Mercedes-Benz debuts tablet-packing A-Class concept (video)

As fond as we are of the A-Class, it's never been the best looking Benz in the bunch, but with the introduction of the new A-Class concept, it looks like that could soon change. One of the car's designers describes it variously as sexy, expressive, and beautifully formed, and while we wouldn't go quite that far, we have to say it's not too shabby. The car sports some interesting looking LED headlights and an inverted mesh grill on the outside, and on the inside it's packing a rather futuristic display, complete with a dash-mounted tablet and what looks to be an iPhone protruding from the center console. Now, there's no guarantee that this thing will get the E-Cell treatment, or that all the bells and whistles will make it to production, but for now, it's shaping up to be a rather stylish upgrade. For more Mercedes-Benz eye candy, check out the gallery below.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 released: dual-core Tegra Honeycomb Android tablet for $450

Acer Iconia Tab A500 has just been announced by Acer, and is a Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet that has similar specifications to the Motorola Xoom. More specifically, Acer Iconia Tab A500 comes with a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 250 CPU, a 10.1-inch 1280×800 screen, 1GB of RAM memory, 16GB storage, dual cameras (5 megapixel back and a 2 megapixel front), HDMI-out. Powering the Iconia Tab A500 is a pair of 3260mAh Li-ion batteries that according to Acer grants the A500 8 hours of battery life when playing HD video. If you’re in the States, you can have all this for a mere $450 USD (approx 310 EUR), with preorders starting today through Best Buy’s website.


VIA  thegadgetsite

Packard Bell Liberty Tab announced, a Tegra 2 tablet which looks suspiciously like the Acer Iconia A500

Packard Bell has announced the Liberty Tab. It has a 10.1 inch capacitive touch screen, runs on Android 3.0 Honeycomb and has a Nvidia Tegra 2 SOC. It looks exactly the same as the Acer A500 Iconia. The screen of the Packard Bell Liberty Tab has a resolution of 1280×800 pixels and can be connected via HDMI to an external display. 1GB RAM and 32GB storage capacity, which can be expanded with SD cards. The tablet supports 3G, WiFi-N and Bluetooth 2.1.
In addition, a micro-USB interface is available for connection to external equipment,  and GPS is also supported for positioning. Its front camera has a resolution of 2 megapixel, and the rear facing unit 5 megapixels. The Liberty Tab will be available in red and white. It appears that Packard Bell has used a custom UI on top of Android Honeycomb. Its pricing is yet unknown. The Liberty Tab should be available around June.


VIA  thegadgetsite

iPhone 5 to come with 8 megapixel camera, Sony CEO accidentally reveals

While speaking to Walt Mossberg this week, Sony CEO Howard Stringer has apparently accidentally shed some light on the camera hardware specifications of the iPhone 5. As Stringer was discussing the impact of the Japanese earthquake on the company’s CMOS sensor production, he allegedly said: “Our best sensor technology is built in one of the affected factories. Those go to Apple for their iPhones… or iPads. Isn’t that something? They buy our best sensors from us?”
This is interesting because Apple does not currently use Sony cameras in their products. Analysts at The Street (the people who previously accurately predicted the 5 megapixel iPhone 4 camera) are now saying that the fifth-gen iPhone will be using a 8-megapixel camera from Sony, which also coincides with rumors that Apple is seeking to move away from the iPhone 4 camera supplier OmniVision for a new supplier.


VIA  thegadgetsite
SOURCE  9to5mac

Israeli parody details the rise and fall of Apple's iBoy, humanity as a whole (video)

For those unaware, Eretz Nehederet is effectively the Israeli equivalent to The Onion, and on the 1st of April, they covered the hardest-hitting piece of Apple news to cross their news desk in quite some time. That news, friends, is the iBoy. Available in a variety of skin tones, religious beliefs and languages, this iPad-adorned human is both the best and worst thing to happen to mankind... well, ever. There's no word on when it'll be on sale, but it's fairly clear that "divorce" and "alcohol" are about to take a backseat to this guy when studying factors that rip families to shreds. Click and weep as you see fit.


