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Continue reading Motorola intros Elite Sliver and Elite Flip Bluetooth headsets with NFC pairing (video)

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola intros Elite Sliver and Elite Flip Bluetooth headsets with NFC pairing (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s with broken heart that we announce that the doors have officially shut for good on all remaining webOS retail stores. The news likely won’t come as a shock to many, given HP’s intent to scrap the operating system from its future plans. This isn’t the first physical manifestation of the company’s announcement, when factoring in the plethora of layoffs taking place; nonetheless, anyone affected or touched by a Palm device over the last 19 years may likely mourn the loss. That said, at least the stores went out with a bang: Veers were cleared out for $50 each, the Pixi was sold for $25 ($15 if you purchased four or more) and the Touchstone could be had for a cool $2.50. The retail outlets may now be a thing of the past, but the memories of the products sold in them will hopefully live on forever. Never forget.

webOS brick-and-mortar stores close forever, may they rest in peace originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you envision Ice Cream Sandwich — the latest iteration of Android — as a revolutionary update that satisfies every single one of your geeky lusts, we sure hope you’ve been aching for a photo editor. It appears that AndroidPolice has hunted down a variety of icons and logos presumed to be associated with the feature, but it’s not certain if these will actually appear in the final build. The icons hint at a smattering of image editing tools: crop, sharpen, flip, rotate and a selection of 19 possible photo effects are among the options. Again, this is highly speculative, and rumors such as these will likely ramp up as we approach the official announcement. ‘Course, we won’t scoff at the idea of a native photo editor in Ice Cream Sandwich, but we’re sincerely hoping this won’t be the coolest thing about the new OS at Tuesday’s announcement in Hong Kong.

[Thanks, Paul]

Ice Cream Sandwich may have a built-in photo editor to help your pictures turn out halfway decent originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Where have all the split-keyboard phones gone? It’s been roughly six years since the days of the Nokia E70, a messaging device with an innovative form factor, but handsets with a similar mold have become extreme rarities in the market — if they even make it to the market at all (remember the MotoSplit?). LG’s hoping to gain some ground in this area by officially announcing the DoublePlay, a unique Android 2.3 handset with dual touchscreens and split QWERTY. Here’s the scoop: the DoublePlay’s powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU and offers a 5MP rear-facing camera capable of capturing 720p HD video. Where it gets interesting, however, is in the DoublePlay’s design — it uses a 3.5-inch display on top, sliding out to reveal a 2-inch internal screen sandwiched in between both halves of the keyboard. As it turns out, both screens can be used separately or in tandem with each other, depending on your needs. No pricing or availability was specifically announced, but the presser appears to coincide with the 2011 National Texting Championship beginning October 26th, so the phone will likely launch around the same time. Perhaps we have a device here that’ll be a legend in another seven years?

Continue reading LG DoublePlay makes its official intro on T-Mobile, offers dual-screens and split keyboard

LG DoublePlay makes its official intro on T-Mobile, offers dual-screens and split keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Nearly 15 years passed between Apple’s first foray into handheld electronics — the Newton MessagePad — and the far more successful iPhone. But while phones have replaced PDAs for all intents and purposes, few if any have tried to be what Newton really aspired to — an intelligent assistant that would seamlessly blend into your life. That has changed with Siri, the standout feature of iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S, which could aptly be described as a “personal digital assistant” if there weren’t so much baggage tied to that term.

Siri is far more than parlor entertainment or a simple leapfrogging the voice control support in Android and Windows Phone. At the other end of the potential spectrum, Siri may not be a new platform in itself (although at this point Apple has somewhat sandboxed the experience). In any case, though, Siri certainly paves the way for voice as an important component for a rich multi-input digital experience. It steps toward the life-management set of functionality that the bow-tied agent immortalized in Apple’s 1987 Knowledge Navigator video could achieve.

Continue reading Switched On: As Siri gets serious

Switched On: As Siri gets serious originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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