Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

As the year comes to a close, it seems appropriate to cast my vote for the best (and some of the worst) gadgets I’ve seen. These are my personal choices for products that I felt were best of breed and really managed to differentiate themselves (or didn’t at all). In no particular order, here are my picks and pans.

Best Phones: This was a tricky category, and I’m not breaking it down into different segments. This is just the best on the market in my opinion — no matter how smart it was considered to be, or how well it did in school.

• iPhone 3GS. It was a simple choice. Take the coolest phones on the market, bump up the memory and make it twice as fast. Add in some new features like a digital compass and toss in an ecosystem of 100,000+ apps. Sure, it’s still locked to AT&T but the iPhone is still the phone that many others aspire to be.
• Palm Pre. At this point last year many had written Palm off entirely. Instead of fading away, Palm came back on strong with webOS, a new way of integrating diverse content called Synergy and two devices launched across the globe. Along the way, the Pre garnered much mindshare from consumers, and Palm showed that you don’t need to clone the iPhone to drive the state of the art forward.
• HTC HD2. When Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5, there was a chorus of groans about more of the same. HTC took up the challenge and proved that there was more to Windows Mobile than slow devices and resistive screens. The HD2 takes Windows Mobile to places never seen before with a capacitive touch screen, a Snapdragon processor and HTC-created extensions that make multi-touch work the HD2’s gorgeous 4.3-inch display. Wrap it all up in HTC’s Sense UI and you’ve got the best Windows Mobile device on the market today.

Continue reading Entelligence: Gartenberg’s best of 2009 in personal tech

Entelligence: Gartenberg’s best of 2009 in personal tech originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now I want you to close your eyes and squint really hard. Because I’m going to tell you about a time that feels ancient, a time when Sony made some of the baddest laptops around.
Way before the…

Wired has a fairly epic look into a material that could make nuclear power both clean and safe called thorium—named after the Norse god of thunder. Of course, scientists recognized its promise…

If you were looking for a large and impractical “cellphone,” we just might have some news for you. Hot on the heels of a certain Dell netbook mod, we submit for your approval a 5-inch convertible device that features a QWERTY chocolate keyboard, trackball, and quite possibly Windows XP. We’ve got no relevant data for you, such as manufacturer, price, and release date are all mysteries at this point, but you can see it in action if you like — just check out the videos after the break. As for us, we think we’ll just wait for the xpPhone.

Continue reading BPhone looks like a netbook, acts like a netbook, has ‘phone’ in its name (video)

BPhone looks like a netbook, acts like a netbook, has ‘phone’ in its name (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Cloned in China  |  M8 Cool  | Email this | Comments

Here’s an old gem of a trick for anyone feeling lonely, vindictive, or very drunk this New Year’s Eve: with Skype, you can connect any phones in the world, and listen in on the results. Man, what a…

Cop these bargains before the calendar clicks into the next decade. Get an eMachines 22″ monitor for $99, check out the Sony DSLR with extras for $700, and snag an Ani DiFranco MP3 to groove to this…

PSSSSST! Hey, Time Warner Cable! If you tell everyone how to watch Fox shows from their PC, they’ll probably start doing it for all your other programming, too! Self-defeating bitterness really is…

Turns out it was a tough decade for tech companies. First the bubble they helped create burst and took the rest of the economy down with them; now the credit markets have sunk them in…

Continue reading Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video)

Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Acer Aspire One AO532h joins the Pine Trail party with a $299 pricetag

Acer Aspire One AO532h joins the Pine Trail party with a $299 pricetag originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Internet offers an endless stream of cool pictures, but here’s a look at the best we’ve come across this year. Inside you’ll find images that amaze and amuse.
Though #imagecache has only been…

Well, it looks like that iPod hearing loss lawsuit that’s been nagging Apple for the past couple of years may finally be going away (in its current form, at least), as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has now affirmed a 2008 district court ruling and rejected a class-action lawsuit that sought to hold Apple responsible for hearing loss allegedly caused by iPods. While that may be a possibility, the court said that the “plaintiffs do not allege the iPods failed to do anything they were designed to do nor do they allege that they, or any others, have suffered or are substantially certain to suffer inevitable hearing loss or other injury from iPod use” — further adding that, “at most, the plaintiffs plead a potential risk of hearing loss not to themselves, but to other unidentified iPod users,” which doesn’t quite make the grade for a class-action suit. Not surprisingly, neither Apple nor the plaintiffs are making any comments on the verdict, and we’re pretty sure that Apple would like to keep it that way.

