Hasta La Gadget!

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Without a doubt, 3D was the keystone feature touted by every major TV and Blu-ray player manufacturer at CES 2010. But the 3D technology we’ll see this year asks more of consumers than previous reinventions. As with HD, they will need new TVs, new video sources, and optimized content like Avatar to make the experience worthwhile.

But consumers will also likely need glasses — and not particularly fashionable glasses — to experience the 3D effect. It’s a lot to ask customers, given just-completed 10-year transition to digital and high-definition television. Compare that to the roughly 30-year gap that separated the mainstream arrival of color and the first HDTV in the U.S.

It also remains to be seen how strong of a marketing push major electronics companies will put behind 3D. The shift to HD was aided by a government mandate that coincided with the shift from over-the-air analog broadcasts to digital broadcasts. And before there was much HD content on television, consumers embraced the dramatic form-factor shift from CRT to flat-panel televisions — HD often just came along for the ride.

Continue reading Switched On: The two sides of 3DTV

Switched On: The two sides of 3DTV originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that we’ve heard the big news from Nokia’s London press event, it’s only natural to get our hands dirty with the upgraded Ovi Maps. The preloaded map does indeed load much quicker than its old network counterpart, and hey, did we mention it’s free too? Enjoy the photos and video after the break with your breakfast.

Continue reading Nokia Ovi Maps with free turn-by-turn navigation hands-on

Nokia Ovi Maps with free turn-by-turn navigation hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After a weeks of speculation, leaks, confirmation and a sneak peek from my colleagues here at Engadget, Google finally told the story of the Nexus One. The Nexus One is the latest and greatest Android device, with a bit of a twist. The Nexus One is available without contract and unlocked directly from Google for $530, as well as subsidized from T-Mobile on a two-year contract for $179. Even with T-Mobile service, the device is only available from Google. Interesting, but hardly the groundbreaking business model that was expected as soon as the words “Google phone” began to make the rounds.

As nice as the Nexus One is — and in my opinion it’s the nicest Android device on the market — it makes me wonder what Google’s up to with Android and why it’s even in the mobile OS business, let alone selling phones directly to consumers. I’d ask the same about Chrome and Chrome OS as well. Android is particularly puzzling, however: Google licenses it for free and it’s turned up on some rather interesting devices, but none of those devices have helped build out an ecosystem. Many of them are proprietary and Android is rapidly becoming fragmented — the Archos5 Internet Tablet, for example, can’t make official use of the Android marketplace. But nothing is as strange as Google getting into the hardware business directly and selling devices, albeit unlocked and unsubsidized ones, directly to consumers.

Continue reading Entelligence: ‘Don’t be evil’ isn’t the basis for a relationship

Entelligence: ‘Don’t be evil’ isn’t the basis for a relationship originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s our third year visiting with Fulton Innovation and the eCoupled wireless power booth at CES, and once again there’s significant progress to be seen — this time in the form of actual shipping products like the Case-mate Hug and the Dell Latitude Z. Fulton’s really pushing the industry standard angle with eCoupled — it’s a founding member of the Wireless Power Consortium, which is just a few months away from finalizing a standard based on eCoupled called Qi. Qi’s going to be backed by some pretty big names: Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Energizer, Duracell, Samsung, and Philips are all members of the WPC, along with several others, and the goal is for all this stuff to seamlessly play together. Fulton had some pretty hot demos to show off of the standard in action, including a Toyota Avalon interior with functional spots for two phones, a GPS, a Bluetooth headset, and a netbook, a slick first-class airline seat with a charging table, and a hotel room with several power points — including a slick motorized dock built into the desk for the Dell. Our favorite demo, however, was a wall sconce: an eCoupled point in the wall was used to power a light fixture, which was then swapped for a digital photo frame. Nifty stuff, indeed.

Still, the big challenge for Fulton and the WPC is going to be actually shipping a bunch of these products this year — standards are nice, but without gear in hand they’re meaningless, and the rival PowerMat crew has been making a pretty big push of its own. We’ll see what happens in the next few months — and how much has changed at CES 2011. Check a couple videos after the break!

Continue reading Wireless power takes another baby step at CES 2010 with Qi standard

Wireless power takes another baby step at CES 2010 with Qi standard originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s that time of the year again, where we round up all the gadgets we found on the CES show floor that help us to reset our gauge for bad ideas and hardware. Following in 2009’s footsteps, there seemed to be much less crap this year than before. Still, we’re here to recognize those souls who strive harder than most to hit that point of mediocrity — pick your favorite below, then rest easy knowing that you live in a world that accepts the existence of all kinds of products, no matter how miserable.

The nominees

Crapgadget Crapdown, CES 2010: the best of the worst originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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