Hasta La Gadget!

Clearly a white front plate was not enough to satisfy curiosity. Though we aren’t able to verify this ourselves, Chinese site Apple.pro has a couple shots of what it claims to be the white next-gen iPhone, almost fully assembled (the front plate looks like it hasn’t been snapped in all the way) and casually lounging next to the black model we’ve gazed upon so many times at this point. Is this enough for us to trust and comfortably change our palette preferences? Nah, but surely 15 days until expected confirmation can’t be too excruciating of a wait.

White next-gen iPhone apparently materializes in full form originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 May 2010 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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She’s but a concept at the moment, but David Boyce’s flOw mockup certainly has legs. The five-speaker set can be arranged in a fanciful iPod docking station for in-home use, and on a whim, any of the speaker balls can be grabbed and taken elsewhere, all while the music follows via a touch of wireless magic. But that’s hardly the kicker — each ball has integrated gesture sensors and accelerometers, enabling the user to quiet the volume by turning it over or switch from “Smooth Operator” to “Master of Puppets” by simply jostling the speaker with an intense level of force. Talk about revolutionizing a played market sector.

[Thanks, Paul]

flOw wireless speaker concept flips jams based on your handling originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 May 2010 08:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Yanko Design  |  Coroflot (David Boyce)  | Email this | Comments

It ain’t the first Mercedes-Benz concept to dazzle us, and we get the feeling it’s far from being the last. Dreamed up by designer Siyamak Rouhi Dehkordi, the Hexawheel is doing its darnedest to bring the gas guzzler back, and while we’d never turn down a solid deal on our own G-Wagon, there’s something mighty novel about this ride. Boasting an iconic M-B design, this here creature deviates drastically from the typical road warrior, utilizing six wheels on an articulated chassis with a flexible drivetrain. All told, it’d measure some 16 feet if ushered into production, and it’s quite possibly the best beach vehicle next to the dune buggy. There’s no word on what kind of powerplant this thing would support, but we’re guessing something involving fuel cells would be appropriate. Give those links below a visit if you’re in the mood for more images.

Mercedes-Benz Hexawheel concept is the 4×4 you never knew you needed originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 May 2010 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Luxist, Autoblog  |  Car Body Design  | Email this | Comments

Believe it or not, your newly-upgraded Nexus One isn’t the first Android smartphone to have Adobe Flash video capability, nor even the first to play said content on a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU — Europe’s been rocking the HTC Desire since April, which sports a little something called Flash Lite even on the older Android 2.1 OS. Will frozen yogurt outperform puff pastry on its home turf? Find out in a blind taste test video showdown after the break.

Continue reading Flash 10.1 on Froyo goes tete-a-tete with Flash Lite 4 on Eclair: butter vs. stutter (video)

Flash 10.1 on Froyo goes tete-a-tete with Flash Lite 4 on Eclair: butter vs. stutter (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 May 2010 00:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

A few weeks ago I sat down with the father of Android, Andy Rubin. Andy’s a super smart person, having done stints at Apple, General Magic, WebTV and Danger before starting the Android project. We talked about a lot of things, and we particularly spent time discussing Android fragmentation. I’ve written in the past about my concern that the Android platform is fragmenting much like desktop Linux has over the years, and the potential for the platform to turn into a patchwork of devices and vendor specific modifications that bear little relationship with each other. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my conversation with Andy, and I’ve rewritten this column more than a few times as a result.

Today, there are at least five different versions of Android on the market. Many of them are highly customized to allow for new features and device differentiation, but that same customization also makes it harder for vendors to update them to the latest versions. New releases and versions of Android are often outdated by newer versions in the span of just a few weeks. For example, the Nexus One when released was capable of running apps like Google Earth that devices such as the Droid could not, because it ran Android 2.0, not 2.1.Tablet vendors complain their Android offerings lack features such as Android Market because Google forbids them to install the marketplace app, forcing them to create proprietary alternatives. It would appear Android is indeed fragmenting — but perhaps there are other forces at work.

When I spoke with Andy, he pointed out there are several classical symptoms of platform fragmentation. First, older APIs no longer work and break in new releases. Second, multiple application marketplaces offer different applications that lack uniformity across platforms. Both of these are true when you look at desktop Linux. Neither are true of Android.

Continue reading Entelligence: Is Android fragmented or is this the new rate of innovation?

Entelligence: Is Android fragmented or is this the new rate of innovation? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 May 2010 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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