Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s try to untangle this Facebook mobile phone mess, shall we? Mark Zuckerberg has recently sat down with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch — the source of the original rumor — to try and dispel some of the confusion that has arisen as a result. The first thing the Zuckmeister says is that Facebook isn’t looking to build its own OS or hardware and is absolutely opposed to competing with the likes of the iPhone and Android. What Zuckerberg wants is deeper social integration, positing the question, “What could we do if we also started hacking at a deeper level?” While there’ll be no single answer or solution for all phones, Mark firmly believes that social elements have to be designed in from the start:

On phones we can actually do something better. We can do a single sign-on if we do a good integration with a phone, rather than just doing something where you go to an app and it’s automatically social or having to sign into each app individually. Those are the two options on the web. Why not for mobile? Just make it so that you log into your phone once, and then everything that you do on your phone is social.

Notably, he fails to deny rumors of such deeply integrated devices being in the pipeline, and Bloomberg has trotted out a trio of insider sources who claim INQ Mobile has been engaged to produce two smartphones with just that purpose in mind — you know the same INQ that already makes Facebook-heavy handsets, so this could very well be little more than a rebrand. One is said to feature a QWERTY keypad and a touchscreen while the other is an all touch affair, and both are reputedly headed for an early 2011 launch in Europe, followed by a late 2011 arrival in the USA. AT&T is the carrier that’s closest to picking them up, we’re told, though deals haven’t been finalized on what could be sub-$100 phones after subsidies are distributed. So, whatever happens, we’re staring down the barrel of a couple of glorified featurephones with deep social integration. Kin 2.0, anyone? Anyone?

Facebook phone rumors resurface, Mark Zuckerberg fails to deny them originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Reuters  |  Bloomberg, TechCrunch  | Email this | Comments

If you were one of the first to jump on the new Apple TV pre-orders let loose on September 1st then you’re about to find your bank account $99 and change lighter. As of a few hours ago, Apple began charging credit cards in preparation to ship. So you can expect your new AirPlay toy to arrive any day now. Now click through if you’re dying to see the evidence.

[Thanks, Russ and Justin G.]

Continue reading Apple TV gets paid, prepares to ship

Apple TV gets paid, prepares to ship originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 03:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

They stretch up to two and a half times the height of Nelson’s Column at Trafalgar Square, their number is close to a hundred, and their mission is to bring clean, renewable energy into British homes. Yes, we’re talking about turbines. The latest wind farm to be erected near the Queen’s most sovereign isles is said to be the largest in the world (for now) and promises to produce enough energy to keep 240,000 homes going — the equivalent of half the county of Kent. It’s part of the UK’s grand plan to generate at least 20 percent of all its power needs through the taming of the winds and cost the Kingdom a cool £780 million ($1.2b) to build. That’s admittedly a big bill to swallow, but there are worse things to blow your billions on… such as, say, the Millennium Dome.

Continue reading World’s largest offshore wind farm spins into action off the coast of Britain

World’s largest offshore wind farm spins into action off the coast of Britain originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  BBC  | Email this | Comments

Bloomberg reports the social-networking giant is working with a social-focused handset maker to create two smartphones that highlight Facebook features. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20017361-93.html” class=”origPostedBlog”News – Digital Media/a/p

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Dell on the home entertainment front, but don’t you worry, the guys in Round Rock have been right on top of it. First up is the brand new Zino HD home theater PC, which like we’d heard is being updated with an AMD quad-core Phenom II processor that’s more than capable of pumping out full HD to your HDTV. In typical Dell spirit there’s tons of configuration options, including one for 1GB of ATI discrete graphics, a Blu-ray drive, and up to a terabyte of storage. For $299, we’re a bit giddy about this little one considering it packs more power than any of those Ion nettops and it comes with a wireless keyboard and IR remote control.

If a large touchscreen all-in-one is more your thing, the Inspiron One can be configured with similar parts — an AMD Athlon II X4 processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450, Blu-ray, and up to 1TB are all on the list. To us, the real appeal of this one is its 1920×1080 resolution, 23-inch display, which produced some pretty stunning HD playback when we saw it in action last month. Dell’s put a lot of energy into its new Stage touch interface, which consists of different tiled applications. It’s actually more than eye candy as we’re betting those Netflix and CinemaNow tiles will see plenty of tapping. The One starts at $799 and will be available this coming weekend — but before you yank out the wallet, we’d suggest flipping through the galleries below and hitting the break for a read of the press release.

Continue reading Dell whips out 23-inch Inspiron One all-in-one and Zino HD

Dell whips out 23-inch Inspiron One all-in-one and Zino HD originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments