HUAWEI Ascend D2, the China’s Monster!

HUAWEI Ascend D2

As the latest smartphone in Ascend series, the HUAWEI Ascend D2 runs on Android 4.1 and features a 5-inch FHD IPS+ 443 PPI Super Retina LCD display, Huawei’s K3V2 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU and a 13 MP BSI camera. Regarding battery life, the Ascend D2 has a stand-by time of six days on WCDMA, thank to the 3000mAh battery and Huawei’s proprietary Quick Power Control (QPC) and Automated Discontinuous Reception (ADRX) battery efficiency technology.

HUAWEI Ascend D2

Regarding design and look, the stylish HUAWEI Ascend D2 has an elegant look with an aluminum body and metal frame. It weighs just 170g and measures 9.9mm thin. Available in China since January 2013, the Ascend D2 is offered in white and blue. And last but not least, it will also be produced in a 4.7-inch screen version.

“The HUAWEI Ascend D2 has the style, power and all-round performance capabilities you would expect from a HUAWEI Ascend smartphone, but with a revolutionary FHD screen, unsurpassed camera quality and power saving technology to maximize your enjoyment,” said Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group. “We are excited to introduce the HUAWEI Ascend D2, the latest addition to our series of Ascend range of smartphones, as we continue to put great technology into the hands of more people around the world.”

CES 2013 through the eyes of our contest winner (video)

Many entered, but it was Daniel Orren who sent in a great green-screened video that snagged him a temporary spot on the Engadget crew at this year's CES. Hanging with the team in our trusty trailer, getting comped meals, roaming the floor, wearing mind-controlled cat ears -- honestly, it's probably just easier to list all of the things the photographer didn't do the other week in Vegas.

With the dust settled, we asked Orren how he enjoyed the trip. "The showroom floor was a lot bigger than I had anticipated originally, so naturally this was great as there were more gadgets." Amongst the highlights: "My favorite times would have to be hanging with the Engadget crew, it's nice just chatting with everyone about all the cool stuff you've seen that day/week and just geeking out." And as for that inevitable question, the one we ask ourselves right around this time each year, " I'd love to go back to CES if given the chance, and who knows, maybe I'll just go on my own in a few years."

Also included in the prize package was an Engadget Show segment to call his very own. When he wasn't occupied with the Steambox and 4K TVs, our film crew was following Orren around to find out what it's like going to CES as a first-timer. Check in after the break for the results.

This segment originally appeared in episode 40 of The Engadget Show.

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The Engadget Show 40: The Best of CES with Kaz Hirai, 50 Cent, Ken Block and Arianna Huffington

The craziest week of the tech year is at end, and we have to say, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Sure, it wasn't quite as epic as it has been in years past, but CES is still the show that sets the stage for the rest of 2013. By that measure, we may well be seeing an interesting shift. With the loss of Microsoft, some smaller companies have been using the show to make names for themselves amongst the 4K TVs released by the bigwigs like Samsung, Sony and LG. The Pebble smart watch, the Oculus Rift and the Razer Edge all scored big. We take a look at the products and discuss how things like crowdfunding are affecting the world of hardware startups.

We've also got interviews galore -- we'll be talking with Sony CEO Kaz Hirai, SMS Audio CEO (and rapper, we're told) 50 Cent, rally car driver Ken Block, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Stern Pinball CEO Gary Stern, MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis and CEA president Gary Shapiro among many, many others (including a very special appearance from Gallagher -- this is Vegas, after all). Daniel, the winner of our Bring a Reader to CES contest will show you what it's like going to the show for the first time and our editors discuss how this year's event compares to years past. And, of course, we've also got lots of floor time with our favorite gadgets from the show.

Toss on a comfortable pair of walking shoes, because it's time to do CES all over again.

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guests: Kaz Hirai, 50 Cent, Ken Block, Arianna Huffington, Gary Stern, Gary Shapiro, Daniel Orren, and many, many others
Producer: Ben Harrison
Executive Producers: Brian Heater, Joshua Fruhlinger

Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 040 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 040 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show - 040 (Small)

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Lenovo K900 Premium Smartphone

Lenovo  K900

At the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, Lenovo announced its new premium smartphone, the K900. Coming with a 5.5-inch IPS screen, this super-slim smart device boasts a super slim 6.9mm profile and weighs in at a mere 162g (5.7 ounces). The K900 is running on an Intel Atom processor and comes equipped with a 13MP rear camera with an F1.8 focal length lens. And don’t worry for narcicists and video call lovers, the premium smartphone also features a front camera with an 88⁰ viewing angle. Expected to be avaialble from April in China with pricing to be announced, the K900 also offers 1080p full high-definition resolution performance at 400+ pixels-per-inch.

Lenovo K900

“With the K900, our team has broken down the key functions of the smartphone and redesigned them from the ground up,” said Liu Jun, president, Mobile Internet Digital Home, and senior vice president, Lenovo. “Rather than focus on specifications that look good on a datasheet, we’ve zeroed in on what consumers want and proved that for smartphone users, top performance doesn’t require a thick profile. The K900 is a game-changer that looks as good as it performs.”

