Sprint Mobile IP App Hints Samsung Galaxy S II, Other Phones

We already heard that Sprint is allegedly preparing a September 9 launch for its Samsung Galaxy S II variant and its Sprint Mobile IP is listing the phone, among others, as being compatible with the application.

The Sprint Mobile IP applications allows for deaf, hard of hearing, and speech disabled individuals to place relay calls and communicate using text on Android devices. The description lists theSamsung Galaxy S II as being compatible with the app and, while still just a description, it's a Sprint official app and it stands (at least) for a confirmation of the device coming. 

BlackBerry App World 3.0 To Be Released on August 22?

The third version of BlackBerry's AppWorld hit the Beta Zone at the beginning of this month and rumor has it that RIM will be releasing the AppWorld version 3.0 on August 22.

If you've been waiting for the update, and even been beta testing version 3.0.0.54 for a while, you know that the new AppWorld will make finding new appseasier. Managing already installed applications will also be improved and there's a general UI make-over. If the rumors turn out to be true, you'll be able to have your final version 3 of the AppWorld this Monday, August 22. 

Samsung W200 waterproof / rugged 1080p camcorder review

Samsung slid its 'multi-proof' W200 pocket cam out a couple of months back, and we've spent the past few weeks testing it out in a place that's no stranger to water (read: the Big Island of Hawaii). Hailed as a waterproof and shockproof 1080p pocket camcorder, it most resembles a ruggedized version of Cisco'snow-deceased Flip HD, and it's definitely a heck of a lot more petite than Canon's PowerShot D10 -- a waterproof P&S that we reviewed back in June of '09. Aside from putting high-def recording capabilities in the palm of your pruney hand, the W200's other key selling point is the trifecta of digits to the left of the decimal. At just $150 on the street, it's certainly classifiable as a bargain in the category, but does it deliver results worthy of laud? Read on for our take!

Samsung W200 1080p camcorder hands-on and unboxing

Design

With a 0.28 pounds chassis measuring 2.36- (W) x 4.45- (H) x 0.78-inches (D), the W200 is definitely diminutive for what it is. It's also a familiar form factor, one that slips easily into any pocket and one that doesn't look rugged despite being rugged. Strangely enough, the entire outer ring is constructed of a hard plastic rather than a rubberized bumper. Not only would the latter have played a vital role in making it easier to grip with wet hands, but it would've added a pinch of shock protection that's sorely missing (more on that later).

The front is graced with a shielded F2.2 lens, which -- much to our chagrin -- has no optical zoom to speak of. The right side is equipped with a microSDHC slot and HDMI port, and the bottom touts a standard tripod socket alongside a flip-out USB socket. That's convenient on a number of levels; for one, that's one less charger you'll need in your carry-on bag (read: it charges over USB), and secondly, it allows you to transfer your captures onto your computer without fiddling around to find a microSD-to-SD adapter.

Around back, you'll find a 2.3-inch LCD, a D-pad control dial, a smattering of buttons and a microphone port. The LCD is shockingly vibrant even in direct sunlight, and the two-stage shutter / "OK" button is quite the useful beast when you're looking to lock a focus point before firing a shot. Regretfully, the microphone port is placed right where the thumb falls for folks handling this with their left hand. We routinely had to think about where our hand was positioned, and most times, we were left holding it awkwardly in order to not muffle whatever audio was being projected its way. We're struggling to figure out why the mic port couldn't have been installed a little further north -- as it sits, it's right in the line of one's digit, and it's something users will undoubtedly have to remain conscious of.

Then, there's the carry strap. An altogether forgettable lanyard is tossed into the box, and compared to the locking carabiner setup on the aforementioned D10, this approach was just woeful. For a device that's destined to end up tethered to your wrist in underwater situations, we would've preferred a far more secure offering than what's here. One wrong twist of the wrist, and this thing's headed for whatever shore it pleases. Frankly, we've seen nicer straps on non-waterproof cameras.

Features and performance

Let's start with the user interface. Sammy's done an exemplary job here; it's dead simple to navigate through menus, and we'd guess that most users will have their settings in place and ready to roll within five minutes. Of course, the simplistic nature of the device aids in this. There's no optical zoom, no manual controls at all and just two movie mode options: 1080p and 720p. So, while it's a lesson in simplicity to peruse the menu tree, we can't help but lament the fact that there's no way to specify an ISO ceiling, an aperture setting or a minimum shutter speed. We know, those kinds of things are just now creeping into lower-end cameras, but still -- we would've loved even a buried section that allowed for some tweaking.

