Calling this Rachael UI an Android “skin” is like calling Windows 95 a “DOS skin,” but that’s not to say there’s nothing to love about it. In fact, we’re rather relieved that Sony Ericsson seems to be addressing Android’s incredibly lackluster media playback interface, the SE “mediascape” version of which dominates this particular video — a sequel to the first Rachael UI tease we got back in July . You know what else is great? The video title name drops the same lucious screen resolution as the DROID, 480 x 854, which spells all sorts of good things for SE’s first Android entry. Video is after the break, and if that doesn’t do the trick for you, the Rachael hardware is being teased over on this end of the internet . [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Continue reading New Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video hits, still looks nothing like Android Filed under: Cellphones , Software New Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video hits, still looks nothing like Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:56:00 EST.

I completely forgot that I get an extra hour of that precious, precious thing called sleep tonight. Since I’m probably not the only forgetful Lucy around, here’s a reminder to set your clocks back and snooze a bit longer. Technically, the moment to hop back in time is whenever 2 a.m. strikes in your time zone (or 1:00 a.m. GMT if you’re in Europe) , but if you’re getting ready to snuggle up in bed then you might want to take care of the clocks first.

And now… fighting out of the red corner, weighing in with two Evergreen GPUs , and wearing black trunks and red trim, it’s the Radeon HD 5970. ATI’s latest challenger for the title of undisputed graphics champion has been snared in the wild, and its photo shoot reveals a suitably oversized beast. Measuring in at 13.5 inches and requiring both an eight- and six-pin power connector, the pre-production sample can fit inside only the roomiest and best-powered rigs around. It’s named somewhat confusingly, with AMD dropping its X2 nomenclature for dual GPU setups, but it features two HD 5870 chips running in onboard Crossfire on the same PCB, and foreshadows a HD 5950, which will combine a pair of the more affordable HD 5850s . Performance figures available earlier have been pulled, at the behest of AMD, but we’ve got plenty of eye candy to admire, and there’s also no price tag in sight to spoil our daydreaming pleasure.

I like Android and all, but one thing the iPhone absolutely kicks every other smartphone’s ass at is media playback—until now. This video of Sony Ericsson’s “Rachael” Android UI shows its media capabilities, and it looks un-freaking-believable. Looks like Sony Ericsson borrowed heavily from the Zune HD playbook for this one, but we’re not complaining—the Zune HD has the only media UI that’s capable of competing with the iPhone’s. Let’s count the influences: First is the homescreen, which has a layout very similar to the Zune HD’s QuickPlay menu. Instead of just giving you a boring list of Artists, Albums, and Snoooore, it shows Favorites (like the Zune HD’s Pins), Recently Added and Recently Played, not-so-coincidentally the exact same options in the Zune HD menu

I like Android and all, but one thing the iPhone absolutely kicks every other smartphone’s ass at is media playback—until now. This video of Sony Ericsson’s “Rachael” Android UI shows its media capabilities, and it looks un-freaking-believable. Looks like Sony Ericsson borrowed heavily from the Zune HD playbook for this one, but we’re not complaining—the Zune HD has the only media UI that’s capable of competing with the iPhone’s. Let’s count the influences: First is the homescreen, which has a layout very similar to the Zune HD’s QuickPlay menu. Instead of just giving you a boring list of Artists, Albums, and Snoooore, it shows Favorites (like the Zune HD’s Pins), Recently Added and Recently Played, not-so-coincidentally the exact same options in the Zune HD menu. Below that you get two options from PlayNow , a kind of Pandora-like Sony store, including Top 30 and Recommendations

