Aug 15

AT&T confirms $49.99 price tag, August 21st launch date for ‘4G’ BlackBerry Torch 9810

Posted in: 4G, att, BlackBerry, hspa, mobile, qwerty, QwertySlider, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, Smartphones, Today's Chili, touchscreen
Anxious RIM fans tired of waiting for that app to download will be happy to know that AT&T has confirmed August 21st as the official launch date for its “4G” BlackBerry, the Torch 9810. Although the new QWERTY smartphone is powered by AT&T’s 4G network of the HSPA+ variety, the release still marks an upgrade from the previous gen Torch 9800‘s 3G speeds. Running BlackBerry 7 OS, the 9810 will have a 1.2GHz processor, 3.2-inch touchscreen display, 8GB of onboard memory (with microSD expansion up to 32GB), and a 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video capabilities. It’ll ship for $49.99 after rebates and a two-year contract.

AT&T confirms $49.99 price tag, August 21st launch date for ‘4G’ BlackBerry Torch 9810 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink This is my next  |  sourceAT&T’s Facebook page  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 12

Patent App Shows How Apple Makes Touch Displays Fingerprint-Proof

Posted in: Apple, patent, R&D and Inventions, Today's Chili, touchscreen

Apple uses an oleophobic coating to keep fingerprints and oil from mucking up device displays. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

All that swiping and tapping on your iPhone takes a heavy toll on the screen, leaving it a streaked and grimy mess.

Apple’s been battling our greasy fingers for years, and a recently discovered patent application describes a new way of making sure our oily fingers don’t mar future generations of gadgets from Cupertino.

In the application, Apple describes a way of depositing an oleophobic substance that bonds with the screen. It uses a direct liquid application called Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD).

Image: Patently Apple

Apple’s no stranger to oleophobic (the term describes something that rejects or repels oil) surfaces. The iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 use them, as does the iPad.

It works well enough, but it’s also possible — though rare — to remove the coating if you clean the screen with anything abrasive. It also could wear off over time through normal usage.

Patently Apple describes the process:

The oleophobic ingredient could be provided as part of a raw liquid material in one or more concentrations. To avoid adverse reactions due to exposure to air, heat, or humidity, the raw liquid material can be placed in a bottle purged with an inert gas during the manufacturing process.

The bottle could be placed in a liquid supply system having a mechanism for controlling the amount of raw liquid material that passes through the liquid supply system. Upon reaching the vaporizing unit, the liquid could be vaporized and the oleophobic ingredient within the liquid can then be deposited on the electronic device component surface. As the liquid supply is drained from the bottle, additional inert gas is supplied in its place to further prevent contamination.

This patent was filed in February, so the method described may not currently be in use yet.

via Cult of Mac


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Aug 09

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M71z business desktop keeps your productivity up for $599

Posted in: CoreI5, desktop, education, enterprise, intel, lenovo, SSD, Today's Chili, touchscreen, Windows, windows 7, Windows7

Ready to revamp your company’s computer systems once the summer’s heat is a mere memory? Come this October, Lenovo’s letting loose its 20-inch ThinkCentre M71z all-in-one desktop, priced starting at just $599 to keep those expense reports low and your interest piqued. Better yet, you’ll be able to deck it out if you’re ready to rack up some points on the company credit card. Around the outside, you’ll find six USB ports and a DisplayPort connection, but it can also be equipped with a multi-touch screen as well as a two megapixel webcam — fantastic for those 10-way Skype or Google+ meetings. If you’re hungry for performance, the desktop can be maxed out with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, WiFi and either a 1TB HDD, or 160GB SSD capable of 15 second start-ups with RapidBoot. For good measure, the M71z comes bundled with Windows 7 Professional along with a wireless mouse and keyboard — the latter of which is flood spill-resistant. Please excuse us while we get back to the business of blogging, but you’ll find the full PR past the break.

