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Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide 2009

The team at Engadget is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. See the guides below!
Accessories

Nov 25th 2009

Cellphones

Nov 20th 2009

Desktops

Coming Soon

Digital cameras

Coming Soon

Docks / Alarms

Coming Soon

e-book readers

Nov 16th 2009

Fun stuff

Coming Soon

GPS

Nov 18th 2009

Home theater set ups

Coming Soon

Laptops

Coming Soon

MIDs / Handhelds

Coming Soon

Netbooks

Nov 24 2009

PMPs

Dec 1st 2009

Smartphones

Dec 2nd 2009

Television / displays

Dec 4th 2009

Toys

Nov 27th 2009

Video cameras

Coming Soon

Latest Posts

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Reviews
Reviews

HP lets iPAQ Glisten out of the box

The AT&T-bound iPAQ Glisten from HP has been unboxed for our viewing pleasure, video of which can be found immediately after the break. If you're not in such a hurry though, you'll want to know it's an AMOLED-fronted, Qualcomm-powered (533MHz) WinMo 6.5 device, which brings the BlackBerry form factor sans the RIM user experience, but plus a touchscreen. Another thing to note is that AT&T's online store will be the only place to get it, at the already announced $179.99 after rebates on a two-year deal. The video does a good job of comparing HP's return to the mobile space with a pair of similar devices, and we're left with the impression that it's a pretty chunky machine, but as usual we recommend seeing it for yourself -- and you already know where to find it.
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Android 2.1-equipped Motorola Sholes tablet spied in China as XT701?

No sooner do we get brief corner glimpses of the supposed Motorola Sholes tablet do we get tipped off to this writeup from Androidin.net which has a number of pictures of an eerily similar keyboard-less handset with a 3.7-inch screen, Android 2.1, FM radio, and interestingly enough, only a 5 megapixel camera -- last we heard it was going to be 8. Also debatable is a HDMI port, since the image that would show it is a tad too blurry. Otherwise, it seems to be about in line with what we expected, and it also seems destined for China Unicom as the XT701 (analogous to China Mobile's Motorola Android device). Now how about a few dashes of hope we'll see this stateside, eh Moto? Two more shots after the break.

[Thanks, yee]
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Zii Trinity smartphone concept handled on video

It's an all too brief look, but it's infinitely more than we've seen so far. CNET Asia has managed some hands-on time the Zii Trinity concept smartphone. Quite a looker, and here we also get a glimpse of it next to the good ol' Zii Egg. As noted by the narrator, the bottom proprietary slot can be swapped for microUSB or mini-HDMI, there's a notably-sized 5 megapixel camera on the back, as well as one on the front for video conferencing. Enough talk, take a gander for yourself after the break.

[Thanks, kumar]
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Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty 'racehorse duct taped to a Scud missile'

There's something peculiar about Verizon's latest addition to its promotional Droid onslaught. Sure, we get the expected Mad Libs-esque hyperboles like "it rips through the web like a circular saw through a ripe banana," but other nods seem to indicate an acknowledgement that, well, it's not the prettiest of flagship phone princesses. "Should [a phone be] be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?" (Wonder who that's a reference to.) Listen Verizon, trading "hairdo for can do" is great and all, but why can't we simply have both brains and beauty? Still, it's nice to know the fighting words haven't all but left the industry. See the ad for yourself after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Android 2.0.1 SDK materializes, Droid getting it in 'coming weeks'

If you're looking for the fast, fun, and easy way to "enhance the user experience" on your Droid this holiday season, look no further than the Android 2.0.1 update that Verizon just slipped us some info on. We don't have an exact drop date at this point, but we're told that Droid owners can expect an over-the-air package in the "coming weeks" -- and most notably, changes will include improved camera autofocus and better voice reception. Since these particular fixes are presumably device-specific, it's interesting that this is being done in lockstep with an official Android trunk release -- but all Google's saying is that the underlying platform contains "several bug fixes and behavior changes, such as application resource selection based on API level and changes to the value of some Bluetooth-related constants." Good stuff.

