Samung Smart Touch Remote and Smart TV hands-on

Samsung made a lot of noise about its first-party Smart TV initiative yesterday, so we had to stop by and check things out — especially that new WiFi-based RMC30D Smart Touch Remote, which comes bundled with all new 8000-series TVs and above. (It also works with the 7000 series, but you have to buy it separately.) Unfortunately, things weren’t working so well — tons of WiFi interference in the area made control hard to do, and the system itself was a confusing UI nightmare made worse by the remote’s slow resistive touchscreen. Oh, and did we mention that the remote itself is a straight-up iPhone 3G KIRF? Because yeah — it is. Things were slightly improved when we loaded up the soon-to-be-released Android control app on a nearby Fascinate, but that didn’t fix the essential issues with the UI — it’s very much just a picture of a regular remote drawn on the screen, which rarely works well on a touchscreen device. Don’t just take our word for it — check the video after the break.

Continue reading Samung Smart Touch Remote and Smart TV hands-on

Samung Smart Touch Remote and Smart TV hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Panasonic and Verizon team up to Mobile HD Visual Communications System using LTE

Panasonic and Verizon team up to Mobile HD Visual Communications System using LTELTE is hardly available everywhere, but that’s not stopping Verizon from looking for novel ways to exploit all that lovely bandwidth, recently partnering with OnStar to do everything from streaming in-car security cameras to Skype video chatting from the highway. Now it’s Panasonic getting down with 4G, the two companies partnering to the Mobile High Definition Visual Communications System, basically a collection of remotely controlled cameras, microphones, and a display on each end that enables two distant sites to communicate wirelessly. The initial implementations here are primarily medical, like an ambulance calling ahead and giving doctors an idea of what’s inbound, or a patient being able to visit with a doctor remotely. However, we can see plenty of other potential applications going forward. Remote access to the CES show floor so that everyone can experience the insanity? Oh yeah.

Continue reading Panasonic and Verizon team up to Mobile HD Visual Communications System using LTE

Panasonic and Verizon team up to Mobile HD Visual Communications System using LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Eyes-on: Verizon LTE gaming and live TV on the Acer Iconia Tab (video)

We said we’d bring you an Verizon LTE speed test on the Acer Iconia Tab A500, but we can give you better than that — here’s a test of latency in cross-platform online multiplayer gaming and a FiOS app that streams live television. Hosting a game of Dungeon Defenders on an Alienware M11x laptop (also connected to LTE), Verizon joined the party with an Acer Iconia Tab, and a pair of the slates were able to go head-to-head in a peer-to-peer Asphalt 5 race over LTE as well. What’s more, the carrier showed us an experimental version of its FiOS DVR Manager app, which streamed live television to the Iconia over LTE — similar to what we saw on the iPad. Unlike the games, it was choppy and took some time to cache, but we’ll have to see what it’s like when (or if) it’s finalized. Of course, if you had just clicked the play button on the above video instead of reading these words, you’d already know all that.

Eyes-on: Verizon LTE gaming and live TV on the Acer Iconia Tab (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Working RED Scarlet appears at our trailer, we go hands-on! (video)

Last year at CES, we had a surprise visit from RED’s Ted Schilowitz showing off their non-functioning RED Scarlet prototype. Ted just stopped by our trailer again, this time with a working version and it’s a seriously impressive piece of hardware. We grabbed a camera and sat down with Ted for an in-depth hands-on, so head on past the break for the exclusive video and some details!

Continue reading Working RED Scarlet appears at our trailer, we go hands-on! (video)

Working RED Scarlet appears at our trailer, we go hands-on! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Vizio CES hands-on with ultrawidescreen TV, passive 3DTV, OnLive and Android clock radios

Predictably, as the leader in North American LCD sales, Vizio’s booth was absolutely filled with LCD HDTVs, including the slew of displays announced this week during CES. We got some hands-on time with the OnLive implementation Vizio’s bringing to its VIA Plus (read: Google TV) as well as the Versus single screen head-to-head gaming setup — which you can check out on Joystiq — a quick look at new soundbars with wireless subwoofers, new headphones and even an interesting Android-powered clock radio with integrated iPod dock, but our biggest question was if the new Theater 3D tech based on LG’s FPR passive 3D screens was ready for prime time. Check out a few more pics in the gallery and our impressions after the break.

Continue reading Vizio CES hands-on with ultrawidescreen TV, passive 3DTV, OnLive and Android clock radios

Vizio CES hands-on with ultrawidescreen TV, passive 3DTV, OnLive and Android clock radios originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

iHome iA63 motorized spinning iPhone alarm clock hands-on

In addition to its slick new AirPlay speaker systems, iHome’s here at CES with its usual array of iPhone alarm clocks — and the craziest by far is the new iA63, which offers a crazy motorized dock that pivots your phone from portrait to landscape at the touch of a button. Why you’d be watching anything from an iPhone from so far away that you couldn’t spin things yourself is an open question, but hey — for a list price of $99 we’ll take all the extra motors we can get. Video after the break.

