Hasta La Gadget!

Despite the downright sexy hardware, it was no surprise that the Toshiba AC100 (which has just been launched in the UK) didn’t review very well: Android just isn’t ready to give an enjoyable smartbook experience. Our hands-on experience with the laptop at IFA did nothing to disabuse us of this notion. Again, the hardware is pretty great, a nice order of magnitude thinner and lighter than most Atom netbooks, and despite the razor thin build, Toshiba still managed to put a pretty great keyboard and trackpad in here. Unfortunately, the software just isn’t good. In fact, it isn’t even “alright,” since Toshiba has put a bunch of customizations on top of stock Android 2.1, including the same lame launcher we just saw on the Folio, and two extra browsers. We appreciate the effort, but if you’re not prepared to go all-in, Samsung-style, recent history has shown that it’s better to just leave well enough alone. Check out a quick video walkthrough after the break.

Continue reading Toshiba AC100 smartbook preview: what were you expecting?

Toshiba AC100 smartbook preview: what were you expecting? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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THREEE DEEE. Sorry, just had to get that out of our system. We just played with Panasonic’s HDC-SDT750 THREEE DEEE, er, 3D camcorder, and it certainly works as billed. The lens is designed for close-up depth perception in the 3 to 15 foot range, and doesn’t have any zoom capability. Luckily, it isn’t too hard to pop the screw-on lens off, giving yourself a regular zoomtastic 2D camcorder. When you do pop the 3D lens back on there’s a quick set of setup menus, which let you adjust the dual lenses within the 3D add-on with a few knobs hidden under a door on top of the assembly.

We didn’t get to do any free roaming with the camera, but that’s none too thrilling anyway: your preview image is a slightly fuzzy 2D on the built-in LCD. What we did do was watch the camera feed its 3D capture live to a Panny 3D TV (in one of the hilarious outfits provide for us by Panasonic, as pictured above), and while the 3D effect is certainly for-reals and non-janky, the actual image quality takes an obvious hit from the fact that a 1080p sensor is being cut in half to capture the dual images. It almost took us back to the early days of HD cameras, or your friendly neighborhood “HD” webcam, where the output resolution is clearly higher than the sensor is physically capturing. Similarly, we doubt the early adoption of cameras like this is going to be dramatic at first, and even after the tech is perfect we’re unsure how big of a consumer need there is for something like this, but with easy options like Panasonic’s own Micro Four Thirds 3D lens, the barriers to adoption are quickly disappearing. Er, we merely mean to say, THREEE DEEE.

Panasonic HDC-SDT750 3D camcorder preview originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boy, we’ve gone from rumor to hands-on experience in just a couple of days with this thing. Microsoft’s November 9-bound Xbox 360 controller refresh couldn’t escape the clutches of Joystiq, who have put together a neat photo gallery and video overview. That chrometastic new D-pad is clearly the headliner here, and the early feedback is that it works well — it takes a bit of effort to transform from a flat button to the elevated four-way navigator you see above, but that’s apparently a good thing as it means you’ll never flip modes by accident in the middle of a hot and heavy gaming session. The analog buttons have also been subjected to some nipping and tucking and there is of course a new desaturated color scheme to explore as well. You’ll find a shot of the retail packaging after the break and a lot more at the source.

Update: Video now embedded after the break.

Continue reading Xbox 360’s transforming D-pad controller gets handled on video

Xbox 360’s transforming D-pad controller gets handled on video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe we’re a bunch of idiots, but while the Flip and its ultra-simple camcorder ilk have certainly made shooting video simpler and more accessible for the masses, we still find many of these cameras surprisingly unintuitive or just “blah” at doing what they do (Kodak’s otherwise excellent Zi8 and PlaySport cameras come to mind) when it comes to UI. After playing with the horrendous Flip Slide HD, we were almost sure touchscreens would act as another obstacle to using these things, but of all people, Sony has come to the rescue. We found the original Bloggie line very unimpressive, but this new Bloggie Touch crop is exactly as easy to use as you’d imagine a one button device would be.

That big record button on the front? You press it, and it records stuff. The responsive touchscreen UI takes care of secondary issues, like playing back that stuff you recorded, swapping resolution (it shoots at up to 1080p), setting a timer, and more detailed settings, with four well placed icons, while a touch slider operates the digital zoom. If you hold the camera like a still camera and tap the camera shutter button now naturally placed on the top you can take 12.8 megapixel stills (okay, we lied, there are two buttons, three if you count the on / off button). Despite the slim, sexy design of the camera, Sony still worked in a pop-out USB plug and a full sized HDMI jack. Even the $180 / $200 price (for 4GB or 8GB of storage) is surprisingly good. Just a reminder, in case you’d forgotten: the Bloggie Touch is built by Sony. We’ll be looking forward to its October launch.

Sony Bloggie Touch preview: an actually simple ‘simple camcorder’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just got to handle the Folio 100, after witnessing it bolted to a wall earlier, and we have to admit that it’s lighter and thinner than it looks at first glance. Unfortunately, it still feels pretty cheap, and we’re not sure how much we trust ourselves one-handing something this large and fragile seeming. Our brief glimpse of Toshiba’s custom skin on here was most depressing — it’s not final, but we’re not sure why Toshiba is even bothering showing anything in this abysmal state. The bits we’ve seen of Toshiba’s market (for music, apps, e-books and so forth) look a bit better, but as far as we know there’s no official Android Market on this thing — a kiss of death for almost any Android device. Toshiba’s biggest failure here, however, is probably the LCD it sourced for this tablet — the screen looks as cheap and low res as could be, and while a €399 list price is decent for a tablet this size, it hardly seems a good excuse to stoop to KIRF-level components. Hit up the gallery for all the angles, along with some comparison shots with the mind share monopolizing iPad.

Update: We just heard from Toshiba’s US team and there are apparently no plans to bring the Folio 100 stateside. Given our lackluster first impressions, we can’t say we’re all that upset by that…

Toshiba Folio 100 preview originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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