prototypes

Before the iPhone, Apple's most iconic mobile device didn't even allow you to communicate. The iPod was, for many years, the gold standard for portable music players. Then along came the iPhone and, later on, the iPod Touch was born to catch up. The two worlds would come together a couple of times but there was a time when the iPod Touch almost went off on its own direction again, putting a camera on the back of the iPod Touch 3 where no iPhone or iPod Touch ever would.

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Today a leak of a TCL smartphone prototype shows a bit of what was apparently going to appear at MWC 2020. That's the tech conference that generally happens every year around this time, but was cancelled this year due to concerns over nCoV-2019 / COVID-19 (AKA novel coronavirus). The device you see here was leaked from what CNET's Jessica Dolcourt describes as a "trusted source" - aka this isn't just some fan-made device based on a concept, it's quite likely from a source within TCL (or a TCL-adjacent group).

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TCL has revealed a new foldable phone prototype at CES 2020, a clamshell that opens up to reveal a 7.2-inch flexible touchscreen, and one which already has a few advantages over the Samsung Galaxy Fold. While the device is still at the "functional prototype" stage, and won't launch quite as you see here, there are already good reasons why what TCL has achieved should get Android fans excited.

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The new Ford Bronco could well be the most hotly-anticipated car from the automaker this decade, and so consider our attention grabbed by this Ford Bronco R race prototype. Unveiled to confirm Ford is headed to the Baja Peninsula for the Baja 1000 rally, the bolshy off-roader promises hints of the upcoming road SUV we're expecting next year.

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BMW doesn't have an all-electric Tesla Model S rival in its range, but the German automaker is teasing just how such a car might perform with its latest "Power BEV" prototype. Unveiled alongside the striking BMW Vision M NEXT today, the so-called trial vehicle may look like a 5 Series sedan from the outside, but under the familiar sheet metal are a whole lot of electric horses.

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Remember the Microsoft Courier? What was once fodder for the imagination seems to be taking hold of the PC market. While OEMs are not so hasty to jump on the foldable screen train pushed by Samsung, Huawei, and Lenovo, they are, instead seeing some merit in laptops that offer two screens. Or at least one and a half. While not a PC maker itself, Intel invests in building designs that manufacturers will be interested to make for Intel-powered computers. And, according to Intel, those manufacturers seem to very interested indeed, especially in the Honeycomb Glacier dual screen gaming laptop.

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How many times have you been watching a sci-fi series or movie, and thought “I really wish that piece of tech existed”? We've all done that. But how many of us have actually gone on to create one of those gadgets, just to see if it would be useful? Google's Amit Singhal did exactly that.

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Onyx apparently has a smartwatch in the works, and though there aren't a lot of details on it at this point, a prototype has surfaced via the folks at ARMdevices. Though a smartwatch isn't notable in and of itself at this point, the prototype stands out amongst the competition because of its display: a true e-ink offering. Though the refresh speed on the prototype seems a bit too slow for everyday use, there are some obvious benefits to using an e-ink display rather than an LCD.

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Japanese tire giant Bridgestone is showing off a revamped model of their prototype Air Free tire at the 2014 Paris Auto Show. First unveiled in 2011, Bridgestone has been working hard to improve their invention, which works by replacing the air-filled rubber donuts of today with a single band of rubber wrapped around resin blades built to absorb shock and support a car's weight. As we can see from the photos, the tires have a similar to look to the spokes on bicycle wheels.

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JVC, which recently introduced a couple new rugged cameras during CES, has detailed its 4K efforts, dropping details on a handful of prototype cameras boasting Ultra HD recording. Included among them are a couple of UAVs -- unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly called drones -- equipped with small 4K cameras.

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During the latest launch of their Liquid Z5 smartphone in Taipei, Acer re-confirmed the idea that they'd be moving into the wearables market - and that they'd be doing so soon. Suggesting that they'd shown off a number of wearable devices to some of the company's clients at CES 2014 (behind the scenes, of course), Acer left reporters with precious little solid information on what their devices would be - or when they'd actually be launching on the global market. While earlier rumors suggested Acer's efforts to start with smartwatches, at this point there's been no confirmation - or specific denial - of a variety of products being offered up.

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The Taiwan-based company BungBungame has developed a prototype high-end Android smartphone with a target price point of $299, a low price for the specs. The phone is called "Project S" for now. Johannes Knapp of NewGadgets.de tipped us to a hands-on he recorded recently when he visited the company's headquarters.

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