Hasta La Gadget!

It’s official, Palm just kicked out a press release saying that the UK, Ireland, and Germany will have access to the Palm Pre exclusively on O2 while Spain’s Pre will be offered exclusively on Movistar — so it’s all Telefonica, all the time. Unfortunately, launch timing was only narrowed down to “in time for the holidays” which is just another way of repeating Palm’s European-launch mantra of before the end of the year. Palm also doesn’t provide any prices and chose not to list the radio frequencies for the HSDPA/UMTS with EDGE/GSM version of the Pre. See the 1,260 word press release posted after the break that says almost nothing.

Update: Seems as if O2 Germany has word that it’ll be launching the GSM Pre in October.

Update 2: Hmm, seems as if O2 Germany has swapped out banners to show “Fall” availability. Make up your mind, won’t you?

Continue reading Palm Pre official on O2 and Movistar in Europe, launch “in time for holidays”

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre official on O2 and Movistar in Europe, launch “in time for holidays” originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for a way to differentiate among the ever-expanding niche of pocket projectors, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF) of Germany are working on an OLED panel-based mini projector, using static optical systems and not the usual reflective system à la DLP. Currently being shown at SID Display Week 2009, the decidedly green picture (seems to be the norm with OLED prototypes these days) forms via a 6-inch VGA screen from 30 to 50 centimeters away, and the machine itself takes up just about ten cubic centimeters of space. Despite all the faith, there’s still the rather nasty problem of luminance, which the scientists estimate needs to be about four or five times as bright as current levels — but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

Filed under: Displays, Portable Video

Researchers ditch DLP, develop OLED panel-based mini projector originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Volkswagen has been known to dabble in exotic places when it comes to in-dash entertainment, and while it’s latest initiative isn’t totally far-fetched, it’s still worth a peek. The automaker has recently teamed up with Intel in order to develop a prototype head unit that’s completely self-enclosed, meaning that there’s no carputer hanging out in the trunk handling the dirty work. The touchscreen-based infotainment center shown in the video past the break is rocking Windows XP underneath and gladly accepts a number of gesture-based inputs. For example, motorists can swipe down to play or pause a track, while swiping left or right anywhere on the panel moves the playlist forward or back. The project manager doesn’t bother to say when this stuff will actually hit the showroom floor, but CNET has it that you’ll be waiting at least three years — and that’s if you’re lucky.

[Via CNET]

Continue reading Video: Intel-backed Volkswagen infotainment system gets demonstrated

Filed under: Displays, GPS, Transportation

Video: Intel-backed Volkswagen infotainment system gets demonstrated originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 May 2009 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is it, folks — our wildest dreams are coming true. Oh, and in case you aren’t savvy on our wildest dreams, we’re talking about having more Aspire Ones to talk about than we can even count. At any rate, the rumored Aspire One D250 and ultrathin Aspire One 531 have both grabbed a landing page over on the outfit’s German portal, which likely means we’re just minutes, hours or centuries away from seeing these slide over to North America. As for the D250, it checks in with a 10.1-inch WSVGA panel, 160GB HDD, 1.6GHz Atom N270 (or an upgraded 1.68GHz N280) processor, Intel’s 945GSE chipset, a multicard reader, up to 2GB of RAM, 0.3 megapixel webcam, Ethernet, WiFi and optional WWAN. The latter machine is a sleek, 1-inch thick (maximum) rig with most of the same specs internally. As for pricing? Try €379 ($502) for the D250 and €399 ($529) for the 531.

[Via PortableMonkey]

Read – Aspire One D250
Read – Aspire One 531

Filed under: Laptops

Acer Aspire One D250 and 531 pop official in Germany originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, e-voting machines… ever since they arrived on the scene to challenge old timey lever-laden beasts of yore (not to mention pencils and paper, if you remember what those are), there have been numberless examples of their hackability, their unreliable software, and the general mayhem caused by not having a paper trail in elections. It’s been a fun ride, but one that’s causing a ruckus in Germany… almost four years after the fact, anyway. That’s right, the country’s highest court has ruled that the 2005 General Election was, in fact, unconstitutional, after the use of e-voting machines was challenged by a father and son team. The ruling states that while the voting was unconstitutional (read: illegal) because the software used on the machines is unreliable, they have not proven that any mistakes were made, nor do they rule out the possibility of using such machines in the future, when stuff will be cooler and work better.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

German court finds 2005 e-voting was unconstitutional, uncool originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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