Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Creative debuts Android-powered Zii EGG for developers and OEMs

It's hard to know where to begin with this, but Creative has confirmed that Zii EGG handheld we saw pass through the FCC a few weeks ago, and proceeded to slap every odd marketing term the company has come up with over the past few years on it. The Zii EGG runs the new "Plaszma" platform, which has something to do with "StemCell Computing" and allows developers to simultaneously develop for Plaszma and Android. Since for now the Zii EGG is aimed at developers and OEMs, it runs fairly vanilla Android on top of Creative's ZMS-05 chip. The hardware itself is rather impressive, with front and rear facing cameras, HD playback, 1080p video output, OpenGL ES support, X-Fi audio processing, 32GB of built-in memory and a full SD slot. Other more "run of the mill" features include WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and a 3-axis accelerometer. The 320 x 480 screen sounds strictly ordinary, but on top is some 10-point multitouch capacitive input -- Synaptics' new ClearPad 3000 if we had to guess.

The big drawback here is the lack of cellular data, but hopefully somebody can solve that before long. The Zii EGG is a developer platform, after all, but Creative says the platform is "market-ready" for picking up by OEMs for production -- hopefully they aren't far removed from shoehorning a 3G chipset in there somewhere as well. The Zii Plaszma Starter Kit bundled with the Zii EGG can be had for $400. A video demo is after the break.

[Via DAP Review]

Continue reading ! Crea tive debuts Android-powered Zii EGG for developers and OEMs

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Creative debuts Android-powered Zii EGG for developers and OEMs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rogers Wireless begins 21Mbps HSPA+ rollout, a first in North America

It may not have beaten the likes of Australia's Telstra to the 21Mbps mark, but Rogers Wireless has still earned some pretty impressive bragging rights as the first carrier in North America to move on up to HSPA+, which (theoretically) more than doubles the maximum speeds of the current 7.2 Mbps network. According to Rogers, it'll begin to "progressively increase" download speeds starting in August, with the Greater Toronto Area expectedly first on deck to get a taste of all that bandwidth -- although Rogers does say that it'll "expand quickly over the coming months" in other cities across Canada and eventually cover the entire country. Those south of the border shouldn't feel too glum about the situation however, as last we had heard, AT&T was "likely" to bypass HSPA+ altogether and move straight from 7.2Mbps to LTE and the ludicrous speeds it promises.

Filed under: Cellphones

Rogers Wireless begins 21Mbps HSPA+ rollout, a first in North America originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feed! s.

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Viewsonic VOT130 and ION-based VOT132 nettops handled in the open

Not long after we first heard about Viewsonic's latest VOT130 and VOT132 nettops, the gang at Netbook News have gotten some hands-on time with the hardware. On the surface, it looks pretty sleek, and the abundance of USB ports is a definite plus, as is the HDMI port on the NVIDIA ION-based VOT132, but unfortunately we're lacking any performance demonstrations or impressions. As we saw previously, the slot-loading optical drive attachment is essentially the same form factor and attaches flush with the unit thanks to some aptly placed magnets, and the bundled stand is designed for the computer with or without the peripheral. So what's not to love? Well, the price for one -- the ION-packed VOT132 costs a hefty $514 US in Taiwan, with the VOT130 priced at a more reasonable $331 -- but perhaps that'll be brought down if / when it ever makes an official stateside debut. Video hands-on after the break.

Continue reading Viewsonic VOT130 and ION-based VOT132 nettops handled in the open

Filed under: Desktops

Viewsonic VOT130 and ION-based VOT132 nettops handled in the open originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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