Hasta La Gadget!

Well, the Brits ain’t gonna be happy when they see this in the AM. What we’re looking at here is presumably the Dell Streak’s final US packaging — a far cry from the cardboard boxes that the Englishmen are given (and let’s not forget the silly photoshop error on the top). If the features list is correct, this five-inch Android phone is definitely headed to AT&T’s 850MHz 3G band for now (hang in there, T-Mobile fans). Other than that, the accessories and the phone itself look identical to what we’ve got in London, but we totally wouldn’t mind getting hold of this sexy acrylic box — it’d make a pretty cool cradle, don’t you think? Head over to the source link to feed your eyes.

Update: Here’s another found on eBay. [Thanks, Johnny S.]

Dell Streak’s supposed US packaging is gorgeous, unboxed with elegance originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah, we kind of already saw this phone, but if you don’t tell Motorola and Verizon, we won’t. We just got our hands on an official, final Droid X at the NY launch event, and it tastes just as sweet. Here are a few notes:

• It’s built of basically the same material as the Droid, but there’s something almost kind of “taut” about the phone, where when you thwack it with a finger it resounds like a drum. The phone vibration seems to work on this same principle, giving it much less of the typical buzz (in the funky, cheap sense) you expect.
• There are three mics, and in video mode you can select between “scenes” based on which mic you want to use: outward facing for regular shoots, inward facing for narration. The third mic is up top for noise cancellation during calls.
• Yeah, there’s not kickstand, but the EVO 4G really does seem chunky up against the Droid X, and the camera bulge on the latter is not annoying at all.
• PHYSICAL BUTTONS.
• You get your choice between Swype and Motorola’s multitouch keyboard, which is really pretty great. We were typing at speed within a few seconds of using it.
• You can tell that the processor is fast, but the UI still has a jerky quality to it — it’s not totally fluid. We’d say that’s more of an Android thing, though.
• The new version of Motoblur is much, much more attractive than before — the widgets are sleeker, smaller, and less in your face. You can also resize them, and they rearrange themselves somewhat intelligently.

Update: Video after the break!

Continue reading Motorola Droid X first (official) hands-on and unboxing! Update: video!

Motorola Droid X first (official) hands-on and unboxing! Update: video! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, look at what we have here — it’s the new Xbox 360 that was just debuted a few days back — and there’s a lot going down with this one which has somehow made its way into the wild. We get the full unboxing treatment, a detailed teardown, and finish up with some delicious, light-paneled modding. While we can’t really gather much beyond what we already know, the drive appears to be a Philips Lite-On DG-16D4S — just in case you were wondering about that one. There’s a video below showing off this one’s new, modded exterior.

[Thanks, Thomas C]

Continue reading New Xbox 360 shows up in the wild, gets unboxed, torn asunder and modded

New Xbox 360 shows up in the wild, gets unboxed, torn asunder and modded originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve unboxed our first 250GB Xbox 360 (the Xbox 360 ‘Slim’ to the layman) and we’ve gotta tell you: it felt good. Stand by for more shots.

Update: Here they are, we’ve got video on the way as well. Here are some initial thoughts:

• The touch sensitive buttons quickly asserted themselves as not-the-best-thing-ever when we were unable to tell if we’d turned the Xbox on under the bright lights of Microsoft’s setup. We’re sure we’d see the green glow easily in our dark entertainment center at home, but it’s a small little inconvenience — one that PS3 owners are well aware of.
• The touch sensitive eject button isn’t so bad, because the tray seems uber fast — we didn’t clock it, but we’d say it pops out faster than our existing Xbox.
• The Xbox feels just about as heavy as the existing Xbox, although the power adapter is smaller and much lighter.
• We booted up Alan Wake and while we were in a relatively loud room, we didn’t find the Xbox to be loud at all. We’ll have to get it in the labs to see how it stacks up with the original, but Microsoft obviously had noise pollution in its sights here. They worked directly with the drive manufacturer to reduce every source of noise (including air turbulence!), and dub their accomplishment “whisper quiet.”
• This is a personal opinion, but we think it looks pretty badass in person, though not at all a wild shift from the existing look.

Update 2: We’ve got video after the break! It’s very exciting, we assure you.

Continue reading Xbox 360 250GB first unboxing!

Xbox 360 250GB first unboxing! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nary two full months after we first caught wind of Cowon’s dainty (albeit super sexy) J3 portable media player, the award-winning device has both gone on sale and arrived on our doorstep (along with a few others, according to a few jovial tipsters). As of today, prospective consumers in the US can order one for $199.99 (8GB) or $239.99 (16GB), both of which have microSD slots for capacity expansion. Per usual, Cowon’s packaging here was nothing short of delightful, and the 3.3-inch AMOLED display struck us just as the S9 did oh-so-many months ago. Unlike the larger V5 we reviewed back in March, we greatly appreciated the capacitive nature of this touch panel, and finger presses were accurately and immediately recognized. The user interface was also far more streamlined, and whizzing about from area to area was no issue.

As with every other Cowon player we’ve ever laid ears on, the audio quality out of this one was second to none; if you’re a self-proclaimed audiophile, yet can’t exactly accommodate your Marantz KI Pearl on the subway, this is about as good as it gets. The video player was similarly impressive, loading up clips with minimal fuss, and showing no lag whatsoever during playback. Unfortunately, for all the things this gorgeous unit does right, the only spec that matters to some is wrong: pricing. We hate to point out the obvious, but an 8GB iPod touch is also just $199, and unlike the J3, Apple’s alternative can surf the web over WiFi and bring you face to face with 100,000 (or so) apps. From a value proposition standpoint, there’s simply no comparison. ‘Course, the J3 may still stand out if you’re all about audio quality (and nothing else), but we’ve yet to actually meet someone who didn’t care at least a smidgen about the extras. Vote with your wallet, as they say.

Cowon J3 ships to America, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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