Hasta La Gadget!

While everyone was in a tizzy about Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire price point, the Indian government was busily working to help bring out the $35 Aakash Android tablet. The tablet was developed with similarly good intentions as OLPC’s XO laptop before it — an attempt to get low-cost computing devices into the hands of students. One of the tablets landed in the VentureBeat offices this week. The site spent some hands-on time with the Froyo slate, and mostly liked what it saw, noting that seeming compromises made for price and a speedy release date ultimately benefit the whole of the device. The tablet will start hitting India next month, at the $35 government-subsidized pricepoint (actual retail price is a still mega-cheap $60).

$35 Aakash Android tablet gets the hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen our fair share of pico projectors, so takes a bit to actually get us excited about one, but the Seeser from ESPlus is showing a lot of potential. Inside the tiny black box is a laser-based projection system which, unlike traditional lamps, doesn’t need to be focused and can output a 25-lumen, 800 x 600 image up to 100-inches in size. There’s an SD card slot around the side, which appears to be of the micro variety and it has an integrated 1seg tuner for pulling in broadcasts. All of this is powered by a 1GHz processor running Froyo — so there’s no actual need to hook up an external content source. Sadly it doesn’t appear that it boasts access to the Android Market though, without a touchscreen, you wouldn’t be able to make good use of the apps anyway. The Seeser should be available in Korea soon, but there’s no word yet on how much it’ll cost.

Seeser laser pico projector is always in focus, powered by Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At CTIA last March, AT&T stole the show by announcing its intent to purchase T-Mobile US. This time around the news is a bit more modest, but the company is still hoping to give us a bit of a shock by introducing a litany of new handsets right on time for the holiday season. The carrier promised the release of 12 Android devices throughout the course of the year, and this week’s announcement pushes the 2011 running count to 19. Not too shabby. Naturally, we’re looking for quality more than quantity, so we couldn’t wait to dig into the devices that are coming out. Check out all five after the break, along with a quick video teaser.

Continue reading AT&T starts CTIA off right by introducing five new smartphones to its Android lineup

AT&T starts CTIA off right by introducing five new smartphones to its Android lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android updates

• The top story this week revolves around the HTC Thunderbolt’s long-awaited Gingerbread OTA update. It was finally rolling out, which was exciting news for owners of the device — until it had to be pulled because of some rather significant bugs. The largest of them all was that voicemail notifications no longer worked properly; video chatting through Google Talk was also slightly messed up as well. No word on when we can expect to see it come back with those bugs fixed. [Droid-Life]
• Unfortunately, the Thunderbolt isn’t the only phone falling victim to pulled revamps; the LG Optimus S on Sprint had its Gingerbread update kiboshed, though users have had two weeks to get it — plenty of time for anyone to experience some of the bugs, which included the phone not charging, the SD card not being recognized when the phone’s connected to the computer, no access to data services, and predictive text on the virtual keyboard stopped working. It’s disappointing to see this happen so soon after the Kyocera Echo update went through a similar debacle. [SprintFeed]
• LG Optimus 3D: V10K firmware update, enables phone to convert OpenGL-capable 2D games into stereoscopic 3D. Note: this still runs Android 2.2.2, so we’re still waiting for Gingerbread. [AndroidCentral]
• Motorola Xoom WiFi: Android 3.2.1 is beginning to roll out. [AndroidCentral]
• Dell Streak 7: Honeycomb update rolling out now to unspecified regions [AndroidCentral]
• Asus Eee Pad Transformer: Revamped to Android 3.2.1, adds other bug fixes [AndroidCommunity]
• Casio G’Zone Commando: Gingerbread rolling out now [Droid-Life]
• Motorola Droid 3: Minor maintenance refresh; enhances Google Talk with video chat support, several other fixes. [PhoneDog]
• T-Mobile Samsung Nexus S: OTA install (with option to manually install) to Android 2.3.6; doesn’t appear to break tethering. [AndroidCentral]

Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

• The Android 2.3.5 ROM for the global Samsung Galaxy S II leaked early this week. [Pocketnow, SamFirmware]
• You can now download the Android 2.3.4 SBF for the Motorola Droid X2, courtesy of XDA. [Droid-Life]
• If you have a Sony Ericsson Xperia-branded device from 2010 or 2011, CyanogenMod7 support will most likely come included as part of an upcoming update. Ten Xperia devices will be added, though a timeframe for release wasn’t announced. Check here to see if your device made the list. [XperiaBlog]

Other platforms

• Check here to see if your phone is ready to receive Windows Phone Mango.
• The ultra-rare AT&T HP Pre 3 just received an OTA update to 2.2.3.2207, right after a new webOS Doctor became available for the same refresh. [PreCentral]

Refreshes we covered this week

• Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update now rolling out
• How to force Mango to your phone right away
• Samsung Taylor receiving Mango?

Refresh Roundup: week of September 26, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, it may not be as exciting as those two LTE beasts from Samsung that we saw earlier today, but the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 has crept on sale in the land of crumpets, Coldplay and some Middleton couple (we jest!). According to reviews on Amazon UK, it appears a lucky few have already got their hands on one, but they’re now available en masse; expect to fork out just shy of £200 ($310) for the five-inch media player. The Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 already feels a bit smaller after seeing the giant 5.3-inch Galaxy Note in action, and the software is a bit dated, arriving with Froyo-flavored Android. There’s no news about a Gingerbread update hitting this one just yet (though we’ve been told it’s upgradable), but Android 2.2 should be more than enough to tackle its veritable smorgasbord of app-based delights, alongside some smartphone-esque tech specs like Bluetooth and, naturally, WiFi.

[Thanks, Cliff]

Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 gets priced, goes on sale in UK originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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