Continue reading iHome iA63 motorized spinning iPhone alarm clock hands-on

iHome iA63 motorized spinning iPhone alarm clock hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

SQ Blaster Pro is a WiFi, Z-Wave, and IR blaster home automation powerhouse

We’ve seen plenty of IR blasters around the Engadget trailer but few, if any, include WiFi and Z-Wave home automation radios. But that’s exactly what the boys over at Square Connect have planned as a followup to their existing SQ Blaster product. A trick that lets you control your home theater equipment, window coverings, lights, and HVAC systems from the company’s own SQ Remote iPhone app. At least that’s the plan when it ships sometime around Q2, possibly touting WiFi Direct capability and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). The device above is a non-working prototype that just happens to look nice with the Apple TV. It features cutouts for a USB port (power and setup), IR extenders, built-in blasters, and removable antenna. Working models are already in field testing with shipments expected to land in the homes of consumers sometime in Q2.

SQ Blaster Pro is a WiFi, Z-Wave, and IR blaster home automation powerhouse originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Kno single and dual-screen tablets hands-on (video)

You know about Kno right? Yep, it’s that giant dual-screen tablet up there that’s meant for students, and while we had seen an early version of it and its single-screen brother about six months ago, we figured we’d take a closer look at the shipping versions here at CES. Our first impression of the thing is that it’s one awesome tablet for taking notes. Both the dual-screen and single-screen versions come with a magnetic stylus, which not only latches onto the side of the screen but provides an incredibly smooth inking experience. As you will see in the video below, you can write over text in a textbook and even create a Post-it note. The palm rejection is also top notch, and considering your entire wrist has to rest on the display to take notes at the top of the screen, it’s pretty clutch. The rest of the hardware is equally as first rate — the metal make obviously makes ’em both quite heavy (the single tablet is 2.6 pounds and the dual-screen one 5.6 pounds), but they feel very rigid and we really dig the etched edges, which were designed specifically to mimic pages in a textbook. The bright 1440 x 900-resolution IPS displays provide very wide viewing angles.

So, how’s the Linux-based software interface? Unlike the version we saw a while back, it was pretty responsive and intuitive. You’ve got the My Apps section, which contains links to web applications, and the My Library section, which is where you’ll be able to purchase books and open them. The browser supports multiple tabs and the on-screen keyboard is obviously quite wide. At this point there’s no way to convert handwriting to text, so you’ve got to use the keyboard within web apps. We’ve got to say, Kno has made a solid piece of hardware with an equally impressive textbook reading and note-taking experience, but we’re still not convinced that anyone out there wants to carry around one, nevertheless two 14-inch touchscreens. (Kno claims that students actually carry more weight around than that between textbooks, laptops, etc.) But hey, the only way we know how to find that out is to get one of these, throw it in the backpack, and try using it in real life. Until that happens, hit the break for a hands-on video.

Continue reading Kno single and dual-screen tablets hands-on (video)

Kno single and dual-screen tablets hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Viliv X7 and X10 Android tablets hands-on

Viliv had its new Android tablets on display for us to get our grubby hands on, and the company continues to impress us with its sleek designs and attractive feature sets. The X10’s claim to fame is its monstrous 8300 mAh battery which should yield over ten hours of use even with its 10.2-inch display. What we saw was only a prototype, but it doesn’t seem that the battery added any additional bulk to the svelte design. The X7 seven inch model should look pretty familiar, considering it has essentially the same exact enclosure as that X70 slate we spent time with earlier (the only difference is the OS and some tweaked buttons). Both tablets have a Cortex A8 processor chugging away at 1 GHz, front and rear 1.3 / 3 megapixel cams respectively, and support for 3G. They were currently running Froyo but will ultimately ship with Gingerbread. When we mentioned Honeycomb we couldn’t exactly get a straight answer, but it’s a safe bet that won’t happen off the bat and a very vague “3.0 (TBD)” note in the press release doesn’t make anything more clear. Check out these twin tablets getting cozy in our gallery shots below.

Filed under: ,

Viliv X7 and X10 Android tablets hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

LG 3D smartphone display eyes-on (video)

You can’t have all this 3D stuff happening on the home entertainment front without it trickling down to smartphones, right? Sharp’s already planning to bring its autostereoscopic wares to US shores at some point during 2011 and today LG’s busy showing off a prototype of its own, right here at CES. It’s a 4.3-inch panel, pumping out glasses-free 3D (using the parallax barrier method) and is presently embedded in an enormous demo box, but the ultimate goal is to have it in media-centric handsets. To be honest, yes, there’s some glasses-free 3D effect going on, but for the most part we just noticed the two frames splitting and didn’t find the video before us enhanced in any major way. The best parts might even have been the ones that didn’t have any 3D-ification applied to them — the display on show is certainly a lucid and bright one. Skip past the break to see what we’re talking about.

Continue reading LG 3D smartphone display eyes-on (video)

LG 3D smartphone display eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments