We were hoping Qualcomm might whip out Lenovo’s upcoming Smartbook at today’s event, but unfortunately the diminutive all-day ultraportable is still being nursed for an official CES reveal. Instead, the company had Quanta’s functional Android Smartbook prototype and a non-working Smartbook/Tablet concept out for us to play with.
Video demo after the cut
Remember the Qualcomm mirasol ebook reader prototype we we exclusively showed you yesterday? One thing we weren’t allowed to photograph – something Qualcomm rectified today – was one of the more interesting attachments they envisage potentially figuring highly: a snap-on gaming controller. The mirasol team won’t confirm any OEM names, but using the low-power displays in gaming hardware looks to be another potential avenue. Plus, after the cut, a video of the mirasol display in action.
We may be giving Sony Ericsson a darn good scolding on the one hand for their XPERIA X10 hijinks, but we’re a little more interested by their new WebSDK for Android and Symbian Foundation devices. The Sony Ericsson WebSDK promises a metaphorical hand-holding for developers hoping to have their wares nestle up against the company’s own apps, whether that be on the XPERIA X10 or the SE Satio. It’s called Nexus, seemingly the official title for the UX platform Sony Ericsson were talking about with regards the X10.
It’s been a rainstorm of Archos 5 Internet Tablet newness over at UMPC Portal today, with our friend Steve Paine taking delivery not only of the Archos 5 Mini Dock but the latest firmware which has also released today, v1.3.07. Together they’ve taken the Android-based Archos 5 even closer into MID status: USB host support means that you can plug a full-sized keyboard and mouse into the Mini Dock’s USB port, while the new firmware now supports full-screen YouTube HD playback together with outputting that content, via HDMI, onto your TV.
Video demo after the cut
Spotify is great, particularly when you’re having one of those parties where people keep asking “oh, have you heard that new track by…”, but the current computer-bound UI isn’t exactly conducive to being passed around. If you’re lucky enough to have a touchscreen Crestron home entertainment system, however, Custom Controls may have the app for you: they’ve whipped up a new UI that will allow for fingertip control of Spotify through Creston panels.
Video demo after the cut
Sony Ericsson’s launch event for the XPERIA X10, their first Android smartphone, was slightly undermined by the fact that their single demo prototype proved to be not exactly the Snapdragon speed-demon we all expected. The company’s homegrown Timescape and Mediascape apps ran like molasses in a permafrost, which Sony Ericsson told us was due to them not having been optimized for the hardware. Happily HDblog have had access to a newer prototype, and theirs looks positively snappy.
Video demo after the cut
Nokia’s E72 has finally begun shipping, having been announced all the way back in June. The much-anticipated follow-up to the Nokia E71, the E72 is an unashamedly email-centric smartphone, with a full QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad; running S60, Nokia have added in IM support from the homescreen together with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash.
Following speculation earlier this month that the CrunchPad web-surfing tablet had been held up – or potentially canned – after mounting production costs, project head Mike Arrington has reconfirmed that the slate is on course for release. Speaking as part of the Gillmor Gang videocast (which you can see after the cut), Arrington said that “CrunchPad is steamrolling” and that “costs keep coming down”; however, he also said that the “something between three and four hundred dollars” price tag would be supported by “soft revenue” from “sponsorships”.
Radio-controlled cars might not seem the most obvious place to mount a server, but JokerWorks disagree: the company has unveiled what they’re calling the world’s first Linux server for R/C cars, the Joker Racer R/C Server, easily allowing for remote internet-linked control. To keep things simple, the Joker Racer unit hooks up to the standard servo cables already in the R/C car, together with an off-the-shelf webcam.
Video demo after the cut
What does $80 buy you these days? If Menq have their way, and sort out their supply chain, it could get you an Android based netbook; the company’s EasyPC E790 has a 7-inch 800 x 480 display and a Samsung ARM926EJ-S3C2450 processor, and while right now it runs Windows CE, Menq will be pushing out an Android firmware update within a month. That’s good news for techvideoblog’s Charbax, as he’s been playing with a review unit.
Video demo after the cut
SlashGear Japan