Update: Google's got a changelog posted -- check it out. Nothing that's going to blow your mind.

RIM comes onboard with the Wireless Power Consortium

Look's like the Wireless Power Consortium can add another one of the big boys onto its list of powerful allies. Research in Motion's come on board as a member of the organization, which now includes 21 manufacturers. The Wireless Power Consortium's noble quest, you'll remember, is to develop a wireless charging standard, which it calls the Qi. The group also announced simultaneously that it's successfully finished the second round of prototype testing. RIM's support is adds further hope to the pursuit of said standard, after Nokia joined the cause in October.

Verizon's Android BOGO flier shows up, Droid Eris only free option

So the good news here is that Verizon's rumored buy-one-get-one-free deal on its Android line this weekend is shaping up to be legit -- the bad news, though, is that the most expensive (and probably most desirable) option is getting left out in the cold. Well, that's not quite true -- you'll still be able to take part in the offer if you buy a Droid, but for your free phone on the second line, you'll be stuck with a Droid Eris from HTC -- a phone that normally runs $100 instead of the Droid's $200. Of course, the Droid Eris is still a great little device, and as for Verizon, don't worry about them -- they'll get their money back. Trust us.

Google and Microsoft join I3A's Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative

The International Imaging Industry Association -- colloquially known as I3A -- announced today that Google's signed on as a member of the non-profit organization. They've also simultaneously announced that pre-existing member Microsoft has joined forces with Google on the Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative. What's that all about? The initiative, which also calls Motorola, Eastman Kodak, Nokia, and other members, is dedicated to creating the metrics needed to "produce an accurate and repeatable testing program for camera phone image quality." Considering the wild variances in quality among different cellphones, such formalized measurement techniques would surely be welcomed by everyone on planet earth.

Multifaceted adapter combines 3-port USB hub with iPod / iPhone connector

Multi-purpose adapters aren't anything new, but it's often the simplest of the bunch that prove most useful. Take this bugger for instance, which is little more than a vanilla 3-port USB hub connected to an iPhone / iPod dock connector port. The purpose for its existence? To prevent you from having to haul Apple's flimsily built charging cable and a USB hub with you each time you scurry out, and to just generally make your time on this planet entirely more enjoyable. Now if only it could recharge our prototype Volt that we've secretly got hiding in the Engadget Garage, we'd really be able to extol the $14.99 asking price.

Nokia slashing smartphone lineup in half for 2010

One of the natural side effects of being the largest maker of cellphones in the world is that you produce a lot of different models -- a lot -- which makes it way too easy for product planning, engineering, and marketing to all have corners cut for even the most important devices in the herd. Nokia seems to be coming to terms with that, though, announcing that it'll scale back from "around 20" smartphones released this year to roughly a half of that in 2010, allowing it to give each phone the TLC it so desperately needs. Interestingly, the company says that it's looking to the low- to midrange smartphone realm as a hot new competitive frontier -- and an area where it'll "have tools to play offence [sic] as well as defense," possibly thanks to its continued involvement in Symbian even as it looks to Maemo to grow the high end. By any measure, it sounds like Nokia's starting to get the hint -- but it's still anyone's guess what kinds of products will ultimately see out of these guys over the next 12 to 18 months.

Motorola invests in Anywhere Multitouch technology

It's been awhile since we heard anything from Sensitive Objects, the French firm that developed Anywhere Multitouch, the platform that uses piezoelectric sensors to extend touch sensitivity beyond the display to the entire device. Well, we thought it was a pretty sweet idea -- and apparently Motorola did as well. According some spicy and exotic PR, Moto's investing some of its hard-earned cash in the company, which began as a project by the French Science National Research Center. As Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures, put it: "Natural user interface (NUI) and in particular interacting with a device through touch is an area of rapid development and great excitement. Sensitive Object provides an innovative and unique approach allowing new ways of interaction. We're most excited to be involved in their growth and success." One has to wonder what kind of new and innovative handset interfaces are coming around the bend -- and one has to wonder what kind of havoc it will cause when you put one of these "anywhere multitouch" phones in your pocket without locking it first. Luckily, the technology is said to be cheaper to implement than the other touchscreen solutions currently available -- so if these guys get their way, we might be accidentally calling our ex-girlfriends with the whole device very soon indeed. PR after the break.
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LG Lotus successor LX610 seeks to look even stranger than the original

