Hasta La Gadget!

Traditional speaker docks are so 2010. This year, AirPlay is in, and Philips was on hand to demo five new wireless speaker models at the CEA LineShows in NYC, set to roll out beginning later this month through the holiday season. Its flagship Fidelio SoundSphere DS9800W will ship in June with a price tag of about $800, but didn’t appear willing to pair with the iPhone Philips had on hand at the show. We did go ears-on with the more affordable DS8800W, however, which filled the small demo room with deep, rich Fire and Rain, sans-wires — and can do the same in your own home when it ships for $400 beginning next month. That model isn’t nearly as sleek as the non-functional SoundSphere, or its smaller DS6800W counterpart, which will hit stores in time for the holidays with a $500 MSRP. Philips also showed off its 360-degree DS3881W and compact AD7000W — both of which also include AirPlay support, and will ship for $330 and $230, respectively, by the holiday season. Jump past the break for a look at all five models.

Continue reading Philips Fidelio Speakers with AirPlay hands-on (video)

Philips Fidelio Speakers with AirPlay hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Speaker wire is expensive if you buy it at retail, cheap if you just use a spool of electrical cable, but always, always an eyesore. Sure, you can pull it through the drywall, hide it behind some curtains — or you can just go wireless. That’s the option Cue Acoustics will enable with its PS1 bookshelf speakers, shipping this August. They’re a high-end pair, each internally amplified and offering a 5-inch downward-firing woofer, 3.5-inch mid, and .75-inch tweeter, covering all the acoustic hotspots with fanfare. More important, though, is that each speaker can run with only one cable: power. Full details after the break.

Continue reading Cue Acoustics PS1 wireless speakers do audio over DLNA, we go hands-on

Cue Acoustics PS1 wireless speakers do audio over DLNA, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The N9 has arrived. Functional units of Nokia’s long-awaited MeeGo smartphone have finally landed into our eager hands and we’ve got a gallery of images to provide you with below. What we can say from our first experience is that we’re in the presence of a fantastically designed device with a gorgeous AMOLED screen and some highly responsive performance. Hold tight as we’re updating our fuller impressions after the break, where you’ll soon be treated to our first hands-on video with the Nokia N9.

Update: Hands-on video plus a live demonstration of the N9’s ability to pair Bluetooth devices over NFC (very impressive!) can now be found after the break.

Continue reading Nokia N9 first hands-on! (update: video)

Nokia N9 first hands-on! (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Towards the end of our recent trip to Taiwan for Computex, just as the hustle and bustle was winding down and we’d settled on a bit of sightseeing, we stumbled upon a rare beast — a smartphone unicorn of sorts — the Sharp Aquos SH-12C. This 3D-capable Android handset for NTT’s Docomo network was imported from its native Japan by a Hong Kong resident who was also attending the epic trade show. Like the HTC EVO 3D, this device features twin cameras and a glasses-free stereoscopic qHD display, so we decided to combine work and play by getting some hands-on time with this mysterious phone right on the observation deck of Taipei 101. Take a look a our gallery below — complete with foggy views from the 89th floor at dusk — and hit the break for our hands-on video, first impressions and some camera samples.

Continue reading Sharp Aquos SH-12C 3D smartphone hands-on (video)

Sharp Aquos SH-12C 3D smartphone hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s just one week after Nintendo unveiled dual-screen gaming on the Wii U at E3, but Apple’s iOS 5 beta is already bringing a very similar experience to the living room — many months before Nintendo’s latest console is expected to ship. We installed iOS 5 on an iPad 2 and Apple TV, and took the latest version of Real Racing 2 HD for a test-drive, which enables dual-screen gameplay over AirPlay without the need for Apple’s $39 AV adapter. Other games, like Angry Birds, simply mirror the iPad’s display (and aspect ratio) on your HDTV, but Real Racing streams 16:9 HD video.

For this game (and we imagine many more to come), you use the iPad as the controller — both while navigating through menus and in race mode — while the game appears only on your TV (though the tablet does display some vitals, and a map of the track). There’s noticeable lag between the iPad and Apple TV when using AirPlay, which may be an issue for games where timing is important, such as Rock Band, but didn’t seem to set us back while playing Firemint’s racing game. Overall, AirPlay offered a seamless gaming experience without a single hiccup — surprising, considering iOS 5 just hit beta last week. It’s difficult to do this hands-on justice without a video demo, so jump past the break for an exclusive look at wireless, dual-screen gaming on the iPad and Apple TV.

Continue reading Real Racing 2 HD wireless, dual-screen gaming with iOS 5 on iPad 2 hands-on (video)

Real Racing 2 HD wireless, dual-screen gaming with iOS 5 on iPad 2 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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