Feature Breaking News That's right, humans -- Engadget has its very own Nexus One. You've seen leake

That's right, humans -- Engadget has its very own Nexus One. You've seen leaked pics and videos from all over, but we're the first publication to get our very own unit, and we plan on giving you guys the full story on every nook and cranny of this device. In case you've been living under a rock, here's the breakdown of the phone. The HTC-built and (soon to be) Google-sold device runs Android 2.1 atop a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 3.7-inch, 480 x 800 display, has 512MB of ROM, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB microSD card (expandable to 32GB). The phone is a T-Mobile device (meaning no 3G if you want to take it to AT&T), and includes the standard modern additions of a light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer. The Nexus One has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and we have to say so far the pictures it snaps look pretty decent (and the camera software is much faster than the same component on the Droid). The phone is incredibly thin and sleek -- a little thinner than the iPhone -- but it has pretty familiar HTC-style industrial design. It's very handsome, but not blow-you-away good looking. It's a very slim, very pocketable phone, and feels pretty good in your hand. Thought you'd have to wait for that Google event for more on the Nexus One? Hell no -- so read on for an in-depth look. C'mon, you know you want to.

Google Nexus One unboxing and hands-on

Internet Explorer losing users as other browsers set share records

In the last quarter, Chrome, Safari and Opera all set new personal bests for browser market share with 4.63, 4.46 and 2.4 percent respectively. This period marks the first time Chrome has beaten Safari to third spot, while their collective prosperity comes at the expense of IE, which continues to hemorrhage users at a rate of 0.92 percentage points a month. Microsoft's 62.7 percent slice might still look mighty, but projections from Net Applications suggest it could shrink to below 50 percent by May of this year. Unless something magical happens. You'll probably also want to know that Net Applications monitors incoming traffic to over 40,000 websites and generates a sample size of about 160 million unique visitors each month -- making the veracity of its claims pretty robust. One hidden sign of our collective laziness: 21 percent of all users last quarter were still fulfilling their browsing needs with IE 6. For shame.

Computer World

Net Applications

Sony Vaio Y11, S11 and F11 leaked ahead of launch, Z and CW series refreshed

Breaking News

It appears that the Vaio T's return is only the tip of a giant iceberg of refreshes coming out from Sony HQ this month. Greek e-tailer Compuland has a trio of new models listed -- seemingly prematurely -- for sale: the Vaio Y11 (pictured) is a relatively standard 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 machine with 4GB of DDR3 memory and 320GB of storage, and its nomenclature seems to fit given that its specs land somewhere between the underpowered X and fully-equipped Z series. Speaking of the latter, Sony is adding a Core i5-520M to its refreshed Z line, as well as to the new 16-inch F11 model which adds a half terabyte storage drive just for kicks. The lesser Core i3-330M Arrandale chip finds a home in the new 13-inch S11 laptop, which may or may not be replacing the SR series we know and love, as well as a freshened up CW number. Hit the read links for early pricing and more details, and if you hope really hard maybe we'll get proper announcements from the official channels some time soon.

[Thanks, SpaceCowboy1973 and Al]

Read - Compuland (VPCY11S1E)
Read - Compuland (VPCF11M1E)
Read - Compuland (VPCS11X9E)
Read - Laptopshop.nl (VPCZ11X9E)
Read - Laptopshop.nl ( VPCCW2S1E)

Notebook Review (1), (2)

Motorola Calgary / Droid Devour spotted in silver, Bluring it up

There's another Motorola "Calgary" device (also known as the Droid Devour) making the rounds, and this time it's showing a silver paint job and an obvious Motorola Blur home screen. Word is that the trackpad to the upper right of the keyboard is great, and the keyboard supposedly bests the Droid -- not a challenging feat, to be sure. Obviously it's headed for Verizon, and Boy Genius confirms that WiFi and GPS are onboard, but it's still a little unclear what the low-end differentiators between it and the Droid might be, outside the three megapixel camera and what appears to be a smaller, lower resolution screen.

