BlackBerry Bold 9900 preview! (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/24/blackberry-bold-9900-preview-video/

RIM's BlackBerry 9900 is the device that the BlackBerry diehards have been hoping, wishing, and waiting for since the original Bold launched way back in 2008. However, this time around the company has added in a capacitive touchscreen, swapped the trackball of yesteryear for an optical trackpad, and slimmed the whole thing down into a 10.5mm thick package. We were lucky enough to get a prototype device from our friends over at Negri Electronics, and have manhandled the thing till we were blue in the face. Head on past the break for an exclusive preview of the device RIM is praying will stalwart its competitors until the first round of QNX-equipped devices lands in 2012.

Gallery: BlackBerry Bold 9900 preview!

Continue reading BlackBerry Bold 9900 preview! (video)

BlackBerry Bold 9900 preview! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Card.io SDK takes swipe at competition with camera-enabled mobile payments (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/23/card-io-sdk-takes-swipe-at-competition-with-camera-enabled-mobil/

In an attempt to edge its way into the crowded mobile payments market, a new credit card scanning system is saying "ah, hell no!" to typing and swiping. Card.io is billed as an SDK that takes advantage of smartphone cameras to let devs accept credit, because, as its creators point out, "typing on mobile phones is slow, and most consumers don't have a separate hardware attachment." When it's time to pull out the plastic, Card.io gets your phone's camera going, and up pops a little green rectangle, in which you frame your card and snap a pic. Your credit card info is then processed by a third-party merchant, and the details are subsequently deleted from your phone. Can you hear that? That's the sound of our chubby thumbs breathing a sigh of relief. The Card.io SDK for iOS is now available at the source link below, and an Android version should be close behind. For now, hop on past the break for a video demo.

Continue reading Card.io SDK takes swipe at competition with camera-enabled mobile payments (video)

Card.io SDK takes swipe at competition with camera-enabled mobile payments (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PCMag< /a>  |  Card.io  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Quake turns 15, ready to be ported to a learner's permit

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/24/quake-turns-15-ready-to-be-ported-to-a-learners-permit/

In the ever-changing world of gaming, a 15-year-old title is downright ancient, so there's a lot to be said for the fact that we're still talking about Quake a decade and a half after its release -- and what a packed decade and a half it's been. The game has spawned a still thriving convention and has made an appearance on pretty much every platform, ever, including, recently, Android, webOS, Chumby, BUG, and, of course, a maze for lab mice. So, happy birthday, old man. Now how about playing on something more your age? Like, say, the Jitterbug? Got a favorite Quake moment? Be sure to share it with us in the comments below.

Quake turns 15, ready to be ported to a learner's permit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink USA Today  |  Bethesda  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Nokia's Android flirtations revealed

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/24/nokias-android-flirtations-revealed/

We don't know if this device is "super confidential" or not, but we've just come across yet another Nokia N9 lookalike with a non-MeeGo operating system on board. Well, it looks that way, anyhow. There's no way to verify that the Android homescreen we see above is a legitimate Gingerbread installation and not a mere screenshot (the resolution looks all wrong, for one thing), but the source of this image is the same Chinese fellow that posted a picture of Nokia's Windows Phone prototype, the Sea Ray, way back in May, so we're inclined to believe he's got an inside line on these things. Additionally, the undersized Android UI elements on the screen actually encourage us to believe that this is indeed a Nokia testing device -- if we were going to fake something like this, we'd use a regular screen grab for our tomfoolery -- and Stephen Elop has openly admitted that Nokia spent a couple of wild seconds contemplating a switch to Android. Well, folks, here's what that alternate future might have looked like.

Continue reading Nokia's Android flirtations revealed

Nokia's Android flirtations revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 03:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  @codegeass (Weibo, 1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Pottermore Is the Ebook's Beatles on iTunes Moment [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5814906/pottermore-is-the-ebooks-beatles-on-itunes-moment

Well, that rumor about Pottermore being a smartphone was completely wrong. But that's okay, because that was an idiotic prospect, and the truth is more interesting: Harry Potter will sell as ebooks for the first time ever. And that's huge.

The Harry Potter print saga's sold more than 400 million copies across the world. That's an incredible number of books, but an incredible number of books that've only been sprayed onto tree carcasses—J.K. Rawling's mint hasn't gone digital until the debut of Pottermore.

Harry Potter doesn't need your iPad to be legitimate. Its sales numbers and (hordes of crazed fans) speak for themselves.

Ebooks don't need Harry Potter to be legitimate. Kindle and iPad numbers (and hordes of crazed users) speak for themselves.

But the union of these two, with Pottermore not only offering e-Harry, but being the only place on the internet to get it (though no word on formats), might turn the format into a media event.

Remember when The Beatles finally brought their mops over to iTunes? The fact that I say finally says it all. Their catalog, despite being almost half a century old, was a big deal again. This was music that almost anyone with even the slightest bit of interest in the group had purchased or stolen years ago, and yet, the iTunes debut made headlines. Our headlines! Not so much for the music, but for what it meant: a legendary, and legendarily stubborn artistic entity caved. Fine, this computer music thing is for real. It was a mainstream zenith.

So too with Rawling. She could live in her golden palace paid for by the joyful screams of tweens and adults for the rest of her years without selling a sidewalk hot dog, let alone a fleet of ebooks—and yet she's digitizing Potter. Putting the series online and onto our tablets and Kindles and Nooks and all the rest indicate a big-time cultural hegemony for the ebook realm—We've got Harry Potter, it can scoff at skeptics. And there's no retort against that.

Read More...

Summary only...