Megaupload users' data to be kept another two weeks

Megaupload's digital doors may have been closed due to the presence of pirated materials, but there's still the matter of all that legal content residing on its servers. Naturally, folks want their files back, but now that the government's gotten what it needs, the hosting companies no longer need to keep the data around because Megaupload's no longer paying them to do so. Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications, however, have decided to preserve the data for another two weeks while a deal is brokered with the DOJ for its release. In the meantime, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has teamed up with Carpathia to create a website that puts folks in touch with EFF attorneys so users can try to retrieve their data. No word as to what legal wrangling the EFF can do to make it happen, but those affected can get the wheels of justice started at the source below.

Amazon's announced its earnings for the fourth quarter of the year

Amazon's just announced its earnings for the fourth quarter of the year, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. While net sales were up 35 percent year-over-year to $17.43 billion, net income dropped a hefty 58 percent to $177 million, or 38 cents a share -- that's off analysts' expectations, who were looking for sales in the neighborhood of $18.3 billion and earnings of 17 cents a share. As always, the company is remaining mum on any specific Kindle sales figures, but it says that sales of all Kindle devices nearly tripled over the holiday shopping season, and that the Kindle Fire remains the bestselling item across all of the products it offers; of course, the loss it's taking on each one is also one of the big reasons for that drop in profits.

Specific figures are equally hard to come by for some of Amazon's other services, but the company says the number of Appstore for Android customers has nearly tripled from the previous quarter (with them downloading more apps in Q4

Google Search app gets new look on iPad

Google's search app just got a big update on the iPad. The interface has been overhauled, and the app has added enough new features that it's finally replaced Mobile Safari's built-in search feature as my go-to source for internet info.

The differences in the interface may seem subtle at first, but Google has added many powerful new features in this latest update. The app now supports Google Instant, making searches faster than ever before, but it also offers Instant Preview, a means of visually browsing through search results in a carousel-style interface without having to fully load the page.

Search results appear in a slide-in pane from the right side of the screen; in landscape view this pane can be partially pinned to the right side, giving you a preview of pages as they load when you tap on search results in the main window. Using a similar interface to Instant Preview, search history now presents you with a visual representation of your search history, very much like the way History view works in Safari on the Mac.

World Computing at Macworld iWorld 2012

n the Mac realm, OWC is about to release two new versions of the venerable miniStack external drives for the Mac mini. The miniStack Max and miniStack have the same footprint as the post-2010 Mac minis, and features FW 400/800, USB 2.0/3.0 and eSATA (optional) ports, as well as an optical drive (Max only) and USB hub.

When it comes to enterprise storage, OWC has announced and was demonstrating their new Jupiter mini-SAS storage solutions. Jupiter features input/output speeds three times faster than fibre channel and twice as fast as Thunderbolt, all with an infrastructure cost much less than you'd pay for fibre channel storage.

Companies deploying iPads will like the new GripStand Station, which charges and secures up to eight iPads at a time. There's more to come in this short video from the show floor

Windows Phone 7.5 gets google Calendar sync

Google's improved how its calendar and email services interact with Windows Phones running the Mango update. Users can now cram up to 25 different calendars into the Metro OS's built-in calendar app. The setup's not exactly seamless; you need to navigate your Windows Phone to the Google Sync page, login and check the boxes found there. While testing on our phones, although one device was able to immediately sync, the other couldn't pick up on our multiple calendars. We had to delete and re-assign our Google account to the phone in order to get it working. However, once we did, the Metro styling lent itself well to multiple calendar listings, with the ability (like the web-based Google Calendar) to assign colors to each.

At the same Google Sync page, you can now choose to enable the "send mail as" feature if you're using multiple addresses, with the option to delete unwanted emails instead of archiving. However, aside from replying from the same address that you received emails to, we haven't discovered a way to assign new mails to our multiple guises. We were able to send messages through our own Engadget mail account, although that's then used on all future missives.

Nokia tops global handset shipments

Fresh off the publication of its latest tablet report, Strategy Analytics has come out with a new batch of statistics on the global mobile market. In a report published yesterday, the research firm crowned Apple as the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume, on the strength of the 37 million iPhones it shipped during Q4 2011 -- good for 23.9 percent of the market. Samsung wasn't too far behind, though, with 36.5 million smartphones shipped during the quarter, comprising 23.5 percent of the market. Nokia finished in third place, with 19.6 million smartphones and a 12.6 percent market share, though it fared notably better among handset makers on a global (i.e., smartphone and feature phone) level. According to Strategy Analytics, the Finnish manufacturer shipped 417.1 million handsets for the full year, 113.5 million of which were shipped during the fourth quarter of last year. For the year, Nokia accounted for 26.9 percent of the market, followed by Samsung, which shipped 327.4 million units shipped during 2011 and finished with a 23.1 percent market share.

HTC Titan II works

What's that? An HTC PI86100 Windows Phone with AT&T-specific LTE (bands 4 and 17) showing up in the hallowed halls of the FCC? Why, this must be the Titan II, announced a tad over a fortnight ago. Docs show that a production unit of the device, sporting the aforementioned LTE bands as well as 850 / 1900 3G (also AT&T compatible), is ready to take on its new Windows Phone competition sometime soon. Is it a guarantee that the phone is nigh at hand? Not quite, but at least it signifies that the 16 megapixel beast is one step closer to showing up in our hands.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Features:

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.65-inch 1280×720 Super AMOLED display
5MP rear camera (1080 video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture)
1.2GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $299.99 with a two-year contract
Pros:

Ice Cream Sandwich is a solid step up from Gingerbread
That 720p display is huge and beautiful
Google Hangouts
Cons:

The phone might be a bit too big for one-handed actions
Feels a bit plastic-y
No pre-loaded Google wallet, but you can download it
If you’re looking for Android, the Galaxy Nexus is where you’ll find it. Ice Cream Sandwich is a joy compared to Gingerbread, and this coming from someone who is quite hard on Android. Of course, the screen on this bad boy is amazing, but as MG points out in his review, sometimes the phone is just too big to perform one-handed actions.

We also expected image quality to be better out of that 5-megapixel rear camera, but it simply can’t compete with the iPhone’s 8-megapixel shooter. (And no, I’m not saying that based on megapixels… Image quality is simply better with the 4S.) But that doesn’t really matter — an Android fan is an Android fan, and this is as good as Android gets.