Appeals court sides with Apple in iPod hearing loss dispute originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Or, as they call it, a “3D bio-printer.” Essentially, it allows scientists to build tissue cell by cell. It’s that cool sci-fi medical stuff we all dream about.
“Scientists and engineers can use…

Every year product life cycles in the consumer marketplace grow ever shorter. On the audio side, the latest and greatest receivers become yesterday’s news faster than you can say “HDMI 1.4.”
Speaker…

When we first laid eyes on the SmartQ V5, we were pretty underwhelmed… yet another resistive touchscreen MID? We’re beginning to long for those halcyon days of late 2009 when an Android handheld was a thing of awe and wonder. Just a refresher: this guy features a 4.3-inch display, 600MHz ARM11 processor (which the brave among us can overclock to 800MHz), 256MB RAM, HDMI out, and more. Of some interest to the jaded gadget-head, this guy ships with Android, Ubuntu, and Windows CE 6.0 pre-installed — not a bad feature, if that’s your thing. If you poke around the Internets you should be able to find this bad boy for near $180.

SmartQ V5 MID available now to a world that’s just stopped caring originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d think that smartphones would have made traditional credit cards obsolete by now, but since they haven’t (in the US, at least), Mophie’s iPhone credit card reader may be the next best thing….

Picture of Motorola ‘Shadow’ leaked, inverted on Taiwanese forum originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pre homebrew has certainly come a long way in its short but happy life — and now it’s just gotten another little notch in its belt. Apparently, with the release of webOS 1.3.5, Palm has included a software library called SDL (or Simple Directmedia Layer) which allows developers low-level hardware access — like the kind needed to tap into accelerated 3D graphics. With a little bit of elbow grease, webOS hacker extraordinaire zsoc was able to put together a port of Doom which can be run within a card in the OS, and completely functions (including keyboard controls). You’ve got to get your hands a little dirty with the Terminal app to make things happen right now if you want to try it for yourself, though the experimenters promise an easier solution in the coming days. Exciting stuff for webOS users hungry for a little more horsepower… now let’s see if Palm puts this into play come CES.

Update: PreCentral has a video of the app in action — check it out after the break!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Hardware accelerated ‘Doom’ comes to the Pre

Hardware accelerated ‘Doom’ comes to the Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 2010 Times Square New Year’s Ball is ready to go. They saved money and didn’t add any LEDs, but they added new stunning Waterford clink-clink glass panels. Here’s the insider look on how they did…

The 102-year history of the Times Square New Year’s Even Ball is one filled with technology, death and, of course, pretty shiny lights. See it all unfold in our historical timeline.
(Click the image…

We had few complaints with the Droid, and the Sholes tablet, Occiphobic as it may be, is lustable, without a doubt. But Motorola’s alleged next phone, the .35-inch-thick, 1080p-capable Shadow/Mirage,…

“We are ending our sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods and wish him well in the future.” That’s from AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook in an email sent out earlier today. [CNN]

We’ve had some indication that Orange planned to expand its “HD Voice” technology beyond the hot testbed of Moldova sometime in the coming year, and it looks like the carrier is now starting to get a bit more specific about when the UK will finally have an alternative to standard definition calls. Apparently, Orange will begin trials of the new and improved, 3G-facilitated service early in the new year, and fully roll it out along with a “range of handsets” before the end of the year. Just what can you expect from HD voice? Why, it will make it “sound as if callers are actually in the same room,” according to Orange UK chief executive Tom Alexander, who further added that “HD voice really does inject a level of innovation into mobile phone calls,” and that “once people have tried it, they won’t want to go back.”