Continue reading Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M71z business desktop keeps your productivity up for $599

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M71z business desktop keeps your productivity up for $599 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AnandTech  |  sourceLenovo (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 02

Pandigital’s Nova Android tablet hits Best Buy, explodes for $170

Posted in: Android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, barnes and noble, BarnesAndNoble, BestBuy, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, price, tablet, Today's Chili, touchscreen
Pandigital has added a new star to its growing galaxy of e-readers, with the Nova Digital Reader — a seven-inch, Android 2.3-powered slate that looks awfully similar to that eight-inch Super Nova we recently spotted at the FCC. The tablet, which just popped up at Best Buy, is powered by an 800MHz processor, offers 4GB of internal storage, and features an ActiveTouch display with 800×600 resolution. Much like its forerunners, the Novel and the Planet, the Nova also connects directly to the Barnes and Noble bookstore, and sports a pair of front- and rear-facing cameras. Aside from that, you’ll find the usual 802.11 b/g/n wireless capabilities, a built-in microSD card slot, and a micro HDMI port, all packed within a frame that’s half-an-inch thick. Persuaded? Grab your ‘scope and zoom in on the source link to purchase.

[Thanks, Charlie]

Pandigital’s Nova Android tablet hits Best Buy, explodes for $170 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 24

Habey USA’s 12-inch panel PC brings that rugged look to your home

Posted in: intel atom, IntelAtom, nvidia ion, NvidiaIon, PC, rugged, Today's Chili, touch, touchscreen

It’s a shame this steel-encased touchscreen PC from Habey USA arrived too late for our violent outburst on the Engadget Show, but at least it has some broadly agreeable specs. The PPC-6512 can reel off 1080p vids on its 12-inch screen while consuming just 30W thanks to its 1.8GHz Atom D525 and NVIDIA Ion GT218 combo. An empty 2.5-inch removable HDD tray and eSATA port give it potential as a networked storage hub, and an old-school serial port lets it handle home automation controls too. It could also be used as a comms or security terminal, as there’s a 1.3MP webcam on board, vesa mounting holes and four USB 2.0 ports. Heck, we’d buy three and rig our whole house up — were it not for the $800 price tag, the apparently limited availability on Habey USA’s underloved Amazon page, and the fact that we like our terminals to show a bit of emotion. Full specs in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Habey USA’s 12-inch panel PC brings that rugged look to your home

Habey USA’s 12-inch panel PC brings that rugged look to your home originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 11:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 22

NTT DoCoMo’s Fujitsu F-07C now available, marries Windows 7 and Symbian at last

Posted in: hybrid, Microsoft, mobile, qwerty, smartphone, SSD, symbian, Today's Chili, touchscreen, Windows, windows 7, Windows7
Calling the Fujitsu LOOX F-07C an eccentric device is not a stretch — in fact, it’s one of the more unique smartphones we’ve seen in a fair length of time. Now available on NTT DoCoMo, the dual-booting hybrid is touted as “the world’s smallest PC,” since it can switch between Windows 7 and Symbian and offers a few netbook-worthy specs. It runs off a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z600 CPU (downclocked by 50 percent, unfortunately), a 32GB eMMC SSD, and 1GB LPDDR400 RAM, packed underneath a 4-inch SVGA (1024 x 600) LCD display. You can also take advantage of the 5-megapixel camera on the back, paired up with a VGA front-facing shooter. Things get a little strange when it comes to battery life, however; while you get up to 600 hours of standby time and 370 minutes of talk time in mobile phone mode, it gets sucked dry after just two hours when using Windows 7. If your smartphone just doesn’t have enough brainpower to handle your daily grind, here’s an alternative. Full press release with specs are after the break.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo’s Fujitsu F-07C now available, marries Windows 7 and Symbian at last

NTT DoCoMo’s Fujitsu F-07C now available, marries Windows 7 and Symbian at last originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink SlashGear  |  sourceFujitsu  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 15

Automated shoulder surfing makes it easier to steal passwords, isn’t very tubular, brah (video)

Posted in: Android, BlackBerry, camera, interface, ios, research, security, smartphone, Software, Today's Chili, touchscreen, ui, video
Here’s something mildly terrifying to chew on: researchers in Italy have developed a way to automatically harvest anything you type on your smartphone’s touchscreen, using only a camera placed over your shoulder. The software, created by Federico Maggi and his team from the Politecnico di Milano, takes advantage of the magnified touchscreen keys you’ll find on most iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices. Because these magnifications often pop up in predictable positions, the spying system can recognize and record them with relative ease, with the help of a camera aimed at a targeted display. And it’s not like bobbing and weaving around will help evade its watchful eye, since the apparatus can instantly detect sudden movements and adjust its gaze accordingly. Researchers say their tool is capable of accurately recognizing up to 97 percent of all keystrokes and is fast enough to transmit copied passwords in “quasi real-time,” which must be music to a lazy criminal’s ears. Tiptoe past the break to see the beast in action and spend the rest of your life in an everlasting state of fear.

