Hasta La Gadget!

Hey there, Mini GD880 — we’ve seen plenty of you around here lately — but we were beginning to wonder if you’d ever get totally, completely, 100 percent official. Well, here we are, day two of MWC, and it was definitely worth the wait. LG’s latest featurephone packs a 5 megapixel cam, WiFi, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and integrated FM radio into a frame that’s just 10.6mm in depth and weighs just 99 grams — about as thin and light as it gets. It also boasts continual over-the-air syncing via LG‘s new Air Sync service, making it a pretty smart phone — for a featurephone. The Mini GD880 will be available throughout Europe beginning in March, for an as yet undetermined amount of cash money. The full press release is after the break, but if your heart is filled with desire for this beast, you can hit up the hands-on and impressions in the more coverage link for more photos.

Continue reading LG Mini GD880 finally gets a full on announcement at MWC

LG Mini GD880 finally gets a full on announcement at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 7 Phone Series, the brand new (and great) cellphone OS from Microsoft, will ship without support for Adobe’s Flash. WinMo 7 joins Apple’s iPhone and iPad in ignoring the widely used browser plugin. Could this be the end for the annoying, processor-hungry runtime?

In an email sent to Information week, an Adobe spokesperson said the following:

Microsoft and Adobe are working closely together. While the newest version of Windows Phone won’t support Flash at initial availability, both companies are working to include a browser plug-in for the full Flash player in future versions of Windows Phone. More details will be shared at Microsoft MIX next month.

We’re sure that Adobe wants to put Flash onto Windows Phone 7, but perhaps Microsoft would prefer to use its own Silverlight plugin instead. This news comes with ironic timing: Adobe has finally announced Flash for Google’s Android platform, although we’ll have to see if it takes off.

These shenanigans really hurt nobody but Adobe. The fewer new platforms that support Flash, the better, for the consumer at least. We might miss out on Hulu in the short term, but if you think website owners and content providers are committed to Flash itself, you’re nuts. If the world moves on, they’ll just re-code their sites, especially as HTML 5 has native support for video, the main use for Flash on the web.

In the meantime, as Adobe’s tech gradually fades away, we can enjoy cooler machines, less browser crashes and longer battery life.

Windows Mobile 7 Won’t Get Flash [Information Week]

Photo: Charlie Sorrel

See Also:

• Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Series
• Microsoft Blends Zune Media, Xbox Live Into New Phone OS

It’s been a good run, XEL-1, but you knew this day would come. After wowing just about everyone with your 3mm thickness and stunning base back in late 2007, we suspect that most normal humans decided to pass right on by after the drooling process was complete. After all, it’s not like too many Earthlings have nearly $2,000 to drop on an 11-inch set. Since the display’s debut, few other OLED TVs have made it to the commercial market in any size, and there’s no question that cost is largely to blame. Today, Sony announced that it was pulling the plug on XEL-1 sales and production in Japan, citing “sluggish demand” as the cause. For now, the outfit will continue to hawk the miniaturized wonder in other nations, but we get the feeling that’s only to dry up remaining inventory. Oh, and if you’re one of those “collector” types, snapping one up right now might not be the worst idea.

[Thanks, Trevor]

Update: It’s worth pointing out that a Japanese report from AV Watch notes that the discontinuation is going down for another reason. Reportedly, Japan is forcing TV makers to integrate a “youth control filter” into their wares, presumably in an effort to shield those precious eyes from the evils of the content world. Sony’s obviously not interested in complying, but this could just be a great excuse to nix a product that’s already collecting too must dust on retail shelves.

Sony kills XEL-1 OLED TV production in Japan, cites ‘sluggish demand’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BARCELONA, Spain — Cellphones aren’t the only things on display at the Mobile World Congress show. Motorola is showing off its new headset, the Golden-i, a joint venture with mini-display maker Kopin.

The headset is a prototype hands-free terminal for use in construction or other tough environments where the user has his hands busy, but still needs a computer. Designed to fit under a construction helmet, the Golden-i puts a tiny screen up close to the eye which gives the equivalent of a 15-inch display, and also has a headphone, a microphone along with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for talking to other devices.

The headset is voice-controlled, and I tried it out. Once you have adjusted the eyepiece for your eyesight, you simply read off the names of the icons to access them: My Music, My Pictures and so on. The voice detection software, supplied by Nuance and called VoCon3200, ignores normal conversation, only listening to commands when there is a gap first, so you can say “my pictures” as part of sentence and it will be ignored.

The software worked for me every time, although saying “enhance” didn’t do anything, even though it felt like it should. The headset also tracks the position of your head, so you can move around and have, say, picture overlaid on reality stay put.

The Golden-i will need to be ruggedized before it goes to market. The current version, which looks a lot like a 1980s Tomy toy, is tough enough for the office, but not for a construction site.

Photo: Charlie Sorrel

Kopin Announces Availability of Golden-iTM Developer Kits [PR Inside]

Well, we just got a little up close and personal with HTC‘s “superphone,” the Desire. What you’re looking at is basically the Nexus One, sans trackball (though plus an optical touch area). Certainly the specs are the same, though you’ve got the new Sense UI on board for good measure. At a glance the phone actually doesn’t seem as snappy as we were expecting, and there are obviously a few kinks to work out with some of the new Sense concepts (Leap for instance — the pinch-to-card view — was giving our demo person some trouble). Still, the Desire is definitely high on our gadget lust list right now. We’re obviously reserving final judgment for a later date, but until we get some more time with this guy, feast your eyes on the gallery below.

Update: Added a quick video after the break showing the Sense UI… not behaving.

Update 2: We’ve been told by an HTC rep that the Sense build on the Desire unit we played with is actually quite early, so it’s probably not indicative of the actual performance of the pinch-to-card view. We played with a Legend that had a later, nearly final build of the UI and it was definitely snappier and more responsive.

Continue reading HTC Desire first hands-on (updated with video)

HTC Desire first hands-on (updated with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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