Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Following up on yesterday’s post, Asus has made the Eee Top all-in-one PC official.  As for the specs, there are no real surprises to be found, although Asus only mentioned the lower-end ET1602 and seemed to have left the ET1603 out.

Just as a recap, the ET1602 will feature a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Wi-Fi 802.11, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, and a pair of built-in 4-watt speakers.  Another item to note on the ET1602 is the operating system, it will be running Windows XP and feature an “Easy Mode.“  The display will be a 15.6-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1366 x 768 and be in a 16:9 widescreen format.  The ET1602 will also ship with a keyboard and mouse, and the keyboard has a built-in stylus to take advantage of the touchscreen.  More on this touchscreen desktop after the break.

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Check out this one: LG’s Incite.  The 3G world phone has some impressive features as well as an interesting price tag: $199.  The lineup of $199 touchscreen phones in the AT&T stable is getting crowded.  So how is this one different?

The Incite features Windows Mobile 6.1, so it plays well with the MS Office docs, Outlook and the like.  It’s camera is a 3mp jobber and the 3” display has 240x480 QVGA going for it.  A bonus stylus tells you fingers may or may not be the best input device.  As a note, the Samsung Epix also offered a stylus and I found most tasks (save for clicking the close box in the upper left) were easily done with fat fingers.

Interestingly the screen is haptic (a buzzing is made so you can feel when pressing keys) and the onscreen keyboard comes in two varieties: a basic QWERTY keyboard in landscape or a 20 key keyboard in portait.  The switching between the two is automatic based on the devices orientation.

Other bonus features include aGPS, WiFi and Bluetooth; staples for any business user.  Also in there is AT&T’s video share, “the first-ever service in the U.S. that allows users to share live video over wireless devices while participating in a voice call.“  The unit has an SD memory slot that is 16GB card compatible according to the press release but the AT&T site disagrees, saying it can handle 32GB. 

Product page [AT&T]

• Who’s On Crack in tech: 11.21.08 edition
• HTC Touch Pro now available with Alltel
• iPhone is number 1 in mobile ads

HTC, along with Russian carrier Scartel have just unveiled the world’s first integrated GSM/WiMAX handset—the HTC Max 4G.  The new handset has taken plenty of design cues from the HTC Touch HD and has a solid feature set.  To begin with, the Max 4G has built-in support for WiMax, and it takes advantage of that support.  When calls are made in-network, they are automatically switched over to the WiMax network and handled as a VoIP call.

Other features of the Max 4G include a 3.8-inch touchscreen display with an 800 x 480 resolution, GPS, WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, 8GB of built-in flash memory, an accelerometer, a 5-megapixel camera with a second VGA quality camera on the front, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an FM radio.  Additionally it will be running Windows Mobile 6.1 and powered by a 528 MHz Qualcomm ESM7206A processor.

As of now a release date has not been announced, of course, this one is not destined for the US market anytime soon, so no sense in holding your breath.

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

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The latest Mobile Internet Device (MID) coming from UMID, at first glance looks like any other netbook on the market, except this one is much smaller and much more equipped than many.

As for features, the MID will have a 4.8-inch touchscreen display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, either a 1.1GHz or 1.3GHz Intel Atom processor, a max of 1GB RAM, up to 32GB of SSD storage, a 1.3-megapixel webcam and a microSD card slot. 

Sadly, it has just one USB 2.0 port.  Other features include the standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as WiMax, WiBro, HSDPA and both DMB-T and DVB-T digital TV tuners.  Still unstated was a release date, or any pricing information.

Plenty of pics after the break.

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Gizmodo has Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer yelling “6.5!  6.5!.“  We had Moto’s chief spill the beans not too long ago.  And here I am talking about it again.  What could a “point” upgrade be worth?  Certainly not all this, right?

