Hasta La Gadget!

It’s hard to believe that Palm is already pushing its second webOS device, the Pixi, out the door. It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were eagerly awaiting the release of the Pre, a phone that was considered to be the last gasp for the badly ailing company, and now it’s poised to add an entirely new handset to the mix. The Pixi — a sleek, tiny device — seems clearly aimed at the only market Palm has recently enjoyed unfettered success with: the Centro demographic. From the looks of things, the Pixi is positioned to step into the role of the “cheap and cute” smartphone once firmly controlled by the company’s previous (and now discontinued) Palm OS offering. Of course, the landscape in 2009 is very different from the landscape of 2007, with fierce competition — both from outside as well as the company’s own sister product. Can the Pixi find a place in the smartphone race, or does it do too little to distance itself from the pack? We’ve got the answers inside, so read on to find out!

Continue reading Palm Pixi review

Palm Pixi review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Switched On: The next step toward the IP tuner

Five years ago, the first Switched On talked about the growing coziness between the iPod photo and video. Today, of course, the iPod and many other portable media players have embraced digitally-distributed video, yet the TV itself remains on the cusp of IP content distribution. But TV manufacturers that still shudder when they think of the WebTV experience of 1996 need to get their heads out of their modem ports. For the sake of video choice, it’s time to support the broadband web of 2009 on TVs.

As we inch closer to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in January, we come upon the first anniversary of the wedding between television sets and the internet. While there were internet-enabled televisions before last year from HP and others, the online-enabled sets from Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and Vizio marked the real embrace of IP. And it wasn’t just about the hardware — the software included Yahoo’s widget architecture and Netflix streaming movies.

Continue reading Switched On: Next steps toward the IP tuner

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Switched On: Next steps toward the IP tuner originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look what just arrived in the mail. Yes, we are aware of your extreme jealousy.

Filed under: Gaming

Limited edition ‘Modern Warfare 2’ Xbox 360 unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want to see that new Saygus VPhone in action? Can’t get enough QWERTY in your Android? Enjoy videos shot amongst a crowd of screaming trade show attendees? Boy are you in luck. Check out our video hands-on of the handset after the break, and please excuse the noise.

Continue reading Saygus VPhone video hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones

Saygus VPhone video hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you know that your personal happiness lies somewhere in the Verizon / Android abyss but neither the Droid nor the Droid Eris are hitting the spot, you might consider trying something completely out of left field. How “left field” are we talking here? Well, for starters, odds are good that you’ve never heard of a company called Saygus, and its shiny new QWERTY slider, the VPhone, won’t be offered directly from Verizon — it’s a product of the carrier’s Open Development initiative. Sure enough, that handset we spied a few days back is real, and the specs are all panning out: 624MHz PXA310 XScale core, 512MB of Flash on board coupled with 256MB of RAM, 3.5-inch capacitive WVGA touchscreen, WiFi, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, front-facing VGA camera and — of course — EV-DO Rev. A support. The current incarnation is running Android 1.6, but it should be running 2.0 by the time of its launch next year, along with getting some Google-certification to let it run the Google apps. Saygus’ real thrust here is apparently two-way video calling (good thing they picked Verizon, huh?), though they aren’t showing it off just yet. Otherwise it’s pretty much stock Android, and when asked if they swiped something from HTC Sense UI, Saygus said those buttons and the extra home screens are actually a standard part of Android’s open source repository. The hardware itself is rather chubby, but it leaves room for an oversized QWERTY keyboard that could very well solve your Droid woes. No word on price or a firm release date.

Saygus VPhone to bring video calls and a bit of chub to Android and Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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