Since I’m feeling festive evening, I thought I would leave you with some of our Halloween posts. OK, really I just can’t pass up a chance to put up these masks of Chen and Blam again. Happy Halloween everyone! • This Is Why You Shouldn’t Put Drunk Ewoks On Live TV • Next Year, I’m Time Travel Trick or Treating • Scientifically Haunted Room Shows That Ghosts Are Only In Your Head • Twelve Beautiful Jack-o’-Lanterns • Ghostbuster Proton Pack Uses Real Lasers, Can Probably Hunt Real Ghosts • 10 Of Your Geekiest Halloween Costumes • A Spider-Bot Pumpkin Is the Scariest Way To Dispense Candy On Halloween • Build The Spirit Radio That Creeped Out Tesla Himself • The iMac Cylon Mask Is Both Trick and Treat • “Working” Apple iPhone Costumes Just Plain Win • Craigslist Ad By A Horrid Excuse for a Human Being • Sword Illuminates a Pumpkin by Impaling It • Ideas for Tech-Themed Halloween Pumpkins • 10 Robot Halloween Pumpkins Provide Artistic Inspiration • Scare the Crap Out of Trick-or-Treaters With a Rovin’ Pumpkin • Ruin Halloween For Everyone by Going as Brian Lam or Jason Chen And please, be safe!

Why confine your nerdy sloth to your living room, where large robots mime fake guitar and serve you sloppy mixed drinks ? Take that zest for the sedentary life with you on the road by having one of your robot ninjas steal this iPhone Rock Band robot from its ingenious creator, Joe Bowers. The Arduino-based device uses ambient light sensors to detect the falling notes and then taps out the music with some conductive foam attached to some squeaky fake fingers. Joe did a fairly detailed write-up, and even uploaded his code, so there’s presumably nothing stopping you from actually doing something with your life and building one of these with all that free time you’ve saved up by hacking your way through all the console-based guitar games. Video is after the break

Royal Caribbean ’s record-setting $1.5 billion, 1200-foot-long, 16-deck-high, 220,000-ton, Tower-of-Babel-on-sea luxury cruiser has finally set sail from Finland to Miami. I hate to be the one to ask but, um, there aren’t any icebergs on the way, right guys? Royal Caribbean named this affront to god the ” Oasis of the Seas ,” which, yeah, is a super cheesy name, but it’s not like there’s anything subtle about a god damn 1200-foot-long boat. It’ll operate out of Miami and begin offering cruises in December. The Oasis of the Seas has a maximum capacity of around 6,000 people, which for the record is larger than the population of MY ENTIRE HOMETOWN . It’s about 50% bigger than the current frontrunner in the “Titanic 2/Icarus” competition, the Queen Mary II, so now you can all feel free to hop on board that ship, since the Oasis of the Seas (really, you guys had to brag about the several seas in which this ship will be an oasis?

Royal Caribbean ’s record-setting $1.5 billion, 1200-foot-long, 16-deck-high, 220,000-ton, Tower-of-Babel-on-sea luxury cruiser has finally set sail from Finland to Miami. I hate to be the one to ask but, um, there aren’t any icebergs on the way, right guys? Royal Caribbean named this affront to god the ” Oasis of the Seas ,” which, yeah, is a super cheesy name, but it’s not like there’s anything subtle about a god damn 1200-foot-long boat. It’ll operate out of Miami and begin offering cruises in December. The Oasis of the Seas has a maximum capacity of around 6,000 people, which for the record is larger than the population of MY ENTIRE HOMETOWN . It’s about 50% bigger than the current frontrunner in the “Titanic 2/Icarus” competition, the Queen Mary II, so now you can all feel free to hop on board that ship, since the Oasis of the Seas (really, you guys had to brag about the several seas in which this ship will be an oasis?

The iPhone is one of the most wildly popular phones the world has ever seen, while Windows 7 is well on its way to becoming the globe’s most ubiquitous OS. So compatibility between the two would be kinda sorta important, right? Tell that to Intel’s quality control team who seem to have somehow missed an issue between Apple’s app carrier deluxe and the P55 Express chipset’s USB controller. Consistent (and persistent) syncing issues have been reported on Apple’s support forums, wherein iTunes on Windows 7 machines recognizes the iPhone, but spits out an “error 0xE8000065″ message whenever the user attempts to sync. While some have found limited success with using PCI-based USB cards (and bypassing the chipset), this is clearly a major issue and something Apple would expect to be fixed before shipping its Core i5 / i7 iMacs , which are likely to sport the chipset.