Hasta La Gadget!

You know what just doesn’t understand true feelings enough? Our phones, that’s what. But it doesn’t always have to be like that if you ask Kyocera. Sure, the company had its dual-screened Echo on display at CTIA, but it also had an interesting exhibit of concept phones, including the ones pictured above, which can change shape based on human emotion. The premise is that since the majority of our communications comes through body language, these handsets would physically morph to express the mental state of your caller. Don’t ask us why Kyocera’s future just doesn’t have better mobile video chatting solutions for that sort of thing, but as you could probably creatively imagine, the black slab on the left would represent a good mood while the one on the far right is clearly all worked up about something. Not zany enough for you? How about some phones that morph in your hand to adapt to how you’re holding the device? Okay, that one actually seems pretty awesome, as does the one that looks like a spider web, but we’ll let you wrap your heads around the rest of the concepts the company had on display by hitting the gallery below.

Kyocera pictures a world of deeply understanding phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if the world needed one more association to keep up with, CTIA Wireless 2011 is delivering just that. The Femto Forum, which has done an excellent job remaining undercover of late, has just published an “industry-wide agreed set of API specifications” that will enable “advanced mobile applications based on femtocell technology.” Truth be told, the first apps based on the specifications have already been built, and their currently available to the femtocell community. The specifications are for network-based APIs, which will purportedly “allow operators to drive the development of femtocell-powered open access, enterprise and consumer applications,” and it’ll also provide awareness information in order to allow developers the opportunity to incorporate enhanced presence, context and location-sensitive features into new and existing apps. Granted, we’d care a lot more about those location-based apps if we could drag our 3G MicroCell to Panama to use it to make free calls whilst on vacation, but hey — maybe that’s the next logical step. Not that we’re much for passing along hints or anything.

Femto Forum publishes API specification for femtocell apps, places focus on ‘awareness information’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First it was Cricket Wireless, and now another piece of LightSquared’s puzzle has fallen into place — it’s just announced at CTIA that Best Buy has signed on as a wholesale customer for the yet-to-be-launched LTE network. Details on the agreement are still pretty light, as you might expect, but Best Buy will apparently use the network to bolster its Best Buy Connect wireless service, which currently relies on Sprint and Clearwire’s 3G and 4G networks. Exactly when that will happen isn’t clear, unfortunately, but LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja says the first trials are expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.

Best Buy signs up for LightSquared’s wholesale LTE service originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, we admit, we were taken in by the video on Snapkey’s site showing the keyboard in action before its inner workings were revealed at CTIA 2011. The system is actually quite simple: there are four boxes to tap for letters — plus backspace and space — and each represents a type of letter. Top left includes letters with one point that touches down like “i,” bottom left includes closed letters such as “d,” top right includes letters with two points on the bottom, and bottom right curved and letters with a flat base. Sounds simple? it is, or kinda. Of course there’s a learning curve, in essence you have to rethink the way you type; as we immediately found we had to pay more attention to the letters in words, or at least the shape of them. The system we were shown was running on a jailbroken iPad, but we were told it could be moved to just about any platform. Is it as revolutionary as the buzz suggests? We’re not entirely sure but hope to find out soon with a trial in our labs. Follow on for a video of our grade school assistant Jonathan giving us a tour.

Continue reading Snapkeys keyless keyboard hands-on

Snapkeys keyless keyboard hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Regional carrier Cricket surprised at CTIA today by showing off a couple new units that aren’t out yet — but they’re in the pipeline for the second quarter, which the company points out is coming “very soon.” First up is the Huawei Ascend 2, which — you guessed it — would be the follow-on to the original Ascend that the company launched last year. The display’s still HVGA; WVGA obviously would’ve been nice, but Cricket is promising to launch it at the same sub-$150 price point as the first model and it’s got a 5 megapixel camera around back (up from 3.2 before).

Next up, the Indulge is pretty much the same midrange QWERTY Android slider that already launched on MetroPCS, albeit with one big difference: this one has no LTE compatibility (Cricket has no live LTE network, after all). As with the Ascend 2, we would’ve preferred a WVGA display — this one’s just HVGA — and the four physical buttons up front seem a bit out of style, but Cricket’s still in a position where any new Android hardware is a very good thing. Look for it to launch for under $350 — off contract, of course.

Cricket teases CDMA-only Samsung Indulge, Huawei Ascend 2 at CTIA (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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