Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft offered a brief glimpse of its revised Surface earlier this week at the Ballmer keynote, but now we’ve had a chance to check the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface (as its officially termed) for ourselves. The “2.0 experience” firmware is early and a bit buggy right now (especially with finger input), but there’s plenty of time fix that up before its launch later this year. The hardware itself is much thinner, with a 4-inch profile that can now be placed vertically against the wall (although we suggest using the stylish legs when possible). The 40-inch 1920 x 1080 gorilla glass display was crisp as all out, but since we could get close and scrutinize, you’ll definitely notice the pixels. The first demo we got to see is also probably the most impressive, wherein a paper with “I can see” written on it is scanned and read very clearly (a dev monitor was hooked up to show what Surface could “see”). Meanwhile, we couldn’t help but touch every point to watch the ripple effect emanate from our fingers.

Apps are arranged in a row that you can sift through or rotate 180 degrees for someone facing opposite. We kept accidentally opening apps when we tried to scroll through, which is annoying but again, we were reminded it’s early firmware. Some of the apps we have seen before with the original Surface — some changes are required to make compatible, but we’re told it’s a fairly smooth transition process. Some highlights from what we saw:

• Bing, which for now only does image search (maps and local to come). The screen right now is a bit too sensitive and would detect sleeves as much as it would our fingers (you can see typos galore in the gallery). Images are scattered about a new results widget, and you can move around a bit from there or pull out individual ones to rotate and scan.
• A Red Bull with a printed code on the bottom that launches on-screen prompts for videos that you can smoothly rotate and scale on the fly, and a RBC Royal Bank that’ll make you feel really guilty about that cup of coffee from this morning.
• Oldies like Social Stream, Garibaldi Panorama, and Galactic Alliance.

Another plus for the SUR40? It’s cheaper than its predecessor — but at $7,600, it’s still not ready for consumer market. We’ve got a ton of pics below and video after the break!

Update: We’ve added our full impressions and cleaned up the footage after the break. Enjoy!

Continue reading Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface hands-on with video! (update)

Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface hands-on with video! (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The MoGo product line is all about making normally-thick Bluetooth accessories insanely thin, and the trend continues with a couple new ones targeted at tablets and scheduled for launch in the second quarter. We had a chance this week to check out hand-built prototypes of a speakerphone / handset and headset with charging case, both designed to be thin and small enough to fit into the business card holder built into a tablet case. The speakerphone is pretty clever: set it on a table, it’s a speakerphone, hold it to your face and it becomes a tiny handset appropriate for holding private calls through the telephony services on your tab (or Tab, as the case may be). The headset, meanwhile, fits in a vanity-style case — also designed to stow away in a business card holder — but the real magic here is that the case doubles as a battery that charges the headset when it’s docked. Perfect for Skype, eh?

ID8 Mobile’s Bluetooth tablet accessories include business card-shaped headsets and handsets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon is sharing its grand vision of the future of TV at CES this year which not only includes FiOS TV programming on its set-tops and iPads, but also via Blu-ray players, game consoles, and even directly on the TV without any tethered box at all. And unlike other providers, Verizon isn’t taking the media server approach because it doesn’t scale. The demo at the at CES’s bloggers lounge included all four screens with a Samsung Blu-ray player’s app delivering both traditional live TV, DVR’d content and video-on-demand — in this case the DVR content was being streamed from a FiOS DVR, but the device could have internal storage. Because this content is to be delivered via IP instead of QAM, there’s the chance that this programming could be delivered everywhere and to any screen (rights issues aside of course). That’s the good news, the (potentially) bad news is that all this great content will only be delivered via Verizon’s software, so if you’re a TiVo or Media Center guy, no programming for you. We still stick by the idea that true inovation will only come when cable customers can chose both their hardware and their software, but we you can bet we’ll bite our tongue and enjoy some HD when we are not standing on our soap box.

Verizon intends to take its FiOS TV to every box, maybe even everywhere originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, the word is that Samsung was planning on showing off Google TV at its presser, but switched things up at the last minute and stuck to its first party Smart TV offering. Still, that didn’t stop two Samsung Google TV boxes from showing up at the show floor, a Blu-ray player and a standalone “companion” box. They both look pretty svelte, and the companion box is particularly smaller than the standalone Logitech and Sony boxes. Samsung’s explanation of the showing was the idea that Samsung was “capable” of supporting other platforms, though they didn’t have any promises of a release, a release date, or a price range. We also saw a Samsung Galaxy S running the Google TV controller app, which isn’t much of a stretch, and there wasn’t any sort of physical remote or keyboard on display. Basically, Samsung is showing the bare minimum of a Google TV offering, which seems to be sort of appropriate with Google TV’s current feature set, if you want to get all “deeper meaning” about it.

Continue reading Samsung shows off Google TV companion box and Blu-ray player

Samsung shows off Google TV companion box and Blu-ray player 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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