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Filed under: Hot Vegas

AJ McLean had a crazy night in Vegas — dude proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of a nightclub … minutes after running into a jewelry store and buying the ring. It all went down inside the Hard Rock Hotel Friday night — AJ and his then …

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In a very special CES edition of All Things D today, our own Joshua Topolsky had an opportunity to directly confront Google’s Andy Rubin on the nagging multitouch issue — not necessarily multitouch itself, but the growing disparity in support between American and European devices (the Droid / Milestone being the most famous example):

“You call this a superphone — 3.7-inch capacitive display, but no keyboard and no multitouch. Yet it has multitouch outside the US. Why not America?”

Andy’s reply:

“It’s not an America versus outside America kind of thing. It’s a decision that is a result of the OEM model. I personally don’t like two-handed operations… there is no conspiracy.”

That doesn’t explain the fact that the European Nexus One seems to have some in-built multitouch enabled — nor does it explain why any manufacturer would ever opt to exclude it under any circumstances unless there’s some outside pressure involved. Surely Rubin’s personal preferences don’t play into this… right? Right, Google?

Andy Rubin on multitouch in Android: ‘I personally don’t like two-handed operations’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Well, isn’t this special — the attempted murder of nearly 300 Americans is good for Pete Hoekstra (R-MI):
  

  GINGRICH: In Michigan, I think Pete Hoekstra is putting together such a good campaign and has gotten such a boost out of having been intelligence committee chairman now with the attempted attack on Detroit that Pete really is becoming a dominant figure in the state.

  If by dominant, Gingrich means the disgust normal people felt at seeing Hoekstra trying to cash in on the attempted bombing, then yes, it was great.

• How much would you pay to hear Sarah Palin wax poetic to teabaggers? And how much does it cost to get her to talk to “real” Americans?
  

  This morning, I asked whether Sarah Palin’s decision to speak at the Tea Party National Convention — while eschewing the much higher-profile Conservative Political Action Conference — had anything to with money. Conservative blogger Dan Riehl is reporting, based on “forwarded communications,” that Palin is making at least $75,000 and at most $100,000 for her speech. Tickets for the speech along are going for $349 — tickets for the whole convention are $549.

• You can listen to radio ads for John McCain’s (R-AZ) reelection campaign here. Please listen and then mock liberally.
• And then check out a tweet from McCain that will have your eyes rolling to the point of pain.
• It figures:
  

  “States with the most to gain under health care reform are overwhelmingly represented by Republicans, while those states likely to do worse are much more likely to have Democratic senators,” conclude the study’s authors. From their findings:

  [T]he states most likely to “win” as a result of health care reform are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah. All of these states have a relatively high number of uninsured and all are in the bottom half of states in terms of cost under both financing mechanisms.

• Sally Quinn’s column in today’s WaPo is a sort of Rosetta Stone for Village mores. – Jake McIntyre
• Does the inauguration of the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline that connects Iran’s northern Caspian region with Turkmenistan’s natural gas fields signal the faint notes of a Russia-China-Iran symphony? – Meteor Blades
• Have you heard of the death star that could wipe out the earth? Well, don’t start panicking just yet. –DarkSyde
• Alabama GOP gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne gets caught up in a latter-day impromptu Scopes trial, as he is forced to recant his earlier insinuation that there might be some parts of the Bible that are not “literally true”. This led to a mini-kerfluffle where some outraged citizens threatened not to shop at the Piggly Wiggly, whose executive officer was appearing at a press conference endorsing Byrne. –Steve Singiser
• To steal from an old gag at Sports Illustrated magazine, here is This Week’s Sign of the Apocalypse: Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas is paying The Salahi’s (better known as the WH party crashers) to headline a party at one of their nightclubs. The gig is going to pay them $5000. –Steve Singiser
• 19-year-old single mom/apparent political phenom Bristol Palin is opening her very own public relations and political consulting firm, BSMP, LLC. Family (and now business) representatives say Bristol does PR as a Candie’s Foundation “Teen Ambassador” on the prevention of teen pregnancy. No, really. Others say it’s a great way for the family to legally pocket the lucre now collecting dust (and interest) in the coffers of SarahPAC. – David Waldman

Filed under: DJ AM

Michael Jackson isn’t the only one who left debt behind — allegedly. A creditor’s claim was just filed in the estate of DJ AM.Loyal Pennings claims the estate owes him $566,666.66. According to legal docs obtained by TMZ, Pennings and DJ AM (aka …

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Filed under: Hot Vegas, Photo Galleries, Exclusives

Floyd Mayweather was ready to rumble with a famous nemesis in Vegas this weekend — but just before a fight broke out, Diddy saved the day. It all went down at the grand opening of Vanity nightclub in the Hard Rock Hotel — which was hosted by Diddy. …

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AT&T’s quick tease this morning has finally materialized: introducing the Motorola Backflip, a QWERTY device with WiFi, five megapixel camera, and Android 2.1. It’s not a slider; instead, it’s got the keyboard on the outside and flips outward. Motoblur’s the skin of choice here, and before you say anything, Sanjay Jha himself says “we’re still working on battery life.” He wouldn’t confirm a carrier, but “unique form factor” and previous leaks all but guarantee this is its inaugural Ma Bell Android phone. And don’t fret Cliq / Droid users, Jha wants you to know that Android 2.1 is coming to all its Motorola devices, so there’s something you can really look forward to.

Continue reading Motorola Backflip now official, Cliq and Droid promised Android 2.1

Motorola Backflip now official, Cliq and Droid promised Android 2.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Exclusive: Google Nexus One hands-on, video, and first impressions

Exclusive: Google Nexus One hands-on, video, and first impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Ride Me

Bow Wow clearly has something in common with Chris Brown — they both commit crimes behind the wheel.The Artist Formerly Known as Lil’ Bow Wow, who partied with Brown and Akon last night at LIV nightclub at the Fontainbleau in Miami, posted a message …

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Filed under: Hot Vegas

Alan Thicke admired the scenery last night at Bank nightclub in the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He probably wasn’t thinking “show me that smile again.” …

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

As the year comes to a close, it seems appropriate to cast my vote for the best (and some of the worst) gadgets I’ve seen. These are my personal choices for products that I felt were best of breed and really managed to differentiate themselves (or didn’t at all). In no particular order, here are my picks and pans.

Best Phones: This was a tricky category, and I’m not breaking it down into different segments. This is just the best on the market in my opinion — no matter how smart it was considered to be, or how well it did in school.

• iPhone 3GS. It was a simple choice. Take the coolest phones on the market, bump up the memory and make it twice as fast. Add in some new features like a digital compass and toss in an ecosystem of 100,000+ apps. Sure, it’s still locked to AT&T but the iPhone is still the phone that many others aspire to be.
• Palm Pre. At this point last year many had written Palm off entirely. Instead of fading away, Palm came back on strong with webOS, a new way of integrating diverse content called Synergy and two devices launched across the globe. Along the way, the Pre garnered much mindshare from consumers, and Palm showed that you don’t need to clone the iPhone to drive the state of the art forward.
• HTC HD2. When Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5, there was a chorus of groans about more of the same. HTC took up the challenge and proved that there was more to Windows Mobile than slow devices and resistive screens. The HD2 takes Windows Mobile to places never seen before with a capacitive touch screen, a Snapdragon processor and HTC-created extensions that make multi-touch work the HD2’s gorgeous 4.3-inch display. Wrap it all up in HTC’s Sense UI and you’ve got the best Windows Mobile device on the market today.

Continue reading Entelligence: Gartenberg’s best of 2009 in personal tech

Entelligence: Gartenberg’s best of 2009 in personal tech originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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