Hasta La Gadget!

Lack of Google’s official app store has been a thorn in the side of would-be Android tablet makers for a good long while, and it looks like the Tegra 2-powered Advent Vega will be no exception when it hits the high street tomorrow. Electricpig took the £249 device for a spin, chatting up Advent product manager Adam Lockyer the whole time, and discovered that while the 10-inch tablet will come with the 5,000-app-strong Archos AppsLib store, it won’t have Android Market at launch. “The plan is that when you get to January time, there’s a new release of Android and you’ll be able to get the marketplace on this product,” Lockyer said, suggesting that maybe — just maybe — the availability of Android Market itself might be one of the fragmentation issues Google intends to fix in Gingerbread. Wouldn’t that be nice? Video after the break.

[Thanks, Chak I.]

Continue reading Advent Vega tablet won’t come with Android Market, might get it as part of Gingerbread update (video)

Advent Vega tablet won’t come with Android Market, might get it as part of Gingerbread update (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Galaxy S Android 2.2 Froyo update begins to trickle out (update: official)

Galaxy S Android 2.2 Froyo update begins to trickle out (update: official) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It almost sounds too good to be true, but apparently some G2s are getting an official (if stealthy) OTA update from T-Mobile that adds the inexplicably withheld Android 2.2 native internet tethering back into the phone, along with the UMA WiFi calling T-Mobile plans to offer on all of its forthcoming Android handsets. What’s not to love? Well, so far our G2 hasn’t been offered the update, which is, like, totally unfair. Also, if you’ve been messing around with a “soft root” on your G2, you’ll probably want to hold off for now. Still, if this is legit and meant for the masses it’s a pretty major score for current and prospective G2 owners: WiFi calling is basically a beautiful dream short of a desirable handset, and of course tethering is becoming a requirement in this Android-age.

T-Mobile G2 getting an OTA update to add WiFi calling and tethering? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The low-end LG Optimus S that wowed us earlier the other day has a magenta twin — the LG Optimus T, headed to T-Mobile with very similar hardware. Considering that both carriers’ phones will come in similar shades of purple and black, you could easily be excused for confusing the two — aside from a prominent logo and the physical button arrangement, they’ve got the exact same build. That’s not a bad thing, mind you, as it means the Optimus T is similarly solid as a rock, but there are a few differences here and there, like the lack of dedicated camera and voice buttons this time round. Whether it’s extra bloat (of which there’s some) or a slower chip, the T’s also not as wonderfully lag-free as the S, though both phones would handily beat most of the other low-end Androids we’ve seen.

The 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen’s just as responsive, though the physical buttons here aren’t quite as nice — we prefer Sprint’s distinct, textured keys to the slick plastic rocker for Home and Back and the Menu and Search buttons here. We weren’t able to download Quadrant on the T for benchmarking like we did for its sister phone nor verify the same exact specs inside, but paging through menus we spotted mobile hotspot functionality and WiFi calling, just as originally foretold, not to mention support for old-school FM radio. Now we just wait to see if T-Mobile follows Sprint’s lead and offers the phone at a similarly fantastic price.

Update: It’s a bit of a shame, but LG just informed us the Optimus T won’t have WiFi calling after all — it was originally considered for the device, but the software we saw was apparently a old, out-of-date build. T-Mobile reps wouldn’t confirm or deny that, but told us that the option is something they’d like to bring to more devices later on, though they said it might require Android 2.1 or higher to function properly.

LG Optimus T hands-on (update: no WiFi calls) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long road to the T-Mobile G2 (and this review). Just two years ago, Android made its entrance into the smartphone market with the G1, a partnership with the fourth-place carrier, and a lot of promises about keeping things open. Since then we’ve seen the likes of the Droid family, Google’s Nexus One, and the powerhouses that are the Samsung Galaxy S line — to name a few. Yes, the Android landscape has become more than just a little crowded. But of those many, there are few who leap beyond what we’ve come to expect from the Google-backed enterprise into the realm of the top tier. For all the Android devices you can purchase, only a few rise above the noise. At a glance, the G2 looks like one of those handsets — designed and manufactured by HTC (and known as the Desire Z in Europe), outfitted with a (nearly) stock build of Android 2.2, and equipped with T-Mobile’s new HSPA+, which the carrier claims can offer network speeds nearly equivalent to 4G. So is the G2 the sum of its parts — the pure Android experience you’ve been waiting for — or does it fall short of the hype? Find out below in the full Engadget review!

Continue reading T-Mobile G2 review

T-Mobile G2 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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