Hasta La Gadget!

LAS VEGAS — Sony Ericsson’s new Xperia Arc packs some startling photo and video-taking features into a rather slim – and arc-shaped – package.

The phone runs the latest version of Android 2.3, Gingerbread, and slides it into a thin body that measures just 8.7mm at its waist. And it is a “waist”: the case has a pronounced concave-curve at the rear which gives it a swooping elegance. Onto the front of this body is grafted a huge 4.2-inch multi-touch screen. It is, with its 1 GHz Qualcomm processor, a competent Android phone.

Then we get to the camera, an 8MP monster with a wide maximum aperture of ƒ2.4, coupled with the Exmor R sensor, a backlit CMOS sensor also seen in Sony’s proper cameras. If the promo videos are anything to go on (and obviously allowing for their inevitable exaggerations) then the camera is impressive, with image processing to take care of noise, tweak colors, enhance contrast and generally fix up cellphone photos into something worth keeping.

Android is great, but the handsets are starting to look more like giant slabs of chocolate than actual phones that can fit in a pocket. The Xperia Arc manages to not only buck this trend, but pack in some serious photography tools to boot.

Xperia Arc press release [Sony Ericsson]

Next Step – Xperia arc [Sony Ericsson product blog]

See Also:

• Xperia
• Gingerbread
• What You Need to Know About Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• IOne Chip is All-in-One Android Phone and Camera
• Samsung's Android-Powered Infuse 4G Makes Your Smartphone Look …

It’s been years since Microsoft first wowed us with Surface, years that we’ve been looking at cool applications for the smart tables, but still Microsoft thinks you aren’t ready. Or aren’t rich enough, anyway. Samsung has unveiled the “SUR40 with Microsoft Surface,” a third-party implementation and what’s being called the “2.0 Experience.” On the outside things look a bit different, with a variety of pedestals that the thing can be mounted to, including one with two wood panels that flow up to cradle the display. But, if you like, the 40-inch, 1080p screen and the 2.9GHz AMD Athlon II X2 processor and Radeon HD 6700M behind it is now wall-mountable, meaning it really isn’t technically a smart table at all. Up top the interface looks more polished and refined, and naturally Windows Phone 7 support has been added, as you can see in the video below. It all looks rather good, we think, but it’s all rather focused on businesses as ever.

Continue reading Microsoft and Samsung unveil SUR40, the ‘Surface 2.0 Experience’ you still can’t buy (video)

Microsoft and Samsung unveil SUR40, the ‘Surface 2.0 Experience’ you still can’t buy (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ll get this out of the way up front: no, we didn’t get to drive it. In fact we didn’t even get to sit in its creamy white seats, a tragedy that we’re still a little sensitive about. But we did get to open the door of the Tesla Model S, testing out the trick powered door handles that motor themselves out after a touch and then, when the door is closed, zip back flush to the sheet metal. It’s a nice detail, one that we think would probably lose its ability to inspire wonder after about a week. But, for now, it’s cool. Check out a video of that and other details below.

Continue reading Tesla Model S is bundled up at CES, we unwrap it (video)

Tesla Model S is bundled up at CES, we unwrap it (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Autostereoscopic display technology is gradually maturing. Hungarian company iPont is showing its technology on a Tridelity display that requires no glasses.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

LAS VEGAS — Olympus has announced the rather hot-looking XZ1, an enthusiast compact camera that goes up against the Panasonic LX-5, the Canon G12 and Nikon’s P7000.

As befits this kind of camera, gimmicks are kept to a minimum, and pro-level features dominate. Thus there is a large 1/1.63-inch sensor (similar to the 1/1.7-inch sensor in the Canon G12 and S95) with 10 megapixels, a very fast lens (ƒ1.8 at 28mm rising to a still great ƒ2.5 at 112mm). Maximum ISO is a see-in-the-dark 6400, and up top you’ll find an accessory shoe for an optional electronic viewfinder and a flash. And speaking of flash, the XZ1 can wirelessly control off-camera flashes, too.

The metal-fronted XZ1 shares its image processor chip (TruPic V) with the current Pen Micro Four Thirds camera, and puts a 3-inch OLED screen on the back (with a decent but not class-leading 621,000 dots). And while other manufacturers ([cough] Panasonic [cough]) seem intent on doing away with manual controls, Olympus has put a wheel on the back and a ring around the lens which can be set to the function of your choice.

Inside you have RAW capture and AVI Motion JPEG capture of 1280 x 720, AF tracking and a handful of fancy color-tweaking modes. And that’s about it.

Pending testing, this looks like a very solid competitor in the high-end compact field. It’s a little bigger than the Canon S95 and the Panasonic LX-5, but way smaller than the G12, and costs $500. Available now, if you can find one.

Olympus XZ1 product page [Olympus]

See Also:

• Canon S95 – Wired.com
• Canon G12: G-Series Regains High-Def Video at Last
• Nikon’s Stages Compact Comeback with Flash-Friendly P7000
• Panasonic Launches LX5 and a Zillion Other Compact Cameras …