Used Apple iMac 17" Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz

MegaMacs offers the used Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz 17" Desktop for $449.99 plus around $32 for shipping. That's $47 under our mention from three weeks ago of a used unit and the lowest total price we could find for a used unit now by $16. Features include an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz dual-core processor, 17" 1440x960 widescreen LCD, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 802.11g wireless, Bluetooth 2.0, webcam, and more. Deal ends February 1 at 1 pm ET.
A 30-day MegaMacs warranty applies. Also, an OS is installed on this system, but it's unclear which OS it is.

MasterCard's QkR mobile payment system trial in Aus

MasterCard is all over the map when it comes to mobile payments. The credit company will partner with anyone, anywhere, anytime if it means getting new customers and making a buck on the deal. Its latest offering is called QkR, an Australian effort with support from the Hoyts chain of movie theaters and Commonwealth Bank. The initial trial run will be at La Premiere cinemas, where customers will be able to order and pay for food and beverages right from their seat with the QkR app. To initiate the transaction a you scan the QR code or tap the NFC tag attached to the arm rest

HP Folio 13 review

Considering how aggressively priced this thing is, HP made surprisingly few design compromises. Okay, the bottom is made of plastic, not aluminum, and the display offers narrow viewing angles, but other than that it's well-made and yes, tasteful, even. We'll wait a moment for all those folks who hate 1366 x 768 screens and things that aren't metal to leave the room. Are they gone? Good. We think the rest of you will agree that tried-and-true brushed metal lid was a safe design choice and also, a perfectly elegant one. Even better, those smooth metal surfaces continue onto the keyboard deck, stretching down to the palm rest. Particularly after reviewing split-personality machines like the Aspire S3, we appreciate that what's underneath the lid matches the exterior.

The keyboard is black, as are the nooks and crannies between the keys, but in this case we don't mind the color-blocking: since the trackpad, hinge, and bezel are also black, the effect feels balanced, not jarring. It also helps that there's just one button above the keyboard, which helps keep the design from feeling too busy. Even the bottom has a soft, rubbery finish that makes it that much more comfortable to grip in one hand. Despite all this, there's no pretending this has the same luxurious feel as the UX31, MacBook Air or Lenovo Ideapad U300s. Still, we can assure you of this: it's clean, understated and unlikely to embarrass you when you whip it out in public. And really, we don't ask for much more than that.

HP did in fact make an additional compromise, but this one had nothing to do with keeping the cost down. At 3.3 pounds (1.5kg), the Folio is the heaviest of all the 13-inch Ultrabooks we've seen so far, the rest of which have weighed in at three pounds or less. It just so happens that we have a two-and-a-half-pound laptop lying around, and next to that the Folio naturally seems big-boned. But unless you, too, have a notebook test lab set up in your living room, you most likely won't be able to appreciate the difference between 3.0 and 3.3 pounds.



If anything, the Folio's girth comes with some practical trade-offs. Though it's relatively thick at 18mm (0.71 inches) with a boxy profile, those sides make room for an Ethernet jack, something we've only seen on one other Ultrabook, the Toshiba Portege Z835. It also sports a full-sized HDMI port, which is more common, though absent on the Zenbook line. (Apple, of course, never adopted this standard.) In addition, you'll find requisite USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, along with a combined headphone / mic port. All told, this is one of the best selections of ports you'll find on an Ultrabook today. Between that and the long battery life (spoiler!), we can think of two very good reasons to make do with the Folio's extra pudge.

As for that plastic bottom, it's here that HP installed a pair of vents. If you enjoy resting your laptop on your legs (guilty), gird your loins because those quadriceps are going to get nice and toasty. Although this makes use of HP's CoolSense technology, expect to feel some warm (but never scorching) air on your thighs, even if you're just surfing the web. Throughout our testing, we also noticed an incessant, but not-too-distracting whirring coming from the vents. After awhile, it registered as white noise, but it's worth noting that this sound doesn't go away, and is especially discernible if you're working in an otherwise quiet space.

Keyboard and trackpad



We had a feeling when we first got hands-on with the Folio that its relatively cushy keyboard would be an improvement over what all of the other early Ultrabooks have to offer. After all, laptops like the UX31 and Aspire S3 didn't exactly set the bar high: if the keys weren't too shallow, they were undersized, or failed to register the occasional press. Here, though, there's plenty of travel, and they're bouncy enough that you're not likely to suffer any dropped letters. HP also enlarged all of the major keys (Caps Lock, Shift, Enter and Backspace, etc.), thereby removing the last likely obstacle for touch typists. As is the case with other Ultrabooks, the arrow keys are quite miniature, though the right and left ones are at least wide enough to accommodate the pad of your finger; the up and down ones are more tightly packed, but we still think you won't have much trouble finding the one you want.

The keyboard is also backlit, a welcome feature on an Ultrabook this inexpensive. The backlighting's not enabled by default, though, so be sure to press F5 if you need (or just crave) that white glow. Which brings us to one other thing we like about the Folio: its brightness, volume and multimedia controls are built into the top row of keys, meaning you don't need the fn button to take advantage of them. This may or may not impress some of you, but we always appreciate the convenience of pausing songs with the push of a button, and would rather avoid a two-fingered keyboard shortcut.

Skullcandy Icon 2 On-Ear Headphones w/ Mic

$12 + free shipping
Skullcandy Icon 2 On-Ear Headphones w/ Mic

Skullcandy via eBay offers the Skullcandy Icon 2 On-Ear Headphones with Microphone in four colors (Gridlock pictured) for $11.99 with free shipping. That's tied with our October mention and the lowest total price we could find by $11. They feature a 3.5mm gold-plated connector, 30mm drivers, frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz, in-line microphone, and more.

The Love Box for your iPhone

There's something romantic about hacking the iPhone, especially when it means finding ways to personalize the massively popular handset. Apps like Instagram may help you realize artistic talent, but software just doesn't get those creative juices flowing like an old-fashioned piece of hardware can. Despite its taboo-sounding name, The Love Box isn't an adult toy in the traditional sense, instead serving as an analog video (and stills) mixer for your iPhone 4 or 4S. Consisting of a wooden box and an angled sliding mirror, the homegrown contraption lets you simultaneously capture the action in front of and behind you in a single image.

Nokia Lumia 710

When Nokia trotted out the Lumia 800 a few short months ago, it shone brightly amidst the clutter of high-end, samey handsets and hinted at an exciting future of mobile design. True, that phone's casing is simply a rehashing of the D.O.A. though much loved N9, but a similar recycling would've been much welcomed here. Instead, the 710 is, at best, inoffensive and a copycat of the Nokia 603; it disappears into the hand and garners no affection for its oddly-tapered rectangular shape. Weighing in at 4.6 ounces (129 grams) and measuring 4.7 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches (119 x 62.4 x 12.5mm), it's considerably lighter than its carrier rival, HTC's Radar 4G, although both go nearly toe to toe in dimensions. The 710 may simply appear to be the thicker of the two, owing to its smoothly curved back.

