Skype 2 video chat unofficially enabled on the Galaxy S II, Sensation, and others

The latest Skype update for Android is available to everyone, but it only enables video chat on four specific handsets. Fortunately, impatient modders have gone some way to correcting this profound injustice, by creating APKs that activate video calling on other handsets too. So far we’ve heard of successful ports on the Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Sensation, Thunderbolt and EVO 4G. If you’ve got some other handset with Android 2.3, a little experimentation with the APK might also be worth your while. However, we just tried it on an Xperia Arc and didn’t get very far: the app ran, but efforts to communicate with an Xperia Neo resulted in one-way video, a locked landscape mode and plenty of awkwardness. Let us know if you fare better — you’ll find a Thunderbolt-specific download at the DroidLife source link, and a more general APK at TechPetals.

[Thanks, Rashid and JT]

Skype 2 video chat unofficially enabled on the Galaxy S II, Sensation, and others originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Z: Galaxy S II’s ‘affordable little brother’ now ready for pre-order

Been lusting after the Galaxy S II, but aren’t willing to break the bank? We hear you, and apparently Samsung does too. Up for pre-order today, on the Swedish arm of Three, is the Galaxy Z — billed as a more affordable spawn from its Korean progenitor. The Gingerbread-toting handset will sport a 4.2-inch Super Clear LCD, 1GHz dual core processor (rumored to be Tegra 2), and 8GB of onboard storage, extensible with microSD. Fret not camera junkies, also present is a 5 megapixel sensor plus flash and “HD” video recording. All that stands between you and this little Galaxy, are 4,000 kronor (about $630) and your undying love of Swedish meatballs.

Samsung Galaxy Z: Galaxy S II’s ‘affordable little brother’ now ready for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phandroid  |  sourceSamsung Hub, Three (translated)  | Email this | Comments

ZTE Skate dubbed ‘Monte Carlo,’ will be classing it up on Orange in the UK soon

Odds are that mentions of the Skate caused your mind to immediately wander to roller derbies or marine biology, but that’s clearly not the sort of imagery ZTE is looking to evoke with its forthcoming smartphone. After all, the Gingerbread device does seem a step up from the company’s usual offerings, and therefore deserves a far classier name — like the Monte Carlo. The rechristened phone will be arriving shaken, not stirred on Orange — no word on an exact date at the moment, just “soon.” The Android handset has a 4.3-inch screen, an 800MHz processor, and a five megapixel camera. From the looks of the Orange page, however, the giant Android drawing appears missing from the rear of the device. So much for class.

ZTE Skate dubbed ‘Monte Carlo,’ will be classing it up on Orange in the UK soon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Inquirer  |  sourceOrange  | Email this | Comments

Sprint updating the Samsung Galaxy Tab with Gingerbread on July 5

It’s hard out there for a Samsung Galaxy Tab owner, watching Honeycomb slates hit the market by the bushel, with a lucky few stepping up to Android 3.1 and its resizeable widgets. Sprint, at least, is still giving the ‘ol Tab some love — according to an anonymous tipster, the Now Network will push out an update to Gingerbread, something Tab owners overseas have already been enjoying. The upgrade’s expected to roll out starting July 5th, and will include not just Android 2.3, but a step up to HID Bluetooth as well. Oh, and while it’s at it, Sprint will also release a fix for a bug in the Samsung Transform that has interfered with PRL and data profile updates. Sounds like as fine a way as any to beat the post-holiday weekend blues.

Sprint updating the Samsung Galaxy Tab with Gingerbread on July 5 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Status for AT&T announced on Facebook, risks being tagged in embarrassing pics

HTC Status

The HTC Status (formerly known as the ChaChaCha, the ChaCha, and “the Facebook phone that’s not a Facebook phone”) is inching ever closer to its AT&T debut. It’s already been pictured, sashayed its way through the FCC, and now it’s been revealed for all the world to see, appropriately enough, on Facebook. As we were already aware this social networking-focused, QWERTY candybar has had its CPU bumped up to 800MHz, but otherwise it’s the same Sense and Gingerbread packing device we saw back in February. Unfortunately, all we can tell you is that the Status will land on AT&T shelves at some point — price and availability are still as much of a mystery as ever. There’s some refresher PR after the break.

Continue reading HTC Status for AT&T announced on Facebook, risks being tagged in embarrassing pics

HTC Status for AT&T announced on Facebook, risks being tagged in embarrassing pics originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CyanogenMod 7 on the Nook Color hands-on (video)

It’s hard not to love Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, especially if you’re amongst those who’d rather look at text on a quality backlit screen than an e-paper display. Not only did we enjoy the e-book reader when we first reviewed it, but it keeps getting better thanks to updates to its hidden Android core plus the recent addition of its own app store complete with Pandora and Angry Birds. And while there’s also a decent bundled web browser and music player, it’s not the software that we like the most — it’s the hardware, and particularly the value proposition.

See, $250 ($200 on sale) buys you a gorgeous 7-inch 1024×600 pixel capacitive IPS panel with excellent contrast and viewing angles, an 800MHz TI OMAP 3621 CPU, a PowerVR SGX 530 GPU, 512MB RAM, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, 8GB of built-in storage, an accelerometer, and a microSD card slot — all wrapped in an attractive 12mm thin package. Sure, there’s no 3G radio, no camera, no microphone, no ambient light sensor, and no haptic feedback, but despite its lower-end specs, the Nook Color just begs to be turned into a full blown Android tablet.

And that’s just what we did, by installing CyanogenMod 7 on Barnes & Noble’s color reader, complete with Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) and the full suite of Google apps. Take a look at our screenshots gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video and impressions.

Continue reading CyanogenMod 7 on the Nook Color hands-on (video)

CyanogenMod 7 on the Nook Color hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceYouTube (PC), (Mac)  | Email this | Comments

Google Talk video chat finally available over T-Mobile 3G and 4G (video)

Google Talk Video Chat

Remember how excited we all were when we found out that Android 2.3.4 would bring video chat to Google Talk on the Nexus S? Only to have our hopes and dreams smashed when we discover that it didn’t work over 3G on T-Mobile. Well, it seems the carrier has quietly flipped a switch, and now all you Nexus owners can GChat face-to-face over HSPA+. Surely this an historic day, one that will go down in the annals of mobile history — or, you know, at least one that deserves an exasperated “finally!” Check out the video proof after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Google Talk video chat finally available over T-Mobile 3G and 4G (video)

Google Talk video chat finally available over T-Mobile 3G and 4G (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Coated  |  sourceAndroid and Me  | Email this | Comments

T-Mobile announces myTouch 4G Slide, aims to take smartphone photography to new heights

Well, we’d seen plenty of pictures of T-Mobile’s new myTouch 4G Slide over the past couple of weeks, and now it’s official. T-Mo officially pulled the wraps off its newest handset, and it’s packing a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and a 3.7-inch WVGA Super LCD screen. As for software, the slick slider comes with some tasty Gingerbread slathered in Sense 3.0. There’s also an 8-megapixel shooter that does low-light photos with a wide-aperture lens capable of f2.2 — just like that new Nokia N9 that has us all hot and bothered. The camera also has burst mode for snapping rapid fire photos, takes HDR pictures, and does 1080p videos, too. It’s slated for a July release, so we won’t have to wait much longer until we can indulge our inner Ansel Adams. Such fantastic smartphone photography is all yours for $199.99 on a two year contract, and there’s a video of the phone and a smattering of other details in the PR after the break.

Continue reading T-Mobile announces myTouch 4G Slide, aims to take smartphone photography to new heights

T-Mobile announces myTouch 4G Slide, aims to take smartphone photography to new heights originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Telstra will scrap Sense UI to make room for Gingerbread on the HTC Desire

What’s this we spy in the dusty depths of a Telstra software update page? A little sentence that displays some crowd-pleasing logic in bringing Android 2.3 to the hoary old Desire. HTC originally told us the handset had insufficient memory to run Gingerbread, and so would be excluded from the update. Then it did a 180-flip and said the Desire would be getting Gingerbread after all, but with the sacrifice of some memory-hogging apps. But now Aussie Telstra has opted for arguably the smartest alternative: prepare a special update that kicks HTC’s Sense UI out of the pub instead, freeing up plenty of room for Gingerbread while also pleasing punters who like to drink their Android neat. If it can work Down Under in August, other operators around the world ought to be able to make it work too. And if they don’t, there’s always the option of a spicy home-brewed beverage instead.

[Thanks, Alejandro]

Telstra will scrap Sense UI to make room for Gingerbread on the HTC Desire originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC EVO 4G+ official, but is it destined for Sprint?

Well, what do we have here? Hard to say for sure, but it looks like this just might be the rumored Kingdom (or more likely its doublemint twin, the Rider, which showed up in stills this morning) that recently visited the FCC — basically a CDMA and WiMAX-capable Sensation. Considering that the leaked video is titled “HTC EVO 4G+ preview,” and that the handset pictured is cosmetically identical to the EVO 3D except for the camera pod, we’re inclined to believe that this might just be destined for Sprint — although that WiBRO setting means this particular unit is meant for the Korean market. The twin 5 megapixel cameras have been replaced with a single 8 megapixel shooter housed in a similar sized pod, and the 2D / 3D mode slider next to the shutter key now switches between photos and video. Let’s just hope we’re not dealing with a discarded prototype or an Asia-only model, and that the phone’s guts are just as juicy and delicious as its 3D sibling — complete with qHD display and dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor.

Update: And just like that, it’s official! HTC has just thrown down an official landing page for the EVO 4G+, and according to it, it’s a phone that’s “everything you can imagine.” Bold. Thanks, Christian!

[Thanks, Edwin]

HTC EVO 4G+ official, but is it destined for Sprint? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceYouTube, pocketnow  | Email this | Comments