Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Saturday, July 24, 2010

HP Slate lookalike spotted in China, might beat the real thing to the market

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/23/hp-slate-lookalike-spotted-in-china-might-beat-the-real-thing-t/

Once again, China has proven to the world that it's the place to be for all sorts of gadgetry miracle. Just look at this 10-inch Windows 7 tablet here -- it may not be a full clone of the forthcoming 8.9-inch HP Slate, but it does come with a couple of interesting features: a 1366 x 768 resistive multitouch display (ideal for tackling the complicated Chinese characters with a stylus) and a webcam. You'll also find a handful of regular tidbits on this 1.66GHz Atom N450 device: a regular USB port coupled by a mini version, 3.5mm headphone jack, VGA port, LAN port, accelerometer, Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G. Oh, and you'll get a free stand, too, but we'll be minding our own business until this no-frills tablet gets a price.

HP Slate lookalike spotted in China, might beat the real thing to the market originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry Bold 9780 leaks out with OS 6, QWERTY instead of touchscreen

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/blackberry-bold-9780-leaks-out-with-os-6-qwerty-wifi/

Take this one with a grain of salt, but it's looking like our old friend the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is getting a wee bit of an update. Yesterday evening, CrackBerry discovered a RIM document that describes a QWERTY-packing, OS 6-rocking "BlackBerry 9780" destined for a GSM carrier near you... and less than 24 hours later, handset sleuth Salomondrin claims to have the first picture of the device. While we quite honestly can't tell the difference, the man who outed the Curve 2 says this device's chrome bezel is a tad darker than the original, and that it'll have 512MB of flash memory when it hits the scene. Of course, this could just be an Bold 9700 with a hacked ROM or a theme of some sort, but we certainly hope not; pepper it up with CDMA, and you've got a shoe-in for the Curve 3.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

BlackBerry Bold 9780 leaks out with OS 6, QWERTY instead of touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe Air peer-to-peer video call concept Android app hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/adobe-air-peer-to-peer-video-call-concept-android-app-hands-on/

If you recall, a few days ago we stumbled upon a cheekily-named concept app (which has since been renamed for obvious reasons) from Adobe that does video-calling on Android. This is pretty rad considering it's just Qik and Fring offering the same service for the green bot right now, so we trotted along to Adobe's London office to get a closer look at this demo. As with many things in life, not all went as planned as you can see after the break -- the video stream froze up on several occasions, but then again Adobe's Mark Doherty only spent three days cooking this simple app. Regardless, this should still help Android developers understand the beefed-up peer-to-peer capabilities in the forthcoming Air 2.5 runtime, which is now "feature-complete" and undergoing extensive testing ahead of launch later this year.

Things are less positive for Flash availability on other mobile platforms, though. While Nokia's just waiting for a Linux SDK before it can start porting Flash apps to its devices within 2010, Adobe implied that it's still waiting for two other vendors to respond -- Palm's already been shown a Flash build running on webOS devices, and it's just a matter of the company signing up for Adobe's device certification system; RIM, on the other hand, is a bit more vague, but we were told it's definitely interested in both Air and Flash. And here's the surprise of the day: no comment on Flash for iOS (not to be confused with its digital publishing tools for the iPad), but there's no stopping you from hacking it in yourself.

Continue reading Adobe Air peer-to-peer video call concept Android app hands-on (video)

Adobe Air peer-to-peer video call concept Android app hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CTIA sues San Francisco over cellphone radiation law

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/24/ctia-sues-san-francisco-over-cellphone-radiation-law/

San Francisco may have signed cellphone radiation labels into law, but the stickers won't stick without a fight -- the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) just filed a complain in federal district court, claiming the new law supersedes the FCC's authority to regulate radio emissions and misleads consumers into believing some phones are safer than others. As we've discussed previously, the CTIA does have something of a point. Every phone that makes it to market is rigorously tested for cell phone radiation levels, and those that pass fall below a specific 1.6 watt per kilogram threshold already. But hey, we're all for bombarding our brains with that much less radiation, as long as our calls stay connected and our text messages arrive on time. If only there were a label for that. Read the CTIA's full complaint at our more coverage link.

CTIA sues San Francisco over cellphone radiation law originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, July 23, 2010

Microsoft becomes official ARM licensee, could an MS microprocessor be next?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/23/microsoft-becomes-official-arm-licensee-could-an-ms-microproces/

Microsoft becomes official ARM licensee for greater glory in the mobile space

ARM processors are so hot right now, especially in the mobile space, where they power many of the greatest smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices coming down the turnpike. Microsoft is apparently looking to merge in on that action, becoming an official ARM licensee. It's unclear exactly what MS will be doing with its new found technical rights, but General Manager KD Hallman said "With closer access to the ARM technology we will be able to enhance our research and development activities for ARM-based products." This likely means Microsoft will be better optimizing Windows Embedded and Windows Phone for the processor architecture, but also opens the door for Ballmer & Co. to create their own magical microprocessor and, ultimately, use it to rule the world with an iron fist. Terms of the agreement were not given, but hopefully nobody in Redmond had to lose any appendages to seal the deal.

Continue reading Microsoft becomes official ARM licensee, could an MS microprocessor be next?

Microsoft becomes official ARM licensee, could an MS microprocessor be next? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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