Hasta La Gadget!

Remember the second-gen Apple Peel 520 we saw back in January? Yep, Yosion has now confirmed that this familiar-looking adapter will be available in China on March 28th, which happens to be this coming Monday. Like its predecessor, this new sleeve lets you send texts and make regular phone calls on a jailbroken iPod touch (including the latest FaceTime-loving model), but now Yosion’s also thrown in GPRS data connectivity along with some extra battery juice, all for the price of just ¥520 ($79) for pre-orderers and possibly around ¥598 ($90) when it’s out. Frankly, this isn’t a bad value proposition for those already clinging onto an iPod touch — just make sure El Jobs doesn’t catch you holding this Peel.

Yosion’s second-gen Apple Peel 520 arriving on March 28th, ready to cellularize your iPod touch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We noted Firefox 3’s spectacular eight million downloads in a day when discussing the recent launch of IE9, and that mark shall live on as a record for another day. Firefox 4 looks to have a had a thoroughly successful debut, going past the five million milestone within the first 24 hours of its release, but it hasn’t quite been able to overshadow its predecessor. And before you go comparing its numbers to the latest Internet Explorer, do be cognizant that FF4 released on a wider set of platforms, rendering direct stat comparisons a little dicey. That’s not stopping StatCounter, however, who notes that the latest Firefox already has a 1.95 percent share of the browser market, almost exactly double what IE9 can claim so far. Better get working on that XP compatibility, eh Microsoft?

Update: Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs has the final stats for the first 24 hours and it’s actually even higher than we thought: 7.1 million downloads around the globe. That’s in addition to three million users already running the release candidate for Firefox 4, which turned into the final release. Good work!

Continue reading Firefox 4 clocks up 7.1 million downloads within first 24 hours, fails to beat Firefox 3 record (updated)

Firefox 4 clocks up 7.1 million downloads within first 24 hours, fails to beat Firefox 3 record (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember when Steve Jobs had a dig at Apple’s mobile competition and proclaimed that “no one” would buy their Hummer-like 4-inch-plus smartphones? Well, going by the latest NPD data, that group of “no ones” among US smartphone consumers is now a meaty 24 percent. Separating handsets into screen categories of 3.4 inches and below, 3.5 to 3.9 inches, and those above 4 inches, the stat mavens discovered that the midrange is holding steady, but smaller-screened devices are starting to lose out to their jumbo-sized brethren. No prizes for guessing that Android-powered devices were behind that big sales increase, with the HTC EVO 4G and Motorola Droid X leading the way, followed by Samsung’s multivariate Galaxy S range. Now, care to tell us more about our mobile future, Steve?

[Thanks, Skylar]

Disclaimer: NPD’s Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.

Continue reading ‘Hummer’ handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong

‘Hummer’ handsets now account for 24 percent of US smartphone sales, prove Steve Jobs wrong originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, France. Land of beautiful beaches, a respectable railway system, and more unexplained delays and work stoppages than anywhere else in the developed world. Oh, and a primary airport that forces you to use “tickets” to buy food from certain vendors and refuses to complete a CDG -> JFK flight on schedule. Gripes aside, it seems that at least one thing is getting done today over in The country of the Human Rights, with France’s data protection regulator confirming a record €100,000 fine sent over to Google in relation to improper data collection during its Street View sweeps. Granted, El Le Goog has run into privacy issues before on this very matter, but none quite as ginormous as these. The National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties claims that the company’s infractions include “collecting passwords and email transferred wirelessly,” and its highest ever fined has been levied due to the “economic advantages Google gained from these violations.” We’re told that the company has two months to appeal the penalty, but as of now, it seems as if Google’s frightened to make any comment at all in English. Thank heavens for Translate, right?

France fines Google €100,000 for Street View privacy violations, then mulls striking for no apparent reason originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We doubt the world will ever get to a stage where it’ll completely ditch ye olde paper books, but the US consumer market seems to clearly have its heart set on the electronic kind right now. Net ebook sales in January were this week reported to have accumulated $69.9 million in revenue for their publishers, which amounts to a 116 percent jump from last year’s total for the month. During the same period, adult hardcovers were down 11.3 percent to $49.1 million and paperbacks faced a similar reduction in demand and fell to $83.6 million, a precipitous drop of 19.7 percent year-on-year. Educational and children’s books weren’t spared from this cull of the physical tome, either — skip past the break to see the full statistical breakdown.

Continue reading Ebook sales in the US double year-on-year, paper books suffer double-digit losses

Ebook sales in the US double year-on-year, paper books suffer double-digit losses originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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