Hasta La Gadget!

We’re still trying to understand why Entourage has chosen the Home Shopping Network of all places to reveal its new Pocket Edge, but at least we now know that the previously spied dualscreen tablet / e-reader lives! Although the 1.35-pound device has been shrunken down with smaller displays — a 6-inch “Wacom Penabled” e-ink panel and 7-inch LCD — it actually doesn’t appear like much else has been changed from the original. Unfortunately, that means our biggest complaints about the device are very much present — it’s got a resistive touchscreen and appears to run an older version of Android. If it’s any consolation, the trackball on the right edge has been replaced with an optical touchpad and there are now red and black color options. Spec-wise, it still boasts 4GB of storage, a 2 megapixel camera (hopefully there’s software now that takes advantage of it), 802.11 b/g, a USB port, and micro-SD slot. It is, however, more affordable — though it’s originally priced at $499, HSN has a sale running that puts it at $399. Of course, no word on if a 3G version will be arriving at Verizon as we’ve previously heard, but we’re sure this thing will get its official unveil sometime soon. Until then feel free to keep yourself preoccupied with the gallery below and at the source link — just don’t get lost in the cookware section.

Entourage Pocket Edge reveals itself on the Home Shopping Network originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By now you’ve probably read our Desire HD review and you’ve seen how HTC’s latest Android flagship stacks up against its Windows Phone 7 sibling, the HD7. But how does it fare against the original Android giant, Sprint’s EVO 4G? The devices share common displays (4.3-inch WVGA) and cameras (8 megapixel with dual LED flash) — but they use different radios (HSPA+ versus CDMA / WiMAX) and processors (first-generation Snapdragon in the EVO, second-gen in the Desire). In fact, the two phones actually have very different personalities when you consider the Desire HD’s aluminum unibody case and the EVO 4G’s HDMI output and kickstand. Take a look at these mighty beasts side-by-side in our gallery — along with a video after the break!

Note: In the video we mention that the Desire HD features a front facing camera. This is incorrect.

Continue reading HTC Desire HD vs. EVO 4G… fight!

HTC Desire HD vs. EVO 4G… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What, you didn’t think Apple was just going to sit around and take it after Motorola first sued for patent infringement and then asked to court to declare some 20 of Cupertino’s patents weren’t applicable to its products, did you? Apple’s fired back with two lawsuits claiming that Motorola’s Android phones, including but not limited to the Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm, infringe a total of six multitouch and OS patents. That would be pretty much par for the course — you sue me, I sue you — but there are a couple interesting strategic wrinkles to note:

• We’ve only seen Apple litigate one of these patents before: #7,479,949, Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics. You should remember it well — it’s the patent covering scroll behavior on multitouch screens that was hyped as “the iPhone patent” and triggered a press frenzy over a possible Apple / Palm lawsuit. As we predicted at the time, that hasn’t yet materialized, but old ‘949’s gotten pretty popular: Apple’s asserting it against Nokia and HTC as well.
• Apple might be suing over six patents in these two cases, but ultimately Apple will claiming Motorola’s devices infringe a total of 26 patents — part of Apple’s defense to Motorola’s 20-patent lawsuit will be to claim that Moto’s in fact infringing each of those patents. That’s a lot of patents across a lot of devices, and it’ll just take one finding of infringement to cause a lot of pain.
• Apple’s filed its two cases in the Western District of Wisconsin, a patent “rocket docket” that tries cases quickly and are often perceived as being plaintiff-friendly. (Part of the Apple / Nokia lawsuit is happening in this same court.) Moto’s obvious next move will be to try and consolidate all these cases into a single proceeding at one court, a procedural tactic that will take likely take months. And that’s just the first step. Don’t expect these cases to be decided for at least a year — probably many years — unless Apple and Motorola decide to settle, which is always possible.
• Apple’s now seriously engaged in litigation with the two largest Android handset makers (HTC and Motorola), largely over OS-level patents. At some point Google has to get involved, if only to indemnify its partners against further liability for using Android, and we can’t help but think Apple and Google are eventually bound to face off directly. Or perhaps not — by suing Android handset makers, Apple’s essentially putting a tax on Android without having to further muddy up its complex competitor / partner relationship with Google by adding in a major lawsuit.

We’ve added in a list of the patents after the break, if you’re interested — and we know you’re interested, right? It’s not like it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon or anything.

Continue reading Apple sues Motorola right back over six patents

Apple sues Motorola right back over six patents originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint and Clearwire have characterized LTE as complimentary to WiMAX time and again, but if that doesn’t allay your suspicions of turncoat tactics in the wireless data space, take it from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse’s lips. “Our 4G strategy is WiMAX, full stop!” he told GigaOM, adding that LTE isn’t necessarily on Sprint’s roadmap. Quizzed about WiMAX partner Clearwire’s LTE trials, however, he dropped a very intriguing hint about the possible shape of phones to come: “We have so much spectrum that we decided to do tests so in case we have multi-modal phones with other air interfaces, we can add LTE on top of WiMAX and run both networks,” he told the publication. Dual-mode WiMAX / LTE smartphone, anyone?

Sprint CEO claims WiMAX is here to stay, says Clear’s LTE trials were for potential multi-mode phones originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best Engadget Podcast Ever? Worst Engadget Podcast Ever? Is there really even a difference anymore? Only to the discerning Engadget Podcast Listener / Bingo player. Test your aptitude with this week’s edition of The Engadget Podcast!!!!!!!!!!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Stan

00:02:55 – The PlayStation Phone
00:03:55 – The PlayStation Phone is still real
00:07:45 – Sony Ericsson Z-System: the PlayStation Phone’s gaming platform?
00:26:55 – Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon ‘in the coming months’
00:30:00 – webOS 2.0 review
00:43:44 – HP Slate 500 finally (finally!) official, rings up at $799
00:50:21 – Microsoft announces a record first-quarter revenue of $16.20 billion, $5.41 billion in profit
00:52:08 – Mac OS X 10.7 Lion announced, coming summer 2011
00:52:55 – Mac App Store for OS X 10.6 and 10.7 unveiled, coming ‘within 90 days’
00:56:00 – Apple’s Mac App Store Review Guidelines posted — will Photoshop make it in?
01:20:10 – MacBook Air review (late 2010)
01:27:45 – Google TV Review
01:28:28 – Nook Color first hands-on! (updated: with video)
01:30:00 – Barnes & Noble Nook Color revealed
01:37:20 – Editorial: Why the Galaxy Tab’s price makes sense
01:37:30 – Verizon to sell Galaxy Tab starting November 11th for $599.99
01:44:00 – Samsung Galaxy Tab hitting T-Mobile USA on November 10th, $400 on contract
01:44:30 – Galaxy Tab for Sprint confirmed for November 14th: $400 with two-year contract

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 217 – 10.30.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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