Google mum on Chrome OS touch support, Chromium devs show us how it might look anyway (video)

While those initial leaked specs for a Chrome OS-based netbook unabashedly specified a multitouch panel, Google is remaining shy on confirming just what it’s up to in the fingerprint department. When Google’s Senior Product Manager of Search was asked pointedly about touch support in the OS, according to TechRadar he looked nervously at a PR manager before failing to provide a concrete answer. Read that how you will, but the open source wing of the OS, Chromium, has gone ahead and created its own vision of what touching chrome might look like, including a very compelling video we’ve included for you after the break. This includes popup context menus, a selection of finger- and thumb-friendly keyboards, and of course some delicious multitouch support. Interestingly, if the scale of the hands in the video below is anything to go by, the Chromium group expects an eventual Chrome OS tablet to be between three and five feet wide, which might be a little cumbersome for those with diminutive laps.

Continue reading Google mum on Chrome OS touch support, Chromium devs show us how it might look anyway (video)

Google mum on Chrome OS touch support, Chromium devs show us how it might look anyway (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Citrix Nirvana phone provides the full desktop experience — BYO keyboard and monitor (video)

Citrix is something of a storied name in the IT industry, once the leader in remote desktop apps, now looking to make a big return with the Nirvana phone concept. The idea has been around for awhile, but partnership with mobile virtualization gurus Open Kernel Labs gives it new legs. Nirvana phone is just a minimum set of fairly achievable hardware specs (528MHz ARM processor, 256MB ROM, 192MB RAM) required to facilitate remote access to a full desktop. The idea is you simply plug the phone into a monitor, then connect to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (or use the phone as a touchpad), and, hey presto, you have a full desktop experience without having a full desktop. In theory you could pocket your smartphone and leave that clunky Targus bag in your cubicle, but should duty call while you’re away we’re not entirely sure where you’re going to find a disused monitor and keyboard ripe for the plugging. Still, it’s interesting tech, demonstrated remotely for you below.

Continue reading Citrix Nirvana phone provides the full desktop experience — BYO keyboard and monitor (video)

Citrix Nirvana phone provides the full desktop experience — BYO keyboard and monitor (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 7 gets a thorough SSD optimization guide

We all know we want an SSD, but do we truly know what to do with one when we get it? Sure, you could plug it into the familiar SATA and power cables and consider your job done, but that’s not really the way of the geek. To educate us wistful, hopeful, soon-to-be SSD owners, TweakTown have put together a comprehensive guide on optimizing your solid state storage — starting from the very first step of picking out the right drive. What lies ahead is a full breakdown of the controllers available on the market today, along with helpful reminders of the importance of Trim command and garbage collection support. After you pick out your perfect life partner, you’ll be wanting to ensure it plays along nicely with Windows 7 as well, and they’ve got you covered on that front too. Just hit the source link and get informed. We did, even though we still can’t afford to buy one of these mythical drives.

Windows 7 gets a thorough SSD optimization guide originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell Latitude 13: a thin-and-light for big business

Dell is serious about its thin and light class of machines judging by its ability to churn out these lovelie lappies from its Adamo design studio. Today we’ve got the Latitude 13. Oh sure, it looks almost exactly like the Vostro v13 for small businesses but this is Latitude brother, Dell’s mainstream business brand. As such, it comes fully IT-ified with a preinstalled Citrix client, easier virtualization options, and baked in know-how for system image and software updates distrtibution. So it’s not really new, but it’s still “the world’s thinnest 13-inch commercial client laptop,” according to Dell and that’s gotta be worth a second look when it begins shipping in a few weeks.

Dell Latitude 13: a thin-and-light for big business originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alcatel’s Pre-alike OT-980 with Android seeks to undercut HTC Tattoo

North Americans are about as familiar with Alcatel as Europeans are with baseball, but the brand — owned by China’s TCT — actually does a decent amount of low- to mid-end handset business around the world. One thing Alcatel isn’t known for, though, is venturing into the smartphone fray, so it comes as a bit of a surprise that they’re taking a swing at the Android market here with the OT-980 slider. Even more surprising, perhaps, is the fact that it basically looks like a cheesy Pre with red accents, but stay with us: TCT wants to undercut HTC’s ultra low-cost Tattoo when it brings the 980 to market, so you might be able to find this one for peanuts. Apart from the fact that it runs Donut, the spec sheet reads pretty nicely, too, with 192MB of RAM, Qualcomm’s relatively new 600MHz MSM7227 core, WiFi, 3G, and a magnetic compass, but you’ll have to wait a bit — it’s not expected to hit the market for another few months, it seems.

