Gadget Train

We already know that webOS 2.0 will be arriving on older Palm devices and now leaked screenshots of the beta version of the operating system have surfaced, picturing it running on the original Palm Pre. A voice dialing feature and an Exhibition View screensaver are revealed by the screenshots, with the latter feature showcasing photos, an agenda, and Facebook app. The beta build is dubbed HP webOS Nova-Barley and bears a version number 2.0.1 for the unlocked Pre and AT&T/Verizon Pre Plus. Performance is said to be acceptable, but “not fast enough” and a few bugs remain to be ironed out. The final build of the operating system is said to be version 2.1. The release of webOS 2.0 for owners of older Palm devices will definitely be welcome, and we’re hoping to see it sooner rather than later.

Leaked screenshot shows webOS 2.0 running on Palm Pre, By Ubergizmo, 22 Dec 2010. Top Stories : Kinect-like motion-sensing on the iPad at CES, MacBook Air Review, iPhone 4 Review,

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Google Translate gets Doug E. Fresh-approved Beatbox button originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 20:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft is pleased as punch with the performance of their latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. While the devices that sport this operating system isn’t exactly as widespread as the iPhone, that doesn’t mean the figure of 1.5 million units sold is anything to laugh at. This figure took more than eight weeks to achieve internationally, and it should do its part in silencing critics who claim that the company’s new mobile OS is “a flop.” This has placed Microsoft in a pretty decent position to move from strength to strength next year, since the first of several updates will roll out in the next couple of months, with the addition of more mobile operators worldwide introducing Windows Phone 7 on their networks next year as well. Hardware manufacturers aren’t going to leave Windows Phone 7 in the lurch either, as they too will roll out a broader portfolio of devices at various price points to meet customers’ different budgets. [Press Release]

Windows Phone 7 devices top 1.5 million units in sales, By Ubergizmo, 21 Dec 2010. Top Stories : Pen Stylus the Next Chapter for Android Tablet Productivity, Cr-48 Review, Samsung Focus Review,

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The original Google phone got us all excited a couple of weeks back when an OTA update was presumed to be the oven-hot Gingerbread upgrade, only to disappoint us. Now we’ve got the most lucid statement from the Android chefs yet on when the real Gingerbread Nexus One will stand up, which is placed in the relatively ill-defined window of “the coming weeks.” Hey, better weeks than months, right?

Nexus One will get Gingerbread OTA update ‘in the coming weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to Nissan, their CARWINGS Information and Communication Technology system (ICT) for EVs will be a standard issue for the Nissan LEAF Stateside as well as in Europe. This system will enable users to use a cell phone or computer to remotely check their electric vehicle’s status. Not only that, they can also control some onboard systems at any given time even when the vehicle is switched off. Sounds new? Not really, as this has been available to Japanese customers since 2007. No idea on which company in the US will offer wireless connectivity for the system, but folks in Europe can look forward to Telenor Connexion’s services. Now, if only the Nissan LEAF can be programmed to drive to your doorstep by itself, avoiding pedestrians and all other road hazards in the process, and whisk you back home – that’d save your monthly expenses on a chauffer, wouldn’t it?

Telenor Connexion offers Nissan LEAF remote battery monitoring and AC control, By Ubergizmo, 21 Dec 2010. Top Stories : Pen Stylus the Next Chapter for Android Tablet Productivity, Cr-48 Review, Samsung Focus Review,

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Kevin Bacon hopes for the best, in an ad for the Google-TV-powered Logitech Revue.

Google has asked its corporate partners in the company’s new television venture to delay the introduction of products supporting the new broadcasting platform, according to the New York Times. The delay gives short notice to Sony, Toshiba, Sharp, and other companies planning to debut Google-TV-powered devices at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The platform’s operating system, a mashup of Google’s web browser, Chrome, and the Android mobile OS, has withered in reviews. Google has also found cable providers to be fickle partners; Viacom and other producers have proven reluctant to offer their content to the new service. With stiff competition from Boxee, Roku, and Apple, Google is having a hard time finding its footing in the nascent Internet TV market. And yet the market as a whole, caught as it is between emergent and legacy media, has yet to really take off; there’s plenty of time for the search giant to find its way. For many of us, of course, Google TV would seem to exist already: we call it the Internet.

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When you plug your phone or other device into the wall to charge, it will continue to draw power until you unplug it, regardless of whether or not it has a full battery. While it [...]

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Hard to say if you’re aware, but Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (best known ’round these parts at CSIRO) was the first to develop the WiFi transmission technologies that are widely used on Planet Earth today, and they’ve got stacks of infringement lawsuits to prove it. Now, the organization is testing out a radical new approach to solve the rural broadband problem, and rather than relying on newly opened spectrum or other forms of black magic, they’re simply tasking existing analog TV antennas to work a little overtime. Put simply, Ngara uses the broadcast towers that already exist in rural towns that receive television signals, and then with a new set-top box and a modified TV antenna, it’s able to funnel broadband internet into faraway homes. Recent tests in Tasmania — sections with higher populations of Devils than Earthlings — have shown the uplink working just fine, but they’re still a good ways out from getting data to download. Project manager David Robertson surmises that it’ll be around four years before the technology is ready for the commercial market, and you can bet your bottom (Australian) dollar that we’ll be counting down the days. And so will everyone else stuck in the Big Apple wondering why Jimmy McMillan didn’t get elected for mayor.

[Image courtesy of Geoff Ambler / CSIRO]

CSIRO’s Ngara internet transmission project begins in Tasmania, shows hopes for rural broadband originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hacked your Kinect recently? Then you probably know something most regular Xbox 360 gamers don’t — namely, that the Kinect’s infrared camera is actually capable of higher resolution than the game console itself supports. Though Microsoft originally told us it ran at 320 x 240, you’ll find both color and depth cameras display 640 x 480 images if you hook the peripheral up to a PC, and now an anonymous source tells Eurogamer that Microsoft wants to do the very same in the video game space. Reportedly, Redmond artificially limited the Kinect on console in order to leave room for other USB peripherals to run at the same time, but if the company can find a way around the limitation, it could issue a firmware update that could make the Kinect sensitive enough to detect individual finger motions and inevitably lead to gesture control. One of multiple ways Microsoft intends to make the world of Minority Report a reality, we’re sure.

Microsoft seeking to quadruple Kinect accuracy? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It sounds like all of NVIDIA’s wrangling and cajoling finally paid off, if a couple of analysts are to be believed — both say the company’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset is racking up wins in the tablet space. We’ve seen it seemingly raise the bar for smartphone silicon in the LG Star and tease us in slate after slate, but Citigroup’s Glen Yeung says that Samsung has “placed a sizeable order with Nvidia for Tegra 2 chips in the first half of 2011, geared for both tablets and smartphones,” and BMO Capital Markets analyst Ambrish Srivastava anticipates the next Galaxy Tab will be one of the devices that use it. If that sounds obvious, remember that Samsung was supposed to be producing a dual-core chip of its own. What could cause companies to embrace Tegra 2, if that’s indeed what’s happening? Any number of reasons, to be sure, but Glen Yeung also says that Google has made Tegra the reference design for Honeycomb, aka Android 3.0, and so Tegra 2 may sound like a fast track to victory in the budding tablet space. Here’s hoping it’s a good choice for consumers, too.

Samsung nabs Tegra 2 for Galaxy Tab 2, Google makes Tegra the Honeycomb reference platform? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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