Hasta La Gadget!

If the now-deleted @evleaks is / was to be believed, Samsung is preparing a low-price handset for Sprint’s big yellow network. The pulled feed revealed that the Galaxy Reverb (SPH-M950) will pack a Snapdragon MSM8655, a 4-inch 800 x 480 WVGA display, 768MB RAM, 4GB on-board storage and Ice Cream Sandwich. Photography enthusiasts should know that there’s a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facer for those self-portrait moments. There’s no word on if it packs LTE, but given the limited quantity of Sprint markets that can currently use the standard, we wouldn’t get our hopes up just yet.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung’s Galaxy Reverb details echo across the twittersphere originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Unwired View  |  Evleaks (Twitter) (Offline)  | Email this | Comments

We’re used to seemingly interminable waits for phone firmware upgrades for carrier-locked phones. What is it that takes so long? Vodafone UK isn’t promising a quicker process, but it’s offering a rare walkthrough of just what itself (and many other carriers) do to rubber stamp a firmware upgrade. Using the Huawei Ascend G 300’s Android 4.0 update as the reference point, Vodafone explains that the actual network testing lasts a week or less, depending on the scope of the upgrade — it’s the requirements for branding and carrier-specific network settings that introduce additional overhead. Android phones that skew closer to Google’s stock OS (like the G 300) tend to be easy updates, although Vodafone warns that the verification process is typically getting longer, not shorter. There’s not much consolation here for phone owners around the world still using Android 2.3; if you’d rather skip the carrier update process entirely, however, you know where to turn.

Filed under: Cellphones

Vodafone walks us through a phone’s Android 4.0 upgrade, explains our protracted thumb-twiddling originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Vodafone  | Email this | Comments

HTC has been stoking the fires of anticipation for its return to tablets, and that small flame is quickly turning into a full conflagration. A slab nicknamed the Vertex has surfaced in benchmarks with a 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 and a 1,280 x 752 usable resolution that’s noticeably wider than the similarly Tegra 3-equipped One X’s 720p display. Other than Android 4.0 (and a probably Sense 4.0), however, there’s scant else to go on. The last murmurs of a Vertex from the fall had it carrying a rear 2-megapixel camera and a front 1.3-megapixel shooter, but it’s been long enough now that we wouldn’t count on that still being true — or that the new benchmarks necessarily reflect what we might get. Let’s just hope that the resulting device is more competitive than the pricey Jetstream.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

HTC Vertex pops up in benchmarks, might bring a slice of One X muscle to tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Blog of Mobile (translated), Notebook Italia (translated)  |  NenaMark  | Email this | Comments

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 exclusive 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.

Permalink   |  Sprint  | Email this | Comments

The gaming public at large has spoken. In less than 12 hours, Yves Behar’s Android-based Ouya gaming console has reached its lofty funding goal of $950,000 on Kickstarter. To refresh your memory, the $99 system (which was only $95 for 1,000 swift early adopters) packs a Tegra 3 CPU, 8GB of storage, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, a USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot — that price also grants you a single controller with a touch sensor. Most notably, the system is aimed at being extremely developer-friendly, having open hardware and software with a push for free-to-play content. There are only about 5,000 units (out of 10,000) (update: that number has been bumped to 20,000, with just under 10k available) left at the $99 price, so feel free to check out our in-depth chat about Ouya with Behar himself here before you head over to Kickstarter. It appears that the traditional business model for gaming consoles just got rocked, and we can’t wait to see the final results.

Update: If you thought that was fast, you’d be right: Kickstarter has confirmed that Ouya achieved the biggest first day ever for one of its hosted projects, and it’s just the eighth project ever to crack the million-dollar mark, joining an esteemed company that includes Double Fine’s upcoming adventure game and the all-time champion, the Pebble smartwatch.

Ouya’s $99 Android-based gaming console meets Kickstarter goal: $950k in under 12 hours (update: it’s a record) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Ouya (Kickstarter)  | Email this | Comments