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What would you get if you combined an iPhone, a unibody Macbook, a strobe light out of a smoky, drugged-out disco, and a shelter from pesky copyright infringement? We guess you’d get something like this, the creatively-named “iPhone V126″ that you’ll find floating around the streets of Shenzen these days. The QVGA display shows off a reasonably faithful reproduction of the iPhone’s UI (for a non-touch device, anyway), but the similarities end there considering that you’re going all the way down to a useless VGA cam paired with an Apple logo on the front cover that emanates entrancing pulses of searing white light every time you get a call. We’ll take two in gold, please.

[Via PHONE Magazine]

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CLXIX: the iPhone gets flipped originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can’t explain the sudden onslaught of 16-inch laptops hitting the scene, but if neither the R610 nor the Aspire 6930 suited your fancy, maybe Gateway’s MC7803u will. The multimedia-minded rig recently hit CNET’s review bench, and generally speaking, critics were pleased with what they saw. The expansive display was found to be quite useful, the recessed touch pad was a nice touch and the “minimalist” design was thoroughly lauded. Reviewers did find time to bash the shallow key travel, the omission of a Blu-ray drive and somewhat sluggish performance in a few of the benchmarks, though. Evidently those negatives weren’t enough to put a damper on the system as a whole, as it still managed to snag a 3.5 out of 5 golden star rating — still not quite high enough to buy blind, but it’s probably solid enough that you don’t need to refuse shipment on the one that’s already halfway to your doorstep.

Filed under: Laptops

Gateway’s 16-inch MC7803u laptop reviewed: great rig for the price originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We weren’t particularly impressed when we got our first peek at MOTO’s QWERTY-sliding Hint QA30 yesterday morning, finding the form factor to be a little too squat for our tastes whether open or closed. Today the phone has been given the official treatment and, while things look a little better in a new set of glamor shots from Motorola (no more Alltel branding on the UI), the “innovative” design still doesn’t look particularly comfortable to carry or to use. Now that we can make out the buttons on the front we see that they’ll serve as controls for the media player when closed, again making us think this should be a good choice for your family’s texting-addict rocker. The specs we got before are confirmed, the one exception being that the microSD support tops out at 8GB, not 32GB — better turn down that bitrate, son.

Continue reading Motorola’s Hint QA30 gets official

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola’s Hint QA30 gets official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How much ASCII will be spilled, how much bandwidth utilized on this legendary (if vaporous) iPhone killer before it becomes a real reality? Like the tail end of a torrid love affair, we’re not even sure if it’s the phone itself that we dig or the soap opera that we enjoy so much. And now, hot on the heels of the hands-on video that has captured the imagination of the entire world, Meizu has posted a flash demo of the M8’s UI for those of you thirsting for a closer look at the thing. SPOILER ALERT: It bears a strong resemblence to the interface of a certain Apple product.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones

Meizu M8 Flash demo hits the scene, looks mighty familiar originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Traffic wardens over in the UK have been wielding handheld camcorders for well over a year now, but Ponca City, Oklahoma is making waves here in America with a slightly more sophisticated alternative. In conjunction with Honeywell, the town is implementing a broadband mesh network comprised of over 490 wireless nodes and gateways from Tropos Networks, and aside from providing free WiFi to some 30 square miles of residents, it’s also hoping to use the abundant connectivity to help public safety. For instance, the city has installed wireless video cameras in police vehicles so “dispatchers and supervisors can monitor activities during traffic stops, and quickly deploy additional officers and resources if necessary.” ‘Course, that’s just the official word — everyone and their mother knows this is just the beginning of “C.O.P.S.: Live in Oklahoma.”

[Via Slashdot, image courtesy of CanMag]

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

Oklahoma town provides real-time streaming from cop cars, free WiFi to residents originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For months Nokia has been working on Point & Find, a new technology that allows users to simply point their camera phones at a banner and get more information on their device.

Now the company says it is ready to launch the service "very soon." Nokia says it will make Point & Find available as a public beta starting with a movie service.