We've heard rumors in the past that Sprint is looking to replace its Lotus with an upgraded model, a testament to the fact that the bizarre mega-wide form factor must be doing relatively well at retail. And how, exactly, do you outdo a phone like the Lotus? One obvious answer is to add a huge display on the front, which is what the upcoming LX610 seems to be doing if the shots over on PhoneArena are legit. Without any obvious input method, we're not sure what good a big external display (QVGA, if we had to guess) does -- but then again, it sorta worked for the RAZR 2, so we suppose it could work here, too. Anyhow, time to start taking bets on the third-generation model -- twice as wide and a Dvorak keyboard layout is our best guess.

Huge stash of HTC Android codenames found within 2.1 ROM

You know that leaked HTC Sense ROM with Android 2.1 underneath? Well, somebody did some digging and found a wild stack of HTC Android handset codenames buried within. It starts in the realm of the familiar, with mentions of Dragon, Passion, Dream and Hero, but then it starts to get a little wild. Here's the full list: Bahamas, Bravo, DesireC, Dragon, Dream, Espresso, Halo, HeroCT, HeroC, Hero, Huangshan, Incredible, Legend, Liberty, Memphis, Paradise, PassionC, Passion, Sapphire and Supersonic. Pretty wild, right? There's no telling what exactly this list implies, other than the fact that Passion and Dragon are indeed on the books, and that HTC's naming department can really let the superlatives fly, but we're sure all will be made clear over the next year or two.

Nokia E72 now in stock in the New World -- the US, to be specific

It's been a long, long journey, but Nokia's E72 -- the hotly-anticipated successor to the wildly popular E71 -- is finally available as an unlocked phone directly from Nokia USA following a November release elsewhere. The privilege of upgrading to what could very well be the finest S60 3.2 handset ever made won't be cheap, though: they're charging $469 before tax and shipping, but in exchange, you're getting a 5 megapixel cam, optical d-pad ("Navi Key" in Nokia parlance), and full-on HSPA with up to 10.2Mbps down and 2Mbps up. Of course, you won't get anything close to those speeds in the States -- but hey, you can't drive a Lambo 180 miles per hour on a public street, either.

[Thanks, Pankil]

Monocle offers custom BlackBerry 9700 for the discerning business traveler

Looking for a BlackBerry for yourself or a special someone that's unique but not in a Colorware sort of way? Then you might just want to consider ponying up for this new limited edition BlackBerry 9700 crafted by the folks at Monocle in partnership with RIM. It'll cost you a hefty £950 (or just over $1,500), but that will get you the gift of confidence that this is one of just 100, along with some suitably luxurious touches like a custom leather strap, a reminder of its rarity on the back, Monocle's 25/25 travel guides pre-loaded on the device, a few custom wallpapers, and even a 16GB microSD card thrown in for good measure. Alright, so maybe it's a bit tough to justify the $1,000+ premium, but those ready to throw caution to the wind can expect their order to ship on December 10th.

Verizon's Droid and Droid Eris going BOGO this weekend?

We're not saying you should do anything rash and sign up for two lines when you only need one, but we're sure there are plenty of people out there still shopping for a last-minute First Weekend of December gift -- and it looks like Verizon might have just the ticket. The rumor going around right now is that Big Red is going to pony up its Droid and Droid Eris for buy-one-get-one-free deals starting this Friday running through the following Monday. If you've already bought one though, don't fret: the rumor goes on to say that customers who've picked up their phones in the last 30 days will also be eligible, which kinda makes sense when you consider that Verizon's got a 30-day return policy anyhow. So, what do you think? Droid for the mister, Droid Eris for the missus? Vice versa?

