Hasta La Gadget!

Mac users, rejoice — well, the BlackBerry users in the lot of you, anyway. RIM’s been infamous over the years for all but ignoring Mac support for its devices, throwing out the occasional bone like Media Sync, but they’re now going big with a full-fledged Desktop Manager supporting Mac OS 10.5.5 and above when it launches… sometime. The big sticking point right now is that RIM isn’t talking about an availability date, all we know is that it’ll happen some time in September — but when that date comes, you’ll have a suite that’s able to sync iTunes, add and remove apps, perform firmware updates, create backups and restore from them, and manage multiple BlackBerrys at the same time. Nokia, maybe you guys want to take note here?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

BlackBerry Desktop Manager coming to Mac in September originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s about time, wouldn’t you agree? After finding that Orange would become Europe’s first carrier to sell LG’s luscious GD910 watch phone, every closet Dick Tracy fan in America began wondering when (and if) LG would make a similar announcement here on US soil. Regrettably, we’re still waiting for the official line from the company, but this will certainly suffice for now. The image you see above is being provided courtesy of a freshly released FCC filing, which means precisely one thing: this here watch phone is destined for America. Of course, we suppose LG could have just made the filing for kicks and giggles, but our optimistic imagination simply won’t let us believe such a tragedy could ever occur. Hang tight, Yanks — your dream device just got a lot closer to clearing customs.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

LG’s GD910 watch phone clears the FCC, makes beeline for American wrists originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm itself had warned that the Pre’s iTunes sync functionality could be broken at a moment’s notice (and at Apple’s whim), but we’re pretty sure no one expected it’d happen this quickly. We’ve been able to confirm that version 8.2.1 of the software prevents the sync from working, meaning that you’ve got to add music the old-fashioned way — the Pre functions as a USB drive, too — until Palm gets around to patching the hack (if they decide to patch it, that is). This could end up being a protracted game of cat-and-mouse, which is entertaining to watch but nightmarish for the consumers down in the trenches actually trying to use this stuff. Funny thing is, Apple’s straight up saying in its release notes that the update “addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices” — in other words, they weren’t being verified before, and now they are, thank goodness. Peaceful sleep is once again within our reach.

Update: Apple’s now gone beyond the “verification of Apple devices” phrase, calling out the Pre by name in a statement issued to BusinessWeek: “It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre. As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players.” In other words, “we told you this was going to happen, and it did.” For its part, Palm appears to have re-issued the same statement it made a while back, saying that Apple’s move is a “direct blow” to its users. Words are one thing, but here’s the real question: is there a quick counterstrike fix planned from Palm’s side?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

iTunes 8.2.1 brings Pre’s music syncing capability to a halt (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unless you have a developer account with Apple, don’t bother plugging your iPhone into iTunes — we promise you’re not going to have access to it — but devs can now get their grubby paws on beta 2 of iPhone OS 3.1. We’ll let you know if we see anything crazy, like usable Gmail, true background applications, or a notification UI that doesn’t make you want to throw the phone against a very hard surface at high velocity.

Update: Looks like Apple has closed the door on hacks that enable tethering in this release — at least for AT&T according to early reports.

Update 2: We’ve just been informed that beta 2 also introduces what appears to be a public API for manipulating live video. Devs are still testing the capabilities but it could open the door for augmented reality applications like Layar to come to the iPhone 3GS.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

iPhone OS 3.1 beta 2 released (update: disables tethering, enables AR?) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can’t believe it’s actually here, but after hearing whispers of a Google OS for what seems like ages now, the company’s now gone official with its plans. According to the official developer blog, it’ll be an open source, lightweight platform that can “power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems,” and will be capable of running on x86 (that includes Intel Atom) and ARM chips. Addressing potential overlap with Android-based netbooks, the official line is that “choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google” — a pretty wild statement to make, but hey, it’s still all Google. A large portion of its fresh out of beta Google Apps suite already supports an offline mode, so we guess the groundwork’s laid out. The company says it’s currently working with a number of OEM manufacturers and that it’ll initially appear on a number of netbooks coming to market sometime in the second half of 2010. Excited? We are.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Google announces Chrome OS, coming to netbooks second half of 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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