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- Verizon trials unlimited text and data cellular plans for preferred customers, starting at $70 a month
- Indamixx 2 Atom-powered MeeGo tablet touts rockstar looks, $999 price tag
- Linksys Media Extenders suddenly stop working, did Cisco pull the plug?
- iControl and uControl engage in home automation merger, domestic disputes seem inevitable
- AT&T clarifies Windows Phone 7 launch parameters: no pre-orders, online sales are a go
- MSI reveals 15.6-inch, Core i5-equipped CX620 3D laptop
- How would you change Sprint's Epic 4G?
- Windows Phone 7 app submissions are a go, now for everyone
- Samsung expects to sell a million Galaxy Tabs this year, 40 million smartphones next year
- T-Mobile customers being mistakenly shipped Micro SIMs, just begging to get shoved into iPhones (update: Galaxy Tab!)
- Alienware M11x hinge issues? Yeah, Dell knows
- T-Mobile myTouch 4G review
- Roku rolls out version 2.8 software update with refined interface
- Keepin' it real fake: PSP Phone features NES emulator, cognitive dissonance
- FTC appoints Ed Felten as agency's first Chief Technologist
- Dell XPS 14 review
- Skyfire being rereleased into App Store 'in batches,' coming to other nations in due time
| Posted: 06 Nov 2010 11:13 AM PDT  [Thanks, Sam] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indamixx 2 Atom-powered MeeGo tablet touts rockstar looks, $999 price tag Posted: 06 Nov 2010 09:20 AM PDT  The creators say that they chose MeeGo due to its fondness of multitouch inputs, and based on the videos we've seen of it running, it definitely looks like a wise choice. Moreover, those looking to use this for more traditional tasks will be thrilled to know that they still can, and considering that it's Linux underneath, the limits are near-endless when it comes to tweaking options. For those in no position to wait for the final build, you can hit the source link in order to snag "beta hardware" for $999; we're hoping that those who wait will be treated to far more sensible pricing, but there's no question that we're intrigued either way. Hop on past the break to see this bad boy get down. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Linksys Media Extenders suddenly stop working, did Cisco pull the plug? Posted: 06 Nov 2010 06:46 AM PDT  [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iControl and uControl engage in home automation merger, domestic disputes seem inevitable Posted: 06 Nov 2010 02:47 AM PDT 
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| AT&T clarifies Windows Phone 7 launch parameters: no pre-orders, online sales are a go Posted: 05 Nov 2010 11:55 PM PDT  November 8th is creeping ever closer, and aside from it marking the beginning of yet another long, drawn-out week in the working world, it's also the first day you can get your paws around a Windows Phone 7 device from AT&T. Much in the same way that it did before subsequent iPhone launches, the carrier has come forward with a few vital pieces of information to chew on before making any incorrect assumptions. Company representative Warner May confirmed to Phone Scoop that online sales for Windows Phone 7 devices (the Samsung Focus and HTC Surround) would indeed go live on launch day, debunking rumors that the phones would only be available for the grabbing in retail locations. Furthermore, we're told that no pre-orders are being accepted via B&M / online -- a logical move given the chaos that ensued from the iPhone 4 pre-order rush. More on the launch as we get it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MSI reveals 15.6-inch, Core i5-equipped CX620 3D laptop Posted: 05 Nov 2010 10:03 PM PDT  Need another use for those 3D glasses you were suckered into buying as an integral part of this year's Halloween costume? Look no further, bubs. MSI has just outed its latest 3D-friendly laptop, the CX620 3D. Outfitted with a Core i5 (or a Core i3, if you're looking to save a few bucks), this 15.6-incher also gets up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 GPU, HDMI / VGA outputs, 320/500/640GB hard drive, a DVD writer, two USB 2.0 sockets, an ExpressCard slot, 4-in-1 card reader and a pair of stereo speakers. You'll find Windows 7 Home Premium runnin' the show, while 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, gigabit Ethernet and a 1.3 megapixel webcam all make expected appearances. There's no telling how long the six-cell Li-ion will last once the deathmatch gets going, nor how much it'll cost when it lands sometime between now and who knows when. But hey, 3D! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How would you change Sprint's Epic 4G? Posted: 05 Nov 2010 07:18 PM PDT  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Windows Phone 7 app submissions are a go, now for everyone Posted: 05 Nov 2010 06:10 PM PDT  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samsung expects to sell a million Galaxy Tabs this year, 40 million smartphones next year Posted: 05 Nov 2010 05:12 PM PDT  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 05 Nov 2010 04:03 PM PDT  [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: We're hearing it's for the Galaxy Tab. Mystery solved! Update 2: Our own Richard Lai notes that the European version of the Galaxy Tab uses a Mini SIM, but we're hearing some pretty strong evidence that T-Mobile's will be Micro for whatever reason. That'd be an odd thing to switch up, yes -- but if any major manufacturer could quickly churn out umpteen different versions of a device with moderately different internals, it'd be Samsung. Guess we'll know soon enough. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alienware M11x hinge issues? Yeah, Dell knows Posted: 05 Nov 2010 03:46 PM PDT  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 05 Nov 2010 02:45 PM PDT  HardwareThe myTouch 4G is very "premium." Unfortunately, it's "premium" in the worst way. It screams over effort, has an incomprehensible jumble of design languages and materials, feels simultaneously heavy and cheap in the hand, and manages to bear a too-striking resemblance to the iPhone 3G to boot (at least in the white edition of this phone we have, the handset also comes in red, plum, and black flavors). Lest you think we just have iPhone on the brain, a non-techy family member actually made the look-alike comment offhand, unprompted. What's sad is that there are actually a lot of redeeming qualities to the external hardware that, when taken one at a time, would be pretty welcome in a phone.  Another personal preference, but one which actually swings the other way, are the large, clicky face buttons and the optical track pad which doubles as a button as well. We just love clicking things. They're all nestled in the "chin" of the device, an ode to the G1 / myTouch 3G heritage, and a little touch that we love as well. Unfortunately, this friendly set of buttons is marred slightly by T-Mobile's replacement of the traditional search button with the "Genius Button" to enact voice searches. We'll talk more about it in software, but basically we're unenthused by this switcharoo.  Other hardware details that aren't so polarizing: an excellent camera shutter button in the usual spot; a lock button in the usual spot, which might be just slightly too recessed; and a volume rocker that's a little "loose" and plastic, but otherwise unoffensive. There's the typical micro-USB jack on the lower left-hand side, 3.5mm headphone jack up top, and some intriguing docking pins of some sort one the middle of the left side that seem primed for accessorizing. Speaking of accessories, the myTouch 4G's retail packaging is actually pretty swank. Once you get the simple cardboard sleeve off, it's simply a zipper case with foam-lined spots for the USB wall plug adapter, USB cable, headphones (with remote / mic), manuals, and, of course, the phone. InternalsSpec-wise, the myTouch 4G pretty much has it all. The 3.8-inch 800 x 480 really "pops" color and brightness-wise, although the viewing angles don't quite match Super AMOLED or the best LCDs we've seen. It's also very readable outdoors, though our current weather patterns didn't allow for testing it under direct sunlight. Under the hood there's the same second-gen 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8255 "Scorpion" Snapdragon processor that powers the Desire HD, and the same 768MB of RAM. A sizable 1400mAh battery provides plenty of juice to get through a day of pretty hefty use. We even left it off a charger overnight and still had some room in the tank to make it to noon the next day. Of course, if you're doing anything that really taps into the processor -- 3D gaming, or the oddly demanding Angry Birds (which kills our iPhone battery as well, and makes both handsets run inexplicably hot) -- you should probably keep your charger handy. Storage-wise there's an 8GB microSD card included (which is nicely accessible without removing the battery), and 4GB of built-in storage, though there's only about 1GB of that available to the user. The real standout feature is a front-facing camera, which still only a few handsets on the market can lay claim to. Of course, the VGA sensor won't do your ugly mug any favors. With HSPA+ onboard (what T-Mobile's calling "4G" these days), T-Mobile is confidently pushing this phone as a "video calls anywhere" number, and luckily HSDPA works fine as well -- which is extra-nice because HSPA+ signals are still pretty scarce in NY where we tested this. Around back there's a 5 megapixel camera, complete with LED flash, which is also usable for video calling. One of our favorite little tidbits is the 802.11n WiFi, which blissfully supports our 5GHz-only home router in addition to regular 2.4GHz shenanigans (2.4GHz is horribly saturated in Manhattan). Phone / speakerphone / call qualityThis is an intensely mixed bag. The excellent connection we got on T-Mobile meant people could hear us vastly better than they typically can on a AT&T / Verizon / Sprint connection in our usual haunts. This writer's apartment in particular is a sort of concrete bunker, and T-Mobile blasts right through it (of course, your mileage may vary, T-Mobile's network is well known for its inconsistent nature).  