SHOWCASE: Motorola has unveiled the first Android 2.0-based smartphone for Europe called Milestone (the US equivalent is called DROID and is carried by Verizon Wireless).

With an ultra-thin 13.7mm QWERTY keyboard slider, and a multi-touch ‘pinch-and-zoom-supported’ display, the Milestone has generated quite a lot of buzz ahead of its availability.

Here’s a promo video of the Milestone (it’s in German).

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: This is a nice effort to steer things around for Motorola.

By going “open source”, this move might well become a breath of fresh air to Motorola fans out there.

I do however foresee a change in the marketing efforts (a lot of it) of the company.

This is because Motorola has to now target lifestyle consumers and smart executives with what this phone seems to offer.

Vijay Anand, Editor, HardwareZone.com

Vijay (HardwareZone.com): Well, well, looks like this is the company’s last ditch effort in making an impact in the mobile phone scene. This is quite reminiscent of Palm’s Pre effort.

Like it, the Milestone is certainly a nice and forward looking device, but if it’s not executed well in roll-out, availability in numbers and a proper marketing message, this might be the end of the mobile phones portfolio of the company that revolutionized mobile phone design in its heydays.

Hear’s hoping for a kick-ass Milestone indeed.

Navin Danapal, Technical Editor, HWM Malaysia

Navin (HWM Malaysia): With the revelation that Google’s Android 2 will have free Google Maps navigation, Android 2 phones are going to become GPS device killers and we’ve seen this effect in the falling stocks of GPS device leader Garmin and TomTom, the latter being a paid iPhone GPS app.No doubt Android 2’s weakness is GMaps, which will only work when there’s a telco connection and not anywhere unlike GPS devices, but considering city usage and fixed data rate plans, I think Android 2 does have an edge over GPS.

Stock prices for Garmin and TomTom plummeted in recent weeks.

All Google needs to do is offer downloadable GMaps content for telcos who don’t offer fixed plans so users will only need to have a telco connection for navigation purposes, cutting down on their bandwidth costs for maps delivery.

Then unless you’re going to the wild outdoors, Android 2 phones will do the GPS job instead of GPS devices.

City navigation might then be taken over by Android 2 phones, while players like Garmin might focus on rural adventures.

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SHOWCASE: Well, “public” as in 100,000 users will be getting their invites on September 30. It’s expected to go out to the rest of the world a month later.

Google Wave, an open-source, real-time, personal collaboration and communication tool, was first unveiled at the Google I/O developers conference on May 27, 2009.

Ever since then, it has been described as a game-changer by multiple developers (25,000 of them currently have access to Wave) who have been busy creating and testing their own slew of plug-ins and widgets via APIs (Application Programming Interface) which Google has made available to them.

Basically, Google Wave takes the basis behind emails, instant messaging, community forums, media sharing and social networking, and puts them all within a platform.  (Editor opinions: 1)

To better understand what Wave really is all about, here’s an eighty-odd minute video of that fateful developer conference:

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Since acquiring Voodoo in 2006, HP has now spruced up the ENVY line-up with two new, sleek notebooks.

SHOWCASE: HP Asia Pacific showcased new netbooks, notebooks and desktops to regional journalists (from as far as Japan) on Sentosa Island, Singapore last night.

Among the products shown included the latest ENVY 13 and 15, a series which HP adopted after acquiring Voodoo in 2006. The new laptops have the full body aluminum and magnesium chassis, including a multi-touch pad called a Clickpad.

The system comes with the Beats Audio subsystem developed by Beats by Dr. Dre (a Monster Cable product). The Envy 13 itself has a thickness of only 0.8 inch and 1.69kg weight. It doesn’t come with a built-in optical drive.

The more impressive function is the 13.1-inch widescreen display, which boasts 410 nits brightness and 82% color gamut. This is possible with the ability to switch between the integrated graphics chipset and ATI Mobility Radeon 4330 chipset.

The Envy 15 is heavier at 2.35kg and 1-inch thick. It’s 15.6-inch screen can manage only 300 nits brightness and a 60% color gamut. It’s using a Core 97 processor (Core i7 Q720), supports up to 16GB of memory and allows 2 solid state drive disks on a RAID 0 configuration. It uses the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 with 1GB of memory.