Speaking of that posterior, a coating of soft touch, black plastic spreads across the entirety of the 710, extending to its similarly colored edges. Indeed, it feels excellent in the hand and those tapered corners make for a comfortable resting spot for thumbs when held in portrait and pointer fingers when in landscape. It's not a shabby build by any means, but you'll definitely encounter a fair share of squeaks and creaks when gripping the handset. The phone's five megapixel camera with f/2.2 lens and LED flash sit right above Nokia's logo up top, while a speaker grill stretches across the bottom. Look to the left side of the device and you'll see a recessed notch for removing the casing (which you'll be able to swap out for more colorful backplates via T-Mo), underneath which lies a 1,300mAh battery and microSIM card slot -- that's all. There's no microSD slot for expandable storage, so you'll have to make due with 8GB.



Both the volume rocker and dedicated camera button reside on the right of the 710, but they're nearly indistinguishable from the phone's seams, despite a bit of raised texturing on the former. More often than not, we found ourselves continually checking to see if we were pressing in the right location to control sound or activate the camera. The same can't be said of the power button, situated up top to the right of the micro-USB port and headphone ports, which sticks out just enough to signal its placement without interrupting the device's profile. On the front face, the diminutive earpiece is centered atop Nokia's logo, leaving the unbroken, soft click WP navigation button to border the screen's bottom.

Forget AMOLED: that stunning display tech is reserved mostly for the mobile world's big guns (see: the Lumia 800). The 710 isn't privy to that oversaturated treatment, but its 3.7-inch 800 x 480 ClearBlack LCD does a surprisingly good job, especially when pitted against the Radar 4G's (comparatively) dull Super LCD screen. Viewing angles hold up just as well as they do on the 800, though you'll notice the 710 falls prey to significant washout, rendering our chosen purple theme slightly pink-ish when tilted. We didn't encounter any significant difficulty reading the screen outdoors, but in direct sunlight, expect to bump brightness up to high.

Performance and battery life

1,300mAh isn't the amount of juice we'd necessarily recommend for a daily driver, but somehow the Lumia 710 makes it last just long enough. Riding along T-Mobile's HSPA+ 14.4Mbps network, the phone doesn't fall prey to the excessive drain we've seen on the carrier's faster HSPA+ 21 and 42 devices, like the Amaze 4G. Even under moderate to heavy usage, we managed to eke out nearly a full day's worth of productivity on a single charge -- about 17 hours. That's with Twitter set to sync at 15 minute intervals, one push email account, brightness at 50 percent, GPS and WiFi enabled, some light browsing and streaming video consumption -- not bad for a $50 handset. The 710, however, didn't fare so well in our formal battery rundown test, giving up its Li-ion ghost after two hours and 35 minutes.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

Features:

Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.3-inch Super AMOLED advanced 960×540 display
8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture)
1.2GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $299.99 with a two-year contract
Pros:

3300 mAH battery is a big improvement from the Razr
Less of a “Moto bump” along the back
Bump in storage from 16GB to 32GB
Cons:

1.89mm thicker than its predecessor
UI can slow things down a tad
The Droid Razr Maxx is a very special phone. It kills the few things that were wrong with the original Razr — which is an excellent device, mind you — and then doubles the storage, to boot. I was originally bothered with how light the Razr was. It made premium materials feel cheap, but the extra heft and weight on the Razr Maxx really gives this phone a pricey, solid feel.

A Droid Razr update for Android 4.0 leaked out this week, so if you’re comfortable with tinkering than that’s an extra benefit to the Maxx. We’ll have a full review on this phone up very shortly, but from the short time I’ve spent with it thus far I’d say it has the superior hardware in this particular bunch of Android handsets.

Yahoo Predicts U.S Political Winners

Data scientists at Yahoo are using prediction markets—along with polls, sentiment analysis on Twitter, and trends in search queries—to create the mother of all political prediction engines. The project involves Web-based prediction markets like Intrade, in which large numbers of people bet on the outcomes of elections.

The researchers behind this effort, David Rothschild, an economist at Yahoo Research, and Dave Pennock, a computer scientist at Yahoo Research, call their effort the Signal. They plan to produce data visualizations that best convey probability to a lay audience, and to publish work on machine learning and fundamental economic models based on the effort.

They'll get the public involved in all this political and mathematical wonkiness with fun and games. Drawing on Yahoo's success with fantasy sports leagues—for which the company is the biggest community on the planet—Rothschild and Pennock have created "Fantasy Politics," in which users can bet on the outcomes of pretty much anything.

"We're going to let people [bet on simple predictions] like 'the Democrats will win California,' " says Pennock. "But if they want to geek out, they could bet on the odds that 'the Democrats will win both Ohio and Florida,' or 'the Republicans will win Florida but lose the election.' "

Sony PlayStation Vita

The Vita arrives in a piano black guise and that glossy finish is pretty hungry for your fingerprints. It's likely to pick up more than its fair share with the double touchscreen setup found here. In our hands, the Vita feels pretty similar to the original launch PSP, although it's impressively light for all the high-end internals. The 3G / WiFi model weights in at 279g (9.8 ounces), matching the first generation Sony handheld, although it remains heavier than the 3000 series, which scraped underneath 190g (6.7 ounces). The 3DS is also slightly lighter, although due to its clam-shell composition, it's a little thicker when in transit. Your eyes will be immediately drawn to the broad 5-inch OLED capacitive touchscreen. The apparently Samsung-manufactured screen makes the most of its 960 x 544 resolution and the OLED technology makes for superb viewing angles, although we'd have appreciated a bit more brightness here for outdoor play. Videos downloaded from the PlayStation Store are optimized for the Vita's not-so common resolution and are sharp and vivid. Games also sparkle, with an occasional frame-rate wobble that we're (optimistically) hoping disappears when developers get to grips with the new hardware.



The touchscreen is paired with another narrower patterned touch panel across the back. We, however, didn't just come here for touchscreen gaming -- let's take a look at the controls. You'll find them evenly distributed on either side of the screen. On the left side you'll find a d-pad slightly smaller than the one found on both its predecessor and the DualShock controller. Underneath it resides the primary analog stick, which is suitably 'sticky 'enough for play, although it seems to give a little easier than the sticks on the PSP and the PS3 controller.



