Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

HTC quarterly profits improve by a third, beat even its own lofty expectations

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/06/htc-quarterly-profits-improve-by-a-third-beat-even-its-own-loft/

We were impressed with HTC back in April when it forecast a record $1.6 billion revenue for itself over the second quarter, but lo and behold, the Taiwanese superphone maker has gone and outdone that with a $1.88 billion income over the period between April and June. Reporting a very solid 33 percent improvement in profits year-on-year -- $268 million versus $202 million 12 months ago -- the company points to strong sales (no doubt catalyzed by Android's growing popularity) as the chief culprit for its newly increased tax bill. Guess that shows that having a wide catalog of high-end devices doesn't preclude raking in the cash, provided they're all desirable enough to garner mind and market share.

HTC quarterly profits improve by a third, beat even its own lofty expectations originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Wall Street Journal | Email this | Comments

Roverpad comes clean with five new tablet PCs, one running Tegra

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/06/roverpad-comes-clean-with-five-new-tablet-pcs-one-running-tegra/

And here you were thinking this whole "tablet revolution" thing was a myth, huh? Out of seemingly nowhere, Russia's own Rover Computer has just issued not one, not two, but five new tablet PCs for its nine time zones, with one of 'em boasting Windows CE 6.0 and the others running on Google's Android system. Kicking things off is the Air G70, which will boast a 7-inch resistive touchscreen, a 667MHz ARM11 CPU, 256MB of RAM, a 4GB internal flash drive, WiFi, optional 3G and a microSD expansion slot. Next up is the Go G50, Android-powered 5-inch slate that relies on a Marvell PXA303, 128MB of RAM, 2GB of storage as well as 3G, WiFi, a microSD slot and a USB socket. Going even smaller is the aptly-named Air G70, which checks in with a 4-inch display (800 x 480 resolution, though), support for a multitude of file formats and compatibility with navigation software. The Go G72 steps it back up to a 7-inch panel, but also throws in a webcam, Bluetooth, GPS chip and a hint of color around the edges. Finally, the 7-inch TegA W70 will hum along with NVIDIA's Tegra within, and being the flagship that it is, it'll also include HDMI, 4GB of flash storage, 3G, a webcam, 512MB of RAM, a capacitive touchscreen and Android 2.1. Pricing details have yet to be hammered out across the line, but we're told to expect the family on store shelves by October.

Update: We've received credible information that Rover may not actually survive as a company long enough to release these. Word has it that the general manager just bolted, and the vast majority of the marketing team was let go. In their words, the company is "practically bankrupt now," and it's unlikely the firm will find the funds to brand these otherwise vanilla ODM designs as its own.

Roverpad comes clean with five new tablet PCs, one running Tegra originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Hi-Tech | Email this | Comments

ASUS Eee PC 1015, 1016 and 1018 to finally ship in August (Updated: some shipping now)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/06/asus-eee-pc-1015-1016-and-1018-to-finally-ship-in-august/

Well, it's about time! We've been following ASUS's next generation Eee PC 1015, 1016 and 1018 since their CeBIT debut in early March, and all three are finally primed and prepped to arrive by the end of July / beginning of August. ASUS claims, the aluminum-clad 1016 and 1018 will be hitting the US market in three to four weeks, while the 1015 will trail a few weeks behind. According to Excaliberpc.com -- where the first two are already up for pre-order -- the 1018P will ring up at $429.99 and boasts a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and three USB 3.0 ports. The 1016P, which is pictured above, has the same processor, but comes in at a higher $499.99 most likely due to its 2GB of memory and 320GB of storage. The 1015 isn't up for order anywhere, though it did just cross the good ol' FCC, so it shouldn't be long before its final specs and pricing are revealed. We're actually a bit giddy to finally see these higher end Eees arriving, and the pre-order links are below for those reckless adventurers that may share the same excitement.

Updated: Well, well, well. It appears that the 1018p and 1015p are already on Best Buy's website and are shipping right NOW for substantially less than we thought!

ASUS Eee PC 1015, 1016 and 1018 to finally ship in August (Updated: some shipping now) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Netbook News | source

Excaliberpc (1016p), Excaliberpc.com (1018p), Eeepc.it (1015 FCC) | Email this | Comments

Oregon Scientific ATC9K HD Action Camera does 1080p underwater (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/06/oregon-scientific-atc9k-hd-action-camera-does-1080p-underwater/

Another action cam joins the 1080p fold. Oregon Scientific, maker of many a fine weather station and the odd helmet cam, has released details on its ATC9K Action Camera. It'll do 1080p video, five megapixel photos, is waterproof to 20 meters, comes with an IR remote, and even has an integrated G meter so that you can see just how big a knock your head took on that last ill-advised endo. GPS is an option too, so you can mark your gnarliest adventures on Google Maps, but there's no mention of price despite the thing set to start shipping here in just a few days. An early unboxing video waits for you after the break, as well as a demo clip that uses extreme angles to make you extremely nauseous. Curiously, all of the demonstrations we've seen have had their audio replaced by awful music, leading us to guess this cam has either a poor microphone or simply has none at all.

Gallery: Oregon Scientific ATC9K

Continue reading Oregon Scientific ATC9K HD Action Camera does 1080p underwater (video)

Oregon Scientific ATC9K HD Action Camera does 1080p underwater (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

ATC Action Cam (Facebook) | Email this | Comments

Google Chrome gets some early device orientation 'plumbing'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/06/google-chrome-gets-some-early-device-orientation-plumbing/

We remember well the first time we managed to put an accelerometer in our possession to good use: back when the MacBook Pros started shipping with them as sudden motion sensors to protect the hard drive, someone hooked up some light saber noises to the tilt motion. A few months later we were pretending to make light saber noises with the Wii, and then the iPhone came along and democratized the accelerometer-based light saber noise for all of humanity. Next up? The browser. Firefox 3.6 already supports this capability, and now Chromium is getting some early work in that direction as well -- and with the browser-as-OS that Google's Chrome OS represents, Chromium's support of this feature is welcome news indeed. We hear that light saber noise-producing low fat snacks are next on the docket!

Google Chrome gets some early device orientation 'plumbing' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink