Honda shows off three-wheeled 3R-C concept vehicle
Dig the idea of something like GM’s P.U.M.A. personal transporter but wish it would make you want to say pew pew pew whenever you’re driving? Then feast your eyes on the Honda 3R-C concept that’s just been announced in advance of the Geneva Motor Show. Nothing even approaching a roll-out date, as you might expect, but the three-wheeled vehicle would apparently use a battery electric drivetrain mounted low in the chassis for improved stability, and it even includes a bit of room for storage in the front, along with a clear canopy that apparently shifts to a windshield to give the “pilot” a bit more headroom. Not much else in the way of details, unfortunately, but Honda might have a bit more to say after its official unveiling in Geneva next week.
AT&T announces expanded availability of 3G MicroCell
It may not be the news that folks in some particularly problematic areas have been waiting for, but AT&T has now announced that it’s finally expanded availability of its 3G MicroCell beyond its initial testbed cities like Raleigh and Charlotte. The new markets apparently include some additional areas of North Carolina, along with new parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and San Diego, plus the addition of Las Vegas – the only entirely-new market of the bunch. Hit up the link below to punch in your zipcode for exact availability, and all the necessary details to get “five bars in your own home.” And if you’re curious about exactly what this whole femtocell thing is about, be sure to check out our impressions of the device.
Fisker hires Lambesis as ad agency of record; we expect the sex will sell
We’ve already seen at least one TV ad from Fisker Automotive, a minute-long spot that aired in the Los Angeles area almost a year ago (watch it here). Fisker recently consolidated its operations in California (sorry, Michigan), a move the company said would allow “greater efficiency and speeds up development of our new plug-in hybrids.” The latest sign that development is indeed moving forward is news that the plug-in vehicle start-up has hired the independent advertising agency Lambesis as its agency of record. As you might know (we didn’t), Lambesis is the force behind recent campaigns for SKYY Vodka, Grand Marnier and Dasani. If the company’s clips are a sign of things to come, we expect we’ll see leggy models draped over the Karma’s already sexy curves in no time. Apart from advertisements, Lambesis will also redesign Fisker’s corporate Web site, a project that should be done by this fall.
Sony launches its first 3D-capable A/V receiver for $500
So you’ve already planned on buying your 3D HDTV and your 3D Blu-ray player. What else do you need? (Besides some 3D glasses and actual 3D content.) If you have a home theater system in place and you want to hear those 3D discs in surround sound, you’ll want a receiver to which you can connect your Blu-ray player and then send the audio and video straight to your HDTV. Enter Sony’s STR-DN1010 A/V, its first receiver to be 3D compatible, passing both the 3D video and multi-channel audio through HDMI to your set. In addition to its 3D capabilities, the 7.1-channel STR-DN1010 offers the usual assortment of features found on today’s A/V receivers, including support for Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD Master Audio surround sound codecs, upscaling to 1080p for non-HD source material, 110 watts per channel, and four HDMI and three component-video connections. At $500, it costs $100 more than its non-3D equivalent, the STR-DH810, but doesn’t totally break the bank. Sony says the STR-DN1010 will be available in June.
Motorola A45Eco Slider Phone
Motorola introduced a new eco-friendly mobile phone called Motorola A45Eco which is made from recycled plastic bottles. It’s adopting a QWERTY keyboard and 2M pixel camera. The Motorola A45Eco slider phone featuring bluetooth, FM radio, music player, preloaded games(Spore & Sudoku), 8.5 hours of talk and 250 hours of standby time. It’s introduce during Mobile World Congress 2010 and the price is not available yet.
Windows 7’s European browser ballot screen revealed, rolling out next week
Adéu, Barcelona: MWC 2010 draws to a close
For the industry, the press, and phone geeks alike, the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in the lovely Catalonian capital of Barcelona is the biggest event of the year — and apart from a few unplanned power outages at Engadget’s home base, an average nightly rest hovering around three hours, and unseasonably cold weather, 2010’s gathering didn’t disappoint. Let’s take a quick look back at some of the highlights: Windows Phone 7 Series coverage Windows Phone 7 Series: that’s the name Live from Microsoft’s Windows Phone press event at MWC 2010 Windows Phone 7 Series hands-on and impressions (updated with video) Editorial: Engadget on Windows Phone 7 Series Windows Phone 7 Series: everything you ever wanted to know Liveblogs Live from Samsung’s 2010 MWC press event Live from Sony Ericsson’s MWC 2010 press conference Live from Nokia’s (and Intel’s) MWC 2010 press event Live from Microsoft’s Windows Phone press event at MWC 2010 Live from HTC’s MWC 2010 press event Live from Eric Schmidt’s keynote at MWC 2010 Hands-ons Aava Mobile’s Intel Moorestown prototype hands-on Acer Liquid e, beTouch E110 / E400, and neoTouch P300 / P400 hands-on Alcatel OT-980 with Android hands-on, we feel frugal just looking at it Bug Labs’ BUGbase 2.0 prototype hands-on Chumby prototype with Marvell innards spotted at MWC 2010 Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 and A50 hands-on General Mobile’s Touch Stone: how can something so wrong be so right? Hands-on with TAT’s dual-screen phone concept and augmented reality app HTC Desire first hands-on (updated with video) HTC HD mini hands-on HTC Legend hands-on (updated with video) iWonder why the logo is upside down LG Mini GD880 hands-on Motorola MOTOROI hands-on with video Motorola MT710 quick hands-on Motorola Quench hands-on with video Myriad Dalvik Turbo hands-on: Android apps just got fast Notion Ink Adam hands-on (with video) at MWC 2010 Puma Phone hands-on Sagen Orga shows off pricey SIMfi prototype at MWC Samsung Wave first hands-on: Bada-packed and super fast (video!) SK Telecom shoves Android onto a SIM, we check it out Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro hands-on Sony Ericsson X10 mini and X10 mini pro hands-on with video Toshiba K01 hands-on Toshiba TG02 hands-on Windows Phone 7 Series hands-on and impressions (updated with video) ZTE and OKWAP team with Intivation to deliver next generation solar devices On-site podcasts Engadget Mobile Podcast 035: MWC Day 1 – 02.16.2010 Engadget Mobile Podcast 036: MWC Day 2 – 02.17.2010 As fantastical as it might sound, mobile trade show season isn’t over just yet — CTIA Wireless and Microsoft’s MIX are on deck for next month, so stay tuned for the kind coverage of those shindigs that only Engadget can offer. See you next year, Espanya!