Alcatel’s Pre-alike OT-980 with Android seeks to undercut HTC Tattoo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alienware M11x ‘netbook’ gets detailed, headed to Japan this month

Alienware M11x ‘netbook’ gets detailed, headed to Japan this month originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GNILLEY: the game where you scream to survive

Continue reading GNILLEY: the game where you scream to survive

GNILLEY: the game where you scream to survive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FusionGarage says Joojoo pre-orders went up after iPad announcement, new funding on the way

FusionGarage says Joojoo pre-orders went up after iPad announcement, new funding on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft busts out SideWinder X4 anti-ghosting keyboard

Continue reading Microsoft busts out SideWinder X4 anti-ghosting keyboard

Microsoft busts out SideWinder X4 anti-ghosting keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See Fabian Hemmert and his amazing, shape-shifting cellphone prototype (video)

Cellphones, whether they be smart or dumb, are pretty amazing things — but they’re pretty lifeless things, too. Design researcher Fabian Hemmert thinks that our gadgets could move us a little more if only they could, well, move. As part of his TEDxBerlin talk late last year he shows off some prototype phones, including one that can get thicker on any of its four corners, and another that can shift its center of gravity similarly (shown above). The possibilities are intriguing, like a status bar that could get physically hefty as it gets weighed down with icons, but we’re not sucking down all of Hemmert’s Kool-Aid. His idea of devices giving off a heartbeat and changing shape like they’re breathing in your pocket is just a little creepy, and more practically we have a hard enough time holding onto our handsets as it is — imagine all the suddenly top-heavy cellphones leaping out of hands and to their doom.

Continue reading See Fabian Hemmert and his amazing, shape-shifting cellphone prototype (video)

See Fabian Hemmert and his amazing, shape-shifting cellphone prototype (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Deanmark’s AirMouse looks more like a ragged glove, less like an input peripheral

Controller-type devices baked into wearables have been around since the late 17th century (though we can’t seem to recall one in particular that was made before Nintendo’s Power Glove), but frankly, we haven’t seen a whole lot of innovation in this department over the past few years. Deanmark’s AirMouse is hoping to change all of that, but if we didn’t know any better, we’d say Microsoft kind of called this concept first. Anywho, the strap-on mouse — which doesn’t seem to boast any sort of price or release date — attaches on one’s wrist and fingers in order to place sensors on areas where you’d normally mouse. Naturally, the company claims that this approach helps fend of repetitive stress injuries and also enables a new level of multitasking, but until doctors start gluing these things to our hands at birth, we get the feeling that most folks will simply stick to what they know when it comes to cursor pushing.

Deanmark’s AirMouse looks more like a ragged glove, less like an input peripheral originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Backflip spotted in the wilds of China

Motorola’s Backflip has yet to springboard itself over to AT&T, but those who call China home can hop on the bandwagon right away. Said phone — which sports a full touchscreen and a physical QWERTY thanks to the horizontal clamshell design — is now available from Moto’s Chinese portal for 4,298 Chinese yuan (in unlocked form), which translates to right around $630. While the rest of the world awaits the phone’s launch later this quarter, you can hit up Mobile.163.com for a downright beautiful gallery of in the wild shots. Go on, it’s safe. We think.

[Thanks, Me]

Motorola Backflip spotted in the wilds of China originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stephen Colbert has an iPad… (video)

…and he took it to the 52nd Annual Grammys. Nice product placement, Apple. Video of the whole thing after the break. Say, what kind of pocket did that come out of?

Continue reading Stephen Colbert has an iPad… (video)

Stephen Colbert has an iPad… (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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8.9-inch ExoPC Slate has iPad looks, netbook internals, Windows 7 soul

Yes, we realize that it’s hard to provide too much visual differentiation between tablet PCs with large, ebony bezels, but we can’t help but think that this 8.9-inch multitouch tablet looks a lot like another, recently announced 9.7-inch multitouch tablet. Nevertheless this one’s quite different on the inside, delivering “the web without compromise,” meaning full browser support with flash courtesy of Windows 7 on an Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, with 2GB of DDR2 memory and a 32GB SSD with SD expansion. Yeah, those specs are familiar too, and while we’re not thinking this will deliver the sort of snappy performance seen on the iPad, it will certainly be a lot more functional. Battery life is only four hours, but at last it user-replaceable, and a price of $599 matches the 32GB iPad. Likewise it will be available in March — or you can get a non-multitouch prototype for $780 right this very moment. If, that is, you speak enough French to manage the order page.

