC’s HSDPA-limited Obsession runs a mere 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 proc, with a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera and 720p video recording. The Apollo is due in August or September of this year, with the Obsession following in October. Now, some of these specs are admittedly suspect, like the WXGA resolution on the Apollo and that seemingly 10 megapixel sensor, but we want to believe.

As for what we know to be true? Well, we know we’ll see something at MWC next month, unless Robbie Bach is just joshing around, and we also know HTC has confirmed its involvement with Windows Mobile 7 — lending some credence to rumors of the Sense UI sticking around for a new-generation — and that LG has gone on (and quickly off) record as well saying it’ll have a WinMo 7 phone in September. It’s all a lot more vague than the pages of specs we’re staring at now, but it’s clear that something is brewing. Hit up the source link for the full nitty gritty.

Windows Mobile 7 megarumor: LG Apollo and HTC Obsession running flagship ‘720p’ specs, Zune Phone Experience originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WMPoweruser (HTC confirm)  |  sourceWMExperts  | Email this | Comments