Hasta La Gadget!

We get the impression that Sony Ericsson didn’t intend for this release to go out quite yet, but for what it’s worth, we’ve now got official word that the rumored Kurara is the real deal — and it’ll be known as “Vivaz.” Yes, Vivaz. Okay, now that you’ve had a moment to recover, let’s take a look at the specs: S60 5th Edition (we’re surprised they don’t refer to it as a Symbian build in the release, but whatevs), 8.1 megapixel autofocus cam with image stabilization, face detection, and 720p video capture, FM radio, AGPS, WiFi, TV-out at VGA resolution, and a 3.2-inch WVGA (or 640 x 360… the PR lists both) display. It’ll be available in four colors — Moon Silver, Cosmic Black, Galaxy Blue, and Venus Ruby — when it launches this quarter in both North American and global 3G variants with quadband EDGE. If you can get over the name, you love Symbian, and the Satio isn’t for you, this might be your new objet d’envy for the first few months of the year. Follow the break for a hip-looking Sony Ericsson dude showing off the goods.

Update: And it appears Burson-Marsteller has pulled the release, so yep — it wasn’t supposed to go out yet. Enjoy!

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Vivaz is official: 8.1 megapixels’ worth of Symbian

Sony Ericsson Vivaz is official: 8.1 megapixels’ worth of Symbian originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhoneArena  |  Burson-Marsteller  | Email this | Comments

Alright, this is some wild, heavy stuff, but the folks at WMExperts have compiled what they believe to be true about Windows Mobile 7, including a whole bunch of previously undisclosed info and even a couple of flagship phones. We can’t vouch for the rumors, but there’s a ring of truth to plenty of it, and most of the rest of it we want to be true. First off, Microsoft is approaching the revision with two flavors: Windows Phone Seven Business Edition, and Windows Phone Seven Media Edition. The former is a stripped down OS that will allow OEM overlays like HTC’s Sense UI, and includes lower minimum specs — though a WVGA “minimum” is nothing to get angry about. Meanwhile, it sounds like the Media Edition is the quasi-“Zune Phone” we’ve been dreaming of, with a heavy emphasis on HD media playback and capture, along with social networking activities like Xbox Live, Facebook and Twitter. Other features include cloud-style services on the Business Edition side for live manipulation of stored data, a long with a location-aware platform dubbed “Orion.”

This all sounds great, but what’s really exciting is what Microsoft is dictating should be in some of these Media Edition phones. The first two to break cover are the LG Apollo and HTC Obsession. The Apollo is a 3G worldphone (EV-DO and HSDPA) that runs a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 processor and a 3.8-inch AMOLED 1280 x 720 WXGA display. The phone also is purported to have a 10 megapixel camera capable of 720p video recording. Meanwhile, HTC’s HSDPA-limited Obsession runs a mere 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 proc, with a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera and 720p video recording. The Apollo is due in August or September of this year, with the Obsession following in October. Now, some of these specs are admittedly suspect, like the WXGA resolution on the Apollo and that seemingly 10 megapixel sensor, but we want to believe.

As for what we know to be true? Well, we know we’ll see something at MWC next month, unless Robbie Bach is just joshing around, and we also know HTC has confirmed its involvement with Windows Mobile 7 — lending some credence to rumors of the Sense UI sticking around for a new-generation — and that LG has gone on (and quickly off) record as well saying it’ll have a WinMo 7 phone in September. It’s all a lot more vague than the pages of specs we’re staring at now, but it’s clear that something is brewing. Hit up the source link for the full nitty gritty.

Windows Mobile 7 megarumor: LG Apollo and HTC Obsession running flagship ‘720p’ specs, Zune Phone Experience originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WMPoweruser (HTC confirm)  |  WMExperts  | Email this | Comments

Ready for it? We’ve got more (and possibly less) on the color ASUS DR-570 e-book reader that stormed through our site over the weekend riding a wave of OLED anticipation. We now know that in addition to WiFi, 3G, and 122-hour real world battery life, we can expect lightning quick 0.03 second page turns (that’s about 23 times faster than the Kindle and its peers as you’d expect from a non E Ink display), 124 x 170 x 8.8-mm / 200-g footprint, 4GB of onboard storage with SDHC expansion, 512MB of SDRAM, and 1,530mAh battery. It also brings a built-in RSS reader, audio/video/Flash player, text to speech engine (presumably the Svox like the DR-950), and built-in web browser when it hits before the end of the year. There’s also a hint of online video streaming support via Amazon video on demand, 3D gaming and navigation (picture Blio page turning emulation), “One stop shopping for books, video, music,” and explicit support for ePub, PDF, txt, MP3, MP4, and AVI content formats.

The one thing we can’t confirm is the 6-inch OLED display originally reported; our data simply calls it the “world’s first 5.7-inch colorful eBook Reader” and we’ve heard rumors that Sipix (the panel of choice for the DR-950) is expected to ship a color electronic ink display in 2010. Doubt they’ll achieve 0.03 second refreshes with that though. Stay tuned as we dig deeper.

ASUS DR-570 color e-book reader gets detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

ASUS is suddenly all chatty with its plans to enter the e-reader market in 2010. Just yesterday we got word of a 6-inch color (claimed to be OLED by InGear) e-reader from ASUS by the name of DR-570 headed to retail before the year is through. Now we’ve got details of a second ASUS e-reader, dubbed the DR-950 that should arrive sooner. This time we’re looking at a 9-inch Sipix panel with 1,024 x 768 pixel resolution pushing 16-levels of gray just like the Jinke reader unveiled at CES. The touchscreen DR-950 features text-to-speech (based on Svox engine supporting 26 languages), a web browser that works in portrait or landscape modes, a virtual keyboard and handwriting input, a RSS reader, and dictionary (with expandable database) with real-time translation. Spec-wise, the 222 x 161 x 9-mm / 370-gram reader packs WiFi and HSPA (WiMax is optional) data radios, 3.5-mm headphone jack and stereo speakers, with 4GB of internal memory and SD Card expansion. Supported formats include PDF, TXT, Audible, MP3, and unprotected ePub. Not bad ASUS, not bad. Now let’s see some content partners, eh? See it pictured browsing the web after the break.

Continue reading ASUS DR-950 9-inch touchscreen e-reader brings text-to-speech and internet browser

ASUS DR-950 9-inch touchscreen e-reader brings text-to-speech and internet browser originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  ElectricPig  | Email this | Comments

Fermi hardware might still be two months away, but NVIDIA has done the sage thing and released some tantalizing numbers and architectural details to keep the fanboys chirping in the meantime. The GF100 will signal the end of tiresome rebadging and clock speed massaging, and early adopters will find 512 CUDA cores, 48 ROPs, and a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface sprawled across three billion transistors. Big changes are also afoot in how the card will do its work, with a reorganization toward a more parallel workflow leading to promises of up to eight times better geometry performance than on the GT200. HardOCP reports that anti-aliasing results have improved “notably,” while the video we’ve got stashed after the break for you shows the GF100 beating the GTX 285 handily in a Far Cry 2 benchmark. Still, the PC Perspective crew expressed some apprehension about the massive die size and how it could impact yields given the still young 40nm production process — a sentiment echoed by other publications who questioned whether NVIDIA would not have been better off trying for a less ambitious, more gaming-oriented board. We should all know that answer soon enough.

Read – AnandTech
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – PC Perspective
Read – HardOCP
Read – Tom’s Hardware

Continue reading NVIDIA Fermi / GF100 architectural details revealed

NVIDIA Fermi / GF100 architectural details revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments