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Sunday, April 10, 2011

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HTC Desire S review

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 10:30 AM PDT

This time last year, HTC had two Android smartphones for the mainstream: the 3.7-inch Desire, outfitted with the latest and greatest, and the 3.2-inch Legend, which was humbler in specs but offered the novelty of an aluminum unibody construction. After seeing that strategy pay off handsomely, the company's come back in 2011 with a similar proposition. The 4-inch Incredible S is now the higher-end device, while the 3.7-inch Desire S is the smaller, aluminum-shelled handset. What's curious this time, however, is that the Desire S has exactly the same 1GHz Snapdragon inside it, the same graphics, same WVGA resolution, and the same 768MB of RAM as the Incredible S. Throw in the fact it comes with Gingerbread preloaded and a few new tweaks to the Sense UI and you've got to wonder if this might not be the more, um, desirable of HTC's new Android duo. Only one way to find out, right? Full review after the break.
HTC Desire S review
HTC Desire S versus Desire and Incredible S

Hardware



HTC is rightly proud of its aluminum unibody construction method. It goes beyond what other manufacturers do -- such as Nokia with the aluminum-clad N8 -- by using just one piece of the lightweight metal, which is wrapped around the phone's internal components and acts as both its case and frame. On the Desire S, there are a couple of plastic-covered rear compartments, one to accommodate the 5 megapixel camera, LED flash, and loudspeaker, and the other to permit access to the 1450mAh battery and SIM and MicroSD card slots. The latter chunk of soft-touch plastic also acts as the Desire S' antenna. You might expect the move to a metallic construction to incur some penalties in terms of weight and bulk, but the Desire S is five grams lighter than the original Desire at 130g (4.59oz), 4mm shorter at a height of 115mm (4.7 inches), and just slightly thinner and narrower than its predecessor. Another appreciable upgrade over the original Desire is that the display now sits closer to the glass at the front of the phone, eliminating what was a noticeable distance between the two on the older device.

In day-to-day use, we found the Desire S stupendously easy to operate, thanks to its well curved back and subtly protruding bottom end. It's the old chin design that the Hero and Legend sported so proudly, but done much more delicately. The 3.7-inch screen size makes it easy for most thumbs to reach both the top left corner and the Search capacitive button on the lower right without resorting to the use of a second hand. That's a marked improvement in ergonomics over the original Desire and even betters the Incredible S. The verdict on the Desire S' physical characteristics, therefore, is an uncomplicated two thumbs up, however there's one small software foible that we must relate. The capacitive Android keys -- sorry, Desire fans, no hard buttons or optical trackpad here -- don't always light up when they should. That becomes a pretty major problem when using the phone in the dark, as without a visual or tactile indicator of what you're about to press, the only information you can get from those keys is the haptic feedback after you've pressed one. In our experience, the determinant for whether the backlight would come on seemed to be sheer randomness, and we've heard of others having the same issue so can't put it down to just having a defective unit. Still, that strikes us as an eminently correctable flaw, even if it's a frustrating one while it persists.

Internals

Delving inside the blue-hued aluminum body, you'll find Qualcomm's extremely popular MSM8255 system-on-chip, which you may also know as the second-generation Snapdragon. In our Incredible S review, we took a look at its performance relative to the older 1GHz part and found it to be approximately 15 percent faster. In general use, the chip proves itself perfectly capable of handling Android's demands, making HTC's Sense UI look light and airy. 768MB is a generous chunk of RAM to include as well, as it's 256MB more than competitors like Sony Ericsson are bundling with this particular Snapdragon part.

The loudspeaker doesn't actually go up all that high, but it has a pleasing, almost surprising, clarity to its output. Bass, however, is as absent on the Desire S as on any other smartphone's speaker. Carrying out the now auxiliary function of making phone calls is also no problem for the Desire S -- it neither sets itself apart in terms of call quality / reception, nor trails the pack.

Perhaps the biggest fault one could find with the original Desire was its short battery life. It gave you a great screen to look at and a ton of capabilities to exploit, but nowhere near enough endurance. Thankfully, the newer Snapdragon hardware is much more efficient with its energy use and makes the 1450mAh cell inside the Desire S look like a standout. It had no trouble matching the similarly specced Incredible S for runtime and you can rest assured that you'll get a busy day's worth of battery from it. With lighter use, there's no reason why you won't be able to go a couple of days between recharges.

