Hasta La Gadget!

While HTC is certainly willing to accommodate multiple screen sizes and form factors with its phones, we suspect that some of its explorations won’t go beyond the lab. If you’d like an example, see the company’s newly obtained patent for a dual-screen slider design. Oh, it’s clever: the mechanism gracefully moves a hidden second screen into place, tilting the unfolded arrangement to form one united display area. Like with other dual-screen patents, we’re skeptical simply because of market realities. HTC’s rocky financial position doesn’t give it much room to take risks, and dual-screen phones need special software support that often makes them non-starters — just ask any Kyocera Echo owner how that developer program is panning out. As a result, it may be more accurate to call the patent a vision of what might have been than any kind of roadmap.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Source: USPTO

eBay is as close as it comes to a genuine Aladdin’s cave, and we’ve seen plenty of ancient rarities, prototypes, sci-fi weaponry, and the odd killer robot go under its gavel. One of the latest artifacts of interest comes from eBay’s Netherlands site, which is hosting an auction for a Windows Phone prototype slider known to her friends as Julie (or Jolie, depending on where you look in the listing) from the now defunct Sony Ericsson partnership. The phone that never was from the company that is no longer is allegedly one of only seven units made, and is touted as having an 8-megapixel shooter and 16 gigs of storage. Some digging through the XDA Developers’ forum suggests the handset’s old Windows Phone 7 ROM is basically non-functional, so don’t expect to plug in your SIM and stroll out the door with a useable device. If that doesn’t put you off, however, there’s no exorbitant entry price, and bids remain sensible, for now. Head to the listing below for more pictures and to get in on the action, but bear in mind the only shipping options are for Europe. Nothing a PM with an outrageous offer won’t rectify, surely.

Update: The seller has been in contact to let us know that international shipping is now available, and while the WP7 ROM running on the handset is by no means a final build, there are no issues with voice calling, the camera or Bluetooth.

Filed under: Cellphones, Alt, Sony

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Via: Windows Phone Central

Source: eBay (Netherlands)

LG just announced in Korea three new Windows 8 powered devices with the H160 Hybrid laptop, the V325 Tablet and a new AIO. The first model the H160 is a 11.6″ slider like laptop with a IPS Panel that will weight just around 1.05kg for a battery life of 10h and that pretty much all what we now as for now. Indeed LG did not give any details on the H160 flavor of Windows 8 (RT or not) of is this device will be powered by an Ivy Bridge CPU, ATOM or else. The second model announced is the …

At least in the beginning, most of the made-for-Windows-8 devices you’re going to see will have a very similar form factor — namely, a tablet that slots into a detachable keyboard dock. Sony, though, is taking a different tack: the outfit is ignoring the hybrid trend altogether and will instead sell the VAIO Duo 11, one of a select few slider PCs to hit the market. Though we already got hands-on, we’re just now learning about pricing and availability: the company just announced that the Duo is coming out October 26th (the same day as Windows 8) and will start at $1,100.

That’s a lofty price, to be sure, but with a spec sheet that includes Ultrabook guts, a backlit keyboard, NFC, GPS and a 1080p, IPS, Gorilla Glass display, we don’t see how it could’ve cost much less. Take a gander at the design, and you’ll see it’s mostly made of magnesium alloy and, having handled it ourselves, we can attest to the sturdiness of the hinge mechanism. Compared to other sliders, which often make do with cramped keyboards, this offers a reasonably spacious layout, though it comes at the expense of a trackpad. Indeed, there’s no touchpad here; just an optical pointing stick. (Thankfully, it seems pretty precise.) Additionally, the Duo 11 supports pen input, and comes with a dual digitizer pen that can recognize 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. As a tablet-like device, it has not one, but two cameras, both capturing at 2.4-megapixel resolution.

Continuing our tour of the device, the 2.84-pound system is home to a surprisingly robust collection of ports, including HDMI-out, two USB 3.0 sockets, an Ethernet jack (!), memory card slot, headphone jack and VGA. Yes, VGA. This might be a good time to clarify that Sony envisions this as a machine for road warriors, though it comes not with Windows 8 Professional, but Home Premium. That would also explain the battery situation: in addition to the built-in 4,960mAh cell, it will be offered with an optional slice battery that promises to double the runtime. Bonus: the spare has its own AC port, so you can plug it directly into the outlet. Again, the Duo 11 starts at $1,100 with a Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD (you can upgrade to a 256 drive and a Core i5 or 7 CPU if you wish). That’s all she wrote for now, but check out our hands-on for more photos and a quick video.

Continue reading Sony’s VAIO Duo 11 Windows 8 slider goes on sale this month, starts at $1,100

Filed under: Laptops, Sony

Sony’s VAIO Duo 11 Windows 8 slider goes on sale this month, starts at $1,100 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hardware keyboard fans must feel like they’re part of an endangered species — there’s greater uncertainty these days about software updates, let alone new smartphones. If you’re part of that persecuted group, AT&T and Samsung have your back: they’ve just started rolling out Android 4.0 for the Captivate Glide. All of the features will be familiar if you’ve borrowed someone’s Galaxy S II in the past few months, although it’s hard to object to the better multitasking and support for Chrome. About the only catch is the need to use Kies to grab the update, but that’s a small sacrifice we’re sure many are willing to make.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

AT&T upgrades Samsung Captivate Glide to Android 4.0, keeps the QWERTY habit going originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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