Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia loves telling the world about the 150 million Symbian handsets it will ship in the years to come. Problem is, that’s far from a factual statement — it’s a goal, a hope, and something that will only be possible if developers and fans don’t abandon the platform wholesale as the company transitions from Symbian to Windows Phone smartphones over the next two years. As such, Nokia is desperately trying to convince us that Symbian and the Qt developer framework are far from dead. In an open letter of encouragement to developers from Purnima Kochikar, VP of Nokia Forum & Developer Community, Purnima attempts to coax devs into fine-tuning their Qt skills in preparation for a “strong portfolio” of new Symbian products with “GHz+” processing and faster graphics coming in 2011 and 2012. Presumably she’s talking about the T7, X7, and E6 leaks among others. And because Symbian is still the leading smartphone platform in markets like China, India, Russia, and Turkey, she hints that Nokia will likely continue to support Symbian well beyond the transition to Windows Phone, at least in select markets.

Of course, hardware has never really been Nokia’s issue so it’s nice to hear Purnima commit to a first major Symbian user experience update this summer that includes the new home screen, icons, browser, and navbar we’ve already seen, in addition to a “fresh look and feel” to the Ovi Store and Maps with the latter also getting a integrated social media services update. The Symbian update — some of which has already been seen on the C7 Astound — will come to “all users” over the air. Too late to save the platform but just in time for the Symbian faithful.

Nokia promises strong Symbian devices through Windows Phone transition, major OTA update this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 03:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Surely you remember the Kyocera Echo, that dual-screen Android 2.2 phone that Sprint unveiled way back in February. Well, if it managed to pique your interest, then you’ll be glad to know that Sprint’s thrown up quite the unique reservation page that will let you reserve the phone now for $200 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) to ensure you’ll have it on its April 17th release date. The company warns that there’ll be limited quantities, so if you want to be the only one in town rocking a dual-screen smartphone, hit the source link and punch in your info — and don’t forget to try your hand at a game of Bottle Bustin’ Bandits while you’re there for a chance to win one of these phones.

Sprint begins Kyocera Echo reservations, challenges you to a ‘dual’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 02:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh snap! Look who just ate Apple and Google’s lunch here? Minutes ago, Amazon rolled out its very own music streaming service which is conveniently dubbed the Amazon Cloud Player. Existing Amazon customers in the US can now upload their MP3 purchases to their 5GB cloud space — upgradable to a one-year 20GB plan for free upon purchasing an MP3 album, with additional plans starting at $20 a year — and then start streaming on their computers or Android devices. Oh, and did we mention that this service is free of charge as well? Meanwhile, someone will have some catching up to do, but we have a feeling it won’t take them too long.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: As some readers have confirmed, it appears that the Cloud Player will support music purchased from iTunes as well, presumably from the post-DRM era.

Update 2: Press release after the break.

Continue reading Amazon Cloud Player goes live, streams music on your computer and Android

Amazon Cloud Player goes live, streams music on your computer and Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We saw the Fujitsu LifeBook AH572 way back in January at CES, and at the time, we were intrigued by the prospect of Sandy Bridge speed and 3D capability — it boasts a passive 3D display and dual cameras for recording in the third dimension — for an eminently reasonable $999. Well, were you able to resist the wave of laptops from the rest of computing’s usual suspects, you can now get your hands on Fujitsu’s 3D lappy packing Intel’s latest silicon, a 500GB HDD, and Blu-ray combo drive to boot. Sound good? Hit the source link to grab some of the laptop love for yourself.

Fujitsu LifeBook AH572 starts shipping, Sandy Bridge and 3D for under a grand originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this year, HTC allowed its previously Verizon-exclusive brand name out to prowl the globe with the Incredible S, and now it’s doing the same with the heretofore Sprint-only EVO moniker. The EVO 3D, says a tweet from HTC’s French mouthpiece, is coming to the land of baguettes, stylish mustaches and stripy pullovers, though a little bit of mystery remains as to when exactly its arrival shall be. Whatever the schedule (the EVO 3D’s set for a “summer” release in the US), the rest of Europe’s unlikely to be left out, meaning a 4.3-inch superphone with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1080p video recording in 2D and 720p in 3D, HTC’s newest Sense skin and Android’s freshest Gingerbread build, is headed out to the Old World. And that, fellow pilgrims, is a mighty awesome thing indeed.

Continue reading HTC EVO 3D coming to Europe, keeping the sexy name and specs

HTC EVO 3D coming to Europe, keeping the sexy name and specs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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