Display

The Desire S makes use of the same Super LCD tech as the Incredible S, leaving us to only echo what we said of its bigger sibling. You get vibrant, well saturated images, which also benefit from excellent viewing angles. The only weakness is readability in direct sunlight. One thing we omitted to mention in the Incredible S review was that the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass, a feature that has naturally been included on the Desire S as well. We've made no secret of our admiration for the Gorilla tech, which you may check out in the demo video below. We'd do one for this particular handset as well, but doubt HTC would appreciate us trying to destroy its tenderly crafted device.


Camera

Aside from their divergent dimensions and construction materials, the biggest difference between the Desire S and Incredible S is in their camera sensors. It's not always true that more megapixels equal better image quality, bu in this case, the 8 megapixel imager on the Incredible S is markedly ahead of the Desire S' 5 megapixel unit. You won't notice this advantage while perusing images on the phone itself or even when sharing them over the web at resolutions of 1 megapixel or below (e.g. 1280 x 720), but if you care about quality at the full 2592 x 1552 size, you'll be left a little disappointed. HTC very actively compensates for camera noise by blurring areas of similar color while simultaneously sharpening edges where it finds them. For the most part, this software solution to an underwhelming sensor works very well, but photography purists will be cringing, and so will anyone else who might be interested in taking broader shots and cropping them down to the areas of interest. Chromatic noise also makes an unwelcome appearance but does so relatively rarely and is hardly noticeable in lower-res pictures. The Desire S' camera can be considered great at 1 megapixel resolutions and merely okay at the full 5.
HTC Desire S camera samples

This handset also comes with the latest trendy add-on, a front-facing camera, but just like the vast majority of them, it's a fixed focus VGA imager with decidedly poor image quality. Noise, of every color and creed, dominates proceedings, though if you're in some weirdly dire need to use it, you can obtain half-decent results from the front camera in well lit situations. HTC's picture-taking software is quick and snappy, and comes with a set of fancy / gimmicky filters you can apply both when you're shooting and afterwards. There are also options for cropping and rotating photos, both of which we appreciated having. Video is recorded in .3gp format and stretches up to 720p. The phone handled the processing task with ease, though the usual rolling shutter effect was readily apparent and we found the Desire S seemed a bit more sensitive to subtle movements and vibrations than other phones. Image quality in the captured video wasn't anything to write home about either, regrettably. Check out a sample video below.


Software


Both Android and the Sense UI adorning it will be familiar to you already, but there are a couple of fresh additions that merit discussion. Firstly, the aforementioned absence of an optical trackpad isn't a bother for the Desire S, which now lets you place your cursor precisely within text using a magnifying glass overlay and offers a couple of draggable pointers for defining text selections. It's the exact same set of functions as you'll find on the Incredible S, but relative to the Desire, it marks a significant upgrade in usability. Unless you were totally in love with that trackpad, of course.

Where the Desire S differs from the Incredible S is, firstly, in the underlying Android OS, which tastes of Gingerbread (2.3.3), Google's latest mobile flavor. There aren't actually a lot of noticeable differences between the two devices on that account, but HTC has also taken the opportunity to tweak Sense on the Desire S as well, with a set of changes you'll notice more readily. One of them is that the jumbo clock / weather widget now has an alternative clock / social feed option, whereby you get the latest update from your Facebook or Twitter friends as a little blurb under the time. More valuable, however, is HTC's integration of a Quick Settings menu alongside the usual Notifications in the drop-down Android menu. This gives you close to instant access to options you'll likely want to use quite often, such as toggling the WiFi, GPS, or mobile hotspot functions on and off. We'd be even happier to see this menu take over the position of the Personalize item next to the phone dialer at the bottom of the home screen, but having it at all is a move forward.

HTC also preloads the Kobo ebook reader on the Desire S, which it outfits with a neat selection of classic books to get you going. We've never been massive fans of reading on our smartphones, but as e-reader software goes, this one's perfectly dandy. Rotating between landscape and portrait mode is accompanied by a red underline of some of the text so that you don't lose your place while the content reformats itself. Overall, it left us with the impression that's it a well thought-out, useful little slice of software.

Sense also gets an overdue upgrade to the way it manages applications -- with the icon grid now scrolling up and down in a paginated fashion and being accompanied by subcategories for your downloaded and most frequently used apps -- but our overwhelming feeling remains that we've seen this all before. In spite of its small iterative steps forward, Sense is now a user interface that's beginning to show its age, with oversized widgets that fail to make the best of the space available to them and that egregious omnipresent menu bar at the bottom that takes up far more space than a couple of links to your apps and phone ought to. Most other Android skins have now taken to using that as an app launcher dock, but HTC insists on giving you instant access to things like personalization options (which, in themselves, are hardly all that varied) instead of giving you the only option you truly want -- to clear that junk away from the screen. The onscreen keyboard HTC uses is also not the best in its class. We found ourselves reverting to landscape mode to type comfortably, which is a little galling on a 3.7-inch device when the 3.5-inch iPhone has shown that portrait touchscreen keyboards need not be a chore to use. All in all, we're left wanting to see some more of that fancy new 3D-ified Sense UI that HTC showed off on the recently announced EVO 3D. It's a shame the Desire S couldn't partake in that new goodness.

