Hasta La Gadget!

If you were worried that packing WiMAX into a MiFi-like device would end up bloating it by a thousand percent, we’re very happy to report that you’d be wrong. The Overdrive’s only marginally bigger than a MiFi and takes on a diamond-cut square shape (as opposed to the MiFi’s rectangle) while adding a monochrome LCD up front that can be triggered on by touching (but not pressing) the power button. Other than that, you’ve got a micro-USB port, a microSD slot… and, well, that’s about it. For something designed to slide into your pocket, we’d have it no other way.

Sprint Overdrive hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic was showing off its new lineup of cameras and camcorders at its display table at Digital Experience, but that wasn’t what really caught our eyes. Nope, that honor went to the DMP-B500, a portable Blu-ray player that had both a killer screen and a (fairly) slim profile. Better yet, it doubles as a standalone Blu-ray player when you connect it to your TV, and it links up nicely with other VIERA products. Also on display was a WiFi photo frame with a built in CD player and a hidden iPod dock. Calendar and photo widgets looked nice on the crisp display, and let’s just put it this way, we don’t know how much we’d mind waking up to that in the morning. You don’t have to take our word for it though, check our the goods in our hands-on gallery.

Panasonic packs a punch with portable Blu-ray player at CES (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony‘s just announced a ton of new laptops. And by a ton, we mean a ton. First up, the 13.1-inch Vaio Z high res backlit screen and weighs in at just around three pounds. Boasting switchable graphics, this one should get more battery life for your money, and it also packs an HDMI output, optional built-in Verizon Wireless 3G, WiFi, and Bluetooth. All Vaio Z models are sold with SSDs — up to 512GB. Moving on to the Vaio W (the most interesting of the lot for sure, in out opinions), this laptop’s cashing in on the eco-friendly game by being… eco-friendly. The Vaio W Eco Edition 212AX is a 10.1-incher with a backlit widescreeen display and a 250GB hard drive. It’s made from a reprocessed plastic chassis, and environmentally friendly, reusable packaging, so you can feel great when you drop $480 on this sucker. Finally, the Y series netbook is ultra-thin with a 13.3-inch LED backlit widescreen display, an optional Intel Core 2 Duo, ultra low voltage processor, and up to 8GB of RAM. This bad boy can be yours for a starting price of about $800. All of these are available for pre-order now at Sony Style.

Continue reading Sony bumps out Vaio Z, F, W and Y series laptops

Filed under: Laptops

Sony bumps out Vaio Z, F, W and Y series laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a quick little note from Microsoft’s CES 2010 keynote, but man it’s a surprise. AT&T U-Verse subscribers will soon be able to use their Xbox 360s as a set-top box. AT&T U-Verse is the one IPTV provider in the US — admittedly there aren’t many — that utilizes Microsoft’s Mediaroom platform and while it was announced at CES three years ago that the 360 could act as a Mediaroom set-top, up until now AT&T customers didn’t have this option — well, maybe not now as an exact release date wasn’t mentioned. We also don’t have a clue if AT&T will charge for this type of thing. Another thing cool that was mentioned was that a Windows 7 PC can also work as a Mediaroom set-top and Mediaroom was even demoed on a Windows Mobile phone.

Xbox 360 will support AT&T’s U-Verse TV later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just swung by Powermat’s table here at Digital Experience, and we’re really digging the newest lineup of products out of the company. It’s offering up its appropriately titled power mats in sizes for one, two, or three devices, as well as specialized folding solutions for the car or when you’re not near an outlet. The place we see the real promise, though, is with the swappable batteries we heard about earlier. That’s right, the days of those ugly, bulky cases are over if you’re lucky enough to have a device that’s supported. We saw demos for multiple models, including a handful of BlackBerrys, the Droid, and the MyTouch 3G — sorry iPhone users, you still need a jacket. Even more interestingly, there’s an app available for Android users that will allow Powermat to remotely optmThe netbook solution the folks at Powermat are hocking is more of an adapter with an external jacket, and it’s not the most elegant solution. Be sure to check the gallery below for glamour shots of the new gear in action.

Powermat CES 2010 lineup hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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