So, with great connections at our back, everyone we spoke to on the phone were positively ecstatic about our voice quality. Unfortunately, they don't sound so good on our end. Basically, the earpiece (that ugly, ugly earpiece) is too quiet. It's not like we can't hear people, but we like to have the capacity to turn up the volume to an uncomfortable level, in case we're in a noisy environment, or the person on the other end is quiet for some reason. Sadly, the speakerphone is even worse. Not only is it very quiet and rather tinny, but it distorts terribly at its higher volume levels. Speakerphone music playback is painful as well. The included headphone / headset is alright, and at least solves the volume problem on our end, but the remote / mic that's built into the cable is a little too low for optimal voice pickup. Camera At least the UI is very nice, with tap-to-focus, relatively in-depth image adjustments (ISO, exposure, saturation, contrast) and some built-in filters The 720p video is becoming a must-have feature in this class of phone, and we're happy to report that the myTouch handles it ably. You can switch in-between camera and video modes nearly instantly, and recording starts instantly as well. Footage is nicely saturated and not too terribly compressed, and even quick pans and tilts look fine, although there's no avoiding the regular shake of a non-stabilized handheld camera like this. Check out a sample below: SoftwareUgh. Please, T-Mobile, make it stop. We can hear the gears turning in the T-Mobile HQ's hive brain: "We'll make a mostly vanilla G2 with a slide-out keyboard for those hardcore users, but Regular Joe Consumer? He can't handle straight-up Android. Let's take this paintbrush loaded up with plastic and cruft and inconsistencies and a little bit of HTC Sense and smear it all over Froyo."  For instance, when you grab for the notification tray, there's a subtle lag that breaks the illusion of pulling something down and sometimes made us feel like we'd mis-touched -- despite the fact that the processor on this phone is incredible, and blazed through regular applications. Swiping between home screen areas can slow down slightly at times, and the swipe gesture to unlock the phone (a downward pull on a horizontal bar) feels unsatisfying and lacks the swipe-to-mute option. Do we sound nitpicky? Good, let's continue. Another big gripe is the loss of Google's own Calendar app for HTC's similar but inferior one. In fact, HTC's calendar app versus Google's is sort of a case-in-point for what we're talking about UI-wise. The week view on Google's version is very "chromeless," you might even call it ugly. HTC spruces it up with some rounded corners, pastel versions of the different calendar colors, and gradients through each item to make events look a little bit like pieces candy. The problem? HTC decided to excise the text out of every single event, no matter how large, making the view basically useless. This isn't a new problem for HTC Sense, but we're going to keep railing against it until Google / manufacturers / Regular Joe Consumer wise up. On the bundled application front, T-Mobile goes for the "more the merrier" angle, with games, productivity applications, and T-Mobile's own "My Account" and "App Pack" additions. Here are the notables: Swype: It's set as the default keyboard, though you can revert to the Android original if you'd like. Opinions in the staff are split over Swype, but it's definitely grown on this writer over time. WiFi Calling: We already talked about this above, but we just wanted to mention it again because we love it so much. Media Room: A nice UI for browsing through your music and video library, FM radio, and Slacker all in one place. We're still surprised Google doesn't offer something better by default, but this is one place where it's nice to have a third party step in. Screen Sharing: A DLNA media pushing app from Twonky. Faves: A pretty ho-hum implementation of T-Mobile's famous / infamous Fave Five service. We probably wouldn't mention it if it wasn't bolted to the bottom of the home screen to the right of the app drawer. Genius Button: This is an unfortunate carry-over from the myTouch Slide. In place of the typical search button, there's a stylized "G" that launches a voice-controlled app. The voice control is powered by Nuance, the guys behind Dragon Naturally Speaking, and to their credit, it's some of the best voice recognition around. It differentiates between affect and effect, and even recognizes "Engadget." Unfortunately, we just don't want voice recognition in lieu of good old fashioned text searches. There's no easy way to switch the button to a search button that we've found, which would be an acceptable compromise, and instead we've got a nice gimmick to show off to friends, but are short a core feature of Android in payment. Video Chat: A slightly-branded version of Qik. Obviously, this is one of the phone's most important features, and we're glad that it doesn't feel entirely tacked on, despite the 3rd party creator. Most importantly, it ties into the HTC social network amalgamation functionality (which is mostly useless otherwise... we prefer the actual Twitter and Facebook applications, thanks). The phone finds Facebook profiles that might match up with phone numbers or email addresses you have in your address book, and asks you to "link" them by hand. It's not a hard process, but we were surprised when it popped up again for another round. Only, this time it was for adding Qik users we already knew. Once you've added someone to your Qik buddy list, you get a concise list of contacts from within Qik that only shows the people that have Qik, with a video icon next to them and (here's the best part) a green lit-up icon if