Hasta La Gadget!

Carrier rebate forms have a fun tendency to reveal unannounced hardware, since they cover several upcoming weeks when they’re published — and Verizon’s latest for the month of November is a particularly juicy one. Here’s what we’ve got:

• There are two SKUs listed for the Droid 2 Global, but only one for the Droid Pro, leading us to wonder whether it’ll actually be the Global that’s getting a cameraless version.
• Speaking of Motorola, the WX445 Citrus is in the mix for the first time.
• The Pre 2 is in the system with a $100 rebate.
• There are two new SKUs for the Bold 9650, possibly indicating the release of new versions with BlackBerry 6 pre-installed.
• The LG Cosmos Touch is in here, which we imagine will be a touchscreen successor to the Cosmos.
• There’s a Samsung Zeal listed with a $50 rebate, but we’re not sure what it is — we know that Sammy has a number of Android phones in the pipe for Verizon, and we suppose this could be one of ’em (likely low-end considering it’s not a $100 rebate).
• More interestingly, the Samsung Continuum is in here, suggesting that the November 8 event could be for this dual-screened (and Galaxy S-branded) beast. $100 rebate here.

Of course, November is a time when retailers of all types and sizes bring out new products in time for the holidays, so we’re not surprised to see the mother lode here. Who’s excited?

Verizon’s new rebate form shows two Droid 2 Globals, Samsung Continuum, and more originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s taking a big leap with Google TV — unlike its competitors, who’ve all focused on delivering curated video content with inexpensive streaming devices, Google’s new platform brings Android, Chrome, and Flash directly to your TV in a variety of hardware configurations from Sony and Logitech. But whether you’re adding Google TV to your existing rig with a Logitech Revue or starting from scratch with a Sony Internet TV, the basic experience of using each product is the same — it’s the web on your TV, in all its chaotic and beautiful glory. Is this the future of television? Can Google do what no company has ever managed to do in the past and put a little PC in your TV? Read on to find out!

Continue reading Google TV review

Google TV review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is this a Nikon Android tablet? Well, not quite, but it’s pretty damn close. The NF-300i is a 3D, 7.2-inch digital photo frame that runs the Android 2.1 OS. If it had a touch-screen, then it would be a tablet.

Nikon’s frame, available only in Japan, is as full of gimmicks as you could wish for. Aside from the glasses-free 3D, the “photo-frame” also packs a calendar, a clock and weather screens, and you can even browse the web, although with neither keyboard nor touch-screen, this could be a painful procedure (it does at least come with a remote).

But back to the 3D. The NF-300i uses the same lenticular technology as the Nintendo 3DS. It doubles the horizontal resolution and covers the pixels with tiny cylindrical lenses. These lenses split the stereoscopic picture, sending one part to each eye, while obscuring the other.

So how do you get your pictures onto this device? Buy one, along with some fancy new Nikon 3D camera and you’re done? Oh, no. Nothing so simple. First, you sign up with Nikon for the new My Picturetown 3D service, which costs ¥19,950 per year ($247) or ¥1,995 per month ($25). You then upload any 2D photos to the cloud service where you can choose to have them converted to 3D, via an unspecified method that requires no special effort from you. Then Nikon loans you the display with which you can download and view the photos.

Weird, right? It gets worse. These hefty prices include just three conversions per month. If you want more, you’ll have to pay another ¥300 ($3.70) per image, with a minimum order of four images.

Specs-wise, the frame is pedestrian (not to mention that it is styled after CRT monitors from the 1990s). It has a resolution of 800 x 600 in a 4:3 ratio, 4GB of storage, Ethernet and b/g Wi-Fi and support audio and video (H.264) along with the JPEG and MPO (3D) image files.

It seems doomed, but then I’m taking a western point of view. Even given the famous neophilic attitude the Japanese have towards gadgets, though, this seems like a hard sell. In fact, the best feature might be that Nikon demands the unit’s return when you cancel your subscription, hopefully keeping it out of the landfill. Available December.

NF-300i product page [Nikon via DP Review]

My Picturetown 3D [Nikon]

Traditionally, cameraless versions of smartphones designed for high-security work environments have been the exclusive playground of Windows Mobile and BlackBerry — the enterprise mobile platforms companies have rallied around the most over the past decade — but Motorola’s Droid Pro seeks to give Android some serious enterprise street cred for the first time thanks to that glorious portrait QWERTY keyboard. To that end, it makes sense that they’d want to release a second version sans camera — and a new leak speaking of “the new Enterprise-focused DROID phone without a camera” suggests that’s exactly what’s happening. Our trusted source says they’re “99 percent positive” that’s what we’re looking at here; not a product for everyone, of course, but if you work in the government lab where they keep all the alien corpses, you’ll probably be thanking your lucky stars.

Motorola Droid Pro coming in a cameraless version for security-conscious businessfolk? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, that’s right, just “Venue,” not Venue Pro — and from a glance, it looks to us like this might be the new name for the Thunder Android phone we played with a little while ago judging by this FCC filing that just crossed the wires. As far as we can tell, this thing is basically a carbon copy of the Venue Pro, except it’s running Android instead of Windows Phone 7 and drops the sliding portrait keyboard in favor of a full-touch setup. Notably, the curved glass 4.1-inch AMOLED display carries over, so that should make the design nerds in the audience swoon a bit. Additionally, turns out there’s a Bluetooth SIG certification under the same model name — V03B — that confirms the display’s specs and the fact that it’s a “smartphone” (whew!). Stay tuned on this one — something tells us we won’t be waiting terribly long for an announce.

Dell Venue hits the FCC: is this the Thunder’s new name? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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