Hasta La Gadget!

Hey there, high roller. If you splurged on Cowon‘s beautiful, profoundly expensive D3 Plenue, you’ve probably wondered when you’d get an upgrade from Android 2.1. Well, that day is today, as the company’s released an updated, Gingerbread-based firmware. The new code adds some miscellaneous new features – a sleep timer for the music app, some more music search options, and VoIP – and ought to improve system stability. It also promises better touch responsiveness, which we hope alleviates the sluggishness that made the little PMP so difficult to use. If similar frustration with your D3 rendered it an elegant paperweight, glide over to the source link to see if the update soothes your pain.

[Thanks, Stefan]

Cowon D3 firmware update brings Android 2.3, now treats your fingers as well as your ears originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, looky here. AT&T has very quietly revealed it’s going to sell the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. No press release, no splashy press conference backed by a cheesy disco soundtrack. The thing just showed up at the carrier’s holiday preview event here in New York City. We’re told it runs Gingerbread, which would make it AT&T’s second Android 2.3 handset behind the newly launched HTC Status. Alas, AT&T won’t say just yet when the Play will be available or how much it will cost on contract, but we do know a couple things for sure. One, it’ll run on the carrier’s 21MBps-capable HSPA+ network. Two, it’ll be available in a “Stealth Blue” color option, in addition to the stock black model we’ve handled before. Other than that, the specs — namely, the 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chip and 4-inch (854 x 480 display) — remain the same. Hands-on shots with the sparkling navy number below.

AT&T launches Sony Ericsson Xperia Play with Gingerbread, blue color option originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve known since its recent announcement that T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G Slide will be a mobile photographer’s delight and now we get to see the camera UI in action on video. As a quick reminder, the carrier’s upcoming Gingerbread smartphone is made by HTC and features Sense 3.0, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, a 3.7-inch WVGA Super LCD display, HSPA+ connectivity on the AWS spectrum, and a trick 8 megapixel shooter. The f2.2 wide-angle lens is combined with a low-light capable sensor and a dual-LED flash, but it’s the camera software that really shines. Like on the Sensation, you’ll find support for 1080p HD video recording, but the myTouch 4G Slide adds multiple scenes, zero shutter lag technology, continuous autofocus, HDR stills capture, plus panorama and burst modes, along with a dedicated two-stage shutter key. While we doubt it will dethrone Nokia’s N8 in term of raw picture quality, we’re looking forward to putting HTC’s latest feature-packed shooter through its paces when the handset debuts this month for $199 on contract.

T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G Slide shows off its camera chops (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this point, Android phones are officially being created faster than human babies. Samsung’s Galaxy phones have been the blueprint for the last year, literally. The Galaxy S II is the new blueprint—and it’s a very nice one. More »

Do you hate proper capitalization, live in the British isles, and have a spare £350? Excellent, because Sony Ericsson’s Xperia ray has just gone up for pre-order on Play.com. Scheduled for release on August 15th, the specs of the Gingerbread-toting gizmo haven’t changed since we first spotted them. New to us, however, are the four hues we spied on the duo’s website (which you can peep after the fold). Unfortunately for pigment lovers, one can only call dibs the black version this far out, but with more than a month before shipment, we’d pull the trigger anyway — you’ve got more than enough time to sweat color choices, we say.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson’s Xperia ray up for UK pre-order, ships in August?

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia ray up for UK pre-order, ships in August? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Cool Smartphone  |  Play.com, Sony Ericsson  | Email this | Comments