Ah, ha! If you’ll recall, we happened upon a Lenovo-branded netbook of sorts back in June, but curiously enough, Freescale and Pegatron components were powering the thing. Now, it seems that yet another flavor has emerged as the Efika MX Smartbook. Frankly, we aren’t too sure this thing fits into the ’smartbook’ category (given the comparatively spacious 10-inch display), but we are sure that the $349 price point is borderline absurd considering the wealth of decent netbook options at or below that very MSRP. At any rate, those still interested should know that there’s an 800MHz i.MX515 processor under the hood along with 16GB of NAND Flash, an MMC / SD card slot, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, a 1,024 x 600 resolution panel and enough oomph to power through HD video, supposedly. Tap that source link if you’re looking to take a risk, but we’d probably recommend against it.

Efika MX Smartbook now on sale for an exceedingly unattractive price originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 06:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Commodore USA to relaunch Amiga brand with series of AROS desktops

Commodore USA to relaunch Amiga brand with series of AROS desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So we’ve collected enough circumstantial evidence recently to safely say that T-Mobile’s getting at least two potentially ultra-awesome Android phones in the next few months: the G2 (aka Vision, aka Desire Z), and the multi-core Glacier. We don’t know which, but we’re thinking that one of those bad boys has just garnered FCC approval thanks to a filing today for a model code PC10100 that features support for AWS 3G — the frequency pair T-Mobile USA uses — along with 802.11n WiFi. Notably, the filing also points out that HSPA+ is in the cards, which is a feature T-Mobile has been quick to trumpet in its G2 advertising thus far. Given that the G2 seems closer to retail than the Glacier, we’ll go ahead and surmise this is almost certainly the G2 here — but then again, crazier things have happened.

New AWS-equipped HTC in FCC — is it the T-Mobile G2, the Glacier, or something else? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile USA just dropped the knowledge on Twitter that it’ll be carrying the Motorola Charm starting next Wednesday, August 25 — but what it failed to mention is pricing. For what it’s worth, the company does specifically say that it’ll be “affordable” — and although a marketing department’s definition of “affordable” can be very different from ours, we’re encouraged by a handful of previous rumors that there would be ways to get it for free on contract. If you need us to jog your memory, the Charm is a cute little portrait QWERTY Android device with a Kodak-branded 3 megapixel cam and landscape display, giving it a rare form factor that could very well appeal to a whole new audience (read: BlackBerry folks). So, how much would you pay for it?

Update: Turns out Moto’s posted on its official Facebook page that it’ll run $74.99 on contract — not free, unfortunately, and in the age of free Pixi Pluses, that might be a tough pill to swallow. We’ve also been handed a video of Telus demonstrating its version of the Charm, which should look and work exactly the same — check it out after the break. Thanks, Matt and DeadMan!

Continue reading Motorola Charm hitting T-Mobile on August 25 for $75 (update: Telus version caught on video!)

Motorola Charm hitting T-Mobile on August 25 for $75 (update: Telus version caught on video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Itching to get some hands-on time with Symbian^3? Or maybe it’s the promise of a 12 megapixel camera that’s drawing you? Whatever the case may be, you might be interested to know that Nokia’s US outpost is now ready to take your name down for an N8 with availability expected at the “end of September 2010.” In the past, Nokia has often bundled goodies like Bluetooth headsets for anyone willing to pre-order well ahead of time, but not so much this time around — $549 will net you the phone, and that’s it. Heck, they’re not even throwing in free shipping. Maybe waiting for the actual release isn’t that bad of an idea, eh?

Nokia N8 pre-orders go live in the US, $549 for ‘end of September’ delivery originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leapster inadvertently (or not) spilled the beans on a forthcoming learning handheld way back in May, and with nary a peep from the company, it has managed to launch said unit just as the next school year was fixing the start. The $70 handheld ain’t the cheapest in the world, and considering that the “learning” cartridges are $25 a pop, it won’t take long for this investment to get serious. USA Today’s Ed Baig managed to wrangle one for review, and while he certainly let his kids do the dirty work, he couldn’t help but express frustration by the inability to use older games with this new system. Forward progress aside, Ed found his kids enamored by the device, and while that led to him making quite a few digital Leaplet purchases (downloadable games), it also kept his youngsters occupied and engaged in something beneficial. All told, he handed out 3.5 of 4 shiny stars to the minuscule device, and so long as you’re cool with daily demands for new software from Johnny and Jane, this might be the best back-to-school gift ever.

