Hasta La Gadget!

You could say this is one of the odder ways to make something official, but Acer’s Aspire One 521 and 721 have been deemed just that after surfacing at an event today in France. Just as we’d heard the 10-inch 521, is rocking a heretofore unheard of AMD 1.2GHz V105 (single-core) processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, ATI’s Radeon HD 4225 GPU and a penchant for handling 1080p video without breaking a sweat. It’s also equipped with VGA / HDMI outputs, a media card reader, three USB sockets, audio in / out, Ethernet jack and a native 1,024 x 600 resolution. The 11.6-inch 721, on the other hand, has AMD’s newer 1.3GHz Athlon II Neo K325, which similarly sports full HD playback on its 1366×768 resolution screen. And oddly, Acer seems to also have a new Aspire 1551 lying around, which also has an 11.6-inch display and dual-core Athlon II Neo K325/K625 processor options. Sadly, no further details were available, but we suspect they’ll be outed faster than you can turn yourself around, mash play on the video past the break and ping your financial manager to get his / her thoughts on picking this up alongside a new Ditch Witch.

Continue reading Acer Aspire One 521 and 721 spotted in France handling HD video, eying a croissant

Acer Aspire One 521 and 721 spotted in France handling HD video, eying a croissant originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 22:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After a long wait, HTC Droid Eris owners are finally getting Android 2.1 as Verizon begins pushing out the over-the-air update. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20004754-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p

LG on Tuesday provided a sneak peak at the LG Ally, a new Android-based smartphone that will be available on May 20 from Verizon Wireless.

The Ally features a 3.2-inch touch-screen, microSD slot, and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. That keyboard is quite spacious, with easy-to-use, raised keys that will likely satisfy those who find themselves fumbling on other, smaller slide-out options. The Ally comes pre-loaded with the standard Google apps like Gmail and Maps, as well as a “Socialite” widget that will let users aggegate social networks like Twitter or Facebook. It will run Android 2.1.

Five icons are lined up along the bottom of the homescreen, though they can be customized and switched out for other options.

The Ally is being released in conjunction with the movie Iron Man 2, so the phone comes equipped with an “augmented reality” app that will animate an accompanying comic book. Activate the app, aim the phone at images in the comic book, and the drawings will “come alive” and move around the phone’s screen.

LG said it will release additional specs – like what type of processor it is running, camera specs, and pricing — early Tuesday morning. Check back on Gearlog and pcmag.com for details at that point.

UPDATE: Additional specs after the jump.

But first, check out additional pics of the Ally after the jump.

Here’s another exhibit that we could (literally) touch at the British Museum today — Samsung’s new all-in-one touchscreen PC, the U200. We won’t go into another pixel density rant about the 20-inch, but the colors and optical touch sensitivity were good. As for the keyboard, it seemed to have similar issues we dealt with on the P580 laptop, but at least you can just throw it out and get a better one with the U200. Anyhow, help yourself to the rest of our hands-on photos.

Samsung U200 all-in-one desktop hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ll admit it, we really can’t find anything straight-out “wrong” with the LG Ally. Maybe we could muster up a few matters of taste to gripe about, but it really does seem to be a pretty solid QWERTY Android slider. But unfortunately for LG, Verizon, and the good people at Stark Industries, we’re having a lot of trouble stomaching this handset for the mere fact that we’re up to our eyeballs in Android these days; nobody here has bothered to do anything different. When your only claims to fame are a few pixel tweaks on the home screen, categories in the app drawer, and an augmented reality Iron Man app, you’re running the risk of… well, that’s just it, you aren’t running any risk at all. Sure, including a “limited edition” Iron Man comic with every phone sold is a nice touch, but it won’t help you much in two years (or two months) when everybody you know has a better phone than you.

At least LG managed to best the Droid’s landscape QWERTY, with some well-defined keys and decent, clicky action, though the unfortunate layout and an oddly inconsistent key shape keeps that from saving this phone. Specs-wise it’s just what we had been hearing: Android 2.1, a 3.2 megapixel camera (with a flash), a nicely side-accessible microSD slot for the included 4GB SD card, and that mid-range Qualcomm MSM7627 processor. Hopefully Verizon can announce a bargain basement price (we’re figuring $99 or less is a shoe-in), otherwise we want that GW990 back pronto. No word on release date, either, but we should be learning more tomorrow.

LG Ally works its Iron Man cred, leaves a few loose ends to tie up originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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