Thursday, June 04, 2009

Pharos Traveller 137 now available, can use both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/pharos-traveller-137-now-available-can-use-both-atandt-and-t-mobi/


We're not sure what kind of wilded-out party people need a single phone that can use both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G in the States, but your dreams have finally come true: the Pharos Traveller 137 is finally available. Hope you like Windows Mobile 6.1, cause that's what you're getting for your $350 on two-year T-Mo contract or $600 unlocked. Expensive, yes, but you're basically getting every feature you can think of and Pharos says the 137 is WinMo 6.5-ready, so there's an upgrade path here -- too bad no firmware will ever make that resistive touchscreen feel good.

[Via PhoneScoop]

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Pharos Traveller 137 now available, can use both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 5:53 PM

Apple Patent Describes Mid-Call Music, Video, Picture Sharing for iPhone [Apple]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/87VamwAWARg/apple-patent-describes-mid+call-music-video-picture-sharing-for-iphone

Apple Insider has scrounged up an Apple patent, filed in late 2007, that just, you know, immediately clicks. It's for instant media sharing during iPhone calls, and it makes plain old video calling look downright boring.

The application explains it thusly:

An individual may call his friend to discuss music, but in order for the friend to listen to the music, the individual either may have to send the music to the friend using a device other than his telephone, or he may have to end the phone call and use the telephone to send the friend an email with the music attached.

This capability extends to pretty much anything, from photos and videos to voicemail and "others", and implies that the data could be streamed in real time, not just transferred and downloaded.

Carrier reluctance and technical network limitations are the most obvious obstacles to something like this actually coming to pass in the near future, though the patent has a clever solution for the latter problem:

There may also be two audio data streams to transmit. In order to transmit all of the streams over the same communication path, the control circuitry may employ a multiplexer to combine together any video streams, and to combine together any audio streams, the multiplexer may then combine into one fixed stream the two combined streams.

In other words, this is more than an airy-fairy "wouldn't it be cool" concept—Apple seems to have given it some s! erious t hought, and a bit of real engineering attention. And the more the better: this is one of those concepts that, once you see it, just seems like it needs to happen. [AppleInsider]




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Posted by Augustine at 12:40 PM

Video: NVIDIA Tegra's GPU gets busy with HD video and full-screen Flash -- Intel 945GSE shrugs, kicks dirt

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/video-nvidia-tegras-gpu-gets-busy-with-hd-video-and-full-scree/

If you didn't believe the Tegra hype -- 25 days audio, 10 hours of 1080p video on single charge -- already then pull up a stool, son, NVIDIA wants to tell your a story. TechVideoBlog sat down with Gordon Grigor, NVIDIA's Director of Mobile Software to see Tegra's little Atom smasher in action. So sit back while Gordon smoothly streams a 720p MSN HD trailer off the web (over WiFi) then switches over to Firefox to take Flash for a spin at full-screen. Gordon also clarifies earlier confusion over Tegra's ability to handle HD video; see, the Tegra 600 can do H.264 video at 720p while the Tegra 650 can decode 1080p. Gordon also gives some more insight into memory configurations. It seems that the OS (either Android or Windows CE in single or dual-boot configurations) will be embedded with minimal on-board storage like those early Eee PCs. RAM will also be limited to about 512MB on base units going as low as 256MB and as high as 1GB in future (unannounced) devices. A 512MB model limits Firefox to about 3-4 opened tabs at a time. All of this is meant to keep prices down below $200 (or less when subsidized by carriers). Also of note is how the Tegra's GPU assists in rendering pixels anytime they appear on the display. In other words fonts, Firefox pages, scrolling, and of course video playback all benefit from an extra boost by the GPU. Check the video after the break to hear Gordon make some not so subtle jabs at Intel's relatively power-hungry Atom processor.

Continue reading Video: NVIDIA Tegra's GPU gets busy with HD video and full-screen Flash -- Intel 945GSE shrugs, kicks dirt

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Video: NVIDIA Tegra's GPU gets busy with HD video and full-screen Flash -- Intel 945GSE shrugs, kicks dirt originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 12:39 PM

Intel snaps up Wind River, looks for that embedded systems edge

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/intel-snaps-up-wind-river-looks-for-that-embedded-systems-edge/


Wind River Systems has been doing Android up right for quite some time, and evidently Intel is sick and tired of sitting on the outside looking in. Disregarding that massive EU fine for a moment, the company somehow managed to find time to pen a check in the amount of $884 million in order to fully acquire the aforesaid embedded systems company. The reason? Intel knows the CPU business is morphing into something entirely more elaborate, and it reckons a solid presence in the embedded devices segment (MIDs, UMPCs, etc.) is necessary to keep those profits up in the future. Honestly, such a pickup isn't really a shock; Intel has shown great interest in being a serious player in the handheld computing market, and its fledgling CE 3100 media processor could also benefit from a respectable layer of software behind it. Meanwhile, something tells us those Wind River guys are gearing up for the weekend of their lives.

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Intel snaps up Wind River, looks for that embedded systems edge originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 12:38 PM

HTC Hero / Lancaster running Android and "Rosie" UI launching on June 24th?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/htc-hero-lancaster-running-android-and-rosie-ui-launching-on/

While the Economic Daily News doesn't cite any sources, its claim that HTC will launch its Android-powered Hero handset on June 24th makes a lot of sense to us. Something's up on that day since we've already seen the press invite to a June 24th event in London, the same place that witnessed the launch of the HTC Touch Diamond last year. The EDN reports two variations of the Hero: one without the QWERTY and another, the HTC Memphis (better known as the HTC Lancaster around AT&T) with full keyboard in tow. What confuses us though is the EDN claim that the Memphis/Lancaster will be an AT&T exclusive for 6 months when it ships in Q3... so why the London launch then?

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HTC Hero / Lancaster running Android and "Rosie" UI launching on June 24th? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:58 AM

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