Filed under: Software, Sony Ericsson, Android

Calling this Rachael UI an Android "skin" is like calling Windows 95 a "DOS skin," but that's not to say there's nothing to love about it. In fact, we're rather relieved that Sony Ericsson seems to be addressing Android's incredibly lackluster media playback interface, the SE "mediascape" version of which dominates this particular video -- a sequel to the first Rachael UI tease we got back in July. You know what else is great? The video title name drops the same luscious screen resolution as the DROID, 480 x 854, which spells all sorts of good things for SE's first Android entry. Video is after the break, and if that doesn't do the trick for you, the Rachael hardware is being teased over on this end of the internet.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading New Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video hits, still looks nothing like Android

New Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video hits, still looks nothing like Android originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Peripherals, Apple

Why confine your nerdy sloth to your living room, where large robots mime fake guitar and serve you sloppy mixed drinks? Take that zest for the sedentary life with you on the road by having one of your robot ninjas steal this iPhone Rock Band robot from its ingenious creator, Joe Bowers. The Arduino-based device uses ambient light sensors to detect the falling notes and then taps out the music with some conductive foam attached to some squeaky fake fingers. Joe did a fairly detailed write-up, and even uploaded his code, so there's presumably nothing stopping you from actually doing something with your life and building one of these with all that free time you've saved up by hacking your way through all the console-based guitar games. Video is after the break.

[Via Daily Mobile]

Continue reading Laziness on the move: robot plays Rock Band on the iPhone

Laziness on the move: robot plays Rock Band on the iPhone originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Apple

The iPhone is one of the most wildly popular phones the world has ever seen, while Windows 7 is well on its way to becoming the globe's most ubiquitous OS. So compatibility between the two would be kinda sorta important, right? Tell that to Intel's quality control team who seem to have somehow missed an issue between Apple's app carrier deluxe and the P55 Express chipset's USB controller. Consistent (and persistent) syncing issues have been reported on Apple's support forums, wherein iTunes on Windows 7 machines recognizes the iPhone, but spits out an "error 0xE8000065" message whenever the user attempts to sync. While some have found limited success with using PCI-based USB cards (and bypassing the chipset), this is clearly a major issue and something Apple would expect to be fixed before shipping its Core i5 / i7 iMacs, which are likely to sport the chipset. Hit the read link for the original thread of sorrow and regret, and do chime in with your own experience in the comments.

[Via The Register]

iPhone and Windows 7 don't play nice, Intel P55 chipset to blame originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Palm, webOS

Whoa, is that webOS 2.0 we see on the horizon? No, sorry, it definitely isn't -- but we can say with relative confidence that the upcoming Pixi will be shipping with a newer, slightly more feature-rich version of webOS than its Pre brethren around the world; if nothing else, Synergy supports Yahoo on the new model, as PreCentral observes. What remains to be seen is the exact version number that'll be shipping out of the gate -- recent DSLReports user agent logs suggest that 1.2.9 might be the gold build (for the record, the Sprint Pre currently rocks 1.2.1), but apparently there's some chatter going on about a 1.3 as well. Doesn't seem like much of a difference, but a 0.1 increment usually means more features, fixes, and changes than a 0.01 increment does, so naturally, we're pulling for a bigger number. There isn't any intel on what this mythical 1.3 might contain just yet or whether it'd be heading to Bell, Sprint, and O2 Pres, but we'll keep an eye out.

Palm Pixi definitely shipping with a new webOS version, but which? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile, EV-DO, CDMA

Like it or not, we've got it on pretty reasonable authority that HTC's first "DROID" phone is nothing more than a rebadged, shape-shifted Hero (something we've been hearing for a while now), and that it'll be launching on Verizon on November 6th, the same day as Motorola's DROID. That means Android 1.5 "Cupcake," Sense UI, 3.2-inch screen, 528MHz processor and so forth. The Eris will retail for $199 but with a $100 mail-in rebate. It'll pack in an 8GB microSD card and the hopes and dreams of a generation of cheapskates that will be hopin' and prayin' that HTC manages to push Android 2.0 onto this thing so they don't look too bad in front of their DROID-toting buddies on Verizon.

[Thanks, anonymous]

Leaked docs show HTC's DROID Eris launching on November 6th for $99, running Android 1.5 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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