Hasta La Gadget!

How’s about a little smartphone love on Valentine’s Day? Samsung’s press conference just got underway in Barcelona, and one of Mobile World Congress‘ first smartphones to debut this year is a real doozy. The Wave (S8500) that we’ve heard so much about lately is finally official, and it’s the first handset to ship with Bluetooth 3.0. It’s also packing 802.11n WiFi, TouchWiz 3.0 and the company’s own Bada mobile platform. You’ll also get a 3.3-inch “Super AMOLED” (saywha?) display, and while the 800 x 480 resolution is just dandy, the lack of multitouch is a real buzz kill. Digging into the internals, you’ll find a 1GHz processor, 5 megapixel camera, aGPS, accelerometer, 2GB or 8GB of internal storage space, a microSD expansion slot, multi-codec support for DivX, XviD, MP3 and WMV, and support for virtual 5.1 surround sound and 720p recording / decoding. The company’s also touting its mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) technology, which is already used in its LCD and LED TV lineups; in other words, this phone is probably one of the better ones for multimedia viewing (so long as you don’t venture under direct sunlight, of course). It’ll be available worldwide starting in April, but unfortunately pricing remains a mystery. Full specifications and press release are after the break.

Update: Check out our hands-on with the device! The at show prototypes do respond to multi-touch pinch and zoom… with an error. But at least the detect it.

Continue reading Samsung Wave: 3.3-inch Super AMOLED, Bluetooth 3.0, and new Bada OS (updated)

Samsung Wave: 3.3-inch Super AMOLED, Bluetooth 3.0, and new Bada OS (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Boeing 747 destroys ballistic missile with laser (update: photos!)

Boeing 747 destroys ballistic missile with laser (update: photos!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When it rains, it pours, huh, Google? Not even a week after announcing the big multitouch update for its own Nexus One, Google has turned loose a new version of Google Maps that enables pinch-to-zoom support on the Droid. Of course, it was no secret that Android 2.0 had the framework in place to support this kind of stuff — Moto enabled it all by its lonesome on the Euro-spec Milestone — but it looks like this could be the watershed moment where multitouch finally becomes a must-have feature on Android devices across the board, as Moto CEO Sanjay Jha recently suggested would happen. The new version 3.4’s available as a software update in the Market right now, so grab it if you’ve got your Droid handy.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Droid gets official multitouch support — in Google Maps, anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After all the hubbub and controversy caused by the release of SingPlayer for iPhone back in May, we knew it would take a serious change of heart for AT&T to reverse course on the issue of 3G streaming. The app’s super-conspicuous lack of 3G was one of the clearest statements around that the iPhone represented a level of data consumption that AT&T was fairly unprepared for, and that certain uses like VoIP over 3G and live video streams were just not going to fly. Well, we’ve just now gotten over that VoIP hump, and now AT&T has given in to SlingPlayer demand at last. AT&T says it has been testing an “optimized” version of the app on its 3G network since December, and Sling says the dynamic bandwidth adjustment should keep the app from bringing the network to grinding halt — in not so many words. The 3G-friendly version will be a free upgrade to the $30 application, and should be available as soon as the revised software makes its way through the App Store approval process.

AT&T letting SlingPlayer stream over 3G on the iPhone at long last originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPhone isn’t the only handset getting bumped today — Google’s just outed a very, very significant update to the Nexus One that includes Google Goggles on board and a re-upped version of Google Maps that includes suggestions and a dedicated night mode. Much more significantly, though, they’ve capitulated and enabled multitouch in Browser, Gallery, and Maps — great news and a big win for the Android community at large. Finally, there are some 3G improvements in there, but you might have to wait a bit — Google expects to have it rolled out to pretty much everyone toward the end of the week. Seriously though, now that we’ve gotten that whole multitouch spat cleared up, it’s time for Engadget to rally around something else: ridding the world of tiny ninjas, perhaps? Follow the break for a video of the new firmware — in all its multi-fingered glory — in action!

Update: ReadWriteWeb’s gotten an official statement from Google on the question on everyone’s mind: why now? The company says that Android 2.1 “powers a new class of devices” with more horsepower and bigger displays, and “based on these new capabilities and numerous requests from Android users, we decided to provide pinch-to-zoom capabilities with this new over-the-air software update for Nexus One devices.” This sounds like a total cop-out to us — HTC got multitouch working just fine on the Hero way back on 1.5 — so we still think they just got uncomfortable with the noise surrounding the groundswell of demand for it. Of course, that’s fine by us — power to the people, right?

Continue reading Nexus One gets a software update, enables multitouch (updated with video!)

Nexus One gets a software update, enables multitouch (updated with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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