VIA makes its first ARM-based Pico-ITX board, adds dual graphics for your in-car pleasure

VIA makes its first ARMbased PicoITX board, adds dual graphics for your incar pleasure

VIA has only ever really had a dalliance with ARM; the VAB-800 might be a sign that it’s willing to go steady for awhile. As the company’s first Pico-ITX board with an ARM chip, the 800 stuffs up to a 1GHz, Freescale-made ARM Cortex-A8 and 1GB of RAM into a tiny, 3.9 x 2.8-inch board. Somehow, it still fits up to four USB 2.0 ports, mini HDMI, VGA and as much as 64GB of storage. The board’s real tricks are its dual integrated graphics processors: the VAB-800 can independently steer two displays, just in case your in-car infotainment system can’t be contained by merely one screen. You’ll likely have to be a car designer or an industrial device maker to make an order, although the 5W power draw and support for Android, Ubuntu Linux and Windows Embedded Compact 7 should soon see the VAB-800 crammed into logic-defying spaces everywhere.

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VIA makes its first ARM-based Pico-ITX board, adds dual graphics for your in-car pleasure originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fujifilm unwraps FinePix F800EXR camera with wireless sharing to Android, iOS

Fujifilm unwraps FinePix F800EXR camera with wireless sharing to Android, iOS

If your company doesn’t have a camera with WiFi sharing somewhere in your lineup, many will say you’re not even in the photography game. Fujifilm is definitely playing: welcome the FinePix F800EXR, its first camera with wireless sharing as part and parcel of the experience. Its centerpiece is a free Photo Receiver app for Android and iOS devices that will catch as many 30 images at a time from an ad hoc WiFi camera link. The matching (if unceremoniously named) Camera Application can return the gesture by geotagging shots as well as finding existing photos on the map. Fujifilm will even pre-Instagram the photos through six new on-camera filters for those who can’t stand posting images online without at least some Lomo or tilt-shift effects thrown in.

As for the actual camera part of the camera, Fujifilm is keeping afloat in the competitive waters with a 16-megapixel, CMOS-based EXR sensor that can widen the dynamic range or lower the noise if sheer resolution isn’t all that vital. An equally noteworthy 20x (25-500mm equivalent) lens out in front will zoom in a lot closer than any phone camera — well, most of them. We’re otherwise looking at the technology we’d expect in a point-and-shoot of this class, such as full-resolution burst shooting at up to eight frames per second, 1080p video and a RAW mode for image quality sticklers. Stores should have the F800EXR in August for about $350, or about as much as the Galaxy Nexus that just might serve as its companion.

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Fujifilm unwraps FinePix F800EXR camera with wireless sharing to Android, iOS originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nexus Q starts shipping in earnest from Google Play, social streaming reaches our doors in five days

Nexus Q review - cables

The Nexus Q media streamer might not have generated the same kind of mania as the Nexus 7 tablet, but it’s still good news that Google is now shipping its mysteriously social orb. Google Play has the Q in stock and expects new US orders to arrive on doorsteps within the next three to five days. We’re not expecting the kind of runaway sales of the $299 hub that have made the more utilitarian Nexus 7 hard to find, but anyone who spends a lot of their leisure time in the Google media ecosystem might appreciate the integration. Alas, that made-in-the-USA design still isn’t available outside of the USA, so those in other countries will have to make do with alternatives.

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Nexus Q starts shipping in earnest from Google Play, social streaming reaches our doors in five days originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Droid X360 PS Vita clone goes for the KIRF prize, antagonizes Microsoft, Motorola and Sony at the same time

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.

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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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Samsung Galaxy Stellar pops up in Verizon docs, might light up our skies soon

Samsung Galaxy Stellar pops up in Verizon docs, might light up our skies soon

Having launched an all-out blitz on the high-end of US smartphones, Samsung must be eager to conquer the mid-range as well. A Verizon rebate list finding its way to Droid-Life has the previously unknown Galaxy Stellar showing up amongst the carrier’s more budget-minded smartphones for a $50 discount sometime between now and an August 19th expiry date. There’s little we can definitively attach to that starry-eyed name so far, although we have our hunches: first and foremost is that it’s the Jasper, the Snapdragon S4-touting spiritual successor to the Droid Charge. It might alternately be the even more mysterious SCH-i415, which just showed up at the FCC this weekend and could be a world-roaming sequel to the Stratosphere (SCH-i405) with CDMA, LTE and GSM all rolled into one. Whether the Galaxy Stellar is one of these two devices or something entirely off of the map, there’s a strong indication between this, Sprint’s mystery SPH-L300 and the slightly more tangible Galaxy Reverb that Samsung will leave no CDMA corner unturned in the near future.

