Hasta La Gadget!

Netbook makers like Lenovo, Gigabyte and ASUS have been quietly releasing new systems with Intel’s new mobile, dual-core N550 processor, but HP’s not keeping its use of the fresh chip in 10-inch netbooks a secret… anymore. Just as we’ve previously heard, the professional-aimed $399 Mini 5103 will be getting a dual-core 1.5GHz processor option, which HP tells us can improve benchmark performance by up to 20 percent without a significant impact on battery life. It’s also been updated with a new “espresso” color and will have HP’s Day Starter instant-on OS — no WebOS buried in there yet.

On the consumer end, the HP Mini 210 has also been refreshed — actually, more like gutted — with a new design. The 10.1-inch netbook is now available in a bunch of cleverly named colors, including crimson red and ocean drive, and has been revamped with a new back that integrates the battery into the bottom of the chassis. Don’t worry: the battery is still swappable and you can open the bottom cover to replace the RAM and hard drive. It still has that chiclet keyboard we like so much, the rather hit-or-miss ClickPad touchpad and a Broadcom Crystal Accelerator option for 1080p playback. The Mini 210 will start at $330 with a single core Atom CPU and six-cell battery, but will be available with the N550 processor for a bit more (we’re guessing around $75). The full release is after the break and some snazzy hands-on pics are below.

Continue reading HP Mini 210 and Mini 5103 officially announced with dual-core Atom power

HP Mini 210 and Mini 5103 officially announced with dual-core Atom power originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“How do you tablet?” Oh yes, that’s Archos’ new tag line when it comes to its growing number of Android tablets. Good timing since, you know, it just went ahead and released a quintuplet of new gadgets. The offerings range from small PMP-like devices with 2.8- and 3.2-inch screens to higher-end 4.3-, 7- and 10.1-inch tablets. All will ship with Android 2.2 “Froyo” and will include accelerometers, while only some have capacitive touchscreens, front-facing cameras and 1GHz processors. There’s a lot more to them all — we’re talking five different devices, of course — so we suggest hitting the break for a short rundown of each of them along with our early impressions. And don’t forget to check out the the gallery of hands-on pictures and videos below.

Continue reading Archos unleashes five (five!) new Android Froyo tablets, we go hands-on

Archos unleashes five (five!) new Android Froyo tablets, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last time we heard of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X8 it was crawling around the FCC, but last night we found the little thing in a more welcoming, though equally as judgmental place — our hands. Formerly codenamed the “Shakira,” we were hoping the Android phone would be a bit more modern and slim, but sadly that’s just not the reality of the rather chunky smartphone. Just like its X10 Mini and Mini Pro siblings, the 3-inch handset runs Android 1.6 with Sony’s rather-deep custom skin — a Sony rep on hand told us there would be an upgrade to 2.1 sometime in Q4. That seems a bit late, but there’s no doubt that the X8 is a lower-end phone with its 3.2 megapixel cam and 600MHz CPU. The X8 we saw was wearing a white cover, though were also told there would be other interchangeable cover options available when it hits the market soon. Other than that we found the prototype (it was clearly marked that!) to be rather responsive and the UI to be quite intuitive, however the onscreen keyboard was extremely cramped for typing a URL into the browser. In comparison to the hoards of powerful Android smartphones we’ve seen in the last month or so, the X8 is certainly lackluster, but the little thing may just be an affordable unlocked choice when it hits the US for less than $300 soon.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 to hit US for less than $300 unlocked, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors have been buzzing about since June, but Google just made it official — the company’s baking Google Voice calls right into Gmail today. Like the Google Chat text, voice and video chat integrated into the web-based email client in prior years, full phone calls will also be an option using VoIP technology from the Gizmo5 aquisition. Google’s demoing the “Call from Gmail” service for us in San Francisco this morning, and it’s looking like it’s not free, but fairly cheap — a product manager just called Paris for $0.02 a minute. Incoming calls pop up as a chat window in Gmail (and ring your Google Voice-equipped phones simultaneously) and you press a “Call phone” button that appears near the top of the Chat window to send an outbound call, at which point a dialer appears where you can copy and paste numbers or tap them in manually. Users can screen incoming calls or send them to voicemail with a single tap.

You’ll be able to make calls to US and Canadian landlines completely free of charge, buying prepaid credits using Google Checkout for international landline calling at $0.02 a minute and a good bit more (We saw $0.19 to Spain) for calls to international mobile devices. Google will sell its own credits for the program (via Google Checkout), which should be available in a few weeks, but the Voice in Gmail service goes live today in the US and will begin rolling out to users immediately. Google’s only committed to free calls to US and Canadian landlines through the end of the year, as paid international calls are the sole revenue stream here: “Our hope is we’ll be able to make enough margin on international calls to keep offering it at that low price,” a product manager told us. We’re going to give some VoIP goodness a spin right now, check back later for impressions!

Update: Google Voice product manager Vincent Paquet confirmed that the service’s newfound VoIP functionality does indeed stem from the Gizmo5 acquisition — Call from Gmail is partially based on Gizmo5 technology, was developed by a team including Gizmo5 engineers, and resides in part on Gizmo5’s backend. He wouldn’t comment any more specifically on the technology than that. Also, that cherry red phone booth up top apparently isn’t just for show — Google’s agreed to trial free calling booths at an airport and a pair of universities!

Update 2: We’ve just tested Call to Gmail and Skype side by side using the exact same setup, and found Google’s service boasts surprisingly competitive voice quality to the reigning incumbent. When we called a fellow editor’s iPhone 4 from a Gmail-equipped laptop, the sentences he spoke sounded much clearer than through Skype, with each individual word crisper and more recognizable even as volume and pitch sounded much the same. Unfortunately for Google, the inverse wasn’t true — Skype did a much better job canceling noise from our integrated laptop microphone in a crowded room.

Continue reading Google introduces Call from Gmail, free calls to US and Canada (update: impressions)

Google introduces Call from Gmail, free calls to US and Canada (update: impressions) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Christmas came early at Engadget HQ this year, as evidenced by the picture above — you’re looking at two Dell Thunder prototype smartphones, each with some surprising quirks, and hints that they might include global HSPA, AWS for the likes of T-Mobile, and maybe even a dash of CDMA support. We’ll warn you ahead of time that these are labeled EVT1 for “engineering verification test” and date back to the April leak, so they’re about as early as you can get — don’t expect the final handset to arrive without some significant differences. Good? Then peek the gallery below, hit the break, and let’s get on with the show.

Continue reading Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype preview (video)

Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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