Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia may be the underdog in the smartphone industry but it is fighting hard to beat competition. The company has introduced three new smartphones running Symbian operating system. The devices also integrate with the company’s improved Ovi services and apps store.

The three new phones are the Nokia E7, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6. Though display sizes and features vary across them, the devices have in common support for multiple homescreens and visual multitasking.

The phones are all expected to begin shipping before the end of the year.

Nokia has faced criticism for the user interface and Symbian operating system powering its phones. The company’s hardware and industrial design on phones have won it kudos but when it comes to the user experience, even die-hard Nokia fans hesitate to pronounce it the best. Meanwhile, the rise of Android OS and the proliferation of Apple’s iPhone has put additional pressure on Nokia.

Nokia says it remains confident that Symbian OS can stay ahead and to ensure that it has rewritten parts of the OS to make it faster and easier to use.

“Despite new competition, Symbian remains the most widely used smartphone platform in the world,” says Niklas Savander, executive vice president at Nokia in a statement.

Though the new phones sound like an alphabet soup, here’s the lowdown on each. There’s no word on the processor used in any of these phones but Nokia has offered enough details to get consumers excited about the devices.

Nokia E7

The E7 is Nokia’s new phone targeted at business users. The device has a 4-inch touchscreen, access to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, security features such as lock and wipe functionality and access to Microsoft Share Point Server.

The phone has a full keyboard in a design similar to that of the Motorola Droid.

The E7 is pretty slim, about 13.6mm thick.  It has a 8-megapixel camera and comes with 16 GB of on-board storage.

The E7 also boasts an HDMI connection and Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound. Users can customize up to three homescreens and get updates from Facebook and Twitter on their homescreens. The E7 will offer about 9 hours of talk time and 18 days of standby time.

The device will cost about 495 Euros ($645), excluding taxes and subsidies.

Nokia C7

The C7 is a phone for social media addicts. The device pulls feeds from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and integrates email from Yahoo, Gmail and other accounts to show them directly on the home screen.

The C7 features a 3.5-inch AMOLED display and is about 10.5 mm thick. It has a 8-megapixel camera and can shoot video at 720p resolution. The phone has 8GB of onboard storage–expandable to 40 GB with microSD.

The device is estimated to be priced at 335 Euros ($437), excluding taxes and subsidies.

Nokia C6

The C6 is the baby of the group. The phone has a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display. And as with the C7, this phone will have a 8-megapixel camera.  It will support microSD up to 32 GB and capture HD video in 720p.

The C6 will cost about 260 Euros ($339), excluding taxes and subsidies.

See Also:

• Nokia Phones Hacked to Run Android
• Nokia N8 Packs Every Known Feature into Sleek Slab
• Nokia Announces Bike-Powered Phone Charger
• Nokia Gives Away Free, Lifetime Navigation App

Photos: Nokia

When you think about it, iPod docks don’t make sense. Why do you have
to dock Apple’s mp3 player into a speaker dock when recent models come
with Bluetooth support? With XtremeMac’s Tango TRX, you can use
Bluetooth 2.1 and beam your music from your mp3 player to the speakers
wirelessly.

If your iPod doesn’t support Bluetooth, or you keep it disabled, you
can still dock your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPod into the front of Tango
TRX. The Tango TRX supports other portable music players, by means of a
line-in jack.

The speakers consist of two midrange drivers, two dome tweeters and a downward firing subwoofer.

The Tango TRX D, an Apple exclusive model, adds a separate charging dock for your iPod/iPhone/iPad.

There is also a remote control app which allows you to tweak the audio
as well as adjust the various EQ settings. The app is available for
free on the App Store.

The basic model is priced at $179.99 and is available now. 

A company called iMainGo has combined two commonly requested tasks into a nifty little case called iMainGo 2. It is a protective case and an ultra-portable speaker in one.

Considering how much smartphones and music players cost, having a case to keep them safe is plain practical. And sometimes, we like having speakers to listen to the music without headphones. It’s about time someone thought to combine them into a single box.

Smaller than a mass trade paperback, the iMainGo 2 has a pair of 2.5W speakers on one side. It has a tuned bass port and it will connect to any 3.5mm headphone jack.

The speakers are powered by four AAA batteries.

A clear sleeve on the other side lets you see and control your device. The touchscreen functions work fine through the sleeve.

The case is made from neoprene that is waterproof.

The iMainGo 2 is currently available for $40.

Among the various demos at IDF today, Acer showed off its Revo 2 sporting a special treat — Windows Media Center Embedded. A quick perusal of the menus (video is embedded after the break) showed off the same live TV / internet streaming video integration we’ve come to expect from Media Center, although obviously running on a simpler dedicated box. Acer’s aiming for availability in the first half of 2011, we’ll see if this setup can do any damage in the set-top box / media streamer wars.

Continue reading Acer shows off Windows Media Center Embedded at IDF (video)

Acer shows off Windows Media Center Embedded at IDF (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

You may not expect a company like Ericsson to be making ways at Intel’s Developer Forum, but that’s exactly what’s going down today in the City by the Bay. First up is the second generation F3307 mobile broadband module, which was designed to bring the goodness of 3G to upcoming Oak Trail tablets. It’ll come pre-certified with the planet’s largest HSPA networks, and we’re told that it’s engineered to sip (read: not gulp) energy while regaining connections just moments after a device snaps out of sleep mode. More interesting, however, is the October-bound F5521gw, which is hailed as the world’s first embedded mobile broadband module “specifically designed for notebooks and other consumer electronics to support 21Mbps HSPA Evolution networks.” The real kicker, however, is that it’s interoperable with Intel Anti-Theft Technology, which enables an encrypted SMS to remotely disable the host machine… even when the OS isn’t running. Hit the source links for all the nitty-gritty, or hop on past the break for the highlights.

Continue reading Ericsson’s new mobile broadband modules: one for Oak Trail tablets, one supports remote kill

Ericsson’s new mobile broadband modules: one for Oak Trail tablets, one supports remote kill originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Ericsson 1, 2  | Email this | Comments