The march of the Honeycomb tablets goes on, playing a tune that’s starting to get a bit muted thanks to the promise of fresher beats coming from Ice Cream Sandwich. Still, there are plenty of ways for manufacturers to add their own bit of swing to the same ‘ol song. Motorola, of course, paved the way for all these slates with the Xoom. It’s hard to believe that first Honeycomb tablet was released just 10 months ago, but now we have its successor, the Xyboard, here in its 8.2-inch guise.

At least, that’s what it’s being called domestically. Elsewhere it’s the Xoom 2 (we reviewed the 10.1-inch flavor already), but in America we get a patently unfortunate moniker for a tablet that offers an interesting design at an interesting size with the interesting bonus of LTE. But, all that mobile bandwidth is going to cost you: 0 for the 16GB model or 0 for 32GB if you sign on for a two-year data contract. Does the funky design, convenient size and high-rate connectivity make up for the added cost over something like the class-leading Transformer Prime? Let’s find out.

Continue reading Motorola Xyboard 8.2 review

Motorola Xyboard 8.2 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft was once the biggest player in the gaming hardware market producing joysticks that really mattered then in PC games. Unfortunately for Miscrosoft when the demand for joysticks vanished so to did their Sidewinder brand, until now.

After Microsoft started playing around with the idea of creating a mouse and keyboard with the SideWinder brand it was then when the Microsoft SideWinder X6 gaming keyboard came into existence. It came after the production of the SideWinder mouse, completing the mouse-keyboard duo that PC gamers have long been waiting for.

Offering an interesting design and sporting a good number of extra features, the Microsoft SideWinder X6 meets the demand of PC game enthusiasts for a gaming keyboard with customized functionality for many situations in gaming. One of the main and most remarkable features of this awesome keyboard is the ability to move the outer segment of the keyboard to either left or right side, depending on preference. This feature provides a new luxurious experience to PC gamers especially to left-handers.

Its color scheme, a black body with red backlighting for its standard keys and an amber hue for its keypad and programmable buttons, make it truly unique. You can also adjust the color intensity and volume by using the big knobs at the top of the keyboard.

And to further improve your gaming experience, the Microsoft SideWinder x6 keyboard also features a number of hot keys. You can also configure it for specific games by installing the software that comes with the keyboard. This shiny gaming keyboard’s switchable keypad also allows you to switch between standard keypad and macro pad in gaming mode, and the LEDs will show you the selected mode.

So if you want to look into getting a better gaming keyboard, you must check out the abundant of websites that feature a review on the X6 Gaming Keybaord and see for yourself how convenient it can be to use this gaming keyboard.

HTC Legend

Why You Want It: It’s like an HTC Hero, except with Android 2.1, an OLED screen, and a brushed-to-perfection aluminum body, which may be the most stylistically interesting design choice HTC has ever made.
Why You Can’t Have It: European availability starts in April, and this phone could see a later US release date like the Hero did, though HTC hasn’t given any indication that this is true. Here’s the thing: Remember how Sprint uglified the original Hero? I wouldn’t put it past them, and more generally HTC, to tone this thing down (read: ruin it) in the unlikely event of a US release.

Alcatel OT980

Why You Want It: It’ll be a cheap Android handset in a totally under-recognized form factor. Some may see it as a knockoff of the Pre, but I just see it as a nice little messaging phone, without the restrictions of a dumbphone OS.
Why You Can’t Have It: Have you ever seen an Alcatel handset in real life? Didn’t think so. This one’s coming in May. To Yur-ope.

Motorola XT800

Why You Want It: It’s got the brains of a Droid, without the keyboard. Plus, it’s got support for dual SIM cards—a rarity in Android phones—and HDMI output.
Why You Can’t Have It: It was introduced alongside an explicitly Chinese-only phone, and Motorola has made no indications that a North American release is coming. And even if it did, a dual-SIM international phone without a keyboard might be a tough sell to carriers, which usually market travel phones to businesspeople.

