Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. It's been a year of milestones for Android in the U.S. The number of handsets with the Google-developed software has grown from one to eight. Three of the four major national carriers, including Verizon Wireless, the country's largest, now offer Android phones. HTC's Hero and Motorola's CLIQ have shown how Android supports customization by manufacturers. And the Motorola Droid has marked the debut of Android 2.0. When the T-Mobile G1 was launched, Switched On discussed Google's growing rivalry with Apple. Full story...
Google just announced that it's bringing some serious location-based integration to its services, all centered around the new Buzz social networking tool built into Gmail.
There's something deliciously futuristic about the fact that Microsoft and Google are patrolling our roads, documenting their every nook and cranny with large multidirectional cameras strapped to SUVs.
It's been quite a while since an Algiz tablet last popped up on our radar, but Handheld US is now back with another model: the Algiz 7.
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.
Anyone who's been following Google's codename saga for Android builds is probably 15 pounds heavier just from hearing the names themselves -- Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, you get the idea.
Ready for another dustup in multitouch land? Turns out that cool Displax multitouch film we saw a few days ago is actually called ViP Interactive Foil, and was developed in 2004 by a company called Visual Planet -- Displax was just showing it off to promote their new touch controller, but didn't tell anyone about the source of the film when that's where all the interest was.
Looks like Panasonic's push to lead the 3D pack continues unabated. It's been just over a week since the company announced the opening of its first Blu-ray 3D authoring facility and now word's coming out of Tokyo's Yurakucho District that the world will soon be getting not one but four devices, including the DMP-BDT900-K, a pretty straight forward player that features the latest Advanced AVC encoding engine and a generous helping of ports (including two USB, Ethernet, two HDMI outs, one component out, and an SDXC compatible memory card port).
Back at CES Samsung apparently unveiled this little guy -- the TicToc PMP, which seems to be aiming firmly at the iPod shuffle demographic -- whatever demographic that is.
Like it or not (and honestly, why would you not?), USB 3.0 is upon us, and we're guessing it's just a matter of time before every single USB peripheral in the entire world is equipped with SuperSpeed support.
Heads-up, kids -- Mobile World Congress is but days away from liftoff, and it looks like Texas Instruments will be there with a purpose.