There's no denying that the Mini 5 is real, but up until now, we've had to provide all of our own promotional material. At long last, it seems as if the suits in Round Rock are finally getting around to crafting the first advertisements for the upcoming slate, and while we knew about the 5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, capacitive touch front buttons, front-facing VGA camera (for video chatting) and the 30-pin docking connector, we weren't aware of Dell's plans to reveal a slew of vivacious color options. If this here flyer proves legitimate, we could eventually see the Mini 5 available in an array of premium finishes and hues (thanks, Design Studio!), and we're hoping for a few different spec builds as well. So, are you opting for the pink, or are you crossing your fingers in hopes that Dell allows you to print that embarrassing shot of you and Mr. T on the rear of one?

Leaked Dell Mini 5 flyer shows multitude of color options, confirmed specifications originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Sony Ericsson X10 mini and X10 mini pro hands-on with video

Sony Ericsson X10 mini and X10 mini pro hands-on with video originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Heads-up, kids -- Mobile World Congress is but days away from liftoff, and it looks like Texas Instruments will be there with a purpose. The company has today introduced what it's calling the "industry's first quad-radio single chip," which throws 802.11n, GPS, FM transmit / receive and Bluetooth radios onto a single 65-nanometer WiLink 7.0 solution. Purportedly, this device reduces costs by 30 percent, size by 50 percent and bragging rights by 894 percent. The chip is currently sampling to OEMs with undisclosed names, which could mean that a prototype phone or two will be taking advantage in Barcelona. Fingers crossed.

Continue reading TI stuffs WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radios on a single chip, UWB and LTE are like 'hello?'

TI stuffs WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radios on a single chip, UWB and LTE are like 'hello?' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What if you could convert the monitor you're looking at right now into a touchscreen? Sounds crazy, but the Portuguese company Displax has created a polymer film that can do just that, for up to 120-inch screens.

It's not just glass that Displax is claiming their film will work with—apparently plastic and wood can be made into an interactive screen, which will detect as many as 16 fingers making shapes on its surface and even recognize when someone is blowing across it.

Wired explains how it works:

"A grid of nanowires are embedded in the thin polymer film that is just about 100 microns thick. A microcontroller processes the multiple input signals it receivers from the grid. A finger or two placed on the screen causes an electrical disturbance. This is analyzed by the microcontroller to decode the location of each input on that grid. The film comes with its own firmware, driver–which connect via a USB connection–and a control panel for user calibration and settings."

While it sounds like vaporware, Displax is claiming the first screens using their technology will be on sale in July, giving us enough time to think of some flat surfaces to turn into a touchscreen. [Displax via Wired]

Last time we saw the 10-inch EROS tablet it was powered down and pouting about its two hours of battery life, but the tablet's pulled itself together and powered up to show off its skills. he performance is pretty much what you would expect of a Intel Atom-powered Windows 7 Home Premium netbook with its keyboard chopped off, and from what we've been able to glean from the 11 minute video below the touchscreen seems responsive to writing with a stylus and to flicks of photos and pages in a comic book. You'll notice, however the reviewer only uses his fingers a few times, though he's actually quite good at typing on the on-screen keyboard. The rest of the time he uses the stylus to move through those far-from-finger-friendly Windows 7 menus. If you're wondering why Windows 7 still needs additional software tweaks to work on a purely finger-driven tablet device, spend 10 minutes watching the video below. Or just listen to The Weepies' awesome "Gotta Have You" -- which perhaps not coincidentally ends when the tablet's done booting.

Continue reading EROS tablet video is a lesson in why Windows 7 isn't strictly meant for finger navigation

EROS tablet video is a lesson in why Windows 7 isn't strictly meant for finger navigation originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad is a gargantuan iPhone, perhaps more precisely than many hoped. But, if you look closely, you can see hints of what's truly coming next.

There are a few new scraps of gestures and interface bits, all thanks to the larger screen, which you can see sprinkled throughout the keynote video:

• True multi-finger multitouch
Two finger swipes, three finger twirls—multitouch gestures that weren't really possible on the iPhone's tiny screen, unless you're a mouse. This is what people were excited about, and we only get a taste. Though, the gesture Phil uses to drag multiple slides in Keynote, using two hands, looks a bit awkward and belabored.

• Popovers
The most significant new UI element of the iPad vs. the iPhone are popovers, which you see all over the place when you need to dive further into the interface, or make a choice from a list (since blowing up lists to full screen size doesn't make a whole lot of sense now). A box pops up, and has a list of choices or options, which might take you down through multiple levels of lists, like you see in the demo of Numbers, with selecting functions to calculate. Gruber has more on popovers, and why they're significant, here.

