Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia has made no secret of the fact that improving its long-tepid relationship with the North American market is a priority — but we’ll admit, we didn’t expect AT&T to throw its weight behind a rather massive Symbian developer contest this quickly. The concept is simple: develop and submit an app targeting the N8 by January 28 of next year; the best one (in Nokia’s eyes) gets a cool quarter million, while 17 (yes, seventeen) runners-up get $150,000, which is still a pretty gigantic number. What makes this fascinating is that although AT&T had dipped its toes in the Symbian waters a few times over the years, it currently offers nothing but the Vivaz and refurbished E71x units — and it hasn’t announced any plans to carry the N8. Considering the size and scope of this contest, Nokia’s definitely putting its money where its mouth is — it seems to understand the importance of building a healthy third-party app catalog to drive a platform’s success — and we imagine AT&T’s got some announcements of its own in the coming months. Just a hunch.

Nokia’s latest Calling All Innovators developer contest features AT&T involvement originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just seven months after unveiling the Entourage eDGe, a device that somewhat awkwardly combined an e-reader and a LCD screen, Entourage is gearing up to launch a pocket-sized version.

The original dual-screen eDGe has a 9.7-inch E Ink screen on the left half and a 10-inch touchscreen LCD on the right. That means you could use it as an e-reader, a notepad or as a netbook–or all at the same time. In practice, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

The Pocket Edge will have folding, book-like body with a six-inch black-and-white E Ink screen on one side and a seven-inch color LCD touchscreen. It will still run the Android operating system, says The Digital Reader.

Entourage is planning a 3G edition of the Pocket Edge for Verizon and a separate, Wi-Fi-only model.

The original Entourage eDGe made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Then, e-readers and netbooks were two of the hottest consumer electronics products. Entourage tried to combine the two and birth the eDGe. But the Frankensteinish device suffered from some major problems.

For starters, the eDGe was just too big and heavy. The 10-inch screen size meant that it couldn’t easily be whipped out and used to read e-books on the train or browse web pages on the road. The device’s weight, about twice that of the iPad, put a strain on the arms if it was held up for more than 15 minutes.

The eDGe ended up as a device too big to be an e-reader and, without a keyboard, too uncomfortable to be just a netbook.

The Pocket Edge hopes to correct some of those problems. In terms of tech specs, it will have features similar to the bigger version. It will come with a USB port, a micro SD card slot, a  camera and a non-removable battery.

Along with the smaller screen, the changes mean that the Pocket Edge will be lighter, about one pound, compared to the three pounds of the original.

What’s disappointing to hear though is that the Pocket Edge will use the older Vizplex version of the E Ink screen and not the new Pearl E Ink display that’s in the latest Kindle and Sony e-readers. The Pearl has a much better contrast and for e-reader enthusiasts the older technology in the Pocket Edge is likely to be a disappointment.

It’s also indicative of why the eDGe didn’t become a hit the first time around. If the device is mediocre e-reader and a passable netbook, consumers have little incentive to buy a half-baked device that’s doesn’t offer the best of either worlds. Instead, they are better off getting a Kindle or a Nook that does one thing very well and using a netbook or a tablet for their other computing needs.

Entourage hasn’t said how much the Pocket Edge will cost but the device is expected to ship in late October. So far, the word is it will be cheaper than the $500 original model.

Check out more photos of the new Pocket Edge below.

The Pocket Edge Combines an E Ink and LCD Screen.

The Pocket Edge has a USB port and a micro SD card slot.

