We've already had a pretty clear indication that Motorola's Q11 was nearing a release in Brazil and, according to ZumoBlog, everything is now set to finally get official tomorrow. That, however, hasn't stopped the site from getting its hands on the phone today, and it's thankfully snapped a few pics of it to give folks a peek at what's in store. Of course, the pics of the Q9 lookalike don't exactly tell the whole story, as the big news is added WiFi and GPS, and, unfortunately, a lack of 3G. Still, if that's a trade-off you can get behind, you can keep watch on the site for a promised video hands-on, and set aside the $899 it'll cost you to get an unlocked version of the phone.
Okoro apparently doesn't have much time for design changes, or even model name changes, but the company has at least seen fit to give its low-profile OMS-SX100 a considerable spec-bump and, apparently, a reduction in power consumption. That latter bit seems to come largely as a result of the low-wattage AMD Athlon X2 4850e processor at the heart of the system, which gets backed up by 2GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive (upgradeable to 1TB), 8-channel LPCM audio via HDMI, NVIDIA 8200 graphics, and an optional Blu-ray drive, to name a few features. The company is also promising CableCARD and SAGETV HDPVR models in the future, but if that's beyond your needs, you can snag the current model right now for $1695.
Pininfarina said it was going to build an electric car and, go figure, it's actually built one. As we had heard earlier, the car, now dubbed the B0, is the result of a collaboration with the Bolloré Group, which was mostly responsible for the car's lithium metal polymer battery pack. Pininfarina, for its part, seems to have handled just about everything else, and it sure looks to have gone all out, with the car promising a range of 150 miles and a reasonable top speed of 80 mph, plus some suitably nifty touches like two LCD screens for instrumentation, and even some solar cells on the roof to help top off the battery (most of the charging while driving is done with regenerative braking). Pininfarina is also apparently still ticking to its 2010 roll-out date, with mass production set to begin in late 2009 -- no promises on a price just yet though.
Details on this one are about as light as can be at the moment, but The Wall Street Journal has it that HP is aiming to expand its iPAQ smartphone line into the consumer market with a new model that it'll market to both average consumers and corporate users alike. According to "people briefed on the plan," the phone will have both a touchscreen and a keypad and, naturally, it'll run Windows Mobile 6.1 -- oh, and it'll be able to "send and receive emails, and access the Internet." While there's no indication of a price just yet, word is the device will be available in Europe first within the next two months, with a worldwide release to follow sometime thereafter.
Best Buy sure looks to be aiming high with its first Insignia-branded GPS units, which will apparently not only pack all the expected run-of-the-mill specs but two-way, Dash-like communication as well. That desirable feature will be included on both the 4.3-inch NS-CNV20 and 3.5-inch NS-CNV10 models, each of which make use of that cellular connectivity to provide real-time traffic information and access to Google Local Search, among other things, all of which will be free for the first year (no word on pricing after that). In addition to a larger screen, the $499 NS-CNV20 will also give you some built-in Bluetooth, but if that's more than you need, you can save a $100 and opt for the $399 NS-CNV10. Look for both to go on sale October 19th.
Well, it looks like Toshiba isn't just keeping its Cell-based SpursEngine chip confined to its laptops and super-resolution DVD players, as Leadtek has now also taken the wraps off a PCI-E card that'll let you add some of that "faster than real-time" HD video transcoding to your desktop PC. Dubbed the WinFast PxVC1100, the card promises to encode and decode H.264, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video with ease (and entirely in hardware), and it includes 128MB of 1.6GHz XDR memory to aid in the process. Just don't expect it to come cheap, as the card's apparenlty set to demand ¥30,000 (or $286) when it hits Japan later this month.
It's been almost a full year since Samsung first announced its plans for a 3-inch WVGA OLED panel, but it's now finally delivered, and found a partner in the form of KDDI, which was showing off the panel at CEATEC. As Tech-On notes, the panel is quite the upgrade over Samsung's current top-end 3-inch QVGA panel and, best of all, KDDI says that it'll be showing up in actual products "shortly," though it's not about to get any more specific than that. As if that wasn't enough, KDDI also had a new "3D LCD" panel built by an unnamed "Japanese panel manufacturer" on hand at the show. It boasts the same WVGA resolution as the OLED and employs a "parallax barrier method" to magically "convert 2D images into 3D in real time -- check that out after the break, and look for the panels to be productized by the end of 2009.
It looks like those DIY 9-cell Wind batteries could soon be a thing of the past, as some seemingly legit pictures of a supposedly official 9-cell battery for the netbook have now turned up on the Eee PC News website. Apparently, the pictures (more of which are available at the link below) came straight from an unnamed battery manufacturer and, yes, it's still in prototype form, which hopefully means there's still some refining to be done. There's no indication of a release date, unfortunately, but Eee PC News seems confident, for one reason or another, that the batteries could find their way into Winds as soon as November.
