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Qi Hardware’s tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping

By Donald Melanson
It’s been something of a long road to this point (beginning with the company being founded by some laid off OpenMoko employees), but Qi Hardware’s ultra-compact, open source Ben NanoNote (actually, 本 NanoNote) is now shipping for just $99. That will get you a bare bones device that can simply be used as a Linux-based “handheld laptop” out of the box or, as the company hopes, be turned into anything from a PMP to an offline Wikipedia device. Something along those lines would seem to be the most practical, considering the device only has a 3-inch 320 x 240 display, along with some similarly basic specs including a 336 MHz XBurst Jz4720 CPU, 32MB of RAM, 2GB of flash storage, and a microSD card slot for expansion. Head on past the break for a look under the lid.

Continue reading Qi Hardware’s tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping

Qi Hardware’s tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Japan busts out Mickey Mouse-ified S Series Walkmans

By Laura June
Sony Japan’s just outed three newly styled S Series Walkmans for the Disney fanatic. That’s right, Mickey & Minnie Mouse can now be found gracing the back of your PMP — if that’s what you’re into, of course. The S640 and S740 models can be chosen in their wide variety of hues, then emblazoned with one of the three designs featuring Mickey, Minnie, or the pair together. Unfortunately for us, the engraving of Disney characters on Walkmans remains an underground, unofficial pastime: the Disney S Series Walkmans are available only in Japan at this time.

Sony Japan busts out Mickey Mouse-ified S Series Walkmans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung announces US availability, pricing for R1, R0 PMPs

By Donald Melanson
Samsung first announced its R0 PMP way back and July of last year, and we saw its R1 model hit the FCC a month later in August, but the company has just now finally gotten official with US availability for both of them. Set to be available sometime next month, the touchscreen-equipped R1 will come in 8GB and 16GB varieties (in black or silver) for $149.99 and $179.99, while the non-touchscreen, and slightly larger R0 (pictured above), will run just $99 and $129 for the same capacities in your choice of black, silver or pink. Both will also give you Samsung’s own Digital Natural Sound Engine 3.0 “sound enhancement” technology and DivX support, along with a microSD card slot on the R0, and Bluetooth support on the R1, among other standard fare.

Samsung announces US availability, pricing for R1, R0 PMPs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RAmos T7+ portable media player

By Ubergizmo

RAmos T7+ portable media player

RAmos continues riding the High Definition (HD) wave with its latest portable media player (PMP), the T7+. This model does not only handle 720p but 1080p playback, it can also do its bit in preserving your favorite memories as they happen in 720p HD video. Other specifications include a 7” display at 800 × 480 resolution, HDMI out and support for a plethora of audio and video file formats, including MKV and H.264 for your viewing pleasure. There is no word on pricing or availability though, but don’t expect it to break any records when it comes to its retail price.

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Archos’s budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video)

By Tim Stevens
Archos's budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video)

It’s been a few months since we last heard of Archos’s supposed new player lineup, as all the talk lately has been tablet-this and tablet-that, but we finally have some video of a new Vision device, the A43VB. Somewhat tragically, though, it apparently is not a real Archos device at all, rather a re-branded discount media player given the Archos silkscreen and a UI refresh. The good news is this means a low cost — just €99 (or $135) — for this 8GB model with a 4.3-inch screen and microSD expansion, but the bad news is that the result is slightly janky. The plastic looks rough and the UI far from intuitive, leaving our friendly video guide below to decry “I cannot exit the cats.” That said, this is not a final device we’re looking at here, so with any luck things will be a bit cleaned up inside and out before retail. Just don’t go hoping for a surprise infusion of Android before then.

Continue reading Archos’s budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video)

Archos’s budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Onda Vi20 portable media player

By Ubergizmo

Onda Vi20 portable media player

Onda has a brand new portable media player (PMP) in town, where it goes by the moniker Onda Vi20. It will come equipped with a 5″ 800 × 480 resolution LTPS touchscreen display, alongside 720p video playback support, compatibility with a wide range of audio and video formats, onboard storage as well as USB On The Go connectivity. Just in case you want to further augment its storage space, there is always a microSDHC memory card slot. No idea on pricing though.

