Feb 14

ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro hands-on

Posted in: froyo, hands-on, intel atom, IntelAtom, mwc, mwc 2011, Mwc2011, tablet, Today's Chili, video, viewsonic, windows 7, Windows7

We promised to dig up ViewSonic’s dual-booting Windows 7 and Android 2.2 ViewPad 10Pro tablet when we got to Barcelona, and here we are delivering on our word. We just got a chance to check out the 10.1-inch slate and we have to say hardware-wise, we’re dealing with typical ViewSonic quality — the 1024 x 600-resolution, capacitive screen isn’t exactly high quality (horizontal viewing angles were pretty bad) and the build was mediocre at best. However, software-wise we have to say the 10Pro is pretty interesting — the Intel Atom Oak Trail-powered slab boots Windows 7 Home Premium, but is running Android 2.2 on top. Unlike the first ViewPad 10, you don’t have to reboot the device to switch between Android and Windows as the Google OS is running as a virtualization. No word on the pricing of this one, but it should be hitting the market this May. Hit the break for a quick look at the relatively-quick Android / Windows hand-off.

Gallery: ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro

Continue reading ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro hands-on

ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 12

Samsung Fascinate gets leaked EB01 Android 2.2 build, yours if you want it

Posted in: Android, cdma, firmware, froyo, Google, GoogleAndroid, hack, mod, samsung, smartphone, Software, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, video, vzw

So much for Verizon being the carrier of choice when it comes to accelerated Android updates, eh? Those who selected Big Red for their Galaxy S have been waiting on a Froyo build for what feels like an eternity, with our brethren to the north already enjoying the spoils — things like Flash support and an integrated mobile hotspot. Of course, Samsung once promised that all Galaxy S phones (yeah, including the Fascinate) would receive Android 2.2 at some point in time, and while an official release is still eluding us, it looks as if the day is drawing ever closer. The fine folks over at Android Central simply couldn’t wait any longer, and they’re taken it upon themselves to wrap up the TouchWiz-infused EB01 build for all to enjoy. Naturally, you’ll need to do a fair amount of hacking to get this up and running without anyone’s consent, but all the details you’re craving await you there in the source. Still unsure if it’s worth the drive? Head on past the break for a quick video.

Continue reading Samsung Fascinate gets leaked EB01 Android 2.2 build, yours if you want it

Samsung Fascinate gets leaked EB01 Android 2.2 build, yours if you want it originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 11

ViewSonic intros dual-SIM V350 smartphone, Windows 7 / Android dual-boot ViewPad 10Pro tablet

Posted in: Android, froyo, Google, GoogleAndroid, intel, mwc, mwc 2011, Mwc2011, slate, smartphone, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, viewsonic, windows 7, Windows7

Mobile World Congress may not have its halls open quite yet, but that’s not stopping ViewSonic from giving the world a peek at what’s to come. First up is the V350 smartphone shown above, a dual-SIM creature with a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchpanel, Android 2.2, five megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS to boot. By supporting a pair of SIMs, it allows jetsetters to carry two SIMs from two operators in order to take advantage of different plans and networks for voice / data in different countries.

Moving on, there’s a highly intriguing new tablet in the waiting — the ViewPad 10Pro. This 10-incher (shown after the break) is a “professional” slate with dual-boot functionality, enabling users to tap into Android 2.2 or Windows 7 Professional at their leisure. It’s also one of the first tablets to utilize Intel’s long-awaited Oak Trail platform, and it’ll ship with a 1024 x 600 LED-backlit capacitive multitouch screen, inbuilt 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and a battery good for six or so hours of life. Finally, the ViewPad 10s — which was just unveiled at CES — is seeing a gentle update in Barcelona, with the ViewPad 10s 3G (predictably) gaining integrated 3G functionality. Mum’s the word on pricing and release, but as always, we’ll be prying for more once we touch down at BCN.

Continue reading ViewSonic intros dual-SIM V350 smartphone, Windows 7 / Android dual-boot ViewPad 10Pro tablet

ViewSonic intros dual-SIM V350 smartphone, Windows 7 / Android dual-boot ViewPad 10Pro tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 02:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 10

Inq Cloud Touch preview

Posted in: Android, cloud, froyo, hands-on, impressions, preview, social networking, SocialNetworking, Today's Chili, touch, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom, video

We can’t accuse Inq of having the best timing in the world — the company announced its new Facebook-centric Cloud Touch and Cloud Q phones at about the same time that HP was busy blowing minds with its new webOS range in San Francisco — but at least that gave us an excuse to get out of the Engadget bunker this morning and go check out some new gear. We’ve gotten to grips with the 3.5-inch touchscreen-equipped Cloud Touch and have broken down our first impressions of the device for you after the break. Aside from Facebook, Inq has chosen to integrate Spotify Premium into this phone along with Fluency, the typing prediction engine that powers SwiftKey. The two serve as significant upgrades on the default media player and keyboard software, respectively, and add a nice sprinkling of value to a phone that’s already expected to go easy on the wallet. The gallery below will illustrate anything else you may need or want to know, although you’ll have to check out the video to see the multifunctional unlock screen and Facebook widgetry in action.

Gallery: Inq Cloud Touch preview

Continue reading Inq Cloud Touch preview

Inq Cloud Touch preview originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 09

Rovi Connected Platform brings another flavor of Android-to-anything streaming

Posted in: Android, froyo, Google, GoogleAndroid, smartphone, stream, streaming, Today's Chili

And then, there were two. Just days after Qualcomm pushed out its DLNA Certified Skifta Android app for streaming content from your smartphone / tablet to just about anything else, along comes Rovi with an awfully similar alternative. The company — which swallowed up Sonic Solutions just months ago — obviously has a thing for slinging contained media all over the place, and its new Connected Platform will soon be available pre-ported to Android 2.1 or higher. In short, that’ll enable Android devices to beam multimedia stored on their microSD cards to an array of PCs, set-top boxes or NAS devices, which in turn would be connected to a monitor or HDTV of some sort. The dirty details on what kinds of devices it’ll support remain murky, but we’re hoping to hear more once the app makes its debut in the Android Marketplace sometime this quarter. Something tells us you’ll need a phone with a bit more oomph than the Acclaim to actually have decent streaming performance, though.

Continue reading Rovi Connected Platform brings another flavor of Android-to-anything streaming

Rovi Connected Platform brings another flavor of Android-to-anything streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 09

Looking for our Motorola Atrix 4G review?

Posted in: Android, att, froyo, motorola, Today's Chili

Hey there. Yes, you. If you’re looking out for the Motorola Atrix 4G review — don’t despair. We just got our hands on the device yesterday (that’s us man-handling it up above), and we’re currently in the process of putting it through its paces (along with the laptop dock, HD / desktop dock, and all the accessories). We didn’t think 24 hours was quite enough of a window to tell you how we really felt about this monumental device, so we’re giving ourselves the space and time we think is necessary to properly review the phone and all its features. Don’t worry though, we’ll have the full, unadulterated Engadget review up in the coming days (probably by the end of the week).

Right now we can say that we’re pretty impressed with the device’s blazing speed and gorgeous screen, but our experiences with the laptop dock have been hit or miss. It’s clearly a mixture that takes some getting used to — but we’re excited about the prospect of trimming down our rig and traveling light. The two pieces could make for a powerful combo. Of course, we’re going to deliver a lot more detail in the review, so keep your browsers pointed at this page right here, and get ready to find out if, indeed, the Atrix 4G is your next phone.

Looking for our Motorola Atrix 4G review? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 09

MetroPCS LTE Samsung Galaxy Indulge available this week, we go hands-on

Posted in: froyo, hands-on, lte, phone, Phones, samsung, smartphone, Today's Chili, video
As you may have gleaned from the small leak last night, Samsung’s MetroPCS LTE phone isn’t called the Forte as we may have previously thought, but the rest of the information we’ve been hearing about the phone for the last few weeks (thank you, FCC and Flickr!) was pretty dead on. Officially called the Galaxy Indulge, the 3.5-inch, Android 2.2 smartphone isn’t quite as well spec’d as the rest of the Galaxy S line up — most notably it doesn’t have that stunning 4-inch AMOLED screen (TFT LCD here, folks) — but it packs a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, 3 megapixel camera, 1500mAH battery, and some fast LTE speeds. As for the latter, the slider will naturally be backwards compatible with MetroPCS’ CDMA network and the carrier will be offering two monthly plans, both of which include unlimited talk and texting — the $50 plan buys you 1GB of data and the $60 version all the gigabytes you can eat. Combine one of those with the $399 sans-contract-price of the phone itself and it’s not a bad deal.

