Hasta La Gadget!

So it seems pretty likely that HTC will give us an Android tablet at some point, although any hard and fast details continue to elude us. Speaking at the Open Mobile Summit, however, HTC’s VP of Europe, Dr. Florian Seiche, did give us a clue as to how things were headed: “Our study found women social networking while watching television was a likely use for tablets.” We have to wonder if this so-called “Facebook and Cougar Town” demographic were what Jobs & Co, had in mind when they decided to go ahead with the iPad. If so, they were wise to keep the information to themselves.

HTC planning an Android tablet for women, TV addicts? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tired of your woeful selection of Android devices on AT&T? We hear you. Now buck up Mr. Sad Britches ’cause Samsung’s riding to your rescue. AndroidGuys has a purportedly leaked Samsung handset it’s calling the i897 that looks very similar to the Galaxy S specwise: 4-inch AMOLED display, Android 2.1 (for the moment anyway), and 5 megapixel camera. It’s built around a Snapdragon processor apparently, and even goes well with chicken. Now hit up the source for a few more pics.

Samsung i897: the answer to your AT&T Android dreams? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 01:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unfortunately, we don’t know much about this new Marvell powered tablet, but we couldn’t resist sharing our impressions of the very svelte 10-inch device. We only got a few minutes to play around with the slate at the Netbook Summit, but we can tell you that it has a brushed metal back and there’s an opening on the front for a camera. As for the internals, it’s based on Marvell’s Moby reference design, which uses its Snapdragon-class Armada 610 processor, and will run Android 2.1 Eclair. The rest will be up to whatever Marvell customer is bringing this bad boy to market — the Marvell executive that let us catch a glance at the device wouldn’t turn it on as he feared we may see the mystery customer’s logo. We told you we didn’t know much, but from what we saw today it sure looks promising. Now, if only we felt Android was ready Google would give us a tablet-ready version of Android…

Marvell shows off 10-inch Android tablet at Netbook Summit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sometimes it’s good to be the chosen child, the special one, and in the eyes of Google the Nexus One is that special phone — at least for the moment. As such it seems to have been given a special treat: access to Froyo, earlier than expected. TechCrunch‘s MG Siegler is reporting that his handset received Android 2.2 overnight. So far we’re not hearing too many other reports of folks seeing this update, but that could be thanks to everyone sleeping off a week of exciting announcements. Sound off in comments if you’re waking up to this frosty, low-calorie snack.

Update: We’re not sure how this is being rolled out, as hardly anyone is seeing updates, but via Droidnytt we found a number of reports on Twitter that people are indeed seeing the update.

Update 2: Count us among the lucky few who just received the OTA Froyo update, to our original T-Mobile-based device.

Update 3: We’ve done some additional investigation, and as far as we can tell, Google is only updating review Nexus Ones that had been provided to the press — not off-the-shelf phones. We’ll stay on this and let you know more as soon as we do.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 2.2’s Froyo goodness hitting the Nexus One already? (update: just press so far) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 May 2010 06:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As a mobile platform, the EVO 4G’s Android foundation is still an infant — well, okay, perhaps it’s a tweener — but in its two-odd years in the public spotlight, the list of truly revolutionary devices to use it has been a significant one: the G1 for being the first to market; the Nexus One for ushering in a new (and subsequently killed) retail model; perhaps the CLIQ for introducing Motorola to the platform or the Droid for bringing the company some desperately needed, long overdue success. For the moment, anyway, a whopping fraction of the world’s most important phones are running Google’s little experiment.

Needless to say, Sprint, HTC, and quite frankly, many of us have come to expect the EVO 4G to join that short list for some obvious reasons. Put simply, its magnificent list of specs reads as though it was scribbled on a napkin after a merry band of gadget nerds got tipsy at the watering hole and started riffing about their idea of the ultimate mobile device: a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4.3-inch WVGA display, 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, HDMI-out, and WiMAX compatibility. Of course, the list of potential deal-breakers for a phone is as long as the EVO 4G’s display is wide; to put it another way, there are countless ways HTC, Sprint, or even Google could’ve screwed this thing up. So does this moderately intimidating black slab of pure engineering and marketing — this high-profile bet on Sprint’s future — deliver the goods? Read on.

Continue reading HTC EVO 4G review

HTC EVO 4G review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 21:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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