Hasta La Gadget!

More from DigiTimes this morning and its chatty sources within NVIDIA and Taiwanese supply chains. First up is talk that ASUS’ 10-inch Eee Pad — presumably, the Android loving EP101TC said to cost less than $399 — will launch in March of 2011 with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 taking care of the processing duties. DigiTimes‘ sources also remind us that Tegra 2 tablets are on the way from Dell, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba in addition to smartphones from ASUS, Motorola, and LG. Good to know, but for as long as Tegra 2 has been discussed, we’ve yet to see the SoC ship inside anything worth getting too excited over. And don’t even mention the Boxee Box, they switched to Intel at the last minute, remember? Maybe Dell’s Looking Glass tablet will change all that when it launches any day now.

ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC getting Tegra 2 treatment ahead of March launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were just handed this image with very little detail other than the fact that we’re looking at “a future LG high end Android phone for Verizon,” but we can deduce a few things: one, and perhaps most notably, you can just barely make out an LTE logo toward the bottom of the back. That likely makes this one of the six-odd LTE phones Verizon has publicly said are slated for the first half of next year. Secondly, it’s got an HD camera of some sort — probably indicating either 720p or 1080p capture — and finally, it appears to have a huge, mirrored display and possibly a front-facing cam in the upper right. Looks like there’s also a WiFi logo on back (of course), but can anyone make out the other two logos there? And more importantly, can anyone wait for this to launch?

Update: It’s been proposed that one of the logos might be for DLNA, since LG’s a major DLNA player — most recently with its PlayTo service on the LG Optimus 7.

Exclusive: future LG Android phone for Verizon sports LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already lost count of all the internet TV platforms that launched this fall, but that hasn’t stopped DivX (even after the company was recently purchased) from throwing its hat into the ring by officially launching as a streaming internet video front end on several LG Blu-ray players. Available in the latest BD.8.31.317.C firmware update for the BD550/BD570/BD590 line, DivX TV lets users browse internet shows (including The Engadget Show, Revision3 and others — full list and a quick introduction video follow after the break) and create customized channels of the content they want to watch. We’ll wait and see if DivX TV pops up on any other hardware, but at least LG owners can check off yet another source of videos after Netflix, VUDU, CinemaNow, YouTube and of course, Blu-ray discs.

[Thanks, Nigel]

Continue reading DivX TV launched on LG Blu-ray players, mixes up the internet-to-TV wars a bit more

DivX TV launched on LG Blu-ray players, mixes up the internet-to-TV wars a bit more originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Oct 2010 03:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Phone 7. We came, we saw, we took lots and lots of photos. Today, Microsoft unleashed its global domination plans on the world, and we wanted to give readers some insight into what happens now, what happens next, and what the more distant future holds for Redmond’s smartphone play. As we saw today, the WP7 push is going to happen in multiple countries (more than 30), on multiple carriers (more than 60), and involve lots and lots of hardware. Ten devices to start — all announced today — and a slew of others likely to follow.

Overall, the first approach of Windows Phone 7 into the marketplace looks strong. Microsoft has built a surprisingly solid new OS (which we previewed in-depth back in July), has a strong set of carrier relationships in place, and is introducing hardware that if not revolutionary, is certainly competitive. So, where are the holes in the plan right now?

Continue reading Windows Phone 7 launch guide

Windows Phone 7 launch guide originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At the Windows Phone 7 event in New York Monday, Microsoft and AT&T had demo units of the three WP7 phones that will be available in the United States next month. I had a few minutes to play with each of them. Here are my first impressions.

LG Quantum

This is the slide-out phone with the QWERTY keyboard. It’s similar to a Blackberry phone’s layout, with two buttons on the left for Shift and Function (which for the most part you use to type in numbers). The hardware keyboard works very well, but I found using it in that mode a little confusing.

Some apps move from portrait to landscape without a hitch. But the WP7 home screen, Marketplace and a few others don’t. In time, you could get over this guessing game. Maybe users with more experience with slide-out landscapes know how to do this without a snap. The keyboard also made the phone quite thick, particularly compared to the touchscreen-only models on display.

Samsung Focus

This was by far my favorite of the three phones. It has a 4-inch touchscreen with beautiful color fidelity. The three hardware buttons don’t depress, but each provides a little buzz of tactile feedback. I even found using the software keyboard and switching from portrait to landscape much easier on the Focus than on the other two phones. That extra half-inch really does make a difference — and the image quality shows off just how graceful the WP7 OS is.

HTC Surround

This was the most difficult phone to put through a full trial, simply because there weren’t games or movies available to play readily. I wasn’t able to listen to its much-touted Dolby Digital Surround speakers either. But otherwise, its interface was very similar to Samsung’s, although again with a much smaller and dimmer screen. Its three hardware buttons also had a similar tacticle feedback buzz, which the LG Quantum didn’t have.

Overall

It’s a very beautiful OS, and I think some people will find its working clean and intuitive right away. It may seem like an odd thing to get fixated on, but the landscape/portrait thing really stands out.

There were plenty of times when text information trailed off the screen without wrapping in portrait mode, but you couldn’t turn it into landscape in order to see it, You had to swipe over to the next screen. Some of the applications, like QWERTY typing and gaming, seem built for landscape, but the primary navigation mode of WP7 is definitely portrait.

It’s probably somewhere in between the iPhone and Android in terms of customization possibility. There are more options than iPhone (including plenty of easy accessibility and mulitlingual options), and they’re a little easier to find. But I thought, for instance, I might be able to change the font, which is everywhere. No dice — at least on these floor models.

I loved the Focus: iPhone and iPad users will probably find it the closest to their experience and preferences.

I thought the keyboard on the Quantum was very well-made (and existing slide-out users again might find it even more appealing).

I was and remain intrigued by the microsize media experience the Surround offers. It’s an extremely solid lineup of phones; at $200 each, users dead-set on WP7 will just have to decide which hardware and use experience they like best.

Photos: Tim Carmody/Wired.com