The floodgates are open and Sony Ericsson’s Kurara is spilling through them. Having been spotted in the wild yesterday, the touchscreen Satio sibling has made a second appearance getting up close and personal with a carbonated beverage. No more hardware specs to share – though the HD logo on the back is missing on this particular unit – so we’re left with the expectation of a 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen, Symbian S60 OS and 8.1-megapixel autofocus camera.
Microsoft’s Courier project – a dual-display “book” style electronic journal – has been intriguing us since it first leaked back in September, and the latest spillage of UI details courtesy of Gizmodo’s mysterious tipster is doing nothing to temper our interest. The twin screens are both multitouch-capable and respond to fingers and the special stylus, the latter having two side-buttons (the upper one being an “undo” key), an eraser on the other end, and a rotating barrel that flips between different pen modes.
eStarling’s first digital photo frame was roundly panned for being user-unfriendly and having a shonky external wireless dongle. Now the company is back with a new version, and we’d like to think they’ve learned from their initial mistakes. The eStarling 802.11n Touchscreen Connected Frame lacks a snappy name but does, as the title suggests, get a WiFi b/g/n update to support the faster standard, as well as a new touch-sensitive interface.
With the XPERIA X10 splayed open for all to see, attention turns to other leaky Sony Ericsson devices and in particular the Kurara. Tipped to be the more basic sibling to the current flagship SE Satio, the Kurara is believed to have a 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 8.1-megapixel autofocus camera and run Symbian S60.
Whether or not Barnes and Noble liked it enough to copy it, Spring Design’s Alex prototype dual-display ebook reader is certainly nifty enough to capture our interest. MaximumPC had a chance to go hands-on with the Alex, which has a 6-inch e-ink screen up top and a 3.5-inch color capacitive touchscreen underneath for control and navigation, as part of a Marvell demonstration for the company’s new ARMADA 166E SoC.
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eviGroup's new 10.2-inch tablet, the Pad, went on sale in its premium 3G-toting form a week ago, but if the €599 plus €30 shipping ($932) sticker price is too rich for your blood they've a cheaper model available from today. The entry-level eviGroup Pad has the same specifications as the premium model but lacks 3G; it's on sale from today for €549 (again with €30 shipping; $852).
OLPC chairman Nicholas Negroponte has revealed that the twin-display OLPC XO-2 2.0 project has been scrapped, in favor of an updated – but cosmetically identical – revamp of the existing 1.0 XO-1 model and a new, model 3.0 that has “totally different industrial design, more like a sheet of paper”. Speaking to Xconomy, the outspoken exec also sought to redefine the initial, well-publicized aim of “the $100 laptop” in terms of total cost of ownership: $1 per child per week to buy, maintain and connect the machine.
More OLPC model 3.0 details after the cut
It’s all go at Eston’s render labs this week, with two new tablets in the offing. The company has sliced off the hardware keyboard from their MID-02 and produced the touchscreen-only MID-05, a 5-inch handheld running either Android or Windows CE. If your fingers are too chubby for that, Eston also have the N97 MID, with a larger 7-inch touchscreen and integrated 3G.
One of the most common questions we’re being asked in the aftermath of our HTC HD2 unboxing is how its on-screen QWERTY keyboard compares to one of the other eye-catching smartphones of the quarter, the Nokia N900. We’ve staged a quick size and keyboard comparison, and you can find the gallery – and read our early opinions on both devices – after the cut.
Dell’s upcoming 3G version of its Android smartphone has shown up in Brazil as the Dell Mini 3iX. According to CelularCafe, the Mini 3iX has the same 3-megapixel camera as its Chinese counterpart, but adds triband 850/1900/2100 UMTS/HSDPA connectivity for pretty much global 3G access. The version already confirmed for China will lack 3G.
SlashGear Japan
