We’ve been avidly playing with the Verizon DROID by Motorola since its launch on Wednesday, and while we think it’s still too early to give a definitive opinion on the Android smartphone either way, we wanted to share some highlights. The Motorola DROID could be one of the most important smartphones of 2009, so check out our early thoughts on battery life, the QWERTY keyboard, some camera disappointments and more, after the cut.
Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA teaser may have been accused of being a little presumptuous, but that doesn’t mean we’re not excited about the Android device they’re announcing on November 3rd. Now a teaser video has emerged showing the XPERIA X3/X10 Rachael in action, and darn it if we’re not excited again.
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Olympus' own little Pen E-P2 tip may have been nothing more than a menu mention, but thanks to 43rumors we now have a better idea not only what the Micro Four Thirds camera might look like, but what its rumored rangefinder might look like. As for a timescale for the Pen E-P2's launch, Olympus have apparently sent out invitations for a press event on Friday November 13th at the Photo Fair in Stockholm.
Some people go to the park or Starbucks to people watch, I prefer an outing to Best Buy. I love checking out all the newest gadgets and tech under one roof (more than I should even let on), but I often get distracted by watching people who seem totally confused about which PC to buy. More often than not, I see them peruse the notebooks and desktops on display and struggle to figure out the difference between, let’s say, a netbook and a full-size notebook. And when they approach a Blue Shirt, the answers I have heard can be quite comical. No kidding, it’s the size of the netbook that makes it different!?
A new HTC patent application could indicate the company’s next direction in smartphone UI, following on from TouchFLO 3D and HTC Sense. Described as “Electronic device and user interface display method thereof”, the application outlines a “virtual book” in which different pages are different applications, and can be rifled through with a fingertip.
Samsung caught our Android attention with their Galaxy, a slender smartphone with a gorgeous AMOLED touchscreen, and now they’re back with the keyboard-toting follow-up. The Samsung Moment on Sprint is a phone with a few firsts of its own – the first QWERTY Android device to offer an AMOLED display, the first to have an 800MHz processor – but it seems the company stopped their innovation before reaching the software: unlike other Android handsets we’re seeing, there’s no reworked UI and no expansive social network integration. Can a well-turned spec sheet make up for it? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
With Google Maps Navigation causing ripples not only among Android users but in the share prices of Garmin, TomTom and other mapping providers, it seems some location-based services providers are coming out fighting. LaptopMag have been talking to Networks in Motion’s (NIM) Steve Andler, VP of marketing at the company responsible for Verizon’s VZ Navigator and the Gokivo iPhone app, and he’s pulling no punches about his opinion of Google. Andler describes the idea of Android as being open as “a bunch of hooey”, and even goes so far as to suggest that “Google is doing exactly what Microsoft did, which is, they integrate stuff into the core, leaving no room for anyone to innovate.”
Of course, it’s not surprising that Andler – and NIM – are frustrated, given the particular corner of software development they chose to carve out. Andler’s core argument about PND software is that it requires more than a few voice prompts on top of a map.
We’ve featured Ideum and their multitouch tables before on SlashGear, but the company have been in touch to flaunt their latest development: an ultra-wide touchscreen surface. Billed as “one of the largest contiguous multitouch tables ever developed”, the new table is based on the same optical touch recognition system as their standard MT-50 but has a 100-inch surface and an 86-inch viewable area, and can recognize over 50 different simultaneous touch points.
Video demo after the cut
If you’ve seen one Chinese MID, the saying goes, you’ve seen them all, and yet we still keep digging through the dross in the hope of turning up something shiny and loveable. The latest glimmer amongst the grubs is the Soyea Z5, an Atom Z515 1.2GHz based ultraportable with a 5-inch WVGA touchscreen, 1GB of RAM, integrated 3G and a choice of Windows XP or Linux.
Nokia’s trouble breaking into the US market has become a cliché over the years, so it’s good to hear that the Finnish firm may be turning their fortunes around. According to a VentureBeat report, Nokia and AT&T are working together to launch a Symbian handset that will be based on a Qualcomm chipset; definitive specifications are unknown, as is launch date, but Nokia are reportedly being more accommodating of US carriers’ desire to customize individual devices.
SlashGear Japan