See Also:

• Hands-On: Twin Screens Pack Potential in eDGe Netbook, E-Reader
• Entourage E-Reader/Netbook Hybrid to Start Shipping
• Gallery: E-Readers Push Boundaries of Books

Photos: Nate Hoffelder/The Digital Reader

Yes, you read that correctly. The fevered dreams of crime scene investigators up and down the country are being brought to reality by Adobe, with just a single extra lens and some crafty software knowhow. Basically, a plenoptic lens is composed of a litany of tiny “sub-lenses,” which allow those precious photons you’re capturing to be recorded from multiple perspectives. The result is that you get a bunch more data in your image and an “infinite” depth of field, meaning you can toggle at what distance you want your image to be focused after the act of taking it. These plenoptic lenses are inserted between your shooter’s usual lens and its sensor, though commercialization is sadly said to still be a fair distance away. Never fear, you can get hold of a video demo much sooner than that — you know where it’s at.

Continue reading Adobe shows off plenoptic lenses that let you refocus an image after it’s taken (video)

Adobe shows off plenoptic lenses that let you refocus an image after it’s taken (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, Netflix. We can’t stay mad at you. Even though you clearly think we’re all a bunch of idiots.

Netflix just launched Watch Instantly in Canada with a big press event. Unfortunately, apparently they were also (for reasons unknown) simultaneously, at the same location, shooting a corporate video with hired extras who (according to Netflix’s official apology) “were given improper directions” to talk to the press about how much they loved Netflix. (Love that “mistakes were made” agent-less sentence construction.)

Okay — so you duped some Canadians. Simple souls, they may be gullible — but luckily for everyone, the truth was soon found out. We Americans are too worldly to fall for something like that. We’re stupid in entirely different ways, as CEO/co-founder Reed Hastings revealed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter:

THR: Are you concerned that American Netflix subscribers will look north and ask for the same discount Canadians get at $7.99?

Hastings: How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It’s something we’ll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed.

So we’re self-absorbed, huh? We don’t follow the world; we just spend all of our time watching the same shows over and over again on TV, do we, Netflix? But you’ll still take our money so we can watch movies without leaving the house?

That’s a serious question: You’ll still take our money, right? We’ll pay even more than those cheap-ass Canadians! Blockbuster just filed for bankruptcy! Microsoft and Apple say Blu-ray’s a dead end and streaming is the future! The new Roku player is so cheap!

Don’t make us go back to broadcast or cable! I can’t watch The Godfather trilogy any time I want there! Seriously, I’m watching it on my iPhone right now! Canada will never love you like we love you! What would our lives be like without you?

See Also:

• Netflix Streaming on iPad
• DVD Anywhere: Netflix Arrives on iPhone, and Doesn't Disappoint …
• Fail: Netflix Shutters Its Distribution Division
• Roku Launches $60 HD Streaming Media Player
• Apple Redefines Remote Control — Now, It's Your Cellphone
• It's Another QWERTY Keyboard, Now for TV
• How Google Instant Could Reinvent Channel Flipping

If you’re under the age of ten there probably isn’t much that can top seeing the Jonas Brothers in concert, chasing after Justin Bieber or a new episode of iCarly, but Toshiba and Best Buy are hoping its new jointly created Kids PC can elicit similar feelings of excitement from them youngins. The 13.3-inch Satellite L635 Kid’s PC, as you may have figured out by now, isn’t a netbook — no siree, it’s a big kid system with a dual-core Intel Celeron P4600 processor, 2GB of RAM, a DVD drive, and 250GB of storage. But, of course, there are some aspects that set it apart from mommy and daddy’s laptop — in addition to the “gender neutral” gray and neon green coloring it’s got a rubberized, wipeable keyboard that makes it easy to clean off the cookie crumbs and cooties. Toshiba’s also gone and loaded the 4.2-pound machine up with loads of child friendly software; it comes with NetNanny parental controls, KidZui’s web browser and games like Lego Batman. It isn’t a bad package for $499, but it’ll only available exclusively at Best Buy starting on September 26. Hit the break for the full release and the gallery below for some hands-on shots of the not-so-little guy.

Continue reading Toshiba and Best Buy team up on the Satellite L635 Kids’ PC, one-ups the kiddy netbooks

Toshiba and Best Buy team up on the Satellite L635 Kids’ PC, one-ups the kiddy netbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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