Expect both the Envy 13 and 15 to launch by Oct 22 in stores at US$1699 and US$1899 respectively.

Another major showcase was the HP Netbook Mini 311, which comes with NVIDIA’s Ion platform. With an 11.6-inch screen, the Mini 311 is using an Intel Atom N270 processor, while the Ion hardware-accelerated HD decode function powers up high def content (sans Flash-based HD content).

Other products included two consumer-based Pavilion notebooks (dm1 and dm3), a business-class ProBook (5310m) and a Pavilion desktop PC. For more info on these products, check out the full coverage here. (Editor opinions: 3)

Meanwhile here are some images of some of the products shown last night.

David Chieng, Editor, HWM Singapore

David (HWM Singapore): We saw an earlier Voodoo ENVY laptop in Berlin last year during HP’s 2008 Big Bang launch of the year.

From the looks of it, HP’s still going on with the ENVY theme, but there doesn’t seem to be any additional sparks of life from the Voodoo unit that HP acquired sometime back.

Even more telling is a recent blog post by Voodoo founder Rahul Sood that all but confirms that HP probably isn’t going to continue with the Voodoo brand as it was originally conceived to be, as a high-end, custom PC offering for the well-heeled.

At least Dell’s made some inroads into the region with Alienware, but I think hopeful Voodoo fans in Asia might get disappointed. That said however, the ENVY 13 and 15 seem to both be fabulous machines, and I for one can’t wait for productions samples to arrive for review.

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: I think it’s good that there’s a quiet transformation in the making for the Voodoo line.

The original transformation was quite revolutionary as it was very gamer-audience focused.

Now, it’s very lifestyle focused — aimed more for the masses.

I think it’s a smart move on HP’s part and I hope this strategy will attract more sales volume.

Paolo Manzano, Managing Editor, HWM Philippines

Paolo (HWM Philippines): The ENVY line-up consists of interesting products that have me wondering if these will be brought over to the Philippines’ shores.

HP Philippines has been quite conservative in bringing in the more “advanced” and high-end product offerings such as the Blackbird and TouchSmart PCs in the past.

Hopefully, they see the merit of bringing these in, even as “hero” or “halo” products.

Seeing another Ion-powered netbook is good news for the market as well, as it sends out a strong signal that Intel is either losing its equity with manufacturers or its grip over and desire to control what chipset ships with the Atom processor.

Either way, this is good for consumers and brings forth another challenge for Intel in deriving better performance from their Atom chipset combos.

Mr. Yoshihiko Ikemoto, Manager for NEC Display Solutions, demonstrating the useful applications and features behind the NEC X461UN Public Display Monitor.

SHOWCASE: NEC Asia held its Business and Technology Convention at the Intercontinental Hotel, Singapore earlier today and unveiled new multimedia business products like the NP4100/4100W projector and X461UN Public Display Monitor.

Mr. Vincent Koh, Vice President for the Multimedia Business Platform Unit of NEC Asia opened the convention and emphasized NEC’s committed dedication to eco-friendliness. For example, he shared how some NEC products let users switch to an Eco Mode based on a Carbon Footprint Meter. (more…)

It's a smartphone! It's a notebook! No, it's a Booklet 3G!

SHOWCASE: Nokia has unveiled the new Windows-based Nokia Booklet 3G to the world just a few minutes ago. The mini-notebook is powered by Intel’s Atom processor, with promises of a 12-hour battery life, 1.25kg weight and a thickness slightly over 2cm.

Connections wise, it will come with 3G/HSPA and Wi-Fi (with Nokia’s broad suite of Ovi services of course), as well as HDMI, front facing camera (video conferencing), integrated Bluetooth and an SD card reader.

The display itself is 10.1-inch HD-ready while there’s an integrated A-GPS which will work with Ovi Maps gadget. Of course, expect access to millions of tracks via Nokia Music Store, and Ovi Suite to sync with your Nokia smartphones.

Here’s a quick video on Booklet 3G:

Further information, including detailed specifications, market availability and pricing, will be announced at Nokia World on September 2. Meanwhile, here are some shots of the Booklet 3G.