T-Mobile USA said that it will expand its HSPA+ network across the United States in 2010. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10453902-78.html” class=”origPostedBlog”3GSM blog/a/p
BARCELONA — Did you know that your eyes are electric? NTT Docomo does, and has harnessed their potential (ahem) to control your MP3 player.
The Eye-Controlled Earphones, on show at the Mobile World Congress, have electrodes around the outside of the ‘buds. These electrodes, called “electroculograms” (EOG), detect tiny difference in the electrical potential of the eyes as they move. The eye is positive at the cornea and negative at the retina. As the eyes move, the potential around it changes, and these changes can be used to control things.
Now, you don’t want to skip tracks every time you look to the right, so there is a code involved, much like those used to play the classic Virtua Fighter, with its double-tap joypad commands. Here at the show, we were treated to a demo. To play/pause the track, you look left then right. To skip, look either left or right twice in succession, returning to the center each time. And for volume, you rotate your gaze clockwise or counter-clockwise.
As you can see in the picture, the poor demo guy ended up looking like a white-eyed zombie most of the time. The hit rate was good, though, and an on-screen graph showed the detection as it happened. And as the tech works with eyes open or closed, it could certainly be useful. You can even answer the phone, so next time your boss calls you on a Sunday and you roll your eyes, it’ll be totally legit.
HTC introduces three new smartphones at Mobile World Congress 2010, the Android-based HTC Legend and Desire and the Windows Mobile-based HTC HD Mini. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10453718-78.html” class=”origPostedBlog”3GSM blog/a/p
The one thing you’ll never see on a stock Nexus One is a skinned interface like Sense or TouchWiz — they’re just not Google enough for a phone commissioned and sold directly by Mountain View. Thing is, Sense on Android has plenty of fans, and the mere thought of running it on something with as much oomph as a 1GHz Snapdragon brings tears to our eyes. The solution? The Desire, of course, featuring virtually all of the original Nexus One’s mojo with a little less direct Google support, a little more Sense, and a trackpad in place of the old trackball. The 3.7-inch AMOLED display carries over, but things get interesting on the software side: not only do you get HTC’s freshly-updated Sense with Friend Stream, you also get Flash 10.1 compatibility, which means you need every clock cycle of that 1GHz more than you ever thought you would. Unfortunately, North Americans, you’re getting screwed on this one for the time being — HTC is only announcing that it’ll be “broadly available” throughout Europe and Asia in the early part of the second quarter, while it’ll come to Australia via Telstra. Supersonic, care to save us?
Update: Promo video is now after the break (thanks, O’Neill!), and our hands-on with the device at MWC can be found here.
Gallery: HTC Desire
Continue reading HTC Desire: your Nexus One with Sense and Flash has arrived (video)
HTC Desire: your Nexus One with Sense and Flash has arrived (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
HTC | Email this | Comments
If you thought that machining a phone from a single block of aluminum might cause RF issues in a phone… well, you can apparently think again, because HTC just went there with its freshly-introduced Legend. The rumored and leaked device becomes a proper successor for HTC’s time-tested Hero by upgrading the LCD to a 3.2-inch AMOLED display (while still carrying over the old HVGA resolution) and moving up from a trackball to one of those newfangled optical trackpads, though this one’s got a bit of a twist: it’s surrounded by a clickable button. The phone runs Android 2.1 with a series of brand new Sense enhancements, most notably the addition of a “Friend Stream” widget that aggregates friends’ status updates across services (a trend we’ve been seeing a lot of lately). We’re not hearing about North American availability at this point, but it’ll hit Vodafone and direct sales channels in Europe in “early” second quarter.
Update: Check out the promo video after the break!
Continue reading HTC Legend takes the Hero to new heights of aluminum
HTC Legend takes the Hero to new heights of aluminum originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | HTC | Email this | Comments
Update: Promo video is now live after the break!
Gallery: HTC HD mini
Continue reading HTC HD mini launched at MWC
HTC HD mini launched at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
We reckon this is a story with something for everyone. Microsoft zealots can see Apple’s hardware burnt beyond melting point, while Cupertino loyalists can enjoy the fact that the iMac lived on after it. Anders Norman of Sweden recently suffered a major house fire, but has emerged from it with some good humor and a scorched but amazingly still functional computer. He tells us that even the mouse’s scroll wheel is operational and he took a picture of the iMac displaying the local news website’s report of his home’s unfortunate demise. Click the source link for more pictures.
[Thanks, Robert]
iMac burns, melts, survives to tell the gruesome tale originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
TUAW | Feber.se | Email this | Comments
Direct sunlight — is there anything more terrifying for an OLED screen? Up until now, you had to sacrifice some outdoor performance from your phone’s display in order to get the spectacular contrast and viewing angles on offer from OLEDs. Up until now. Samsung’s Wave has been taken for a quick spin by Dutch publication portablegear and while we’ve no idea what their feedback on the phone was, the moving pictures speak for themselves. The phone remains entirely readable and usable in spite of the bright environment around it — if you question how much light is hitting it, just take a look at the hand of the person holding it — and color saturation is maintained throughout. Samsung promised us a great media experience on the handset, but this quick demo places its Super AMOLED tech a clear step above… well, every other display out there. The wildly impressive video awaits after the break, and you can find more imagery and our hands-on impressions here.
Continue reading Samsung Wave shows what’s Super about its AMOLED display by going outdoors (video)
Samsung Wave shows what’s Super about its AMOLED display by going outdoors (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink OLED-Info | portablegear.nl | Email this | Comments
Continue reading Live from HTC’s MWC 2010 press event
Live from HTC’s MWC 2010 press event originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
During Deutsche Telekom’s press conference this morning at MWC, Cole Brodman — T-Mobile USA’s CTO — went on record with the news that it’ll be launching its first 21Mbps HSPA+ USB modem next month across the country, the webConnect Rocket. Of course, there isn’t a lot of live 21Mbps footprint in T-Mobile’s network right now — in fact, only Philly is fully operational — but there should be plenty more cities from coast to coast where you can enjoy DSL-shaming wireless speeds later this year. That might not be the most exciting news, though: Brodman also finally fessed up to the HD2 (unbranded version pictured above), which will be exclusive to T-Mobile in the US. It’s arguably pretty bad timing in light of the Windows Phone 7 Series announcement yesterday, but a huge win nonetheless — the phone is a legitimate beast. Like the webConnect Rocket, it’ll be hitting in March, though exact dates and prices for either have yet to be revealed.
Update: T-Mobile had previously hinted that there’s be some surprised in store for the US release of the HD2, and indeed, there are; it’s got Blockbuster On Demand integrated for downloading movies directly to the device, a Barnes & Noble eReader app for enjoying the Nook’s digital library right on the phone, and — for some reason we don’t fully appreciate — Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen bundled on the included microSD. Full PR after the break — and reader Qasim points out that T-Mobile’s HD2 website is now live as well.
Continue reading T-Mobile launching 21Mbps webConnect Rocket, HTC HD2 next month
T-Mobile launching 21Mbps webConnect Rocket, HTC HD2 next month originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
