smartech

Nothing much to share at this point, but Dell has revealed a new slate/tablet device at its keynote speech at CES in Vegas. Designed like a business smartphone, and some would say it is one considering the SIM slot it boasts, the new Reddish device  includes an Android platform preloaded inside, and a 5-inch touchscreen on top. There’s also an integrated 5MP camera at the back and three clickable buttons on the right – Home, Back and (maybe) apps. Furthermore, up the hill, it houses three additional buttons which looks like ON/OFF, camera and volume support. We’ve also spotted a built-in mic and Bluetooth, but that’s all we have for now.

Update1: engadget guys were lucky to sit around the table with Dell’s representative who was kind enough to give a quick tour and show them Dell’s new mysterious slate in a snap. From first impression we’re guessing it’s an Android 1.6 platform that runs inside, but quiet positive there’s a nice numpad add-on included in the keyboard and a tiny face camera right on front. We’re not sure whether it’d be called Mini 5 or codename Streak, but color us impressed from the way it performed. Vid and thumbs, after the break.

Update2: Turns out it’s a 5-inch mid, boasting 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen,along integrated WiFi and 3G WWAN connectivity. It runs Android 2.0 (Eclair) instead of that 1.6 flavor and seems to endure a dual-LED flash 5mp camera behind and a 1,300mAh battery within. We’ve added another video after the break, courtesy of Slashgear and some Vietnamese chaps.

Update3: The Tinhte team has taken Dell’s Android-based Mini 5 slate/mid to a teardown session, and guess what they’ve found under the hood – a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, two microSD slots, integrated SIM card with 3G radio and a 1,530mAh battery, stronger than expected. Dissecting video after the break.

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So Google has finally launched the most anticipated Nexus One, and if you happen to live in one of the following 4 countries – the US, UK, Singapore or Hong Kong – you can get it right away from Google’s website, priced at $529.99 without a contract or merely $179 including a T-Mobile two year plan (in the US). Other people will have to wait at least until Spring 2010, when it believes that Google will be adding more countries to its smartphone lineup. The phone itself is an HTC brand, coming with a 3.7-inch 800×480 AMOLED display, which regretfully doesn’t support multi-touch at the moment, although Google says it’s not an hardware issue but a software tweak and it’d consider adding screen gestures capabilities in the future. Besides that, you get a fast 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor,paired with a 5 megapixels camera including an integrated LED flash that can shoot MPEG-4 video and have it uploaded directly to Youtube. Additionally, this 11.5mm thick device has a built-in compass, GPS, WiFi, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, a multicolored LED under the trackball, an accelerometer for landscape view and two mics, positioned on front, for complete noise cancellation. It runs all common frequencies and compatible with HSDPA 7.2Mbps, UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900), HSUPA 2Mbps and of course, GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz). The 1400mAH battery inside is claimed to provide 5 hours of 3G browsing and 7 hours of 3G talk time, while storage wise, you receive only 512MB of internal flash along with a 4GB micro SD card, expandable up to 32GB. See the full specs here.

Moving forward with the details, the Nexus One packs Google’s “latest greatest” Android 2.1 platform – also known as Eclair – which crams some nifty stuff inside, like the voice recognition feature that works throughout the entire UI and activates almost any feature in the phone. That way, you can use your voice to write SMS messages and notes (speech-to-text), or tell the Google Earth search engine where should it go. Other than that, Google has implemented a Cooliris technology into the Nexus One gallery app, so you get 3D visualization whenever looking at images in landscape mode. It has a lot of widgets to offer, such as weather and news RSS, and the smartphone’s homescreen customization is interactive and houses 5 panels to store your apps and shortcuts. Stay tuned. Video is right after the break.

Update1: And looks like Adobe is now jumping on Google’s bandwagon by demoing its Flash 10.1 beta on a Nexus One superphone. Check it out after the break.

