Hasta La Gadget!

The folks over at UMPC Portal have gotten a hold of the SmartQ 7 internet tablet for a nice, long review. The MID, which has a 667MHz Samsung ARM S3C6410 CPU, 128MB of RAM, and 1GB of flash memory, seems to handle its basic tasks — MP3 playback, light browsing, PDF viewing, and viewing / editing documents fairly well. It also apparently has a pretty great battery life, and can stay juiced in standby mode for over three days. The tablet (which is somewhat reminiscent of the yet to appear in the wild CrunchPad) does, however, have plenty of drawbacks — a touchscreen that often responds incorrectly, limited RAM and storage, and a bunch of other limitations we’re used to associating with MIDs in general. There’s a video highlighting some of the SmartQ 7’s apps after the break; hit the read link for the full review.

Continue reading Smart Q7 reviewed, deemed fairly useful for fairly basic tasks

Filed under: Handhelds

Smart Q7 reviewed, deemed fairly useful for fairly basic tasks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 11:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This one’s a bit of a stretch but totally plausible. Archos just announced a press conference in Paris on June 11th — that’s a fact. However, the choice of Android-green in the invite above has caused widespread speculation that we’ll be getting a first peep at Archos’ heavily rumored Android-based device. Remember, TI was kind enough to give us the full specs on a 10-mm thin Archos Internet Media Tablet “with all the functionalities of a premium smartphone” back in February. At that time, TI listed specs like a 5-inch high-resolution screen, Adobe Flash support, TV recording, HD playback, 500GB of storage, 7 hours of video playback off battery, voice and HSUPA data radio all powered by a smokin’ OMAP3440 processor from TI. If true then we can expect to see the device hinted at in the invite launch in Q3.

[Via SlashGear, thanks Chris]

Read — Archos Press event
Read — Archos Internet Media Tablet [February 9th, 2009]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos event June 11th: 5-inch Android tablet with voice expected originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 May 2009 04:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s all very wink wink, nudge nudge, hush hush, but the odor that Intel is giving off in this Fortune article about the Medfield project is that Intel’s trying to shrink x86 down to smartphones.

Intel’s roadmap looks like this: Now they have Atom, which powers many of the netbooks on the market today. Next comes Moorestown, which is supposed to be like the Atom, but house two chips and be a low-power solution that can be customizable (the 2nd chip) for whatever gadget a client shoves it into. Moorestown isn’t quite small enough for smartphones, but Intel’s saying Medfield may be, when Medfield follows up Moorestown.

There’s a lot of hinting, but not a lot of outright declaration here, so it’s not certain that Medfield may be able to fit into something the size of an iPhone or a Pre or an Android. What they are saying is that they can fit into something the size of a UMPC or a MID or a large PMP—something that Nvidia’s Tegra or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon are aiming for as well.

The timeline for Medfield is 2011ish, so there’s a while yet before anything materializes. But if Intel does somehow find a way to get their system-on-a-chip into your phones, that means bigger OSes and more laptop-like performance. We’ll see. [Fortune]

Look, we’re not going to try and convince you that you need carry yet another device to maintain your connected lifestyle. And at 6.2 x 3.5 x 1.1-inches, the LonMID M100 is too chunky to join your smartphone in the trouser pocket while being a bit too cramped compared to the netbook or laptop carried in your shoulder bag. Still, we can appreciate the effort required to pack this much technology into such a tiny QWERTY device. On the back of the main 4.8-inch (800 x 480) display, the dual-purpose M100 features a dedicated keypad, SIM, and 2.4-inch display for making jumbo-sized calls when the mood strikes. Otherwise, it’ll help you consume, and lightly create content under the direction of a MIDinux OS riding an 800MHz Atom Z500 processor with Poulsbo chipset, 1GB of DDR2 memory, and 4GB SSD with microSD expansion. Bluetooth, USB, and 802.11b/g WiFi? Yup, it’s in there. Fortunately, it’s only a prototype so you can put off all the hard decision making until later.

[Via Pocketables]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

LonMID M100 is a giant smartphone or tiny netbook, you choose originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, Apple just posted a record quarter of earnings, but it’s been taking a beating lately on the price issue — not only have cheap netbooks become the hottest category in the market, Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters commercials have reignited the Apple tax debate. That appears to have the wheels in motion in Cupertino: AppleInsider says the MacBook and iMac lines are soon to be bolstered with lower-cost options that should take some of the bite out of Redmond’s marketing. That’s certainly interesting, but here’s the real noise: according to AI, the low-cost machines are just an interim solution while Apple preps a new tablet line to take on netbooks directly without making any of the design sacrifices Steve Jobs has repeatedly pooh-poohed. Wild — but it jibes with those recent whispers about a Verizon / Apple meetup and those reports that Quanta’s busy building something with a 10-inch display. So — cheaper Macs in the short term, crazy-insane iPhone tablet / MID thing riding a unicorn sometime later. You believe any of that?

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Apple mulling price cuts, developing netbook competitor? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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