Ken Carr's daily read

There’s no denying that the Mini 5 is real, but up until now, we’ve had to provide all of our own promotional material. At long last, it seems as if the suits in Round Rock are finally getting around to crafting the first advertisements for the upcoming slate, and while we knew about the 5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, capacitive touch front buttons, front-facing VGA camera (for video chatting) and the 30-pin docking connector, we weren’t aware of Dell’s plans to reveal a slew of vivacious color options. If this here flyer proves legitimate, we could eventually see the Mini 5 available in an array of premium finishes and hues (thanks, Design Studio!), and we’re hoping for a few different spec builds as well. So, are you opting for the pink, or are you crossing your fingers in hopes that Dell allows you to print that embarrassing shot of you and Mr. T on the rear of one?

Update: Oh, snap! We just landed a few more official slides from an internal Dell document, and it’s safe to say that the company is going to call this beauty the Streak. Or, at least that’s the internal codename. Better still, it looks as if it’ll launch with an Amazon content partnership, which will bring a Kindle e-book reader app, Amazon MP3, Amazon video streams and pretty much any other material that Amazon sells in digital form right to the slate. C’mon now — how’s about a ship date and a price?

Leaked Dell Streak flyer shows multitude of color options, confirmed specifications originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We had a hunch that Pentax was readying a 645 Digital, and sure enough, the company has come clean with that very camera today. The May-bound 40 megapixel 645D is a medium format beast, but unlike similar options from Hasselblad, this one won’t actually destroy your hopes of sending four generations of offspring to college. Boasting a 44mm x 33mm sensor, a 3-inch rear LCD and a virtually indestructible chassis, this monster promises high res images that only pros can appreciate, and there’s a pair of SD / SDHC card slots for those who love to surround themselves with options. You’ll also get a newly designed 11-point AF sensor, a fresh dust removal system, 77-segment multi-pattern metering system and a battery good for around 800 images when fully charged. ‘Course, with a retail price of ¥850,000 ($9,442), you’ll also expect amenities like an HDR mode, dynamic range expansion and an HDMI output, all of which just so happen to be included. Oh, and if you’re in the market for some new glass, there’s also a 55mm F2.8 lens that’ll ship alongside of this here body for the princely sum of ¥100,000 ($1,110).

Pentax gets official with 40 megapixel 645D medium format camera originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that waterproof Bluetooth speaker that you picked up last summer after none other than Billy Corgan endorsed it? Here’s comes round two. Available exclusively in the Land of the Rising Sun (surprised?), the Music Planet speaker ball is IPX7-certified to shrug off water damage for up to 30 minutes at a depth of one meter, and it’s designed so that the speaker itself sits just above the water line. Internally, you’ll find an FM radio tuner, an SD / SDHC card slot for loading up MP3 files, a USB socket (good luck with that non-waterproof thumb drive) and an alarm clock. You know, in case you fall asleep underneath two feet of soapy water. Power comes from six AA cells, which provides enough juice for 13 straight hours of your own jams or 28 hours of whatever’s on the radio; it’s up for order right now at ¥10,500 ($117), but sadly, no fancy shower gels are bundled in. Opportunity, missed.

Music Planet waterproof speaker ball makes bath time more melodic originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like clockwork, we’ve just been dropped a line by T-Mobile USA asking us to join them for a very special media event to check out the HTC HD2 — “a larger than life entertainment powerhouse” — in fabulous New York City on the evening of March 16. That lines up nicely with the company’s earlier assurances that we’d see a launch in March — but what day in March, exactly? Well, we’re hearing from a number of tipsters (including trusted sources) that the 24th is the day this thing breaks loose at retail, so set your watches and calendars accordingly — assuming you haven’t been wooed into Windows Phone 7 Series’ tender, loving grasp, that is.

Update: MobiTV — which has an app bundled with T-Mobile’s version of the HD2 — says the HD2 is launching on the 23rd, and frankly, they’re probably in a position to know. Thanks, Stephen!

T-Mobile invites us to ‘come experience the HTC HD2′ on March 16; release on the 24th? (update: or 23rd!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oops. Over the weekend, it seems as if 300 or so unlucky individuals were shipped a counterfeit processor from the normally reliable warehouses at NewEgg, and Hard|OCP has the images (and video) to prove it. Vincent Waller couldn’t have possibly been more eager to receive the Core i7-920 that he had ordered, but upon unboxing it, he realized that he had received a well-disguised fake. After a fair bit of digging, it seems as if one of NewEgg’s “long time partners” (D&H Distributing) got ahold of 300 fakes in a batch of 2,000, though not everyone’s buying the “it was an honest mistake” line — especially when you consider that said company has already issued cease-and-desist letters to the sites who published the news. At any rate, NewEgg has already arranged for an authentic CPU to be rushed to Mr. Waller, and it’s purportedly working around the clock in order to make things right with any other negatively affected customers. Hop on past the break for a look at the knockoff, particularly if you just took delivery of a shiny new Core i7.

Continue reading NewEgg sells 300 counterfeit Core i7-920 CPUs, KIRFers pump their fists

NewEgg sells 300 counterfeit Core i7-920 CPUs, KIRFers pump their fists originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a little spicy rumor for you Palm fans on this tranquil Sunday: according to TopTongueBarry who claims to work for AT&T, his company has just finished certification tests with GSM flavors of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus ahead of a possible April 26th launch — a date not far from what we’ve heard earlier. However, the bigger news from Barry is that the big A will soon be testing a third mysterious webOS device by the name of Palm Elan, which may greet us mere mortals on May 10th (but possibly in Europe first). Another forum member Shadow-360 also dug up some cached pages that claimed to have accessories for the non-existent device, as pictured above. Of course, this could be just a crude joke for a keyboard-less Palm device that many of us seem to desire — as reminded by the good folks at PreCentral, Elan is also the name of the company that sued Apple over multitouch patents last April. So, any thoughts on this leak? Are we all ready for a new webOS phone?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Palm Elan to be the next webOS smartphone, heading to AT&T? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mama always said that some folks just never learn, and we reckon there’s plenty of wisdom to be had from that very statement. Year after year, German police are called in to raid select booths at CeBIT (and IFA, to be fair), and yet again we’ve seen a booth cleared out at the request of powerful lawyers from a few companies you may have heard of. Word on the street has it that Apple, Siemens and Sisvel were all kvetching over patent infringements made by an unnamed company exhibiting at last week’s show, and within an hour or so of the fuzz showing up, the whole thing was stripped and a hefty fine (€10,000) was levied. Unfortunately, the exact details of who was violating what remains clouded in mystery, but for whatever reason, we get the feeling that something extremely similar will be going down in Hannover next year. We blame KIRFers determination.

[Thanks, TheLostSwede]

Apple, Siemens and Sisvel patent infringement leads to CeBIT booth raid originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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