Update: Orange has now pushed out a press release further confirming that trials will begin in the UK early in the new year, with a nationwide rollout due “later in 2010.” In related news, DigiTimes is reporting that Foxconn has landed large orders for Android-powered handsets from Orange, although Foxconn itself has issued something of a denial on the matter.

Orange plans to bring ‘HD Voice’ calls to UK next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’re confident that we nailed our 50 worst gadgets of the decade, you commenters reminded us of a few truly awful gems that didn’t make the cut. So here are eleven more worst gadgets for your…

Everyone remembers that story about how a bunch of people were suing Apple for potential iPod-induced hearing loss, even though they hadn’t lost any hearing. It got shot down last year, appealed, and…

Being a geek no longer holds the stigma it once did. In fact, it can be downright cool to be a geek these days. But not all geeks are created equal.
The Socially Acceptable Geek Subgenre Scale is a…

The previously phased out 11.1-inch Sony Vaio T has shown back up over at Sony Style Japan. The good news is that this time, it’s a Windows 7 CULV on the inside, even if it looks the same on the outside. The new Vaio Ts come with processor options including a dual core 1.2GHz Celeron SU2300, a 1.4GHz dual core Core 2 Duo SU9400, or a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo SU9600, and they boast Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, plus 4GB or 8GB of RAM, an up to 512GB SSD or 500GBhard drive. There’s also optional extras like Blu Ray, 802.11n WiFi, a fingerprint scanner, and digital TV tuner. The laptop’s life is rated at about 11 hours when equipped with the standard battery, or 17 with the large capacity. So far, we’ve only seen these bad boys in Japan, where they’re retailing for ¥129,800 (that’s around $1400).

Sony Vaio T makes a comeback, and this time it’s a CULV with major battery life originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hi guys, John Mayer here. I know it’s been a while since I’ve “touched base,” but you know I’ve been pretty busy with my fourth album launch, y’know, the “heartbreak handbook”? About that…

No, I’m not obsessed with Saturn. OK, I am obsessed with Saturn. But so is Time, who picked this deliciously crispy photo as one of the images of the year, revealing ring bumps as high as the Rocky…

Med hårdt arbejde i døgndrift forvandlede civilingeniør Karsten Nielsen sin nystartede virksomhed, Bang & Olufsen Icepower, til en økonomisk succes. Nu har han solgt sin ejerandel og er meget mere klog på, hvad han gjorde rigtigt og forkert undervejs.

2009 kører på de sidste timer, dermed er det ikke blot ved at være slut med dette år, men også med det første årti i 2000′erne….

Ohoho, this is a mod that tickles my funnybone. Remember the Dell Mini 3i Android phone, destined for China only? Some dude has taken his Inspiron Mini netbook to pieces and turned it into his take…

Seems like Apple is not giving up on alternative control methods: They have just updated their March Wiimote-like controller patent, so that means they may still working on it. Or maybe not.

A…

Her fra vildmediPhone vil vi gerne ønske alle vores læsere et rigtig glædeligt nytår og sige tak for et dejligt år.

Vi har på redaktionen alle haft meget travlt og siden her har været lidt stille i December. Vi håber vi ikke er de eneste der har lidt af December syndrom og glæder os til at komme igang med det nye år og nye spændende ting på iPhone fronten.

Selvom der jo altid er delte meninger om det nye årti begynder i morgen eller først i 2011, så ville jeg lige nævne en artikel fra Engadget, Top ten gadgets that defined the decade.

På listen finder man både iPod (2001) iPhone (2007), Den første Titanium powerbook (2001) og Mac OS X (2000) så Apple må siges at have været rimelig fremtrædende i det forgange årti. Vi glæder os til at se hvad de næste ti år bringer.

Rigtig glædeligt nytår til alle!

In mid-December during an investor conference call, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein confirmed there were 800 apps available on the Pre and Pixi. Now, they’re just a few shy of 1,000 with 946 available for…