Hasta La Gadget!

The stars are really aligning for this shindig HTC has scheduled in London for next week, aren’t they? All signs point to the launch of the Android-powered Desire Z and Desire HD — international versions of the G2 and EVO, respectively — and this render pulled off of German site BestBoyZ matches up perfectly with in-the-wild shots we’ve seen of the HD before. The only sticking point, really, is that there’s a Windows Mobile 6.5 Sense UI shot inexplicably plastered on top, which makes about as much sense as… well, re-releasing the HD2 right now. Bottom line, we think the hardware part of this picture is real; software, not so much.

[Thanks, Kamal]

HTC Desire HD rendered, looks pretty legit to us — oh, except for that WinMo UI originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Galaxy Tab? Who needs that overpriced prima donna? Here’s the tablet the economical among us have been waiting for. Alright, so the Elocity A7 didn’t elicit the highest of praise when it made its cameo on The Engadget Show, but let’s congratulate its makers on achieving a pair of feats. Firstly, StreamTV has managed to get its Froyo tablet listed for pre-order on Amazon — which is no mean feat in itself, just ask Notion Ink — and secondly, it’s done so at an even lower price point than promised, with an encouraging $370 tag. Even if you’re like us and not entirely blown away by its performance, you’ve got root for this little slate to complete the narrative and start selling — if for no other reason than that it might incite others to stoop to the same price point.

Elocity A7 goes up for pre-order on Amazon with Android 2.2, Tegra 2, and a $370 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s new hotness is likely invading your desktop web search right now, but what’s Instant search like on a smartphone? We got a good look at a Verizon-based Droid 2 running a prototype version of the auto-complete engine on both WiFi and 3G, and we’re happy to say it’s just about the same — assuming you’ve got a decent connection and a reasonable amount of screen real estate. As you can see immediately above, you’re only getting three Instant results under the search box here, as opposed to the desktop version’s five, and between Android’s notifications bar and the native keyboard auto-complete bar, you can only see a single result without scrolling down — and honestly, this isn’t going to be all that useful at a glance if you’re relying on a screen-sucking virtual keyboard.

The system was speedy enough, however, pulling down not only text queries but also Google Image thumbnails as well, and worked about as quickly as a standard mobile Google run without having to hit a button to complete our search. (The prototype did stop working and had to be restarted when we lost our 3G bars. ) A Google product manager told us it should work in any AJAX-capable mobile browser, and is presently in testing on Android and iPhone, with BlackBerry in consideration given the more-capable OS 6 browser. Expect to see it hit smartphones near you this fall.

Continue reading Google Instant on a Motorola Droid 2, hands-on

Google Instant on a Motorola Droid 2, hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Of the five tablets Archos announced last week, the most interesting is the 101. Yes, that’s because it is pretty much aimed right at the iPad, in both specs and size. And if you were wondering just what a 10-inch wide-screen tablet would look like, now you know. First, some numbers.

The 101 has a capacitive 1024 x 768 touch-screen, a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor and a host of ports and radios normally associated with a netbook: HDMI, a microphone, a USB port, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a front-facing VGA webcam and accelerometers. It even has a kickstand.

As for size, it comes in slimmer and lighter than the iPad, at 12mm thick (the iPad is 13.4mm) and weighs 480 grams (the iPad weighs 680-grams). Best of all the features, though, is the price: $300 for the 8GB model and $350 for the 16GB. That’s $150 cheaper than the 16GB iPad (this comparison is apt as the 101 has no 3G option).

But it comes down to the software and battery life. We don’t have any reports on the power use, but apparently the scaled-up cellphone interface doesn’t work so well. Brad Linder at Lilliputing got his hands on the 101 and said that “thumb-typing in portrait mode is reasonably comfortable, I found text entry in landscape mode to be a bit awkward.” The 101 runs the latest version of Android, v2.2, which is theoretically capable of running Flash.

I wonder if, in the rush to get iPad rivals to market, the manufacturers are missing the point. Touch-screen tablets have been around for years, but it took a brand-new interface design and a big-ass battery before anyone actually started to buy them. And remember, it took Apple years to design it. Until the proper, purpose-built tablets (like HP’s expected WebOS tablets) finally appear, it looks like we’re getting the tablet PCs from the 1990s all over again, only with smaller cases and without Windows.

Archos 101 product page [Archos]

Archos ‘iPad Killer’ [Giz China]

Closer look at the Archos 101 Android tablet [Lilliputing]

See Also:

• NYT: Google Android Tablet Imminent
• How the Tablet Will Change the World

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

India’s $35 Android tablet reportedly on track for January launch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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