Finally, a PlayStation button anchors you to the UI's home screen whenever it's pressed. Press it in tandem with the start button and you can take a screen grab in both the UI and (some) games. Like the PlayStation button, both the start and select buttons lie flush with the screen, this time joining Sony's trademark button medley and the (increasingly necessary) second analog stick on the right side. The pair of shoulder buttons round out the controls and, like we mentioned in our first hands-on, seem a tad livelier than those found on the PSP. Sound like enough control options? Well, don't forget that there's also the same Sixaxis motion controls found in the PS3 controllers.



Touring the rest of the hardware, there are two slots along the top edge of the Vita, both protected with silvery plastic covers. While the Vita-labeled cover on the left takes the new proprietary game cards, the one on the right has been revealed as the anonymous-sounding "accessory port." [Thanks, Rodney]

Next to the covers, you'll find a design nod to the PSP Go, with some reassuringly sturdy volume controls and the power button. Standby mode is a brief button press away, while you'll need to depress for three seconds for a full shutdown.

A cover on the left edge accepts the SIM card for 3G connectivity, with Sony's new game memory storage slot located at the base.The proprietary connection for power is also here and around the back, the aforementioned capacitive touchpad is flanked by two grip pads to rest the device comfortably in your hands. They'll also raise the Vita slightly off the surface, sidestepping the chances of scuffing the symbol patterned touchpad. The placement here seems better located for petite hands, as we found our fingers typically placed themselves closer to the center. A metallic plastic strip that runs around the circumference of the device extends into two strap loops at the bottom of each corner.

Inside, it's another quad-core beast, an ARM Cortex A9 with an additional SGX54MP4+ GPU AND 512MB of memory and an additional 128MBs of VRAM. When it comes to raw specs, it simply dwarfs the PSP. In fact, it also has double the RAM of the PS3, although that guy strikes back with more dedicated VRAM (256MB versus 128MB for the Vita). Unfortunately, while we expected the built-in apps to jump into action this generally wasn't the case -- the browser, in particular, puts on an especially poor performance. Games, which are understandably quite complex, often take their time to load up, but when they do, they offer us a very visible jump on the scale and detail of what we've come to expect from portable gaming. Sound quality is also suitably crisp, with rich noises projecting out from the two stereo speakers.

MacBook Pro, AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule firmware

pple has released three new firmware updates all at once. MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.5 "resolves an issue where a MacBook Pro being used with a power adapter may unexpectedly shut down under heavy workload if the battery charge level is near empty." It's not entirely clear which models of MacBook Pro are covered by this firmware update; if in doubt, check for it via Software Update.

Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.9 adds RAW image support to Aperture 3 and iPhoto '11 for 11 new camera models.

AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6 addresses the most issues of all the firmware updates Apple's released today. According to Apple, the update is for all 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsules and addresses these issues:

An issue with performance on overlapping wireless networks
An issue with AirPlay audio streaming
An issue with configuring multiple entries for DNS servers

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 Micro

Canopied in varying shades of matte black paint, the GX1 has a sleek and elegant retro design. Panasonic didn't exactly take many risks when it came to the camera's physical appearance compared to the GF1, but if we have any complaints about that model, design doesn't come to mind. The GX1's metal construction makes it heavy enough to feel solidly built, but it's still light enough to be worn comfortably around your neck. This should of course come as no surprise to GF1 vets, but the GX1 is far too large to fit in your pocket. Still, the control layout and instrument placement is very efficient, albeit a bit cluttered, so there's very little wasted space.

While it's certainly an upgrade, Panasonic didn't intend the GX1 to replace the GF3 -- the company's more, shall we say, beginner-friendly model, from both a price and design standpoint. The GX1 marks the return of the full-size hot shoe, however, which made its way from the GF1 to the GF2, but was notably absent on the GF3. The hot shoe doubles as a base for the new 1.440k-dot LVF2 electronic viewfinder, which can be added to the kit for an additional $250. That accessory is powered by a proprietary connector, positioned directly below the hot shoe. And there's also a stereo mic on the opposite side of the shoe, with clearly defined left and right positions.



Still up top and to the right of the hot shoe, you'll find a dedicated mode dial, with positions for aperture- and shutter-priority, program mode, manual, two custom modes, a scene mode with access to 17 programmed shooting modes and a Creative Control mode with a handful of artistic settings that we'll expand on a bit further below. There's no auto mode on the main dial itself -- instead, you can launch Intelligent Auto by tapping a dedicated button to the right of the dial, with the button glowing blue when activated. There's a power lever to the right that, just like the mode dial, takes just enough force to turn that you need not worry about accidentally activating it while recording. There's also a dedicated still shutter release along with a video record button. Notably absent, however, is a zoom slider, which you'll instead find mounted to the left side of the lens.

Speaking of those lenses, the GX1 doesn't ship with one at that $700 sticker price. Instead, you can purchase either the new Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS lens for $400, or a Lumix G 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Mega OIS optic wish a $200 list price (or you can opt for a kit that includes the X lens for $950). Both lenses offer a 28-84mm 35mm equivalent focal length, but the former (and pricier) version includes electric-powered zoom functionality, enabling smoother zooming during video capture and an overall (much) more compact design. We tried out the GX1 paired with the new X-series lens, which performed very well during our week-long test period, offering excellent focus speeds and smooth zoom. Advanced photographers may not be so keen on the lack of manual zoom and focus ring control, but the size tradeoff is worthwhile for most.



Continuing the tour, the majority of the GX1's backside is occupied by a 460k-dot 3-inch LCD. Unlike the GF1, this successor's display includes touch functionality, though you certainly don't need to use it -- the touchscreen interface enables you to zoom, touch-to-focus and even fire the shutter without using physical controls, though dedicated buttons are available as well (with the notable exception of touch-to-focus). The display is acceptably sharp and responsive, and there's a nifty level gauge on screen to help ensure the correct horizontal and vertical position. There's also an on-screen histogram option, which you can position anywhere you'd like just by tapping and dragging it on the screen. The LCD occasionally displayed the image preview with incorrect color balance, though the captured image was typically accurate, even when it didn't match the preview.



To the right side of the display, you'll find a playback button, AF/AE lock, along with function, display, quick menu and AF/MF buttons. A five-position selector also brings direct access to ISO, white balance, shooting speed, focus area and menu controls. Finally, there's a flash release button just above the LCD -- pushing it activates the pop-up flash, which extends above either lens but can also be used in a variety of manually-controlled positions. On the right side of the camera, there's a remote connector, an HDMI port along with a proprietary PC/AV connector. The bottom includes a metal tripod connector and a battery cover that slides to reveal a SD card slot and a 1,010mAh rechargeable battery.

Performance and battery life

A far cry from the GF2 and GF3, the GX1 offers generally excellent performance from a shooting perspective, with an interface and control layout that will feel quite familiar to GF1 owners. The camera can power on and fire its first image in just 1.4 seconds, including the time required to focus. Once it's powered on, it can change focus from a far subject to one that's near and capture an image in less than a half second after pressing the shutter release -- if you're capturing another image after focusing, the delay is virtually unnoticeable, with the camera firing instantaneously.

Samsung NX200

PROS
Excellent battery life
20.3 megapixel stills and 1080p video
Accurate white balance and exposure
CONS
Expensive
Limited lens selection
Inconsistent focusing system
BOTTOMLINE
Samsung's NX200 is a worthy successor to the NX100, but its feature set doesn't justify the high price.
There are some cameras that we absolutely love, some we find downright disappointing and others that get the job done, albeit with mediocre results. Samsung's digital imaging devices typically fall within that last category -- they're moderately innovative, generally affordable and often well-designed, but when it comes to image quality and performance, we're left... underwhelmed. So, when we first had a chance to try out the CE giant's new NX200 at IFA in Berlin, we weren't expecting a mind-blowing imaging device.

The NX200 is Samsung's latest entrant into the interchangeable lens (ILC) category -- it's a mirrorless model, to be more precise, and a fairly impressive one at that -- at least when you glance at the spec sheet. It's the company's latest ILC to use an APS-C size sensor, which is the largest we've seen in a mirrorless cam. This sensor type implies that the NX200 may have a chance at competing with Sony's NEX-C3, which has been our top pick in the category, and its 20.3 megapixel rating suggests that Samsung wants to be taken seriously here, with a true contender on its hands. But has Samsung delivered a winner? Jump past the break for our take.

BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981

Handsets that cost more than two grand -- the Nokia Oro, Tag Hauer Link Phone, Motorola Aura and anything Vertu come to mind -- aren't meant to be blockbusters. In fact, most are purely intended to be sold as limited editions, with only a small number rolling off the production line. Porsche Design decided to follow the same strategy, and the company paired up with RIM to craft a new masterpiece using some of the finest materials lying around.

The brand's choice of manufacturer may come as a surprise to many, given the company's recent rocky history, but it shouldn't. After all, Porsche Design CEO Juergen Gessler and several of the executive underlings use a BlackBerry as their daily driver. It's only natural, then, that if they were going to begin selling premium smartphones through their very own stores, they'd buddy up with their favorite phone maker to make it happen, right? Gessler met with RIM to inquire about a collaboration, and boom -- the rest is history.



Let's begin digging into what will interest the business elite -- the phone's design and hardware. First off, we'll need to answer the first burning question: does the P'9981's cost have anything to do with functionality? After all, a device that costs that much should certainly do our laundry for us, right? Nope. Wash the dishes? Nuh uh. Walk our dogs? Strike three. The use of "fine materials," as well as the limited production and eye candy factor, all contribute to the sky-high costs, and it has absolutely nothing with what you can do with it. But then again, if functionality is all you're looking for, you can find that just as easily in top-notch mainstream devices for less than $700 unlocked. In the case of the P'9981, stamping the Porsche Brand logo across the top is what draws curious eyes (and wallets).

We'll offer a disclaimer here: when mentioning that the P'9981 is eye candy, allow us to point out that we're not smitten with its looks, per se. However, there's no question it's an artfully made piece. Porsche and RIM appeared to put a solid amount of TLC into the thing, and it shows in its craftsmanship. Save for the plastic bottom, which lets the antenna do its thing without unnecessary interference, the entire body is forged out of stainless steel. The battery cover is wrapped in real leather, each individual key on the QWERTY keyboard is made of metal and the navigation buttons sitting below the screen are fashioned out of individual pieces of glass.

And yet, its resemblance to the 9900 is unmistakable. There's a reason for this: they're essentially the same phone. Much like its sibling, the P'9981 sports a 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU and 768MB of RAM, 2.8-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 640 x 480 (giving it a pixel density of 286ppi), BlackBerry OS 7.0 with Liquid Graphics, a 1,230mAh battery, GPS, NFC and a 5MP rear camera with an LED flash and 720p HD video capture. For all intents and purposes, Porsche Design pretty much took a Bold 9900 and stuck it in a more arresting chassis.



Measuring in at 115 x 67 x 11.3mm (4.53 x 2.64 x 0.44 inches), it's one millimeter wider, an eight of a millimeter thicker and 25 grams (0.88 ounces) heavier, but it justifies its extra heft with a reassuringly solid feel. This hasn't been much of an issue in the past, as most BlackBerry devices we've tested have felt as though they'd survive two years worth of sporadic drops. Sure, the P'9981's sticker price is motivation enough to keep a death grip at all times, but truly, it feels as durable and well-constructed as its brethren.

The button selection should look mighty familiar too: they're all in nearly the same place as they are on the 9900, with a few minor adjustments. The top is reserved solely for the lock button, while the bottom has two connector ports -- one on each end -- that allow the phone to fit perfectly on the desktop docking station that comes included in the box. Over on the left sits the micro-USB charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack, while on the opposite side you'll find BlackBerry's signature convenience key just below the volume rocker and mute button (which is sandwiched in between). Turning to the back will reveal the leather-wrapped battery cover, which features a metal bar on the top with "P'9981" engraved in the middle, and the camera and LED flash to its sides.



Unsurprisingly, the battery cover also bears the BlackBerry logo underneath the metal bar, embossed into the leather. The Bold 9900 lump is still present, though the one found on the P'9981 is slightly more subtle. Speaking of which, the two covers are also different in the way they attach to the body -- the Bold's is smaller, comprising only the bump, whereas the Porsche Design model fits over the entire back of the phone.

Lastly, we move to the front where we find the LED notification light, touchscreen display, the standard set of BlackBerry navigation buttons -- call, menu, trackpad, back and end / power -- and uniquely designed keyboard. More on that soon.

Performance is exactly what we'd expect from a BlackBerry: great reception, wonderful call quality and robust battery life despite only offering a 1,230mAh juicepack. Our SunSpider 9.1 tests resulted in better scores than with the 9900, interestingly enough -- we averaged 2,495ms, a convincing 150ms lead over the phone's fraternal twin. Our intensive battery rundown test, however, kept the juice flowing for eight hours and fifteen minutes, which we found to be about the same as the Bold.

