Filed under: Cellphones

Sure, we’ve seen a lot of product announcements from Hop-on accompanied by janky product renders over the years — but we’ve never seen an actual Hop-on phone, so we’re a little skeptical of the company’s promise this morning to release an Android phone at CES this year. What’s more, it’s supposed to come in under $200, which is right in character for a manufacturer whose major claim to fame is the “disposable” cell phone, we suppose. We’ll see if such a phone actually appears at the show — Hop-on boldly says this mythical device will make it “competitive in the high-end phone market,” which is probably sending shock waves through the offices of HTC, Apple, and RIM as we speak.

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Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We had the chance to get hands-on with Samsung’s WiBro-lovin’ SWT-W100k back at CES in January. Judging by the arrival of the product waifs, the 4.3-inch, WVGA touchscreen PMP now looks to be getting an official coming-out party in its native S.Korea. €341 takes the little all-purpose device with GPS, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 8GB of internal flash, and DMB mobile television home on a yet to be determined date. VoIP client, personal organizer, and web browser? Sure, that too. No word on the processor choice but it’s definitely not running any flavor of Microsoft OS. With any luck, Samsung will bring a US-speced variant capable of running on Sprint’s XOHM service later this year. Video refresher posted after the break.

Continue reading Samsung’s SWT-W100K WiBro PMP gets official, priced

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

“Hang on” is right.

[Thanks, Rye C.]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The votes are in for the best of Crapgadget at CES 2008, and it was something of a landslide. We’re sorry, mini phone, but the e-paper display that’s actually paper took the gold with a margin of nearly ten points over the runner up, Tole Pure. See you next year — if you haven’t already gouged out your eyeballs.

1. Round 13: e-paper display actually paper
2. Round 18 finale: Tole Pure really is a crapgadget
3. Round 17: the non-existent digital photo frame
4. Round 1: the Mini Phone
5. Round 2: the MP5 player
6. Round 7: 64MB Beer MP3 player
7. Round 8: Firetruck with 1.5-inch digital photo frame
8. Round 4: Fugliest display evar
9. Round 12: iPod docking pink plastic purse
10. Round 11: Janky-ass MP4 watch
11. Round 14: Hello Kitty with human debris
12. Round 15: Shredmaster Jr.
13. Round 6: The Apple Pie
14. Round 10: PC Desktop Duo
15. Round 9: spy recorder for little girls
16. Round 16: Music Player Sunglasses
17. Round 3: Boxing Champ
18. Round 5: Tweety! digital camera

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Filed under: CES, Features

We know there was an absolutely stunning amount of stuff going down at CES last week — yet strangely enough nothing that really stood out. Before Macworld officially gets started let’s bring it home with a few of the highlights of the news week you might have missed!

Bill Gates!

• Bill Gates: the exit interview
• Bill Gates: live at his 12th and final CES keynote

Mobile

• New Palm handset teased by Bill Gates himself
• Nokia N95 8GB US! (also, N95 gets red)
• Sony Ericsson announces W760 Walkman slider (hands-on)
• Motorola debuts ROKR E8 (hands-on)
• Hands-on with Mio’s dual-front GPS phone concept
• OpenMoko to unveil consumer-minded Neo FreeRunner (hands-on)
• LG’s Watch Phone: production please?
• Is this Windows Mobile 7?

Portable Media

• Sony’s new mylo (2) now official (with hands-on)
• Sony officially announces Skype on PSP (with ears-on)
• iriver’s new APlayer, Volcano and MPlayer Season II DAPs
• iriver’s crystal ball predicts upcoming PMP sexiness
• Hands-on with iRiver’s new toys
• iriver’s CES teaser site fleshes out Lplayer, Spinn
• Sony’s Rolly music player / robot coming to the US this spring