• Media Navigator
In some ways, the media navigator Phil Schiller shows off in iWork is the most interesting bit to me: That's what Apple sees as replacing a file browser in this type of computer. It's a popover too, technically.

• Long touches and drags
Lots of touch, hold and drag, something you didn't see much of in the iPhone. With more UI elements, and layers of them, you need a way of distinguishing what type of motion action you're trying to engage.

These are all pretty basic, so far, building right on top of the iPhone's established interface, but it points to the future: More fingers, more gestures, more layered UI elements and built-in browsers.

You either love it or hate it, and ever since Chrome and Safari upped their games, we’ve been getting a little burned out by Firefox. Hopefully that will all change now with version 3.6 — new and improved (fingers crossed) and beta label gone. It’s now more customizable with additional add-ons and extensions, and it also features something new called “Personas,” which allows you to change the look at theme of your browser if you feel so inclined. Firefox 3.6 also has improved Javascript support as well as better support for HTML5 video, perfect for YouTube addicts excited about the recent introduction of HTML5 vids. If you haven’t abandoned Firefox for Safari, Chrome or IE8, you can download Firefox 3.6 starting today.

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For your voting (and nominating) pleasure, we present the sixth annual Engadget Awards! The premise is simple: 2009 may have slipped through our fingers, but all the memories of gadgets-past are still with us (some in a more favorable light than others). Here's your chance to sound off on what you loved in 2009, and tell us what you're psyched about for 2010.

This year we've got 24 categories up for grabs, with 48 total awards to be decided. All finalists for Engadget Awards are reader-nominated, and the editors of Engadget will then select the best of those nominations (usually somewhere between 4-6 devices or technologies) as finalists.

There are two awards per category, Reader's Choice (voted on by you!), and Editors' Choice (selected by us). The vote will take place in a few weeks once the nominees are picked, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

You can find all the info and nominees on a landing page we've built this year which should make it easier to get all your selections in (and vote once we've picked the finalists). Just click right here.

You've got until 11:59PM ET on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 to get your entries in. Now, go nominate, or use the handy list after the break!

Continue reading The 2009 Engadget Awards

The 2009 Engadget Awards originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new keyboard concept from the unproved Guru-board, dubbed Miniguru, could certainly shake up a few things if it hits the market. The basic idea is to keep your fingers from leaving the home row, with special modifier keys to move you through three "layers" of functions. Hold down the modifier with a free thumb and you get the JKLI keys turned into arrows, and the capslock into control. Naturally you can configure this in software to your heart's content (or just do this in software without a fancy new keyboard, if you're a rebel like that), hopefully without causing too much harm to your poor, inflexible fingers. The mouse nub is also designed to keep you keyboard-centric, but it can be removed in the highly-custom sales configuration panel, which also works in an option to choose between three different switch parts, a multitude of colors and the existence of keycap symbols. That custom bit sounds a little like optimism on the part of a company that hasn't shipped anything yet, but we're rooting for this one to make it to market someway or other, if just out curiosity.

Guru'board's Miniguru keyboard aims to keep you on the home row, might take some getting used to originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We've seen this done badly so many time that it's hard to imagine anyone so self serious as Apple taking a crack at it (even if they've already done so in the desktop space), but for whatever reason the company picked up this 3D UI patent back in 2008 under the guise of a few French employees. The patent was just released in December, and describes in some detail a method of zooming around in 3D using multitouch. Of course, this picture seems to imply that it's for jumping through some representative icons on a 3D plane, but the patent seems more concerned with the core mechanics of using multiple fingers at once to get around in 3D space and manipulate 3D objects -- and then going to great lengths to cover Apple's back in regards to multitouch, capacitive touch, and "multifunction" devices. So, this could be something we see in "the tablet," the next iPhone or even never, but at least we can rest assured that pinch to zoom won't be the only multitouch game in town forever.

3D UI patent snapped up by Apple in 2008: could be bases-covering, could be life-changing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Liquid Image, known for attaching obtrusive cameras to adventure sport eyewear, has unveiled its surprisingly streamlined 335 Snow Camera Goggles. Using the goggles' built-in camera, you can now have certifiable video proof that you are a lousy skier.

The 335 Snow Camera Goggles, to be officially announced this week at CES, pack a 5 megapixel camera, capable of shooting 720 x 480 video. They only come with 16 MB of memory on board, but you can expand that with a Micro SD card to capture your entire snow plow down the mountain. The camera is activated by built-in controls on the side of the goggles, designed with big buttons for your chunky, gloved fingers.