Wrap-up


The best way we can think of to summarize the Desire S is by comparing it to its nearest and dearest. Set alongside the original Desire, it's head, shoulders and elbows above its elder, thanks to a massive improvement in battery life, a far more rugged construction, better ergonomics and the natural evolution of better specs and software. Up against the Incredible S, things are a little less clear-cut, as the bigger brother packs a significantly better camera sensor and a larger screen. Still, the Desire S is priced a few floors below the Incredible S' penthouse ambitions, which makes it our choice of the two. Ultimately, the Desire S is a very well executed refinement on a formula HTC knows well, which deprives it both of any glaring faults and of any standout features. It's not novel, it's not surprising, it's just very, very good.

Samsung to release two Bada 2.0 handsets with NFC in Q4, software update in July?

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 09:35 AM PDT

Some of you Samsungers are probably anticipating the snazzy Wave 578 due out in May or June outside the US, but the sad news is it won't be shipped with the upcoming Bada 2.0 OS. Fret not, though, as Russian blog Bada World claims to have obtained some juicy details that'll cheer up Bada fanatics. The above slide -- apparently sourced from a Samsung France conference from a few days ago -- lists a pair of new but unnamed handsets that'll pack the new software, along with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 3.0, and the seemingly trendsetting NFC. The difference between these two phones? One of them appears to be the flagship Bada 2.0 model, which expects a September launch with a 3.65-inch HVGA display, a 5 megapixel main camera, plus a VGA secondary camera. The second device will follow a month later, sporting a smaller 3.14-inch QVGA screen and just a 3 megapixel imager.

In related news, TNW India reports that Bada 2.0 will be "first experienced in India" around July, though no hardware is mentioned here. This could imply that existing Bada users in India -- where Samsung's R&D develops 30 percent of Bada applications -- may be one of the first to obtain the 2.0 update, and it shouldn't be long before the rest of the world get their share of this piping hot pie. Anyhow, be rest assured that we'll keep our eyes peeled open for more Bada 2.0 news -- it'll be interesting to see where Samsung's next big push will take us.

RIM betas BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing, allows your boss to join his / her own concalls

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 08:22 AM PDT

Fresh to BlackBerry's Beta Zone portal, RIM has introduced BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing, an app designed to take the (apparent) mystery out of joining a conference call -- thus putting the jobs of many executive assistants in jeopardy. Scheduled telephonic meetings are pushed to an employee's phone, automatically blocking out time in the calendar. When it's collaboration time, all attendees are reminded with a handy 'join now' button that automatically dials into hosted conferences -- complete with access codes and all. Should your call be dropped, dialing back in is just another click away. Yeah, we know you should already be the boss, but if yours can't figure this one out, feel free to start arranging that corner office in the back of your mind.

Sony's Move.me database used to create gesture-enabled mouse driver (video)

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 06:51 AM PDT

Unless you're into weird promotional mascots, video games, or measuring the rotation of the earth, the PlayStation Move probably hasn't caught your eye. Here's an idea: what if you could wave it about to control your PC? Earlier this week, electronics hobbyist Jacob Pennock used the Move.me C library to build a gesture-controlled mouse driver, and we've got the project's tech demo after the break. Watch as Pennock launches Facebook by drawing an "F," starts a video with a jaunty "V," and closes a few items with a quick "X" motion over the offending windows. Control motions are loaded through the creator's own gesture recognition library, called hyperglyph, which he claims can record motions with 98 percent accuracy. As Move.me is currently a closed beta, Pennock is keeping the source code under wraps, but he hopes to eventually put the driver to use controlling a gesture-based Linux media center. Pretty neat, but not quite enough to stave off our Kinect hack envy.