[Thanks, Jean-Baptiste]

8.9-inch ExoPC Slate has iPad looks, netbook internals, Windows 7 soul originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon pulled Macmillan titles due to price conflict — confirmed

Macmillan’s US CEO, John Sargent just confirmed that Amazon pulled its inventory of Macmillan books in a powerful response to Macmillan’s new pricing demands. Macmillan offered the new pricing on Thursday, just a day after Apple announced Macmillan as a major publishing partner in its new iBookstore — a revelation that certainly factored into the discussions along with Skiff and other emerging e-book distribution and publishing models. During the meeting with Amazon in Seattle, Sargent outlined what he calls an “agency model” that will go into effect in early March. Under the terms offered, if Amazon chose to stay with its existing terms of sale, then it would suffer “extensive and deep windowing of titles.” Amazon’s hardball response was to pull all of Macmillan’s titles from its Kindle site and Amazon.com by the time Sargent arrived back in New York.

Macmillan claims that its new model is meant to keep retailers, publishers, and authors profitable in the emerging electronic frontier while encouraging competition amongst new devices and new stores. It gives retailers a 30% commission and sets the price for each book individually: digital editions of most adult trade books will be priced from $5.99 to $14.99 while first releases will “almost always” hit the electronic shelves day on date with the physical hardcover release and be priced between $12.99 and $14.99 — pricing that will be dynamic over time. So when Steve Jobs said that Apple’s and Amazon’s prices would be the same, he was almost certainly referring to the $12.99 to $14.99 e-book pricing originally rumored by the New York Times — not the $9.99 price that Amazon customers have been enjoying so far. Funny how Jobs, the man who once refused to grant the music labels’ request for variable pricing on digital music so that Apple could maintain a low fixed $0.99 price per track, is suddenly the best friend of a new breed of content owners. Guess the old dog just learned a new trick, eh?

Amazon pulled Macmillan titles due to price conflict — confirmed originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dual Electronics’ iPod touch GPS cradle now shipping in late February

Dual Electronics’ iPod touch GPS cradle now shipping in late February originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel and Micron start 25nm flash production; SSDs to get cheap, huge

Intel and Micron have a history of pushing the state-of-the-art in flash storage — their joint venture IMFT was responsible for the first sub-40nm NAND flash and bringing it to production — and it looks they’ve done it again: IMFT is now sampling two-bits-per-cell 25nm NAND, which will eventually push prices down and capacities up when volume production begins in Q2. We’ll have to see how pricing works out — 25nm is something like twice the storage density per dollar, so we’re hopeful — but at the very least Intel’s third-gen X25-M will come in 160GB, 320GB, and 600GB sizes when it launches in Q4 using these new chips. Yeah, we’re going to want one. AnandTech has the full breakdown, hit the read link for more.

Intel and Micron start 25nm flash production; SSDs to get cheap, huge originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macmillan books gone from Amazon.com, Steve Jobs grins wryly from his throne of golden iPads

We hate to iPad-ify the news so bluntly (matching lower back tattoos aside), but the timing of this one is uncanny. Mere days after Apple’s announcement of a deal with Macmillan for its new iBooks store, and right after a shakycam video of Steve Jobs predicting some publishers would be pulling books from the Kindle due to a lack of satisfaction with Amazon’s prices, Macmillan’s books have mysteriously disappeared from Amazon.com. Even the paper ones, like the new Wheel Of Time book, pictured to the right. You can of course buy books from the other retailers that Amazon’s systems support (along with Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca), but there’s no getting a Macmillan publication straight from Amazon.com. Without a peep about the issue from Amazon or Macmillan, it’s easy to see this as some sort of wild glitch — after all, what could possibly cause such a rift between these two companies to end sales of all Macmillan books, instead of just the e-books for Kindle? Hopefully we find out soon, before our heads implode conspiratorially.

Macmillan books gone from Amazon.com, Steve Jobs grins wryly from his throne of golden iPads originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mattel rolls out foldable Stealth Rides R/C cars

Mattel rolls out foldable Stealth Rides R/C cars originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How would you change Nikon’s D300S?

Nikon’s D300S isn’t exactly tailor made for D300 owners, but for those waiting patiently to jump into the semi-pro DSLR game, it offers up a pretty delightful array of specs. Boasting SD and CF slots, a 720p movie mode and 12.3 megapixels of sharp shooting goodness, this here cam received overwhelmingly positive reviews late last year. Strategically positioned between the full-frame D700 and the lesser-specced D90, we’re sure the D300S found its way into quite a few hearts (and under quite a few trees) between then and now. If you’ve been firing off snaps with one of these for a few months now, we’re curious to know how you’d tweak things if the power were yours. Does the “S” really add enough to the D300 package to warrant the boost in price? How’s the image quality? Is the video mode a-okay for your purposes? Spill your heart out in comments below — we’re here to hold your hand if necessary.

How would you change Nikon’s D300S? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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