Hasta La Gadget!

As with most good things, this comes from Bulgaria. Laptop.bg have finagled themselves a prototype unit of Acer’s forthcoming Aspire 5553G and taken it on a benchmarking adventure to see what it’s made of. Their first impressions relate to the case, which comes in a familiar Timeline-inspired design, including a fingerprint-loving glossy lid and Acer’s particular take on the island keyboard, but they quickly move on to analyzing the quad-core Phenom II N930 heart beating within. Sadly, this particular unit was held back in gaming by its anemic Mobility Radeon HD 4250 GPU, but the news wasn’t all that flattering in CPU-isolating comparisons either. Cinebench 10 found the N930 outperforming Intel’s previous generation chips in multicore workloads, but falling behind on single-threaded tasks. AMD seems intent on pricing its latest Phenoms aggressively, and if you’re not too hung up on getting great battery life these will look appealing, but we can’t help feeling disappointed that Intel’s Core i7s aren’t being given more to worry about. Hit the source for the full review.

Acer Aspire 5553G showcases AMD’s quad-core Phenom II N930 in early review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 07:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, here’s something of a surprise. In addition to demonstrating Flash running on phones like the Nexus One and Palm Pre at the now-happening Web 2.0 Expo, Adobe also has a prototype Android tablet of some sort on hand that, according to Zedomax, runs Flash and Air apps “flawlessly.” Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any details at all on the tablet itself, and judging from the looks of things, it is a prototype in the truest sense of the word (check out the other shot after the break). It does seem to deliver the goods when it comes to Air and Flash, however, with it able to run Wired’s Air-based magazine app and play YouTube videos without so much as a hiccup, although we’d definitely like to see it in a few more taxing situations. See for yourself in a pair of all too brief videos after the break.

Update: looks like that “flawless” Flash performance is all thanks to Tegra 2, as we’ve been informed by NVIDIA just now. Here’s the statement:

“It is indeed Tegra 2. We worked closely with Adobe to show how next-gen Tegra can bring the complete web to tablets at Web 2.0.

You can expect to start seeing Tegra 2 devices appearing this summer, with plenty on the way in the third and fourth quarters of the year.”

Continue reading Adobe shows off prototype Android tablet running Air and Flash ‘flawlessly’ (update: it’s Tegra 2!)

Adobe shows off prototype Android tablet running Air and Flash ‘flawlessly’ (update: it’s Tegra 2!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 May 2010 20:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We took apart the next iPhone.

There are a number of interesting facts gained from the dissection, the most important of which is more concrete confirmation (as if we needed any more) that this phone is from Apple. There are three separate places, inside the case, where “APPLE” is written prominently.

Upon unscrewing the bottom two screws — just like with the 3GS — you can use a suction cup and pry off the back portion of the phone, not the front like on iFixit’s 3GS teardown. Once open, you’ll notice that the battery takes up around 50 percent of the phone, give or take. Very impressive.

Diving deeper becomes much trickier. There are a total of around 40 to 50 screws inside the phone, positioned at various angles that are almost frustratingly impossible to get to. Components can be removed and detached from other components. There are a handful of pieces like this, but you don’t know which ones are meant to detach, because you don’t have the manual. Once you get all the screws off and pry off the pieces that connect the micro-SIM, the camera, the on/off switch and volume buttons, you’re ready to access the brains.

As if Sony’s PlayStation Move, Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Project Natal weren’t evidence enough, we’re here to inform you that motion gaming is here to stay… for awhile, anyway. One area where it hasn’t quite taken over in full force is the mobile sector, but Dave & Adie are angling to change that. Their Moject (short for Motion Projection) project has led to a prototype device that straps onto an iPhone, providing a pico projector for the phone and using the handset’s internal sensors to recognize movements. A demo title has also been crafted to demonstrate how it all works, and while the iPhone is obviously just the beginning of where this could go, you owe it to yourself to give the video (hosted just after the break) a look. And the jams aren’t too harsh on the ears, either.

Continue reading Moject prototype combines pico projector, smartphone and motion gaming (video)

Moject prototype combines pico projector, smartphone and motion gaming (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t think Sharp’s going to sit by and let Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony have all the 3D TV fun. The Japanese company, and fourth-largest LCD TV maker, plans to begin selling its own 3D TVs in Japan this summer before launching in the US, Chinese, and European markets sometime later in the year. To prove it, Sharp ponied up some sample RGBY (“Y” for yellow) 3D LCD panels it claims to be the “industries brightest” in sizes up to 60-inches. While these biggie panels all require active 3D shutter glasses for the extra-dimensional effect, Sharp was also showing off a 10.1-inch 3D display prototype for netbooks or tablets that — like its 3.4-inch parallax barrier display announced last week and suspected to be headed to Ninty town — doesn’t require glasses at all and can be produced with or without a touchscreen. No word on when that pup might begin mass production, however. 60-inch panel pictured after the break with a real live woman doing the pointing — amazing.

Continue reading Sharp’s 3D tablet panel doesn’t require glasses, RGBY 3D TVs launching this summer do

Sharp’s 3D tablet panel doesn’t require glasses, RGBY 3D TVs launching this summer do originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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