Hasta La Gadget!

It’s skinny, it’s fast, and it can do some seriously fun stuff with its gyroscope. Yes, we’re talking about the Galaxy S II, Samsung’s upcoming followup to one of Android’s biggest successes to date, the Galaxy S. The new handset will bring with it a revised version of Sammy’s Android skin, TouchWiz 4.0, which will harness the mostly dormant gyroscope inside the phone to allow you to zoom in and out of webpages as well as navigate the UI with the movement of your hands. Basically, instead of the traditional pinch-to-zoom, resting two fingers atop the screen will allow you to zoom in by bringing the S II closer to your face or zoom out by holding it further away — a naturalistic gesture that makes all the sense in the world to us. Moreover, when adding new widgets to your home panels, you’ll be able to move between them by propelling the phone laterally. It’s quirky and appealing stuff, see it on video after the break.

[Thanks, Lawrence]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S II shows off gyro-zoom option in TouchWiz 4.0 (video)

Samsung Galaxy S II shows off gyro-zoom option in TouchWiz 4.0 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 06:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back at CES, Samsung pulled out quite a few surprises, and no, we’re not referring to its Zoll-infused press conference — although, that performance still gives us the willies. Of all the Korean company’s announcements at the show, which we’ll remind you included an impressive new LTE phone and range of SmartTVs, it was its Series 9 laptop that left us the most stunned. And well, a glance at that picture above should explain why we found ourselves counting down the days until its March launch date. The 2.8-pound system is a complete and total 180 from Samsung’s typical bulky mainstream systems, yet its 0.64-inch thick chassis still crams in quite a bit of horsepower with a Core i5-2537M processor, a 128GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM. It’s also built from some of the toughest stuff on earth, has a backlit keyboard, and an incredibly high quality 400 nit LCD. You see, the $1,699 machine teeters on having the absolute perfect balance of beauty and brawn, and certainty has the core ingredients to compete with that other extremely popular and super thin ultraportable — but when you get it home and out of its fancy box, does it truly have the chops? Or is this just yet another rail thin and expensive Windows laptop that falls short? The time has come to find out – hit the break for our full review.

Continue reading Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review

Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just got home from this little massive US mobile industry event you may have heard about called CTIA Wireless. It took place in Orlando this year (instead of Las Vegas as usual) and we can definitely say that Sprint was the star of the show with its HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO View 4G, and Google Voice integration. Samsung also delivered some goodies with the Galaxy Tab 8.9, a redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Google Nexus S 4G for Sprint, and the Android-powered Sidekick 4G for T-Mobile. LG re-badged the Optimus 2x as the G2x on T-Mobile, and the Optimus 3D as the Thrill on AT&T. The HTC HD7 made a comeback as the Super LCD-equipped HD7S on AT&T, and Nokia gave us the Astound, nee C7, for T-Mobile. Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg — so if you missed the action this past week, we’ve got you covered with all the nitty gritty in the links below.

Major news / product releases:

• AT&T agrees to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion
• Google Nexus S 4G with WiMAX announced for Sprint: coming this spring for $200
• Sprint, Google Voice getting tight integration, will let you use your number without porting it
• AT&T launches HTC HD7S with WP7 and LG’s 3D-enabled Thrill 4G Android phone
• Sprint’s BlackBerry 4G PlayBook portal goes live, still on track for a summer release
• LG’s T-Mobile G2x announced, available ‘later this spring’ (update: preloaded with Tegra Zone)
• T-Mobile’s LG G-Slate priced at $529.99 with a two-year contract
• HTC EVO 3D officially announced for Sprint
• Sprint makes EVO View 4G tablet official: 1.5GHz, WiMAX, 7-inch screen, and a stylus to boot
• LG gets official with WCP-700 Wireless Charging Pad, fails to provide pricing
• Samsung’s CTIA press conference posted online, skinny new Galaxy Tabs shown off (video)

Hands-on / previews:

