Hasta La Gadget!

It might not look like much, but it really isn’t. The new handset prototype from Teleepoch is a flip phone with a miniscule display cut-out and nothing else of note. All functionality is controlled by tilting the phone up and down to scroll through menus and shaking the handset a particular direction to drill in and out of menu options. There’s voice control for inputting numbers and quick-dialing, and everything of note is powered by a new “wearable device” WMDP chip design from Qualcomm that integrates the phone radio, processor and accelerometer into a board about the size of a quarter. With this few elements (the only pure mechanical interaction with the phone is the hinge), the handset should be dirt cheap, but it’s difficult to say if anyone will actually want to use it when it’s released later this year. Check out a video of an early version after the break.

Continue reading Teleepoch’s Qualcomm-powered WMDP gesture phone in action

Teleepoch’s Qualcomm-powered WMDP gesture phone in action originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Concerto, the latest Bluetooth headset from Bluetrek, aims to make hands-free work a breeze with its new voice-texting and voice-e-mailing capabilities. The headset is said to offer the ability to read your e-mail messages and texts out loud as well. The Concerto was unveiled this week at CES.

To activate the hands-free, voice-activated messaging system, you tap a button on the headset and then use voice commands to send, listen to, or dictate e-mails and texts. It can also post to social networking sites like Twitter.

Some hands-free features will be available for a monthly fee, while others are free with purchase. For $3.99 a month, users can do every action mentioned above. The basic free plan allows you to send memos, send tweets, and access your Google Calendar by voice command.

The company says the device offers 6.5 hours of talk time and 5 days of standby. The Concerto comes with a travel charger, magnetic headset holder clip, and ear buds in four sizes. The Concerto will be priced at $89.99 and go on sale in March 2010.

At first glance, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CS1 is thin. Really thin. We got to play around with the tiny camcorder, and fell in love with the form factor. It’s much thinner than our older Xacti, and we had no problem slipping it into our pocket — though getting out the door of Sanyo’s meeting room with it was another matter altogether. Wait, did we mention it’s thin?

Sanyo Xacti VPC-CS1 hands-on: a full 1080p camcorder in your pocket originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our dreams of a personal fuel cell that can charge our gadgets on the go are coming closer to fruition, and if the people at Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies continue what they’re doing, our dreams might come true sooner rather than later. A handheld box a bit larger than an iPhone, the MiniPak handheld fuel cell charger uses Hydrostik cartridges filled with solid hydrogen particles to keep your gadgets juiced. It comes with one Hydrostik, which can be refilled with the companion product, the HydroFILL. The HydroFILL gets filled up with water, and when connected to a power source, it breaks the water down to hydrogen and oxygen, filling up the cartridges. We’ll admit that we’re not exactly up on our molecular chemistry, so check out the video after the break to see a Horizon rep explaining it more clearly.

Continue reading Horizon MiniPak personal fuel cell charger hands-on (video)

Horizon MiniPak personal fuel cell charger hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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