The weeks are just flying by, time change is this weekend so I hope you aren’t late for anything. The holidays will be here before we know it. This has been another busy week in the gadget world. HTC has confirmed that Android 2.0 smartphones are incoming and the HTC Dragon is the likely first Android 2.0 device to come from HTC.
If our assumptions are correct, this coming week should see Sony Ericsson officially unveil their first Android smartphone, the handset variously known as the Sony Ericsson Rachael (or Rachel), XPERIA X3 and X10 and – most recently – the Sony Ericsson Infinity. We’ve already seen a video demo of what Sony Ericsson’s custom UI might look like (and darned pretty it is too) but now a second demo has emerged and gadzooks it has us interested.
Video demo after the cut
We’re still playing avidly with our Verizon DROID by Motorola in preparation for the full review this coming week – check out some first-impressions and highlights in the meantime – but according to a leaked O2 Germany document the GSM European version may only be days away. The document lists the Motorola MILESTONE – with a shot of what’s definitely the Motorola DROID – as coming to the German carrier in the week beginning November 9th 2009; in fact there’s already a page for the MILESTONE on the O2 Germany site.
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.
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