Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been a month since we caught our first glimpse of the Galaxy Tab‘s Bluetooth Stylus and today, although still seemingly unofficial, it’s appeared in its first pre-order listing. Priced at £49.99 ($79) by UK online specialist Play, this capacitive stylus will facilitate handwriting recognition for those of us not served well enough by the Tab’s generally excellent soft keyboard. It’s also capable of hooking up to two Bluetooth devices at a time and has the extra intelligence thrown in to receive and reject phone calls — whether on the Tab or on your phone. It’s an intriguing piece of kit, maybe Samsung should go ahead and make it official now, eh?

Galaxy Tab Bluetooth Stylus emerges, up for £49.99 pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 09:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve been asking for someone, anyone, to please kick out a tiny remote control display that can save you from having to whip your smartphone out for every little thing and Sony Ericsson, it seems, has listened. The 1.3-inch OLED screen above is a new Bluetooth accessory for Android 2.x phones that’s said to function very much like a desktop widget. There’s an app you can install on your phone that’ll get it to communicate with the 128 x 128 pixel grid, which can then be used to read messages, find your phone, control music playback, and receive those precious social networking updates from your friends. We know by now you’ll be crying foul over Sony Ericsson releasing an Android 2.0 accessory when its handsets are stuck somewhere below that marker, but the plan is to dish this “micro display” out in the last quarter of the year, after that messianic Android 2.1 update has arrived. Fingers crossed.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson LiveView acts as a 1.3-inch remote control for your smartphone, requires Android 2.0

Sony Ericsson LiveView acts as a 1.3-inch remote control for your smartphone, requires Android 2.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you don’t actually want to be able to feel that you’ve got a Bluetooth earbud hanging off the side of your head, you might want to take a look at the Motorola Oasis, a new boom-style headset announced today. Though it lacks the HX1’s so-called “stealth mode” that uses bone conduction to practically eliminate every sound other than your voice, the Oasis is still rated for 12mph of wind resistance and uses dual mics to cancel spurious noise. It’ll be available starting October 3 (as an AT&T store exclusive initially) for $79.99, positioning it toward the upper end of the Bluetooth midrange.

We’ve had a chance to play with the Oasis over the last few days, so follow the break for our impressions!

Continue reading Motorola’s ridiculously comfortable Oasis headset announced: October 3rd for $80

Motorola’s ridiculously comfortable Oasis headset announced: October 3rd for $80 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the biggest complaints people have about the iPhone is the lack of a physical keyboard. It was one of the reasons people said the iPhone would never sell, and still one of the reasons why some people refuse to buy one.  Lot of people have complained about it, but ThinkGeek decided to do something with the launch of the TK-421 iPhone Case and Flip-Out Keyboard, invented and designed at ThinkGeek.

The TK-421 comes in two flavors, one for the iPhone 4 and one for the 3GS, and both of them keep your iPhone sides and back covered when you use the touch-screen or take calls, but when you want to type on the screen or send an e-mail, simply swivel your iPhone up and over the built-in keyboard hidden in the back of the case. The hinge on the side of the case has a magnetic clasp to keep it in place when open or shut, and pairs with your iPhone using Bluetooth so it can be used with any application.

The case features a rechargeable battery that can recharge via USB, and will start shipping in mid-November for $49.99. ThinkGeek isn’t taking pre-orders, but is taking sign-ups if you want to be notified when the TK-421 goes on sale.

If you really, really have to have a physical, clickety-clackety keyboard to get your words onto a screen, the Jorno might be just the thing. The Bluetooth keyboard gives you the full QWERTY experience but folds up into a pocketable package. The keys themselves are just 15% smaller than full-size, big enough for touch-typists with accurate and not-too-fat fingers.

After key-feel, which you’ll have to try for yourself, the next most important specification is size. Folded out the Jorno is 8.5 x 3.5 x 0.3-inches. Concertinaed closed it measures just 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.9-inches, and all the time it weighs the same 8.8-ounces, including the li-ion battery which lasts a month.

A keyboard like this is clearly best suited to the iPhone, as fast typing is pretty easy on the iPad’s larger screen. With this in mind, the Jorno ships with a separate stand for phones. It will of course work with anything that uses the Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR standard, and Jorno has a photo of an iPad balancing precariously on the small bracket.

Small, add-on Bluetooth keyboards seem to be getting more popular, or at least more numerous, since Apple opened up its iDevices to allow them. I have a feeling that the multi-year delay in allowing these accessories wasn’t for technical reasons but for training purposes, to get us used to the soft touchscreen keyboards. It worked, too. You almost never hear griping about the iPhone keyboard anymore.

The Jorno can be pre-ordered now, for $100 (with $20 off until the end of October 2010).

Jorno keyboard product page [Jorno via Cult of Brownlee]

See Also:

• Hack Lets You Use a Bluetooth Keyboard With Your iPhone
• IPad Keyboard Dock Works with iOS4
• ClamCase Turns iPad into Laptop
• IPhone Case Adds Vestigial QWERTY-Slider Keyboard

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