Motorola Atrix 2 peeks out (again) from the wild, destined for AT&T faux G?

Now that the tidal wave of Bionic hype has crashed upon Verizon’s shore, it’s time to focus our anticipation on Moto’s other beast phone — the Atrix 2. Leaked shots of the AT&T-branded update came to light this past July, giving us a glimpse of its Blur-ified UI and some tentative specs. Well, we still don’t have any official confirmation that these new images over on BGR are the real sequel, but the details are lining up with what we know. Purportedly, this handset refresh will not be a member of AT&T’s new LTE brigade, although that could very well change. Expect a dual-core setup, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture and Gingerbread 2.3.5 baked-in. Rumor has it the orange-colored carrier intends to ship this before year’s end, but will it be enough to sway you from this?

Motorola Atrix 2 peeks out (again) from the wild, destined for AT&T faux G? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Atrix 2 peeks out (again) from the wild, destined for AT&T’s faux-G?

Now that the tidal wave of Bionic hype has crashed upon Verizon’s shore, it’s time to focus our anticipation on Moto’s other beast phone — the Atrix 2. Leaked shots of the AT&T-branded update came to light this past July, giving us a glimpse of its Blur-ified UI and some tentative specs. Well, we still don’t have any official confirmation that these new images over on BGR are the real sequel, but the details are lining up with what we know. Purportedly, this handset refresh will not be a member of AT&T’s new LTE brigade, although that could very well change. Expect a dual-core setup, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture and Gingerbread 2.3.5 baked-in. Rumor has it the orange-colored carrier intends to ship this before year’s end, but will it be enough to sway you from this?

Motorola Atrix 2 peeks out (again) from the wild, destined for AT&T’s faux-G? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile CMO: no iPhone 5 on our network this year

Hopes and dreams = shot. We’ve had a sneaky suspicion all along that T-Mobile would likely be the only major network not playing host to an iPhone 5 launch party this year, but we still kept our heads high because no official denial had been given from the company’s C-level. That’s now changed, since T-Mobile CMO Cole Brodman slammed us back into reality at a town hall meeting stating: “we are not going to get the iPhone 5 this year.” It’s a hard pill to swallow in such a short summation, but there might be a glimmer of hope — technically Brodman only referenced one specific name. Since there’s always a possibility that Apple will choose a different title for its fifth-gen device (or even add a lower-priced option), T-Mobile fans can still grasp onto one last Hail Mary of a chance; just don’t set yourself up for more disappointment, okay?

T-Mobile CMO: no iPhone 5 on our network this year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Instagram goes 2.0, gets even more filter-happy

Exceedingly popular iPhone photo app Instagram is celebrating its big (version) 2.0 with the addition of a number of new features. At the top of the list is Live Filters, which let you view images through effects in real-time, before taking a photo. Filters have been sped up post-picture taking as well, as has the tilt-shift function. The revamped app also introduces the Amaro, Rise, Hudson and Valencia filters and high-res photos at up to 1936 x 1936 on the iPhone 4. The app is getting a new icon and a few smaller tweaks like the ability to turn off borders. That long-awaited Android app is still conspicuously absent, however.

Instagram goes 2.0, gets even more filter-happy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MakerBot’s Turtle Shell Racers cruise around our offices (video)

This weekend’s Maker Faire in New York City was lousy with 3D printers. Every tent in the outdoor area was packed to capacity with the things, their owners standing beside them, showing off the small trinkets they’d created with the devices. Judging from their presence, there seems little question that the technology has proven a success with the maker community. Amongst the general public, however, they’ve been a much harder sell. Perhaps it’s the price, or maybe it’s the generally dull connotations of the word “printer,” or it could just be the fact that there hasn’t been the right iconic image to help sell the products to the public at large.

MakerBot’s Turtle Shell Racers may well be just the ambassador that the world of 3D printing needs. The toy football-sized RC cars are proof positive that the devices can turn just about anything you can imagine into reality. There are certain limitations, of course, like the fact that the objects printed can’t be larger than five inches in diameter. The Shells’ creator circumvented that admitted shortcoming by assembling the products out of small pieces that snap together. Check out more hands-on impressions and a video with the racers after the jump.

Continue reading MakerBot’s Turtle Shell Racers cruise around our offices (video)

MakerBot’s Turtle Shell Racers cruise around our offices (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xiaomi Phone to get vanilla Android 2.3.5 next month, Ice Cream Sandwich in January

By now most of you may already know that the attractively priced Xiaomi Phone will support both MIUI and vanilla Android ROMs (though not simultaneously on its dual-partition system); but earlier today, CEO Lei Jun confirmed that October will see the release of said device’s vanilla Android 2.3.5 ROM, meaning the keen beans won’t have to wait long after the Xiaomi Phone’s launch in the same month.

More interestingly, Lei also announced that his Beijing-based chums will be rolling out a vanilla 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich build in January, which is about two or three months after Eric Schimdt’s expected launch date. Sounds about right if you look at previous releases, and we shall look forward to observing the epic 4.0 battle between the Xiaomi Phone, the ASUS Padfone and the rumored Nexus Prime.

