Hasta La Gadget!

Android is our future, the stat mavens all agree, but for all its rapid growth, Google’s OS still suffers from a shortage of top tier differentiation. This has in part been down to LG and Sony — two of the world’s biggest phone makers — spending the majority of 2010 watching the battle for Android supremacy from the sidelines (the X10 disqualified itself when it announced it neither knew nor cared what Froyo was). 2011 might just be the year of redemption for both, however, as LG will soon assault the European market with a pair of truly desirable and powerful Android smartphones in the Optimus 2X and Black, while Sony Ericsson’s well leaked portfolio of new Xperias includes the Arc, Neo and Play, each one of them coming with Gingerbread preloaded. We’ve wrapped our mitts around a pair of these high-hope devices, one from each manufacturer, and photographed the living daylights out of them sat side by side.

We humbly submit that the Xperia Arc looks and feels far more refined than LG’s admittedly well designed Optimus 2X. The Arc’s curvature seriously makes it feel like the thinnest phone we’ve ever handled and its weight is also dramatically, unreasonably minimal. Another note of import is that the 2X comes with a 4-inch screen whereas the Arc offers a more generous 4.2-inch display, yet their overall dimensions are nearly identical. All in all, we’d hardly object to having either one in our pockets, but the Arc wins it for us in terms of aesthetic appeal. Of course, the Optimus 2X has a dual-core Tegra 2 heart beating within, it’s not all about looks, though in the case of this hands-on comparison, it kind of was. We’ll have a full review of LG’s handset in the coming days, while Sony Ericsson promises the Xperia Arc will land in Europe by the end of March. You can see more of the prototype unit we got to handle in the gallery below and there’s a video comparison of the two Android newcomers after the break as well.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc vs. LG Optimus 2X… fight!

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc vs. LG Optimus 2X… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today Google announced that Android in-app purchases are coming to the platform and we were able to get a demo by Paul Sebastien of Disney. He showed us how to buy a track pack (Far East Movement, for those who care) in Tap Tap Revenge 4 over 3G on a Nexus S, and using a fake credit card! It’s interesting to note that the in-app purchase UI matches the look and feel of the new Android Market and developers can implement the functionality in a few simple steps. In-app purchases should start rolling out in various Android apps this spring. In the meantime, take a look at our video after the break.

Continue reading Android in-app purchases hands-on (video)

Android in-app purchases hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A researcher at North Carolina State University is warning of an Android 2.3 security vulnerability that gives attackers access to your personal information, further proof that Gingerbread isn’t all sugar and spice (to be fair, that SMS issue has since been remedied). According to Xuxian Jiang, the bug allows malicious websites to access and upload the contents of a user’s microSD card, including voicemails, photos, and online banking information to a remote server. The flaw apparently resembles a similar bug in previous version of Android, thought to have been addressed with Gingerbread. However, as Jiang points out, that fix is easily bypassed. Apart from removing the microSD card, disabling JavaScript, or switching to a third-party browser, Android 2.3 users have little recourse in squashing the bug. The folks at eWeek reported that Google is working on a solution to the problem, but there’s no word on when we can expect to see an update.

Android 2.3 security bug shows microSD access vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 10:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony just dropped a bomb on the Japanese stage — not a single PlayStation Phone, but a PlayStation Phone experience for everybody. The company unveiled a cross-platform software framework called PlayStation Suite, which sounds rather boring in those words, but what it amounts to is an official PlayStation Store filled with games for your Android tablets and cellphones. Sony’s starting with an emulator for existing PSOne titles and is promising an Android game store later this year, but soon it might be much, much more: the company’s calling PlayStation Suite a “hardware-neutral” development framework to make games portable for all sorts of handhelds, and says that “new and exciting content” is also on the way.

Sony will sponsor a first-party licensing and quality-assurance scheme called PlayStation Certified, and provide the marketplace as well, likely hoping to attract major game developers to build top-tier titles for mobile and get a piece of the action too. If your device doesn’t have have a pop-out gamepad handy, it looks like PlayStation Suite will emulate touchscreen controls, and you won’t necessarily need a phone to get in on the action, as Sony says the next-generation PlayStation Portable will be compatible with games developed for PlayStation Suite right off the bat. Doesn’t look like we’re getting any details on game prices or compatible devices, but we imagine one particular phone will change all that at Mobile World Congress next month.

Update: Looks like PlayStation Suite requires Android 2.3 at a minimum, and it’s PSOne, not PlayStation Portable titles that will be emulated here, despite Kaz Hirai’s quote during the festivities. PR after the break!

Continue reading Sony reveals PlayStation Suite framework, store for Android gaming

Sony reveals PlayStation Suite framework, store for Android gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wondering what sort of goodies might be inside HTC’s upcoming tablets? Norwegian tech site Amobil isn’t — they claim to have a pair of inside sources spoon-feeding them all the pertinent details. For the rumored HTC Flyer — which may or may not be pictured at right — that includes the same 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 chip you’ll find in several high-end handsets, 1GB of RAM, as well as a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and a rear 5 megapixel imager, and a piddling 4GB of flash storage to hold all your apps (which sounds a little fishy to us). There’s also allegedly 3G for data and Skype calls, an HDMI port, DLNA support and a bonafide stylus to write with, though it’s not clear whether we’re rumoring a fancy N-Trig display or simply a pack-in capacitive pen.

Though Amobil‘s sources say the tablet will be sadly limited to Android 2.3 out of the gate, it will allegedly have a brand-new tablet version of HTC’s Sense UI designed to provide a “desktop feel,” which might be a nice pairing for the “HTC Sensation” trademark presently floating about the internet. If so, don’t expect that UI to be limited to a single slate, though — the last part of this oh-so-juicy rumor is that HTC’s also supposedly got a 10-inch LTE tablet (perhaps the Scribe?) arriving in the second half of the year.

HTC Flyer spec sheet leaks with Android 2.3, stylus and 7-inch screen? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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