Update2: Well, what do you know, the European version of Nexus One, apparently supports multitouch capabilities out-of-the-box, while US devices don’t. We’re not so sure why, but as someone suggested, the trigger for the abyssal differences might be the fact that Apple has a US Patent on multitouch which doesn’t apply on European countries. Maybe. Google says it’s carefully reviewing this issue at the moment.

Update3: Different from what has been reported, Google’s Nexus One seems to be incompatible with “n” draft wireless connectivityand official specs state it supports only 802.11b/g WiFi frequencies. We’ll have more about this soon.

Update: You knew it had to happen sooner or later, did you? No? then get this – iFixit guys have taken Google’s Nexus One on a mission and disassembled it into small pieces of technology craft. See the results here and after the break.

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So, Google has finally rolled out its highly expected Chrome OS, which was demoed live across the net by Mountain View’s engineers few hours ago, and practically suppose to go out somewhere towards next year’s holiday season. Regretfully, the system won’t be free and it seems you’ll have to buy it pre-installed on portable devices approved by Google, either it’s a netbook, tablet PCs, smartphones, MIDs, etc. The Chrome OS is said to include third-party applications, but won’t support, at this point, any Android materials. The system itself is based on Linux and the Chrome browser, both packed together to run on a web-based platform that will operate any outside content, coming from USB drives or other different sources. Basically, it’s a cloud system but that should not set you apart from it, unless you guys really afraid of taking new tech “adventures” and start new liabilities. Nevertheless, the operating system will run everything that was originally placed in the application panel – and we’re talking about features like Gmail, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Hulu, Google Talk and many more. Google Docs was also included in Google’s OS compatibility list, while drivers from other companies, such as Flash and Silverlight suppose to work as well (although Google wasn’t very clear about it and has chosen to say this: “We are working hard to integrate plugins closely”).

Hardware wise, details are scarce at the moment, and Google will not share those nitty gritty things until next year, but looking at the overall picture, Chrome OS will probably run in compatibility with both x86 and ARM processors, while regular hard-drives support seems to be excluded  – which means you’ll have to use SSDs instead. In general, booting time is set to load up in 7 seconds only, and login process will take 3 seconds more. That, in our opinion, should do best with any standard netbook available in the market, now and in the future (with SSD drives), and just in case you were wondering, Google itself was using an Eee PC machine to run the demo for the first time.

Update1: We’ve tossed some videos after the break, that will walk you through Google’s new system.

Update2: Looks like Google’s Chrome OS is now available free, in case you’re using a VMWare software on your desktop machine. The good part is that you don’t need to actually make it your primary bootable system at all, and by running any VirtualBox software, you can set any of your system folders to be used as a Chrome OS unit. If you think you’re qualified for using this pre Beta platform, you can download the image either from this torrent (we have no clue about this source background) or the build the guys at GDGT recently uploaded. TechCrunch team was all over it in passing hours as well, so you can read their step-by-step instructions in here, if you don’t feel safe to do it on your own.

Update3: Dell Mini 10V owners can now install the Chrome OS as their primary operating system, thanks to a Dell employee who’s managed to hack the USB-bootable edition via WiFi and make it available on Dell’s popular mini laptop, despite fussy restrictions from Mountain View’s direction. Truth is it’s not the perfect OS and in fact, many things are yet to be solved, but for early adopters who are willing to give it a try – it should probably be a great experience that’s worth a shot. Source code and explanations are now available on Direct2Dell‘s page. Enjoy the Chrome.

Update4: Mac and Linux users can finally use the Google Chrome Beta-version browser with their computing machines – as Mountain View’s searching giant officially announces in its blog. And although we face a lot of crashes while trying, you don’t really want to skip this experience, especially when Google has recently launched the extensions, do you? Checkout the video we’ve added after the break (3rd one).

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This is a guest post by Israeli blogger Yarin Hochman, who has apparently spent a significant amount of time testing every single iPhone app, ever released. In this post he shares his experiences with Snapture’s newly born PiP camera app. You can read more from Yarin on his Hebrew tech blog, TechVibe.

