Recent Comments:
A closer look at Japan's latest handsets {Engadget Mobile}
Dec 1st 2008 3:12PM The Japanese value R&D to a fault, which is why Sony Ericsson uses its CDMA division in Japan as a test bed for future designs and feature sets. It would be impossible for a Japanese cellphone to sell here without a carrier subsidy in the 70-95% range simply due to the cost of engineering. As an example the retail cost of a W44S before contract was ~$750.
It's also important to emphasize that the Japanese manufacturers intentionally sabotage a particular feature for each carrier in order to maintain increasingly shorter and more expensive production cycles that only reinforce the constant R&D spending cycle that leads to a false appearance of innovation.
I'll leave the DRM discussion for another time as that is a discussion unto itself.
Japanese anime studio Production Reed opens Blu-ray doors {Engadget HD}
Nov 14th 2008 11:31PM You guys also got the studio information wrong.
Production Reed is an old studio which was folded into Sunrise back in the 70's, and since Sunrise is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Visual Japan, the above titles are being reissued on Blu-Ray for the enthusiast collector, which explains the high price for the first boxsets.
Blu-Ray adoption in Japan is also grater by a factor of four compared to the US since the major anime production houses get a break on fees for Blu-Ray production in order to spur sales to collectors.
Joyswag: Gears of War 2 Limited Edition + 120GB Zune + bag + hoodie + MORE {Joystiq}
Nov 12th 2008 11:57PM Do want Zune to go with my Gamestop swag and new laptop.
Fanswag: Win Gears of War 2 and a pile of swag! {Xbox 360 Fanboy}
Nov 7th 2008 3:20PM I'd love to see some sort of concussion-type energy weapon that combines the longshot with the torquebow.
Yeah it'd tear your arm off, but that's the price of development.
The Treo Pro makes its video debut, inches towards launch {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 21st 2008 7:14PM @ Julio: Since when did Compal license the HTC Comm Manager? I would suggest you do more research yourself before correcting someone else who was right the first time, as the Treo Pro is essentially the GSM Touch Pro in a different bodyshell without TouchFLO 3D.
Alltel commits to LTE, adds 1M customers in Q1 {Engadget Mobile}
May 15th 2008 5:46PM I'm still surprised people are actually expecting LTE to go anywhere. When DoCoMo can't get past the second phase of trials after almost two years of testing, I don't hold out much hope for it to go anywhere past press releases and lab tests.
For a standard that was essentially thought of as a hack to W-CDMA in order to remain on par with WiBro/WiMax, people are sure betting on an unratified and unproven set of currently incompatible standards that still require custom chipset designs and heaps of spectrum to operate, just like W-CDMA.
I also don't understand how AT&T can say "we will launch LTE in 2010" when there's no equipment manufacturers lined up, no municipal planning, and no contractors outside working on cellsites at the moment.
At least Alltel was smart enough to give a realistic timeframe for its deployment, even though it was obvious they would go LTE because of the roaming coverage afforded to them by Verizon and AT&T (if it ever does get off the ground).
Of course, if its anything like WiMax (which it is, just with a different name) expect LTE to have the same issues as any high-speed wireless network, namely the lack of reliable and plentiful backhaul in order to provide the speeds that are being promised.
This is why Sprint and Clearwire merged WiMax assets and got outside investment from cable companies, search engines, chipset manufacturers, and equipment manufacturers. I have yet to see that level of commitment from anyone in the LSTI working group.
I'd be shocked if AT&T manages to hit the 20Mbps downlink they're expecting to next year on the 3G end since they're known for being short on capacity for 3G access, especially in urban areas such as Dallas Fort Worth.
Fanswag: Get a copy of No More Heroes on us [update] {Nintendo Wii Fanboy}
May 7th 2008 7:44PM Since my birthday is tomorrow and I'm buying a US Wii, I'd love to hear the sultry tones of Sylvia's English voice purr in my ear as I lay waste to my opponents.
The two most rebellious things I've done in my life is drink at 7 years old and five finger discounting from FYE. I got drunk off of beer in Mexico thanks to my uncles and I've got some sticky fingers when I feel like it.
T-Mobile planning limited UMA rollout for September 12? {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 18th 2006 7:04PM I work for a dealer in the Dallas area. In our web-based activation system POS, I noticed a checkbox with the words "Is this a UMA device?"
I wonder if it means we might get to see it in Texas soon.
Day 10 of Engadget Mobile's 30 days of cellphone giveaways {Engadget Mobile}
Feb 22nd 2006 3:18PM Need PPC-6700 or T-Mobile SDA. Love the site. Needs more Japanese cell phone pr0n.
