Mobile Technology

The ASUS-Automobili Lamborghini VX7 is, as the name suggests, a computer designed to emulate the style and performance of Lamborghini cars, with a case that captures the angular Lambo styling, and rear cooling vents modeled on a Lambo's taillights and exhaust through to a host of other faux association. What isn't false though, is the performance of the machine, which runs quad-core 2nd generation (Sandy Bridge) Intel Core i7 processors, and is also the first to use NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460M GPU. Read the specs as a tech junkie and you'll likely be far more excited than the petrolhead association would get you. How about 3GB of video memory or TWO 7,200rpm 750GB hard drives providing a total of 1.5TB or storage? This is a beast, regardless of the badging. Read More

Motorola has officially unveiled the successor to the DROID 2 with the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) powered DROID 3. Coming in at 0.5-in (13 mm) thick, Motorola is calling its new device the world's thinnest smartphone with a physical full QWERTY keyboard. Motorola's original DROID (a.k.a. Milestone, 2009) and the DROID 2 (2010) were both well-spec'd Android QWERTY sliders when introduced, so we wouldn't expect anything less with the DROID 3. It outshines its predecessor with a larger and higher resolution 4-inch qHD 960 x 540 touchscreen, doubles the internal storage to 16 GB and now includes a front facing camera for video calls. Read More

Despite the facts that there isn't much appropriate 3D content, and the viewing angles required for the 3D effect are limited (as was described in our Nintendo 3DS review) the list of glasses-free 3D gadgets increases. The HTC EVO 3D smartphone was the latest addition, but certainly won't be the last. Perhaps not many readers have heard of the Chinese manufacturer Gadmei, although there is at least one reason to become acquainted with it. The company has released its P83 portable media player (PMP), which is capable of displaying 3D videos and images that are viewable without glasses, and is certainly one of the most inexpensive devices of its kind offered so far. Read More

The range of gadgets capable of stereoscopic glasses-free 3D viewing is slowly increasing, with the LG Optimus 3D, Sharp Aquos SH-12C and Nintendo 3DS gaming console already on the market. HTC has now announced that its first glasses-free 3D smartphone, the HTC EVO 3D, will be available in Europe in July. Unveiled in March 2011 and introduced in the U.S. by Sprint on June 24, the EVO 3D features a stereoscopic 3D display, allowing users to view three-dimensional images without glasses, plus the phone is able to capture pictures in 3D. Read More

Near Field Communication (NFC) was initially promoted as a mobile payments method, but the technology has since been applied to a broader range of applications - and the list is still growing. One of these is a new system allowing for NFC implementation in a car key, which has been launched by the Dutch company NXP Semiconductors. The system is a production-ready single-chip solution dubbed KEyLink Lite (codenamed NCF2970) that enables a connection between a "smart" car key and external NFC-compliant devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Read More

French manufacturer Archos unveiled a budget-friendly tablet computing option alongside its G9 series this week. The Arnova 7 tablet features a 7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreen, runs Android 2.2 (Froyo) and has AppsLib access instead of the Android Market, but its most distinctive feature is its very low price - it's set at just US$99. Read More

Archos has unveiled its 3rd generation Android tablets with its new G9 series, which includes the 8-inch 80 G9 with 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and the 10.1-inch 101 G9 with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. Powered by a dual-core OMAP 4 processor (1.5GHz ARM Cortex A9) and running Android 3.1 (Honeycomb), the G9 series also offers a first for Android tablets - the option of 16 GB of flash storage or a 250 GB HDD. Read More

These days, iPod connectivity has practically become a standard feature on new cars but Pioneer's AppRadio aims to do a lot more than simply play tunes stored on an iDevice. The system consists of a head unit featuring a 6.1-inch capacitive touchscreen that, when connected via the 30-pin connector to an iPhone or 4th gen iPod touch running the AppRadio app. can display and control not only your iPod music, but also compatible apps. Read More

Nokia has unveiled the N9, its first smartphone featuring the MeeGo mobile operating system. It has no buttons on the front, and features a curved polycarbonate body and a 3.9-inch AMOLED WVGA (854x480) display. The home button is replaced with a swipe gesture, taking the user back to the homescreen from anywhere in the menu. The N9 features a Cortex A8 1GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM, with a PowerVR SGX530 GPU responsible for graphics. It comes with either 64GB or 16GB of internal memory. Read More