Well, my time with the Samsung Epix on AT&T service has gone pretty well and I’ve hopes 6.5 will bring WinMo out of the dark ages.  While the OS has nowhere near the spit shine Apple products do, tons more usability was baked into this release.  Things like threading text messages, one touch for speaker phone, using the touchscreen for simple things like unlocking the phone.  Now, I am not saying all these things are comperable to other phones, merely just it is possible.  All of it was extremely welcome on phones that us corporate drones must use.

Ballmer confirmed a 2009 delivery time for Windows Mobile 6.5 saying, “With releases we’ll make this year - releases we’ll make with 6.5 next year, Windows Mobile 7, I think we have a pretty interesting roadmap.“  Sure you do, Steve, sure you do.

Yes, Windows Mobile is still ugly, is just as slow and falls down a lot; just like Bigfoot (but maybe I don’t understand him the way you do).  I look to 6.5 to begin the beautification process.  Surely Redmond can take a page from HTC right?

Read [pocketnow]

• Who’s On Crack in tech: 11.21.08 edition
• HTC Touch Pro now available with Alltel
• iPhone is number 1 in mobile ads

  This is where we call out the tech moves that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

Follow to see me call out:

• LG and its ridiculously square phone
• AT&T thinks Android is on crack
• Sprint thinks we want to watch football (American) on our phones.
• Moto wants to be on crack
• and our own Natesh who finds more than his share of obscure gadgetry

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In the video after the break, you’ll see Intel CEO Paul Otellini demoing an unnamed mobile internet device.  This time, Intel shows a device that is 100% touchscreen and has GPS, a camera and connectivity on board.  Watching the video, the first thing that came to my mind is Google phone OS Android.

That is because the demo was about the MID smart camera.  Using the camera, the device is able to translate Chinese very quickly and is able to add relevant YouTube videos, web pages and more all based on your GPS position and what the camera identifies.  The concept is you get all the information you desire, when you need it, where you need it.

Hit the jump to see the video and what this MID can do for you.

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Sections: Communications, Smartphones, Computers, Mobile Computers, Hardware, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation, Web, Google

Today, Navigon has announced that two of their newest GPSs, the 5100 max and the 2090S, will be available exclusively through RadioShack.  Let’s take a look at what kind of GPSs these are and what features they include. 

First off, let’s begin with the Navigon 5100 max.  One of the main features in this GPS is that it comes with Navigon’s FreshMaps service.  This service provides regular map updates over the course of two years. 

Continued after the break.

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The latest rumored handset to be coming from Sony Ericsson is the Hikaru, and judging from the few specs that have been leaked, it sounds like it will receive a warm welcome. 

So far, the details are very light, but what we have learned so far that makes it exciting is that it will feature an 8-megapixel camera as well as 8GB of internal memory.  It was noted as being a slider style handset with a large touchscreen display, but still unknown is whether it will feature a full QWERTY slide-out or a numeric keypad.

Still plenty to figure out with this handset, lots of specs are still unknown.  It has not even been mentioned where the Hikaru will fit in with the current SE lineup.  Will it be a Walkman branded phone?  With 8GB of internal storage that sounds likely.  Unfortunately, there have not been any leaked images of the Hikaru just yet.

Via [unwired view]

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Hanging out with Android developers yesterday, I learned Google’s hot OS will be ready for a touchscreen only piece of hardware as soon as the first quarter of the new year.  The info is confirmed on Android developers’ road map.  Apparently, a soft keyboard (one on the screen) was included in the original release but was withdrawn for unknown reasons.

Moving to a touch-only interface without a physical keyboard would be the next logical step for the G1.  This touch G1 would likely improve greatly in the looks department and potentially slim up the phone.  I’ve questioned what kind of upgrade path Android users might follow, and a touch version might be the one that could coax the masses to move.

In developer speak, Android is slated to have support for IMF (input method framework).  This framework will also be supported by suggestions and suggestion algorithms that will be available to developer for applications.

Source [Android]

• Yahoo finally getting their act together
• HTC Touch Pro now available with Alltel
• Asus gets official with the Eee Top all-in-one PC