Acer CloudMobile hands-on at MWC 2012 (video)

-
Tucked away in the dark corners of the Google booth at Mobile World Congress, amidst several miniature hubs inhabited by all types of various companies, is a stand dedicated to all things Acer. Included as part of the selection was the CloudMobile, the proud owner of a coveted iF Product Design award. So were we that impressed by its trophy-winning feature? Yes and no. It's not tough on the eyes by any stretch of the imagination, especially given its fancy textured back and curvacious construct, but we have a difficult time declaring this to feature the best design of the show, nor is it necessarily much of a ground-breaker. The build quality itself doesn't quite hold a candle to what you'll experience on something like the ceramic-like aluminum treatment used on the HTC One S, but yet doesn't feel like it will smash into a million pieces if we give it the 'ol heave-ho.

But perhaps the CloudMobile earned the honors by producing a respectable internal design: it offers a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon chipset and 4.3-inch 720p HD display, for instance, and that panel is absolutely stunning with great viewing angles. We weren't allowed to view any part of the OS beyond the lock and a couple home screens, no doubt due to the model's pre-production firmware, so we'll need to leave our impressions of the UI for another time. From what we can tell, it will definitely be offering a customized skin, though it's unclear to what extent that will shine through in the final production version, still due to come out sometime in Q3. For now, enjoy the images and video underneath.

Continue reading Acer CloudMobile hands-on at MWC 2012 (video)

Acer CloudMobile hands-on at MWC 2012 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popular posts from this blog

Virus-based sensors find superbugs in minutes, may lead to safer surfaces

-
Image
Viruses usually have to be rendered inert to work in humanity's favor, as anyone who has received a flu shot can attest. Auburn University has bucked that trend by discovering a way to put active viruses to work in not only diagnosing sickness, but in preventing it in the first place. It's using bacteria-hating (and thankfully harmless) viruses as biosensors to quickly identify superbugs, or antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can sometimes prove fatal. As the viruses change color once they've reached impervious bacterial strains, in this case variants on Staphylococcus, they can reveal superbugs within 10 to 12 minutes -- a potentially lifesaving interval when current purification-driven methods can take hours. Auburn would like to eventually use what it has learned to develop more effective antibacterial glass and similar surfaces. If successfully put into practice, either breakthrough could mitigate what's already a major medical crisis. [Image credit: Bob Blaylo
Read more

Asus Padfone with Tegra 3 coming in early 2012

-
Image
Just as we were settling down to another calm and banterful Engadget Mobile Podcast, our special guest had to go and throw us some hard news. Yup, and rather than making you sit through the entire two-hour recording (pleasant as that would be), we're just going to come right out with it: Nicole Scott from netbooknews.com has it on good authority that the Asus Padfone will be coming out at MWC 2012 in February. What's more, it won't be powered by a Qualcomm Krait S4 as suggested by that strange GLBenchmark we saw earlier -- it will in fact sport a Tegra 3, just like its highly capable big bro the Transformer Prime . See? That's the kind of juicy reward our podcast listeners get for tuning in each week. Asus Padfone with Tegra 3 coming in early 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds .
Read more

6 techie gifts for Mother’s Day

-
Image
This Sunday is Mother’s Day, which means it’s time to think about which techie products are suited for your own mother, the moms in the office, extended family, or your wife. Fortunately, there are quite a few new gadgets for 2015 suited for the big day. There’s a digital picture frame that lets you load through a website. There’s even a clock radio that has a trendy flower-print design. 1.  LivingPlug INLET ($25) These colorful wall outlet covers serve multiple purposes. They are safer for kids, since the plugs are located below the faceplate. You can design your own (think: pictures of the kids). One outlet turns into three plugs and you can charge a phone or tablet using USB. 2.  Nixplay Cloud Frame ($100) This low-cost digital frame connects to the cloud so the kids (or grandkids) can stream photos from anywhere in the world. It connects to Facebook so you can add photos that way using a Web app or you can load pictures onto a local camera card. The frame powers down and
Read more