Hasta La Gadget!

Milled from a single piece of aluminum much like their Legend phone (only, with some plastic this time ’round), the Desire Z is as far removed from HTC’s previous slide-out Android, the G1, as you could possibly hope. More »

HTC has just announced the Desire Z, an Android-friendly QWERTY slider. Like the T-Mobile G2, the Desire Z features a “pop-out” (don’t call it a slider) QWERTY keyboard with user assigned keys and system-wide shortcuts that let you quickly launch your favorite apps. Around back you’ve got a 5 megapixel camera with flash that’s HD video capable while an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230 processor pumps away efficiently inside with HSPA+ and 802.11n radios providing the data. Unlike the US G2, however, the Deisre Z comes loaded with HTC’s enhanced Sense UI and new HTCSense.com services. Look for it to land in major European and Asian markets in October before hitting North America sometime later in 2010.

Continue reading HTC Desire Z is the QWERTY slider your Android’s been waiting for

HTC Desire Z is the QWERTY slider your Android’s been waiting for originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nikon’s hot new video-shooting D7000 is – on paper – a replacement for the D90. In reality, it puts pretty much every other Nikon crop-frame SLR to shame, and will sit bang in-between the still strong D90 and the top-end D300s.

To show you just how good this $1,200 camera is, let’s compare it to Nikon’s flagship APS-sensor model, the $1,500 D300s. I’ll put the more expensive camera’s specs in brackets. The D700 has 16.2 megapixels (12.3), shoots at up to ISO 6400 (3200) in regular mode, captures 1080p video (720p) at 24fps. More surprisingly, both have magnesium alloy bodies and 100% coverage in the viewfinder (both pentaprisms, not dimmer mirrors). The D7000 even beats the D300s with its exposure-meter, using a 2016-pixel sensor (1005 pixels).

In fact, the only places the D300s clearly wins are in autofocus, with 51 focus points against “just” 39, and memory card format. The D7000 has a pair of SD slots, and the D300s uses the faster and harder-to-lose Compact Flash.

So how does it perform? Handsome, bestubbled photographer and friend of Gadget Lab Chase Jarvis has had a bagful of D7000s for a few months now, and Nikon gave him a another bag full of cash to shoot a movie. The results are pretty great, as you can see for yourself:

Chase actually strapped one of the cameras to a toy, remote-control helicopter to get some of the shots (without telling Nikon, of course), which shows another advantage of the D7000: at just 1.7-pounds (780g) it is smaller and lighter than the 2.2-pound (918g) D300, and almost identical to the D90.

This camera shows us one other thing: that competition is good. Nikon and Canon are locked into a battle that keeps producing more and more amazing kit. Nikon’s D3 took high-ISO shooting to a whole new level, while Canon was concentrating on cameras that shoot great video. Now, both manufacturers are catching up to each other, and we have this new D7000 and Canon’s fantastic EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) to show for it.

And wait, there’s more. Nikon has also launched a new speedlight, the SB700, and a couple of lenses: a 35mm AFS ƒ1.4G (the S means it has its own motor inside, the G means no aperture ring) for $1,800 and a 200mm ƒ2G for $6,000. If you’re a Nikon shooter with some cash to spend, today is probably a very good day for you. And all this before the Photokina show kicks off next week.

D7000 product page [Nikon. Thanks, Geoffrey!]

Nikon D7000: Camera Road Test With Chase Jarvis [Chase Jarvis]

See Also:

• Canon Rebel T2i
• Nikon D300s: Next-Gen Camera Specs and Screen-Shot Leaked
• Nikon Announces Video-Shooting D300s and More

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Come on tough guy, step right up. $20 says a roundhouse kick to the casing won’t even scratch the bad boy you’re peering at above. Well, unless you’re rockin’ a pair of Kenny Powers’ K-Swiss Tubes. Asides aside, Sweden’s own Handheld Group has just introduced its latest rugged offering, the 10.1-inch Algiz XRW, which is powered by Intel’s 2GHz Atom Z550 and Windows 7 Ultimate. Other specs include a 64GB SSD, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a pair of USB 2.0 sockets, inbuilt Bluetooth / WiFi, GPS, 2 megapixel webcam and an optional (but totally necessary) Gobi 2000 WWAN module. The whole thing tips the scales at just 3.3 pounds, and that’s including the IP65 / MIL-STD-810F rated enclosure, which is fully capable of rejecting dust, water, debris and mythical powers of persuasion. We’re told that the internal battery can keep things humming for eight solid hours, and in case you’re wondering, that 1366 x 768 resolution panel is of the daylight viewable variety. Mum’s the word on pricing, but the first shipments should head out in December for those with a brutal winter ahead.

Continue reading Algiz XRW: 10-inches of rugged, well-specced laptop nirvana

Algiz XRW: 10-inches of rugged, well-specced laptop nirvana originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 06:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tired of using PlayOn’s web app to enjoy content on your iPod touch and iPhone? Tired of being left out altogether if you’re on an iPad? Fret not, dear content consumers — PlayOn has today released a highly anticipated update to its own software that adds iPad compatibility, enabling users to stream material from Hulu, Netflix, Comedy Central, ABC, CBS, MTV and ESPN3 (among others) over WiFi and 3G. Unfortunately, those of you in that first camp will have to remain there until Apple gets its approval act in order, but at least those who splurged on a tablet can now make better use of it thanks to Safari and HTML5. Hit the press release after the break for access details.

Continue reading PlayOn update brings iPad compatibility, streams over 3G and WiFi

PlayOn update brings iPad compatibility, streams over 3G and WiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 06:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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