Keyboard



Truth be told, the keyboard may very well be the most interesting thing about the P'9981. As mentioned earlier, each key is individually crafted from metal, which should do an even better job withstanding your repeated phalangic abuse over the years. On the version we reviewed, each key has a letter and symbol / number inscribed that glows white when you're in a low light area, and an Arabic character which glows red at the same time.

Of course, it wouldn't be a BlackBerry keyboard -- at least, not a high-end one -- without the frets, and they're present here. Granted, they're located in a radically different position than the 9900, found on the lower half of each key instead of on the side. This, along with its shorter and wider keys, contribute to a more difficult typing experience. The buttons are rather clicky, yet it's not as easy to spring from one to another. The keyboard in general was still pleasant to use, but it just wasn't as good.

Camera
BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 sample shots






We were hoping that some extra expense would go into making the P'9981's camera more magical than the Bold's, but it wasn't meant to be. Indeed, the five megapixel rear shooter -- complete with an LED flash and 720p video capture -- produced very similar results. Much like its brother, the P'9981 uses an EDoF sensor that's unable to take macro shots and thus up-close images are unfortunately blurry. The pictures taken from a greater distance turned out better, though we had to mess around with the white balance settings a bit to get some decent shots. As BlackBerry cameras are typically stripped bare of any other special settings, the ability to manipulate such features as exposure, saturation, ISO or anything else manually was unfortunately not an option.



With 720p video, too, we achieved roughly the same results as the Bold. Because the camcorder is fixed-focus, footage remained crisp throughout the entire clip, with the exception of excessive jiggle distortion. At first we just chalked it up to having somewhat shaky hands -- a direct result of not eating our veggies, we figured -- but then we recalled having the same experience with the 9900. That's not to say it's impossible to film a home video free of the shakes, but it will definitely involve an incredibly steady hand or an armrest to make it possible.

Software



The P'9981 runs BlackBerry 7.0, and we won't spend too much time delving into the OS; we cover the topic at length in our review of the Bold 9900 / 9930. However, one thing that really sticks out in the device's firmware is -- drumroll, please -- its custom theme. That's right, proud owners of the phone can feel comfortable knowing they're using a hoity-toity Porsche Design BlackBerry 7 theme. Honestly, very little is new outside of the home panels, which now offer a special set of icons and background options. Aside from this, the differences between firmware are very few, if any. For instance, the menus are the same, the UI elements aren't dissimilar and you have the same applications pre-loaded on each phone.

BlackBerry Curve 9360

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 replaces the Curve 3G on AT&T, and thankfully, it ushers in a host of sorely needed improvements. In a surprising twist, the phone's most welcome upgrade is the display itself, which still measures 2.4 inches, but now features a 480 x 360 (HVGA+) screen that renders anti-aliased text noticeably more crisply than its forebear -- thanks in large part to a pixel density that's now approximately 246ppi. Being an LCD screen, it's quite usable in direct sunlight and we were equally pleased with the viewing angles.


Compared to the Torch 9810, which offers HSPA+ speeds, the Curve 9360 feels hobbled next to its stablemates.
Of course, as we've mentioned previously, the screen isn't touch-sensitive, which necessitates use of the trackpad for interacting with the phone. For the most part, the display provides a spacious canvas for navigating apps and menus, but web browsing is a different story entirely. In this case, text often appears too small to read comfortably, which forces you to access system menus to properly zoom in on the content. It's an archaic solution as we enter 2012, and we predict a lot of folks will be frustrated by the exclusion of a touchscreen whenever they load up the web browser.



As you might've guessed, the improvements don't stop with the display. Inside, the phone wields an 800MHz CPU and 512MB of RAM -- a marked improvement over the 3G's 624MHz option with only 256MB. There's also 512MB of internal storage, although only 160MB is available to the end-user for additional applications. A 1GB microSD card comes standard with the Curve 9360, although that capacity seems rather meager by modern standards, even for a budget offering. Unlike prior variants, this little guy packs NFC support, which is accompanied by 802.11b/g/n (WiFi), A-GPS and Bluetooth 2.1. Connectivity-wise, the 9360 can access quadband GSM, GPRS and EDGE networks, and provides 7.2Mbps HSDPA access over the 2100, 1900 and 850MHz bands. When compared to its most closely-priced competitor, the Torch 9810, which offers HSPA+ speeds at 14.4Mbps down, the Curve 9360 again feels hobbled next to its stablemates.

The form factor of the Curve hasn't changed much, which remains 4.3 inches (109mm) tall and 2.4 inches (61mm) wide, yet the latest iteration comes in a bit slimmer at only 0.43 inches (11mm) thick. Unsurprisingly, this latest incarnation is also a bit lighter at just 3.5 ounces (99g), but part of this slimming comes at a sacrifice of battery capacity, which is now rated at 1,000mAh -- a full 150mAh less than before.




Even those with small hands will likely suffer fatigue when typing messages.
Save for the black bezel, you might, at first glance, be hard-pressed to spot the differences between the Curve 9360 and its predecessor, the 3G. However, that's not to say it hasn't gotten a little facelift. While the previous model featured two convenience keys, one on each side, the 9360 foregoes its left button and leaves only the exposed micro-USB 2.0 port on that side. The top of the phone, which previously offered a full array of media keys, now sports only an integrated lock button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Thankfully, the 9360 retains much of the same functionality as before: the play / pause button now takes the form of a small nub that's situated in the middle of the volume rocker, while navigation through tracks is accomplished with a long-press on the volume up or down keys. The right convenience key is set by default to open the camera application, and can also be used to snap a picture, although we found the trackpad was generally easier to use.

Throughout, the handset is fashioned out of glossy black plastics, and while it's undeniably handsome, the design lacks originality and the gimcrack materials mean you'll constantly be staring at a collection of fingerprints. Quite frankly, and we don't say this very often, the Curve feels too tiny to hold comfortably. In this sense, its reduced thickness is a detriment that will leave many begging for a more substantial option. Even those with small hands will likely suffer fatigue when typing messages, which is further exacerbated by the keyboard itself. Each island key now runs nearly flush with the handset, and while our keystrokes were generally accurate, each key press felt mushy, despite the click sound to the contrary. Put simply, the keyboard on the Curve 9360 feels like a poor impersonator when compared to the quality options on the Torch 9810 and Bold 9900.



