Filed under: Displays, Peripherals
Those following every twist and turn of the
Optimus Maximus keyboard have plenty to sink their teeth into on the always dependable optimus_project LiveJournal today, including the tantalizing detail of a soon-to-be-announced sub-$500 model. More details on that (and a sub-$1,000 model) will apparently be coming next week, when each will also supposedly be available for pre-order. The blog also dropped word that the first lot of Optimus Maximus keyboards has been sold out, and will start shipping in December or January, with the second lot set to arrive in February. Those first few keyboards will apparently be “somewhat functionally limited,” however, with firmware updates planned “every month or so in the beginning” to bring them up to speed. Lastly, comes word that Art Lebedev will be introducing a “couple of new Optimus concepts” this year, with another model set to be released sometime next year, no doubt starting this whole long, drawn out process all over again.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Filed under: Cellphones, Features
Make no mistake, Google dropped a bombshell all over the mobile industry today with today’s Android announcement. Since the dawn of the handset we’ve seen little more than one proprietary device, system, and application environment after the next; when we’re lucky, maybe some of those systems deigned 3rd parties worthy of developing something more than Java code for ‘em. Even despite the endless promise of Linux and years of tilting towards open source cellphones has resulted in effectively nothing for mainstream wireless customers — but all that changes today with the announcement of the first free, open, standard (and standards-based) mobile OS.
It’s no surprise that Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, and RIM were absent participating in Android and the OHA; each of those power-players has built its mobile business around its own separate mobile platform: OS X, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry, respectively. But the cellphone company we expected to be first in line for Android and the Open Handset Alliance, the one manufacturer that is truly desperate for a powerful, pre-developed, open Linux mobile OS, is nowhere to be found. We are, of course, talking about Palm.
Continue reading Palm: assimilate with Android or die
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Filed under: Cellphones
Sure, a Google-sponsored phone OS in the way of Android is pretty great news for mobile phone land, but what if your really had your heart set on some Google hardware this Monday morning? Well take heart, because Forbes has the skinny on an HTC device labeled “Dream,” (most likely not pictured above) which could very well be oft-rumored hardware of legend, and could also be hitting the market as early as next year. Apparently the phone is one of roughly five prototypes that Google had built to demonstrate the Open Handset Alliance software to potential members, and HTC’s Peter Chou says in the two years it’s been working on OHA designs, “this is the best one we’ve seen.” The device itself, which measures about 3 x 5-inches, sports a touchscreen, navigational controls at the base, and a full swivel out keyboard. When swiveled the screen goes from portrait to landscape mode, but unfortunately that’s the limit of info on the actual hardware. The software apparently has “time-sensitive” touch controls that expands your area control the longer you touch. Icons for your most important apps — which are apparently email, text documents, and YouTube — are lined up across the top of the screen. There’s also some fancy stuff under the hood to keep an ongoing browser session open to speed launch times, and the browser downloads large files in stages to speed delivery. HTC is considering a commercial version of the phone, which we could be seeing as soon as the second half of 2008.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless
Sierra Wireless sure doesn’t seem to be skimping when it comes to USB HSUPA modems, with it now following up its recently-released
880U and 881U models with its new and somewhat improved Apex 880 modem. About the biggest addition here is an always useful microSD card slot, which should let you ditch at least one USB thumb drive from your bag. The modem itself is also slightly smaller than the previous models, measuring just 85mm x 37.5mm x 15mm. Otherwise, you’ll get the same peak data speeds of 7.2 Mbps on the downlink and 2.0 Mpbs on the uplink as before, and support for tri-band UMTS and quad-band GSM/ EDGE networks to keep you connected at all times. No word on a price just yet, but it’ll apparently be available in January.
[Via Electronista]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Filed under: Robots
iRobot’s soap-opera-esque trade secret and patent lawsuits against rival Robotic FX entered a new phase last night, as the US District Court in Boston handed down a preliminary injunction preventing Robot FX from acting on a $279M contract to build Negotiator robots for the Department of Defense. Saying that Robotic FX CEO Jameel Ahed’s admissions that he’d destroyed evidence “profoundly undermined” his credibility, the judge ruled that there was enough of a likelihood that iRobot would win its trade secret case to warrant an injunction — the idea being to keep Robotic FX from gaining any benefits from a possible theft. The judge didn’t make the exact terms of the injunction public, but she did order a trial to begin no later than April 4 — which means there’s still a lot of drama to come.
[Thanks, Jonas]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