they're online! If you make a call with someone that's not on your buddy list, you can add them after the fact, and then the magical-contact-linker will prompt you to associate the Qik buddy with a contact card if it pulls up a match. FaceTime should really take notes. Calling-wise, Qik was quick to establish a connection over 3G. For an incoming Qik call, the phone rings just like a regular phone call, even if it's locked. Unfortunately, Qik seems to have a capped quality level that presents pretty blocky video to both ends, even if you have WiFi. Hopefully this will improve in the future. For now, it works, and you can indeed brag to your iPhone friends that you can make video calls wherever without a jailbreak or other hackery. Better yet, we like the fact that we already know a lot of people with Qik video chat-capable devices, and that they aren't all using the same device. Check out a demo below: One last thing that should be noted is that most applications perform brilliantly on this phone. The browsing experience is pretty much butter, even with the embedded Flash, with almost iPhone-level pinch-to-zoom and scrolling responsiveness. In other apps we noticed that some of the typical lag we had come to expect in that particular application's performance was all but erased. Kudos to Qualcomm for the processor, and a grudging thanks to T-Mobile and HTC for not putting so very much cruft on here to actually slow down the handset -- though we'd love to see how much it would scream with stock Froyo. Network performanceWe've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we typically get blazing fast internet, on par with a low-to-mid-level home broadband connection (2 to 3Mbps down and 1.3Mbps up, with similar speeds on our laptop when tethered with the phone over WiFi). There's actually little difference in browsing between our cell connection and WiFi. Video calls are as clear as Qik can make them at this point (not very clear), and our voice call quality is perfect. The bad news? As far as we can tell, we've rarely strayed from HSDPA. Basically, T-Mobile has a very good "3.5G" network in NY, which is either vastly underutilized or just plain good. This excites us for the potential HSPA+, and indeed, we've probably bumped into it unwittingly on occasion (you have to dive pretty deep into the phone to know what sort of connection you're getting, the menu bar simply displays an "H" next to the signal bars). Still, when buying a "4G" phone you have to be aware to what extent a "4G" network exists to support it, and T-Mobile has a ways to go. Wrap-up | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Roku rolls out version 2.8 software update with refined interface Posted: 05 Nov 2010 01:59 PM PDT  We've already seen a preview of it, and Roku has now finally rolled out its version 2.8 software update for everyone to try out themselves. The biggest changes all concern the interface, and include improvements like a new seasonal home screen banner, the ability to re-order channels on the home screen, a revised Channel Store with a grid of icons and, last but not least, a home screen clock. Look for the update to gradually roll out to Roku boxes over the next few days, or simply head to the settings menu to force a download it right now if you just can't wait. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Keepin' it real fake: PSP Phone features NES emulator, cognitive dissonance Posted: 05 Nov 2010 01:24 PM PDT  This is not the first KIRF PSP Phone we've seen, but recent news of the actual, long-awaited device (you heard it here first, folks!) makes the Unmei Q5's appearance in the stalls of Shenzhen all the more timely. What will your hard earned yuan will get you? How about a 3.5-inch touchscreen, front and rear cameras, dual SIM card slots, an NES emulator, 3.5mm audio jack, and a mini-USB port -- all crammed into the shell of a PSP Go? Available in black or white, this bad boy has been spotted for 399 CNY, or about $60. We just hope the real handset looks this good! [Thanks, Chris] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FTC appoints Ed Felten as agency's first Chief Technologist Posted: 05 Nov 2010 12:47 PM PDT  It may come as a bit of a surprise to some considering that seemingly every company and government agency has one these days, but the Federal Trade Commission has never had a Chief Technologist. It's now finally filled that gap, however, and has appointed Edward W. Felten to the post. As you may be aware, Felten's a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton and the founding director of the university's Center for Information Technology, but he's probably best known for his efforts to expose problems with electronic voting machines, and for his vocal advocacy against DRM -- he also uses his Mii for his profile image on the Freedom to Tinker blog, so you know you're not exactly dealing with your usual government bureaucrat. Felten has actually already been serving as a part-time adviser to the FTC, and it seems like he'll now basically be continuing that role in a full-time capacity, with the FTC only saying that he will "advise the agency on evolving technology and policy issues." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 05 Nov 2010 11:58 AM PDT  Look and feel The 13.9 x 9.7 x 1.3-inch / 5.35-pound XPS 14 is the most mobile system within the new XPS line, but it's still larger and thicker than some comparable 14-inch laptops out there – the Envy 14 is thinner at 1.09-inches and the ASUS U43jc measures 13.7 x 9.6 x 1.2 inches. That said, it's not as heavy as HP's alternative, and Apple's 5.6-pound MacBook Pro 15 will weigh you down a pinch more. That extra girth does leave quite a bit of port space – the system is surrounded by two USB 2.0 ports, a USB / eSATA combo jack as well as HDMI, Ethernet and DisplayPort sockets. Where's the VGA port? That's the question we've been asking ourselves for the last week. It's a pretty big bummer considering there's quite a bit of leftover room to fit one in. There's also a headphone and headphone / mic ports, but you'll definitely prefer listening to music through the speakers – more on that soon. Lastly, the DVD drive and SD card slot live on the right edge. You can add a Blu-ray drive to the configuration for a whopping $450. (That price seems to go down if you go with an XPS 15 or 17.) Keyboard, touchpad and screen Dell gets a major point in our book for using an "old school" touchpad with dedicated right and left mouse buttons. As we've said before, we've become increasingly fed up with the flaky integrated mouse button designs or ClickPads. The 3.2 by 1.8-inch pad isn't as wide as it could have been, but it does the trick for navigating the display. The two mouse buttons are slightly mushy, but we'd rather that than uncomfortable, firm buttons that have to be broken in. The 1366x768-resolution, 14.0-inch WLED display is quite bright, and was crisp enough when watching a 720p Jackass 3D trailer. There's no higher resolution screen option on the 14 -- you've got to go up to the 15 or 17 to nab a 1920 x 1080-resolution display. The panel itself is decent, although vertical viewing angles are a bit problematic – tilting the screen back a bit while sitting on a table caused color distortion. Horizontal angles were better. Our biggest complaint about the screen comes with its glossy plastic bezel – we just would have liked to see a flush glass bezel here or something a lot less shiny and fingerprint prone. The hinge, which sits on top of the system to apparently bring it closer to you, feels solid and doesn't wobble much. Smack in the center of the top bezel is an HD webcam – the first one ever to ship on a laptop. As you'd expect, the quality of our video in a video call over Skype was quite good – our buddy in San Francisco said he could tell that we had woken up early and that we'd recently gone to the dentist. It's hard for us to say if the native cam is better than some of the peripheral HD cams from Logitech and FreeTalk since we couldn't compare them side by side, but it's much better than the average VGA or 1.3 megapixel webcams, that's for sure. If you're a vlogger – you know, a video blogger! -- you'll love the fact that you can record 720p video right through Dell's Webcam Central software and upload straight to YouTube. Speaking of that software, it's definitely a time killer – we spent more time than we care to share distorting our face and putting on different accessories. Speakers Performance and graphics
Being one of the first laptops to enter our "lab" with NVIDIA's newest GeForce 400M graphics cards, we were pretty eager to see how this guy fared against older systems and just how well it could power through some of our favorite games. As you can see in the chart above, the GeForce GT 420M card scored noticeably higher on 3DMark06, which just tests graphics, than the other systems we've reviewed with the previous generation GT 300M cards. However, it didn't score as high as the Envy 14's ATI HD 5650 GPU. Nevertheless, the GT 420M card blew through Batman: Arkham Asylum at 30fps and Shattered Horizon at 42fps. Our new favorite title – Mafia II – looked glorious on the screen and we were crusin' in our Smith Custom at 42fps and shooting our MP40 at 34fps. Obviously, the card was also able handle both 720p and 1080p video flawlessly.  The G420M card also supports NVIDIA's new 3DTV Play technology, which allows you to plug in the laptop via HDMI to a three-dee TV and play your favorite 3D games or movies. Sadly, we don't own a 3DTV and thus, couldn't test it out. We're willing to bet that most of you are in the same boat. The XPS 14 isn't immune to warm temperature and high fan noise. The system got considerably toasty when playing Mafia. The fan on the left side did go into overdrive, but the warm air got annoying enough on our lap that we opted to put it on a desk. During regular usage, the system was much cooler, though the palmrest did get a bit warm overtime. Battery life and software Like most of Dell's recent machines, the XPS 14 boots to a very clean desktop with just Dell's dock centered at the top of the screen. As for deleteware, we're happy to say we didn't find all that much of it hiding within the Start menu. Dell does throw on Skype, CyberLink PowerDVD, Roxio Easy CD and DVD and McAfee, but there were no signs of website shortcuts disguised as programs! Wrap-up | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skyfire being rereleased into App Store 'in batches,' coming to other nations in due time Posted: 05 Nov 2010 11:36 AM PDT  [Thanks, Ankur]
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