CES 2009 -- Engadget Mobile

CES 2009 posts

Motorola's CES 2009 booth tour

by Sean Cooper posted Jan 13th 2009 @ 9:36PM

HelloMoto indeed, we came expecting that we'd likely have to give Motorola a pass, but were kinda chuffed to actually love what they've got going on. We were absolutely wowed by the stainless and svelte Aura, and just couldn't keep our hands-off it. Also on hand were the SURF A3100 and the green-and-made-from-recycled-stuff W233 Renew, with the A3100 being the cooler of those two offerings. A decent showing from a company that really needs it right now, here's hoping we catch more from them at Mobile World Congress next month.

Gallery: Motorola's CES 2009 booth tour

iCEphone makes trip to CES, remains unwieldy

by Darren Murph posted Jan 12th 2009 @ 2:11PM

So, there's good news and bad news. Being that we enjoy handing out the former first, we'll point out the fact that the Windows Mobile-powered iCEphone made the trip to Vegas in order to be showcased at CES. The bad? There's still no pricing nor US availability to take into consideration. Granted, the phone is designed to be used primarily during emergencies, but that doesn't make patience any easier to come by.

[Via OnlyGizmos]

Samsung Show finally makes projector phones sexy

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 12th 2009 @ 3:05AM

Is 2009 finally the year of the projector phone? Eh, not likely -- but there are finally a few models filtering into retail after years of talk, prototypes, and empty promises, including the Logic Bolt from independent manufacturer Logic Wireless and this puppy from Sammy. We're told that the aptly-named Show is inbound for release in South Korea before the end of the month, it runs Samsung's ubiquitous TouchWiz platform, and it packs DLP-based pico projector tech from TI, but that's about all we (and Samsung's US reps) seem to know about it. The projector can be used to view media stored in phone memory, pull up mobile TV via Korea's T-DMB airwaves, or simply project light, a function luddites may know better as a "flashlight." Most importantly, it actually isn't half-bad looking -- a symptom of a major manufacturer getting involved and throwing some won and industrial design staff at the thing, we bet.

LG Renoir hands-on

by Sean Cooper posted Jan 11th 2009 @ 10:49PM

Though it has been out for some time, we'd not had the chance to really check out LG's Renoir properly -- even though Engadget Spanish has had a chance. Of course, LG's massive booth featured an area dedicated to this 8 megapixel effort that we had to almost fight through to get at this phone. The interface is good, the weight and feel in-hand doesn't come off as $10 plasti-crap, and the touchscreen does seem to get its job done. Crazy presentations aside, LG's Renoir is a really solid effort, color us suitably impressed.

Gallery: LG Renoir hands-on

LG's Renoir spokesperson: he will jump for you, ladies and gentlemen

by Sean Cooper posted Jan 11th 2009 @ 8:17PM

Four days of late nights, early mornings, endless meetings, and drugs will do this to even the most stoic PR flacks. Almost magical video is after the break.

Continue reading LG's Renoir spokesperson: he will jump for you, ladies and gentlemen

Koolu's Android-equipped FreeRunner hands-on

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 11th 2009 @ 2:59PM

It's not just running Android -- it's running Cupcake! That alone should make it the envy of every G1 owner, though Koolu's custom-loaded FreeRunner lacks 3G and a physical keyboard (which, when you think about it, pretty much makes Cupcake a must anyway so you can type stuff). Ultimately, your average Joe still isn't going to want to use a FreeRunner day in and day out -- regardless of what operating system it's running -- but it's really awesome to see that the right hardware and software platforms are now out there and readily available for quick 'n easy hacking.

Gallery: Koolu's Android-equipped FreeRunner hands-on

HTC's Iolite poses for new picture and gets specced

by Sean Cooper posted Jan 11th 2009 @ 7:35AM

Nice to see the Iolite getting a little more play, and thanks to jouwmobiel.nl, a little more real. The specs we've heard apparently have the Iolite packing Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, 512 MB and 288 MB RAM and ROM, UMTS / HSDPA, quad-band GSM / EDGE, GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi. If you take a peek at the front of the device you'll see a button with a small footprint on one side and a letter A on the other which will most likely hook into its GPS system in some way. We should get a pile more information by the time Mobile World Congress rolls around in mid-February.

[Via Coolsmartphone]

22 US cities on track to receive mobile DTV broadcasts this fall

by Darren Murph posted Jan 11th 2009 @ 3:41AM

The Open Mobile Video Coalition, which currently consists of around 800 local stations across America, has announced here at CES that 22 cities are scheduled to receive mobile DTV broadcasts by this fall. The announcement was joined by a number of manufacturers as they debuted prototype cellphones and in-car receivers, essentially giving hope that citizens of 22 US locales could soon be tuning into 24 while trucking home from a primetime grocery run. Details beyond that are pretty scant, as most hardware firms are still waiting for the broadcasts to go live (or get a lot closer to live) before committing development dollars to receivers. Carrier-driven video services never have taken off here in the Land of the Free, but the promise of mobile airings of the Big 4 just sounds entirely more enticing.

