Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been a while since we last saw Philip’s GoGear Connect PMP, and in the meantime it’s acquired a new look and a new flavor of Android. The new GoGear has gone from white to black, lost its trackball in favor of a capacitive touchscreen display, and exchanged the lowly Android 2.1 for Gingerbread. Like its competition from Samsung, the device also has access to the Android Market and all those apps that lesser PMPs lack. After getting some quality time with a prototype of the new device, we found the copper-colored buttons and speaker grill running along its right side to form an intriguing design, but the overall fit and finish — not to mention the lack of a backlight for the screen — demonstrated that it wasn’t quite ready for primetime. Luckily, there’s plenty of time to work out the kinks, as Philips has pegged a September debut for the 8GB and 16GB versions (at $179 and to-be-determined price points, respectively), and promised a 32GB iteration will come later. PR after the break.

Continue reading Philips GoGear Connect gets Gingerbread and some new threads, we go hands-on

Philips GoGear Connect gets Gingerbread and some new threads, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s Epic 4G just recently got Froyo, but it might not be too long before the handset bites into another toothsome treat — a user agent profile at Sprint’s own website lists a newer software based on Android 2.3. We can’t say definitively whether this ED12 build will actually make it to retail phones anytime soon, mind you — our own Epic 4G is presently on EC05 right now — but it seems very likely that Europeans won’t be the only Galaxy S owners to snarf down gumdrop buttons this year.

Epic 4G user agent string suggests Gingerbread is on the way? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you got all excited after seeing HTC’s latest UI on the Sensation, but were dismayed to discover your hoary handset wouldn’t be getting the same Sense 3.0 love? As usual, the folks at xda-developers have just the tonic for what ails you… as long as you own a Desire HD. Yup, a clever fellow by the name of capychimp took the Sensation’s ROM and ported it to yesteryear’s HTC European flagship phone. The port isn’t perfect — those who dive in will lose camera support and the images need some resizing to properly fit on the HD’s 800 x 480 display — but brave souls who hit the source link for the download still get all those mellifluous movements that Sense 3.0 provides. See all the smooth scrolling in action after the break.

Update: XDA-developers have also given the HTC HD2 a quick Sense 3.0 hug, along with Android 2.3.3 in a similarly incomplete custom ROM.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Desire HD tries on Sensation’s Sense 3.0 suit, needs some tailoring for it to fit

Desire HD tries on Sensation’s Sense 3.0 suit, needs some tailoring for it to fit originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Apr 2011 11:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After taking a breather from cranking out new tablets, Archos is at it again, this time with the Archos 7c Home Tablet, a 7-inch number that ARMdevices.net caught on camera during a visit to the company’s Chinese outpost. This slate packs a Cortex A8 processor and RK2918 chipset, which the rep quaintly says is “faster than any chipset you can find” — you know, owing to its 1.2GHz clock speed and all. Alas, it runs Android Gingerbread (2.3) and not Honeycomb (3.0), so you’ll have to do some hacking to get your Android Market fix. Although the 7c has a capacitive display, the woman leading the demo appears to jab at browser links with her finger — a throwback to some less-than-responsive resistive screens we’ve tested. On the bright side, 1080p video plays smoothly — at least in the few seconds before the camera pans away. The 7c is headed to the US and Europe in June for an unknown price, but for now you can head past the break to see it in action.

Continue reading Archos flashes 7c Android tablet, brags about its 1.2GHz clock speed

Archos flashes 7c Android tablet, brags about its 1.2GHz clock speed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been keeping our eyes on Motorola’s plans to sink its claws into the enterprise market for at least the past couple of months, and it looks like the company is ramping up its efforts with a rugged Android tablet fit for the workplace. A presentation provided to us by a helpful tipster outlines Moto’s plans to be the “first physical embodiment defining Android for the Enterprise,” with a Gingerbread-equipped tablet entering beta testing this October. As you can see from the slide above, the slate will sport both a 1.3MP front-facing camera and an 8MP rear-facing camera “with illumination and aiming” for barcode scanning. It’s also carrying a dual-core 1GHz OMAP 4 CPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB NAND, a 7-inch LCD display, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, and USB connectivity. It should also pack enough juice to supply five and a half hours of streaming video, and should be able to withstand a four foot drop, extreme temperatures, excessive dust, and splashing water. From the look of things, this tablet’s going to be more at home in the workshop than the boardroom, but we’ll just have to wait and see what becomes of it once the thing makes it out of beta.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Motorola to begin beta testing rugged Android tablet, steps up enterprise efforts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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