Hasta La Gadget!

Poor HD2, it could never know life as a (legitimate) Windows Phone 7 handset, and instead has to sustain the indignity of hack after hack — slouching back to the slums of its Windows Mobile 6.5 default as its only respite. Well, here’s another shovelful of shame: MeeGo 1.1 has been ported to the phone, and it looks pretty snazzy. It runs about as well as anything runs MeeGo right now (which is to say: very poorly), but we see some promise in this OS as a deliciously open Android alternative, and the basic UI seems very comfy on the HD2’s ahead-of-its-time gargantuan screen. Check out a video of MeeGo in action after the break. If you listen very closely you can hear the sound of the HD2 weeping large, colorful tears.

[Thanks, Ali]

Continue reading HTC HD2 gets a shot at MeeGo, still suffering from abandonment issues

HTC HD2 gets a shot at MeeGo, still suffering from abandonment issues originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink My Nokia Blog  |  High Caffeine Content  | Email this | Comments

Best Buy‘s crafty ploy for the new year has seemingly been uncovered by BGR‘s tipsters. According to those knowledgeable sources (and the paperwork they’ve passed along), Best Buy intends to roll out a new Buy Back Program, which will guarantee a given trade-in value for your gadgets, depending on how old they are. Thus, any laptop, tablet, or smartphone you buy from the retailer will be tradeable for 50 percent of its original price within six months of purchase, 40 percent before the first year passes, 30 in the 12- to 18-month period, or 20 in the dying embers of a two-year ownership period. That’s pretty hefty depreciation and you’ll have to pay an up-front fee to get enrolled in the Program, but hey, if you upgrade like mad, maybe there’s some way to make this a financially appealing proposition for the consumer. Maybe… though probably not.

Best Buy’s Buy Back Program will let you trade in old tat for new hotness originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Boy Genius Report (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Remember when Apple edged past Microsoft in the market capitalization game, way back in 2010? We were young and innocent, and AAPL was only trading at $249.99 a share. Fast forward seven months and Apple has left Microsoft in the dust, with a share price at $329.75 that puts the company’s market capitalization at more than $300 billion — making it one of only two companies worth that much in the stock market’s eyes. Naturally, market cap isn’t the only game afoot — Exxon Mobil still rules the top spot, and we can’t think of the last time oil did any hard work revolutionizing device UI — but it’s a pretty nice mark for a little Cupertino firm that would’ve been called the tech industry underdog just a decade ago.

Apple worth more than $300 billion, your first iPod barely pushing $20 on eBay originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Yahoo! News  | Email this | Comments

Often when you hear minimum spec doom and gloom, it proves to be wildly inaccurate, or only part of the picture. This time, however, it’s worth a closer look. PC Magazine‘s Sascha Segan is confidently citing the director of Enspert, a Korean consumer electronics company (which recently announced its own Android tablet), who claims that Honeycomb will require a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor. He’s also confident that Motorola’s tablet will be the first device to market with the new version of Android, and his other minimum specs line up with the idea of Honeycomb being initially a tablet-only release. Apparently 1280 x 720 is going to be the minimum resolution, with screen sizes “as small as” 7-inches, though it sounds like 10-inches could be the default. These specs seem to clearly leave out Galaxy Tab, along with anything else on the market or soon to arrive that doesn’t have a Tegra 2 chip. It also makes sense that the Galaxy Tab 2 is going to be using Tegra 2 — Samsung clearly won’t be deterred.

And how about phones for Honeycomb? The picture is decidedly murkier, other than the fact that we could see a temporary splintering of the platform while tablets show off their new Honeycomb digs, with enough battery to back up that dual-core proc. Of course, dual-core handsets are right around the corner, so we doubt handsets will be without Honeycomb for long — Google should know which side its bread is buttered on. There’s also the possibility that this Enspert source is only talking tablets, and phones (which are required to push way fewer pixels, and have much stricter battery requirements) will get a pass on the dual-core requirement altogether. No matter what, you should settle in for a year of entertainment as Google continues to iterate its wildly successful operating system, and manufacturers strain to keep up.

[Thanks, Jason]

Honeycomb to require dual-core processor, initially tablet-only? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phandroid  |  PC Magazine  | Email this | Comments

2011 is shaping up to be a big year for tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show, and TV maker Vizio will be part of the touchscreen scene.

Attempting to beat the onslaught of product releases to come this week on the convention floor, Vizio announced the debut of its soVIA Tablet and VIA Phone, both of which will run on the Android OS.

As to whether the devices will run Froyo, Gingerbread, or another version of Android, Vizio isn’t saying. Both devices will, however, be running the VIA Plus skin, a new app platform debuting with the VIA models.

The specs on the VIA Phone sound enticing. The VIA Phone boasts a 1-GHz processor (manufacturer as yet to be named), 4-inch capacitive touch screen and HDMI output with HD video playback.  There’s a front-facing camera to make video chats possible, while the 5-megapixel rear camera allows for photos and HD video capture.

As for the VIA Tablet, it’s got most of what the phone has: a 1-GHz processor, an HDMI output and a MicroSD card slot for memory expansion. The capacitive touch screen measures in at 8 inches — slightly smaller than that of the 9.7-inch iPad.

But the real competitive advantage may end up in the price points.

“There is a huge gap in the market for people who can’t afford the iPad or whatever else,” Vizio CTO Matthew McRae told Bloomberg. The company hasn’t announced what the VIA Phone or Tablet will cost as of yet, but according to Bloomberg, McRae says that the products will be “very aggressively priced.”

In addition to Vizio, several key manufacturers, including Toshiba, LG and MSI, are expected to unveil tablet devices at this week’s show. Stay tuned on Gadget Lab for live coverage from the CES show floor.

Photo courtesy Vizio