General Mobile Touch Stone

Why You Want It: Remember the HTC Touch HD2? The one with the orgasmically beautiful hardware, and categorically disappointing software? This is pretty much that, with Android.
Why You Can’t Have It: General Mobile made their name selling knockoff phones. While the Touch Stone isn’t a knockoff phone at all, it comes from a company that doesn’t—and will probably never—have a foothold in the US.

Acer beTouch E110

Why You Want It: When Android phones are available for free on contract, this is what they’re going to look like. The specs on this thing are underwhelming, so it might not be accurate to say that you’d want it for you, but you might want it for your tweenage kid.
Why You Can’t Have It: Acer currently has no plans to bring the beTouch stateside, and Acer’s other phones don’t exactly have a history of showing up in the US unannounced.

The Puma Phone

Why You Want It: The first phone designed entirely around a sporting lifestyle. Oh, and it’s got a solar panel!
Why You Can’t Have It: Initial launch plans have it released in Europe in about two months, with further availability TBD. US prospects aren’t great though, since Puma doesn’t have nearly the brand power here it does in the UK and elsewhere. (Fun fact: British people pronounce Puma like “Pyoo-mah.”)

LG GW990

Why You Want It: It’s the first phone with Intel’s Moorestown chip, and the first with the hybrid Maemo/Moblin OS, called Meego. And seriously, come on with these specs: A 4.8-inch screen at 480 x 1024 pixels? A 1850mAh battery? Intel’s Atom-based system-on-a-chip? This phone is pornographic.
Why You Can’t Have It: Let’s face it: It’s a tech demo. The Korean market tends to be more receptive to over-the-top phone like this, which is why they’re the only ones getting it for now, and even there, not for another half a year. Can you imagine a Verizon or an AT&T picking up something this absurd? And can you imagine how much it would cost unsubsidized?

Samsung Wave

Why You Want It: Its Bada OS may be underwhelming, but it’s a nicely spec’d phone with a couple game-changing features: the first “Super OLED” screen, which doesn’t look like ass in direct sunlight. It’s also the first handset with USB 3.0, which is, you know, fast.
Why You Can’t Have It: UK availability starts in April, and Samsung hasn’t even bothered to include a “further markets will be announced by x” blanket statement. It could happen, but don’t bet on it.

Toshiba K01

Why You Want It: It’s essentially the TG01 with a slide-out keyboard, which makes it the thinnest slide-out-QWERTY smartphone of its kind. (Its kind being massive, massive phones.) It’s a proud, final signoff for the entire category of ultraspec’d Windows Mobile 6.x phones.
Why You Can’t Have It: The TG01 never made it stateside, and there’s no reason to believe that its keyboarded followup will either. And besides, this phone is a lustable piece of hardware, but with WinPho 7 on the horizon, it’s hard to recommend buying a 6.5.3-based phone.

Sony X10 Mini

Why You Want It: The Xperia X10 done had itself a baby! An adorable little baby! You get the full Sony Ericsson Timeline interface overlaid atop Android, in a much more compact package. And it’ll probably be cheap.
Why You Can’t Have It: The X10 is taking forever to make it to market here, and other miniaturized phones, like the N97 Mini, don’t seem to fly with American carriers. Accordingly, Sony Ericsson hasn’t said a thing about a US release.

Samsung i8520

Why You Want It: Ignore everything else: This phone has a built-in projector. Ha!
Why You Can’t Have It: Samsung’s science fair project is going to be very, very expensive, and besides, it won’t even be available in Asia and parts of Europe until Q3 of this year, with a wider release possibly in the cards. Possibly.

Texas Instruments Blaze

Why You Want It: Look! Look at this thing! Two 3.7-inch screens, the OMAP 4 chipset based on the ARM Cortex A9, three cameras, a keyboard—this thing is outright insane.
Why You Can’t Have It: It’s developer hardware, so it’s not even meant for wide sale. I suppose you could buy one if you wanted, but unless you engineer cellphones or write mobile OSes for a living, you really shouldn’t.

All of Gawker’s sites opened up our comment systems four years ago, and since then, not only have you folks contributed to the content of each post—many people skim through the post just so they can get to the comments, like some sort of home-made dessert—you’ve actually contributed to making many of those posts better, with tips and things we hadn’t thought about.

And also, many of the Editors on all our sites were commenters before they started working here; something that will definitely happen again in the future.

So, the two new ways you can contribute

First, you can directly comment from the top of the main page, which is useful for sharing tips about stuff (#tips) or telling the world about how some gadget you own is defective and the manufacturer won’t address your issue properly (#broken). Just type in your problems and make sure to include the correct hashtag, and a hashtag page will be created just for your tag. In this case, http://gizmodo.com/tag/tips and http://gizmodo.com/tag/broken. These work for new tags as well, not just existing ones, so go ahead and create as many http://gizmodo.com/tag/jasonis[variationofhandsome] that you like

You can also create these new hashtag tag pages from inside regular posts as well, just by tagging them with the correct #hashtag inside your comment. Creating hashtag pages will essentially give you guys forums to talk about stuff, since every comment with that hashtag will display there.

Nevermind on that second one. You can’t do this yet, so make your tagpages using the first method for now.

So, the most important bit is that your tips can appear directly on the site without going through the filter that is us; and we’ll go through them regularly to feature them on the main site.

As with all new releases, there will be bugs. In the spirit of the new comment system, you can report bugs directly to our tech team here, without waiting for us to pass along your bug reports: http://getsatisfaction.com/gawker

Make sure to include an image of your problem and as much description as possible (OS, Browser).

And as for regular commenting, here’s a FAQ that should get you up to speed on the basics.

The new Adamo's offset hinge.

(Credit:
Dell

We’ve mentioned a couple of times how the new, revamped version of Dell’s high-end Adamo laptop has a pretty interesting design twist. After offering a few tantalizing teases (including a brief appearance at a press conference last week), the …

By David Ponce

We’ve written about Philippe Stark a few times before. He’s an influential French industrial designer who’s gotten involved in the design of an endless stream of consumer products from juicers, to teddy bears and now hard drives. Partnering up with LaCie, he’s helped develop these drives with an interesting design. The desktop drives have a customizable touch-sensitive surface allowing you to launch preselected applications based on how you touch them. They comes in 1TB or 2TB sizes ($129 or $249) , and also feature the Starck Signature LED (a “+” sign, since the man likes to spell his name S+arck) which glows green or orange based on activity. There are also portable versions of these drives in sizes 320-500GB, with prices starting at $99.

[ Desktop Drive Product Page ] AND [ Portable Drive Product Page ] AND [ Interview With Starck ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

This Casandra Crib from Miguel, is a piece of deluxe furniture for babies. The little ones will be sleeping on a soft sofa; this crib is similar to a soft and comfortable bed. It offers all the comfort a little baby needs in his first months of life. This crib is upholstered in Crypton Fabric, and it is resistant to stains, bacterias and odor. It is very interesting because it has a cool locking system, which is out of site and out of view. This is a very chic and comfortable crib for your little precious!

Few years ago, choosing organic materials meant sacrificing style. Now you can choose this organic cotton crib which has tigers and kittens on it, which can help you go “green” without making too much economy when it comes to price. The quilt and the bumper have eco-spun filling and it also contains recycled polyester.

I wouldn’t recommend letting your baby to sleep outside, bu this organic cradle is as natural as all outdoor elements. It has no chemicals at all, and it is, very important, made of organic hypoallergenic cotton (this type of cotton is much stronger and softer than the common one). The mattress is made of sap-derived latex, so it is also very comfortable and safe for your baby.Seed Organic Cradle costs $329 and the mattress also has breather holes, which is a real advantage for this price. It offers maximum air circulation and it is a strong and soft cradle.

Baby Star is a cool bedding set which includes the bumper, two fitted sheets and a flat front skirt, all in flutter pink. This crib bedding set is pretty funny, and they bring a fresh breeze in the little one’s bedroom. The bumper has a zip out insertion, and this makes it easy to wash. The 9” ties fit any traditional and even modern cribs, and this is made of 100% cotton. The zip out insert is a mix of 100% cotton with polyester filling. It is great because it is made of non-allergenic materials, the set is soft and colorful.