Boy Genius Report

New standard could pave way for higher capacity Blu-ray discs

Already feeling the pinch of a mere 25GB per layer on a Blu-ray disc? Neither are we, but it looks like Sony and Panasonic have been busily working on ways to boost capacity nonetheless, and they've now devised a new method that seems to be on the fast track to becoming a standard. The best news is that it doesn't involve a change in Blu-ray optics, but rather something called the Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation evaluation index (or i-MLSE -- the "i' is just for kicks, it seems), which is a new means of estimating the read error rate of discs on the fly that has apparently be made possible thanks to "recent hardware advancements." According to Sony and Panasonic, that should now allow discs to hold up to 33.4 GB per layer, but it's not exactly clear what that means for existing Blu-ray players (a little firmware assistance seems to at least be a conceivable option, though). There's also no timeline for a rollout just yet, but Sony is reportedly now set to propose widespread adoption of i-MLSE to the Blu-ray Disc Association, of which it just so happens to be the leading member.

Tech-On!

Researchers develop tiny, autonomous piezoelectric energy harvester

Folks have long been using piezoelectric devices to harvest energy in everything from dance floors to parking lots, but a group of European researchers have now shown off some novel uses for the technology at the recent International Electron Devices Meeting that could see even more of the self-sufficient devices put to use. Their big breakthrough is that they've managed to shrink a piezoelectric device down to "micromachine" size, which was apparently possible in part as a result of using aluminum nitride instead of lead zirconate titanate as the piezoelectric material, thereby making the devices easier to manufacture. Their first such device is a wireless temperature sensor, which is not only extremely tiny, but is able to function autonomously by harvesting energy from vibrations and transmit temperature information to a base station at 15 second intervals. Of course, the researchers say that is just the beginning, and they see similar devices eventually being used in everything from tire-pressure monitoring systems to predictive maintenance of any moving or rotating machine parts.

Liquid Image outs Summit Series Snow Camera goggles ahead of CES

Liquid Image has just announced new camera-equipped ski masks, swimming goggles and scuba masks, just in time for them to be unveiled at CES 2010. The Summit Series Snow Camera Goggle 335 boasts a 5MP still camera capable of shooting D1 720 x 480 resolution video at 30 frames per second with audio. It's got 16MB of built-in flash memory, expandable to 16GB via its microSD / SDHC slot. Other features include large buttons on the side of the goggles which are easy to press while wearing gloves and and a light inside the goggles which indicates when recording. The goggles are estimated to get about 2,200 still images or over 2 hours of video per charge on their lithium ion battery. Liquid Image expects to ship the Summit Series goggles in the summer of 2010, with a price of $149. Full press release is after the break

Holy smokes! A ton of unannounced HP laptops and desktops just came across our desk, in addition to those Envy models we saw just a few days back. Ahead of what we presume will be their formal announcement next week right around CES, we've got some details on 14 new models -- some more interesting than others. Now, before you get too excited, we don't have full specs on any of these, but we do have pricing information, and here are some highlights: the 14-inch HP Pavilion dv4i, a Windows 7 laptop with a flush display and fingerprint reader that should run about $785. Up next is the 10-inch Mini 210 HD Edition, which will come in red, black, silver and blue, boast Intel's brand new Pine Trail platform (a 1.66GHz N450 CPU), plus GMA 3150 graphics. Another goodie here is that this one is expected to ship with Broadcom's Crystal HD video playback chip. The Mini 210 HD is expected to cost around $330. Logic Buy (the point of origin for all this info) is reporting that these models should ship on or around January 7th, though keep in mind that all of this information is extremely unofficial, so don't blame us if it all changes. If you simply can't get enough, hit the gallery for a look at a few of the systems, and check the rest of the story after the break.

HP CES 2010 leak

Read - HP Pavilion dv4i
Read - Mini 210 HD
Read - Mini 210
Read - Compaq Mini CQ10
Read - HP Pavilion Elite HPE-110t
Read - HP Pavilion Elite HPE-150t
Read - HP Pavilion Elite HPE-170t
Read - HP Pavilion Elite HPE-180t

latest technology

Sunday, January 3, 2010