Tech News Updates

It’s September so that can mean only one thing in Intel land: IDF. The second of this year’s Intel Developer Forums is this year preceded by speculation that the big blue giant’s next motherboard reference design — codenamed Cougar Point — will include USB 3.0 support. Intel’s relationship with the 3.0 interconnect standard can at best be described as strained , but motherboard and laptop makers haven’t shied from integrating it into their wares and as the number of devices supporting SuperSpeed increases, it’s becoming somewhat inevitable that Intel would have to play ball as well. At least until Light Peak shines its “instant obsolescence” ray onto USB cables next year . Then again, bear in mind China’s Commercial Times has been wrong before , so let’s not credit this as fact until someone with a blue name badge tells us so. Intel may finally be ready to embrace USB 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

The room is utterly packed at Samsung’s IFA presser, and it’s not hard to figure out why: Samsung typically goes wild at this show, and with the Galaxy Tab leading this year’s lineup, it looks like we’ve got another winner on our hands. Follow along after the break! Continue reading Live from Samsung IFA 2010 press event Live from Samsung IFA 2010 press event originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

If you wade through LG’s alphabet soup of upcoming WinPho 7 goodies, you might recall that several of them seem to be headed directly for AT&T later this year. Evidence for one of them in particular — the C900 landscape slider — just got a little stronger this evening on news that a phone by the very same model code has just been hooked up with FCC approval in the past few hours. Indeed, a quick look at the SAR report shows that we’ve got WCDMA bands II and V here, which means it’ll work like a champ on AT&T; unfortunately LG is (and always has been) particularly awesome at making its ID label documents useless for identifying phones, so there isn’t much other evidence to go on from this. Needless to say, though, we’re convinced it’s going to be a very interesting fourth quarter of the year for the Microsoft camp. LG’s C900 Windows Phone 7 handset for AT&T gets FCC approval originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Remember those Acer Android tablets the company has been teasing since May? Rumor has it they’re getting put on ice — for a little while, at least. They were initially planned to launch this year with a heaping helping of Froyo , but now the company apparently wants something sweeter: Android 3.0 . The Gingerbread build is supposed to, among other things, support higher-resolution screens that one might want in a tablet, something that has apparently also caught the eye of Motorola, also said yet again to be working on a tablet. This would be developed in close partnership with Google and fits right in with the earlier rumors and roadmaps we’ve heard and seen. Gingerbread is said to come out of the oven sometime before the end of this year, which would likely mean a 2011 launch for these slabs. Is that too late for impatient tableteers? Acer and Motorola getting spicy Gingerbread for Android 3.0 tablets? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

At E3 this year we were absolutely sure that Nintendo would finally release the details of its finger-trapping peripheral, the Vitality Sensor . The company revealed the thing the year prior and, well, it sure seemed like time to make it official. But, that didn’t happen, and Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway (star of the 2009 Vitality Sensor reveal) told Game Set Watch why: there was just too much other stuff. Yes, Nintendo “had a really packed agenda” and was too busy showing off another Metroid sequel, another Zelda sequel and, shocker, another Kid Icarus sequel to make room for something that is actually new . She continues that E3 is “noisy and adrenaline-filled, and loud and stressful, and it just didn’t seem like the best environment to introduce a product that’s really about relaxing.” So, here we are, left sitting alone, index fingers coldly exposed to the elements, forced to find other ways to relax on our own. Nintendo explains Vitality Sensor’s absence at E3: show was too ‘loud and stressful’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

So that simultaneous global launch isn’t going to materialize quite as we were told, but Samsung is indeed bringing the Galaxy S to the widest possible audience. The Korean giant has made its 2010 flagship official in Europe today, meaning you should be able to sign your life away to your favorite carrier in exchange for it very soon indeed. We’re told the 4-incher will be making its American debut later in the year, though a protracted delay appears unlikely. Pricing on the Galaxy S might not turn out to be all that democratic, but its comprehensive choice of more than 100 global carriers sure will be, and might suggest we’ll get a choice of networks when the phone finally makes its way Stateside. Hang tight, gringos, not long to go now. Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S launches in Europe, hitting US ‘later this year’ Filed under: Cellphones Samsung Galaxy S launches in Europe, hitting US ‘later this year’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Brace for a storm of craptablets : this week, Taiwanese semiconductor firm VIA said its processors will appear in a new slate of cheap Android tablets destined for the US in the second half of this year. Speaking to Bloomberg , VIA marketing head Richard Brown said the company’s Chinese customers will ship around five tablets, that they’ll appear at $100 to $150 price points, and that “the tablet market has been legitimized by Apple” — that last likely in an attempt to make Bloomberg utter the words “VIA” and “iPad” in the same breath. (It worked.) Mind you, the iPad certainly isn’t the be-all, end-all of tablet computing, but we wouldn’t expect to get a legitimate iPad killer for $100, either. We think we said it best in April: you get what you pay for . Shanzai shocker! VIA processors in $100 Android tablets later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 11:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

If you’ve seen the most recent Engadget Show , then you know that Kevin Lynch is one interesting dude. In fact, we had such a lengthy conversation with him that we couldn’t fit the whole thing into our allotted time! Still, we thought what he had to say was pretty darn interesting, so we wanted to share the entire clip here. If you’ve got about 37 minutes and hankering for Flash talk… today is your lucky day. Continue reading Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch: the full interview Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch: the full interview originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Now that Froyo has gone official , HTC has hurried to reassure customers that most of its 2010 phone catalog will indeed be riding Android 2.2 before the year is through. Prodded on the subject by Pocket-lint , the company has replied that it’s starting out with the Desire and Incredible and working through other “hotly anticipated new phones,” which should sound a reassuring note for prospective Evo 4G owners. A full list will be provided as we get closer to release, but don’t wait with bated breath just yet, current indications are that the software upgrade will be coming in the second half of the year. By which time we’ll all probably have a taste for Gingerbread . HTC: ‘most phones’ launched in 2010 will get Android 2.2 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 May 2010 04:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Sony just posted its yearly results today, and while a