Startup and shutdown were stunningly quick; it took but two seconds to go from off to firing in our testing. Switching back and forth from still to video mode requires but a press of a dedicated button (kudos on that, Samsung), and the amount of remaining stills / minutes of video are clearly displayed along the top of the panel. Speaking of stills, there's a five megapixel image sensor that's capable of grabbing ho hum frames for moments when video just isn't ideal. You'll find practically no settings outside of "shoot," but snaps taken with plenty of daylight tended to turn out decently in our testing. Low-light shots were predictably unusable, generally littered with noise and blur.

Samsung W200 indoor sample shots

There's also something to be said for the unit's anti-fog lens coating -- that "something" is this: it works. And it works well. We took the device on a snorkel trip to Captain Cook's Monument in South Kona, Hawaii, and not once did fog become an issue. 'Course, the water's about as clear as it gets here, but it's still comforting to know that you won't have to worry over wiping the lens off every so often to ensure a cloud-free capture.

Image and video quality

We'll start with stills. By all accounts, the W200 is a camcorder first, and a still shooter third -- perhaps fourth, even. There's no optical zoom, no manual controls for ISO / aperture / shutter speed and no flash to speak of. To no one's surprise, the sensor performed dreadfully on indoor shots with low lighting, and even dimly lit outdoor scenes had a decent amount of blur introduced. When plenty of outdoor light was available, most of our test shots were clear and sharp, but the colors were on the muted side and results felt generally lifeless.

Samsung W200 outdoor sample shots

However, we couldn't have been more pleased with how the still functionality operated under the sea. Yesteryear's D10 was fairly poor whilst underwater, but the W200 managed to pull out quite a few sharp shots during our time with the fishes. It's worth pointing out that those were shot at high noon with a clear Hawaiian sky, but still, the results are downright impressive for a $150 device. Toss in a bit of Lightroom magic in order to inject a little vibrance into the yellows, and you'd have a gallery of results worth showing your mum.

Samsung W200 underwater sample shots [Captain Cook, Hawaii]

As for video? We stuck exclusively to the 1080p mode given that we had plenty of room on our 4GB microSDHC card. For those curious, around 35 minutes of Full HD footage can be socked away on a card of that size. Starting and stopping videos couldn't have been easier, but as we mentioned above, we recorded a number of clips that ended up with muffled audio due to the poor positioning of the microphone. By and large, video results in broad daylight were more than acceptable for a unit in this price range, but there's one major gripe that we simply can't gloss over: the jelly effect.


If you're unfamiliar with the term, just peek the video above. While outside of the water, the W200 exhibited this wretched phenomenon in practically every video we shot, regardless of how fast (or slow) we moved our hand during shooting. This warped, wobbly effect started cropping up in some of the early video-enabled DSLRs (we're looking at you, D90), and it's tragic to find it here. Weirdly enough, the effect seemed to vanish (or at least, diminish significantly) when shooting underwater. From what we can gather, the jelly creeps in as the camera jostles north and south (as with the movement of a human walking); when this is removed underwater, so is the jelly.

Our underwater captures couldn't have been more stunning given the price point. Colors were relatively vibrant, noise was kept to a minimum, and it generally did a terrific job of reproducing the magic we witnessed with our own eyes down in Kealakekua Bay. Don't take our word for it, though -- have a look at a few (unedited) samples below, but be sure to enable 'HD.'

Toughness and battery life

Here's the rub. Samsung never specifically says just how rugged the W200 is, and we're here to tell you the truth: not very. Our review unit suffered a single two-foot tumble onto linoleum, and it left a visible scuff and indentation in the top corner. Worse, however, is what said tumble evidently did to the LCD. After around 20 minutes underwater (at around one to two feet deep; far less than the three meters it can stand), we began to see air bubbles emerging from the top right corner of the panel. Within minutes, condensation had begun to build up around every edge of the display, and it got progressively worse as we continued to swim. Now, it's just a matter of time before future treks to the sea render the whole thing useless, or at least the monitor 'round back.

Sure, you could say that our unit is a one-off problem, but it's simply not as rugged as it needs to be. There's a strange and uncomfortable paradox in having a fragile camera that's suitable for underwater shooting. For what it's worth, all of the "doors" (locking water away from ports and slots) functioned as advertised during our testing, and salt water abuse seemed to have no negative consequences beyond the fading of a few logos on rear buttons.