More important than filming your skiing or snowboarding, however, might be the ability to film what you come across while you're skiing or snowboarding. A preliminary test of the goggles on the Ski Free mountain captured this rare shot of the Abominable Snowman:

You'll be able to record your turn on the slopes (and confirm the existence of cryptozoological creatures) by picking up the 335 Snow Camera Goggles for $149 sometime in July. [CNET]

If you are not familiar with Spotify — an online subscription based music service with millions of songs in its catalog that offers offline synchronization with the desktop and some mobile devices — there is a high likelihood you are living Stateside. Even though it still not available in the U.S. — really, thanks RIAA — TechCrunch is reporting that Google and Spotify are working together on some sort of partnership that would perhaps build Spotify support right into Android 2.1, and potentially the Nexus One. Details are scarce about whether this partnership would result in a free, ad supported online music catalog for consumers (doubtful) or a subscription based service to compete with Apple iTunes Music Store. Either way, we are keeping our fingers crossed that offline synchronization stays on the table at some level, paid or not. This does make us curious though, would any of you switch to a subscription based service like Spotify if it allowed for offline synchronization? Or is owning/sharing/dominating your MP3 library a complete necessity?

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Good news, everyone! Our very own iPhone / iPod touch app is finally really available in Apple's much talked about and critically acclaimed App Store! That's right, all the excitement and info you've come to know and love from Engadget is now bottled in an easy to digest and delicious iPhone form. The application -- easily downloadable from your device or iTunes -- features a whole bunch of useful features such as offline viewing, built in streaming for The Engadget Show, in-app tipping (you know, for when you see the next iPhone), and all kinds of customization options. You can download the app right here, or click on the image above.

Even better than this? We've got more apps on the way! Before CES (fingers crossed), you should see both a BlackBerry and webOS version of the Engadget application, and plans for the Android version are already in motion.

Lastly, a big, big, big thanks to the team at AOL that actually made this thing a reality: Sun Sachs, Andy Averbuch, Hareesh P, Anibal Rosado, Rajesh Kumar, Rich Foster, Claudeland Louis, Mike Wolstat, Eric Wedge, Vikas B R, Asha Indira and Bob Gurwin. You guys rule.

Engadget for iPhone / iPod touch: available now! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No official announcements from Palm, but the Sprint support website seems to have spilled the proverbial beans on webOS 1.3.5. Listed with a release date of 12/28/09, and fixes that include:

- Improvement in battery life optimization when in marginal coverage areas.
- QCELP capability fix to allow play and audio of video sent via MMS.
- Launch Google Maps or Sprint Nav when tapping an address from contacts.
- Minimized package of MR size through binary difference. Customers can now download over 2G connections if necessary.

Not the most mind-blowing release notes, but all you webOS sympathizers keep your eyes peeled and your fingers on the update trigger.

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There are commercial gloves designed to work with touchscreens, but you can achieve the same functionality with your current pair of gloves using a needle and some conductive thread.

The iPhone screen is capacative, meaning that it requires your finger to complete a circuit in order to work. So, by sewing some conductive thread in small patches on the fingers of your gloves (a circle of about 1/4" or 6mm in diameter is recommended) and larger patches on the inside area of the fingertip, you should be able to use your touchscreen with an acceptable degree of accuracy.

Still, I have to imagine that this modification would be useless on anything other than tight-fitting gloves. The thick gloves that actually keep your hands warm would be far too bulky. [Instructables via Lifehacker]

If you’re currently using every other Android device besides the Motorola DROID, you might have thought that Google was holding out on that navigation love. Luckily, and just in time for your holiday travels, Google Maps Navigation has just been made available for Android 1.6. Now your myTouch 3G, Motorola CLIQ  and T-Mobile G1 can better help you in getting around your in-laws’ town for turkey day with GPS voice navigation, automatic re-routing and Google’s new Layers feature for navigation. Unfortunately for Hero and Eris users, you’re left out in the dark until HTC and your respective carriers crank out that 1.6 Donut update for your phones. We’re crossing our fingers for you that it hits before Christmas.

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The rest of your body may be mangled beyond recognition in a serious motorcycle accident, but your hand will be pristine from the wrist up when the police find it in a nearby ditch thanks to the Handroid glove.

Seriously though, this is some bad ass body armor for you hands. It features a rugged exoskeleton that cushions impacts and prevents hyperextention of the fingers, a scaphoid protection system to prevent injuries to the bone that connects the thumb to the wrist, honeycomb gel impact protection, wrist guard shrouds, and the BOA lacing system for a superior fit.

Pricing information has not been announced, but look for it on store shelves in March. While you're at it, you might want to protect your whole body with some of the super-advanced looking upper and lower body armor from Knox. [Knox via Uncrate via DVICE]