Hasta La Gadget!

Windows Mobile Standard devices — you know, those pre-touchscreen relics — are getting to be tougher sales by the day. Touch is perceived as a “premium” experience (we’re not entirely sold on that) and with boatloads of price pressure in that category, these little guys are liable to get squeezed clean out of the market. The new Shadow, even more so than the original Shadow before it, definitely belies its Windows Mobile underpinnings with a funky shell that’s fit for average consumers who just want a decent looking slider — never mind a smartphone. The red-to-black gradient rear was totally bangin’, but as is all too often the case these days, the glossy top was a brutal canvas for grease, fingerprints, and other unsavory stains that you probably don’t want to press against your face. It’s a tradeoff, we suppose.

Filed under: Cellphones, CES, Handhelds

Hands-on with T-Mobile’s revised Shadow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just got a chance to check out Lenovo’s All-in-One IdeaCentre A600, featuring the motion-based remote control that doubles as a VoIP handset. Three minutes into the tennis game, we managed to toss the remote into an adjacent HDTV and pulled our shoulder out of alignment. We couldn’t call for help — the VoIP wasn’t functional — but we did manage to snap some screens with our good arm.

Filed under: Desktops

Lenovo All-in-One IdeaCentre A600 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Steve Ballmer has kicked off his speech wearing Bill Gates’ old shoes. Was TechCrunch right about the speech’s contents? Update: Here’s video of the keynote:

Or, if you want the quick and dirty, here’s what unfurled in front of me, give or take a few guest presenters and some marketingspeak:

Ballmer comes out—my guess is he’s smiling. He talks about the wonderful world of consumer electronics. He mentions this company called Microsoft. He also mentions the tough economic times we’re all going to suffer through together. He will be optimistic, however.

He’s going to talk about Windows 7. First, he’ll announce the availability the Windows 7 Beta tomorrow for registered Microsoft beta peeps, January 9th for everybody else. He’ll run through a lot of stuff we’ve already seen on Win 7, like DeviceStage, Homegroup networking, “Play To…” and other coolness like the Win 7 touch interface.

On the Windows Live front, he’ll tell us that Windows Live Essentials is no longer in beta, and that you can now post photos on Facebook directly from Windows Live Photo Gallery, and save photos from Facebook directly to your Win gallery too. He’ll also say that Windows Live Search and Essentials toolbar is gonna boot Google from Dell computers in February. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless is going to implement Windows Live on VZW feature phones. IE8 is not out of beta yet, but it’s coming.

For Windows Mobile, the big news, as presumed, will be full Adobe Flash support in the browser. (Sounds good to me, if only the browser was as good as, well, others.)

Ballmer is going to call Robbie Bach to the stage to talk about connected entertainment. Bach will start with some good Xbox stats—28 million worldwide, with 17 million active Windows Live members, and over a billion dollars spent on the service since inception.

Bach will introduce a number of sweet products:
• Windows Mobile app for managing Netflix queue
• Xbox Live community game builder called Kodu (already buzzed about)
• Windows Media Extender functionality in Toshiba products (announced earlier today)
• The latest edition of Ford Sync, which you can read about here
• Go back and forth on shows you didn’t pre-record using Microsoft Media Room Anytime (I wonder what the advertiser stipulations are on that)
• Already known games Halo Wars and Halo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper
• Xbox Live Primetime game 1 Vs 100 live gameshow coming in spring

What, no love for Zune? Almost everything’s going according to plan so far, but stay tuned, because anything could happen. You know, come to think of it, Robbie Bach got to talk about a lot of the fun stuff. Is this the kickoff of the Ballmer Years? Or is it really the kickoff to the Bach Years? Steve would probably win at arm wrestling, but seeing the two of them on stage, I’m starting to think Bach could maybe take the bossman in a Cool Hand Luke-style a fist fight. [Full CES 2009 Coverage]

It was already a fair bet that Steve Ballmer will be talking about Windows 7 during his CES keynote tonight, especially after the beta keys leaked but we’d say the odds just got better: we just hit up the Microsoft booth a little early and spotted a prominent 7 display. We were hustled out before we got a chance to dig further, but we were certainly intrigued by the black cloth covering up the Windows Mobile display — we doubt it means anything, but maybe Ballms has some WinMo 7 action to show off as well. Check it in the gallery!

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Microsoft CES ninja booth tour: hello Windows 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look for something to drive your new Samsung monitor or 120Hz 3D HDTV? Enter NVIDIA’s GeForce 3D Vision package, loaded up with powered 3D glasses (no red / blue silliness here, charged via USB) and an IR emitter to keep everything synced between the display and your glasses. Left 4 Dead, WoW: WotLK and several other games are already compatible with more expected to come soon. CES had a quick demo and didn’t notice any of the headaches sometimes associated with stereocopic 3D, but at $399 for the display and $199 for this set when it’s available in the next few days, we’re not sure how close we want to get to those zombies, but WoW fans may see things differently.

Filed under: CES, Displays, Gaming, Home Entertainment

NVIDIA offers up GeForce 3D Vision, takes WoW players further down the rabbit hole originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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