A table of release dates dug up on Sony Ericsson’s own site suggests something powerfully depressing, which is that the XPERIA X1 has been pushed all the way out to February 10, 2009 (notice that the date is in European format — we’d just give up now if it were actually October 2, 2009). While the presence of the page on the company’s very own domain is pretty damning evidence, we’re still holding out hope that it’s a typo or an oversight; late Q2 of ‘08 was mentioned at MWC, and we really don’t see how it’s possible to push out a phone nearly three-quarters of a year just weeks after its initial announcement. Please tell us we’re right on this one, Sony Ericsson. Please.
Enter the Cuso PC S600 “UMPC,” your ticket to near-constant ridicule from friends and family. Sure, you’d think with specs like the blazing 266MHz ARM CPU, 1GB or 4GB of flash memory, 802.11b WiFi, miniSD support, playback of MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, OGG, AAC, APE, AVI, WMV, DIVX, H.264, ASF, and 3GP files (um, with the freeware app TCPMP), and all kinds of Windows CE-powered document handling (TXT, DOC, XLS, PDF, PPT, PPS) you’d be all set, but we don’t think it’s that simple. There’s something about that cheap looking plastic casing, stereo speakers, and totally out of line use of the term UMPC that tell us this probably isn’t much more than a glorified PMP. On the bright side, we’re thinking this isn’t going to break any banks, though we’ve got no word on price or release date.
Okay, so we just highlighted how to build your own iPod projector, but consider this power-of-optics Friday, because another iPod nano owner frustrated with the small-screen viewing experience has transformed a 35mm slide viewer to a full-fledged nano TV, complete with speakers. The result is called the Nanoscope, and it’s awesome.
An inventive user on DIY web site Instructables steps through making a DIY iPod video projector using cardboard, a glue gun, mirrors, and gobs of black electrical tape. As you can see in the video above, the final product requires no power, working instead through the magic of light and optics. That also means that you need a dark room for ideal viewing (which is why the projection in the video doesn’t look that great), and the guide could be a bit more specific on the setup details, but in all it makes for a great weekend project.
While Apple might have your attention at the moment with that impending SDK, the Android OS seems to be coming along quite nicely over at Google and the Open Handset Alliance. BBC’s Darren Waters got to peek “under the bonnet” with Andy Rubin himself, and has video to prove it. The OS was running on an unknown 3G touchscreen prototype, which also had a track ball at the bottom. The interface has come a long way since we saw it first, and browsing the web looks snappy and intuitive. Andy also showed off a version of Street View — complete with smooth panning and zooming, of course — and the fan-favorite Quake demo. Not bad at all for a 300MHz-ish processor, and while Android is still in “Alpha” stage, it’s already got a lot of good things going for it. Video is after the break.
You know, the Kindle runs Linux, has USB, uses all standard processors and chipsets, even comes with free built-in EV-DO — you’d kind of think that stuff (and all the rest) would make it about as high a profile target for hardware modders and hackers as there are. So what gives, why hasn’t the hacker community glommed onto this thing? Hit the poll: anyone can answer, but we really want to hear from the über-geeks in the house why the call to Kindle has gone unheeded.
It’s likely that the Kindle’s popularity is going to spawn a whole slew of e-books vying for the eyes of readers. A concept from a student named Nedzad Mujcinovic at Monash University could very well stoke the fires of competition if his Livre ever makes it to store shelves. The system uses an e-ink screen overlaid with a touch surface, thus forgoing the multitudinous buttons of the Kindle for an ultra-simple, gesture-based input scheme. Pages can be turned by sliding your finger from corner to corner, though double- and triple-finger gestures will advance the book by ten and 50 pages, respectively. Most notable for real book fans is the inclusion of a leather stitched cover, meant to evoke the look and feel of the device’s analog counterpart. Amazon’s designers would be wise to, uh… take a page from Nedzad’s book for the Kindle 2.
We’ve already seen plenty of prototypes of Menlow-based handhelds (or MIDs), but it looks like Germany’s Lippert Embedded Computers is among the first to put together a finalized version of the core component of said devices, with it now showing off its CoreExpress-Menlow module. Aimed at everything from automotive to medical to point-of-service devices (in addition to more consumer-minded handhelds), this board measures just 2.6 x 2.3-inches and packs the expected Silverthorne processor, along with some soldered on RAM, built-in WiFi and GPS, and support for a number of different storage options, among other shrunk-down features. No word on pricing or availability just yet, however, although Lippert will apparently have more to say about that at the Embedded World 2008 trade show later this week.
Well, well — what have we here? Apparently, this PSP (developer’s edition, we’re told) was spotted at the Game Developers Conference in California attempting to showcase how well the gaming handheld could handle navigation. Unfortunately, the underground nature of the booth resulted in a slightly inaccurate reading, but we’re sure it’ll do quite alright under normal circumstances when it’s (hopefully) loosed in the not-too-distant future.
Companies are starting to figure out that the contact information on your mobile phone may be the most important social network you have - perhaps even better than the email inbox that Yahoo is targeting.
Danish startup ZYB started offering a service that simply backed up your mobile phone contacts to the web in mid-2006. A year later they turned all that data into a mobile social network. They’re one of the small startups with a real shot at mobile social network with critical mass. As of August 2007 they had 200,000 active users.
It’s no surprise, then, that ZYB is being emulated. Israeli startup NewACT, with $6.5 million in funding over two rounds from Cedar Fund, are launching a new service called SYNCY into beta today. The service lets users migrate contacts, calendars and media from a mobile phone to the web. It’s part ZYB, part Sharpcast.
While Syncy supports over 700 handset models, the iPhone isn’t one, so I took it out for a spin by installing it on a SonyEricsson phone. The feature that won her over was the ability to get immediate Web access to the photos and videos she takes of our kids using her phone. Incidentally, the last time she had digital copies of such files was when she switched handsets. That’s when she had no choice but borrow a cable and install Nokia’s phone management application?by far, not a user-friendly proposition to access “everyday media”.
Syncy’s handset client is simple to operate and once syncing is configured to run automatically, it’s smooth sailing from there onwards. There also an Outlook plug-in which synchronizes contacts and events (Exchange is not required). Google calendar integration will be available shortly.
NewACT claims that Syncy is the only service to offer cross-phone synchronization. Meaning, you can sync a Nokia phone then stick the SIM in a Motorola phone and Syncy’s server will reformat and readapt the data to fit the exact data structures of your new phone.
500 TechCrunch readers will receive access to Syncy’s limited Beta by requesting an account and entering “TechCrunch.”
