Hasta La Gadget!

Ford just made industry history by being the first major auto manufacturer to unveil a new model at CES, the Focus Electric. But we already knew it would. What we didn’t know were the details of the thing, but now we have them. And a lot of pretty pictures. Ford is saying the car will manage a range of 100 miles and that it will offer an MPGe rating (a conceptual equivalency of miles per gallon for an electric or otherwise non-traditionally powered car) higher than the Volt and comparable to the Leaf, but crucially it’s saying that it can be recharged on a 240 volt outlet in four hours or less. The Leaf can take up to seven hours with the same amount of current — though of course CHAdeMO support there handily trumps that. More details below, along with details of some pretty blue butterflies.

Continue reading Ford unveils Focus Electric with MyFord Mobile smartphone integration

Ford unveils Focus Electric with MyFord Mobile smartphone integration originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Verizon is shopping for ways to get its brand spanking new 4G airwaves loaded, because Sling’s just announced an unusual subscription-based deal with them that should kill the upfront cost normally associated with buying a Slingbox and a $30 SlingPlayer Mobile app. Monthly pricing hasn’t yet been announced, but if you’ve got one of Verizon’s new LTE phones, you’ll have the option of getting some dollar figure tacked onto your monthly bill and a box will get shipped to your door on loan; cancel the subscription, and you’ll presumably have to return it or pay a fee. It’s an interesting shift in Sling’s business model, but from Verizon’s perspective, it’s also got an air of anti-net neutrality to it — especially if the $30 SlingPlayer option in the Market goes away. Here’s hoping it doesn’t! Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Sling hooks up with Verizon to rent Slingboxes to LTE customers

Sling hooks up with Verizon to rent Slingboxes to LTE customers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ocosmos wasn’t only showing off a new duo of Windows 7 handheld gaming machine here at CES, but also a newfangled remote in its O-Bar line. This guy is an ultraslim Bluetooth remote, designed to control set-top boxes, game consoles and connected HDTVs. Details were a little unclear (to say the least) on how exactly it would all work, but apparently the company’s supremely interested in licensing out the technology underneath of it for use in other remotes. We get the impression that El Goog doesn’t know about that Google TV logo there on the bottom, and folks at the booth noted that this was just a mockup for demonstration purposes. The goal here would be to place a virtual keyboard on the capacitive display, then enabling couch dwellers to bang out searches for shows on their set. For reasons unknown, there are also a pair of shoulder buttons at the top, possibly for embedded games. This one’s expected to ship later in the year for an undisclosed amount, presumably sans the Google branding.

Ocosmos O-Bar Smart TV / Google TV controller hands-on at CES 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Cricket Muve music service and Samsung Suede hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones

Cricket Muve music service and Samsung Suede hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iHome’s big announcement here at CES is the AirPlay-enabled iW1 wireless speakers, but the company also gave us a quick sneak peek at the iW2 and iW3, two new smaller systems that are due to be released… sometime. Both systems are essentially identical internally, with two low-range drivers and two tweeters, but the iW2 is laid out horizontally, while the iW3 is a tower. Since they’re designed to be cheaper fixed satellite speakers for around your house, they don’t have internal batteries or the iW1’s grab-and-go charger, but they do pick up Ethernet ports, and you can still use the new iHome Connect setup application. No word on price, but the iW1 is $300 and these are meant to be cheaper — we’d guess $200 or so.

iHome iW2 and iW3 AirPlay wireless speakers hands-on sneak peek originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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