Author Archives: Satsuki Then

Friday the 13th is traditionally an ominous day, but if you've been holding out for Dell's US-version of the Streak Android MID then it's the day you can slap a few hundred dollars on your credit card.  Freshly up for sale, the 5-inch smartphone/tablet hybrid is priced at $549.99 SIM-free or $299.99 with a new, two-year AT&T agreement.  Meanwhile the Streak accessories are also available, including the $39.99 Car Dock and $69.99 Home AV Dock (complete with HDMI output).

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Up until now, Samsung's public Windows Phone 7 outings have been limited to the Omnia-based developers' prototype we reviewed back in July.  Now what looks to be a commercially-headed device has broken cover, courtesy of Andrej Tozon; his friend Matjaz Sircelj is Technical Community Manager at Microsoft, and gave him some hands-on access.

Andrej can't say much about the Samsung handset, bar the fact that it's a prototype from the company and that it's "larger than your ordinary phone".  Aesthetically it doesn't particularly stand out either, being a basic large-screen candybar with the regular Windows Phone 7 UI.

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MSI has delivered a new batch of official WindPad U100 tablet images, ahead of the slate's (second) launch at IFA 2010 next month.  First shown at Computex, the WindPad 100 runs an Intel Atom Z530 processor paired with a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, 2GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD for storage.

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Sony are tipped to be working on two new Reader ebook devices, the Sony Reader PRS-350 and PRS-650, each of which will have a touchscreen E Ink display.  According to Sony Insider's source, the PRS-350 will have a 5-inch display and the PRS-650 a 6-inch display; they'll have faster page-turns (potentially using E Ink's newest Pearl screen) while the PRS-650 will have around 2GB of storage, WiFi and perhaps even a "free" 3G connection like the Kindle's.

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Two new HTC smartphones have apparently been detailed, according to 911HTC's work digging through the company's ROMs.  The HTC Lexikon and HTC Bee both run Android 2.2 Froyo, with the former having a 3.8-inch WVGA display and QWERTY keyboard, and the latter getting a smaller 3.2-inch QVGA display.  According to 911HTC, the Bee is headed to Verizon among other smaller CDMA carriers.

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ASUS CEO Jerry Shen has confirmed pricing for the company's upcoming tablet range, with their Android-based model slipping in beneath the iPad's base price.  According to PCWorld, the ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC will cost under $399 when it arrives in March 2011, and will be the third in the company's new line-up; first will be the ASUS Eee Pad EP121, announced back at Computex and set to cost around $1,000.

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HTC's upcoming Windows Phone 7 device has had another in-the-wild sighting, this time courtesy of ROM hacker Xmoo, though there's some confusion over what the prototype is actually called.  The Windows Phone 7 device looks just like the HTC Schubert spotted earlier in the week, but is labelled as the HTC Mozart.

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HP's head of internal communications - and "top aide" to ex-CEO Mark Hurd - Caprice Fimbres McIlvaine has resigned from the company, in a move which is being seen as related to the sexual harassment suit filed against the former chief executive.  According to Fortune's sources, McIlvaine was "a key conduit" in the recruitment of Jodie Fisher, who later filed the suit.  The aide also accompanied Hurd on business trips and was responsible for travel arrangements.

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The mention of American Sign Language (ASL) support in Microsoft's Kinect patent raised hopes that the motion-gaming add on might be useful for more than just interacting with virtual children or swordfighting without swords; unfortunately, Microsoft has confirmed Kinect won't actually ship with ASL functionality.  According to information given to Kotaku, that's because Microsoft downgraded Kinect's video hardware capabilities.

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Samsung has outed a range of official accessories for their popular Galaxy S smartphone, including both desktop and in-car docks together with portable charger for juicing up a spare battery.  As with docks we've seen for Motorola phones, the Samsung versions recharge the Galaxy S; however Samsung also offer a free Desk Home app in the Android Market that automatically manages daytime/nighttime brightness and provides one-touch access to the Daily Briefing, alarm clock, music, pictures, movie gallery and local weather.

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Sprint's latest 4G-capable modem has arrived, but you'll have to be sure of your WiMAX coverage if you want to make the most of it.  Unlike the existing Sprint 250U, which works on both 3G and 4G networks, the new Sprint U1901 will only connect to WiMAX.

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Sony is apparently looking to Android for its future ereader plans, with a job listing spotted for a "senior staff software engineer (Android)" in the company's Digital Reader Business Division.  According to the job description - pulled from LinkedIn, but still in Google's cache (or you can read it in full after the cut) - the successful applicant will be involved in "developing application software for digital reading and other consumer electronic devices" based on the Android OS.

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