As for battery life? Let's say this: we managed to fill up a 4GB microSDHC card with 1080p footage before the thing croaked, and we had snapped 40 to 50 shots prior to that. Obviously, camera battery life will vary wildly depending on how long you let the LCD remain on in standby, how many shutter presses you have, and how cold your environment is. We'd recommend recharging it after loading up a 4GB card (we had around 35 percent life left), but at least you can get through an average vacation day on a full tank.

Wrap-up

So, is Samsung's "multi-proof" W200 worth its weight in underwater memories? It's tough to say, but we're leaning "yes." $150 is dirt cheap in this category, particularly for a device this small. The 1080p underwater video mode is leaps and bounds better than the VGA mode we saw on the D10 just two years ago, and underwater stills also turned out remarkably well. We've kvetched enough about the lack of manual controls and the awful jelly effect seen in outdoor videos, but none of those nitpicks are apt to bother the target market here. For a buck-fifty, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything as versatile and compact in this segment, but you'll need to keep a couple of things in mind.

For one, it's most certainly not as tough as it looks, and one bad tumble could loosen its frame enough to ruin it once taken to the pool. And secondly, you'll have to be mindful of where your thumb ends up while recording. All in all, it's a respectable underwater offering for the price, but true argonauts are probably better off spending more for something that's constructed to handle real abuse.

Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78 review

When NVIDIA played its signature GPU number-bump card back in May, it made a point to throw around some big names. Alienware, MSI and ASUS each announced notebooks with the outfit's new GeForce GTX 560M, but one lone machine played coy, listed only as the "new Toshiba gaming laptop." Known today as the Qosmio X775-3DV78, it pairs 1.5GB GDDR5 with the aforementioned GPU, an Intel Core i7-2630QM processor, 1.25TB of storage split between two drives and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. So, can this heavyweight desktop-replacement hold its own in Engadget's review ring? There's only one way to find out.

Qosmio X775-3DV78 review

Look and feel

We're going to just come right out and say it: Toshiba's Qosmio laptops have a long tradition of being hideously ugly. Confident, proud, powerhouses who aren't afraid to be seen in shocking pink flames, or shimmering chameleon paint. Sure, any company capable of cramming an autobot-usb-hub into the form of a laptop deserves the benefit of the doubt, but we won't mince words: the X775 isn't the exception to the rule. That's not to say it isn't trying, as indicated by the blood-shade stain of "extreme" red crowding the edge of the display's hinge and lower back-lid. Pay close attention to this red strip, because it's where all the action is -- under the lid you'll find a touch sensitive media-bar nestled between a pair of aggressive looking speaker grills. All of the standard controls are here: power, WiFi, volume, and even a toggle for the Qosmio's 3D capabilities -- each activated button glowing to match the laptop's red lip. Travel south only a few of short inches, and suddenly we're in dull, drab business land. A boorish gray texture of horizontal lines plow across the rest of the machine's surface, broken only by a single red line atop the awkwardly positioned trackpad (more on that later) and the chicklet keyboard's brooding glow.

At 16.3 x 10.8 x 1.4-inches, this 7.5-pound behemoth is better suited as a desktop-replacement than a portable gaming rig. Those "official" measurements are even a bit conservative: we measured 2.1-inches from the base of the X775's meaty battery to the edge of the laptop's closed lid. Still, the X775 is almost two pounds lighter than Dell's Alienware M17x R3 and (excusing the raised battery) just a hair thinner. The beast thins out near the laptop's front edge, utilizing the thicker sections of the body to house an rewritable Blu-ray drive and a sizable vent, while splitting port space between thinner sections on either side. The left side sports VGA, HDMI, and Ethernet sockets, as well as two USB plugs (2.0 and 3.0). On the right, it has two additional USB 2.0 plugs and a pair of headphone / mic jacks. Finally, the laptop's front lip features a 5-in-1 card reader and a slew of blinking indicator lights for power, HDD activity, and so on.

Keyboard, touchpad, and screen

The laptop's keyboard layout makes few sacrifices in squeezing in the core experience of a desktop sized keyboard, delegating scant few keys to the authority of the secondary function button. Even better, the CTRL and ALT keys are extremely comfortable to toggle from the gamer's WASD position, making accidental "Windows key" quits less frequent. The keyboard's comfortably spaced and smooth keys don't feel the least bit mushy, and are beautifully backlit by a red glow, easily switched on or off or delayed with the help of an Fn shortcut.