HDTV / home theater

• Warner goes Blu-ray exclusive!
• Mitsubishi laser TV unveiled
• HD DVD group cancels CES press conference in wake of Warner announcement: daaamn
• Sling announces SlingCatcher (again), SlingPlayer 2.0 with Clip+Sling, and Sling Cable modem (with hands-on)
• Sony XEL-1 OLED slips into US stores
• Pioneer’s Project Kuro: The 9mm thick, infinite contrast 50-inch plasma HDTV (hands-on)
• Hands-on with Pioneer’s extreme contrast concept plasma
• BT Group first to roll out Xbox 360 as IPTV set-top box
• Panasonic gets official with WirelessHD transmission system (plus hands-on)
• Live from Panasonic’s CES keynote (with Gary Shapiro)
• Panasonic’s gigantic 150-inch plasma is official! (with spy shot action)
  
• Texas Instruments shows off DLP DualView technology

Good times

• You decide ‘08: The best of Crapgadget at CES
• CES 2008 Adwatch: Best of the worst
• CES 2008 booth gimmickery: Best of the worst
• CES 2008 product names: Best of the worst
• Gear and loathing in Las Vegas - Engadget has left the building

Continue reading CES 2008: everything you need to see

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Filed under: CES, Features, Misc. Gadgets

Primaries schmimaries. Your vote is so obviously well spent here: we’re asking you to make your selection for best (and by best, we mean worst) Crapgadget of CES. Simply browse through the crap we’ve assembled below and add your pick to the tally. Hopefully next year you’ll be able to call in your vote via Mini Phone while sitting on your Tole Pure.

The nominees
Round 1: the Mini Phone
Round 2: the MP5 player
Round 3: Boxing Champ
Round 4: Fugliest display evar
Round 5: tweety! digital camera
Round 6: The Apple Pie
Round 7: 64MB Beer MP3 player
Round 8: Firetruck with 1.5-inch digital photo frame
Round 9: spy recorder for little girls
Round 10: PC Desktop Duo
Round 11: Janky-ass MP4 watch
Round 12: iPod docking pink plastic purse
Round 13: e-paper display actually paper
Round 14: Hello Kitty with human debris
Round 15: Shredmaster Jr.
Round 16: Music Player Sunglasses
Round 17: the non-existent digital photo frame
Round 18 finale: Tole Pure really is a crapgadget

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Filed under: CES, Handhelds, Tablet PCs

To wrap up its CES week, iriver has some pictures and scattered Korean text about its booth experience and product reception in Vegas over the past days. Tucked below all the self-congratulation, however, is what looks to be an as yet unannounced prototype from the ever-active iriver designers. The product appears to be an e-book of sorts, but with handwriting recognition and potentially a color display. Obviously, there’s no more info at the moment to go on, iriver has been feeling a little protype-ish of late, and we never got much of a product out of iriver’s last e-book, but hopefully we’ll be hearing more about this one soon.

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Filed under: CES, GPS

Ah, the wonderful world of personal GPS trackers. Upon gazing at the i-Tracker, visions of Cheaters arise in our minds, but we’ll try to keep the nostalgia at a minimum here. Transystem’s latest — which was proudly displayed at CES — reportedly houses both a GPS and GSM module which enables it to transmit tracking information to one’s PC or mobile in real-time. As expected, it can be controlled with a predetermined handset or internet-connected PC, and there’s even an SOS button that instantly beams out one’s current location. Mum’s the word on pricing / availability, but make sure you clear that history after scouring the net in search of one.

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Filed under: CES, Meta

Hard to believe, but the 150,000 some-odd people that flooded into Vegas for CES have all gone home — including your Engadget editors. Sure, it wasn’t the most exciting CES in recent memory, but it wasn’t without merit, either. Why, just think of the eight thousand HDTVs announced, blockbuster format war news, or iriver’s unexpectedly show-stealing lineup. One thing’s certainly for sure: you demanded we give wall-to-wall coverage of CES, and we’d like to hope we did you right. See you at CES 2009 — and every day in between!

