Hasta La Gadget!

You know the deal by now: we grab a slab of fresh new hardware, fiddle, play, and tinker with it until exhaustion or boredom is reached, then wax poetic about the whole experience, with a side serving of pictures and videos thrown in. Today’s candidate for a grilling is LG’s BL40, which is now available in Europe. You’ll be familiar with it already from our hands-on look last month, but do join us over at Engadget Mobile where we explore what’s under the glossy hood in more detail, and give you a definitive answer on just how useful that elongated screen really is.

Filed under: Cellphones

LG BL40 New Chocolate review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Picture this scenario: you’ve just left work after a long shift, and have to endure the lengthy commute in the hot, crowded subway. The last thing you want is to doze off and wake up to the horror of your bag or phone gone walkies. This is exactly the kind of problem TenBu Technologies is trying to solve with its nio Bluetooth security tag. Announced at the Mobile World Congress back in February, this little dongle aims to create a personal security space by the means of proximity, linking your tagged belongings with your Bluetooth-enabled phone. Read on to see how we got on with the nio – a dramatic video awaits you at the end.

Continue reading nio Bluetooth security tag review: your phone’s new muscle

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

nio Bluetooth security tag review: your phone’s new muscle originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hear that Bluetooth? That’s the sound of competition… finally. After years of waiting for some sort of serious rival in the short-range communication realm, the Wi-Fi Alliance is doing what it should’ve done eons ago. Starting sometime in mid-2010 (if all goes to plan, of course), a Wi-Fi Direct specification will be published, enabling WiFi’d devices to connect to one another without some sort of WLAN hotspot nearby. Previously, the standard was codenamed Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, as it gives printers, mobile handsets, human interface devices, cameras, laptops and a host of other wireless wares the ability to talk to one another without first consulting an access point. We’re told that devices will be able to make “one-to-one” connections or talk amongst a group, and WPA2 security will be bundled in to keep the ill-willed sniffers at bay. Call us crazy, but we get this feeling we’re going to dig this protocol — now, if only we could actually count on seeing shipping products before we’re too old to enjoy it, we’d be set.

Continue reading Wi-Fi Direct enabling P2P communications amongst WiFi wares, scaring Bluetooth half to death

Filed under: Wireless

Wi-Fi Direct enabling P2P communications amongst WiFi wares, scaring Bluetooth half to death originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well, what’s this? A new Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse have arrived at the FCC, and they’ve got new model numbers of A1314 and A1296 — the current wireless keyboard is A1255 and the Mighty Mouse is A1197. That’s pretty much all we know for now, but these keyboard dimensions are also smaller than the current model, which rules out a return of the numeric keypad — sorry to dash your hopes, Excel jockeys. Is this the new keyboard rumored to accompany an iMac refresh? We’ll have to wait to find out — but on a similar note, AppleInsider says Steve Jobs himself is leading the development of this new mouse, featuring some kind of multitouch and potentially housed in an aluminum shell. That would certainly explain those multitouch mouse patents we’ve seen in the past, as well as bring the desktop mousing experience in line with the multitouch action found on the MacBooks — AI says the new mice somehow enable iPhone-style kinetic scrolling, which would definitely be interesting. So… you want to maybe schedule an event to launch all this stuff, Steve?

Update: And… Apple’s managed to yank the images out of the FCC filings, which is about as fast as we’ve ever seen that happen.

Update 2: Revised images have been posted, carefully cropped to show only the relevant FCC labeling — although model numbers remain. This is absolutely the fastest we’ve ever seen the FCC database change, it’s rather impressive.

Update 3: AppleInsider’s revised their post to say an aluminum mouse is just speculation, so this thing could be plastic after all.

Read – Apple Bluetooth keyboard at FCC
Read – Apple Bluetooth mouse at FCC
Read – AppleInsider post on new mouse

Continue reading New Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse arrive at the FCC

Filed under: Peripherals

New Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse arrive at the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen plenty of landline phones that can also double as Bluetooth headsets, but VTech’s new DS6321-3 takes it to the next level: it can also pull down your phone’s address book, meaning you’ll never have to remember a number again. Apart from that it’s the usual cordless phone stuff, with DECT 6.0, three handsets, and — they still have these! — an answering machine, but it’s really the Bluetooth stuff that’s interesting here, so much so that VTech’s even promoting this guy for use in homes without landlines. Should be out now for $100.

Filed under: Household

New VTech cordless can download cellphone address books over Bluetooth originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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