The Litl Webbook met with confusion when it officially launched earlier this week. While the 12-inch notebook may resemble a netbook for kids, its $699 price tag slots it in among grown-up laptops, begging the questions of who exactly is the target audience and why should they bother? CrunchGear’s Doug Aamoth caught up with the Boston company to find out some more details plus get a hands-on play with the Webbook itself.
Video demo and interview after the cut
Twelve months ago HTC shook up the Windows Mobile world with the launch of the Touch HD, a smartphone that offered a vast touchscreen, lashings of connectivity and the latest version of their UI tweaking, TouchFLO 3D, to produce what was hitherto thought impossible: an alluring Windows Phone. Now, the company have attempted just such a revolution with Windows Mobile 6.5 in the shape of the HTC HD2. They’ve upped their game with a speedy Snapdragon processor, even vaster display and a fresh UI that’s been educated by their recent work on Android. Can the HTC HD2 again do the unthinkable, and give us a reason to love Windows Mobile?
Even if you don’t quite see how a MID or UMPC might fit into your daily life, most people can summon up some enthusiasm about just how much tech is squished into those tiny chassis. Kohjinsha’s PA-Series MID wowed us when it made its dinky debut then caused us to choke when we saw what the company were charging; now Wow-Pow have unboxed the tiny convertible.
Video unboxing after the cut
We’ve seen it teased and we’ve seen the first photos, but today Dell is finally giving us the skinny (pun intended) on the thinnest notebook ever – the Dell Adamo XPS. The 9.99 mm thin notebook, which will be shipping in time for the holidays, will inevitably be compared to Apple’s Macbook Air and no doubt it is thinner, but the starting $1,800 price tag won’t make it cheaper.
After the cut: Dell Adamo XPS hands-on impressions, gallery, and video
Bizarre, metal and electrically powered, if you thought the Cupcake Cars were too cutesy then The Electrobite might be just up your street. Otherwise known by its mouthful of a Latin name – Sarriugarteis (Odontochile) trilobiteis – the battery-run bug is the handiwork of Jon Sarriugarte and Kyrsten Mate and is another ex-Burning Man oddity.
Video after the cut
Over at Let’s Make Robots! Tyberius is showing off Giger, his two-foot tall DIY humanoid ‘bot. A roughly 100 hour project so far, Giger runs embedded Linux and has both an integrated camera and WiFi, and apparently cost around $10,000 to build.
Now that might sound like an awful lot – probably because it is an awful lot – but you can blame the pro-quality servos. Tyberius used Dynamixels RX-64 and RX-28 units, which come in at $300 and $200 each, respectively; however unlike cheap servos they put out a whopping 1,000 ounces per inch of torque.
We’re not sure what we like most about Giger: his classic Cylon-style eye, mean looking pincers, or how easily he segues from a butch fighting stance to a reasonably camp wave. Tyberius’ next job is tightening up the dynamic balancing and getting the walking gait more natural; right now Giger looks a little drunk.
Video demo after the cut
Bombing customers with the latest smartphone, frightening horses and destroying many seasons’ worth of precious forest loam – it’s all here in Verizon’s latest teaser commercial for the Verizon DROID by Motorola. Unlike their first attempt at publicity, which basically took pot-shots at the iPhone, this new “Stealth” ad instead hopes to drum up some interest with a sci-fi theme.
Video ad after the cut
AT&T’s occasionally janky 3G coverage has become a generally acknowledged thorn-in-the-side for iPhone users, but the carrier still isn’t pleased that arch-rival Verizon Wireless have called them on it. Verizon’s “There’s a map for that” adverts compare AT&T’s 3G network with their own, an act which the latter claims is “misleading” and – as you’d imagine was Verizon’s intention, really – has caused them to lose “incalculable market share”. While subscribers would be happy with AT&T deciding to fill in those gaps, the carrier has taken the easier option and filed a lawsuit against Verizon.
Gigabyte have always thought a little different with their ultraportables, and their latest model is no different. The Gigabyte Booktop M1305, like the Booktop M1022 we reviewed back in June, comes with a desktop docking station; however, the M1305 is a 13.3-inch 1,366 x 768 machine and uses Intel’s CULV processors, rather than the paltry Atom N270, and squeezes an NVIDIA GeForce GT220 GPU with 1GB of DDR3 memory into the dock for improved graphics performance.
Like an ex-partner suddenly hitting the gym and prompting some relationship regrets (yes, we’re shallow here in the tech world), Symbian Foundation have caught our eye with a new demo video of what they’re suggesting might be a nifty future UI for the platform. Part of Lee Williams’ keynote at SEE 2009 last month, the video shows a device with lashings of augmented reality and location-based services, together with social networking integration.
Video demo after the cut
JP