The Keepon dancing robot has already managed to win the hearts of most anyone that's seen it in action, and it looks like it could soon be winning plenty more, as the bot's creators have now formed a company, dubbed BeatBots, with the intent of commercializing it. While they eventually hopes to get the cost down to a reasonable level, they'll apparently first be marketing a $30,000 Keepon Pro model to research institutes studying human-robot interaction -- and anyone else with thirty grand to burn, we suppose. Somewhat curiously, it'll be built with the help of Japan's Kokoro Company, which is better known for its slightly creepy robots like the Actroid than those of the cute and cuddly variety.
It's pretty tough for a wireless router to stand out from the pack these days, but D-Link's new DIR-825 models looks to at least make an admirable stab at it, with it not only boasting dual-band capabilities to pump out 2.4GHz and 5Ghz signals simultaneously, but some fancy USB sharing as well. That latter bit comes in the form of D-Link's trademark SharePort technology, which will let you plug in any USB printer or storage device and access 'em from any computer on the network. The router is also supposedly "optimized for HD video streaming" and, according to D-Link, it'll also out-perform most other Draft N routers in general and save the planet in the process. Sold? You can snag one now for $200 even. Those that already have an 802.11n D-Link router (namely, the DIR-628, DIR-655, DIR-855, or DGL-4500) may want to think twice, however, as they can now add SharePort support to their existing router with nothing more than a firmware update, which is already available on D-Link's website.
The folks at BIOTRONIK have been trying to make medical implants behave a little more like cellphones for some time now, and it looks like they're still keeping at it, with the EU recently green-lighting its latest home monitoring system that lets physicians keep tab on patients at home. As with its other systems, this one relies on the GSM network to send vital information to the patient's physician (with a base station acting as a go-between), but it now boasts an "intelligent traffic light system" that promises to let physicians quickly monitor the status of a number of different patients, and even customize the alerts via the web if they like. The system also promises to work with a whole range of different implants, including pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices, and the company expects it to be widely available in early 2009, though a lucky few will be able to start using it this month.
A handheld device with two screens isn't nearly the radical notion it once was, but Microsoft Research's Ken Hinckley seems to think there's still plenty of untapped potential with the idea, and he's actually taken things so far as to build an actual prototype device. As you'll notice, however, he didn't exactly build the so-called "Codex" from scratch, choosing instead to use two OQO Model 02s and folding case to hold 'em together. That, notably, lets him arrange the two screens into various positions that he calls "postures," like a laptop posture (which also lets him take advantage of the OQO's sliding keyboard), or a "battleship posture" that gives two people sitting across from each other their own screen. The big idea there being that the device adapts to different tasks, and actually uses the dual screens as two screens as opposed to one large screen. As should be clear, however, this is very much a research project, and there's no indication of an actual product in the offing, although, as Ken points out, there's not much stopping anyone from building their own -- you'll just have to bring your own code.
We were suitably impressed by ASUS's netbook moniker-defying N10 when we got our hands on it earlier this month, and it seems to at least be able to hold its own with Call of Duty 4, but if you're looking for a bit more information to inform your potential purchase, you may want to hit up the link below to check out Mobile Computer's full review of the ultraportable. As you might expect, they were especially impressed by the N10's performance compared to standard netbooks, but they're a bit perplexed as to exactly what the target audience for it is, describing it as an "interesting technological exercise," but one that sits uncomfortably between traditional netbooks and regular Core 2 Duo-based laptops and ultraportables. Still, we're guessing the N10's uniqueness alone will win it a few admirers, and if that $700 price tag ever gets knocked down, it'd no doubt have plenty more.
While a good chunk of this month's Professional Developers Conference will be focused on Windows 7, it looks like Microsoft has another little surprise up its sleeve, with CEO Steve Ballmer himself dropping word that the company also plans to introduce its new, tentatively-titled "Windows Cloud" OS at the conference. Of course, Ballmer isn't about to get very specific about the OS just yet, though he does seem to be dampening expectations a bit by saying, "just like Windows Server looked a lot like Windows but with new properties, new characteristics and new features, so will Windows Cloud look a lot like Windows Server." He also apparently confirmed that geo-replication and other features "designed for the cloud" would be built into the OS, and he confirmed the existence of Midori, but said it was still in the incubation phase, adding that, "the guy in the office next door to somebody working on Midori is not supposed to know about Midori." We assume that also means that Windows Cloud is not Midori, but we'll know for sure once PDC gets underway on October 27th.
NEC's already bolstered its EA series of LCD monitors with two frog-ladden models, but it looks like it's not stopping there, with it now also introducing the new 24-inch EA241WM and 19-inch EA191M models to complement its existing, 22- and 26-inch LCDs. The former of those boasts a PVA panel and the same 1,920 x 1,200 resolution as its larger counterpart, along with the usual 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a 400cd/m2 brightness rating, DVI and VGA ports (but no HDMI), a four-port USB hub, and some apparently discreet built-in speakers. The 19-incher, on the other hand, opts for a standard aspect ratio and a 1,280 x 1,024 resolution, but boosts the contrast ratio to 1,500:1 and knocks the brightness down to 250cd/m2. Look for both of 'em to land later this month, with the EA241WM running $549 and the EA191M setting you back $379.
