Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
Black Friday is nearly here with a legion of new gadgets, devices and products all designed to seduce you with technology. Thousands of gadgets are released each year promising to enhance our lives, increase productivity and deliver a sound ROI. Often, however, it seems that many products are released before they’re ready for the mainstream and any positives are negated by poor design, buggy code, or just being too far off the curve. This is the pitfall of the early adopter, but remembering Gartenberg’s First Law of Consumer Electronics can help avoid some of this pain when you’re doing your holiday shopping.
Remember Gartenberg’s Three Laws? We’re only interested in the First Law today: “There is a worldwide market of 50,000 for anything.” Unless you are part of this group of 50,000 — namely folks that install operating systems on a Sunday afternoon as a form of social entertainment — you need to look beyond technology for the sake of technology and see if what you’re about to purchase meets the three criteria below. If it doesn’t, you might want to wait for version 3.0.
Continue reading Entelligence: Black Friday
Entelligence: Black Friday originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/HTC_HD2_review_Engadget’; When Microsoft finally launched Windows Mobile 6.5 earlier this year, there may have been lots of fanfare, but there was little honest excitement. After a tepid showing at MWC in Barcelona followed by the proper launch this October, no one was exactly up in arms over the OS, though support from the big M’s partners was characteristically plentiful. Still, there was nary a ray of light to be seen in the otherwise bleak and basic landscape of handset offerings… until the HD2 came along. In August of this year, HTC showed off what seemed to be one of the few Windows Mobile devices capable of generating honest enthusiasm. The massive, full touchscreen device boasts impressive specs: a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a generous 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive WVGA touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and lots of other bells and whistles. But the centerpiece here isn’t the hardware, it’s HTC’s totally revamped user interface, Sense, which doesn’t just hide Windows Mobile 6.5 — it all but zaps it out of existence. Sadly for Microsoft, that’s the most enticing part of this equation. So, is the HD2′s new face enough to quell the bad vibes of Windows Mobile and make the platform seem viable again, or is that a challenge which takes more than just a coat of paint? We’ve taken a hard look at the phone… so read on to find out.
Continue reading HTC HD2 review
HTC HD2 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Not so fast, Internet Explorer! We know that you have great things
in the works for IE 9 — including Direct2D GPU acceleration, the 2D / vector graphics API that we first laid eyes on in Windows 7. And believe us, that got our attention — as well as the attention of Mozilla programmer Bas Schouten. It seems that over the weekend, the young man successfully loaded Direct2D support into an alpha build of Firefox 3.7 — just days after you announced its inclusion in the next version of your web browser. “Things are looking very promising for Direct2D” and Firefox, said Schouten, although “older PCs with pre-D3D10 graphics cards and WDDM 1.0 drivers will not show significant improvements.” And we thought that
accelerometer support was wild!
Programmer adds IE 9 graphics acceleration to Firefox originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s not exactly a wild accusation to say that the current native on-screen keyboard in Windows 6.5 is, well,
bad, and it looks like Microsoft has now picked up on what HTC and others have been not-so-subtly hinting at. While’s it’s obviously still not official subject to change, that fresh new keyboard you see above has been turned up in Windows Mobile 6.5 build 28002 by the folks at XDA, and is likely similar to what should eventually hit the public in Windows Mobile 6.5.3. They also say that since the source is in a DLL file, the keyboard is prime for some customization — we’ll take ours with the “o” and “p” in their proper place, thanks.
Windows Mobile looks to be getting new native keyboard in 6.5.3 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Our good friends at Shanzai.com have recently got their hands on what they believe to be the king of all
MacBook Air KIRFs, and put it through the ringer. Expecting a laugh riot? Not so fast — what we have here is a pretty decent netbook, apparently. Features include an Intel Atom N280, 13-inch display, good build quality, a form factor similar in size and weight to Apple’s original, a real chicklet keyboard, a remote control, and I/O options rivaling the original (including an Ethernet port, two USB ports, and HDMI). Not bad for $260. But don’t take our word for it — peep the video after the break for the whole sordid tale.
Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXLIII: faux MacBook Air review (video)
Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXLIII: faux MacBook Air review (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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