[Thanks, Robert]

Robotics merit badge gets official within Boy Scouts of America, Wall-E approves emphatically

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 05:42 AM PDT

Yours truly knows exactly how determined one has to be to achieve the honor of Eagle Scout, but it's getting a heck of a lot easier for the more modern offspring of this world. This month last year, we saw the Video Games belt loop sashay into the Cub Scout ranks and make all of the others seem inadequate, and now, there's yet another award that'll likely have your nerd-of-a-child clamoring to suit up in blue or brown. The Robotics merit badge was just made official within the Boy Scouts of America, falling nicely into a sect that promotes science, technology, engineering and math. Officials are purportedly expecting some 10,000 or so of the nation's 2.7 million Scouts to earn this badge within the next dozen months, with those who choose to do so required to "design and build a robot while learning about robot movement, sensors and programming." Thankfully for aspiring Ben Heckendorns, we're told that "even some video game controllers can be considered robots," proving that we're just one leap of faith away from a bona fide Hacking badge. Hey, they want us to Be Prepared, right?

E-Noa's Interpad Android tablet is nowhere to be found

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 04:26 AM PDT

It's been almost eight months since we introduced you to Interpad's Tegra 2-packing Android tablet, and now we're hearing rumors that the thing might never make it to market. The tablet was originally slated for a December 2010 debut, but in August the slab's maker, E-Noa, released a statement that said the tablet was on hold until January. Well, January's come and gone, and with a slew of Tegra 2 tablets getting ready to hit the market, it looks like the Interpad might get left behind. Aside from a lack of updates to the company's website, its Facebook page is devoid of any information, and according to the folks over at Tablet Guys, repeated calls to E-Noa's office have gone unanswered. Basically, the Interpad's nowhere to be found, and with Acer's Iconia Tab slated for an April 24th release and Motorola's Xoom already making the rounds, the Interpad's once impressive specs just don't seem so special anymore.

Plex 1.1 for iOS improves streaming over 3G, pipes video to your TV

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 03:03 AM PDT

If you're not already running the Plex Media Server on one of the twenty-three beige boxes networked across your tiny domicile, you may be sorely tempted to install a copy this week, because the iOS app has just received a truly massive update. Where once the XBMC spinoff would have to transcode every video it delivered to your device across the ether, Plex claims it can now either bypass that CPU-intensive process or use an iOS-optimized technique, pumping H.264 video over the air far more efficiently. Second, it can deliver that content from iOS direct to your TV, via either a video-out cable or experimental support for AirPlay. Not bad, right? How's universal search sound -- the ability to type in a word and have the app reach out to local servers, remote servers, and online video services like YouTube and Vimeo too? Yeah, that $4.99 price tag is looking mighty affordable right about now, and there are plenty more improvements to peruse at the links below.

SparkFun intros IOIO for Android, a hack-free breakout box to get your mind spinning

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 01:22 AM PDT

Meet any seasoned techie, and they'll likely spin whimsical tales of computing's early days, and the challenge of finding a practical use for a device with seemingly limitless potential (you know, like feeding your cat while you sleep). A new product from SparkFun promises to bring this old-school awesomeness into the smartphone age: introducing IOIO (pronounced yo-yo), a breakout box that enables any Android 1.5+ device to control electronic circuits from within Android's applications. Designed in collaboration with Google, Spark's PCB connects to your phone over USB, working its magic through a Java library that hooks into your apps. This DIY paradise will begin shipping in a few weeks, and can be yours for $49.95 on pre-order. We've already witnessed some clever mods with IOIO, and when it sent a real alarm clock ringing, we couldn't help but smile. Crack one yourself after the break.

RV parks offer EV owners respite from the road (and their range anxiety, too)

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 11:37 PM PDT

EVs are pretty great for getting around major metropolitan areas, but many still feel some range anxiety when it comes time to leave the city limits. True, purpose-built charging stations are few and far between at the moment, but there's another charging option for those who enjoy going green and crave the open road: campgrounds. Turns out the 50-amp, 240-volt RV hookups found in such places can do double duty as juice dispensers for the depleted batteries in your Volt, Leaf, or Tesla. All electric powered roadwarriors need is an adapter to plug in, a few bucks to pay for current, and a few hours of free time. It's not as fast as fueling up the old fashioned way, but RV parks provide plenty of perks (swimming pools, lakes, and seniors who love poker, for example) not found at your average filling station. So, who's up for an eco-friendly road trip?

