It’s that time. After seeing 20 startups plus two audience choices present at TechCrunch Disrupt , last night, that list was whittled down to five finalists : Betterment, MOVIECLIPS, Publish2, Soluto And UJAM. And now it’s time to announce a winner. Without further ado, the runner-up is UJAM . And the winner is… Soluto . The Israeli-based startup offers something that millions of people want — no, need: a way to make their computers run better . One thing that’s interesting about this company versus most of the others in the competition is that they’ve created native software. It monitors your PC to find the things that are likely most annoying to users. For example, it tracks down printing problems, crashy apps, resource hogs — all the good stuff. That alone is interesting. But more interesting is that it offers up solutions for how you can fix your computer issues. And the data they’re (anonymously) collecting about PC problems should be useful across a range of industries and services. Quite simply: if Soluto can convince the millions of frustrated PC users to use their software, they could transform the industry. Or, disrupt it. The company has previously raised $8 million over two rounds, but has been in beta until now. Other award winners tonight include: Must-have technology : LiveIntent Biggest New York disruptor : Betterment Most promising media concept : LiveMatrix Congratulations Soluto! And congratulations to all the finalists. Each will undoubtedly prove to be disruptive in their own way. Soluto will be the first company to get the TechCrunch Disrupt Cup . In the Fall, they will hand it off to the next winner. We look forward to seeing you all in San Francisco in September. CrunchBase Information Soluto Information provided by CrunchBase

Here’s another exhibit that we could (literally) touch at the British Museum today — Samsung’s new all-in-one touchscreen PC, the U200 . We won’t go into another pixel density rant about the 20-inch, but the colors and optical touch sensitivity were good. As for the keyboard, it seemed to have similar issues we dealt with on the P580 laptop , but at least you can just throw it out and get a better one with the U200. Anyhow, help yourself to the rest of our hands-on photos. Gallery: Samsung U200 all-in-one desktop hands-on Samsung U200 all-in-one desktop hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

It’s still sort of weird to see an Envy laptop and not see a Voodoo badge following along, but as Rahul Sood has so eloquently explained , it’s HP’s burden to bear from here on out. We got a chance to toy around with the smaller of the two a few months ago, and since then, the company lowered the asking prices for both while simultaneously updating the specifications. For those who’ve managed to procure either of the editions, we’re curious to hear what you think about HP’s first Voodoo-free Envy laptops. Is the trackpad up to snuff? How’s the display? Is the performance satisfactory given the price? Can you use it without torching your lap? Spill your innermost thoughts in comments below — you know we won’t judge you. How would you change HP’s Envy 13 / 15 laptops? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

Well, we just had our first encounter with Samsung’s new Bada-sporting Wave handset . We’ll say this to start… the screen is gorgeous, and the phone itself is super fast. No hesitation almost anywhere, but it’s hard to make a judgment call at this point. A lot of the software seemed unfinished, and we saw a few crashes and weird behavior. Still, it’s clearly a device capable of handling some pretty intense work, and a Samsung rep we spoke to wanted to emphasize its ability to multitask. We were also told that the phone has more than 512MB of RAM, which is notable for a device of this type. We’re going to play with it a bit more and flesh out our impressions, but for now feast your eyes on the gallery… and we’ve got video uploading as we speak! Gallery: Samsung Wave first hands-on Samsung Wave first hands-on: Bada-packed and super fast originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

From a pure specification standpoint, it’s hard to knock HTC’s HD2 . Scratch that — it’s impossible to knock the HD2. A 1GHz Snapdragon CPU is just the tip of the iceberg, with the icing on the cake being the 800 x 480 resolution display, 5 megapixel camera, GPS and a downright stunning overall design. Unfortunately, phones are made or broken by the software that’s loaded on, and Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t exactly the most nimble mobile OS on the market right now. That said, we’re confident that more than a few of you have unloaded your savings accounts in order to posses one of the sexiest cellular telephones this world has ever seen, and now that the deed is done, we’re eager to hear your opinions on how the phone really stacks up. Are you happy with the performance? Did you expect it to be snappier given the monstrous CPU? Would you have held out for WinMo 7 if Sir Patience would’ve allowed you? No need to go easy on anything — tell it like it is in comments below. How would you change HTC’s HD2? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments