MagSafe heading to iPad and iPhone?
Posted in: Today's ChiliAccording to a patent filed by Apple, this unique charging connector may be headed for portable devices such as the iPad or iPhone soon.
According to a patent filed by Apple, this unique charging connector may be headed for portable devices such as the iPad or iPhone soon.
The Windows Phone 7 section of the Zune Marketplace looks a bit like a barren wasteland at the moment, but there’ll be worthy apps aplenty ready for next month’s launch. Here are your first priority downloads. More »
Expected in early 2011 the HTC 7 Pro will feature a physical keyboard, a 1GHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera, and up to 16GB of storage. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20019194-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p
Interesting news from General Motors today that’s resulted in some puzzled expressions at Engadget HQ. We’ve learned that the Volt, which Chevrolet has been making quite a fuss about calling an “extended range electric vehicle,” is actually just a traditional hybrid with some… potentially misleading marketing behind it. Since the concept stage the company has been saying how the onboard internal combustion engine was just to charge the batteries, that only the electric motors (there are two) are actually connected to the drivetrain. Indeed that’s what we were told in person when we test drove the thing back in March. We’re now learning that is not the case, that the Volt’s gasoline engine can directly provide power to the wheels in concert with the electric motors.
Is that a problem? In terms of efficiency the answer is “apparently not,” as we’re guessing the car would not have been designed this way if it weren’t the most frugal way to go. So, why all the deception? Why insist this isn’t just a hybrid when it apparently is? When the company went looking for a government bailout it was in part awarded one because of the innovation shown in the Volt. Now that we’re learning the Volt is basically just a plug-in hybrid with a bigger than average battery pack (Popular Mechanics is finding 30-odd miles of purely electric range), we’re left wondering: where’s the innovation?
Update: We’ve added some further details and analysis below, and a confirmation from Chevrolet as well.
Shocker: Chevy says Volt’s gas engine can power the wheels, it’s just a hybrid after all originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Running through some of Windows Phone 7‘s first games and apps, it’s hard not to be impressed. Twitter looks and feels fantastic, and you have to check out this ridiculous 3D tower defense game, Bye Bye Brain. Update: More apps! More »
If you like the looks of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata but need more performance than a four-cylinder engine provides, check out the Sonata 2.0T, which cranks out 274 hp thanks to turbocharging, gasoline direct injection and, oh yes, still a four-cylinder engine. But it’s cat quick, returns 22 mpg city, 33 mpg highway, and beats the performance and pricing of competitors’ V6 models.
Gallery: HTC 7 Pro first hands-on!
Continue reading HTC 7 Pro first hands-on!
Filed under: Cellphones
HTC 7 Pro first hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We just got a look at U-verse Mobile running live on Windows Phone 7. It looks just like every other Windows Phone 7 app, of course, but it looks like AT&T isn’t cutting this thing off at the knees content-wise. From the phone you’ll have access to your entire DVR for scheduling and checking the program guide, and you’ll also be able to see any episodes you have recorded on your box. Within that view you can find a subset of shows that have been flagged by the content providers to allow streaming (free-for-all Sling this is not). Additionally, the phone can access a mobile version of U-verse’s on demand deals over 3G WiFi, which should hopefully be comparable to Zune or iTunes offerings — though we’ll have to see the specifics to find out for sure. The show we were shown buffered quickly over WiFi and was able to skip around within the episode even faster. Check out the video walkthrough after the break.
Continue reading AT&T U-verse Mobile preview
AT&T U-verse Mobile preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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At the Windows Phone 7 event in New York Monday, Microsoft and AT&T had demo units of the three WP7 phones that will be available in the United States next month. I had a few minutes to play with each of them. Here are my first impressions.
This is the slide-out phone with the QWERTY keyboard. It’s similar to a Blackberry phone’s layout, with two buttons on the left for Shift and Function (which for the most part you use to type in numbers). The hardware keyboard works very well, but I found using it in that mode a little confusing.
Some apps move from portrait to landscape without a hitch. But the WP7 home screen, Marketplace and a few others don’t. In time, you could get over this guessing game. Maybe users with more experience with slide-out landscapes know how to do this without a snap. The keyboard also made the phone quite thick, particularly compared to the touchscreen-only models on display.
This was by far my favorite of the three phones. It has a 4-inch touchscreen with beautiful color fidelity. The three hardware buttons don’t depress, but each provides a little buzz of tactile feedback. I even found using the software keyboard and switching from portrait to landscape much easier on the Focus than on the other two phones. That extra half-inch really does make a difference — and the image quality shows off just how graceful the WP7 OS is.
This was the most difficult phone to put through a full trial, simply because there weren’t games or movies available to play readily. I wasn’t able to listen to its much-touted Dolby Digital Surround speakers either. But otherwise, its interface was very similar to Samsung’s, although again with a much smaller and dimmer screen. Its three hardware buttons also had a similar tacticle feedback buzz, which the LG Quantum didn’t have.
It’s a very beautiful OS, and I think some people will find its working clean and intuitive right away. It may seem like an odd thing to get fixated on, but the landscape/portrait thing really stands out.
There were plenty of times when text information trailed off the screen without wrapping in portrait mode, but you couldn’t turn it into landscape in order to see it, You had to swipe over to the next screen. Some of the applications, like QWERTY typing and gaming, seem built for landscape, but the primary navigation mode of WP7 is definitely portrait.
It’s probably somewhere in between the iPhone and Android in terms of customization possibility. There are more options than iPhone (including plenty of easy accessibility and mulitlingual options), and they’re a little easier to find. But I thought, for instance, I might be able to change the font, which is everywhere. No dice — at least on these floor models.
I loved the Focus: iPhone and iPad users will probably find it the closest to their experience and preferences.
I thought the keyboard on the Quantum was very well-made (and existing slide-out users again might find it even more appealing).
I was and remain intrigued by the microsize media experience the Surround offers. It’s an extremely solid lineup of phones; at $200 each, users dead-set on WP7 will just have to decide which hardware and use experience they like best.
Photos: Tim Carmody/Wired.com
Twins! In space! The New Jersey-born duo of Mark and Scott Kelly are set to become the first set of twins in space at the same time, in February of next year. Scott is already up there, charged with running the International Space Station. He began his six month mission last week, lifting off aboard a Russian shuttle.
In February, he’ll be joined be Mark, who will deliver supplies to the station. The duo will be aboard the Space Station together for eight days, after which Mark’s shuttle will return to earth.
As CNN points out, Mark is the older twin, beating Scott into the world by six minutes. However, it was Scott who made it into space first, in 1999, beating Mark by two years. The Kellys are 46.