Mercedes-Benz debuts tablet-packing A-Class concept

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 09:45 PM PDT

As fond as we are of the A-Class, it's never been the best looking Benz in the bunch, but with the introduction of the new A-Class concept, it looks like that could soon change. One of the car's designers describes it variously as sexy, expressive, and beautifully formed, and while we wouldn't go quite that far, we have to say it's not too shabby. The car sports some interesting looking LED headlights and an inverted mesh grill on the outside, and on the inside it's packing a rather futuristic display, complete with a dash-mounted tablet and what looks to be an iPhone protruding from the center console. Now, there's no guarantee that this thing will get the E-Cell treatment, or that all the bells and whistles will make it to production, but for now, it's shaping up to be a rather stylish upgrade. For more Mercedes-Benz eye candy, check out the gallery below.
Mercedes-Benz A-Class Concept

NRG's eVgo charging stations hope to catch the eyes of Texas

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 08:59 PM PDT

EV charging station announcements are almost becoming commonplace (keyword: almost), but not so much that we aren't happy to welcome one more. This week NRG Energy unveiled it's first eVgo branded "Freedom Station" at a Dallas Walgreens, and aims to pepper the map with a total of 60 such units by Labor Day. Each eVgo freedom station will pack both a quick charging 480V AC/DC converter (juicing up a Nissan Leaf to 80 percent in about 30 minutes), as well as a 240V Level 2 charger (netting 25 miles of "go" per charging hour). NRG plans to cover the Dallas / Fort Worth and Houston areas with 120 of these guys by the end of 2012. Like others before it, the eVgo network plans to follow a subscription model -- with the premiere plan ($89 a month on a three year contract) not only covering the cost of usage at eVgo charging stations, but that of electricity used at your home charging dock, too. Toss in a handful of generous EV owners rocking PlugShare, and Dallas has the makings of a low-emissions wonderland.

How would you change Dell's Venue?

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 07:55 PM PDT

Sure, it's lacking the Pro moniker, but it's also lacking a built-in keyboard. A fair trade, we suppose. Dell's Venue is actually nothing at all like the once-titled Lightning, boasting a slate-style form factor and Android 2.2 in place of Windows Phone 7. To this day, it remains one of the few unlocked phones available for sale in the US with support for AT&T's 3G bands, and for those who missed out on the Nexus One (or just opted for this for any number of other reasons), we're curious to see how your experience with the Thunder has been. Were you impressed / let down by the Stage UI? How'd you manage the heft? Would you have tweaked the build materials any? Opted for WP7 over Froyo? Kept the Thunder name? We're guessing that Dell's still squarely in the learning phase when it comes to handset making, so go ahead and get real honest in comments below. Honestly.

Israeli parody details the rise and fall of Apple's iBoy, humanity as a whole (video)

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 06:54 PM PDT


For those unaware, Eretz Nehederet is effectively the Israeli equivalent to The Onion, and on the 1st of April, they covered the hardest-hitting piece of Apple news to cross their news desk in quite some time. That news, friends, is the iBoy. Available in a variety of skin tones, religious beliefs and languages, this iPad-adorned human is both the best and worst thing to happen to mankind... well, ever. There's no word on when it'll be on sale, but it's fairly clear that "divorce" and "alcohol" are about to take a backseat to this guy when studying factors that rip families to shreds. Click and weep as you see fit.

[Thanks, Lior G.]

Samsung Nexus S 4G hits the FCC

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 06:08 PM PDT

Sprint still isn't offering anything more specific than "this spring" for a Nexus S 4G launch date, but it looks like we may now at least be one step closer to a release. The Google-approved phone just turned up at the FCC this weekend under the guise of "SPH-D720," which we've already had some indication was indeed Nexus S 4G's model number, and which has also turned up on Samsung's own site for the phone before being removed for one reason or another (see an image of the cached site after the break). As you can see above, the illustration also cuts a familiar outline, and the FCC tests reveal the presence of a Sprint-friendly WiMAX radio, which folks will hopefully be able to put to use sooner rather than later.

Theater owners ready to fight over $30, 60-day window VOD movies

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 05:12 PM PDT

While we're not exactly in a hurry to spend $30 each on 60-day delayed movie rentals, theater owners are quite upset by the whole premium video-on-demand plan apparently being pushed by Warner, Sony, Fox and Universal. The most active objector so far appears to be AMC Theaters, which announced yesterday (press release after the break) it would notify studios that it plans to "adapt its economic model" regarding movies bound for p-VOD. What it wants is likely a bigger slice of the revenue and also a heads up on which movies will be getting the earlier releases. Rival theater chains Regal and Cinemark have already expressed plans to cut promotion and screens for movies headed to p-VOD, but without any official announcement it's still not clear which movies those will be. Of course, cutting down promo and screens cuts into the theater's own revenue, so we'll wait to see who blinks first. (Hint: it won't be us -- we wouldn't pay $30 to watch The Adjustment Bureau on Mars, much less in our own living rooms on DirecTV, Vudu or Comcast.)

Show full PR text
AMC Theatres®: Company Statement Regarding Premium Video-On-Demand

We at AMC feel movie theatres are a critically important business to many parties: the 200+ million guests we host year after year who choose to view films on the large screen; the communities of which our theatres are an integral part; the artists who create the movies we show; and ultimately the entertainment industry for which our theatres generate the highest quality source of revenue.

We believe the theatrical experience has a bright future, and we are aggressively investing to prepare for it. We are in the midst of a multi-year, multi-million dollar rollout of digital projection and 3D, IMAX and our own proprietary ETX format. We are also introducing a new guest rewards program, better-for-you items, enhanced food and beverage offerings, dine-in theatre options and alternative, engaging programming for our guests to enjoy in our comfortable, state-of-the-art auditoriums. All activities we are currently engaged in have common goals - to increase attendance at our theatres and maintain the health of our industry.

The p-VoD world as currently defined threatens that health. As such, we have notified studios of our expectations regarding economic arrangements on movies that go p-VoD. It is not wise to discuss details in the press, and Company policy precludes it, but as these windows shrink and threaten our industry's future, it is only logical to expect AMC to adapt its economic model.

The future is bright, even as it promises to be different, and we look forward to the success that lies ahead for all parties.

About AMC Entertainment Inc.
AMC Entertainment Inc. delivers distinctive and affordable movie-going experiences in 361 theatres with 5,203 screens across the United States and Canada. The company operates 24 of the 50 highest grossing theatres in the country, including the top three. AMC has propelled industry innovation and continues today by delivering premium sight and sound, enhanced food and beverage and diverse content. www.AMCTheatres.com.

Engadget interviews Dwyane Wade: the technology behind the Fly Wade (video)

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 04:15 PM PDT

It's not all that difficult to peer at some gadgets without fully understanding the wizardry and magic that assists in driving them from concept to reality. Did shoes ever cross your noggin as being technologically eye-opening? Sure, a few pairs of kicks have caught our attention over the years, but could a pair of sneakers be more than just that? To answer that question, we sat down with NBA star Dwyane Wade and Nike designer Mark smith to figure out what goes in to a modern pair of kicks. Read on to introduce your brain to the latest in shoe technology.
Engadget interviews Dwyane Wade: the technology behind the Fly Wade

As some of you may have guessed, shoes don't create themselves, and the technological aspects of the process of building them is lengthy and somewhat complicated. The inspiration for the design of the Fly Wade comes from the Air Jordan 2010, a shoe that Nike decided to remodel and brand as Dwyane's signature sneaker. In total, each AJ 2010 weighs 15.5 ounces and Nike set itself a goal to build a stronger and better version while decreasing weight. The goal was a 10 percent drop, and each Fly Wade weighs 13 ounces -- that's lighter than a Galaxy Tab.

Design begins with analog sketches, along with using Adobe 3D and Shoemaker (a program created specially for Nike) to build 3D models of the shoe. The designs (which include cross section visuals, schematics, etc.) are then shipped off to Taiwanese factories where a very early prototype gets built according to Nike's specs. Afterward, this prototype is sent to Chinese factories where they'll produce a slew of sneakers for testing.

The shoe-testing process takes place at the Nike Sports Research Lab in Oregon, where a team of collegiate level basketball players and semiprofessionals play in the shoes for two hours, twice a week. Cushioning, traction, overall fit, breathability, underfoot comfort and heal slippage are factors that are judged and will be altered according the testers' feedback. Aside from the college ballers, a group of five athletes make their way to the lab's half-court facility for more rigorous tests. The floor is packed with sensors, providing precise and accurate feedback, and the athletes are filmed performing drills and playing scrimmages at 4,000 frames / second. These five players' sneakers have a built-in 99-point sensor grid that's linked up with a pressure map and will be viewed in conjunction with the high-speed footage.

And as for DWade himself? Because the shoe undergoes three or four major redesigns, he'll only see a new version of the sneaker every three months or so. Wade will play in the kicks during practice, giving the designers feedback and mention any needed adjustments. The entire process took some 13 months, and, in the end, Nike had its 13 ounce dream shoe. The shoes will be released in two color variants on May 5th and the remaining two will debut in June, though Wade will be rocking them in the playoffs later this month. For an interview with the man himself (as well as a glimpse into his mobile preferences), feast your eyes on the video below.

Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 03:21 PM PDT

Stealth has been in the compact computing game for some time, and the company has just rolled out its most powerful pint-sized PC to date, the LPC-670. Packing Intel's Arrandale Core i5-520M, Core i5-580M, or Core i7-620M silicon, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a DVD or Blu-ray burner, a max 750GB 2.5-inch HDD or 128GB SSD, optional 802.11g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and DVI connections, Stealth's new mini-PC has the brawn of much bigger machines. The price of such lilliputian luxury? An account-emptying $1650, and that's just for the base model -- check the right option boxes and the final tally will run you over three grand. That should ensure the customer base will be just like the machine itself... tiny. Press release is after the break.
Stealth LPC-670 Mini-PC
Show full PR text
Stealth.Com Introduces a New Powerful, Advanced Mini PC
Featuring the Latest Intel Core i7/i5/i3 Mobile Processor Family

Toronto, Canada/San Jose, CA ~ April 2011 - Stealth.com Inc. (Stealth Computer) a leading ISO 9001 manufacturer of industrial rugged computers and peripherals has released their most powerful and advanced mini pc yet, the LPC-670 LittlePC. The new Stealth LPC-670 small form factor PC offers tremendous power in a tiny package that measures 6.5" x 6" and less than 2" in height. The diminutive machine is about the size of a hard cover novel yet surpasses performance of computers many times its physical size.

"The Stealth Model: LPC-670 is the most powerful and advanced small form Little PC we have ever offered. This full featured machine utilizes the new Intel® Core i7/i5/i3 mobile processor family and we believe it competes for the most processing power per square inch of any personal computer available today." stated Ed Boutilier President & CEO of Stealth.com Inc.

The LPC-670 mini PC features a multitude of I/O connectivity built into its impressively small design such as; Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi 802.11g, 4-USB 2.0, Serial, DVI-I, Audio and HDMI ports. The LPC-670 supports up to 8GB in DDR3 memory and has a built-in 2.5" mobile hard drive with up to 750GB's of storage space for archived data. For applications that require extra high shock, vibration and wide temperature ranges optional SSD (Solid State Hard Drive) are available. A slim DVD/CD-RW optical drive comes standard with an optional Blu-ray burner available. The LPC-670 operates from an external 20VDC power adapter (included) or can be connected to an external DC source of 12 to 20VDC, ideal for mobile and in-vehicle applications. Systems are compatible with Microsoft Windows 7/XP, Linux etc and can be custom configured to meet the exact needs of the end user. Stealth's new LPC-670 Small Form PC is currently shipping with a base price starting at $1,650.00 USD.

Stealth products are ideal for demanding applications within the Industrial, Commercial, Scientific Research, Military, Public Safety, Utility, Transportation, mining and Telecommunications markets.

About Stealth

Founded in 1990 Stealth.Com, is a leading manufacturer of specialized Computers and Peripherals. The company is ISO 9001 registered and continually develops innovative products designed to meet the exact needs of their clients. For two decades Stealth has provided thousands of proven reliable product solutions that have assisted clients with a myriad of applications. Our impressive customer base includes a wide range of customers from single man operations to Fortune 500 companies, Military installations and Governments worldwide. www.stealth.com

Editorial: Android's problem isn't fragmentation, it's contamination

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 02:00 PM PDT

This thought was first given voice by Myriam Joire on last night's Mobile Podcast, and the simple, lethal accuracy of it has haunted me ever since. All the hubbub and unrest about whether Google is trying to lock Android down or not has failed to address whether Google should be trying to control the OS, and if so, what the (valid) reasons for that may be. Herein, I present only one, but it's arguably big enough to make all the dissidence about open source idealism and promises unkept fade into insignificance.

Let's start off by setting out what the goal behind Android is. It'd be impossible to identify the flaw with Google's strategy if we aren't clear on what it's strategizing toward. From its very inception, Android has been about expanding the reach of Google search. Never mind all the geeky professions of wanting to build a great mobile operating system and one which Googlites themselves would want and be proud to use -- there's no reason to doubt the veracity of those proclamations, but they're symptomatic, a sort of nice side benefit, of the overarching business decision. Google makes its money by selling ads. It sells those ads by serving them up in front of its vast audience, which in turn comes to it primarily through the use of Google search. When faced with the rampant ascendancy of mobile internet use -- and Google deserves credit for identifying the oncoming smartphone craze in good time and reacting to it -- the company knew it simply had to maneuver its products into the mobile realm or face a slow, ignominious path to irrelevancy. Ergo, what Google was really and truly striving for with Android was ubiquity. Instead of having to dance to the merry tune of carriers -- as Microsoft is now having to do with Verizon in order to get it to bundle Bing on some Android devices -- or appease manufacturers' many whims, Google opted to build its own OS, with that specific aim of expanding availability as rapidly and as broadly as was possible.