Lenovo  K900

LG Smart Activity Tracker Wristband Takes Aim at Nike+ FuelBand

It seems like this is the year that many manufacturers are trying to get into the fitness tracking wristband market, which has been largely dominated by the Nike+ FuelBand since it came out. Now LG has outed a gadget which seems like a mashup of many different devices, all put onto your wrist.

lg fitness band 2

The LG Smart Activity Tracker actually looks a lot like the Nike+ FuelBand, and has many of the same features. It has an accelerometer and altimeter to measure activity. It will know whether you’re walking, running, or sitting, and its data can synced to an app on Android smartphones. It will also work with LG Smart TVs to sync up with on-screen exercise programs. LG also plans on adding a heart-rate monitor, which would be a pretty cool addition.

lg smart activity tracker fuelband ces

Image Credit: Pocket-Lint

Unlike Nike’s device, LG’s wrist gadget can connect with your phone and tell you whether you receive notifications. Also, it has a touchscreen, which beats the FuelBand’s single button interface.

LG expects to release the Smart Activity Tracker this summer, but there’s no word yet on cost.

[via Pocket-Lint]

Making the virtual a reality at CES 2013

Microsoft's decision to drop out of CES prompted a lot of questions with regards to the future relevance of CES, not the least of which was how much the industry really needed an in-person tech trade show in an age where business is primarily done online. Of course, there's still a fair amount of value in offering members of the media and buyers the opportunity to actually interact with the technology in person. And while software companies have long been a staple of the show, their presence is most often an acknowledgement of hardware partners.

It's fitting, then, that many of the show's offbeat highlights came in the form of companies looking to offer hardware solutions to our increasingly virtual world. Parrot's always-amusing CEO, Henri Seydoux said it best while showing off the latest additions to the company's AR.Drone on our stage. "Today, the kids have video games," he told us. "They've replaced toys, because it's a much more interesting experience. With the drone, we've tried to make toys as fun as video games." And it's easy to see how such a product can be taken as a real-world answer to smartphone gaming, with video from the built-in camera being overlaid with AR content.

Continue reading Making the virtual a reality at CES 2013

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Runbo X5 and X3 rugged Android phones moonlight as walkie-talkies, cost just $320

Runbo X5 and X3 Androids

We've seen a handful of rugged Androids in our time, but none are as affordable and as weird as these ones at CES. The backstory here is that a couple of Chinese guys in camouflage gear approached us at our CES stage, and after an awkward conversation, it turned out that they just wanted to show us the three rugged phones they brought all the way from Shenzhen. Starting from the right we have the Runbo (like Rambo?) X1 IP67-certified featurephone cum walkie-talkie, which packs a 2-inch 176 × 144 display, a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera, a laser pointer, quad-band GSM plus 800MHz CDMA cellular radios, 400 to 470MHz range for the software-configurable walkie-talkie, a surprisingly loud speaker and a 2,200mAh battery. This will be available for ¥980 or about $160 on Taobao online store (the Chinese equivalent of eBay) in the next couple of days, and we've been told that there will also be a variant with GPS added.

But the real stars of the show are the two brick-sized vanilla Android 4.0.4 devices. The phone pictured in the middle is the Runbo X5, a device featuring a 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 MTK6577 chipset, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, microSD expansion, a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 IPS display, an app-triggered laser pointer, an eight-megapixel main camera, a 0.3-megapixel front camera, a super loud speaker (again) and a massive removable 3,800mAh battery. And yes, this also comes with a 400 to 470MHz walkie-talkie radio (up to 10km range; with detachable antenna), along with the additional 850/1900/2100 WCDMA radio, two SIM slots (WCDMA plus GSM), WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS. These specs are the same for the Runbo X3 on the left, except for the smaller 3.5-inch 800 x 480 IPS panel to make space for the QWERTY keyboard below it. The best part here are the prices: both of these IP67-certified devices are available on Taobao or the official website for just ¥1,999 or about $320, which is a bargain for both the ruggedness and the fact that these double as standard walkie-talkies. US folks can also order directly from eBay for $380, which is also a steal. But does this surprisingly low price reflect the quality? Find out in our hands-on after the break.

Continue reading Runbo X5 and X3 rugged Android phones moonlight as walkie-talkies, cost just $320

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Source: Runbo, eBay

How hardware startups changed the face of CES

It was all bad timing, really. Just ahead of CES 2012, Microsoft announced that year's event would be its last, blaming product schedules that just didn't match up with the annual show. There was no question that the tech giant's absence would be felt the following year, the first time in recent memory the Consumer Electronics Show wasn't kicked off by a Microsoft keynote. It signaled, perhaps, a slight shift away from the days of huge companies dominating the event's headlines -- a phenomenon helped along by the recent attention-grabbing successes of a number of crowdfunded projects, many of which were present at the show.

The move from Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer was one thing, but a CES without Redmond? That was just unheard of, a specter that loomed over the show, even as the CEA happily announced it had sold out the company's floor space in "record time." In the end, of course, Microsoft was still at the show, albeit in a less overt form, by way of third-party machines from Sony, Samsung and the like, and in the form of a cameo by none other than Ballmer himself -- a sort of spiritual baton-passing to the company's keynote successor, Qualcomm. Heck, even the Surface Pro reared its head backstage at the show.

Continue reading How hardware startups changed the face of CES

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CES 2013: Interview roundup

CES 2013 Interview roundup

Our CES plates were jam-packed full of eye-opening conversations this year. We had the chance to speak to top tech luminaries, entrepreneurs, celebrities and fellow journalists. Much of that opportunity arose from the return of our stage, parked right in the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center's Grand Lobby. We blew things out this year, packing the schedule from the show's opening on Tuesday morning to its close on Friday night.

Below we have a list of the interviews we did at this year's show, both on-stage and off, so you can relive the thoughts, theories and comments that defined this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Continue reading CES 2013: Interview roundup

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