Hasta La Gadget!

See that there? That’s a shiny new 16GB Zune HD, which isn’t supposed to ship until September 15th. Why bother to honor the street date? Ask the cool cats at the Fort Myers, Florida Best Buy, who has no qualms selling our tipster a unit over the weekend. At the time, no 32GB versions were available, and even now, this 16GB unit won’t sync with one’s PC or do much of anything useful. Of course, Microsoft’s pretty much shutting itself down tonight as it readies a new software update, so we suspect all systems will be go within the next 24 hours. While we’re on the topic, has anyone else managed to snag a Zune HD early?

[Thanks, Everett]

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Zune HD sold early, still unusable until tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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True, you can barely read the transparent display when viewed against a white background. But Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA Pureness is quite possibly the most coveted handset on Earth. Impractical? Yes. Awesome? Most definitely. Proof that phones don’t have to be touchscreen slates or even integrate a camera, GPS, or WiFi to be worthy of consumer lust.

Continue reading Video: Sony Ericsson’s Pureness haunts the breathless wilds of Translutania

Filed under: Cellphones

Video: Sony Ericsson’s Pureness haunts the breathless wilds of Translutania originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been following the saga of the i5700 Galaxy Lite since early this month when it took the Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification program by storm, and now it seems that French site FrAndroid may very well have exposed Samsung’s second Google-ified handset to the harsh light of the real world for the first time. As its name implies, this would likely be a cheap entry to slot in beneath the Galaxy — and the current rumor has it signed up for 3G, WiFi, possible “Google Experience” certification, and an honest-to-goodness trackball, a feature sorely missed on the Galaxy by some. Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be a Home button which we thought was an Android requirement, but it’s possible that Samsung’s concealed it along the side or made it a long-press function for another button. The site claims that this’ll be hitting French streets next month, so we may not have long to wait before the epic Click / Galaxy Lite smackdown makes things surprisingly interesting on the low end of the smartphone market — and with Nokia looking to play in the same space with the 5230, this segment could end up hosting some of the most interesting mobile action over the coming year.

[Via MobileCrunch and Samsung Hub]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Samsung’s Galaxy Lite in the wild, looks ready for low-end Android battle with HTC Click originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re huddled up in an obscure corner of the New York Public Library, waiting for Sony to drop its new Reader news on us. There are numerous publishing people here, and for our money we’d say a wireless-equipped, “daily” news sort of device is about to descend upon us, but we’ll find out for sure when Sony gets on the makeshift stage and tells all.

10:30AM: The President and CEO of the New York Public Library is up front, and he says the digital content of the NYPL will be available to Sony Readers for free.

10:34AM: Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division is up now, and he likens the transition from books to digital books to vinyl to CD and film to digital photo.

10:38AM: Launching 3.0 eBook Library software. Mac and PC compatible, notes made on the touch edition can be printed.

10:40AM: Library Finder. You can register for a library card, and then check out ebooks from the “library” over the internet. Content expires in the number of days specified by the library. No late fees!

10:43AM: Sony Reader Daily Edition! 3G, 7-inch touchscreen, $399. Picture is up top.

10:53AM: Check out some “hands-on” photos below. He didn’t let us touch it, and apparently this isn’t even a working prototype. Still, from our angle, it’s looking pretty slick!

Filed under: Handhelds

Sony’s ‘Daily Edition’ Reader launch event originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Touch, it’s the panacea of e-book readers, right? Sure, just so long as readability isn’t sacrificed in the process. Flickr user Doodlydood uploaded some pics and video of Sony’s new $300 PRS-600 (on the left above) reader and did a quick comparison with his legacy PRS-505. Unfortunately, the glare from the plastic resistive touchscreen is an issue and the weak contrast, like the touchscreen PRS-700 before it, pales by comparison to Sony’s two year old PRS-505 with glass display. On the flip side, page turns on the new 600 were fast and “work extremely well” compared to the PRS-505. Unfortunately, that’s a minor victory when the whole purpose of an e-reader it to well, you know… read. See for yourselves in the videos after the break.

[Via Lesen.net, thanks Johannes]

Continue reading Video: Sony PRS-600 Touch is fast but too dim to satisfy PRS-505 owner

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Video: Sony PRS-600 Touch is fast but too dim to satisfy PRS-505 owner originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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