Hasta La Gadget!

TeliaSonera subsidiary Ncell has just completed installation of a 3G base station at 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) that will reach the 8,848-meter peak of Mount Everest. Mind you, we’ve already seen a cellphone call made from the world’s highest peak using a temporary base station in a Motorola publicity stunt. This time, however, it’s permanent and faster allowing climbers to surf the internet or make 3G video calls. Why would Ncell want to build a base station in such a sparsely populated area? Because it is there.

Mount Everest now ‘wired’ for Internet, ready for Starbucks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can you remember the day when Apple’s audacious plan to sell 10 million iPhones in its first year was greeted with extreme skepticism within the cellphone industry. Now the computer company is shipping 14.1 million handsets every three months according to the latest IDC numbers, moving Apple into fourth place on its Top 5 list of mobile phone vendors worldwide. That moves Apple ahead of RIM, thus confirming a Steve Jobs boast made during Apple’s Q4 earnings calls. Sony Ericsson has been pushed off the list for the first time since 2004 when IDC began tracking the top 5 vendors.

But that’s not the only interesting bit of information we see in the IDC numbers that tally all cellphone shipments, not just smartphones. Overall market leader Nokia, slipped from a 36.5 percent to a 32.4 percent market share since the same quarter last year. IDC notes that Nokia is starting to show some weakness in emerging markets, one of Nokia’s last strongholds, with smaller regional handset makers starting to grab market share away from Espoo in Asia / Pacific and Latin America. It’s not doing well in smartphones either, with IDC claiming that Android devices are gaining momentum at Nokia’s expense. LG is also suffering with a 10.1 percent decline in shipments since the same quarter last year, dropping from 10.6 percent to an 8.3 percent market share globally. Read the full report after the break.

Continue reading IDC: Apple passes RIM to become fourth largest mobile phone vendor globally as Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson struggle

IDC: Apple passes RIM to become fourth largest mobile phone vendor globally as Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson struggle originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you have The Need? For Speed? Yeah, so do we, and it just so happens that LaCie does as well. Just weeks after the company properly introduced the “now shipping” status on its d2 USB 3.0 and 2big USB 3.0 drives, it has now expanded the options with a 6TB model. So far as we can tell, it looks as if the outfit placed a rather sizable order for those 3TB HDDs that were just unleashed by Western Digital, and it has tuned up the performance all the while. The 2big has reached 306MB/sec in the lab, representing a 20 percent speed boost over the prior models while making it “the fastest 2-bay RAID solution on the market.” As for the d2? It can hum along at 156MB/sec with the inclusion of a 3TB hard drive. Both units are slated to hit retail next month, but asking prices are being kept under wraps for now.

Continue reading LaCie slams 3TB drives into d2 USB 3.0 and LaCie 2big USB 3.0, ups performance numbers

LaCie slams 3TB drives into d2 USB 3.0 and LaCie 2big USB 3.0, ups performance numbers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 02:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quirky‘s community has just outed another nifty peripheral that might just come in handy when looking for a few stocking stuffers later this year. Or, you know, right now if you can’t make heads or tails of your USB peripheral collection. The Contort is a plug-in 4-port USB hub, and the cord management roll enables users to keep an iPod Dock Connector cable, micro-USB cable and mini-USB cable neatly spooled for charging just about anything. It’s up for pre-sale as we speak at $29.99, and we can only offer you the best of luck in resisting.

Continue reading Quirky Contort contorts around your excess cabling, doubles as 4-port USB hub

Quirky Contort contorts around your excess cabling, doubles as 4-port USB hub originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We thought the Samsung Focus was the only Windows Phone 7 launch device that could replace its external storage, but the HTC HD7 can apparently do the same — there’s an SD card slot under that Windows Phone logo, and The Unwired managed to replace it while dodging the dreaded “There’s a storage error” screen. What sort of black magic did the publication cast to make it recognize the new card? They’re not quite sure themselves, but several factory resets and physical reinsertion of the chip seemed to do the trick, if only for an 8GB card. If you’re in a daring mood, let us know if it works for you in comments below!

Update: HTC tells us that this particular surgery’s a risky one, not only for your warranty but the connectivity of your phone. Here’s what you’re getting yourself into, according to a senior company rep:

While this is not technically impossible, one thing that is important to know is that the process of removing the cover to access these components is actually very tricky – and in many cases, will result in the antenna section being irreparably detached from the circuit board (rendering the phone unusable). Additionally, to actually replace the card, a few reasonably important parts have to be forcibly removed. So, just a good warning to anyone thinking of attempting this maneuver is that the possibility of bricking is extremely high, and will, of course, void the product warranty.

HTC HD7 has hidden microSD slot, user-replacable card? (update: risky business) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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