Hasta La Gadget!

We already had the opportunity to sit down and tinker with a slew of Pixel Qi-based prototype devices here in Taipei, but one in particular managed to catch our eye in a rather surprising location. Innoversal, a new company here in Taiwan just looking to change the world, found itself hosting a striking 10.1-inch device that grabbed our heartstrings and wouldn’t let go. The highlight of the starlet was the expansive 3Qi capacitive touchpanel, with a 1,024 x 600 resolution and the ability to save battery life by flipping the backlight off when in broad daylight. The current build was relying on a trio of ambient light sensors to determine whether or not the backlight would be on, but we begged and pleaded for the company to implement a dedicated on / off toggle switch along the border before shipping it out. Speaking of which, Innoversal will most likely ship the product under its own branding here in Taiwan, but it’s certainly open to selling the design to other major manufacturers who may wish to slap their own logo on there. If all goes well, we could see it first take off this September (globally), with a 16GB + 3G / WiFi model retailing for between $530 and $550.

So, what’s that get you? Besides the best power-saving mobile display this world has ever seen (seriously, the crispness and viewing angles were extraordinary), you’ll also get a 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, an integrated SSD (16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities will be available), an SDHC card slot, 8 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, a SIM card slot (for 3G data), USB 2.0 connectivity, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a 6-cell (5,300mAh) battery to boot. We were told that the device will support Windows 7, Android, Ubuntu and Chrome OS, with the former two being on display at the show. The working mockup that was on display was sufficiently lightweight and sturdy, and we’d be fibbing to ourselves if we said we weren’t giddy about the prospect of holding a finalized unit before Old Man Winter comes to visit. Hop on past the break for a video overview… or else.

Continue reading Innoversal’s Pixel Qi-based tablet prototype: $530 for the display of your dreams

Innoversal’s Pixel Qi-based tablet prototype: $530 for the display of your dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even though school’s just getting out in most places around the world, the bulk of companies start announcing their back to school laptops just about… now! And we’d bet you that this 10-inch Mini Classmate netbook (the final name is still TBD) is what HP has in store for the kiddies come this fall. Unlike the Mini 5102, which has previously aimed at the younger set, this here netbook is quite chunky and reminds us of the original Intel Classmate PC — it’s made entirely of plastic and has a handle on its back. The one on display was covered in a pretty unattractive marshmallow-ish white, but our wildest fantasies have HP offering it in a slew of colors. Other than that, it boasted a grey-colored chiclet keyboard, was running SuSE Linux 11 — it was actually on display at the Novell booth — and had an Intel Atom processor. That’s all we know for now, though we’re assuming there are a bunch of child-proof features that aren’t evident to the naked eye. Head on past the break for a brief hands-on video of this heretofore unannounced mini machine.

Continue reading HP Mini ‘Classmate PC’ reveals itself at Computex (video)

HP Mini ‘Classmate PC’ reveals itself at Computex (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another small mystery, solved. We caught a glimpse of Huawei’s relatively undercover S7 tablet back in March, but little was known about what would actually power the device and what operating system would be pre-installed. Here at Computex, we learned the facts on both of those points. Sitting pretty at Qualcomm’s booth, the S7 was shown boasting a 1GHz MSM8250 Snapdragon processor, and our hunting around in the settings confirmed that Android 2.1 was loaded onboard. The Qualcomm reps didn’t have any other hard specifications available on the 7-incher (beyond those that we already knew), but we were able to spot a volume rocker, internal speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card slot, USB connector and a fancy kickstand around back for sitting a spell and watching multimedia. During our time with the device, we instantly fell in love with the depressible side buttons, and the capacitive resistive touchscreen was as responsive as they come. The whole thing felt speedy and light enough for our liking, and frankly, it was easily one of our favorite tablets at the entire show. We’re still no closer to nailing down a price or release date, but at least you now know it’s worth your while to keep an eye out for both. Vid’s after the break.

Continue reading Huawei S7 runs 1GHz Snapdragon and Android 2.1 like a champ (video)

Huawei S7 runs 1GHz Snapdragon and Android 2.1 like a champ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that the Toshiba Mini NB305 is one of our favorite netbooks on the market, mostly because of its chiclet keyboard and wide touchpad. Thankfully for us, it looks like Toshiba is planning to spread the same design to its ultrathin Satellite lineup sometime soon. Shown above is what appears to be a minty fresh update to the Satellite M135 on the Computex show floor. The 13-inch laptop looked mighty attractive — it’s about an inch thick, and as mentioned has the same sturdy keyboard as the Mini NB305. We’re not the biggest fans of the pattern etched into the metal palmrest, but on the plus side its touchpad has dedicated right and left buttons. We can’t tell you much in the way of specs, but it was on display at the Intel booth with a Core i5-U520 processor and also hanging out at the AMD booth with one of those new Athlon II Neo CPUs. This thing is bound to be official sometime soon, but in the meantime check out the hands-on shots below and start saving up for what could be one of the best ultrathins headed to the market.

Toshiba redesigns Satellite ultrathin laptops, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, there may never be a Windows 7 Phone tablet, but that device above looks pretty darn close to what one may have looked like. In actuality that’s just the tablet that Microsoft has been using at Computex to demo its new Windows Embedded Compact 7 supporting Silverlight for Windows Embedded, Flash 10.1, and multitouch within the browser. We caught a few minutes with the NVIDIA Tegra 2-powered, 8.9-inch slate and found ourselves drooling over the Zune / Windows Phone 7-like interface that had been built by Microsoft. But before we tell you to jump past the break to check out the short demo, we want to break the news to you that this UI was created just to show off the capabilities of the new CE platform — there’s no plan to bring it to market as is on Microsoft’s end at the moment. Instead manufacturers, like ASUS and others, have to do their own engineering with the preview release and then the RTM build that will come later this year. But we certainly wouldn’t object to one of those companies creating something similar to what you are about to witness in the gallery and video below.

Continue reading Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 tablet prototype preview

Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 tablet prototype preview originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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