Hasta La Gadget!

This week’s Gadget Lab podcast is all about touchscreens. That’s how you know you’re really living in the post-PC era.

Special guest Duncan Geere of Wired UK joins Dylan Tweney to talk about this week’s big news from Hewlett-Packard. The hardware giant on Wednesday launched its answer to the iPad, the TouchPad, which has a 9.7-inch touchscreen, a dual-core processor, a front-facing camera for video-conferencing, stereo speakers, a gyroscope and accelerometer sensors, Bluetooth compatibility, and support for Adobe Flash.

Despite that list of compelling features, Duncan can’t imagine buying one for one reason: the lack of apps. Plus, Apple’s iPad 2 is probably right around the corner.

HP also launched two new smartphones, the Veer and the Pre 3. Both phones include a 5-megapixel camera and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and both include support for Flash. The smaller Veer has a 2.6-inch touchscreen, and the bigger Pre 3 has a 3.6-inch display.

We move on to another tablet OS: Android Honeycomb. Due for release this year, Honeycomb specializes in 3-D acceleration to drive hardcore gaming and snazzy user-interface features. Several manufacturers have already signed up to make Honeycomb-powered tablets.

Duncan closes the podcast with his experience using the iPhone in Britain. It turns out that back when the iPhone was just on one carrier, reception was terrible there, too, but it’s much better now that it’s shared on multiple networks.

Maybe that gives us hope in the United States, as the Verizon iPhone just went on sale Thursday, officially ending AT&T’s exclusive grip on Apple’s handset.

—

You can listen to the audio-only version of the show here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #103
http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0103.mp3

Or download the OGG version of Gadget Lab podcast #103.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, subscribe to the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds

This week in consumer electronics was full of culture. Or maybe it was full of color — we’re not quite sure what the difference might be, but there was a lot of weird / cool news in the CEO, handheld gaming, and tablet worlds. The point is, we’ve got another weird / cool podcast on our hands that you haven’t listened to yet and you need to take care of that, like, five minutes ago.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, #1 Digitimes bestselling author Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Superstition

00:04:15 – Steve Jobs takes medical leave from Apple, Tim Cook taking over daily operations in his absence
00:10:22 – Apple turns in record Q1: $6b profit on $26.7b revenue, 16.2m iPhones sold
00:23:20 – Apple’s invested in a ‘very strategic’ $3.9b component supply agreement, but what is it?
00:25:10 – Asahi Glass introduces Dragontrail for consumer electronics, puts the Gorilla on notice (video)
00:25:48 – Larry Page taking over as Google CEO, Eric Schmidt will remain as Executive Chairman
00:35:30 – Google Voice now lets you port your own phone number, maybe (update)
00:44:53 – Exclusive: HP / Palm’s webOS tablets — pictures, plans, and more
00:45:42 – HP / Palm tablet to feature Touchstone dock, cloud storage, Beats audio and Tap-to-Share smartphone integration
00:49:30 – HP calls us out, implies it’s got even better scoops at February webOS event
00:53:20 – HP’s first webOS tablet may start shipping in March, fulfill longstanding promise
01:06:00 – Motorola Xoom launching February 17th at Best Buy (update: priced at $700)
01:06:22 – Motorola Xoom priced at $800 at a minimum, according to Verizon leak
01:14:52 – Nintendo 3DS coming to US March 27th for $249.99, Europe first on March 25th (video)
01:19:10 – Live from Nintendo’s 3DS preview with Reggie Fils-Aime
01:23:22 – Bloomberg: Sony PSP2 to debut next week, PlayStation Phone at MWC
01:23:47 – This fan-made PSP redesign is sexy
01:25:15 – PSP2 to be based on iPhone-esque PowerVR GPU, rival original Xbox in power?
01:27:52 – The Engadget Show returns next Sunday with Steve Wozniak!

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1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @engadget @reckless

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 230 – 01.24.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What are you doing tonight? How about………………listening to all 100 minutes of the 2010 wrap-up edition of the Engadget Podcast? The Engadget Podcasters reminisce and predict as we peer into the void of yet another year of exciting and flawed technology. They just keep coming, and rest assured — we’ll just keep podcasting.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: 99 Luftballoons

14:30 – Engadget’s biggest stories of 2010

Hear the podcast

Subscribe to the podcast

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.
[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator.
[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace

Download the podcast

LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)

Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 223 – 12.31.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In this week’s episode of the Gadget Lab podcast, Dylan Tweney and I analyze Google’s Chrome OS notebook and the idea of a Windows 7 tablet while giving a sneak peek of an awesome new iPad game.

Dylan shows off Google’s stealthy black CR-48 notebook. The Chrome OS operating system, which is based on a browser, is fast and pretty capable, but Dylan couldn’t get a full day’s work done thanks to his need for Firefox. On the hardware side, the keyboard’s pretty nice, but the trackpad is clunky. Keep in mind, however, that this is a pilot device, so it’s not like you’re going to buy one.

I talk smack about a rumor that Microsoft is planning to yet again announce a Windows 7 tablet at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show. Why am I so pessimistic? Because this has been done over and over again, and Windows tablet PCs have constantly failed. Microsoft would be better off scaling up the new Windows Phone 7 OS to run on a tablet, but it’s unlikely we’ll see that happening next year because the phone platform is just getting started.

On to more fun news, I show off the new iPad version of Pocket God, a game that was a huge hit on the iPhone. You play the role of God, messing around with little creatures called Pygmies by manipulating their environment with your fingers. The iPad version, called A Journey to Uranus, just came out today. It’s even better because you get an entire universe to screw around with the Pygmies on different planets.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds

Or listen to the audio here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #97

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0097.mp3

Google dominates this week’s Gadget Lab podcast with a new computer operating system, a smartphone, an Android upgrade and big sales number for the Android-powered Galaxy Tab.

The search giant on Tuesday shared details on Chrome OS, its browser-based OS that runs web apps. Gadget Lab just got its hands on a test unit of the Cr-48, a pilot notebook running Chrome OS, and we’ll post impressions soon.

Monday launched the Nexus S smartphone, made in collaboration with Samsung. It’s basically the sequel to the failed Nexus One. It comes with a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, a 1-GHz Hummingbird processor, 16 GB of storage and a battery rated for 6.7 hours of talk time.

Alongside introducing the Nexus S, Google announced its latest upgrade for the Android OS codenamed “Gingerbread.” It’s an incremental upgrade that improves copy-and-paste and cleans up the UI, among other changes we summarized in an earlier post.

In more Android-related news, Samsung recently reported it sold 1 million Galaxy Tab tablets. That’s quite impressive, and it shows that Google and other manufacturers aren’t too far behind Apple in the new tablet market after all.

We wrap up the show with a quick look at the Boxee, a $200 set-top box that plays web-streamed video. Dylan wasn’t a fan of it.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast on iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds

Or listen to the audio here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast No. 96

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0096.mp3