Filed under: Cellphones
Samsung and Sprint were keeping their cards close all day today but we finally had a chance to check out Samsung’s
Instinct up close and personal. The handset’s look and feel is really top notch, materials, finish, and the oh-so-glossy — but hard to shoot — screen is sweet.
Haptics for touch feedback are here as well, and aside from some strange behavior while scrolling, was a pretty useful feature for letting you know you’d actually done something — it was most noticeable, and most useful when typing. Not a bad effort, look for this to hit Sprint in June. Follow the link to the gallery on
Engadget Mobile.
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
No, Microsoft hasn’t suddenly transformed its 30-inch, multi-touch Surface into a big-ass cellphone. It has, however, chosen AT&T to launch the world’s first Surface into retail. Shoppers in New York, Atlanta, San Antonio, and San Francisco will be treated to what amounts to the novelty (at least initially) of learning about a device (Samsung BlackJack II, pictured) by simply placing it atop the Surface. They’ll also have the ability to explore interactive coverage maps. Later, users will be able to drag ringtones, graphics and video and drop it into “the phones.” Note their use of “the” and not “your” phone in the press release. Nevertheless, we’re happy to see Microsoft get the technology out the door on its long march towards consumerdom.
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Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Handhelds
One ultra-glossy phone plus a dozen or so overly ornate chandeliers is a recipe for video disaster, and indeed, we managed to capture the beautiful outline of said chandeliers in far more detail than we ever intended here. It’s the price we pay for demanding mirror-finish touchscreens, we guess, but we think we still managed to convey a fair bit about the Instinct’s distinctive user interface here. First of all, it wasn’t nearly as snappy as we’d have liked it to be, but the phone’s not hitting retail for a couple months yet so we’ll cut ‘em some slack while they’re ironing out the final kinks in the firmware. The web navigation gestures were a little choppy, too, though we appreciated the dedicated “birdseye” key that zooms out so the entire page can be seen at once; a red box indicated where you’ll be when you zoom back in. Bottom line? We get the impression that Samsung’s delivering form over function here, but hey, for a good number of us, that’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make.
Continue reading Video: Samsung Instinct UI walkthrough
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Did you fall for it? The internet didn’t really cry, we were just kidding. You gotta be on your toes! And just in case you managed to blissfully glide through this April 1st with nary a fooling, here’s a small taste of what you were missing:
Read - Space bot demands to be called “Dextre the Magnificent”
Read - Windows XP running on the iRex iLiad
Read - iPhone_iTouch_2.0_Beta_5a225c_ipsw
Read - Free Nokia 6630 bundled with Girl Talk mag for tweens
Read - Google’s gDay with MATE searches the future
Read - Toshiba announces HD DVD+
Read - Think Geek’s Betamax to HD-DVD Converter
Read - Qualcomm’s HandSolo
Read - FireFold’s Ultra High-Performance Coat Hanger
Read - Virgin and Google form Virgil for Mars expedition
Read - Xbox 360 Wireless Helmet, Board Game
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Did you fall for it? The internet didn’t really cry, we were just kidding. You gotta be on your toes! And just in case you managed to blissfully glide through this April 1st with nary a fooling, here’s a small taste of what you were missing:
Read - Space bot demands to be called “Dextre the Magnificent”
Read - Windows XP running on the iRex iLiad
Read - iPhone_iTouch_2.0_Beta_5a225c_ipsw
Read - Free Nokia 6630 bundled with Girl Talk mag for tweens
Read - Google’s gDay with MATE searches the future
Read - Toshiba announces HD DVD+
Read - Think Geek’s Betamax to HD-DVD Converter
Read - Qualcomm’s HandSolo
Read - FireFold’s Ultra High-Performance Coat Hanger
Read - Virgin and Google form Virgil for Mars expedition
Read - Xbox 360 Wireless Helmet, Board Game
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Filed under: Features, Portable Audio
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
The Slacker Portable is the proverbial elephant being inspected by blind men. One is the crop of portable MP3 players, to which the device’s service represents free, fresh music on the go in exchange for user control of track selection. Another is the bevy of online internet music sites such as Pandora, Last.fm, Finetune and others, to which it represents the leap from the beb to portable entertainment. A third is the traditional consumer electronics industry for which it portends a connected future. And a fourth are XM and Sirius, which now appear on track to merge in part due to the kind of competition that the Slacker Portable will ultimately provide.
The Slacker Portable picks up where last year’s promising Sansa Connect left off. While that device was billed primarily as an MP3 player that boasted tight integration with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service (now shuttering), the Slacker Portable is labeled as a “personal radio”. MP3 files can be loaded onto the device, but that feature is more of an afterthought.
The device comes in three capacities that are billed as storing a different number of stations, which are either genres preset by the internet radio service available at slacker.com, or customized for the user based on a particular artist. One nice touch is that a device ordered from Slacker comes pre-populated with any stations you have set up on the site.
Continue reading Switched On: Slacker in your slacks (Part 1)
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Filed under: Features, Portable Audio
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
The Slacker Portable is the proverbial elephant being inspected by blind men. One is the crop of portable MP3 players, to which the device’s service represents free, fresh music on the go in exchange for user control of track selection. Another is the bevy of online internet music sites such as Pandora, Last.fm, Finetune and others, to which it represents the leap from the beb to portable entertainment. A third is the traditional consumer electronics industry for which it portends a connected future. And a fourth are XM and Sirius, which now appear on track to merge in part due to the kind of competition that the Slacker Portable will ultimately provide.
The Slacker Portable picks up where last year’s promising Sansa Connect left off. While that device was billed primarily as an MP3 player that boasted tight integration with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service (now shuttering), the Slacker Portable is labeled as a “personal radio”. MP3 files can be loaded onto the device, but that feature is more of an afterthought.
The device comes in three capacities that are billed as storing a different number of stations, which are either genres preset by the internet radio service available at slacker.com, or customized for the user based on a particular artist. One nice touch is that a device ordered from Slacker comes pre-populated with any stations you have set up on the site.
Continue reading Switched On: Slacker in your slacks (Part 1)
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Filed under: Features, Laptops, Wireless
Damn, Everex clearly stepped up their game with the Cloudbook MAX. Not that we want to harsh on the original Cloudbook or anything, but this thing is definitely in a different class — and the integrated XOHM WiMAX doesn’t hurt, either. Check out some hands-on shots taken at CTIA below.
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Filed under: Cellphones
We had heard whispers about the Blackberry Curve hitting Sprint this month, and it looks like they were dead-on — say hello to RIM’s latest, the Curve 8330, all done up in black. Apart from looking way hotter than the silver version that’s made the rounds, you’re getting GPS, a 2 megapixel camera with video recording, Bluetooth, “enhanced” web browsing, and the usual suite of Sprint music and TV services. $179 with a two-year contract later this month, says Sprint. One more shot after the break.
[Thanks, moochy989]
Continue reading Blackberry Curve 8330 comes to Sprint
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Filed under: Cellphones
We had heard whispers about the Blackberry Curve hitting Sprint this month, and it looks like they were dead-on — say hello to RIM’s latest, the Curve 8330, all done up in black. Apart from looking way hotter than the silver version that’s made the rounds, you’re getting GPS, a 2 megapixel camera with video recording, Bluetooth, “enhanced” web browsing, and the usual suite of Sprint music and TV services. $179 with a two-year contract later this month, says Sprint. One more shot after the break.
[Thanks, moochy989]
Continue reading Blackberry Curve 8330 comes to Sprint
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