You’d think that Nokia would want to do a better job of building up such important product announcements with a long, drawn-out series of frustratingly unhelpful teasers, viral videos, and global PR campaigns, but instead, it turns out that the rumored E72 and 5530 XpressMusic have been officially unveiled at the company’s Connection 09 event in Singapore. The E72 is arguably the bigger announcement of the two, succeeding the E71 by adding a whopping 5 megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack (thank goodness), integrated compass, 10.2Mbps HSDPA, and an optical navigation pad; it’ll hit in the third quarter for €350 (about $489). Follow the break for video of the E72 in slick, polished, high-orchestrated marketing action. Next up, as we’d heard, the 5530 ends up being a small step down from the 5800 in the S60 5th Edition totem pole, offering just EDGE data without any form of 3G (though you’ve still got WiFi). It’s got a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5mm jack, and a 640 x 360 touchscreen display. Like the E72 it’ll be available in the third quarter; it’ll retail for €199 (about $278) unlocked.

[Thanks, nabs]

Read – Nokia E72
Read – Nokia 5530 XpressMusic

Continue reading Nokia E72, 5530 XpressMusic get official

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia E72, 5530 XpressMusic get official originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos hit us with a couple new laptops earlier this week in Paris, and just as you’d expect, the crew from ArchosFans was there to grab some video of the new machines. The new Archos 10s pretty much just the Archos 10 repackaged in a slightly smaller package, while the Archos 13 is the company’s foray onto the CULV scene — it’s pretty nice-looking for $800, but we’re still wondering how Archos is planning on distinguishing either of these from the million other me-too netbooks and thin-and-lights on the market with the exact same specs. We’ll find out soon — they’re due in August. Videos after the break.

Read – Archos 10s
Read – Archos 13

Continue reading Archos 10s and 13 laptops get the video treatment

Filed under: Laptops

Archos 10s and 13 laptops get the video treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We noted that Alienware’s “All Powerful” M17x gaming laptop was a hefty beast when we got our hands on it last month, so who better to unbox this 11.5-pound monster than Bruce Pechman, also known as Mr. Bicep? Apparently Bruce scored one of the first models off the line after betting the Alienware reps at E3 that he could do 17 straight one-arm lifts of the demo machine over his head, and his maxed-out rig packs a quad-core Core 2 Extreme, dual GeForce 260M graphics cards and a slot-loading Blu-ray burner — all of which arrived in this gigantic 32-pound box. Yeah, it’s a little ridiculous — but you know you want it.

Filed under: Laptops

Alienware M17x unboxed… by Mr. Bicep originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You just pay for the calls

3, the mobile phone operator, has announced that from the 17 June, customers will be able to get the UK’s first £0 a month contract service.
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Read 3 launch £0 monthly contract SIM ZERO on Pocket-lint now

New handset replacing E71 inbound

Nokia has accidently leaked details of a new handset thanks to an slip-up by its official blog, Nokia Conversations.
…

Read Nokia E72 leaked on Pocket-lint now

We’re actually surprised we didn’t make the connection earlier, but word on the street today is the the rumored Samsung Omnia Pro will actually be a renamed Louvre B7610, a set that’s been popping up a lot lately. Makes sense — the Louvre’s 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED screen, 800MHz processor, and 5.1 megapixel camera match up nicely with the Omnia line. It’s running Windows Mobile 6.1 right now, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if the rumored August release date is held back to September or October to coincide with WinMo 6.5. One more pic after the break, couple more at the read links.

[Via Unwired View]

Read – Connect-UTB post
Read – Beyond3D forum post

Continue reading Samsung Omnia Pro to be the Louvre B7610?

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Omnia Pro to be the Louvre B7610? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When I got up this morning, I threw my Kindle in my bag’s padded courdoroy laptop sleeve like I always do. A few hours later, I pulled it out and it looked like this.

Granted, this is partially my fault—I didn’t keep it in the ugly cover that comes with the Kindle, just like I don’t lock my iPhone or any other gadget in disfiguring covers, since I’m all about naked gadgets (almost entirely for aesthetic reasons), and I thought my bag’s padded sleeve provided sufficient protection. Apparently it does not when you have a heavy DSLR on the other side of the stuffing and some guy slams into your bag.

A book made out of dead trees would’ve buckled and creased and returned to its original shape. So would a reader with a flexible display like Plastic Logic‘s, which at one point was said to withstand getting smacked by a shoe. Which actually takes it one step closer to emulating books than the more fragile Kindle or any other E-Ink powered reader—too bad Plastic Logic’s reader is about a year away. (Though it says something about the Kindle that I’d sort of taken to treating it almost like a real book, and that this is the first time I’d actually materially felt the gap between it and paper.)

The story for other kinds of flexible displays, like bendy OLED, is actually even more depressing, since “progress” at this point means they’re now 5 years away. Given how easy it is break screens, and how much we depend on them now—witness the slow recession buttons, though I’m sure they’ll experience a retro counter-touch resurgence—rugged displays that we can treat like organic materials instead of delicate magic under the constant threat of destruction by mere everyday living might be more revolutionary than expected.

Or maybe I’ll just have to learn to be more careful. [Giz's Kindle Review]

If you use a webcam on a regular basis, you’ve probably discovered that at times, the lighting adds odd effects on the image that shows up.  Sometimes overhead lighting can create dark circles when you’re plenty rested and wrinkles you’d rather not be seen.  It becomes tempting to find an adjustable desk lamp to position it as a spotlight.  At least for those that mind how their cam is making them look.  Well instead of doing that, you could pick up this web camera that has a little built-in lighting.

The camera has a total of six bright white LED lights, which would be enough to give you some nice lighting.  While still also not making you look like a ghost on your cam.  The 2MP camera is on a semi-rigid cable that allows for it to be positioned where you need it.  The camera also has a built-in microphone and can capture video at 30 fps at 640 x 480 resolution.  You can purchase the camera for $89.95 from Hammacher and Schlemmer.

Source: BookofJoe

If you call Jason, his iPhone, Pre, Ion and pants all ring because he has Google Voice. The service’s biggest downside is that you have a new number to deal with—but TechCrunch says number porting is coming.

That means you’ll be able to port the phone number you’ve had for 5 or 10 or 100 years to Google Voice and use whatever phone you want, whenever you want, on whatever carrier you want, with your current number—meaning you’ll never have to worry about your phone number again. Right now, you can kinda hack it by forwarding calls from your current number to your Google Voice number, but you’re stuck with pitfalls like texts not being forwarded. Google’s also got an app cooking that’ll route outbound calls through Google Voice as well, so the service is more seamless—currently, your outbound caller ID is whatever’s actually assigned to the phone you’re using. Update: Lifehacker pointed out a few months ago that Google mentioned the possibility in their support pages, but TechCrunch specifies Google is testing it now and that it’ll roll out later this year.

I have to say, it’s been interesting watching carriers become more and more irrelevant over the last two years. Their fears of becoming a “dumb pipe” are certainly coming true, and cutting the core of your mobile identity—your phone number—completely out of their hands has to be at least a little bit scary for them.

Now if Google would just solve GV’s other major flaw—actually letting people in. [TechCrunch]

This slick Seamless Experience video from the Asus Computex booth is a neat glimpse at a future where even coffee cups have a story to tell. It looks, unsurprisingly, like Microsoft Surface. Let the marketing concept arms race commence.

Judging from the concept, the future works surprisingly well, so long as your desktop is populated with nothing but Asus products, computers, mugs and coffee products. [YouTube via Engadget]