Hasta La Gadget!

Sony Ericsson has just outed a brand new pair of compact Xperia smartphones. The new Xperia Mini will run Android Gingerbread (2.3) on a 3-inch, multitouch, scratch-resistant display, which comes with Sony’s proprietary Bravia Engine with Reality Display. There’s a 1GHz processor inside, access to Android Market, and home screen customization with custom shortcuts available in the four corners of the screen. A 30 percent improvement in battery life is also touted, courtesy of a larger cell. SE is also pretty jolly about having the world’s smallest smartphone capable of recording video in 720p HD. You’ll be able to grab yours in one of four different colors this August.

The new Xperia Mini Pro features the same 1GHz processor, 3-inch display, and 1200mAh battery, but it also adds a front-facing camera and that sliding QWERTY keyboard that made the original X10 Mini Pro such a favorite. The new model is coming at some point in the third quarter of this year. Sony Ericsson’s launch presentation is still ongoing, but we’ll have more details and hands-on pics as soon as we can.

Update: Hands-on pics and impressions can be found right here!

Continue reading Sony Ericsson announces new generation of Xperia Mini and Mini Pro smartphones

Sony Ericsson announces new generation of Xperia Mini and Mini Pro smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mini will be adding the MOG on-demand music streaming service via its Mini Connected application. For $10 a month, the motorist can choose the music that plays through his or her iPhone and then through the Mini’s head unit. It’s broadly similar to the Pandora streaming music service except Pandora provides cheaper music (free to $5 a month) without the ability to pick and choose exactly what plays. The required Mini Connected app is free at the iTunes store, but the hardware requirements add $1,250 to the price of a new Mini.

If you liked the idea of the Car2go service we profiled a few weeks back, Smart fortwos available for rent by the minute with and some pretty fancy tracking apps to help you find them, but maybe you wanted to drive something a little bit bigger, BMW has you covered. Well, assuming “you” are German or at least living in Germany. The company has launched its own car sharing service it calls DriveNow. This one is billed as a “premium” — though curiously none of the company’s truly premium models will be offered. That said, the Minis and 1 Series autos that make up the initial fleet are hardly low-rent, and we’d be utterly shocked if the upcoming i3 didn’t get added to the mix down the road too.

Usage details are still a little bit scarce, but we do know that each car will have a dash-mounted Dell Streak through which users will log in after unlocking the car doors with an RFID-equipped membership card or even a suitably endowed drivers license. Renting a car costs 29 cents per minute, up to €14.90 (about $21) per hour, and there will be 300 cars available at first starting in the Munich area. If you’re not in Munich it’s tough cookies for now, but BMW is hoping to have one million members worldwide by 2020. Maybe one of them will be you.

Continue reading BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video)

BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that elusive Atom N570 that popped up here and there in machines debuting last month? At long last, the spec wizards over at Intel’s headquarters have seen fit to divulge a few more details surrounding the new silicon, and it goes a little like this: the chip runs at 1.66GHz, supports four threads and touts 1MB of L2 cache, an 8.5W TDP and DDR3-667. It’ll also start shipping this month, and should emerge soon on low-power machines from ASUS, Lenovo and Samsung. Meanwhile, HP has apparently seen fit to jump the gun a bit by refreshing its Mini 110 and 210 (shown above) netbooks, both of which are making their debut with the new processor over in Japan. It’ll be interesting to see how much traction such a chip gets now that AMD’s Zacate E-350 is out and about, but as mama always said, competition makes everything just a wee bit better.

Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom N570 slips into refreshed HP Mini 110 and 210 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Fiat 500 has Mini square in its sights when Fiat returns to the U.S. sales in a few weeks. A New York City press showing last week by Fiat’s product manager, appropriately named Laura Soave, reveals zillions of colors and options, plus Bluetooth and a USB jack standard on all but the entry model. Basically, you’re getting a Mini for four grand less, claims Fiat.