Hasta La Gadget!

Remember this chart? It’s interesting for a number of reasons, but I want to highlight that all present day Android phones use virtually the same Qualcomm application processor, all based on a sluggish 528MHz ARM11 core. Blech.

I’ve got nothing against Qualcomm, but a big reason most Android phones feel slow is because they’re running on slow hardware. The ARM11 core was first announced in 2003. It’s old and creaky, and it’s used so frequently because it’s cheap. But the basic rules of chip design mean that things are about to change fast.

Continue reading Core Values: The silicon behind Android

Core Values: The silicon behind Android originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember when Razer introduced its first-ever mobile gaming mouse? No worries — July was indeed a long, long time ago. At any rate, the Bluetooth 2.0 / USB Orochi, which was engineered to fit within knapsacks and backpacks of road warriors the world over, is now shipping to both US and EU customers… on a limited basis, anyway. Razer claims that stock is arriving in spurts, and if you’re greeted with a “sold out” message, there’s a special sign-up page to be notified of when the next batch comes in. So, why the fuss?

Continue reading Razer Orochi now shipping in limited quantities, we go hands-on

Filed under: Peripherals

Razer Orochi now shipping in limited quantities, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That $599 non-subsidized price still sounds silly — and $299 with a 2-year $60 monthly contract seems almost more extreme — but there’s no denying that the Booklet 3G is a truly premium netbook. It’s light, strong and very elegant, with an aluminum chassis, wonderful keyboard and spacious two-finger-scroll touchpad. Unfortunately, those netbook innards deliver about what you’d expect in the performance arena (almost too slow for web browsing), and NY’s AT&T 3G coverage certainly doesn’t serve the laptop well (as demonstrated on video after the break). There’s also the small matter of the screen: it has a pretty weak viewing angle, particularly from above, and overall just seems a little dim. Nokia’s software approach isn’t too revolutionary, since the Social Hub — which offers threaded text messaging over 3G — is the only exclusive app on the computer, and the Ovi Maps-branded GPS software is still in the works. Overall, the appeal is probably going to be strongest with dyed-in-the-wool Nokia fans and people with a bit of extra cash to burn, but this is an obviously elegant product that doesn’t do any sort of disservice to its phone heritage.

Update: Nokia just clarified to us that the demo units at this event were actually from the UK, and therefore don’t have US 3G — which would certainly explain some of the speed issues.

Continue reading Nokia Booklet 3G hands-on (with video!)

Filed under: Laptops

Nokia Booklet 3G hands-on (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the unfortunate downfall of the company’s phone business, OpenMoko is looking for some slightly greener pastures. Its first new device hardly seems to hail from the same high-end Linux places that spawned the FreeRunner, and in fact you could say the $99 WikiReader is the antitheses of a high-end smartphone. It’s a single purpose device with a monochrome screen and a simplistic touch interface and on the inside is an 8GB microSD card loaded up with three million of Wikipedia’s finest hypertexts. The device can be searched or just browsed through clicking through interlinked articles, and there are even some parental controls to keep the chilluns away from Wikipedia’s racier side. OpenMoko will have a subscription model of sorts available where folks can receive a new microSD card in the mail on a regular basis with the recent updates to the Wiki, though “power users” can update their cards themselves. The device is also relatively open to hackability thanks to its well known processor (similar to a Franklin dictionary) and easy access to the memory, but clearly OpenMoko is pointing this at people who don’t even own a smartphone, not people who want to hack themselves another one. The device is available as of today.

Filed under: Handhelds

OpenMoko branches out with new $99 WikiReader device originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we don’t normally find ourselves terribly jealous of laptops designed for massive rollouts at medium and large businesses, the new ProBook and 6545b (15.6-inch) and 6445b (14-inch) almost have us ready to reassess that assumption. They’re pretty boring AMD-powered workhorses on the surface, but HP has reworked the keyboard tray so that it automatically drains spills through the laptop and out through the bottom — without running past any of the vitals. It’s not foolproof, but it’s a great first stab at making us all a little safer from accidents — and hopefully finds its way into consumer lines sooner rather than later. We’re similarly jealous of the new energy management software that HP has packed on here, which has a configuration panel that provides battery-squeezing estimates based on various settings, letting a user pick a goal for battery life and set the specs to match. The corporate end of that is an IT app that lets a business actually set its own power consumption goals and constrain user laptops to match — we don’t know how well that would play out in practice, but the delicious string-pulling it entails is enticing. Prices start at $799, and there are naturally configurations as far as the eye can see. Check out a video of the spill-proof-ness in action after the break.

Continue reading HP’s ProBook 6x45b line handles a spill with aplomb (on video!)

Filed under: Laptops

HP’s ProBook 6x45b line handles a spill with aplomb (on video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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