To say that the goal has been accomplished would be an understatement. Android has stormed every Symbian castle, ransacked every webOS village, threatened the mighty tower of Mordor iOS, and thoroughly resisted the upstart challenge of Windows Phone 7. The reasons for its success and universal acceptance have been twofold. Google has invested plentiful resources into expeditiously building up its Linux derivative for the mobile space, on the one hand, and has decided to make the fruit of that labor available to phone manufacturers without hindrance or demand -- to use as they pleased, for it was open and flexible, and while it wasn't initially beautiful to look at, it was a sturdy platform from which to build.

Many have characterized the resulting melange of multivariate Android skins and devices as generating fragmentation within the OS' ecosystem. That may be true, but is not in itself problematic. If there were no qualitative difference between Android on an HTC device and Android on a Sony Ericsson phone, the end user wouldn't care. He'd call that choice.

Where the trouble arises is in the fact that not all Androids are born equal. The quality of user experience on Android fluctuates wildly from device to device, sometimes even within a single phone manufacturer's product portfolio, resulting in a frustratingly inconsistent landscape for the willing consumer. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is a loud and proud Android phone, but it features an older version of the OS, has had a checkered history with updates, and generally leaves users sore they ever picked it up. At the same time, Samsung's 10 million unit-selling Galaxy S is too an Android phone, one that Google can rightly be proud of. The most irksome example, however, is LG's Optimus 2X -- it has Froyo on board both in its European 2X garb and in its US-bound G2x variety, but the former crashes the browser any time you look at it, while the latter, eschewing LG's customizations and running the stock Android 2.2, is one of the slickest and smoothest devices we've handled yet.

The point is not that carrier or manufacturer customizations should be abandoned entirely (we know how much those guys hate standardization), it's that some of them are so poor that they actually detract from the Android experience. Going forward, it's entirely in Google's best interest to nix the pernicious effects of these contaminant devices and software builds. The average smartphone buyer is, ironically enough, quickly becoming a less savvy and geeky individual and he (or she) is not going to tolerate an inconsistent delivery on the promise contained in the word "Android."

It may seem odd for us to pick faults with an operating system in the midst of a world-conquering tour, but then you only need to look at Symbian's fate to know that fortunes change quickly in the breathlessly developing smartphone realm. All Google really needs to do to patch the cracks and steady its ship is to live up to those rumors of Andy Rubin ruling from above. Dump the X10s and 2Xs from the portfolio of real Android devices -- and Google can do that by denying them access to its non-open source products like Gmail, Maps, and the all-important Android Market -- and give us some respite from having to worry if the next Android will be a rampant robot or a dithering dud. Custom skins can still live on, but it's high time Google lived up to its responsibility of ensuring they're up to scratch before associating its mobile brand with their final product. Such a move may dent the company's valuable reputation as a do-gooder, but if it helps the even more valuable Android OS keep its course toward world domination, surely it'd qualify to be called a good thing in and of itself?

CE-Oh no he didn't!: Sony's Jack Tretton says Nintendo makes 'babysitting tools'

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 01:39 PM PDT

Sony does what Nintendon't? That's the general sentiment from a brief interview that PlayStation chief Jack Tretton gave to Fortune this week, in which he talked up Sony's strengths and played down (some may even say belittled) its competitors, and Nintendo in particular. That began with the relatively tame assertion that Sony's decision to go high-end with PlayStation 3 is just now beginning to pay off while the other consoles are "starting to run out of steam," before he took aim at Nintendo's handheld business. According to Tretton, Nintendo's handhelds all offer what he calls a "Game Boy experience," something that's great as a "babysitting tool," but that "no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those." Yow. Any self-respecting twenty-somethings beg to differ? Let us know in the comments below.

[Thanks, Robert C]

Alienware M14x manuals leak out, confirm the gaming notebook once and for all

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 12:31 PM PDT


Just yesterday Dell's leaky website poured out details about the upcoming Alienware M11x R3 gaming notebook, and it didn't take long for its larger brother to follow suit -- today, we've got the full user and factory service manuals for Alienware's M14x, confirming a number of juicy rumors. Unfortunately, there's no mention of a Full HD 1080p LCD screen for the 14-inch visitor from another planet, but there will apparently be both 1366 x 768 and 1600 x 900 options on tap, both driven by NVIDIA's GeForce GT555M switchable Optimus graphics with up to 3GB of dedicated memory. Of course, you'll also find Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 Sandy Bridge CPUs and up to 8GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA 6Gbps and optional 3G / 4G connectivity, optional WirelessHD, a two megapixel webcam, and even a 8-cell, 63Whr battery to make portable gaming vaguely possible. Hit up our source link to see how Dell put this machine together -- and how you can tear it apart -- while we wait for the company to finally make the smokin' hot notebook official, and let us know how just badly our wallets will feel after it rips their innards out.
at 11:32 AM

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