[Via HDTVExperts]

Mobinnova Ice hands-on

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 10th 2009 @ 7:50PM

On the surface, the Ice from Taiwanese upstart Mobinnova looks like a decent WinMo set, it really does. The spec sheet's solid enough with a wide QVGA display, AGPS, integrated FM radio, HSDPA, and a secondary touch screen for navigation (a la LG Venus) -- but regrettably, the specs only tell half of this tragicomic tale. Up close, questionable engineering decisions start to come out of the woodwork. Take the d-pad, for example: sounds like an awesome idea, but the screen the Ice uses is so dim you can barely make it out under normal lighting. Not that you'd have to make it out, since -- as far as we can tell, anyway -- the only thing it ever shows is the d-pad, which begs the question why they're using a display here in the first place (we'd figured that opening Windows Media would trigger a transition to music controls, but no dice). What's more, Mobinnova's skin to take advantage of the 400 x 240 screen is possibly the worst manufacturer-issued skin we've ever seen on Windows Mobile, with text that looks like it was hastily downscaled to the point of being illegible at the Ice's dot pitch. Now that Sony Ericsson's said to have made the leap to these guys, we're a little worried for the future of XPERIA, honestly.

Gallery: Mobinnova Ice hands-on

Motorola Aura hands-on

by Sean Cooper posted Jan 10th 2009 @ 7:09PM

OK, the Motorola Aura isn't new at CES this year, but honestly, how could you expect us to pass up an opportunity to check it out? So yeah, we might have been harsh on it when we were talking price, but up close this is an amazing little phone. The housing material, build quality, keys, assisted-opening blade mechanism, and sapphire crystal lens are all perfectly done, the display -- while admittedly tiny -- is nothing short of completely stunning. This is without a doubt one of the nicer phones we've handled, though the jury's still out on functionality. Follow on to see a gallery loaded with pics that we're hoping show just how beautiful this thing really is. End of gush.

Gallery: Motorola Aura hands-on

Marvell announces 1GHz processor for tiny things that need big power

by Tim Stevens posted Jan 10th 2009 @ 5:51PM

Everyone's heard of the Atom and its 1.6GHz worth of ubiquity providing the oomph behind many a netbook, and, while not directly targeting Intel's frugal juggernaut, Marvell may have itself a contender with the PXA168. It's an upcoming processor intended for mobile devices that's aspiring to speeds in the 1GHz and beyond range. While we're expecting it'll be most commonly found in smartphones and the like (particularly those from Asus), there's a chance these could show up in some low(er) cost netbooks, too, possibly helping to keep that race to the bottom going for a few more laps yet.

[Via GadgetMix.com, thx Kamal]

Unify4Life's BlackBerry products demoed at CES

by Jacob Schulman posted Jan 10th 2009 @ 1:01PM

A duo of products on display from Unify4Life shows us just how much less productive we could be on our 'Berrys if we had 'em on us. The AV|Shadow and Garage|Shadow connect over Bluetooth and let you control a bevy of AV devices and your garage door, respectively. The demo we saw had the app controlling a PS3 and allowed use of the BlackBerry's keyboard and trackball to input text and move around, and it seemed to work pretty well. The Blackberry app itself looked pretty customizable and the UI was nicely done. Check out the gallery to see the photos of our demo with the PS3, but strangely they couldn't bring in a garage door to show us that product -- but we'll just have to take their word for it.

Gallery: Unify4Life's BlackBerry products demoed at CES

Palm Pre's "New-ness" event video now viewable

by Paul Miller posted Jan 10th 2009 @ 11:25AM

Sure, you might've enjoyed the highs and lows (mostly highs) of Palm's Pre presser through the magic of written language in our liveblog of the event, but there's something about watching it unveiled in person by utterly enthused execs that can only be conveyed by video. Palm's got its own video of the event now live on its site, so grab your favorite Saturday hangover cure, pull up a recliner and start soaking up Palm's own special brand of RDF.

Update: We've got the video embedded after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Palm Pre's "New-ness" event video now viewable

Palm Pre Touchstone eyes-on

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 10th 2009 @ 10:01AM

This isn't a Palm-branded party favor, a paperweight, or a doorstop. Actually, sure, it could be any of those things if you really wanted it to be -- but Palm's Touchstone is mainly about charging your Pre and making sure it looks pretty while it's getting juiced. It's a pretty wild product (and the first accessory purchase for many a would-be Pre owner, we'd bet), so we wanted to spend a little quality time with it. We weren't allowed to do much charging on our own, but the magnets buried in the Pre certainly seemed to do their job of keeping it glued to the base in portrait and landscape orientations. Oh, and just to validate what we know you're thinking right now, yes: we overheard several Palm employees call it "the puck," so you should, too.

Gallery: Palm Pre Touchstone eyes-on

Audiovox in-car MediaFLO hands-on

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 10th 2009 @ 7:58AM

Qualcomm's MediaFLO tech was originally intended for screens so small that resolution, artifacting, and wholesale crappiness don't really matter, but when you're building out a whole new wireless network for this thing, monetization is a high priority wherever you can find it. To that end, Audiovox is lending a helping hand with a new receiver launching later this year that'll plug into most in-car video systems and deliver MediaFLO programming straight to your back seat, your front seat, or whatever bizarre place (engine compartment, maybe?) you've mounted a display. We weren't terribly impressed with the video quality; generally speaking, DVD is probably the better entertainment option here, but if live shows are a must-have for you, this is just about the only cheap, easy way to roll. We're told 10 to 15 channels will be available at launch -- but unfortunately, Audiovox says that neither AT&T's nor Verizon's exclusive channels will be part of the lineup. Pricing hasn't been announced; if we had to guess, we'd figure on something like $20 per month, so you'd better really desperately need blurry TV when the drive gets boring.