Hasta La Gadget!

This little droid may not look like much, but he’s fulled to the brim. With booze. Or whatever other beverage you choose. This R2 unit has electronic Super Soaker parts inside and here, he is filled with blue gatorade.

Due to the unfortunate placement of his spigot, it actually looks like the little droid is relieving himself right into your cup. That’s a great image to consider while you are drinking up. Inside is the Super Soaker pump and a water bottle to store liquid. R2′s body was one of those big protein drink mix containers. Its creators explain “After spraying it white and masking off the entire thing with blue painter’s tape, the shapes for the blue designs were cut out and painted. Half of a foam sphere from the hobby shop was used to form the dome.” 

Pretty cool, but I’m glad we never saw R2 relieve himself in the movies. I didn’t know droids peed blue, though, so you learn something new every day.

[via Instructables]

Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we’re tapping away on our brand-new smartphones — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of August we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — you can hit up the hub page right here!

It’s a good time to be a student. Last year, there were some solid picks, but it was still very clear that those willing to scrimp and save a little longer had a much better experience. This year, it’s a people’s revolution. Thanks to cutthroat competition, there are some exceptional phones out there, even for those of you hoping to avoid eating ramen noodles for a month. Software has taken a leap forward too, with many phones now offering a vital way to remember when that term paper is due… or to procrastinate at the pub. We have nine choices of phones in our shortlist, spread out across three categories to serve everyone from the I-just-need-a-phone freshman to the overloaded doctoral candidate. While you’re eying the selection, don’t forget to enter our giveaway and potentially ease the burden — who knows, you may get a phone you want rather than the one dictated by your student loan.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: smartphones

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest development in our neverending saga of worldwide patent warfare is a decision by a Mannheim judge banning Motorola’s Android devices on the basis that they violate a FAT storage patent owned by Microsoft. FOSSPatents’ Florian Mueller tweets that it is the third victory by Microsoft over Motorola, and Microsoft has already issued a triumphant statement of victory which you can read after the break. There’s more details about patent EP0618540 on the site — it deals with common name space for long and short file names — including a note about an email from Linux creator Linus Torvalds being cited as prior art. Motorola has been swinging its own patents around as well, but most recently a case to ban the Xbox 360 was delayed. We haven’t heard from Motorola or Google on this ruling yet or what their response will be — entering into a licensing agreement or changing the storage system used on their phones are possible options. Microsoft will have to put up a 10 million euro bond to enforce an injunction if it chooses, we’ll check back once the other shoe drops.

Update: We’ve just received Motorola’s response — brief but to the point:“We are in process of reviewing the ruling, and will explore our options including appeal. We don’t anticipate an impact on our operations at this time.”

Continue reading Microsoft vs. Motorola decision sees Droids banned in Germany over FAT patent (updated)

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Microsoft vs. Motorola decision sees Droids banned in Germany over FAT patent (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 04:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During Sprint’s earnings call, CEO Dan Hesse revealed that Motorola’s Photon Q, the company’s latest LTE “world phone” is coming “very soon.” The Photon Q is believed to be the Android 4.0-running QWERTY-slider you can see in the image above, but now that the company’s head has let the cat out of the bag, we expect more details to roll around very shortly.

Update: Sprint’s PR engine has kicked into gear, offering the deep dish on the new handset. It’s a super-specced edition of last year’s Photon 4G and will indeed offer a QWERTY-sliding experience on Ice Cream Sandwich. Beneath the 4.3-inch ColorBoost display you’ll find a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera and NFC as well as Motorola’s Smartactions application to help users extend battery life and anticipate your daily routines. Pricing and availability will be announced within the “next few weeks,” but given how excited Dan Hesse sounded, we can’t imagine we’ll be waiting too long.

Continue reading Sprint’s Motorola Photon Q LTE is coming ‘very soon’ (update)

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Sprint’s Motorola Photon Q LTE is coming ‘very soon’ (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can we establish a KIRF award for Most Likely to Invite Multiple Lawsuits? If so, Long Xun Software would have to claim the statuette for its Droid X360, at least if it dared set foot in the US. This prime example of keepin’ it real fake is even more of a PS Vita clone than the Yinlips YDPG18, but goes the extra mile with a name that’s likely to irk Microsoft, Motorola, Verizon and George Lucas all at once. That’s even discounting the preloaded emulators for just about every pre-1999 Nintendo, Sega and Sony console. Inside, you’ll at least find a device that’s reasonably up to snuff: the 5-inch handheld is running Android 4.0 on a 1.5GHz single-core Quanzhi A10 processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of built-in space, a 2-megapixel camera at the back and a VGA shooter at the front. If the almost gleeful amount of copyright and trademark violation isn’t keeping you from wanting this award-winner, you’ll have to ask Long Xun for pricing and availability.

Continue reading Droid X360 goes for the KIRF prize, antagonizes Microsoft, Motorola and Sony at the same time (video)

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Droid X360 goes for the KIRF prize, antagonizes Microsoft, Motorola and Sony at the same time (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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