The Qosmio's chicklet spacing suited us just fine, but we did find the keyboard's lack of advanced anti-ghosting technology a bit of a let down. Eight simultaneous keypresses is certainly nothing to scoff at, but it's a far cry from the 20-plus that many dedicated gaming keyboards offer -- not to mention that we found more than a couple three-key combinations that simply wouldn't register. Although the few combinations we found won't effect gameplay for the average user, hardcore gamers may want to stick to their external keyboard.

Speaking of extra input devices, an external mouse is a boon to the X775 owner. While the laptop's touchpad performed adequately under ideal conditions, its placement can be a bit of a burden for folks with larger hands. Those who tend to rest their non-mousing hand on the keyboard's home row might obstruct the top-left portion of the trackpad with their palm, rendering it temporarily inoperative. Although the 3.6 x 2-inch pad itself moves the cursor well enough, its buttons feel loose and plasticy. Sure, it does the trick for lazy couch browsing, but we were sure to keep a wireless rodent handy for anything more taxing than checking our email.

Display and sound

The X775's Harman / Kardon stereo speakers (and bottom-dwelling subwoofer) blast rich, clear sound with negligible distortion, even at maximum volume. The laptop's overall audio fidelity won't be a replacement for a proper sound system or headset, but it definitely won't disappoint in a pinch. Of course, the baked-in Dolby Advanced Audio and Waves Maxxaudio 3 enhancements do a lot of the heavy lifting, and the sound falls noticeably more flat without them. While the enhancements definitely improved the sound overall, some of the default settings were problematic, namely an auto-leveling feature that would auto-adjust for sudden loudness in reaction to the rig's "volume level tone" that plays to indicate what the current windows volume level is at. Suffice to say, having the volume go down when we were trying to crank it up quickly became confusing and frustrating. Still, it was only a minor annoyance. All in all, we found the Qosmio's integrated speakers to be among the finest we've heard on a portable machine.

The Qosmio's 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 full HD display may be a hair smaller than its predecessor's 18-inch panel, but it sure didn't leave us wanting. The LED backlit TFT display bombarded our pupils with bright, vivid colors, producing an image so sharp, even the textured background of Kung-Fu Hustle'sFBI warning looked like a work of art. Screen viewing angles almost overreach the play of the laptop's hinge, displaying only a slight loss in contrast from sharper angles. The X775's screen suffered a common laptop fault: it's just a bit too glossy for outdoor use. Not that you were planning to take the beast into the great outdoors, were you? The top edge of the screen sports a dual-webcam to capture your fancy stereoscopic video blog drama, and an embedded IR emitter so you can enjoy your own greatest hits with the rig's included NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses. The IR / glasses combo also works for watching 3D Blu-ray movies and getting some depth out of 3D Vision enabled games.

Performance and battery life

Does the Qosmio X775's Intel Core i7-2630QM processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M GPU make this ugly duckling pretty on the inside? Let's put it this way: we ran simultaneous instances of Fallout 3, Team Fortress 2, and Crysis -- all fully playable and cranked to high or very high -- while running two tab-overloaded web-browsers and watching a high-definition film on Blu-ray. If that's not a thing of beauty, we don't know what is. The 17-inch gaming powerhouse breezed through just about everything we threw at it, stuttering only when we pushed Crysis to its absolute max. Throwing NVIDIA's 3D switch, however, tended to drop framerate by about half. Portal 2's 50fps stepped down to 27, for instance, andBatman: Arkham Asylum's 30fps average became an unplayable 13. Still, with the 3D gimmick switched off, the X775 has some serious stuff to strut, and we were intentionally cranking every game's settings up to 11. With a few reasonable tweaks, there was nary a title we tried that didn't play well with NVIDIA's 3D vision or break the 100fps barrier.

The Qosmio performed just as adequately wrangling our cluttered work desktop: over 30 open tabs across two web browsers, piled atop Photoshop, two open email accounts, various IRC and chat interfaces, and a couple of word processors? Smooth as silk. PCMark Vantage clocked the Qosmio at 7,900, while its graphic benchmarking cousin, 3DMark06, pegged it at 15,169.

