Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve already noted our slip into Bizarro World, a strange and topsy-turvy land where — thanks to patent-infringement claims — Microsoft strikes licensing deals with Android device makers. Redmond has used a carrot-and-stick strategy thus far, suing competing manufacturers (Barnes and Noble, Motorola) while reaching a protective royalty agreement with HTC, which, not coincidentally, also makes Windows Phones. Today, another company joins the licensee list: General Dynamics Itronix, known for its rugged computers, some of which do run Windows. Neither company offered much in the way of details, other than declaring that Itronix will pay royalties, but we’ve no reason to believe it’s too different from HTC’s arrangement. See the press release after the break for an excellent example of terse, unrevealing business-speak.

Continue reading Microsoft inks Android patent deal with Itronix, causes more heads to explode

Microsoft inks Android patent deal with Itronix, causes more heads to explode originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Screenshots obtained by TechCrunch purportedly show an app for the social network running on a WebOS tablet.

Originally posted at News – Digital Media

HP’s Envy 14 is quite the looker of a laptop, with its etched aluminum skin beckoning you to explore the capabilities of the Sandy Bridge CPU that lies beneath. For those who prefer the murdered-out look, the HP Envy Beats Edition is the preferable PC, but until now it lacked the upgraded Intel innards of its showy stablemate. That’s right, Amazon’s offering a second-gen Intel Core i5-2410M chip clocked at 2.3 GHz to go with those dark Dr. Dre aesthetics you crave (oddly it’s not yet for sale on HP’s website). The inky Envy with the big red “B” is priced at $1,050, or half a hundred more which is actually 30 bucks less than than buying its equivalently-equipped cousin direct from HP — awfully nice of the good Doctor to give us a discount.

HP Envy 14 Beats Edition gets a slice of Sandy Bridge silicon, costs $1,050 at Amazon (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not all wireless carriers are created equal, nor for that matter is all 4G — anyone who’s ever swapped networks or done any sort of traveling across the country can tell you that. And while it seems like we have fewer and fewer choices as the days go by, our increasing reliance on mobile devices makes the efficiency of our data delivery all the more important. PCMag invested some serious man / woman-hours for its annual “Fastest Mobile Networks” story, gathering mobile data in 21 cities — running more than 140,000 tests in all. According to the results, Verizon’s LTE rules supreme in pretty much every area tested, save for those “in-between” rural locations, where AT&T nabbed the top spot. Perhaps it’s time to take old “Test Man” out of retirement for celebratory victory lap?

Verizon dominates ‘Fastest Mobile Networks’ testing, considers calling AT&T to brag originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re happier with our robot vacuum cleaners when they show some character, say researchers from the Netherlands. But they have to have the right traits.