Hasta La Gadget!

As it turns out, Plus is becoming the new Moto sequel. Soon after announcing the Defy+, a phone that offers a moderate bump in specs from its predecessor, HelloMoto is back at it again with the Pro+. This obvious follow-up to the Motorola Pro (or Droid Pro, as it’s known in the US) doesn’t bring much of an improvement to the table. It’s adorned with the same 1GHz CPU, 3.1-inch VGA (640 x 480) display, 512MB of RAM and five megapixel camera; the largest differences in the new model are the inclusion of Android 2.3, 4GB of internal storage, an improved battery (1,600mAh) and a rounded design — in contrast to the original’s squared look. It’s due in Asia and Europe starting in October, so keep an eye out… if that “Plus” is enough to excite you. Head below for the full press release.

Continue reading Motorola Pro+ announced with Gingerbread, few other improvements

Motorola Pro+ announced with Gingerbread, few other improvements originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s peculiar how a simple number and letter can cause the price to skyrocket when added to the end of a phone’s name. But that’s exactly what the term “4G” does — ultimately, making a phone or tablet compatible with a carrier’s next-generation network seems to add value (and cost) in unthinkable ways. There’s a growing concern in the mobile industry; Sprint’s WiMAX 4G coverage, once a novelty in the United States, is now just one of the boys. It faces direct competition against its two (much larger) LTE brethren in Verizon and AT&T, and the Now Network is searching for other methods of utilizing its high-speed offerings. In doing so, the carrier wants to keep the value high without escalating the expense.

Enter the Samsung Conquer 4G, the latest addition to Sprint’s blazing-fast lineup. Rather than going head-to-head with giants like the Photon 4G and EVO 3D, the company’s strategy is to offer a WiMAX-enabled handset that’s light on the wallet. It’s not the least expensive of the bunch these days — the Samsung Nexus S 4G takes the cake there — but it’s another option to toss into the network’s growing lineup. So does this mid-range handset have a shot at living up to its namesake? Keep on reading to find out.

Continue reading Samsung Conquer 4G review

Samsung Conquer 4G review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you remember the Samsung Admire at MetroPCS, then the manufacturer’s Vitality handset will look mighty familiar. It’s coming to Cricket and will join the Suede (a feature phone) as the network’s only smartphone with Muve Music. Like the Admire, it features an 800MHz CPU, 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen, a 3.2MP camera and runs stock Gingerbread. While its price and release date remain elusive, we’re told the requisite plan will ring in at $65 per month — a spendy leap for the network that goes chirp in the night. Perhaps that’s the rub when you combine an Android plan with unlimited song downloads, ringtones and ringback tones. Hey, nobody ever said it’d be cheap to be law-abiding.

[Thanks, Daone]

Samsung Vitality with Muve Music serenades itself to Cricket originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:52:00 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

• Motorola’s Photon 4G was the recipient of a minor over-the-air firmware revamp that offers improvements to responsiveness and voice calls, and offers more bug fixes and other enhancements. [via PhoneArena]
• Want another bug fix update? The HTC EVO 3D is the next contestant, rolling out its second OTA refresh in as many weeks. This time it appears that a new “Corporate 4G” widget and a new radio have been added. [via AndroidCentral]
• Gingerbread 2.3.4 is now rolling out to Bell’s Motorola Atrix 4G OTA. [via MobileSyrup]
• Now that its official Gingerbread support page has gone live, Verizon’s Motorola Droid 2 will likely be receiving Android 2.3 in the very near future. [via AndroidCentral]
• Sasktel’s HTC Incredible S is now the beneficiary of Android 2.3.3 in an OTA install. [via MobileSyrup]

Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc hackery

• Remember that Gingerbread update the HTC Droid Incredible was supposed to get? The official version’s been leaked out and is awaiting your download. Just remember the follow the directions and back up your device before proceeding. [via AndroidPolice]
• Speaking of leaked versions of Gingerbread, the Droid 2 Global has one now. More info can be found here. [via Droid-Life]
• The Motorola Droid 3‘s been successfully rooted. As it turns out, there may be a couple different methods to do so, so check out the link to learn how to do it. [via XDA and AndroidCentral]
• An official build of Android 2.3.4 for the Samsung Captivate has been leaked to XDA. [via Phandroid]

Other platforms

• The Nokia N8 was recently blessed with Symbian Anna, but a few camera-related upgrades were left out. No need to fear, as an “experimental” update is now being offered, which adds continuous auto-focus and tweaks the UI to allow for faster access to the camera — among other improvements, such as a boost to 30fps. Check out the change log here. [via ZOMGitsCJ]
• Given last week’s news about webOS, we were concerned the newly-launched Pre3 would be DOA, with no promise of future updates. HP’s proving this isn’t the case, however, as the device got a minor update that brought the phone’s help center live and fixed a few bugs along the way. [via PreCentral and PhoneArena]
• Research in Motion released an upgrade to its Tablet OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Unfortunately, it’s not the 2.0 version we saw leaked screenshots of earlier this week, but it still brings a nice feature to the tablet: differential updates. This means that in future OS refreshes, only the affected sections will be changed. In addition, the new version, dubbed 1.0.7.2942, will improve WiFi connectivity via WEP and enhancements to BlackBerry Bridge. [via RIM]
• WP7Mod showed a video of the HTC HD2 booting up with Windows Phone Mango’s RTM build installed. We’ve been told that it’s almost ready for any daring souls interested in a new challenge for their Windows Mobile device. [via WMPowerUser]

Refresh Roundup: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Sense 3.5 beta screenshots leak, bring tears of joy to weather widget lovers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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