Hasta La Gadget!

No, we’re not revealing some great hidden feature here — Nokias have been able to pair with Bluetooth devices since pretty much forever — but throw a complete set of desktop implements together with the Finnish company’s greatest new phone, and sparks of interest do fly. In this case, a pair of keen fellas have hooked a portable keyboard and a Logitech mouse up to the N8 and had some fun videotaping their exploits. If you’re thinking this would make a pretty killer combination with the N8 plugged into an HDTV, well… you’d be right. Catch the video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Nokia N8 meets Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, has a good time (video)

Nokia N8 meets Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, has a good time (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 2-in-1 Bluetooth Handsfree Wristwatch Headset takes a humdrum, utilitarian Bluetooth earpiece and turns it into an even less appealing wristwatch. So cheaply made is it that even the product shot, usually a gadget’s greatest hour beauty-wise, is all ragged and plasticky at the edges.

But it has one great feature which makes me love it: no more will I have to pity the fools who keep a Bluetooth dongle in their ear at all times, those self important morons who use this piece of gadgetry to signal their social standing (note to those people: you’re not giving off the signals you think you are). Now, those people can instead pull the blocky plastic earphone from their waxy orifice and squelch it into a wristband. Once installed in the wristwatch position, it can still be used, Dick Tracey-style (although without the video, of course), to control and talk to their phone.

The li-ion battery will last for 200 hours in standby and give eight hours of A2DP-listening, voice-dialing, caller ID-displaying, blue-backlit screen-glowing fun. The price for this ugly chunk of electronics? $68.

2-in-1 Bluetooth Handsfree Wristwatch Headset [Light in the Box via Oh Gizmo!]

Sure, the Acer Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition features the same underclocked 768MHz Snapdragon and Android 2.1 as the original Liquid E that launched in February, but, well, this one comes with a flashy Ferrari F1 Red paint job and matching Elite Bluetooth earpiece. Can’t say no to that, can you? You know the rest of the drill: 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen, five megapixel camera with autofocus, geotagging, and adjustable ISO, included 8GB microSD card, and the Acer Sync app that syncs changes across your phone and PC. No word on price or availability, but it certainly looked pretty on the Computex show floor — we’ll let you know if we find out more.

[Thanks, Shreedhan]

Acer Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition revs up Android 2.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just kidding, we were never drug mules. Still, we once watched a film that mentioned drug mules, and boy does this Taiji tablet prototype remind us of that formative experience. Taiji is bringing this 10-inch tablet to Computex (which starts tomorrow), with a VIA C7 M processor and 1GB of RAM under the hood, which looks relatively uninspired until you flip it around and discover the pop-off keyboard around back. The tablet even has its own stand, converting from a slate form to a rather amenable “desktop” computer with no trouble. Sure, you might end up with a thinner tablet if you just buy a keyboard free model and toss a Bluetooth keyboard in your bag with it, but we’ve gotta hand it to Taiji for ingenuity. Check out a quick demo of it after the break.

Continue reading Taiji sneaks a Bluetooth keyboard in and out of its tablet prototype, reminds us of our drug mule days

Taiji sneaks a Bluetooth keyboard in and out of its tablet prototype, reminds us of our drug mule days originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 May 2010 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Would you believe us if we told you that that rubber bracelet-looking thing is actually going to have a built-in SIM card and bring voice / text capabilities to Android tablets, e-readers and netbooks via Bluetooth? Yeah, it sounds super crazy, but that’s exactly what it’ll eventually do. Convinced that 2G capabilities like talking and texting should be easier to add to MIDs, tablets and netbooks, Seattle-based startup Iota has come up with the Flex. It’s definitely in the early stages of development, but in essence they see people clipping the bendable device to a bag, pairing it to an Android tablet, e-reader or MID, and then making calls from said devices.

We caught some time with Iota and the prototype at the Netbook Summit this week and were told that they plan to sell the Flex through retailers for under $100 — it would be an extra $40 a month for unlimited calling and texting thanks to a partnership with Simple Mobile. Here’s where we say we wouldn’t hold your breath for this thing to hit the market — though if they can pull it off, it’ll certainty be an interesting solution for adding voice and text to those hoards of incoming Android tablets. After you’re done wrapping your brain around this wearable voice and text accessory, check out the hands-on pics and hit the break for a hacked together demo of the dev kit they’ve been selling.

Continue reading Iota Flex wants to be a MiFi for voice and text

Iota Flex wants to be a MiFi for voice and text originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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