Hasta La Gadget!

It’s not the first time we’re run into CUPP Computing‘s unique ability to blend the x86 and ARM platforms into one device — at least in prototype form — and just before the start of Computex 2011 here in Taipei we got a chance to experience the company’s latest iteration called PunkThis. The product is meant to replace your computer’s 2.5-inch SATA hard drive with a board featuring a complete ARM-based system along with a mini-PCIe socket — the latter capable of accommodating a physically smaller SATA SSD to handle the missing storage for the x86 host. PunkThis is built around a Texas Instruments DM3730 1GHz ARM CPU with 512 MB of RAM and includes a WiFi radio, as well as connectors and cables to interface the board with existing video, audio, and USB facilities on the host computer (no soldering required).

The netbook we got to play with was running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but was lacking WiFi support. It ran perfectly alongside Windows 7 which was powered by the existing Atom processor. Switching OS-es is just a hotkey away, and battery life is supposedly doubled when the main x86 CPU is shut down and the only the daughter board is operational. PunkThis also provides two microSD card slots — one for system storage used by the ARM-based OS (Android in this case), the other for mass storage visible to both environments (shared space). Pricing is supposed to remain below $200 and availability is expected in 8 weeks. That’s pretty hardcore, but with a name like PunkThis would you expect anything less? Feast your eyes on our gallery and peek after the break for our hands-on video along with the obligatory PR.

Continue reading CUPP PunkThis hands-on (video)

CUPP PunkThis hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for a good story? Gather around, kids, we have an intriguing one to share. The T-Mobile G2x is enjoying its share of controversy this week as concerns arose about the phone experiencing random reboots. Our saga began on Wednesday, as we received tips about the G2x getting pulled from stores due to “quality concerns.” We confirmed no inventory was in stock, but T-Mobile emailed us denying there was any reason for this other than high demand. With the phone being so popular, that’s fair enough, right? Not so fast.

As it turns out, our tale doesn’t stop there. A well-worded statement was sent out explaining, “a small percentage of customers have commented about possible improvements and we are working with LG to deliver a software update.” A bit of a far cry from confirming reboot issues (or bugs of any kind, for that matter), but it is refreshing to hear some sort of acknowledgement at least. T-Mobile didn’t get specific on what those “possible improvements” may entail, but the carrier also reiterated plans to bump the flagship phone up to Gingerbread “by summer” — possibly tackling the bugs at the same time. The end to our story has yet to be written, but we sure hope it’s a happy one.

Update: TmoNews just posted a screenshot (shown after the break) that shows a resolutions sheet to help employees troubleshoot a few customer concerns about the G2x. The list includes overheating, rebooting, low battery life, and WiFi handoffs. Now, it’s important to note that this isn’t T-Mobile acknowledging these as known issues; the company is just receiving enough calls on them that it needed to add these to the list of standard support responses.

Continue reading T-Mobile G2x experiencing reboot issues, Gingerbread may be the remedy (update)

T-Mobile G2x experiencing reboot issues, Gingerbread may be the remedy (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if the one-call-wonder’s battery life wasn’t enough, the update pushed out to HTC Thunderbolt owners a couple weeks back has some devices randomly rebooting. Verizon and HTC have said they’re working on the issue, but that’s of little comfort to customers whose phones are spontaneously restarting several times a day. If you were hoping to solve the issue by installing the leaked version of Gingerbread, we’ve got bad news — there have been a number of reports at the XDA Developers Forums that the Sensed-up version of Android 2.3 is bricking phones and sending them into an endless bootloop. But don’t despair, a fix could be arriving soon. A source at Verizon told Droid Life that Thunderbolt-owning employees “may be entitled” to a software update before it gets rolled out to the general public — presumably a final test run for that reboot repressing patch. If you’re too impatient to wait for yet another firmware update, you can apparently stroll down to your local VZW store and simply trade in your troublesome T-Bolt for a new one. Just make sure it’s running the older software before you take it home.

HTC Thunderbolt issues abound, but a fix is on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been following along, you know that a phone enthusiast named DJ_Steve has kept the Dell Streak fresh, thanks to a series of hacked ROMs, dubbed StreakDroid. The latest version, 2.0.0 (or GingerStreak, if you’re feeling cute) brings Gingerbread to the 5-inch smartphone — expanding on the last ROM, which gave hackers the option of selecting Gingerbread’s app launcher. As always, though, dear Steve has noted a handful of bugs in the ROM’s early stages, including issues with the Superuser app, less-than-stellar graphics performance, and the fact that both GPS and 720p video recording require an engineering baseband and DSP to be flashed. As of this writing, all of the comments are from Streak owners eager to download this for themselves. We assume you are, too, so let us know how the new ROM works out for ya.

StreakDroid 2.0.0 gives the gift of Gingerbread to Streak hackers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 01:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC brought in the 4.3-inch craze, but now that that form factor has gone mainstream, it’s looking to even larger dimensions. A 4.5-inch HTC Holiday has been dug up by none other than 911sniper, which is said to pack a qHD resolution (960 x 540), a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660, 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, and the very latest version of Android Gingerbread (2.3.4). That comes on the heels of Pocketnow unearthing a supposed image of the AT&T-bound smartphone, showing a predictably uncomplicated design framing a vast display. Let’s just hope the Holiday codename doesn’t mean we’ll have to wait till the holidays to see this overpowered new beast in action.

[Thanks, Connor]

HTC Holiday to be a 4.5-inch behemoth with qHD resolution, 1.2GHz dual-core, and AT&T future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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