Android

CES: Huawei Ideos X5 runs stock Android

LAS VEGAS--Just as we reported yesterday, Huawei introduced a new phone for the U.S. market at this year's CES, the Huawei Ideos X5. This midrange Android handset is no stranger; it's already been released in Asia. The U.S. timetable is much murkier--Huawei is keeping the U.S. launch date, carrier, and price under wraps until later this month.

In that sense, the specs are no surprise. The slim, trim Ideos X5 has a nice 3.8-inch screen with a WVGA display (800x480 pixels). It looked bright in our hands and we liked the dark gray brushed … Read more

The 404 733: Where we do it without glasses (podcast)

It's the first official day of CES 2011 and we're joined by our buddy Clayton Morris of Fox and Friends who takes a moment out of his busy day to show us a couple cool gadgets he saw today. We always enjoy a game of show and tell, and Clayton doesn't disappoint with the Steadicam Smoothee, a handheld steadicam that you can use with an Apple iPhone, a Motorola DROID, or a Flip Mino video camera.

Next up in the rundown is a show favorite that seems to be making ripples throughout CES- it's the official Angry Birds board game by Mattel!

If you're a non-gamer like myself, Angry Birds is the insanely popular virtual game currently available for digital download on mobile devices like the iPhone and Android phones, but the creators, Rovio Mobile, and Mattel have just announced a physical board game version here at CES 2011.

The analog game plays just like the virtual phenomenon: set up the obstacle course according to the card you choose, place a a bird in the catapult, and take aim at the familiar green pigs trying to steal your precious eggs. As Natali says, the game is rated for ages five and up since it contains small pieces that could be harmful if swallowed, so take caution if you have children or child-like gamers in your life. Angry Birds the board game will be available for purchase in May for $14.95.

And speaking of games, Jeff was treated to a preview of the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming console today, and it sounds like the little guy will definitely live up to the hype. The 3D effects pop the moment you pick it up, and Jeff's demo of the game "Pilotwings" effectively showed off the 3D slider that lets you adjust the degree of 3D intensity. Alternatively, you can also turn off the effect altogether if you have children under 6 that Nintendo advises should not use the device.

While Jeff and Wilson are giddy about gaming, I find myself shifting focus to other that appeal to my own lifestyle. Enter the Campbell Soup wireless cooking cup. It's being shown off at the Wireless Power Consortium and it stands to change the way we think about cooking soup.

All jokes aside, the technology behind the idea is pretty sweet- the soup container uses eCoupled wireless charging technology to heat up the soup from inside the package according to one of three power settings: low, medium, or high. We're not sure how this will ultimately aide in the heating of foods that aren't pre-cooked, but any device that saves me from washing a pot is a showstopper in my book.

There's plenty more news from CES 2011 to talk about today including the Blackberry Playbook, the Star Wars Blu-Ray set, Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Microsoft Kinect news, OnLive built into Vizio television sets and more, so thanks for listening and catch us again tomorrow LIVE from the showroom floor!

Episode 733 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

CES: Dell teases Streak 10 tablet

LAS VEGAS--No shortage of Dell news today.

On Thursday at its press conference, Dell debuted the Streak 7, but right after that presentation the company showed a very quick look at the Dell Streak 10.

The Streak 10 will have a 10-inch screen and will be geared toward business and enterprise users.

Expect built-in support for VPN and other business-related features.

No work yet on release date, price, or if there will be a consumer version.

CES: Hands-on with the HTC Thunderbolt

LAS VEGAS--One of the most anticipated smartphones coming into CES 2011 had to be the HTC Thunderbolt.

Unveiled today at Verizon's press conference, the Thunderbolt is HTC's first LTE device and has been described as "blazingly fast." However, we had to find out for ourselves and luckily we got some hands-on time with it.

In short, the HTC Thunderbolt is fast. Granted, there aren't too many people on Verizon's LTE network right now, but we were impressed at just how fast it pulled up CNET's full site and played video. On other devices … Read more

CES: Verizon finally flashes the HTC Thunderbolt

LAS VEGAS--Verizon and HTC finally took the wraps off the HTC Thunderbolt on Thursday afternoon at CES 2011.

It's the first LTE smartphone for HTC and company CEO Peter Chou described it as "blazingly fast." Details are a bit sparse right now, but we know that it will feature a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touch screen, and an 8-megapixel camera with HD video capture.

In addition, the handset will run Android (though which version was not specified) with HTC Sense 2.0, Skype Mobile, Dolby surround sound, and DLNA support.

We'll continue … Read more

CES: Samsung's 4G Galaxy Tab revealed

LAS VEGAS--On Wednesday, Samsung announced a Wi-Fi version of the Galaxy Tab, but apparently it thinks we can't get enough Galaxy Tab news. It's probably right.

On Thursday the company, along with Verizon Wireless, announced the 4G LTE-enabled Galaxy Tab.

Unlike the Wi-Fi-only Tab, this one gets a significant upgrade in at least a couple of areas. Samsung will upgrade the rear-facing camera from 3 to 5 megapixels.

Also, the CPU gets a slight speed boost, from 1GHz to 1.2GHz, using the same Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor.

Besides those details, the rest of the specs (so far) … Read more

Verizon announces LG Revolution to launch with LTE

LAS VEGAS--Verizon has just announced the LG Revolution (VS910), LG's first smartphone to work on Verizon's burgeoning LTE network. We initially thought it was a CDMA cousin of the LG Optimus 2X, but it isn't. It doesn't have the Optimus 2X's dual core Tegra 2 processor, or its 8-megapixel rear camera; it has a 5-megapixel lens instead.

It does have a 4.3-inch TFT touch screen, a 1GHz processor, Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G/LTE mobile hot spot capabilities, DLNA, HDMI, and DVIX compatibility, Bluetooth 2.1, a microSD card slot that can take up to … Read more

CES: Dell debuts Streak 7 tablet

LAS VEGAS--At its press conference on Thursday, Dell revealed its Streak 7 tablet. This is the follow-up to the Streak released last year.

The tablet features a new design and the follwing specs:

Dual Core 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra T2 processor 7-inch screen Support for T-Mobile's 4G network Dual cameras: 5 megapixel rear camera and 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera Runs Android 2.2 and full Flash 10.1 implementation; upgradable to Honeycomb in the future. Live news, sports and entertainment television via T-Mobile TV First 4G tablet (according to Dell) Up to 802.11n Wi-Fi Offers the full Dell … Read more

CES: Skype buys rival Qik to handle two-way Android video calls

LAS VEGAS--If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. In the weeks leading up to CES, we guessed that Skype would take two-way video calling to Andorid phones.

What we didn't expect was that it'd do so by snatching up the competition. At a press conference, Skype announced that it acquired Qik, a rival that became well known when it was preloaded onto the HTC Evo with its front-facing camera.

Tony Bates, Skype's new CEO (about 17 days new, Bates says), wouldn't disclose Qik's purchase price (it's rumored to be a cool $100 million), … Read more