Continue reading Automated shoulder surfing makes it easier to steal passwords, isn’t very tubular, brah (video)

Automated shoulder surfing makes it easier to steal passwords, isn’t very tubular, brah (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashdot  |  sourcephretor (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 13

Report: Touchscreen demand to grow by 90-percent, led by mobile, tablet markets

Posted in: app, business, capacitive, gaming, market, mobile, money, research, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, touch, touchscreen

This just in: people really like touchscreens, and their tastes aren’t going to change anytime soon. That’s the takeaway from a new report from market research firm DisplaySearch, which predicts that revenue from touch panel sales will hit the $13.4 billion mark by the end of this year, before soaring to nearly $24 billion by 2017. Shipments of capacitive touch displays, in particular, are expected to increase by 100-percent over last year, accounting for a full 70-percent of all tactile revenues. The mobile market still accounts for most of this industry-wide growth, but demand for touch-based tablets is accelerating considerably, with more than 72 million panels expected to ship this year, and 100 million projected in 2012. Jonesing for more numbers? Better gallop past the break to get your hands on the full PR.

Continue reading Report: Touchscreen demand to grow by 90-percent, led by mobile, tablet markets

Report: Touchscreen demand to grow by 90-percent, led by mobile, tablet markets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceDisplaySearch  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 08

Apple seeks to spruce up the real world with interactive augmented reality, has the patent apps to prove it

Posted in: Apple, augmented reality, AugmentedReality, ipad, iPhone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, patent, patent application, PatentApplication, patents, Today's Chili, touchscreen

When we go somewhere new, we wish we could spend more time taking in the sights and less time looking at our phone for directions and info about our surroundings. Apple’s well aware of this conundrum, and has filed a couple of patent applications to let you ogle your environment while telling you where to go and what you’re seeing. One app is a method for combining augmented reality (AR) information and real time video while allowing users to interact with the images on screen — so you can shoot a vid of a city skyline with your iPhone, touch a building where you want to go, and let it show you the way there. The second patent application is for a device with an LCD display capable of creating a transparent window, where the opacity of the screen’s pixels is changed by varying the voltage levels driving them. Such a display could overlay interactive info about what you see through the window, so you can actually look at the Mona Lisa while reading up on her mysterious grin. Of course, these are just patent applications, so we probably won’t be seeing any AR-optimized iDevices anytime soon (if ever), but we can dream, right?

Apple seeks to spruce up the real world with interactive augmented reality, has the patent apps to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Apple Insider  |  sourceUSPTO (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 05

HP TouchSmart 610 review

Posted in: CoreI7, desktop, desktops, HP, review, sandy bridge, SandyBridge, Today's Chili, touchscreen

Is it just us or do all-in-ones seem to be having a moment? Over the past two months, we’ve seen Toshiba make a belated jump into the market, while Lenovo went and added one to its family of Think-branded laptops and desktops. And that’s not even counting models by old-timers like Apple, Dell, and MSI. And then there’s HP, which has been making touchscreen all-in-ones for three years — long before they were a thing. The company’s had plenty of time to fine-tune its finger-friendly TouchSmart software, and now, its newest model, the TouchSmart 610 ($899 and up), ushers in a fresh design, highlighted by a hinge that allows the display to slide down and lie nearly flat. Although it’s been shipping since this spring, it’s only been available with Sandy Bridge for about a month now. We took one of these tricked-out beasts into our living room and got reacquainted with the comforts of not-so-mobile computing. At the risk of spoiling everything, we think this should be on your shortlist if you’re considering an all-in-one, especially one with a big ‘ol touchscreen. Read on to find out why.

Gallery: HP TouchSmart 610

Continue reading HP TouchSmart 610 review

HP TouchSmart 610 review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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