In our standard battery rundown test, the Curve eked out just under five hours before calling it quits -- about an hour less than what we typically like to see in smartphones. Similarly, the handset managed to get us through two days of light usage, which is fine, but nowhere near the longevity that BlackBerry users have come to expect. Voice quality also fell below our expectations. While callers had no trouble understanding us, they frequently said our voice sounded muddy and lacked depth. We had similar complaints on our end -- we could comfortably talk with others, but we often perceived their voices as distant and tinny. This held true even for calls to landlines. As for web browsing performance, the Curve chewed through code at a snail's pace, landing a score of 6,840ms in SunSpider 9.1 -- a significant step down from what we've seen in other current BlackBerry devices.

Camera



The handset's back side houses a five megapixel camera that's paired with an LED flash. While we were never particularly impressed with its photographic prowess, we found it to be a simple implementation that delivers usable images in a wide range of scenarios. With an extended depth of field (EDoF) lens, the camera is a focus-free affair that offers "don't think, just shoot" ease of use. While this allows users to quickly grab decent snapshots without fuss, images appear murky at full size, lacking in both detail and crispness. Low-light performance is adequate, although noise creeps into the shots rather quickly. Likewise, macro shots are out of the question with EDoF lenses. The Curve's indoor shooting capabilities are hit-and-miss, often leaving us to rely on the flash to reduce blur.
BlackBerry Curve 9360 sample shots






Even the software itself is geared toward simplicity, and offers a wide variety of scene modes that are designed to enhance images based on the subject and lighting condition. Face detection, portrait, sports, landscape, party, close-up, snow, beach, night and text are all in the mix, while the default setting automatically adjusts images to any given situation. Our experience suggests the tendency of the software is to make colors appear more vibrant, even to the point of "pulling" additional blue from the sky on a relatively cloudy day. Hence, coloration is rarely accurate, and while the end result is usually pleasant, we found over-saturation to be an occasional issue. There's no option to disable these enhancements, either. While some may prefer to eschew the additional processing, the oversight seems forgivable. After all, the camera on the 9360 is hardly meant for photo purists, but rather for those who wish to take handsome snapshots for online albums with minimal effort.



Video recording on the Curve 9360 is limited to a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 (VGA), with 176 x 144 (MMS) being the only other option. It captures movies at 29 frames per second and does a rather good job at conveying fluid motion. Of course, this isn't saying much when most smartphones capture VGA video as the bare minimum -- but again, it's perfectly sufficient for use on the web. In the settings, you'll find another smattering of scene modes, although these are limited to portrait, landscape, closeup, beach and automatic.

Software


In the days of modern operating systems such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone, using the BlackBerry OS feels more akin to a graphing calculator with an address book and a heavy coat of lipstick.
There's no kind way to say it, but BlackBerry 7 OS is stuck in the doldrums of time. It's a former champion fighting well past its prime, desperately longing for retirement -- if only an adequate replacement were ready to take its place. That's not to suggest the interface isn't relatively attractive or intuitive, but RIM's software improvements over the years have been incremental and largely superficial. The OS still struggles with multitasking -- for example, music cuts out when we take pictures -- and despite better renders from the WebKit browser, navigating the web with a cursor on a smartphone feels antiquated and slow. In the days of modern operating systems such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone, using the BlackBerry OS feels more akin to a graphing calculator with an address book and a heavy coat of lipstick.



Modernity aside, for those who've come to know the BlackBerry's inner workings through the years, it continues to fit like a glove and behave as expected. We appreciate the setup application, which allows AOL, Gmail, Windows Live and Yahoo! users to easily integrate their email, contacts, calendars and instant messaging into the phone. This is likewise true for social networks, with support for Facebook and Twitter out of the gate. The Social Feeds application serves as a fine aggregator of activity from both accounts, and notifications are integrated into the centralized hub that also reports new email messages, appointments and missed calls. The software is very well geared to those who use their phones primarily as a communication device, and in this sense, the BlackBerry approach is hard to discount.

Free Apps iPhone App Freebies

iPhone App Freebies: Stop Those Fish, Pentaballs HD, OneShot

The iTunes App Store offers downloads of several applications for Apple iPhone and iPod touch for free, as listed below. At up to $6 off, each is at the lowest price we've seen. The deals:
iFavorite Pro for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Preference sharing tool
My Father's Clothes for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Interactive children's storybook
iDownloader Plus for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Download manager tool
Stop Those Fish for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (pictured): Puzzle game
Pentaballs HD for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Logic-based multiplayer game
OneShot for iPhone and iPod touch: Drawing game
TheMonsterParty for iPhone and iPod touch: Puzzle game
Dragon Spring for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Shooting game
iKungFu Master for iPhone and iPod touch: Action adventure game

Logitech Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

$60 + free shipping
Logitech Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

Best Buy offers the Logitech Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, model no. 980-000589, for $59.99 with free shipping. That's tied with our mention from two weeks ago and the lowest total price we could find by $28. Sales tax is added where applicable. This speaker features dual 2" drivers, Bluetooth connectivity with iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, etc.), auxiliary input, and more.

New Apps Let Facebook Record Your Personal History

Facebook won the loyalty of more than 800 million users largely by getting them into the habit of visiting again and again to see the latest updates, comments, and photos posted by friends. Now the site will also let outside apps provide even more content, and it will encourage people to spend time looking back over activity from months or even years ago. New features introduced at an event in San Francisco last night will enable users to automatically record their eating, reading, exercise, and other habits over time, share them with friends, and review their previous actions.

The key to the new features is an update to the Timeline page that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg introduced at his company's F8 event last September. Now, with a user's permission, third-party websites and mobile apps can record details of what the person is doing and automatically feed that information to the person's Timeline page through a "Timeline app" that sends the data to Facebook and provides the necessary permission and privacy settings.

"Your timeline is not just a way to tell your story based on what you're doing on Facebook, but using your activity out in the rest of the world as well," said Carl Sjogreen, director of platform products at Facebook, at the launch event.

Enthusiasts and researchers have experimented with comprehensively logging their lives for years. In 1998, for example, Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell began trying to digitally capture as much as he could about everything he did. But Bell and others have often found that browsing and reviewing their records presented a greater challenge than capturing them. Facebook's new design could help people do both.

Twitter Bots Create New Social Connections

You might have encountered a "Twitter bot" before: an automated program that perhaps retweeted something you wrote because it had particular keywords. Or maybe you received a message from an unfamiliar, seemingly human-controlled account, only to click on an accompanying link and realize you'd been fooled by a spambot.