The service will allow users to point their cellphone cameras at a movie poster and get information about the movie on their phone such as show times and trailers. It will also include the ability to book tickets.

"There is a lot of physical media out there–billboards, posters,
restaurant menus, building–they could turn into a doorway for more information," says Philipp Schloter,general manager for the Point & Find program. "This makes the connection between the digital and the physical world."

It’s also part of the company’s quest to find ways for people to do more with their cellphones going beyond the traditional keypad interface, says Nokia.

Point & Find works by comparing the image in the viewfinder with a set of image properties in a database and the user’s location. The technology came out of Nokia’s 2007 acquisition of a company called Pixto.

Nokia is looking to partner with companies to extend the idea. For users it means they could walk down the street and point their camera at a restaurant banner and get the menu on the phone or buy with a point and click through their phone.

"Companies can define where a picture will go and what it is about," says Schloter, "and that content can reach users easily."

The technology could be a step ahead of 2D-barcodes or QR codes that are popular in Japan because it is more intuitive and capitalizes on the ubiquity of camera phones and Nokia’s position as one of the market leaders.

Point & Find will initially be available only to Nokia phones but it will ultimately be extended to all camera phones with basic GPS capability, says the company.

See a demo of Nokia’s Point and Find technology

Also see: Future Phones to Read Your Voice, Gestures

Photo: Nokia N95 (stevegarfield/Flickr)

The Samsung DX20 is a new digital SLR from … wait, Samsung? Actually, this camera is a collaboration between Samsung and Pentax, and it accepts Pentax lenses — so if you’ve got a lot of those, it’s definitely worth taking a look at. Unfortunately it had some problems with dynamic range and image stabilization, keeping us from recommending it solidly. Danny Dumas and Jon Snyder review the phone in the first half of this week’s video podcast.

After that, Danny and Bryan Gardiner tackle the BlackBerry Bold — the best traditionally-styled BlackBerry to come down the pike in a long while. It’s not the long-awaited BlackBerry Storm, but if you’re a RIM fan and don’t mind using AT&T as your carrier, it’s worth a look.

This week’s video podcast was produced by Annaliza Savage and edited by Fernando Cardoso, with camera work by John Ross. It’s a little bit over 7 minutes long.

Apple’s new MacBooks are mighty speedy, but they suffer from a huge performance drop if you remove the battery and use the AC adapter as the sole source of power.

Gearlog’s Zach Honig discovered that the MacBook sees a 37-percent drop in speed when running without a battery.

Honig benchmarked a 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro using a multiprocessor test called Cinebench R10. With the battery present, the MacBook Pro turned in a score of 5,549. Without the battery, it scored 3,504.

While this may appear to be a minor issue — since most people keep their batteries in their MacBook — Honig pointed out that some like to remove their batteries and run off the AC in an effort to extend the battery’s life cycle. Also, eventually all batteries reach the end of their life cycles, and if you’re running the MacBook off the AC, you’ll see a significant plunge in speed.

Apple acknowledges the issue at its support site. The reasons?

If the battery is removed from a MacBook or MacBook Pro, the computer
will automatically reduce the processor speed. This prevents the
computer from shutting down if it demands more power than the A/C
adaptor alone can provide.

Makes sense. But a 37-percent drop seems an awful lot, doesn’t it? Personally I don’t mind much: I run my MacBook Pro with the battery normally, and I’ll just buy a new battery when the time comes. That big number is the interesting part here.

Apple Notebooks Take Huge Performance Hit Without Battery [GearLog]

Photo: William Hook/Flickr

Those keychain flashlights and laser pointers are more annoying than they are useful. But at least Nintendo’s Wiimote projector would look kind of cool when your friends shine it in your eye. Resembling a Wiimote controller, the keychain measures 2.25 inches long, and it beams an image of Super Mario Kart characters on the wall.

Imported from Japan, the keychains are available at ThinkGeek for $6.

Product Page [ThinkGeek via Technabob]

Photo: ThinkGeek