HTC's Touch.B gets demonstrated, featurephone status confirmed (video)

HTC's Touch.B gets demonstrated, featurephone status confirmed
This isn't going to be fun, so we'll just say it and get it over with: the HTC Touch.B isn't the updated Android smartphone we'd been hoping for. As it turns out it isn't even a smartphone, relegated to the realm of the featurephone by running Qualcomm's BrewMP OS. Full Flash support is nice, and we must say the UI has a charming, simple look to it, but it all looks a little... limited, and that screen seems awfully small given the size of the phone now that it's been turned on. See for yourself: there's a quick video demo after the break to get you primed for this one to ship sometime next year.
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Nokia offers sneak peek at improved 2010 Symbian user interface

You know that new Symbian user experience promised by Nokia for next year? Want a sneak peak? Although Nokia's downloadable slide-deck from its Capital Market Day event leaves out all the new UI visuals, fortunately the webcast has 'em all. And if we're not mistaken then that's a wall-to-wall capacitive multitouch slate up there from Nokia's conceptual studios. As Nokia tells it, the Symbian OS is not the problem, the UI is -- and we agree. In 2010 new hardware and tweaked software will reduce Symbian's clutter, add multitouch input on "large capacitive displays," minimize steps to request functions (2-taps to get to favorite music or video instead of 8, create an email account in 2 steps, not 4), significantly improve the browser experience, and make the entire UI 3 times faster than current high-end Symbian products while taking scrolling to 60fps (up from 15fps used today). Notably, Nokia will remove more than 350 user prompts that make using Symbian so frustrating today. The user experience promises to be so good that Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, calls it "magical." Us? Sweet, but it's only slideware for now. Watch the rousing video after the break.

Update: We added a link to the 51MB PDF containing all the presentations. Bonus points for spotting our quote about the N900. [Thanks, Pasi]
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Layar 3.0 reunites the Beatles in 3D augmented reality

Layar's approach to bringing augmented reality to the masses is unique. Instead of writing isolated AR apps, Layar provides a very real augmented reality platform onto which content owners can layer (or layar) their data resulting in a richer experience when viewing the world through your Android or iPhone 3GS camera lens. There are already 294 layers and counting ranging from Google's ubiquitous local search results to homegrown content listing apartments for rent or tourist hot spots. Today sees the launch of Layar 3.0 with new 3D capabilities, authentication, and plenty more to entice anyone "with basic web development skills" to join the fun. To show the platform's new capabilities Layar presents a handful of use cases that include the ability to add authenticated social media layars (like Twitter and Foursquare), see incomplete construction sites in their final form, interactive public-space art projects, and a guided Beatles discovery tour that takes you to destinations made famous by the fab foursome -- you can even pose with the band for pictures as they cross Abbey Road. Sure, the jury's still out on the usefulness of 3D content presented in this manner and the ability to geolocate Twitter users and Hollywood stars in this manner continues to creep us out. But man is this stuff interesting.

Nokia N900 impressively demos WebGL 3D graphics

We're not sure anyone out there needs any more proof that the Nokia N900 is powerhouse, but just in case you still had doubts, check this video of a WebGL-enabled Firefox build smoothly rendering some complex 3D models on Espoo's "internet tablet with phone capabilities." It's pretty impressive stuff, especially considering WebGL is still being standardized and it hasn't gotten beyond Firefox nightlies on the desktop yet. Check it after the break.

[Thanks, Jouni]
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“The Pixi -- a sleek, tiny device -- seems clearly aimed at the only market Palm has recently enjoyed unfettered success with: the Centro demographic.”
15%

The estimated percentage of cellphones that were recycled in 2007.

The EPA estimated that of the 126.3 million cellphones disposed of in 2007, only 14 million -- about 10 percent -- were recycled. The rest? Landfill heaven. (source: EPA, July 2008)

Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"I just switched to Sprint from Verizon about three months ago for the Pre. Then I went for the Hero about a week ago. Now, I miss my hardware keyboard and am thinking about switching to the Moment. I am still able to switch back to Verizon if I want and get the Droid when it arrives. Should I just trade up to the Moment when it comes out, see if I like it, and if not switch to the Droid? Or something else entirely? Help!"

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