Hasta La Gadget!

It’s official, Motorola’s just officially unveiled Motoactv (not to be confused with these guys), its very own music and fitness device. The little running mate sports a 600MHz processor, runs Android and weighs a healthy 35 grams. It’ll apparently track your heart rate, and log running, walking and cycling statistics, and packs GPS to track your exercise routes. The Nike+ competitor is unsurprisingly sweat and waterproof and can hold up to 4,000 songs. It also offers FM radio and audio “coaching,” which updates on pace and distance, for those who need a little inspiration in their routine. Moto’s also outing a pair of accompanying Bluetooth headsets, the SF700 ($149) and SF500 ($99), which will be sold separately. The Motoactv will set beat-bumping runners back $249 or $299 for 8GB and 16GB, respectively. Full PR is after the break, and official photos are on the way.

Be sure to check out our Motorola liveblog right here!

Continue reading Motorola announces Motoactv, ‘the ultimate fitness device’

Motorola announces Motoactv, ‘the ultimate fitness device’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update: During the company’s earnings call, CEO Larry Page confirmed that there’s now 190 million Android phones activated around the world, and 200 million users of the Chrome web browser (although it’s not clear how many of those are active users). Page also took a moment to post his remarks to Google+ during the call.

Continue reading Google announces Q3 earnings: $9.72 billion in revenue, $2.73 billion net income, 40 million Google+ users

Google announces Q3 earnings: $9.72 billion in revenue, $2.73 billion net income, 40 million Google+ users originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even if you were one of those Apple fans who was less than impressed by the iPhone 4S, there is still reason for excitement — and that reason’s name is iOS 5. If you’ve got an iPhone 3GS, 4, third- or fourth-gen iPod touch, or either of the iPads you can download Apple’s latest and greatest mobile OS right now. That’s right, all the fun new features like pull-down notifications, iCloud, iMessage, Find my Friends, Twitter integration and lock screen access to your camera will be at your disposal. Sadly you will not be getting a taste of Siri, which appears to a 4S only feature for now. Still, there’s more than enough here to make it a worthy upgrade to your device. So, what are you waiting for? Go hit that update button now.

Update: Just so you’re aware, you’ll need iTunes 10.5 installed to get the latest iOS. There’s also an update to OS X coming down the pipes — version 10.7.2 — which officially delivers iCloud to your Mac. Huzzah!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iOS 5 and OS X 10.7.2 available for download: get your iCloud and iMessage on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading ASUS Zenbook UX21 and UX31 headed to the US October 12, starting at $999

ASUS Zenbook UX21 and UX31 headed to the US October 12, starting at $999 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew more or less that an announcement of this sort was coming. Back in July, Dan Hesse had teased us face-to-face with the promise of a “great story this fall around 4G,” and now the time to tell that tale has arrived. At its strategy event today, Sprint finally went public with plans to “simplify its network” by converting its 1900MHz holdings and LightSquared’s 1600MHz spectrum (“pending FCC approval”) to LTE, an industry favorite. Helping the operator make that transition is the swath of 800MHz spectrum it reclaimed from the, now defunct, iDEN push-to-talk network — which had been a drain on the company’s resources. This spectrum, acquired from Nextel, will be phased out by mid-2013 and rolled into LTE. The company plans for a rapid deployment of this new 4G network, with the first LTE markets and handsets to hit in mid-2012, and the full rollout mostly completed by 2013. Current subscribers signed up for WiMAX plans won’t have to worry as their devices will continue to be supported throughout 2012.

Beginning tomorrow, Sprint’s consolidating its 4G LTE (including LightSquared), 3G and Direct Connect networks into one single architecture. All the major technical milestones, such as test calls and field integration, have cleared their hurdles and work on over 22,000 cell sites are currently in process. Samsung, Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson have partnered with Sprint to install multimode 3G and 4G base stations to handle the network’s future traffic, essential for deploying the multitude of frequencies required by hosted devices. Prospective iPhone 4S users on the network will be able to take advantage of better signal strength and improved voice service as Sprint intends to also offload the latter onto 800MHz.

Expect a steep “reduction in roaming costs” and deeper signal penetration throughout the operator’s expanding national footprint over the course of the next two years. Naturally, LTE speeds on this new network will be significantly improved over the currently in-use WiMAX, and a planned implementation of WiFi offloading should help to cut congestion by 20 percent. By the end of next year, Sprint aims to have a combined WiMAX/LTE population coverage of 176 million — with 123 million covered by LTE and 76 million overlapping both. When the network build-out is nearly complete in 2013, the company should have over 250 million blanketed in LTE, far outstripping the stagnant 120 million served by WiMAX.

Sprint converts its network to LTE, plans ‘aggressive rollout’ to be completed by 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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