That said, compared to the other LTE or just general 4G phones we’ve seen of late, the Indulge feels rather cheap. Don’t be fooled by its rather Epic 4G looks — the .6-inch thick phone just feels overly plastic in hand (it makes those plastic squeaking noises) and the keyboard just can’t compare to Epic’s slightly raised keys. However, what it lacks in rigidity it makes up for in speed — we consistently got 3.1Mbps down and 3.3Mbps in our Manhattan apartment and saw it loading sites and apps faster than our Droid 2 Global. On the software end, there aren’t many surprises — it runs Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 and comes with a few of MetroPCS’ preloaded apps, including an Iron Man 2 app that actually includes the whole movie. We’re not sure you’d want to watch the entire thing on the low-contrast HVGA screen, but it’s always an option if you decide to, you know, indulge. (Sorry, we had to!) The handset will be hitting shelves (or websites) later this week making it the first available LTE smartphone in the US — but in the meantime, hit the break for the full press release and a short hands-on video.

Gallery: MetroPCS Samsung Galaxy Indulge hands-on

Continue reading MetroPCS LTE Samsung Galaxy Indulge available this week, we go hands-on

MetroPCS LTE Samsung Galaxy Indulge available this week, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 09

BBC iPlayer app coming to Android as well as iPad by the end of this week

Posted in: Android, application, flash, froyo, ipad, streaming, Today's Chili

The British Broadcasting Corporation has made its iPlayer app plans that extra bit more official by announcing that iPad- and Android-specific versions of its software will be arriving by the end of this week. The iPlayer is a free TV catchup service hosting the best and most popular (those two being almost mutually exclusive categories) from the BBC’s catalog of recent programming, and the new native apps promise to bring that to your portable device in a touchscreen-optimized format with a “simple and intuitive design.” The finishing touches are being applied right now and the apps should be with us before the week is through, but the real cause for excitement is that the BBC plans to take the iPlayer out for an international walk, which will likely rely on such platform-specific apps for distribution and the collection of subscription fees. Then we can all watch Question Time together, yay!

P.S. – Take note, Android users, that you’ll need to have Froyo and Flash Player 10.1 installed on your phone or tablet in order to partake in the new app. Sort of a one step forward, one step back maneuver.

[Thanks, Jules]

BBC iPlayer app coming to Android as well as iPad by the end of this week originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 08

Samsung Galaxy Indulge shows up on MetroPCS: LTE, Android 2.2, 1GHz processor

Posted in: 4G, Android, froyo, Google, lte, Today's Chili

We don’t have any official pictures yet, but there’s now a placeholder entry for a so-called SCH-R910 Galaxy Indulge from Samsung on MetroPCS’ official site, in all likelihood that device we’d previously seen leaked a couple times as the Forte. This would be the first LTE smartphone on MetroPCS since the previously-released Craft is a dumbphone — and depending on the release date, they could potentially beat HTC’s Thunderbolt for Verizon to become the first LTE smartphone offered on any carrier in the US. Besides LTE support, specs look to include a 1GHz processor (Hummingbird, we’re guessing) along with WiFi and a 3.5-inch HVGA display all running atop Froyo. Pricing? $399, which seems expensive until you remember that these guys don’t do contracts. We’re assuming we’ll be hearing more about this bad boy soon, so keep an ear to the ground and we’ll do the same.

[Thanks, Danny]

Samsung Galaxy Indulge shows up on MetroPCS: LTE, Android 2.2, 1GHz processor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 08

Samsung’s Galaxy S 4G for T-Mobile going for $149 at Walmart

Posted in: 4G, Android, galaxy, GalaxyS, Google, GoogleAndroid, hspa, leak, leaked, price, pricing, samsung, t-mobile, t-mobile usa, T-mobileUsa, Today's Chili, walmart

It may be a Vibrant with Froyo, a front-facing camera and a thing for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but it’s still downright enviable when you consider the Galaxy S 4G‘s innate support for 21Mbps downloads. As of today, neither Samsung nor T-Mobile USA have been perfectly clear about how much they’d be demanding for this guy, but thanks to a leaked pricing sheet from Walmart, it looks as if it’ll be a solid $50 less than most new smartphones. Those who waltz into Wally World later this month will be able to take one home for $148.88 with a two-year service agreement, or if you’re the No Strings Attached kind of individual, $650. Ah, the choices we’re saddled with.

Samsung’s Galaxy S 4G for T-Mobile going for $149 at Walmart originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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