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Archos announces new line of internet tablets for summer 2010

By Joseph L. Flatley
You thought that the Archos gang were goin’ wild with the svelte 7 Home Tablet (and its self-conscious digiframe-esque sibling), but believe us — the Android funfest is far from over. According to the company, this summer will see the range expand significantly, with new models featuring ARM Cortex processors (up to 1GHz) and “a richer set of features with screen sizes from 3- to 10-inches.” One thing that we probably won’t be seeing “any time soon,” at least according to the kind man we cornered at the Archos booth at CeBIT? An Archos phone. But that’s OK — we don’t even know how we’d find time to talk on the phone with all those tomatoes we have to slice.

[Thanks, Michael]

Archos announces new line of internet tablets for summer 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos 7 Home Tablet (and PMPs) hands-on

By Ross Miller

Why hello there, Archos. My, what nice Android you have there. Tucked away in a little booth at CeBIT, the PMP maker was showcasing its latest 7-inch Home Tablet. Unfortunately, it was pretty barebones as far as content goes, but the vanilla Android 1.6 was running smooth, and if company precedence indicates anything, the video playback is still fairly solid. The selling point here, really, is a decent screen and that $200 or so price tag. No dice on espying Archos 8, though; we’ve passed by the company’s booth twice now, and both times it had yet to be sent to the show floor. Instead, on hand were the A14VG and AV15VS, but there isn’t a lot to say about music players with the same feature set you’d find in PMPs sold at grocery stores — there’s definitely a market, but it’s targeted at your wallet more than your desire for cutting edge goods. Video of Archos 7 after the break.

Gallery: Archos 7 Home Tablet hands-on

Gallery: Archos Vision A15vs and A14vg hands-on

Continue reading Archos 7 Home Tablet (and PMPs) hands-on

Archos 7 Home Tablet (and PMPs) hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos 2010 lineup leaks (in Europe)

By Dave Freeman

So the latest from Archos leaked recently at CeBIT 2010, the European electronics show. The 2010 Vision line showcases Archos returning to their roots with a series of new audio players designed for the lower end of the price range.

Archos Home Slate set to grace CeBIT with its family-friendly presence

By Vladislav Savov

Watch out now, Archos is about to bestow a whole new category of electronic device upon us. It’ll still be a tablet to the knowledgeable among us, but the rest of the world will know the Home Slate as an FDA — a family digital assistant. Listed on CeBIT’s exhibitor guide, this new multimedia player cum home organizer will offer WiFi connectivity and a web browser along with the usual suite of photo, video and music playback options. We’d heard earlier that Archos was planning new tablets aimed specifically at in-home use, and the A70HB model number here would suggest that this might be the rumored Archos 7 Android tablet pictured above. Whether it be 7 inches or 17, you can rest assured we’ll be digging this up at CeBIT shortly to figure out if those family-assisting features are worthy of the highfalutin marketing that accompanies them.

[Thanks, David V.]

Archos Home Slate set to grace CeBIT with its family-friendly presence originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mio stuns at CeBIT with ultra-sleek Moov V780 MID

By Darren Murph

Uh, folks — we’ve an identity crisis on our hands. Is this a MID with a penchant for navigating? Is this a PMP with pre-loaded maps? Is it an ultra-sleek navigator that just so happens to play music? There’s a fair chance the world will never know, but we’ll soon be stopping by Mio’s booth at CeBIT in order to get a view of things ourselves. At any rate, the Moov V780 is undoubtedly one of the most appealing things to come from the outfit in quite some time, offering up 720p multimedia playback, an HDMI output, digital TV support, a 7-inch (800 x 480 resolution) display, 600MHz CPU, 512MB of memory, 4GB of onboard flash and a pretty tremendous list of supported file formats. Sadly, it’s humming along on Windows CE (rather than, say, Android), but at least it ships with WiFi and optional WiMAX. There’s no mention of a price or release date, but we’ll be on the hunt for those tidbits as soon as the show floor opens up.

Mio stuns at CeBIT with ultra-sleek Moov V780 MID originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bmorn BM-889 portable media player

By Ubergizmo

Bmorn BM-889 portable media player

The Bmorn BM-889 portable media player (PMP) is yet another High Definition (HD) capable PMP to hit the market, where it comes with 720p support which rules out the full HD models from other manufacturers we looked at last week. The BM-889 does seem to come with a rather delectable user interface coupled with a 5″ touchscreen display, support for MKV, FLV, RMVB and AVI formats, and a TV-out port. No idea on availability nor pricing as at press time though.

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