	PCMarkVantage	3DMark06	Battery Life
Qosmio X775-3DV78 (Corei7-2630QM, GeForce GTX 560M)	7,900	15,169	1:26
HP Envy 17 (Core i7-740QM, ATI Radeon HD 5850)	6,153	10,787	2:10
HP Envy 14 (Core i5-450M, ATI HD Radeon 5650)	6,038	6,899/1,928	3:51
Dell XPS 14 (Core i5-460M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M)	5,796	6,827/1,955	2:58
Dell XPS M15z (Core i7-2620M, GeForce GT525M 2GB)	8,023	7,317	3:41 / 4:26
Sony VAIO Z (Core i5-450M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M)	9,949	6,193	4:25
ASUS U33Jc (Core i3-370M, NVIDIA GeForce 310M)	5,574	1,860/3,403	5:10

So, a fabulously vivid 17-inch screen and NVIDIA's latest in portable graphics? Sounds great, but here's the rub: you won't get far without the Qosmio's massive 2-pound AC adapter. Big screens and pretty scenes suck down a lot of power, and the X775 burned through Engadget's standard battery test in only an hour and 26 minutes. Fancy a game while you wait for a flight? Cut that down to a mere 35, and that'swithout 3D Vision. Paired with the laptop's already cumbersome size, its poor battery life does little more than secure the machine's status as a desktop-replacement -- but then again, gaming rigs aren't known for their electric longevity. The Qosmio will still be a hit at your next LAN party, but don't count on it to get you through your next flight -- or even your next layover.

Configuration options

The X775 is available in three pre-built configurations: budget, mid-range and flagship (we've been playing with the high-end X775-3DV8). Our $1,900 review unit sports a Intel Core i7-2360QM processor, Blu-ray burner, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, dual hard drives with a total of 1.25TB of storage and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M graphics with 3D Vision. A nearly identical machine, sans 3D, can be had in the X775-Q727, a $1,450 rig with the same processor and graphics, but with only 6GB RAM and a single terabyte of storage over two drives. Budget-minded folks can save an additional $250 by stepping down to a Core i5-2410M processor, a single 640GB HDD and a DVD-RW drive. The pre-configured options offer a wide enough range to keep you from feeling out-priced, but if you want to actually customizeyour machine, you'll need to look to the...

The competition

When it comes to high-performance gaming laptops rocking huge screens, impressive graphics, and baked in 3D tech, it turns out your options are pretty limited -- but we found a few. Our favorite X775 alternative happens to be Dell's Alienware M17x R3, which can be customized to both undercut the X775 in price in performance, or outgun it. A similar configuration to Toshiba's toy (including 3D Vision) will set you back just over $2,100. Its worth nothing however, that the Dell's visuals are powered by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M, not a 560M.

Of course, if you're willing to forgo Blu-ray drive and silly 3D glasses, there are definitely cheaper options. The Core-i7 ASUS G74SX-BBK7 can be had for roundabout $1,200, and sports the same 17.3-inch screen size, the same 8GB of RAM, and the same GeForce GTX 560M graphics as the Qosmio. If you just need to have everything, you could always spring for MSI's GT780R-057US, a hefty 17.3-inch machine also rocking NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560M, a Core i7-2630QM processor, a 1.5TB hard drive, Blu-ray burner and not just eight, but 16GB of DD3 RAM. Minus the X775's 3D gimmick and doubling its RAM, the MSI beast shares the Qosmio's $1,900 price tag, leaving the buyer a choice: extra RAM or extra depth perception?

Wrap-up

By now, you've probably figured out that Toshiba's latest Qosmio is a bit of a Quasimodo -- beautiful on the inside, but covered in enough repulsive blemishes to give pause to the Esmeralda in all of us. Beneath its rough exterior lies an all in one platform tailor made for the very latest in media entertainment: extreme graphics, a full-HD display, Blu-ray rewritable / DVD combo drive, and even NVIDIA 3D Visionbaked right in, glasses included. This package just might be enough to shine through the Qosmio's craggy cast if you're willing to overlook the hunch of its atrocious battery life -- not that you'd want to lug the hefty rig very far anyway. Despite its looks, the X775 is no slacker, and you pay for that performance -- although not as much as you could. Toshiba's total-package toy isn't cheap at $1,900, but considering that you could easily pay an extra few Benjamins for an equivalent configuration of Dell's AlienwareM17x R3 (with an NVIDIA 3D Vision package), it's not a bad value. Overall, the Qosmio X775-3DV78 is a solid machine, despite its somewhat bland appearance and annoying quirks. And that suits us fine. After all, didn't your mother always tell you that it's what's on the inside that counts?

BlackBerry sucks at making fan videos

Wow! BlackBerry just released, and subsequently pulled, an awesome new video (which can be seen in full after the break) showing off its new Torch running BB 7 OS and sporting... an Android home button?! Man, that new Torch looks so awesome, particularly 15 and 27 seconds in, it hardly even looks like a BlackBerry at all.