Rumored Windows Phone 7 details surface ahead of MWC launch: Zune-like UI, no multitasking originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For your viewing pleasure, we present the latest Apple rumor doing the rounds this Saturday afternoon — namely, GeekBench results for a “new” Core i7 MacBook Pro. According to the results, what you’re looking at above are the numbers for the MacBook Pro 6,1, sporting a nastified Intel Core i7 (dual core, not quad) 620M (Arrandale) percolating along at 2.66GHz. Other curious points here are the 4.8GHz FSB, which sounds a little screwy to us, and a final GeekBench score of 5260, which makes current MBPs clocked at the same speed look like your grandfather with a walker (those ranges hover around 3700-4000 on average). The laptop in question is also allegedly running a fresh version of Snow Leopard (build 10C3067 of 10.6.2), which certainly makes sense if someone is out there benching a new Apple product, though it’s not a number we can verify. Still, if you were using a new Apple product, would you be dumb enough to publicly share this info? Probably not, which of course raises the question that this might just be a hackintosh or some other clever spoof (even if we did see a suggestion of new MBPs on the way recently). In the meantime, you can dream of having your pants burnt off by the above monster, and we’ll let you know if this thing starts looking a little more real.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Is a Core i7-based MacBook Pro strutting its specs in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yinlips is jumping on the e-reader bandwagon with a 6-inch, touchscreen E Ink reader all its own. While we don’t have full specs for this think-looking little guy yet, we do know that it supports a wide array of file formats, supposedly gets around 20 hours of battery life, and that it’s got an FM radio with recording functions. There’s no word on pricing, other specs, or even the official name of this product yet (possibly just ‘E-Book’?), so make your suggestions in the comments, and we’ll try to get word to Yinlips for you.

Yinlips busts out a 6-inch, E Ink-boasting e-reader originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The ironclad legitimacy of this slide can’t be confirmed, but considering what we know and what we’ve heard about T-Mobile USA’s plans for the next few months, we can totally buy what we’re seeing here. The PowerPoint masterpiece — which showed up on a PPCGeeks forum thread recently — has the midrange Android-powered Motorola Zeppelin as the “CLIQ XT” with a target launch of March 10, giving customers already flush with choices yet another way to get their Google on. Next, the Nokia “Nuron” (which looks an awful lot like a 5230 to us) is being billed as a “low-cost touchscreen” with 3G and Ovi Store access for a March 17 date with destiny, and finally, the mighty HD2 — which we already know is coming to T-Mobile — is said to be ready come March 24. Now, don’t get us wrong, the HD2 is a helluva phone — but if Windows Mobile 7 is really unveiled in a few days at MWC like everyone expects, that’s going to make the launch of a high-end 6.5 device just a little anticlimactic.

T-Mobile getting Moto CLIQ XT, HTC HD2, Nokia Nuron next month? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

At the introduction of the iPad, Steve Jobs showed a simple slide illustrating one of the burning questions in the industry for many years. On the left was a smartphone. On the right was a laptop. And in the middle was a gap. Apple, like many companies in the PC industry, was seeking to create a product that filled this gap. Indeed, the iPad itself reflects elements of the Apple devices that flank it. Its enclosure resembles the silver metallic enclosure of a MacBook Pro, but inside, it has the ARM processor architecture and operating system of the iPhone.

But the iPad is but the latest in a long line of products and would-be general-purpose devices that seeks to fill this gap, most of them short-lived. Some of the more recent ones include the aborted Palm Foleo, the Sony Mylo, Nokia Internet Tablets, UMPCs, and MIDs. Why are so many companies convinced there is opportunity in these products?

Let’s turn back the clock to 2002, the year Handspring launched its first smartphone, the monochrome 160 x 160-pixel Treo 180. It was the year that Verizon Wireless launched the first 3G network in the U.S. and the year MobileStar declared bankruptcy after deploying public Wi-Fi throughout many Starbucks locations in 2001. In 2002, PC World awarded its World Class Award for ultralight notebooks to the Fujitsu LifeBook P-2000. It was less than three pounds and had a 10.6-inch screen, but was 1.6-inches thick and had a starting price of $1,499. And it couldn’t access Facebook, Hulu, YouTube or Engadget — because they didn’t exist.

Continue reading Switched On: Mined the gap

Switched On: Mined the gap originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/general_sciences/Turbine_Light_concept_uses_wind_power_to_light_highways’;
Ingenious, eco-friendly concepts are all around us, there’s no denying that. This one caught our eye because it’s pretty innovative, seemingly well thought out, and good looking to boot. The Turbine Light concept (which is going to be a part of the upcoming Greener Gadgets conference in New York City at the end of this month) harnesses the power of the wind from cars rushing past to light up the ever-darkening roadways. The turbines use the wind collected to generate energy for the lighting, and while the concept lacks a lot of firm details so far, but we’re sure to find out more about it soon — we’ll be sure to check them out at the conference on February 25th. Hit the source link to see more concepts, along with other people and companies who will be there.

Eco shocker: Turbine Light concept uses wind to light highways originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we all continue to twiddle our thumbs in anticipation of the X10’s general availability, Dutch site Tweakers took some time out with Sony Ericsson’s Jacob Sten Harold de Kort to get a few pressing questions from the community answered. It’s quite a test — de Kort fielded over 80 questions in all — and there were a few big takeaways that should be of interest to anyone who’s got even glancing interest in putting this thing in their pocket in the next few months. First off, it’s still scheduled to launch with Android 1.6 Donut, but his words along with a post over on SE’s official Product Blog give us hope that we’ll be seeing 2.0, 2.1, or something even fresher down the road (to quote the post’s headline, the phone “will be upgradeable”). 1.6 doesn’t support multitouch in the framework, and indeed, de Kort confirms that the X10 will be a unitouch device, though it’s not clear whether that could change with a newer firmware or if there’s a hardware issue involved. As for pricing, we can expect this to launch for €599 (about $817) — in Holland, anyhow, where it’s on track to hit shelves before the end of the quarter. The subsidized pricing should hopefully be a tad less heart-stopping.

[Thanks, Len B. and Moody]

Update: The questions were actually fielded by Harold de Kort, marketing manager for Sony Ericsson in the Netherlands, not Jacob Sten. Thanks, domipost!

Sony Ericsson answers your nagging X10 questions, ‘newer version’ of Android will come originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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