It’s been a long, long time since Emblaze Mobile and ACCESS engaged in holy cellphone matrimony, and the fruit of that relationship is finally coming to bear. It’s called ELSE INTUTION, a Linux-based mobile platform that comes with such a hyperbolic press release that we can’t help but think every other mobile manufacturer should just pack up and go home. It’s said to match the functionality of “top ranked MP3 players, best-in-class GPS devices, and more, while maintaining an exceptional ease and simplicity of use.” Golly. At this point we only have a few images to go by, and though they do look plenty nice, we wouldn’t consider our minds blown just yet — particularly those of us with a left-handed bias. Remember, ACCESS is the company that turned Palm OS into Garnet OS and then failed to win anyone over with its Access Linux Platform, so what could go wrong here? What’s it going to be, readers: WebOS or ELSE?

Update: Another right-handed pic (ironically taken on an iPhone) added after the break.

[Via AV Watch]

Continue reading ACCESS and Emblaze Mobile unveil ELSE INTUITION, the Linux-based mobile OS of your dreams

ACCESS and Emblaze Mobile unveil ELSE INTUITION, the Linux-based mobile OS of your dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading New Win 7 ads highlight the bright ideas of ‘regular people’ (video)

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

New Win 7 ads highlight the bright ideas of ‘regular people’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, hello there! Those Dell MID rumors we’ve been hearing have finally received vindication in the form of a nice, picture-heavy leak courtesy of some industrious folks in Vietnam. What we know as of now is that there’s an 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen display (with multitouch zooming), WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G WWAN connectivity, all riding atop an Android 2.0 (aka, Donut Eclair) install. A dual-LED flash 5 megapixel camera adorns the back, and there’s a 1,300mAh battery to power all that goodness. See pics below and a video awaits after the break, where an old friend of ours plays with the jumbo smartphone.

[Via SlashGear; Thanks, Nicky N.]

Continue reading Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This apparent engineering sample was leaked by Vietnamese site, Tinhte.com, and appears fairly legit. It suggests the Streak has an 800 by 480 touch screen, 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, microSD card storage, and a 1,300mAh battery.

As you can see in the video, it also looks like there will be a front-facing camera for video calls. Slashgear also points out that the engineering sample is labeled as a US variant. You’ll know more when we do. [Tinhte via SlashGear]

Well now this is a pleasingly rapid transition from announcement to review samples to market availability. Motorola’s Android-loving CLIQ (already on sale under the moniker DEXT in the UK), its QWERTY keyboard and all the apps you could desire are now ready to be had, should you already have an account with T-Mobile, the device’s exclusive US carrier. It was expected that only pre-orders would be taken today, but it appears for all the world that T-Mobile is ready to start shipping the CLIQ to its loyal customers ahead of the November 2nd full release date. Prices start from the previously reported $200 on a two-year agreement — a move that will give you plenty of time to wonder if you shouldn’t have waited for more details about the Droid mashup from Verizon, Motorola, and Google.

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola CLIQ available to T-Mobile customers now, great masses November 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Authorities are trying to rescue the balloon but there’s no much they can do about it, as the UFO is flying without control over northeastern Colorado, pushed by 15 to 20mph southwest wind. According to Eloise Campanella, Larimer County Sheriff’s Officer spokeswoman, “the device could rise to 10,000 feet.” At that altitude, temperature is very low and there’s little air to breathe.

The balloon was made with helium balloons and tinfoil by his father, Richard Heene (who is quite a weird character, as you can see in the video of him trying to prove life in Mars). Hopefully things won’t end dramatically this time, and we will see a happy ending so the people at Pixar can make a follow up to Up!.

Update 1: The flying saucer is down. The boy is OK, but it’s not clear yet if he was in the balloon or not. MSNBC is saying now that the kid wasn’t on the balloon after they said he was, but CBS just said he was.

Update 2: Boy is not in the balloon. County sheriff is saying that the Colorado emergency office and various sheriff offices are organizing a search and rescue operation.

Update 3: They are evaluating areas for the search.

Update 4: The Heene family is one weird bunch. Once upon a time, they participated in ABC’s WifeSwap:

The Heene family from Colorado live life on the edge. Wife Mayumi (43) and storm scientist Richard (45) take their three kids, Bradford (8), Ryo (7) and Falcon (5), out of school to go on storm chasing missions to prove Richard’s theories about magnetic fields and gravity. If conditions are right, Mayumi wakes her family by shouting “Storm Approaching, Storm Approaching!” into a bullhorn. The family sleep in their clothes so they can leap out of bed and into the storm-mobile. Richard calls Mayumi his ‘ninja wife’; she maintains equipment, drives the storm-mobile, films tornadoes and waits with the kids while Richard jumps on his motorbike, heads into the eye of the storm and launches rockets to measure magnetic forces. At home the family are as chaotic as a twister: the kids have no table manners and throw themselves around the house, and while Richard devotes every moment to his research, he expects Mayumi to cook, clean and run the house without any help.

Meanwhile on a quiet street in Connecticut, the Martel family — wife Karen (43), husband Jay (50) and their two kids, Max (11) and Dean (10) — live a life of calm and safety. Dad is so committed to safety that he runs a child-proofing business devoted to identifying dangers and risks and making sure kids stay out of harm’s way. With all the precautions taken to keep them safe, Max and Dean seem to be afraid of everything…”you can fall down the stairs, get cancer from the microwave, get tapeworms from sushi, and the lava lamp could explode…” The Martels conduct safety fire drills, make sure the kids wear protective gear on their bikes and pogo-sticks and never let the boys out of their sight. The atmosphere in the house is calm and serene, and Karen and Jay are equal partners.

Now, enjoy this “rap video” with the three kids.

Update 5: I’m not surprised the father picked an UFO theme for the helium balloon. Check him proving life on Mars on iReport:

Update 6: One of the siblings says he saw Falcon getting into the UFO. Police are looking now for an object—presumably a box—that was seen dropping from the balloon.

Update 7: The boy was actually at home.

Steve Ballmer must have busted out his secret stash of magic dust, as Microsoft has just come out with the announcement that it has recovered “most, if not all, customer data” that was lost during the recent Sidekick debacle. Following the wildly embarassing fiasco attributed to a “system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up,” T-Mobile and Redmond have “rebuilt the system component by component” and now promise to restore data to affected users in the most expedient fashion possible. Guess that means you won’t be getting $100 from T-Mobile for losing your Tetris high scores after all.

[Thanks, Abe G.]

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft recovers ‘most, if not all’ Sidekick customer data originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew it was coming, and here it is — the glorious first showing of the Palm Pre in its GSM garb. From today, our Deutsch comrades can grab a Pre and do whatever they want to do to it, courtesy of O2, its exclusive German supplier. The device will set you back €481 without contract, with the O2 My Handy option letting you finance it via 24 monthly payments of €20. Check out the online store link below for full details and available calling plans. Pre Thinking have also noted the arrival of two new free apps in the Pre catalog — ran and VZ-Netzwerke, both in German — and the likely prospect of even more coming along as the Pre starts its long-awaited rollout across Europe over the next few days.

[Via Engadget German]

Read – O2 Germany Palm Pre launch announcement
Read – O2 Germany online store
Read – Pre Thinking

Filed under: Cellphones

First GSM Palm Pre now on sale in Germany, with new Euro-specific apps in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not wake from sleep
• Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart
• Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming

It weighs 241.7MB. Go get it in iTunes. After the update—which is also available for the iPod Touch—you will be able to update to AT&T Carrier Settings 5.6. [Thanks Mark]