Hey, good morning!
Welcome to your week! Over the weekend, we mention a few ghosts from smartphone past, we pour one out for the end of AIM, and there's the return of our robotic table-tennis rival.
BlackBerry Motion arrives with no keyboard and a giant battery
That didn't take long. Mere days after images emerged, BlackBerry has launched the Motion. As expected, it's effectively a KEYone without the keyboard... and a couple of extra perks. You're still looking at a mid-range device with a Snapdragon 625 chip, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 12-megapixel rear camera, just with a 5.5-inch 1080p display taking up most of the front (there's still a fingerprint reader). However, it's what you can't see that makes the difference. The Motion is IP67 water-resistant, and it packs a whopping 4,000mAh battery. Given the middling processor, this likely translates to a phone that can easily handle a full day off the charger.
Microsoft exec says Windows 10 Mobile is no longer a 'focus'
It's no secret that work on Windows 10 Mobile has wound down given the lack of new devices, but what's happening with it, exactly? Well, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore has just settled the matter. The Windows VP (and former Windows Phone program manager) informed Twitter users that new features and hardware for Windows 10 Mobile "aren't the focus" anymore. There will be fixes and security patches, of course, but you shouldn't expect more than that.
OMRON's updated ping-pong robot can serve and handle smashes
At Japan's eccentric tech show, CEATEC, we knew OMRON would once again bring out its massive table-tennis robot to belittle us humans, but what Senior Editor Richard Lai didn't expect was a significant performance jump this time. FORPHEUS, now in its fourth generation, features improved AI to boost its responsiveness -- so much that it can now predict and attempt to deal with smashes. Better yet, there's now a companion robot arm that throws a ball up and lets FORPHEUS serve. Which should mean less mid-training ball chasing, right?
For the better part of two decades, AIM (previously AOL Instant Messenger) was the way to communicate online. For a certain generation, which most of the Engadget staff happens to be a part of, it defined their youth. We made friends from across the globe, and a few of us even found love. Now the OG of instant messaging apps is being put out to pasture. On December 15th, AIM will finally shut down. But first the Engadget staff wanted to give it a proper send off.
