Remember last week, when Motorola said it was releasing an Android 2.1 update for the Droid, but then totally didn’t? Moto tried to “explain” the situation in forums, but didn’t really, edited its long-erroneous Facebook post retroactively, and ended up breaking a lot of hearts. Well, now Motorola has a new “Software Upgrade News” chart detailing planned upgrades for its Android devices. While this is certainly helpful going forward, the lack of clarification on the Droid update doesn’t exactly solve the confusion that got them into this mess: Motorola is merely saying that the OTA upgrade will roll out “soon.” As previously promised, we’re also going to be getting a Cliq update to 2.1 eventually as well, which is now being pegged for Q2. Sadly, upgrades for non-US handsets are decidedly less expedient — or not even assured — but at least we’ve got something.
[Thanks, Glenn]
Motorola publishes schedule of Android upgrades for its handsets, steers clear of specifics originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’d already caught a glimpse of it on Toshiba’s new TG02 handset, but SPB Software has now gotten fully official with SPB Mobile Shell 5.0, which will be available to consumers and OEMs alike. The big news with this one is that SPB has added support for both Android and Symbian in addition to Windows Mobile, all of which will be able to take advantage of a spiffy new 3D engine and a new “natural interaction engine” that apparently has full multitouch support. Other additions include some 3D widgets, and an array of tightly integrated social networking features, including Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Still no indication of a price or release date for the consumer version, unfortunately, nor is there any official word on any other phones that will come with it pre-installed.
[Thanks, Srle]
Update: Check out a video demo after the break!
Continue reading SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 debuts with Android, Symbian support (update: video!)
SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 debuts with Android, Symbian support (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, it just wouldn’t be MWC without a few Bluetooth headsets to go along with the new phones now, would it? Thankfully, Jabra has come through with its new Clipper headset which, like Jabra’s
BT3030, packs a standard 3.5mm jack to let you pair it with your own headphones (although Jabra also supplies a pair of its own noise-canceling buds). Otherwise, you’ll get some full, discreetly hidden controls on the clip itself, and a promised six hours of talk time and eight days of standby. No official word of a North America release just yet, but this one is expected to run £39 in the UK (or about $60).
Jabra Clipper stereo Bluetooth headset gets official originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Yes, that’s exactly what it looks like — a
robot that can look at a human face and make a pretty reasonable sketch of it. Featured at London’s Kinetica art fair last week, the Aikon 2 project boasts an “inexpensive” robot arm and software developed by a research team at Goldsmiths University of London. As you might have guessed, building a device with rudimentary artistic ability is no mean feat — leading the developers to try and understand and simulate the processes by which artists sketch the human face, including: visual perception of the subject and the sketch, drawing gestures, cognitive activity, reasoning, and the influence of training. The project’s website emphasizes that “due to knowledge and technological limitations the implementation of each process will remain coarse and approximate.” In other words, the robot “is expected to draw in its own style.” Which is, quite frankly, better than we can do. We look forward to seeing these things in the cafes of the future, where robots not only
fetch us drinks but chat up girls with offers to draw their portraits. Video after the break.
Continue reading Aikon 2 robot sketches the human face, uses its talent to meet girls
Aikon 2 robot sketches the human face, uses its talent to meet girls originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Okay, Lenovo totally knows how to use Twitter. The company’s press account has punched out a teasing little note, inviting us to keep a close eye on the near horizon with the expectation of exciting new products to come. We’ll concede that aside from the leaked roadmaps, we have no real lead on where this might be heading, but if the video that accompanied the tweet is anything to go by, we can expect a device that (a) almost certainly has handwriting and touchscreen capabilities built in, (b) is extremely likely to sport the ThinkPad branding, and (c) may or may not have a physical keyboard. That is to say, we could just be looking at a quirky new approach to promoting the latest X-series tablet refresh (X201T anyone?), or maybe Lenovo is going way back to its roots and is about to shock and awe us with a ThinkPad slate. All we know for now is that the video is after the break and well worth watching.
Continue reading Lenovo educates us on the history of the tablet, has ‘exciting products to announce this month’
Lenovo educates us on the history of the tablet, has ‘exciting products to announce this month’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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