Doesn’t look too bad for a $95 Android tablet, huh? Well, there’s plenty more where that came from. Scattered along the main halls of CeBIT are dozens of Chinese and Taiwanese consumer electronics resellers looking to sell products to new customers, and this year they sure loaded up the suitcases with cheap Android / Windows CE tablets. For the most part all these tablets (or small smartbooks) have ARM 9 or 11 processors and 5 to 7-inch resistive touch displays. While some like the FirstView PC607V tablet (pictured above) have attractive skins on top of Windows CE, others from companies like Forsa and Huawei have gone with stock versions of Android. In truth, all of the ones we played with felt chintzy, but it was easier to lower our standards when we learned they wouldn’t draw more than $150 from our wallets. We’ve got a hands-on video with FirstView’s Android tablet after the break, but if that doesn’t fill your cheap tablet needs hit the more coverage links for videos by some serious Android / ARM tablet lovers.
Continue reading FirstView’s $95 Android / Windows CE PC607V tips a craptablet iceberg at CeBIT
FirstView’s $95 Android / Windows CE PC607V tips a craptablet iceberg at CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’re still not happy with NVIDIA’s failure to publish anything on its site alerting users about the doom that may befall them if they switched to the 196.75 drivers, but the company’s making an effort to get back into our good books with the first official video of its forthcoming GeForce GTX 480 and even a benchmark run against ATI’s flagship single-GPU card, the HD 5870. It looks like you’ll need to jack in a pair of auxiliary power connectors — one 8-pin and one 6-pin — to power the first Fermi card, as well as plenty of clearance in your case to accommodate its full length (stop giggling!). NVIDIA’s benchmarking stressed the GTX 480′s superior tesselation performance over the HD 5870, but it was level pegging between the two cards during the more conventional moments. It’s all well and good being able to handle extreme amounts of tesselation, but it’ll only matter to the end user if game designers use it as extensively as this benchmark did. As ever, wait for the real benchmarks (i.e. games) before deciding who wins, but we’re slightly disappointed that NVIDIA’s latest and greatest didn’t just blow ATI’s six-month old right out of the water. Benchmarking result awaits after the break, along with video of the new graphics card and a quick look at NVIDIA’s 3D Vision Surround setup. Go fill your eyes.
Continue reading NVIDIA GTX 480 makes benchmarking debut, matches ATI HD 5870 performance (video)
NVIDIA GTX 480 makes benchmarking debut, matches ATI HD 5870 performance (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Turns out Steve Ballmer’s talk up at the University of Washington delivered even more saucy info than we were initially led to believe. In a transcript of the subsequent Q&A session, Steve is shown to have delivered the following statement on the topic of large-screen televisions and Microsoft’s related hardware strategy:
For that big screen device … there’s no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it’s going to [be] important.
It’s safe to assume new form factors point to a smaller rather than larger 360 chassis, though the price points and further options he mentions are wide open for speculation. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to forecast Microsoft pushing out its own slimmed-down console to match up with Sony’s PS3 Slim, but we also shouldn’t discount the idea of an Xbox 360 with Project Natal hardware integrated into its shell. In other words, we really don’t know what Steve has going on under that shiny dome of his, we just hope it’s as exciting as he makes it sound.
Steve Ballmer teases new Xbox 360 form factors, price points and options originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of the biggest mysteries in the blogosphere right now is probably Crave’s Nexus One, which somehow developed a cracked screen while simply charging on the desk (sounds familiar, right?). Not even HTC could unearth the cause from its forensic inspection, but it didn’t rule out the possibility of a small crack growing over time due to, for example, “getting knocked around by keys” and repetitive squeezes in tight pockets. That’s fine, but saying “people sometimes forget that they don’t go in pockets” is surely stretching a bit, no? What happened to the awesomeness in the compression test and bend test that we once witnessed? More importantly, has anyone here had the same baffling screen problem and been charged £180 ($273) for the repair? If so, do share your pain with us — we’ve got a shoulder for you.
Bad news: HTC says the Nexus One doesn’t ‘go in pockets’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We aren’t trying to lump these two together or anything, but we figured we’d give those of you who opted for Palm’s second set of webOS handsets an opportunity to pool your thoughts in order to make the smartphone landscape an even better place to survey. We personally didn’t find too much new to laud on Verizon’s Palm-branded twofer compared to the original Pre and Pixi, and those of you who were hoping for all new hardware from the company at CES were undoubtedly let down. Still, there’s something to be said about a webOS product on America’s “largest 3G network,” and frankly, we’re interested in hearing how you’d change things. Would you have overhauled things more drastically? Expanded the screen size? Bumped the resolution? Enlarged the keys? Go on and tell Jon exactly what you think in comments below — who knows, the Pre Plus Plus might just carry your calling card.
How would you change Palm’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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