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Samsung Galaxy Stellar pops up in Verizon docs, might light up our skies soon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 quietly goes on sale as the Gobots of transforming tablets

Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 hybrid tablet

Lenovo’s 10-inch IdeaTab S2 was one of the belles of its CES ball in offering a distinctly Transformer Pad-like experience for those not beholden to ASUS’ view of the world. While there wasn’t much attention given to the Android 4.0 tablet outside of the FCC filing we saw last month, it’s getting its time to shine at last: the device is now sitting on Lenovo’s virtual shelves as the S2110. The 10.1-inch slate’s selling point remains its (strictly optional) keyboard dock, which supplies a trackpad, an SD slot, USB and 10 extra hours of battery life to keep that movie marathon going. Even if you have no intention of constructing the Gobot to ASUS’ Transformer original, though, the S2110 is still a big leap over the so-so S2109 from the spring. A 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon APQ8060A, a rear 5-megapixel camera and a landscape 1,280 x 800 screen are all incentives to pay the premium over the S2110’s budget predecessor. Not that there will be much of a premium to pay — despite setting a $449 official price, Lenovo is already discounting the S2110 to as little as $343. That’s low enough to lure the cost-conscious away from the Transformer Pad elephant in the room, even if it reminds us of relatives that always bought us the cheaper robot toys when we were kids.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 quietly goes on sale as the Gobots of transforming tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google takes Nexus 7 camping for its first ad, can afford to pack light (video)

Google takes Nexus 7 camping for its first ad, doesn't need to pack bug repellent video

There’s more than a small amount of fervor swirling around the Nexus 7, so it only makes sense that Google wants to seize the moment and pitch its first Nexus tablet to the world. Its first commercial is a very Norman Rockwell-like, father-and-son camping trip — if Rockwell replaced Boy Scouts with Jelly Beans, that is. The 7-inch slate handles just about every task the two could care for, whether it’s learning about (and exaggerating) the local fauna as well as keeping busy on a rainy day. We’ll let you witness the slight twist of an ending first-hand, although we’ll add that Google is careful to use a lot of Nexus 7 features that don’t demand always-on WiFi: the search giant wants us to know that we can head to the boonies without the tablet becoming a paperweight. The one shock is the absence of that all-important $199 price, which you’d think would help trigger some impulse shopping. You can reconcile your disbelief and enjoy some family bonding by catching the full commercial after the break.

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Google takes Nexus 7 camping for its first ad, can afford to pack light (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kyocera Rise linked to Sprint and Virgin Mobile in leak, clue vanishes in a hot minute

Kyocera Rise linked to Sprint and Virgin in phantom leak

Kyocera has already committed to launching the Hydro with Boost Mobile next month, but the Rise is still the bridesmaid, and not a bride — at least, not until a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it leak that emerged this weekend. A Twitter update by EV leaks has the Android 4.0 QWERTY slider attached to Sprint and Virgin Mobile, with a press photo of the Sprint version as evidence. Unfortunately, that’s about all we’ll get to see in the near future: the post and the whole account ceased to exist not long after they first appeared, which makes permanent proof a little hard to come by other than through an Unwired View recap. Still, we already know the Rise is destined for CDMA providers in the US, and Sprint’s longstanding partnership with Kyocera makes the Rise an obvious candidate as the carrier’s next on-the-cheap messaging device — the image may just give our hunches some meaning.

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Kyocera Rise linked to Sprint and Virgin Mobile in leak, clue vanishes in a hot minute originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 02:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: Samsung Galaxy S III blasted with X-ray, doesn’t gain superpowers

Visualized Samsung Galaxy S III goes through Xray, doesn't gain superpowers

Tearing down a gadget normally presents a Catch-22 of having to destroy what you love to see how it works. As it turns out, there’s a clever way around that clause: when you have access to digital mammography X-ray machines beyond the hospital, like reader Alex does, you can get a peek at a Galaxy S III’s insides without having to dissect that Hyperglazed beauty layer by layer. The resulting scan stresses just how tightly packed Samsung’s Android flagship is when it’s all put together, but it also carries a slightly ethereal, Ghost of Smartphones Present aura, doesn’t it? While we doubt that Charles Dickens would ever have imagined this kind of spirit, you can gaze upon a much larger, even more detailed version of the supernatural Samsung after the break.

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Visualized: Samsung Galaxy S III blasted with X-ray, doesn’t gain superpowers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vodafone walks us through a phone’s Android 4.0 upgrade, explains our protracted thumb-twiddling

Vodafone walks us through a phone's Android 40 upgrade, explains those long, long waits

We’re used to seemingly interminable waits for phone firmware upgrades for carrier-locked phones. What is it that takes so long? Vodafone UK isn’t promising a quicker process, but it’s offering a rare walkthrough of just what itself (and many other carriers) do to rubber stamp a firmware upgrade. Using the Huawei Ascend G 300’s Android 4.0 update as the reference point, Vodafone explains that the actual network testing lasts a week or less, depending on the scope of the upgrade — it’s the requirements for branding and carrier-specific network settings that introduce additional overhead. Android phones that skew closer to Google’s stock OS (like the G 300) tend to be easy updates, although Vodafone warns that the verification process is typically getting longer, not shorter. There’s not much consolation here for phone owners around the world still using Android 2.3; if you’d rather skip the carrier update process entirely, however, you know where to turn.

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Vodafone walks us through a phone’s Android 4.0 upgrade, explains our protracted thumb-twiddling originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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