Hasta La Gadget!

You know you’re doing well when even your warmed-up, older smartphone is triggering queues before it’s on sale. Xiaomi has just promised that the Phone 1S will reach the market on August 23rd, but with 200,000 units to share — a slight shortfall when there are 1.3 million reserved phones. The company hasn’t said how quickly it will catch up to the backlog for its revived Android flagship. We hope it’s soon; it wouldn’t do to have customers still waiting for the 1S by the time the Phone 2 rolls around in October, after all. We’d say it’s a nice problem to have, and it bodes well for sales of the true sequel.

Filed under: Cellphones

Xiaomi Phone 1S ships August 23rd with avalanche of backorders originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brother is back with its latest product in the form of the MFC-J4510DW inkjet all-in-one printer. It can print 20 pages per minute in black-and-white and 18 pages per minute in color. In “Fast Mode,” the Brother MFC-J4510DW is able to print 35 pages per minute in black-and-white and 27 pages per minute in color. The Brother MFC-J4510DW features a 3.7-inch touchscreen display, a touch-sensitive number keypad, up to 150-sheet paper tray with a convenient up to 20-page automatic document feeder for faxing, copying or scanning, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Ethernet. The Brother MFC-J4510DW will be available in October 2012 with an estimated street price of $199. [Press Release]

Nothing about this video makes sense. It’s as if some gang of lawless costumed freaks from space took a teenage girl with her pet snake out to the desert to live on the lam. Or something like that. More »

Well, BitInstant is insistent that it will launch a BitCoin debit card, but MasterCard is claiming it will not be part of the plans. After a mock up of the plastic made the rounds featuring the company’s logo, the financial powerhouse felt it necessary to reach out to us, clarifying its non-involvement.

“MasterCard has no relationship with BitInstant. There are issuers who allow the conversion of Bitcoins to US dollars and other currencies, delivered on prepaid cards. However, we’re not aware of this particular programme from BitInstant.”

Of course, if you read the transcript of Charlie Shrem’s chat announcing the plans, he never actually names MasterCard. The logo was likely meant as a placeholder — one that some outlets took a little too literally.

Interestingly, this doesn’t actually mean that MasterCard won’t be involved… just that the company isn’t at this point in the process. BitInstant released its own statement, just hours after the card house contacted us, saying that it has been working with MasterCard affiliates, but had yet to submit to the financial firm directly.

“The card program is moving forward and the arrangement with MasterCard will be handled in due time at the proper stage of the process by the partners who work directly with that company.”

So, what have we learned today? Not a whole heck of a lot actually, other than the fact that putting out a debit card is a complicated business. You’ll just have to stay tuned to see how this shakes out.

Filed under: Internet

MasterCard denies BitCoin card rumors, BitInstant says it’s still on track originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corporate server managers everywhere were given a jolt this week when rumors emerged that RIM might implement a hard cutoff for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10: any devices based on BlackBerry 7 and earlier might not connect at all, leaving IT leads with the uncomfortable choice of either running a BlackBerry server platform that’s supposedly without a future (BES 5) or having to upgrade both the servers and phones all at once. RIM is putting minds at ease — more or less. The company’s Kim Geiger has confirmed in a statement to the media that BES 10 will support legacy devices when it ships in the first quarter of 2013, and that existing server customers will get an upgrade for smooth sailing around when BlackBerry 10 arrives. That’s no doubt a comfort, but there are lingering doubts. Rumor source BGR maintains that companies will have to run both the old and new servers side-by-side to address everyone, which could make a truly harmonious environment complex, expensive or both. We’ve reached out to RIM for a more definitive explanation to hopefully settle the matter. In the meantime, we wouldn’t panic; no one is being pushed to adopt BES 10 right away, and those that want to upgrade don’t have to give up their legacy hardware.

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM says BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 users will get legacy device support, IT admins (may) rest easy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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