Hasta La Gadget!

Targeting lawyers, educationalists, government and enterprise markets
, Sony has launched the New Digital Paper, a device that hopes to make paper redundant. Teaming with Worldox, a leading legal and financial … Continue reading

Remember the YotaPhone? The delightfully kooky Russian smartphone that pairs a bog-standard LCD screen with an eInk display on its rump? It’s been teased for a launch for months now, but the company behind it has just spilled the beans at a press event in Moscow: the YotaPhone will launch in Russian and Europe today complete with a confirmed €499/19,990 RUB price tag, right in line with rumors that flew around earlier this year.

Smartphone aficionados in Russia, Austria, France, Spain and Germany who are itching for a device that’s a bit off the beaten path can lay claim to their YotaPhones now, and Yota Devices is pushing to sell the devices in a total of 20 markets in Europe and the Middle East by the time Q1 2014 rolls around.

Bummer alert: the Americas didn’t make the cut for that first round of rollouts, and there’s no official word on when (if ever) that split-personality smartphone will ever find its way state-side.

Bear in mind that Yota Devices has been plugging away on the YotaPhone concept for over a year now, so the components ticking away inside of the thing aren’t exactly the newest you’ll ever come across. There’s a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 chip in there (though the company hasn’t specified exactly which variant), along with 2GB of RAM, a 4.3-inch 720p front display, and a surprisingly small 1800mAh battery to keep things humming away. If you were to just read those specs off a sheet of paper, it would sound like you were describing a flagship smartphone from (surprise surprise) last year, though as a whole the device still has enough oomph to keep up with users’ daily grinds.

But really, I don’t know anyone who’s been eyeing up the YotaPhone based on the strength of its spec sheet; the real star of the show though is the 4.3-inch eInk display mounted on the YotaPhone’s rear end in lieu of a more traditional backplate. Getting content onto the second screen seems simple enough — a two-finger swipe down on the front screen sends a screenshot of whatever you’re looking at to the paper-like rear display — but only a handful of apps are really optimized for the task from the get-go. That early list includes an organizer, a social feed/RSS reader, and a language learning tool to name a new, and we’re getting word that Yota Devices is going to open up the necessary APIs to curious devs in short order.

These days nearly every OEM is clamoring to deliver the sleekest, fastest, highest-def smartphones possible, and it’s sort of refreshing to see a company stop for a moment to ponder a smarter way to add value to the smartphone formula. Naturally, that’s not to say the YotaPhone is poised to be an overnight success. The limited scope of its launch means that the company behind the phone is missing out on traction in the crucial Asian and American markets, and it’s hard to deny the incredibly niche vibe this thing gives off. As much as I like it, the YotaPhone formula almost assuredly won’t click with a majority of potential smartphone shoppers, and there’s no way Yota Devices doesn’t realize that. If nothing else though, the path the company has chosen is an interesting one, and in a sea of smartphone sameness you can’t completely discount the value of a wild-eyed notion.

Want a little more? Check out the live stream of the event (courtesy of CNET) below:

The Kisai Rorschach is the newest watch from Tokyoflash, maker of timepieces that are intentionally bad at presenting the time. The display looks similar to the ink blots used in the eponymous test, but it’s actually easy to decipher. The top right shows the hour and the bottom left shows the minutes. The other two symbols are just mirror images.

The watch has three difficulty modes. Why? Because Tokyoflash. From what I can tell changing the difficulty doesn’t change how you read the display, it just switches to hard-to-read symbols for the numbers. The date and alarm settings are also displayed in the same manner.

Because the watch uses an ePaper display, Tokyoflash added a power-saving sleep mode to the watch.  As you may know an ePaper or e-ink display does not consume power if it’s just showing a static image. So in sleep mode the watch will only display one symbol, which will be different depending on what day it is.

Tokyoflash even made a fan video to promote the watch, starring none other than The Watchmen‘s Rorschach. Is it still a fan video if you’re promoting a product? Hmmm.

I wish they didn’t use such a tacky font to print “Rorschach” on the display. Other than that I think it’s a neat design. You can order the watch from Tokyoflash for $179 (USD).

Russia-based Yota Devices has been working on a curious beast called the YotaPhone for years now, and it’s gained quite a reputation for itself because of its split personality. While the front of the phone sports a traditional LCD screen, the back plays home to a power-sipping eInk display because… well, why not?

The launch date was one of the last big questions left unanswered, but that’s no longer the case: the company has just confirmed to us that the YotaPhone will launch internationally before Christmas.

Frankly, it’s about time they’re getting this thing out the door considering just how long they’ve been teasing it to the public. Word of device first started making the rounds late last year, and an a very early version of the phone made public appearances at massive trade shows like CES and MWC (you can see our CES footage of the thing below). And it isn’t exactly a surprise that the company was gearing up for an official launch either – earlier this year the Russian company was confirmed it would start the mass production process with the help of a Singaporean manufacturer called Hi-P.

Still, the news may come as a bummer to some of YotaPhone’s biggest fans, as an earlier report out of Russia claimed that the Yota subsidiary would be pushing the device out the door some time in November. Those same reports also claimed that the YotaPhone would ship with a €500 price tag attached to it, but so far company representatives have remained mum when it came to cost.

That long-than-expected gap between promotion and production may have done the YotaPhone more harm than good. There’s little doubting that it raised plenty of eyebrows, but the spec sheet is looking a bit long in the tooth compared to the competition – the final production model is going to feature a dual-core 1.7GHz chipset, 2GB of RAM, a 4.3-inch 720p screen upfront, and a seemingly paltry 1800mAh battery. Granted, it shouldn’t be a total slouch with components like those, but the big question is whether or not the gimmicky second screen will be enough to tempt potential customers away from more prominent rivals like Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, and more.

This is a developing story, please refresh for updates.

Sony has just unveiled a new version of its Reader device that it claims will revolutionize the e-Reading experience. Sporting a high-resolution touch display, an integrated snap cover, and a quick charging feature, the Sony Reader PRS-T3 is built to be long-lasting, convenient to use and a pleasure to read on. Building on the lessons […]