Now a group of freelance Web researchers has created more sophisticated Twitter bots, dubbed "socialbots," that can not only fool people into thinking they are real people, but also serve as virtual social connectors, speeding up the natural rate of human-to-human communication.

The work has its origins in meetings of the Web Ecology Project, an independent research group focused on studying the structure and dynamics of social media phenomena. The group began by questioning the claims of so-called social media consultants who say they can grow their clients' Twitter networks, and even increase online interaction between a brand and Twitter users.

"A lot of people you can hire now say they are really good at community engagement," says Tim Hwang, one of the authors of a research paper describing the socialbot experiments. Hwang and his colleagues wondered, "Can we measure those claims?"

Skype confirms that Windows Phone product is coming soon

Who doesn't love a little bit of old fashioned synergy? Speaking to a Microsoft representative in the Microsoft CES booth holding a Microsoft microphone, VP of products for Microsoft-owned Skype, Rick Osterloh, made mention of the VoIP service's plans to make its way onto Microsoft's mobile operating system. Says Osterloh, "We're [...] working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon." We've definitely heard that noise before.

IBM builds 9 nanometer carbon

It's not the smallest transistor out there, but the boffins at IBM have constructed the tiniest carbon nanotube transistor to date. It's nine nanometers in size, making it one nanometer smaller than the presumed physical limit of silicon transistors. Plus, it consumes less power and is able to carry more current than present-day technology. The researchers accomplished the trick by laying a nanotube on a thin layer of insulation, and using a two-step process -- involving some sort of black magic, no doubt -- to add the electrical gates inside. The catch? (There's always a catch) Manufacturing pure batches of semiconducting nanotubes is difficult, as is aligning them in such a way that the transistors can function. So, it'll be some time before the technology can compete with Intel's 3D silicon, but at least we're one step closer to carbon-based computing.

How Siri is ruining your cellphone service

That's the searing headline from the Washington Post in an article by Paul Farhi. Farhi claims that "Siri's dirty little secret is that she's a bandwidth guzzler, the digital equivalent of a 10-miles-per-gallon Hummer H1."

Where's he coming up with this? Apparently, the "Siri eats bandwidth" claim is based on a study by Arieso that reports that iPhone 4S owners consume twice as much cellular data as iPhone 4 users and 3 times as much as iPhone 3G users. Recent Android phones are also chewing up twice as much data as the iPhone 3G, while 3G and 4G mobile hotspots are by far the biggest download hogs (26x the baseline).

At least in the press release summary of the study, however, there's no mention of Siri at all; just the increased usage for the 4S, which just happens to support a faster download standard on AT&T's network. Our sister site Engadget helped put that study in perspective by pointing out that Arieso has a vested interest in the results of the research. We've asked for a full copy of the report to see what, if any, linkage there is between Siri and data volume.

If we take the study at face value, though, why more data on the 4S? The likely answer hasn't much to do with Siri and a lot more to do with the profile of the iPhone 4S buyer.

The people who buy the latest phone are also the power users who take the most advantage of their devices. We've seen that happen before with new technology, and once people stop amazing themselves and their friends, the consumption of bandwidth drops off. I haven't seen any convincing data that says the iPhone 4S inherently uses more data than an iPhone 4, and iOS 5 iCloud features, also available on the iPhone 4 and 3GS, probably play a role in increased bandwidth use.

As for Siri, most of the heavy lifting goes on at the Apple servers, where your query is translated into data and then sent back to your phone in a quick burst. Streaming radio, Netflix and a host of other apps can use way more bandwidth, and they are utilizing the network for minutes or hours at a time, not seconds.

LG Spectrum

LG Spectrum
Features:

Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.5-inch True HD 1280×720 Display
8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera
1.5GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $199.99 with a two-year contract
Pros:

Beautiful display
Pre-loaded ESPN Sports Center app in HD
LG Y is actually a nice custom overlay
Cons:

Not a fan of that brushed plastic back panel
The silver bezels don’t handle prints well
I was hard on this phone when I first played around with it, and I still maintain that there’s nothing super special about the Spectrum. It’s not like the Rezound with Beats Audio imtegration or the Razr with its anorexic waist line. That said, you really won’t find these kind of specs on an Android phone for just $200. In fact, I’d be so bold as to call it a steal.

I’m also pretty excited about that display. I have yet to put a Super AMOLED Plus up against this 720p True HD display, but I’d say it’s one of the most (if not, the most) stunning displays I saw at CES. Certainly worth consideration, especially if you are a fan of LG phones to begin with.

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Qualcomm buys Pixtronix

Qualcomm's whipped out some flipping great wadges of cash in order to snap up Pixtronix for its PerfectLight MEMS-based display tech. It reportedly cost between $175 - $200 million and is expected to be merged into the company's super-low power Mirasol-based displays. Compared to the Kyobo eReader we played with at CES, PerfectLight has a wider viewing angle (170 degree), supports full speed video playback and much better RGB modulation. Depending on how successful the marriage is, it could spell the end of the final hurdles that have hampered the widespread adoption of the technology.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins sat down with Crackberry

Freshly anointed RIM CEO Thorsten Heins sat down with Crackberry this week to discuss his vision for the future of BlackBerry, his thoughts on Android and, most strikingly, his recent comments about maintaining the status quo. Shortly after his appointment, Heins issued a video address in which he implicitly claimed that RIM doesn't need an overhaul. "If we continue doing well what we're doing, I see no problems with us being in the top three players worldwide in the next years in wireless," the exec said. At the time, we and many other observers read this as a sign that the Heins era would look a lot like the Balsillie-Lazaridis era, but according to the new CEO, that's not the case. "I was talking about drastic or seismic changes," he clarified. "What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold. My true belief is that RIM has the strength and the assets that we can really succeed in this market." Heins went on to claim that there's already "a lot of change" going on at the company -- citing the company's adoption of QNX as a prime example -- and that there's "no standstill at any moment here at RIM."

Android integration for car stereo

CES may be over, but we've still got a few interesting gems to share from our week-long trip in Las Vegas. Far off the beaten path of glitzy booths and familiar brand names, we discovered a few companies that are looking to bring Android gadgetry into automobiles. One that exemplifies this nascent product realm is known as Rydeen. While many of its creations remain merely prototypes, the firm is close to completion of a double-DIN stereo head unit that runs Android 2.2. Then, imagine our surprise when we discovered a functional version of Froyo running from within a rear-view mirror. By the company's own admission, it has no interest to bring a stock Android experience to the reflective surface, but rather is treating this project as a learning experience.