Continue reading Gear and loathing in Las Vegas - Engadget has left the building

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Filed under: CES, Portable Audio

Sony’s been certainly making strides in its DAP lineup this year, and this here is just further proof of its success: a cheap knockoff version of the NW-A800. We’ve got nothing in the way of specs, other than the “Digital MP4 Player” title, which we’re guessing means exactly what it says. Look how convenient that record button is, folks! Another shot (which we spotted at an entirely different distributer) is after the break.

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, CES edition: Sony’s NW-A800 has a secret admirer

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Filed under: CES

The Tole Pure is alright, but the live demo was pretty awkward.

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Filed under: CES, Displays

All we have to do now, is take these lies, and make them true somehow.

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Filed under: Announcements

As our CES coverage winds down and we dribble out the last of our stories from the biggest consumer tech trade show of the year, we’re just getting ready for Macworld Expo. It all goes down next week, so mark your calendars and warm up that F5 key.

Where you need to be
Live Steve Jobs Macworld keynote
All Macworld 2008 coverage [RSS]

When you post the GO AWAY note on your door:

07:00AM - Hawaii
09:00AM - Pacific
10:00AM - Mountain
11:00AM - Central
12:00PM - Eastern
05:00PM - GMT / London
06:00PM - Paris
02:00AM - Tokyo (January 16th)

Leave more time zones in coments!

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Filed under: CES, Portable Video

Sure, clip-on PVRs aren’t exactly revolutionary, but the vast majority of ‘em require you to don some pretty fugly headgear. The VIEVU PVR-PRO, however, can be placed most anywhere on your person, so long as you’re satisfied with the angle at which it records. This little bugger isn’t much larger than a traditional pager and can reportedly capture video at 640 x 480 (30 frames-per-second), and while we’re not told how much internal capacity is housed, it can store some four hours of content before needing to be emptied. As expected, the rechargeable battery also provides around four hours of usage, and it’s not scared to get thrown around / wet either. ‘Course, this gem wasn’t designed for the casual lifeblogger, as the vanilla model will run you some $500 while the “encrypted police version” goes for two bills more.

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Filed under: CES, Portable Audio

The “Most Newest” concept of MUSIC PLAYER… for when Oakley’s Thumps are just too classy.

Coming soonest.

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Filed under: CES, Features, Gaming

Smells like cheap knockoff spirit.

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Filed under: CES, Gaming, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

While a bit vague in the whole naming department, this new no-name OEM PMP51 PMP is actually packing a quite a spec sheet. The primary focus of the handheld is supposedly 32 bit gaming, but sadly SNES is nowhere to be found. But lucky for us there’s Game Boy Advance play, in addition to Game Boy, Game Boy Color and NES. The 3-inch screen should show off that emulated Advance Wars just nicely, and the addition of a 1.3 megapixel camera and support for plenty of audio and video formats round out the piece nicely. You can also add memory with miniSD and play your ROMs on the big screen with video out. No word on price or availability.

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Filed under: CES

Hello Kitty meets hair.

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Filed under: Cellphones, CES

While wandering around the “International” wing of this year’s CES, we stumbled upon a number of questionable (and familiar) items. One line of products that stood out, however, was a company offering a modular solution for adding GSM capability to a wide variety of devices. Using what appears to be a proprietary type of connector, the SIM-ready card can imbue an assortment of gadgets (phone, e-book reader, GPS… teddy bear) with GSM functionality. It’s unclear whether this technology is being deployed overseas (or at all), and whether or not we’ll see it Stateside (doubtful), but it does take a novel approach to cell-ing up your gear.

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Filed under: CES, Handhelds

We got a chance to fondle the non-Menlow Amtek U560 / Aigo UMPC on the floor of this year’s CES, and we’ve got the pictures to prove it. The XP-running portable had a solid build, though the mechanism for sliding the screen felt a bit janky, and the overall size is possibly more than you want, especially with all the Menlow hotness coming our way this year. Perhaps a gallery of photos might help? Yeah, we thought so.

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