VIA  Engadget
SOURCE  Mako

Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price

Stealth has been in the compact computing game for some time, and the company has just rolled out its most powerful pint-sized PC to date, the LPC-670. Packing Intel's Arrandale Core i5-520M, Core i5-580M, or Core i7-620M silicon, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a DVD or Blu-ray burner, a max 750GB 2.5-inch HDD or 128GB SSD, optional 802.11g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and DVI connections, Stealth's new mini-PC has the brawn of much bigger machines. The price of such lilliputian luxury? An account-emptying $1650, and that's just for the base model -- check the right option boxes and the final tally will run you over three grand. That should ensure the customer base will be just like the machine itself... tiny.


VIA  Engadget

Editorial: Android's problem isn't fragmentation, it's contamination

This thought was first given voice by Myriam Joire on last night's Mobile Podcast, and the simple, lethal accuracy of it has haunted me ever since. All the hubbub and unrest about whether Google is trying to lock Android down or not has failed to address whether Google should be trying to control the OS, and if so, what the (valid) reasons for that may be. Herein, I present only one, but it's arguably big enough to make all the dissidence about open source idealism and promises unkept fade into insignificance.

Sony's Jack Tretton says Nintendo makes 'babysitting tools'

Sony does what Nintendon't? That's the general sentiment from a brief interview that PlayStation chief Jack Tretton gave to Fortune this week, in which he talked up Sony's strengths and played down (some may even say belittled) its competitors, and Nintendo in particular. That began with the relatively tame assertion that Sony's decision to go high-end with PlayStation 3 is just now beginning to pay off while the other consoles are "starting to run out of steam," before he took aim at Nintendo's handheld business. According to Tretton, Nintendo's handhelds all offer what he calls a "Game Boy experience," something that's great as a "babysitting tool," but that "no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those."


VIA  Engadget
SOURCE  Fortune

Alienware M14x manuals leak out, confirm the gaming notebook once and for all

Just yesterday Dell's leaky website poured out details about the upcoming Alienware M11x R3 gaming notebook, and it didn't take long for its larger brother to follow suit -- today, we've got the full user and factory service manuals for Alienware's M14x, confirming a number of juicy rumors. Unfortunately, there's no mention of a Full HD 1080p LCD screen for the 14-inch visitor from another planet, but there will apparently be both 1366 x 768 and 1600 x 900 options on tap, both driven by NVIDIA's GeForce GT555M switchable Optimus graphics with up to 3GB of dedicated memory. Of course, you'll also find Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 Sandy Bridge CPUs and up to 8GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA 6Gbps and optional 3G / 4G connectivity, optional WirelessHD, a two megapixel webcam, and even a 8-cell, 63Whr battery to make portable gaming vaguely possible. Hit up our source link to see how Dell put this machine together -- and how you can tear it apart -- while we wait for the company to finally make the smokin' hot notebook official, and let us know how just badly our wallets will feel after it rips their innards out.


VIA  Engadget
SOURCE  Dell

Sprint radar imaging system peeps inside walls, floors to detect bombs, tell-tale hearts

Back in 2005, we reported on a little something called the Prism 200, which allowed its holder to essentially see what folks were doing on the other side of a wall. Since then, we've seen plenty of devices that boast the same claims, but it wasn't until recently that the makers of the Prism 200 created a device that can actually see inside those walls. Looking something akin to an old school punch clock, Cambridge Consultants' Sprint in-wall radar imaging system provides 3D renderings of items embedded in walls, floors, and even ceilings. Where as existing X-ray systems require access to both sides of a wall, Sprint's radar setup allows users to see what's going on inside without dual access. As you might imagine, Cambridge is pushing this thing as a security tool, allowing for detection of bombs, drugs, dead bodies -- you know, the usual bad guy stuff. Sprint is currently undergoing testing. Full PR after the break.