Hasta La Gadget!

So this little number just rolled into our tips inbox — and at a glance, it appears to be the anti-Droid X, if that makes any sense. We’re being told this is the Motorola WX445 for Verizon (street name unknown), featuring Android 2.1, a flash-less camera of unknown pixel count, a touchscreen ranging somewhere between 2.5 and 3 inches, and a pretty light 1170mAh battery on board. Our tipster tells us it runs Blur, though we imagine it’s possible it runs the Blur-esque skin seen on the Droid X that doesn’t actually make use of Moto’s back end to do its deed. We’re also told it’s “not a very impressive phone” and resembles a keyboardless Pre Plus in the flesh “but cheaper looking,” so needless to say, you’re not going to be cross-shopping this against an EVO 4G; if anything, we suppose it might make a decent Devour alternative. More on this one as we get it.

[Thanks, Besiktas Fan]

Exclusive: Motorola WX445 leaked, offers low-end Android for Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like the battle for e-reader dominance between Amazon and Barnes & Noble could soon expand beyond the recent spate of price drops and into the courtroom as well: the USPTO just granted a 2006 Amazon patent on e-readers with secondary LCD displays (like the original Kindle’s scroller-navigation panel), and several of the claims are potentially broad enough to cover the Nook and many other devices with both electronic paper and LCD displays. What’s more, Amazon agreed not to file for any corresponding foreign patents during the four-year approval process and thus wasn’t required to publish the patent application — meaning this is likely a complete surprise to the entire industry. Yeah, it’s juicy. Here’s one of the claims that could cause problems for Barnes & Noble — in plain English, it potentially covers any device with both an electronic paper display and a second smaller LCD display next to it.

A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.

That’s pretty sweeping — it doesn’t take much to look at the Nook and see that it has both an electronic ink display and a smaller LCD located next to it. Now, we don’t know if Amazon has any plans to actually sue anyone over this patent yet, but we’re guessing there’s a flurry of legal activity happening at all the major e-reader manufacturers right now, and we’re definitely curious to see what the fallout looks like — remember, Barnes & Noble is already involved in a trade secret dispute over the Nook with Spring Design, which claims that B&N saw its Alex reader under NDA and then copied it for the Nook. That case isn’t scheduled to wrap up before November, so there’s a chance B&N and Spring Design could end up simultaneously fighting each other in one case while taking on Amazon as allies in another, which would be… messy. We’ll see what happens — while we’ve no doubt Barnes & Noble will put up a serious fight if it comes to that, we’re curious to see if the shift away from e-reader development to general-use tablets hastens as the market contracts, margins shrink, and the cost of litigation becomes prohibitive. The ball’s very definitely in Amazon’s court now — stay tuned.

[Thanks, Anand]

Amazon Kindle dual-screen e-reader patent granted, Barnes & Noble Nook potentially in trouble originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the news today that Microsoft has killed its troubled Kin line didn’t come as the craziest of surprises, it’s definitely left a lot of lingering questions about just what happened. Now we may have a little insight into what went wrong — and what might be in store down the road — thanks to a reliable source of ours who’s shared some news on Redmond’s inner turmoil.

Apparently, the troubles started long before the swirling Pink phone rumors (and way before the name Kin was ringing in our ears). According to our source, the birth of these devices began with a decision at Microsoft to create a platform agnostic, cloud-centric featurephone. A featurephone that could be had at a relatively low cost, and sold to a burgeoning market of teens and young adults who had little need for a BlackBerry-level device (or pricing). The first step in the project was acquiring Danger to leverage the work it had done with the Sidekick platform, and aligning with Verizon as a launch partner who could offer attractive pricing plans for the devices to a big pool… and here’s where the trouble begins.

Continue reading What killed the Kin?

What killed the Kin? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been hearing wind of a new mobile broadband service coming next month from Best Buy for a few days now, and it looks like the company went ahead and spilled the beans in its own Sunday flyer. The service offers a variety of tiers ranging from a contract-free 250MB per month for $30 all the way up to 5GB monthly on a 24 month contract for $60 a month. Interestingly, 5GB monthly contract-free costs the same $60 monthly — you just get the $35 activation fee waived. At this point we don’t know what the hardware looks like, but we’re told Sprint is providing those bits and bytes wirelessly and that this new service will work with 4G. The employee news image after the break indicates that Connect will be launching on July 11 in all but 75 of the company’s stores. Sometimes living out in the country is a drag.

Update: We got a note from Shaun indicating that there will actually not be any modems offered by Best Buy for this service, rather it will only be offered on GOBI-equipped laptops. Additionally, Shaun indicates the service will not work with 4G, but that’s contrary to some earlier intel we received, so hopefully BBY goes ahead and clarifies all this soon enough.

[Thanks, Jameil and Tyler]

Continue reading Best Buy Connect mobile broadband service launching soon

Best Buy Connect mobile broadband service launching soon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not good news for those looking for a different e-reader. Back in April, Plastic Logic told those who pre-ordered its QUE proReader that they’d have to wait until June 24 — after already having been delayed to April. Now that device is being delayed again, and while the company has wizened up and not actually given a new estimated date this time, it also took the unfortunate and ominous move of canceling all pre-orders. In the e-mail sent to those affected (which is after the break) the company says it has “decided that delaying the device a bit longer will result in a better product for you.” Hopefully it results in a cheaper product, too, as we’re not sure how a $800 reader is going to fare in a world where both the Kindle and nook are available for less than $200.

[Thanks, Don; spider photo courtesy of mrpbps]

Continue reading Plastic Logic delays QUE proReader ‘a bit longer,’ cancels pre-orders

Plastic Logic delays QUE proReader ‘a bit longer,’ cancels pre-orders originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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