Xiaomi Phone to get vanilla Android 2.3.5 next month, Ice Cream Sandwich in January originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google+ moves from field trial to beta, adds Hangouts on phones, search and more

Well, it looks like the “field trial” is officially over. Google today announced that its Google+ social network has moved up to beta status and, as a result, it’s now open to everyone (no invitation required). It’s also rolled out a slew of new features for the occasion, including a number of improvements to the Hangouts video chat service. That includes Hangouts on your phone (Android 2.3+ only, for now), a new Hangouts On Air feature for public broadcasts, and a number of “extras” including screensharing, a sketchpad and shared Google Docs (not to mention Hangouts APIs). Google’s now also finally added search functionality across the site, and it’s renamed the Huddle group chat feature to Messenger (which also includes a number of new tweaks). Hit the links below for the complete rundown on what’s new.

Google+ moves from field trial to beta, adds Hangouts on phones, search and more originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Show is live tonight, with Jonathan Coulton, Maker Faire, Keepon, and more!

We’re getting closer! We’re shooting tonight at 6PM ET, and if you’re lucky enough to be in NYC we have a few tickets left over. If you’d like to attend, e-mail jon dot turi at engadget dot com including your full name and confirmation that you can show up tonight. Do it quick enough and we’ll save you a seat.

If, however, you’re not lucky enough to join in on the fun in person in NYC, you can follow from home right here.

We have an interview with musician / internet sensation Jonathan Coulton, who will be discussing his viral rise to the top of the guitar-playing YouTube masses and treating us to a familiar song or two.

We’ll also be traveling to Maker Faire in NYC to take a look at robots, racing turtle shells, fire breathing iron dragons, and a lot of 3D printers. And Make:Live co-hosts Matt Richardson and Becky Stern will be joining us live in the studio to discuss some of their favorite DIY projects.

Then we’ll be paid a visit by the creators of the Keepon, to discuss the origins of their adorable little dancing ‘bot. Tim will take a trip through the mean streets of New York City on the Grace One electric bike and Brian will pop by Frog’s Manhattan location to take a look at the company’s latest industry-defining designs.

Subscribe to the Show:

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The Engadget Show is live tonight, with Jonathan Coulton, Maker Faire, Keepon, and more! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA releases Kal-El white papers, announces a fifth ‘Companion’ core for less demanding tasks

We’ve known about Kal-El — the quad-core mobile processor from NVIDIA — for a fair amount of time, but a lot of the finer details have remained a secret as we’ve anxiously awaited its debut in tablets and smartphones. Fortunately, we have some reading material to bide our time as the company published white papers discussing benefits of the new CPU, and for the most part it’s what you’d expect: NVIDIA touts higher performance, better battery life and improved physics-based gaming when more cores are involved and working together.

What came as a surprise to us was the fact that this quad-core CPU actually utilizes five cores: in addition to the standard four main Cortex A9 high-performance cores, Kal-El throws in a fifth Cortex A9 “companion” core specifically designed to handle less demanding tasks in effort to minimize power consumption caused by active standby processes. How is it done? The Companion core’s max operating frequency gets capped at 500MHz, offering higher performance and greater efficiency per watt when running menial tasks such as push email, Twitter / Facebook sync, widgets, background apps and live wallpapers. This leaves the four main cores free to take care of the stuff it does best — games, web browsing, transcoding / editing audio and video, 3D, physics simulations and image processing, to name a few — allowing performance bumps of up to 50 percent when compared to Tegra 2. We can tell that quad-core devices are going to make us very, very happy. If charts and geeky stats brighten up your day like it does ours, head to the source to read the papers in their entirety.

NVIDIA releases Kal-El white papers, announces a fifth ‘Companion’ core for less demanding tasks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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‘Personalized Wireless’ launching September 26th (update: it’s Cellular South, and it’ll be regional)

Does America need another wireless operator? Is the MVNO boneyard really due for another? Are you eager for a carrier that adapts to your needs, and magically delivers “stuff” that matters to you? Have you watched Napoleon Dynamite with your closest friends within the past week? We can’t promise that “Personalized Wireless” (or whatever it ends up being called) is destined to answer all of those inquiries, but it’ll at least strive to formulate a logical response to one of ’em. A newly-aired teaser clip promises a network of a different color here in the States, and the company’s product page (captured above) leads to believe that all will be revealed come September 26th. We’re surmising that this has something to do with either Comcast or Clearwire given the token “C” logo at the end, but we’d be happy hear other opinions of the origin down in comments below. Vid’s after the break, vaquero.

Update: We have it on good authority that the launch here relates to Cellular South’s recent buyout of a number of southern cellular shops, with this being the merger of those. There aren’t any details yet on what it’ll mean for prospective customers in that region, but it seems — at least for now — that this won’t be a national rollout.

Continue reading ‘Personalized Wireless’ launching September 26th (update: it’s Cellular South, and it’ll be regional)

‘Personalized Wireless’ launching September 26th (update: it’s Cellular South, and it’ll be regional) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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