Hasta La Gadget!

Ford already wowed us with the Evos concept, but the slinkiest hybrid we’ve seen so far here in Frankfurt has not four wheels but two. It’s a concept bicycle from Ford called — wait for it — the E-Bike Concept. It packs an electric motor built into the front wheel that can power it up to a maximum speed of 25 km/h, driven by a 9.2Ah battery. Or you can power it the conventional way by pedalling, torque conveyed to the rear wheel over a carbon belt. (Oily chains are so last century.)

Perhaps even more interesting is what rests up on the handlebars. No, that’s no iDevice — refreshingly it’s a Galaxy S II. Through some custom software, riders will be able to change suspension modes and of course monitor battery charge, not to mention get a little assistance from Google Navigation and maybe pump out some Pandora too. The word “Concept” in the title here and the spindly frame design should give you a clue about when this thing will see production — probably never. But, we’ll be back with an update if that ever changes.

Ford electric E-Bike Concept packs a Galaxy S II on the bars, motor in the wheel originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The HTC Titan is one of a crop of Windows Phone Mango handsets that will debut this fall. Image: HTC

AT&T announced today that it is getting three new Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) handsets sometime this fall.

The three smartphones, the Samsung Focus S, Samsung Focus Flash and HTC Titan, are 4G. The Focus S features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display and a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor. The Focus Flash has the same chip but a more pocket-friendly 3.7-inch Super AMOLED screen. The S has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, while the Flash has a 5-megapixel front-facing cam.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone Mango is expected to bring much needed updates and social networking integration to Windows Phone 7. One key feature of the Mango update is its streamlined “People” hub, an all-in-one contacts list with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn integration. The OS refresh will also allow for multitasking. Windows Phone 8 also is set to debut soon, rumored for a 2012 release and a possible giveaway for developers at the BUILD conference. But as of now, it looks like it’s designed more specifically for tablet and desktop PCs.

At the IFA electronics showcase in Berlin, HTC showed off the Mango-running Titan and Radar smartphones. The Titan, coming to AT&T, has an almost-monstrous 4.7-inch display. It also features a 1.5 MHz processor and an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash.

The precursor to the Samsung Focus S is the Samsung Focus, released in 2010 and one of Wired.com’s 10 most significant gadgets of the year.

AT&T also will provide Mango updates for several Windows Phone 7 handset models, including the Samsung Focus, LG Quantum, HTC Surround and HTC HD7S.

So far, Windows Phone 7 hasn’t gained a lot of traction despite fairing well critically. Recent stats show it has about 9 percent of the mobile OS market in the United States. With Nokia’s adoption of the Windows Phone 7 platform and abandoning of their Symbian OS, Windows Phone could start taking a bigger chunk of the market… if consumers warm up to it.

It was probably gonna happen sooner or later, but a new report from IDC confirms it: smartphones are now out-shipping feature phones in western Europe. According to the company’s statistics, only 20.4 million feature handsets were shipped to the Old World during the second quarter of this year, representing a 29 percent decrease from Q2 2010. Quarterly shipments of smartphones, on the other hand, increased by 49 percent to 21.8 million units, marking the first time that they’ve surpassed basic phone orders. Smartphones also comprised 52 percent of all mobile shipments, which shrunk by three percent, collectively — something IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo attributes, in part, to Europe’s brutal economic climate and Nokia’s steep decline (see chart). On the OS front, Android once again came out on top within the region, thanks to a whopping 352 percent year-to-year increase in shipments, while Samsung controlled the manufacturing side, with 33 percent of the European market. You can find more IDC math in the full PR, after the break.

[Thanks, Pauly]

Continue reading Smartphones out-ship feature phones in Europe, Samsung leads the way

Smartphones out-ship feature phones in Europe, Samsung leads the way originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

Today a day of reflection dawns in New York as the city recognizes the ten-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks with the official unveiling of the National 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero. Tranquil though the memorial may be, it has had a tumultuous past – this week we showcased seven unrealized designs for the WTC site that will never see the light of day, and we took a look at what happened to Daniel Libeskind’s original plans for the WTC Freedom Tower. We also saw green buildings soar as Sydney unveiled Australia’s greenest office tower, we learned that the new Batman movie may be filmed in a salt mine in Transylvania, and we spotted an amazing replica of the Trump Tower built from 65,000 LEGO bricks.

It was also a record-breaking week for green transportation as the world’s first manned electric helicopter took flight and scientists developed the world’s tiniest electric motor. Meanwhile, pedal-powered transportation got a major boost as Hertz launched an electric bike rental program in London and Silverback unveiled a series of bikes with built-in USB chargers for your gadgets. We also brought you the latest news from the Frankfurt Auto Show as Rimac teased the unveiling of its 1,000 horsepower electric supercar and Audi and BMW both unveiled vehicles endowed with ultra bright next-gen laser headlights.

Speaking of shining examples of green design, this week we brought you a first look at the Samsung Galaxy Skin concept phone, which features a flexible AMOLED display that can fold to fit inside your pocket. We also saw several inspiring ways to reduce waste as scientists worked on a fuel cell that generates power while cleaning up nuclear fallout, Think Geek brought us a clever set of Fridgeezoo icebox pets that encourage kids to save energy, and we looked at Sloan’s innovative AQUS grey water toilet system that recycles your sink water. Finally, we brought you the state of the art in wearable tech as we reported that scientists developed a Terahertz “Invisibility Cloak” and researchers discovered a coral reef secret that could lead to sunscreen in a pill in five years.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: 9/11 Memorial designs, an electric helicopter and laser headlights originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So a regional carrier from the home of Palin and moose meat beat ’em to the punch, but AT&T’s at least showing signs that it’s ready to get the Samsung Galaxy S II train rolling. While it still looks like Sprint will be the first of the Big Four to bring its variant of the Android phone to the US, AT&T’s page for the handset is now live and sporting a nice big “Coming Soon!” That’s all she wrote for now, but if you’re dying to find out when Ma Bell will bring this Galaxy to you, hit the source link and sign up to get your email updates on.

Samsung Galaxy S II ‘coming soon’ to AT&T, sign up page goes live originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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