As you can observe, there are on the market a lot of crib designs, for every budget, every preferences and the products on the market often cover most of the people needs. A lot of cribs are comfortable and have an interesting design, and you can find products to fit the other furniture pieces you already have in child’s room. You can get cribs with changing stations incorporated, with storage space for toys, and some of them have special place for hanging the toys for the baby to play. There are cribs with drawers too, and I think that if you use those websites which offer you the possibility to create your own crib design, you will get exactly what you want!

The upside down model of houses became somehow popular, and if you think about weird houses, the first thought goes to upside down houses.The house in the image was created in Polland, in the village of Szymbark by Daniel Czapiewski, and it represents a profound statement about and against the Comunist era. The workers were disoriented by the angles of the walls, and this is why it took them 114 days to build this house.

Would you like to live in a toilet shaped house? I don’t think it would be comfortable when the giant aliens will invade Earth! This house was built by a member of the World Toilet Association, and it features four deluxe toilets. It is dedicated to provide clean sanitation to the 2 billion people who are currently living without toilets. This house has a showcase bathroom in the middle, and all the toilets have each something interesting, from elegant fittings to latest devices in water conservation and filtration. Its name is Harwoojae, and it means in Korean “the place of sanctuary where one can solve another person’s worries”.

The following house fits almost everywhere on earth: forests, lakes, seas, mountains and meadows, but you can also place it in the middle of the main street. This house’s design was inspired by highway billboards, it is very interesting, but the main disadvantage is that it is rather small. This “house” is only 27 square meters, and this means 290 square feet, and it is not actually intended to be a family residence. In the image you can see one located somewhere a little bit further than sea’s shore, in the middle of the water. The interesting aspect is that in such locations you can access it only by boat.

Other two interesting houses are Bubble House and The Broken Column House, which both were built for “aristocrats”. The Bubble House was built on Pierre Cardin’s demand and it was designed and supervised by Antti Lovag and it was originally designed for an industrialist with whom Lovag started a friendship when they were working a previous house. This house wanted to be the proof of short-circuiting the classical architecture in the name of original, modern design. The Broken Column House has the shape of a ruined classical column. This house has been built by Francois Nicolas Henri Racine de Monville, who made it its residence in the years before the French Revolution. This is an interesting piece of art, and it somehow suggest the Fall of Bastille, though it was built before the event.

The Glass House is among the most beautiful homes in the world. It is symmetrical and it integrates quarter-inch thick walls made of glass which are supported by steel pillars painted in black. The interior is separated by walnut cabinets, and a brick cylinder in which the bathroom is located. The brick floors and the cylinder are purple, and quite interesting, when people come into this house, they just look around. It is now open to the public, and many people book it months in advance.

Another piece of art made of glass is this home, which is located in the Brentwood district of LA. This house was originally built in the ’60s and it was designed by the architect RAy Kappe. Recently is has been restored by Michael LaFetra, and it has almost everything you could want. Five bedrooms, 3 baths, a rooftop deck and a very beautiful view. The wood architecture is barely visible, because the walls are made of glass. A  huge pool seems to spill over the edge of the property terrain and over the valley below. The spaces inside are refined but rustic in the same time. This house has wood ceilings and glass walls, and they open to the outdoors through the modern terraces. You can own this house by paying a little fortune.

Our house is one of the important aspects which represents us, like all the things we own, and say something about us. Looking at the design you can say a lot of things about the person in front of you, or maybe about his vision on life. There are a lot of strange houses in this world, and they all came true because their owners wanted to be different from the common persons who surround them. Maybe they were all looking for attention, but they came with innovations, and with bright ideas, and the most important thing is that they turned their ideas into reality. The futuristic trend is gaining a lot of attention, and more and more people are moving towards simple and elegant houses, and the full complex baroque style is considered old and out of fashion since these new bright ideas appeared.