Hasta La Gadget!

Sure, the Acer Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition features the same underclocked 768MHz Snapdragon and Android 2.1 as the original Liquid E that launched in February, but, well, this one comes with a flashy Ferrari F1 Red paint job and matching Elite Bluetooth earpiece. Can’t say no to that, can you? You know the rest of the drill: 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen, five megapixel camera with autofocus, geotagging, and adjustable ISO, included 8GB microSD card, and the Acer Sync app that syncs changes across your phone and PC. No word on price or availability, but it certainly looked pretty on the Computex show floor — we’ll let you know if we find out more.

[Thanks, Shreedhan]

Acer Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition revs up Android 2.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just kidding, we were never drug mules. Still, we once watched a film that mentioned drug mules, and boy does this Taiji tablet prototype remind us of that formative experience. Taiji is bringing this 10-inch tablet to Computex (which starts tomorrow), with a VIA C7 M processor and 1GB of RAM under the hood, which looks relatively uninspired until you flip it around and discover the pop-off keyboard around back. The tablet even has its own stand, converting from a slate form to a rather amenable “desktop” computer with no trouble. Sure, you might end up with a thinner tablet if you just buy a keyboard free model and toss a Bluetooth keyboard in your bag with it, but we’ve gotta hand it to Taiji for ingenuity. Check out a quick demo of it after the break.

Continue reading Taiji sneaks a Bluetooth keyboard in and out of its tablet prototype, reminds us of our drug mule days

Taiji sneaks a Bluetooth keyboard in and out of its tablet prototype, reminds us of our drug mule days originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 May 2010 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Would you believe us if we told you that that rubber bracelet-looking thing is actually going to have a built-in SIM card and bring voice / text capabilities to Android tablets, e-readers and netbooks via Bluetooth? Yeah, it sounds super crazy, but that’s exactly what it’ll eventually do. Convinced that 2G capabilities like talking and texting should be easier to add to MIDs, tablets and netbooks, Seattle-based startup Iota has come up with the Flex. It’s definitely in the early stages of development, but in essence they see people clipping the bendable device to a bag, pairing it to an Android tablet, e-reader or MID, and then making calls from said devices.

We caught some time with Iota and the prototype at the Netbook Summit this week and were told that they plan to sell the Flex through retailers for under $100 — it would be an extra $40 a month for unlimited calling and texting thanks to a partnership with Simple Mobile. Here’s where we say we wouldn’t hold your breath for this thing to hit the market — though if they can pull it off, it’ll certainty be an interesting solution for adding voice and text to those hoards of incoming Android tablets. After you’re done wrapping your brain around this wearable voice and text accessory, check out the hands-on pics and hit the break for a hacked together demo of the dev kit they’ve been selling.

Continue reading Iota Flex wants to be a MiFi for voice and text

Iota Flex wants to be a MiFi for voice and text originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Devotec rolls out updated Solar Sound 2 Bluetooth speaker

Devotec rolls out updated Solar Sound 2 Bluetooth speaker originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 05:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Their screens lacked color and their apps lacked Internet access, but one thing the PDAs of yore had in common with the smartphones of today was text input that couldn’t compare to a full-sized keyboard. The challenge, of course, is that full-sized keyboards generally aren’t very good traveling companions for pocket-sized devices. In 2000, a startup called ThinkOutside addressed the issue with the first Stowaway keyboard, an ingeniously designed folding keyboard that used the dock connector of Palm PDAs to create a touch-typing experience that fit in your pocket. (Stowaway designer Phil Baker is the author of the book From Concept to Consumer, which explains how ideas become products that get built overseas and ultimately sold back here).

ThinkOutside went on to create versions for PocketPCs, infrared (to accommodate incompatible dock connector standards) connections, and then finally Bluetooth. The company was eventually purchased by accessory maker Mobility Electronics, which renamed itself iGo after its flagship power adapter product, and eventually cancelled the Stowaway. At the time, PDA sales were sinking and relatively few handsets supported Bluetooth; most of those that did supported only the profiles needed for headsets and speakerphones, not keyboard input.

Continue reading Switched On: Stowaway from the PDA era

Switched On: Stowaway from the PDA era originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 May 2010 20:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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