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Samsung's Snapdragon super-MID just days away?

Engadget Daily — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:17:03 +0000

While we haven’t found an official press release on the subject, AVING is reporting a June 2008 release for a Samsung Snapdragon MID. This according to a Qualcomm official. It’s unclear to what extent Sammy’s device will made good on Snapdragon’s list of “supported” features like 12 megapixel camera, GPS, HD video playback, WiFi, Bluetooth, all day battery life, digital broadcast television (MediaFLO, DVB-H, and/or USDB-T) and dual-mode EV-DO Rev. B and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA riding atop a 1GHz processor and Qualcomm’s 600MHz always-on DSP. All we’ve got is this picture of an engineering prototype (actually based on Snapdragon this time) on display right now at the World IT Show.

Panasonic's HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100 AVCHD camcorders, now with extra MOS

Engadget Daily — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:47:19 +0000

Ready for some new terminology? Good, try on “3MOS” — Panasonic’s newest sensor adaptation which, judging by machine translated text, is a trio sensors capturing twice the light of a single CMOS of the same 1/6-inch size. Think 3CCD applied to CMOS sensors. The result is said to be superior image quality and impressive low-light recording capability — twice the sensitivity of its own 3CCD camcorders thanks to what Panny calls its new “heavy lifting iA” enabling them to shoot in a mere 2 lux of available lighting. That’s just a glimpse at what you’ll find inside the solid state HDC-SD100 (supporting up to 32GB of SDHC) and the HDC-HS100 hybrid offering both SDHC and a 60GB hard disk for storage. These 1080i AVCHD camcorders also features Panasonic’s improved optical image stabilization, a 12x optical zoom, 5.1-surround mic, and HDMI-out.The Â¥130,000 (about $1,205) SD100 and Â¥150,000 (about $1,390) HS100 should hit the Japanese retail block on July 12th.

LG Secret viral ad aims for sexy, ends up squarely at creepy

Engadget Daily — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:38:03 +0000

Look, LG, it’s all well and good the Secret has a touchscreen and that sweet DivX-capable 5 megapixel camera, but making a viral video that can only be described as early-90s softcore voodoo porn and ends with a sheepish phone call from the dude’s mother is probably not the best way to highlight those qualities. Video after the break — warning, it’s just a hair on the NSFW side.

Intelligent First Aid Kit

Engadget Daily — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:30:16 +0000

I must admit that I’m at a loss when it comes to first aid kits, but thankfully we have the Intelligent First Aid Kit that aims to make the standard box less of a mystery. This product will feature individually wrapped packs of medical supplies in addition to step-by-step audio instructions that will help you treat a wide range of injuries. Conceived out of an idea by medical and educational experts, this Intelligent First Aid Kit will help people with little to no first aid training, thanks to features such as audio aid, color-coding and illustrations that help folks like me tell the difference between the packages and outline responses. Each $130 purchase will come with a flashlight just in case you might need to treat an emergency at night.

Samsung W510 is a Green Phone

Engadget Daily — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:46:49 +0000

Samsung will be rolling out what it calls a “green phone”, the W510. The reason why it is green is because it is made out of bio-plastic, a natural material extracted from corn that won’t pollute the enviroment as much as a manufacturing standard cell phone would. It will hit the Korean market later this month, so if you want one you can always head there and pick up a handset unlike any other. After all, it is hard to argue against an applied water-soluble coating, right? Makes me wonder just how much of an environmental impact the 3G iPhone will make assuming it hits the 10 million sales target. Another green phone from Samsung would be the F268 that has an alarm function that alerts the user each time it is fully charged so that you won’t waste any power leaving it plugged in.