Leapster’s $70 Explorer learning handheld gets reviewed, loved by a father originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this point, it’s pretty obvious that GPUs will soon be playing a huge role in modern day supercomputers — a role that may just rival that of the tried-and-true CPU. Virginia Tech is gleefully accepting $2 million in order to build a GPU and CPU-enabled HokieSpeed supercomputer, and today DARPA is handing out $25 million to NVIDIA in order to develop “high-performance GPU computing systems.” Specifically the Defense Department’s research and development arm is aiming to address a so-called “crisis in computing,” and if all goes well, the four-year project will eventually yield a “new class of exascale supercomputers which will be 1,000-times more powerful than today’s fastest supercomputers.” That’s a pretty lofty goal, but NVIDIA will be aided by Cray, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a half-dozen US universities along the way. And yeah, if ever anyone’s ego was prepared to topple Moore’s Law, it’d be this guy.

Continue reading DARPA enlists NVIDIA to build exascale supercomputer that’s ‘1000x faster’ than today’s quickest

DARPA enlists NVIDIA to build exascale supercomputer that’s ‘1000x faster’ than today’s quickest originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Huawei has been kicking for well over two decades, and while a great deal of its business revolves around the enterprise, the company still has a presence in the consumer arena (most recently with its S7 tablet). But for whatever reason, it’s having one bear of a time breaking into the US acquisition game. According to a pair of people sourced by Bloomberg, Huawei wasn’t selected as the winning bidder of two large US assets in recent months despite having offers of “at least $100 million more in each case.” Ouch. As the story goes, the sellers (2Wire and Motorola) “doubted Huawei’s ability to win US government approval,” possibly because of the founder’s prior role as an official of the People Liberation’s Army. It’s also not the first time that Hauwei has been deterred in the US; the outfit dropped a bid in 2008 for 3Com after America began “investigating whether a deal would give China access to anti-hacking technology used by the Defense Department.” ‘Course, given the existing legal trouble between Huawei and Motorola right now, we’re not sure a +$200 million bid would’ve sealed the deal on its recently hawked wireless equipment unit. Hit the source link if you’re down for a serious read. Mystery, drama, deceit — it’s all there.

Huawei bids high, loses hard on two major US assets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard out there for a prez, you know? Hardly anyone knows better than one Barack Obama, who sat down this morning on ABC’s The View in order to talk smack with a few ladies who undoubtedly helped put him in office. If you’ll recall, Obama fought hard early on for the privilege of maintaining his prized BlackBerry, and while he eventually won out, we learned today that a grand total of ten individuals are authorized to ping it. Yeah, ten. Needless to say, he described that depressing fact as “no fun,” and even the folks that are cleared to make contact with it won’t send over anything juicy. Why? They know that messages sent to it “will probably be subject to the presidential records act,” so those lucky enough to have the digits are also smart enough to divert their ramblings to Texts From Last Night. But hey, at least hanging in there despite the limitations grants you early access to BlackBerry OS 6, right? Right?

Obama says presidential BlackBerry ownership is ‘no fun,’ should’ve went with the Sectera Edge originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Someone should really tell T-Mobile USA it’s got a rather large hole that needs plugged. Hot on the heels of the (presumably) T-Mob-bound G1 Blaze leak comes this duo, which includes a purported leak of the myTouch HD (or 3G HD) as well as a web portal that quite clearly prepares us for the launch of the carrier’s first HSPA+ smartphone. Of course, there’s no official confirmation that the handset you’re peering at above is anything more than a fan render, but it certainly has a look of authenticity to it; sadly, there aren’t any rumored specifications to tag alongside the JPG, but it’s a pretty safe bet that this one will run some flavor of Android and rely heavily on screen presses for letter input. As for the promo page? Scrutineers have drawn a link between it and the Vanguard that we peeked a few weeks back, so feel free to let your imagination run a bit wild there. Looks like it’s gearing up to be quite the second half for America’s number two GSM operator.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Purported myTouch HD leaks out alongside promise of T-Mobile’s first HSPA+ smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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