Entourage Edge suffers month’s delay, minor price bump
It was kind of inevitable with all these e-readers competing for attention at CES that some of the manufacturers would overestimate their capabilities and make promises they could not fulfill. One early candidate for the newly inaugurated promise breakers’ club is the dual-screen Entourage Edge, whose February delivery date and $490 price have both been elevated, albeit slightly, to their new values of March and $499. The delay is clearly the most significant change, though we should note the careful wording, which states that “new orders will ship March 2010″ and thereby leaves a glimmer of hope for early pre-orderers. The rest of us shouldn’t be too downhearted either, it’s a moderate time to wait, and we can just fantasize that the company’s busy filing away at that splendiferous bezel.
Windows Phone 7 development policies and guidelines leaked?
We expect to learn a lot more about Microsoft’s plan to entice developers to Windows Phone 7 at the MIX 2010 developers conference. Until then (March 15-17), aspiring WP7 devs have to rely upon rumor and innuendo to feed their curiosity. So here you go: three purportedly official Microsoft docs from January that provide a glimpse into Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS 7.0 Application Platform. First up, the docs claim that WPOS 7.0 is built around Silverlight, XNA (like the Zune HD), and the .NET Compact Framework — a mostly clean break from WinMo’s past as far as developers are concerned. Native apps are restricted to OEMs and mobile operators in order to extend the experience and functionality specific to a phone or network. Even then, they’ll be limited to a set of managed APIs that Microsoft will audit during the app submission and provisioning process. Sound familiar? As you’d expect, the OS supports preemptive multitasking — not that Microsoft will necessarily allow its devs (OEMs, mobile operators, and independent software vendors) to send their apps to the background. The primary development tools include Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010 and Express Blend used in combination with a Windows Phone emulator. Check the docs in the gallery for the full read and be sure to hit up XDA-Developers if you want to commiserate with your like-minded peers. Windows Phone 7 development docs leaked?
Vodafone 150 lays claim to ‘world’s cheapest phone’ title, ST-Ericsson works on thrifty 3G
There are only two possible reasons for why a gadget freak like you would want a cheap phone: you’re either a very sensible person (who probably got mugged once), or you’re saving up for the phone of your life . Oh, who are we kidding? We all want a nice phone for next to nothing, right? The legendary Motorola MOTOFONE came close, but check out these new bad boys — the sub-$15 Vodafone 150 and the sub-$20 250, produced by TCL. Fine, they may look more like toys than your everyday eye candy, but you do get five hours of battery, SMS, two games on that mini monochrome screen, and even an LED torch on the back — and what’s more, the lowly 150 is claiming the holy grail “world’s cheapest phone” title that every manufacturer with an interest in emerging markets would kill to own. For an extra $5 there’s even a larger screen in color (!), not to mention FM radio. If you want one, you better start flying walking to either India, Turkey or Africa where the phones will be launched over the next few weeks, or you can just gaze at Fonehome’s hands-on video of the 150 after the break. On a similar topic, ST-Ericsson has launched the U6715 mobile platform with 7.2Mbps HSPA modem for Linux-based OSes (Android and MeeGo, to name a couple), and expects participating manufacturers to deliver sub-€100 (about $137) smartphones in the first half of 2010. Apparently, the trick is to use “structurally-less expensive silicon, without compromising the end user experience.” With a 1000mAh battery, the platform will deliver up to 40 hours to musical entertainment — twice that of the Nexus One with 1400mAh — and up to seven hours of 3G talk time on one charge. Pretty sweet at first blush, except there’s no mention of what the CPU would be clocked at. Regardless, all we want is some smooth video playback from the “elegant and powerful multimedia engine” — is that too much to ask?
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