Credit Suisse: Vodafone likely to carry (3G?) iPhone in Europe

Engadget Daily — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:21:51 +0000

According to a Credit Suisse research note, Vodafone is the frontrunner to carry sole rights to the iPhone in Europe due to their coverage in most European markets. Fine, we’ve heard this before. The difference this time, however, is an accompanying “confirmation” of a mostly done-deal by way of anonymous Vodafone sources to Europe’s Bright Magazine. The story is also being carried by Europe’s mainstram media including reputable Dutch news site, nu.nl. Of course, if Apple’s going to sell 6 million European iPhones in the next 3 years as expected by Credit Suisse, then you can bet that little slab will be sporting a 3G radio for data-happy Europe. Apple already promised Europe an iPhone in Q4 and, funny enough, 5 million units of the 2nd generation iPhone are rumored to begin shipping from Taiwan in September. Surely, Stevie boy won’t release a 3G iPhone in Europe without spreading the love Stateside will he? But let’s not get too far ahead ourselves, mkay, it’s all just speculation heaped upon rumor at this point.

[Via MacDailyNews, thanks Beef S. and William M.]

Read — Bright (Dutch)
Read — Credit Suisse
Read — Nu.nl (Dutch)

HP Pavilion tx2500z Puma-based tablet PC available now

Engadget Daily — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:52:07 +0000

For those of you looking to get into HP’s Pavilion tx2500z Puma-based tablet PC, the time has come. This “echo” inlaid-design ultraportable sports a 12.1-inch 1280 x 800 swivel touch screen with handwriting capture, AMD Turion Dual-Core processor, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chipset, and WiFi. Other features of note include a fingerprint reader, webcam, 5-in-1 media card reader, and 3 USB ports. Unfortunately — and we think this should be a standard on subnotebooks starting yesterday — no built-in broadband wireless. That said, you can add a Verizon Wireless V740 ExpressCard during customization checkout. The base configuration will run you a somewhat reasonable $1,049. Go to it, tablet scribblers!

Samsung Instinct to run $199.99 on contract

Engadget Daily — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:33:35 +0000

If the idea of a sub-$200 3G touchscreen fashion phone sounds vaguely familiar, trust us, it’s not just your noggin playing tricks on you. Sprint is apparently circulating documentation internally revealing that the Samsung Instinct will run $199.99 on contract after rebates, a move that doesn’t really come as surprise; Sprint itself has worked overtime trying to play up the Instinct versus iPhone angle, after all, and it’s entirely plausible that the carrier was holding out for Apple’s announcement before settling on a price. Sprint will also be requiring that users sign up for an “Everything” plan when taking delivery of their Instinct, a move that smacks of AT&T’s marriage of the iPhone to specific plans. The Instinct gets the jump on Apple’s hardware by a few days thanks to a June 20 launch, so it’ll be interesting to see just how much Cupertino thunder Samsung can steal here.

Toshiba's 1.8-inch 160GB disk hits 5,400rpm for netbooks

Engadget Daily — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:40:42 +0000

Who makes a 160GB, 1.8-inch SATA disk spinning at 5400RPM? Nobody, until today. Toshiba just announced the industry’s largest-capacity / fastest 160GB MK1617GSG disk for ultra-portables and netbook-class machines. While others have hit the magical 160GB mark in an 8-mm thick form factor, this is the first 1.8-inch SATA to reach 5400RPM. Oh, and because you’re about to ask: no, it’s too chubby for an iPod classic (where that speed wouldn’t likely be noticed) or ultra-thin laptop like the MacBook Air or Envy 133. Thanks for asking though.

Opinion: Apple 3G iPhone is no iPod

Engadget Daily — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:20:09 +0000

No one is saying this right now, but to me the 3G iPhone is already a flop. The iPhone is Appleâ€™s iPod for the mobile phone market. The company promised 10 million iPhones in peopleâ€™s hands by 2008. No doubt, it will fall short of its predictions.

Apple has sold over 170 million iPods and thatâ€™s not even its biggest achievement in the portable music player market. With the success of the iPod, Apple has also created an industry: the online music. The success of the iPod produced the most lucrative online music store to date. The iTunes industry boasts a worldwide distribution in the excess of 600 million copies with over 4 billion songs sold.

iPod = iTunes. iPhone = MobileMe. With 3G iPhone, the iPhone 2.0 software, Apple is attempting to do another iTunes