Hey there sailor, we imagine you've been doing your fair share of button mashing what with a certain new bit of software out and about, but how would you like a whole new control paradigm? Taking up Steve Jobs' war on buttons, a group of grad students at Japan's Keio University have put together a comprehensive robot control interface that relies solely on finger swipes, taps, and presses. By employing the iPhone's built-in accelerometer and multitouch screen, the robot can replicate a humanistic walking motion, perform sidesteps and, when called upon, kick a football with gusto and presumed passion. Your destination is just past the break, where the video demo awaits.

[Via HDBlog.it]

Sony Ericsson's Android-based XPERIA X10 was mighty sluggish when we played with it at the launch a couple weeks ago, but this new video from hdblog.it shows what looks like a much newer software build that's dramatically faster and more responsive. There's nothing much new here in terms of features, but just the fact that the X10 is in the wild and running well is encouraging -- especially since we're really digging that media playback interface. Now all we need is some Stateside shipping details and we'll be all set. Video after the break.

[Thanks, Nils]

It may be half a decade old, but don't lie -- you still whip your Treo 650 out from time to time, toss on some jean shorts and pretend that the size of your stub is synonymous with the big times. If we just rung your bell, you owe it to yourself to have a peek at the video past the break. There are no step-by-step instructions to accompany it (they're out there, trust us), but man, you can just see the life seeping back into it as the code scrolls down and Android grows seconds closer to booting. It's glorious, really.

[Thanks, Andrew]

When Nokia talks about the future it's generally a good idea to pay attention. After all, even with diminishing market share, a split Maemo and Symbian smartphone strategy, and less than stellar financials, the company remains the world's leading supplier of handsets with a proven ability to innovate. So take notice when Nokia's head of corporate strategy, Heikki Norta, describes what life will be like in 2015 in a video littered with high-tech devices driven by finger-based UIs. Of course, five years is generally only enough time for the nascent technologies we see today to mature enough for mass market acceptance -- in other words, readers of Engadget won't find anything mind-blowing in a presentation laced with liberal doses of augmented reality, pervasive connectivity, dual-display clamshells, and as always: micro projectors and laser keyboards. Beyond hardware and software, Nokia sees itself at the heart of a global network aggregating data from hundreds of millions of intelligent devices for an unprecedented level of knowledge sharing that enables services such as highly localized traffic reports and weather trends. Fun stuff and certainly worth a few minutes to ponder on your own. Still, it's difficult to get too excited by the vision from a company that was not only totally caught off guard by consumer trends at the margin-rich (read: money making) end of its devices portfolio, but also so slow to respond in any meaningful way.

[Via Slashgear]

Qik had already been available on Android, but when you bring a monster like the Droid into the mix, it warrants a rewrite -- and that's what the company has put together this week. Qik's new Droid-specific build brings a wealth of new features into play, chiefly Android 2.0 support and an impressive 720 x 480 streaming video resolution, perfect for the Droid's expansive display and 5 megapixel (albeit questionably usable) camera. The version also includes an improved version of what Qik calls the "Speed Sharing Ribbon," an area at the bottom of the display that allows users to drop frequent contacts for sharing recorded videos. There's no word on when the new version hits Droids around the nation, but it's already in an invite-only beta stage, so hopefully it'll be available soon enough. Follow the break for a quick video of that wild 480p support in action -- you ready for the data onslaught, Verizon?

The DROID might have started us down the road of dark sci-fi phone ads, but this new Nokia N900 spot takes things to the disturbing next level. We have no idea of what any of this means -- and we're not too sure Nokia really wants to suggest that its new flagship device is the cellphone manifestation of Twitchy McSanity here. You'll see what we mean -- video after the break.

P.S.- Are we the only ones who see this as a nightmarish dystopian remake of Pump Up The Volume? Is that just us? Okay.

AT&T might be suing Verizon for misrepresenting its network in ads, but that doesn't seem to have dissuaded Big Red from using that same map image in this new spot, which casts the iPhone away to the Island of Misfit Toys. Hard to argue with the premise, but here's the real question: why not just sack up use a real iPhone, instead of this KIRF piece? Check the ad after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

If you think cellphones have become overbearingly complex, look away now. A partnership of tech companies and content providers, known as the ng Connect Program, has revealed a prototype "LTE Connected Car," which, as you might surmise, combines 4G mobile broadband connectivity with a bunch of cloud-sourced facilities, such as video on demand, audio libraries, and multiplayer gaming. It can also serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot, connect directly to home automation or monitoring systems, and probably cook you scrambled eggs if you ask nicely. A Toyota Prius serves as the guinea pig for this new concept, and we've got video of the whole shebang after the break.

Read - ng Connect Program Puts Connectivity in the Fast Lane with the LTE Connected Car Concept Vehicle
Read - ng Connect Program Reveals the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Connected Car

I just dashed off this quick video for my Twitter followers to demonstrate that the DROID doesn't have a multitouch soft keyboard, and pretty much instantly realized that I should probably share it with everyone else, since we've been getting a lot of questions about it. Long story short, while Android 2.0 and the DROID's hardware support multitouch, the device itself doesn't do multitouch out-of-the-box, and the soft keyboard suffers mightily for it. Why it's missing is certainly open for debate, but for now just know that no amount of hoping, wishing, or booze is going to make the stock keyboard register more than one press at a time. Don't despair, though -- while I'm not a fan, Chris Ziegler absolutely flies on this same keyboard on his DROID. Videos after the break.

Looks like those iDon't ads aren't all Verizon has in store to promote the DROID: this new spot, called "Stealth," just leaked to BGR. Again, we can't help but notice that Big Red's taking a nerdier sci-fi approach to things with these ads, but that seems to suit the DROID, if you ask us. Video after the break.

If you weren't up all night following Engadget (and why wouldn't you be?), the first place you'll want to visit this morning is our extensive hands-on of Sony Ericsson's inaugural foray into Android territory. There you'll find the full XPERIA X10 announcement details and spec sheet, which is highlighted by a 4-inch capacitive display and a deeply customized user interface. With plenty of time to go before that first quarter of 2010 release date, though, we thought we'd get the anticipation revved up a few notches with a selection of handsome images of the device below, and a pair of videos -- one a spit-polished advertising promo, the other a useful demo of Speed Forge 3D -- after the break.

The GSM flavor of Motorola's DROID, or Milestone as it will be known in Europe, has multitouch built-in to the UI. For reasons we can only assume have something to do with an unspoken intellectual property agreement between Google and Apple, the US version of the user interface lacks multi-touch features like pinch-to-zoom even though the underlying 2.0 OS supports multitouch events. However, the video of a GSM DROID headed to Europe clearly shows this feature at the 3 minute mark. No really, see for yourselves after the break.

[Via SlashGear]

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 luscious 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]

The Motorola DROID might be at the forefront of the Android scene right now, but it looks like it's going to have some high-end competition soon -- Sony Ericsson's been hyping the Rachael / XPERIA X3 launch on November 3, and today it's put out this little teaser video. Nothing much here other than some fleeting glimpses of the handset in Luster White, but it's looking quite sharp, and if the final specs are close to the DROID's we could have a real battle on our hands -- especially since SE's crazy Android UI skin looks pretty sweet. Check the video after the break.

[Thanks, Lars]