I don’t know about you but for me, one of the biggest pains with my iphone machine is the camera. Now, I haven’t upgraded to the 3GS version yet, I personally don’t see any substantial reason to, but still, even the iphone 3GS camera itself, is apparently provided with tiny lens, very basic features and low quality images, when it comes to comparison with average Nokia\Blackberry cameras.

Today, Snapture, which previously released a camera app for jailbroken iPhones, seems to turn “legit”, by introducing an official version that is now available on Apple’s formal app store, under Snapture app (1.99$), and has made me like it from first impression, but not without a few reservations attached.

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Apple’s WWDC 2009 event is already behind and we were lucky to hear exactly what we’ve all been waiting for, as Cupertino unsurprisingly announced a new iPhone device, also known as the iPhone 3G-S, with the “S” referring to “Speed”, as for faster and stronger than previous iPhone 3G model. The event itself started with Apple’s staggering revelation, claiming there are over 50,000 apps in the App Store  and more than 1 billion application downloads in the last 9 months period – which is quite overwhelming, to say the least. Once ending with those astonishing details, Apple has proudly  introduced the official iPhone OS 3.0 platform, which suppose to go live on June 17th, free of charge, while  iPod Touch users, repeatedly deprived, with Apple asking them to pay $9.95 for getting the update. As for the Os 3.0 version, apparently it’ll bear inside most of the things we’ve been writing about for quite some time, including Copy/Paste, MMS, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, Peer-to-peer connectivity, 30 integrated languages , landscape keyboard, real turn-by-turn TomTom GPS navigation system, Autofill support,  Find My iPhone compatibility, internet tethering connection, “rent and purchase” online service (purchase movies directly from your iPhone), and other cool add-ons you can read about, in here (overall, over 100 new features).

Heading forward, after endless speculations and about one million rumors floating around, the star of the day, which is probably the fastest iPhone device ever made, was finally introduced with stronger processing elements and upgraded data speed – standing at 7.2Mbps HSDPA, instead of only 3.6Mbps on previous model. In terms of design, the new iPhone 3GS boasts the same sleeky rounded body, its 3G predecessor had, only this one has a lot more to offer, with a brand new 3 megapixels autofocus camera that can easily capture videos at 30fps in VGA mode, along with in-phone edit / adjustment capabilities. Another cool feature that Apple was kindly adding to this wonderful machine is the Voice Control function, that seamlessly brings up a whole different user interface that lets you do various things like making calls or handle your iTunes whenever holding down the Home button control. And if that wasn’t enough, a “revolutionary” battery that holds up to 12 hours of 2G talk, or 5 hours of 3G chat is part of this affordable package. Speaking about affordable, Apple has really gone wild this time with prices dropping down to $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB when it goes on sale on June 19th, in 80 countries across the world – with current 8GB 3G version remain in the market for ONLY $99 a piece. Hit the jump to checkout the comparison table together with a group of images from yesterday’s event.

Update1: Looks like T-Mobile Netherlands wasn’t told about the embargo that Apple was casting on specs or any other information related to the new iPhone 3G-S device (at least until official release, on June 19th).  According to the company’s website, Apple’s new wonder will presumably pack a 600MHz CPU with 256MB of RAM. That’s up from 412MHz and 128MB of RAM in both previous generations, which is roughly twice as fast as previous hardware. Check the specs image after the break.

Update2: In case you really can’t wait for the official release, take a look at the new video (in Portuguese) after the break, featuring the brand new iPhone 3GS with some of the new features inside.

[Apple]

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The “Never Ending Meizu Story” continues to make splashes around the globe, as we hear that Meizu’s M8 revolutionary/clone smartphone is making a debut in China nowadays, coming up with either 8GB ($348) or 16GB ($421) versions, a 3.4-inch 720 x 480 touchscreen, Windows CE 6.0-powered OS, Built-in 3.2MP Camera and wide range of codecs support, including MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, FLAC, APE, AMR, MPEG-4, WMV, Divx, Xvid, H.264, or FLV. Battery wise, you can expect getting up to 21.5 hours of Audio and 7 hours of video, while using the M8 as a multimedia device. Otherwise it’s just another cellular unit, supporting WCDMA (3G), GSM EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 standards that will allow any user to speak all over the world. Mind you, according to Meizu, the 16GB model is currently “out of stock”, so stay tuned for more tales to be told.

