Hasta La Gadget!

It took about two months for Samsung to roll out the much-needed GPS fix for the Captivate, and now, a mere seven months after Google pulled a handle on the machine and twirled up a big cone of Froyo, that phone is finally getting a spoonful. Samsung has released an Android 2.2 update and the full instructions plus the download are on the other end of the source link below. Hopefully it isn’t too frostbitten after all this time.

Update: Well now, we’ve just received a flurry of tips indicating that it’s been pulled and, indeed, the page on the other end of the source link is now gone. We’ll try to figure out what went wrong here.

[Thanks, Andy]

Samsung Captivate on AT&T gets Android 2.2, all that Froyo hasn’t melted yet (update: it’s gone!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading ViewSonic V350 hands-on (video)

ViewSonic V350 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What do you get when you gently massage HSPA+ support and a front-facing camera for video calling into a Vibrant’s backside using technology, science, and a selection of essential oils? Well, you get a Galaxy S 4G — and in the case of Samsung’s US-focused event this evening here at MWC, you get a Galaxy S 4G on orange crushed velvet. The phone feels exactly like a Vibrant — thin, but still almost ridiculously light for its size — and looks exactly the same from the front. Like a mullet, though, it’s the back where the Galaxy S 4G starts to party: T-Mobile’s switched up the cheap-looking gloss black plastic on the Vibrant for a trick gray optical effect battery cover that seems to shimmer as you move it around. Definitely a step up, and it’ll let the T-Mobile enthusiasts around you know that you mean business. Follow the break for our quick hands-on video!

Continue reading T-Mobile Galaxy S 4G hands-on

T-Mobile Galaxy S 4G hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, would you look at what we found chilling at Samsung’s booth here at MWC? Yep, it’s that Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 we heard about just the other day, and it’s one interesting tablet / media player hybrid. We’d be inclined to call this thing a Streak 5 or Acer 4.8 Iconia competitor, but it doesn’t have a trace of cellular or 3G connectivity. We were, however, able to confirm what it does have — it packs a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, a 800 x 480-resolution display, a 5 megapixel camera with a flash, and a 2500mAH battery. On the software front, it runs Android 2.2 (although it will be upgradable to Gingerbread) and TouchWiz. Oh, and it has the full suite of Google applications (YouTube, Gmail, Google Chat, etc.) and access to the Market.

So, what’s it like? Well, it looks like an enlarged Galaxy Player (or what is now known as the Galaxy S WiFi 4.0), which really means it looks like Galaxy S smartphone and the Galaxy Tab mashup. The white slippery back clearly looks like our Sprint Galaxy Tab, but the thinner design and rounded edges remind us of a Vibrant or Fascinate. It’s really a very “Samsung” device, and we don’t mean that in a bad way — the plastic build feels pretty solid and the screen seemed very high quality. As for performance, it seemed fairly quick and a preloaded video played rather smoothly. We wish we had more information on when this one was going to land stateside, but a rep on hand would only tell us that it will be hitting Korea this month and other countries soon. Check the break for a short hands-on look at this guy and the galleries below for some close up shots.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 preview (video)

Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OK, before y’all haters state the obvious in the comments below, there’s actually something noteworthy about this familiar-looking Chinese slate. What we have here is the SmartQ Ten (or T10, as referenced above), a forthcoming Froyo tablet that’ll feature a juicy Cortex-A9 chip plus a Mali 400 GPU, as well as 512MB RAM and a 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 IPS display. This wouldn’t be the first Android device to get the IPS goodness, though, as its predecessor R10 — launched with Android 2.1 and a 720MHz processor back in December — also has the same LCD panel within a seemingly identical form factor. In fact, we stumbled upon an R10 earlier today, and the prettiness of the screen did surprise us.

But what really sells the Ten is its piezoelectric touchscreen, which supports multitouch input even with non-conductive objects like the old school styli. This means said tablet can achieve light transmittance similar to its capacitive touchscreen counterparts but using cheaper parts, as well as having point-input precision similar to those with resistive touchscreens but with better screen clarity. Alas, no date or price has been announced for the Ten just yet, nor do we know if it’ll get Honeycomb in the future, but price it right and it might still get some love.

SmartQ announces Ten, an Android tablet packing IPS display with piezoelectric touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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