Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia’s just announced what it’s calling the “world’s thinnest smartphone,” the E55. They’re calling it a compact QWERTY keyboard, but let’s be honest, it’s SureType. According to the press release, it’s got 28 days of standby time in its battery, as well as full Nokia Maps and assisted GPS with integration. Look for it this summer for 265 euros unsubsidized.

Update: New details from the fact sheet. The 28 days of standby applies to GSM — it drops to 19 days on WCDMA — and talk time for GSM / WCDMA is 8 and 6 hours, respectively. The phone sports a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5 mm headphone jack, 802.11 b/g, EGPRS, and Bluetooth 2.0.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia E55 ‘compact QWERTY’ smartphone unveiled originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s been talking up MIDs for a while now, and it looks like LG’s ready to buy in — the two companies just announced that they’ll be cooperating on a series of devices running Intel’s Moblin OS on the Moorestown platform. Interestingly, the release says the first product will deliver the “functionality of today’s high-end smart phones,” which seems to suggest that Intel’s willing to shift some product definitions around. Still, we wouldn’t expect a straight-up phone out of this one — we’re hoping for something more like Intel’s crazy concept MID shown here. We’ll see what these two come up with over the next year, it should definitely be interesting.

Filed under: Handhelds

Intel and LG partner up for some hot MID action originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So it’s not totally clear to us why you’d wait for this thing over a C905 that you could buy today, but once again, that’s the confusion behind Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot / Walkman branding that they’re claiming they hope to clear up going forward — it’s just that the W995 isn’t really a step in that direction, and we weren’t huge fans of the chicklet-sized nav keys up front. That being said, it seems like a fine phone overall — the display looks crisp and vivid, the interface was relatively snappy, and there’s little to complain about having an 8.1 megapixel autofocus cam at your disposal. Click on for a quick shot at the UI in action!

Continue reading Sony Ericsson W995 video hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Sony Ericsson W995 video hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Mobile 6.5’s presumably going to be the big news out of Redmond here at MWC this week, but Microsoft’s also using the show as an opportunity to launch the “technology preview” of its Recite software, an ultra-simple voice note app for WinMo 6.0 and above. The concept is one of those “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that” moments, actually: one button records your quick notes, and the magic happens with a second button that you use to search your previously recorded notes by voice. For example, you can record “Sean Cooper’s birthday is May 22” and later search on “Sean,” “Sean Cooper,” “birthday,” or any combination of words you’ve mentioned in the note to recall it. Doesn’t get much more straightforward than that — and happily, you’ll pay a big, fat goose egg for the privilege of grabbing it. It’s a beta product, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: Microsoft’s trying to gather feedback on how awesome (or not awesome) it is before deciding how to use it going forward, so give it hell and let ’em know what you think.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Microsoft Recite brings voice search to your voice notes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, we played around with the new Windows Mobile-sportin’ nuvifone M20 from Garmin-Asus this evening, but there’s really not much to say: the software is barely even alpha at this point. Most every tap or swipe of the screen was met with a two or more second delay, and we managed to crash a couple of the phones. That said, it’s clear that Garmin-Asus aren’t just adding a pretty launcher to Windows Mobile and calling it a day, there’s some good navigation and location-based stuff happening here, and we look forward to playing around with it all once it’s closer to reality. We don’t look forward to meeting the resistive touch screen a second time, but we’ll just have to live with that fact — at least the Garmin-Asus apps are all touch-optimized, but you might have to pull out the stylus for a gander at the rest of Windows Mobile 6.1.

Update: Official media handed out for the M20 reveals a small handful of new screen shots, mainly a swanky new media player and calling screen that really don’t say a damned thing about the M20’s deep-rooted nav capabilities. Thing is, when you have a winged disco ball, you can get away with bending a whole lotta rules — but yeah, this is one phone where we think we’d rather let the hardware do the talking.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Garmin-Asus nuvifone M20 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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