[Via DAP Review]

Nokia unveils the N97 3G Quad-Band HSDPA phone, that is considered to be the next flagship device, coming from the Finn giant. The new N97 packs, a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 touchscreen (16:9 ratio), a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a microSD slot and 32GB of memory inside. This top-notch handheld, which carries the title “world’s most advanced mobile computer”, has WiFi and Bluetooth connectivities, along with 3.5-mm headjack, A-GPS, and a strong battery that can provide up to 1.5 days of continuous playback or 4.5-hours of high-quality video. Naturally, there’s a 5MP built-in camera with Carl Zeiss glass and Symbian S60 5th Edition OS, to handle all those advanced features. It is scheduled to go live somewhere in the first half of 2009, for €550 ($693), excluding taxes. Meanwhile, checkout the videos after the break.

[Nokia]

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With so much disinformation floating around, we can’t be sure either these images are real or just a hoax, but you have to admit they look very reliable, with this nice black or white varnished cover and those colorful boxes, laying down next to the Meizu M8 manual and installation CD. But the most interesting thing is the new specs that jump out of the pile, featuring a strong ARM11 800MHz CPU, 3.4-inch 720 x 480 touchscreen, 4GB/8GB/16GB capacities, 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. According to the guys at Meizu News, the M8 is scheduled to be released in Asia around December, priced at 240 € / 284 € / 350 € respectively. Hit the link to see more pictures.

Specifications

• Price: 240€ up to 350€
• Size: 4GB/8GB/16GB
• Network type: WCDMA (3G), GSM EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• Touch screen: 16,000,000 colors, 3.4 “TFT VGA + (720 x 480)
• Ringtones: Polyphonic 64 tons
• Camera: 3.2m Pixels
• Operating system: Meizu OS (Windows Mobile Base CE6.0 amended by Meizu)
• Dimensions: 108 x 59 x 11.9mm
• CPU: ARM11 800MHz (Samsung 6410)
• Memory: 256 MB DDR-SDRAM
• Battery: 1200mAh
• WiFi: 802.11b and g
• Bluetooth: 2.0
• Internet: Web browser Opera version customized by Meizu
• Video playback: (720 x 480 30fps, H263/264 MPEG2 MPEG4 WMV, RM, RMVB)
• Other features: mp3 player, LINE OR, microphone, loudspeaker

[via Meizu News]

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The T-Mobile G1 event was definitely a game changer, to how the mobile phone and the Internet have merged to bring us innovative solutions in one device, the kind that can provide Email, Maps, Calendar, instant messaging, Contacts, Search engine and Media player, all together in one strong Open Source platform that will be able to compete those lavish smartphone handsets, with a fair and affordable price. As the clock pointed at 10:30 AM (East time), a group of distinguish representatives from companies like Deutsche Telecom, T-Mobile, HTC and Google were gathered on one small New York stage, to announce the long-awaited HTC Dream, powered with Google’s Android operating system, to be available in T-Mobile stores and dealers on October 27th, for merely $179, subjunctive to a two year contract – $25/month deal, including unlimited internet access plus a certain amount of messaging package, or $35/month deal with unlimited internet access and unlimited messages to send.

