Hasta La Gadget!

Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This past week, Motorola debuted the RAZR V in Canada and the Sony Xperia Ion was spotted at Rogers — curiously, the phone has yet to be formally announced for the carrier. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of July 9th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of July 9th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software

Mobile Miscellany: week of July 9th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The marketplace is flooded with cheap tablets at this point. Some of them quite impressive, others are likely to make your tear your hair out. We think its safe to say that Simmtronics XPad will fall firmly in the latter category but, being a high-end pixel-pushing machine isn’t the point. The XPad is a highly customizable Android slate designed to be as affordable as possible. The Indian company took the wraps off the product line in Dubai this week, revealing a 7-inch A8-powered machine that puts Ice Cream Sandwich in the palm of your hand for only AED299, or about $81. The company even claimed it could push prices down to about $40, which would make it even more affordable than the elusive Aakash. The race to the bottom isn’t over just yet, but it seems like Simmtronics is now the company to beat.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Simmtronics’ $81 XPad debuts, winning the race to the bottom originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just as the leak last night indicated, Samsung is finally ready to deliver Ice Cream Sandwich to Sprint’s Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. Samsung also announced today that US Cellular’s similar but WiMAX-less SCH-R760 Galaxy S II is getting the same (Update: an entirely different) FF18 update as well. The changelogs are available at the source links below, interestingly Android Beam is mentioned since these devices lack NFC, it’s hard to see how that could be on the list. US Cellular users can download and install the update right now using a SimpleDL tool on a Windows PC, however unfortunately there’s no support for any other operating systems at this time. On Sprint the update is coming out OTA and will slowly arrive on devices over the next few days, but if you’re impatient then we’d keep an eye on the thread at XDA Developers for reports on how well it works as well as some sideloaded workarounds.

Update: So sorry for US Cellular folks, it appears your wait will continue. While sharing a tag, the update for your phone resolves an issue with getting GPS lock… and that’s it. There’s always CyanogenMod or AOKP, right? Also, while we’re at it, check out the updated ZDA Developers link to download ICS for the Epic 4G Touch directly, plus a quick how-to install video (embedded after the break.) [Thanks @jbro456]

Continue reading Sprint Epic 4G Touch (Update: but not US Cellular Galaxy S II) ICS update is official, start rolling out today

Filed under: Cellphones

Sprint Epic 4G Touch (Update: but not US Cellular Galaxy S II) ICS update is official, start rolling out today originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not to be outdone by that red Galaxy S III over at AT&T, Sprint has confirmed that its inadvertent ad posting wasn’t just a fluke: it’s bringing out a white version of the EVO 4G LTE. Strictly speaking, it’s more of a aluminum-with-white-accents trim, but we’ll let that slide given that the back and kickstand are now decidedly less smudge-prone. The white EVO will cost as much as that Galaxy S III variant (and the black EVO) at $200 on a contract. Sprint will start selling the white hue on July 15th — and unlike AT&T, it should have phones on shelves rather than leave customers to online window shopping.

Filed under: Cellphones

Sprint confirms HTC EVO 4G LTE in white, battle of carrier-specific phone colors rages on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 12:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The obtusely-named Galaxy S Blaze Q rumored to be coming to a T-Mobile store near you, has appeared at the FCC labs. It tallies with the magenta mobile network, packing AWS, GPRS 850 and 1900 radio bands. No disassembly shots this time, so you’ll have to combine the above body outline with your imagination to make a stab at how the rest of the handset will look. As we saw earlier, the phone is set to pack a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, while a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 and 720p display should ensure the rest of the hardware passes muster. A launch is rumored for next month, but until then, schematics and radiowave tests are yours to explore; hit up the source for the full filing.

Samsung T699 passes federal inspection, lacks naming conviction originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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