• Nokia Astound for T-Mobile coming April 6th for $80 (hands-on with video)
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Play for Verizon hands-on (video)
• T-Mobile Sidekick 4G by Samsung priced at $99.99 with a two-year contract, we go hands-on
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and new Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on: thinner than the iPad 2, dual-core power, TouchWiz 4.0
• T-Mobile G2x from LG hands-on (video)
• HTC EVO 3D vs. EVO 4G… fight!
• HTC EVO 3D first hands-on! (video)
• Sprint’s HTC EVO View 4G hands-on (video)
• HTC HD7S hands-on
• AT&T’s LG Thrill 4G hands-on (video)
• T-Mobile G-Slate bundled apps tour (video)
  
• Cricket teases CDMA-only Samsung Indulge, Huawei Ascend 2 at CTIA (hands-on)
  
• T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot hands-on
• Wysips wants to turn your phone’s display into a solar cell (hands-on with video)
• ZTE’s Style S and LTE tablet coming to the US during the second half of the year
  
• Kyocera pictures a world of deeply understanding phones
• Google Nexus S 4G for Sprint hands-on (video)
• Google Voice for Sprint hands-on (video)
• Samsung’s original Galaxy Tab 10.1 renamed the Tab 10.1V, thicker Galaxy Tab 8.9 no more than a trade show dummy

Everything else:

• LG’s T-Mobile G2x spied at CTIA
• Cobra Tag Bluetooth key tagging system to ship in July, iRadar and PhoneLynx coming to Android
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 specs and Honeycomb UI tweaks leak out before its official launch
• EVO 3D specs confirmed: 1080p 2D video, 720p 3D, dual cameras, 1.2GHz dual-core CPU
• HTC EVO 3D and EVO View 4G tablet spotted — on Sprint’s website, where else?
• Live from CTIA’s day one keynote with FCC chairman Julius Genachowski
• Live from Samsung’s CTIA event!
• Live from Sprint’s CTIA event!
• Verizon says 4G LTE network will cover ‘at least’ 147 US cities by the end of 2011
• HTC’s WiFi-only Flyer launching exclusively with Best Buy ‘this spring’
• Kyocera launches developer program for dual-screen Echo smartphone
• Best Buy signs up for LightSquared’s wholesale LTE service
• Femto Forum publishes API specification for femtocell apps, places focus on ‘awareness information’
• Blio e-reading software still alive, will come preloaded on T-Mobile Android devices
• Samsung’s original Galaxy Tab 10.1 renamed the Tab 10.1V, thicker Galaxy Tab 8.9 no more than a trade show dummy

And if that’s still not enough, be sure to listen to our CTIA 2011 podcast and take a look at our CTIA 2011 page right here.

CTIA 2011 wrap-up: EVO 3D, G2x, skinny new Galaxy Tabs, and more originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s getting a bit tough to tell Samsung’s various Galaxy Players and their changing names apart these days, but the company has found a fairly unique way to drum up attention for its new Galaxy Player 70 model, which looks to be nearly identical to the Galaxy Player 5 being released over here. Mixed into an otherwise bright and cheery new ad are images of what we can only presume is an alternate reality where the Android robot is real, and in charge. Head on past the break to see for yourself.

[Thanks, Rachid]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Player 70 captures vision of Android-ruled world in new promo video

Samsung Galaxy Player 70 captures vision of Android-ruled world in new promo video originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When it comes to mobile RAM, capacity is often what pops to mind first while we overlook speed and power consumption, but Samsung’s latest delivery is worth the extra attention. Earlier this month, said Korean giant started producing 30nm 4Gb 1066Mbps LPDDR2 (or simply Mobile DDR2) chips, in order to phase out its 40nm ones that topped 2Gb at a 800Mbps transmission rate. To put it in perspective, a 40nm 1GB package consists of four 2Gb chips, whereas the new 30nm one will only need two 4Gb chips, thus reducing the package thickness by 20 percent (down to 0.8mm) and power consumption by 25 percent. It’s hard to tell when we’ll start seeing these bits of silicon entering the consumer market, but Samsung’s already stamping out 1GB modules this month, with a 2GB version to follow next month. Oh yes, we’re definitely liking the sound of 2GB RAM for mobile phones.

Samsung starts baking 30nm 4Gb LPDDR2 chips, packaging 2GB mobile RAM in April originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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