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eyes-on posts

Samsung's Blue Earth is saving the world from behind glass

by Paul Miller posted Feb 18th 2009 @ 7:30AM

The entirety of civilization seems fairly well and dedicated to one-upping each other in the "green" department, and Samsung is looking to up the ante once again by stating that "blue is the new green" and putting out the new Blue Earth solar phone to prove it. Sadly, the Blue Earth isn't quite ready to go -- currently it's only to be seen in non-working mockup form, though the hardware is certainly looking good. Samsung's showing off its eco-packaging and built-in energy-saving functionality, including an "Eco Walk" function to let you know how many trees you save by walking places. The phone itself is built from castor bean extract and recycled plastic, and Samsung claims the integrated solar panel saves up to 34.6% of the battery's energy. They're also showing off a hand-crank generator, external solar chargers, and even a solar-charged stereo headset. It's clear that Samsung isn't just playing lip service to green (or blue, as the case may be) but at this point in time this technology is likely to act more as a gimmick and promise of things to come than a truly life-changing device.

Gallery: Samsung's Blue Earth is saving the world from behind glass

Huawei's Android touchphone is a mystery wrapped in an enigma

by Paul Miller posted Feb 16th 2009 @ 12:56PM

We were really hoping MWC would be Android's coming out party, but while there's a hefty amount of name-dropping at the show, nobody much seems ready to put hardware on the line. And then there's Huawei. We were expecting a handset from them at the show, and they're halfway there, announcing an Android phone, but only bringing a non-working prototype to show for it. The touchphone hardware is decidedly iPhone-esque, and almost seems too button scarce to work with the traditional Android interface, but that's where the rest of the story comes in: Huawei is working with an "established design consultancy" to develop its own custom interface for the device. The as-yet unnamed phone will be coming to market in Q3 of this year, and Huawei is currently in talks with a carrier who will rebrand the device -- the lack of finality there left much of the rest of the info on this phone shrouded. We're looking forward to learning more about this device in the coming months, but for now you can check out the tease of a gallery below, and the even less informative press release at the read link below.

Gallery: Huawei's Android touchphone is a mystery wrapped in an enigma

Eyes-on with the teensy Sony Ericsson T303

by Paul Miller posted Mar 4th 2008 @ 7:43PM

Here's the story: this Sony Ericsson T303 is a tiny one. Like, really small. We spotted it behind glass at the Sony Ericsson booth here at CeBIT, and we could easily see it becoming a top fashionista pick. Unfortunately, the paltry specs are going to divert all but the staunchest supporters of fashion minimalism. We're also a little confused why Sony Ericsson still hasn't replaced that generic "SE 123" logo the phone was sporting when we first saw it in February. Forget to pay the sticker guy? Perhaps we'll never know.