The new phone, also known as the G1, is equipped with a quadband GSM HSDPA 1700/2100, a stunning flip-out 3-inch 320 x 480 HVGA touchscreen, a full QWERTY keyboard to make it easier when you type-in a web address or any other online form, a 3.2MP camera with auto focus, a microSD card extension (1GB microSD card included, supports up to 8GB card), GPS navigation system, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. The continuous collaboration with Mountain View brings a smooth multitasking UI, packed with many Google apps, such as Gmail, GTalk IM, Google Maps, digital compass, integrated Traffic view / Street View, Google calender and last but not least, Google’s search engine, assimilated inside the built-in browser. In addition, you get more applications pre-loaded, like Android Market, which is equivalent to Apple’s App Store, Amazon’s MP3 store, allowing to download from 6 million DRM-free tracks (starting at 89 cents), YouTube and many other third-party goodies onboard. The unit comes with a designated Search Button that lets you work across the entire interface and search any application you want. Thus, you can look for your friends in the contact list or search for a special occasion within your calender, etc. Regretfully, it doesn’t support the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, nor A2DP stereo Bluetooth, but you can expect to see them in future versions. Sized at 4.60” x 2.16” x 0.62”, the G1′s battery provides up to 5 hours of speech or 130 hours in standby mode and potential buyers will be able to choose between black, white or brown flavors, when the phone goes live, in early November.

Checkout the videos after the break. For more images you can click in here.

[via Android Community]

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iPhone firmware update 2.0, which is expected to be released around June, adds some very awaited features, including the ability to save web images from your Safary browser, straight to your web album or your email recipient. To do so, just place your fingers on the chosen picture for couple of seconds and wait for the dialog screen to pop up. In addition, the new update offers to capture full screen picture as simple as pushing the home button while holding the sleep button. I have no doubt this cool functions had to find their way long ago, but you all know it’s always better late than never.

[via gizmodo]

E-TEN unveils its new Glofiish M810 GSM quad-band HSDPA at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The new handset is equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard and a 2.8-inch LCD screen. The device features the following specs:

• Display: 2.8” LCD TFT, 65,536 colors (320 x 240).
• Processor: Samsung SC32442 500 MHz.
• OS: Windows Mobile 6.
• Memory: 256MB flash ROM, 64MB SDRAM.
• Camera: 2MP with auto focus.
• Connectivity: WLAN, Bluetooth2.0+EDR, WiFi.
• Other Features: microSD slot, GPS navigation system.
• Dimensions: 109.5×59×17.5mm, 179gm.
• Availability: unknown.
• Price: unknown.

[via Aving]

Nvidia, a strong graphic cards manufacturer, wants to get a foothold in the mobile processors market with their new APX 2500 series, presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company created the AMD11 750MHz chip with ultra-low power GeForce core, providing advanced graphic capabilities and 3D GUI rendering support. This top-notch features enabling to display up to SXGA resolution (1280 x 1024) and to embed 12MP camera sensors in cellphones, which means there’s aplenty to aspire for. The APX 2500 will be able to pack 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, quad-band GSM, WiFi, Bluetooth, composite/S-Video outputs and even HDMI. The chip is capable of running 720p HD video, smoothly, even when playing on a 60-inch LCD TV. To demonstrate this impressive capableness, Nvidia has created a reference design prototype, running a Windows CE OS and equipped with an accelerometer. The device can play more than 10 hours of HD video and a GUI coded in OpenGL ES 2.0. The chip is expected to go on full production between Q2 – Q3, and we say – WOW !!

 [via phonemag]

Check out the video after the break.

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Garmin announces the release of the Nuvifone, a new 3.5G GSM HSDPA smartphone, combined with a media player, full GPS navigation system, proprietary OS and many advanced elements. The Nuvifone sports the following features:

• Display: 3.5″ touchscreen.
• 3 major icons: Call, Search, Maps
• Built-in camera with longitude / latitude tagging system.
• Full GPS navigation system, loaded with North America and European maps.
• Google local search capability.
• Garmin Online Service: an online updates information service, including weather, traffic, stocks, news, sports, hotels, etc.
• WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.
• Email, SMS/MMS and IM support.
• Nuvi navigation service, providing “Where Am I ” function, for an accurate location info, on and off the road.
• Integrated media player, supports MP3 and MPEG4/AAC .
• Availability: Q3 2008.
• Price: Unknown.

I’m definitely looking forward to snack one of those and see it in action.

[via gizmodo]

More pictures after the break.

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