White HTC EVO 4G lands early in Best Buy stores (update: unboxing!)

Good news, EVO 4G lovers! The striking white version of Sprint’s most gargantuan (by diagonal screen size, anyway) smartphone has started to splash down into Best Buy stores across the nation a full five days early. If you’ll recall, the white EVO 4G wasn’t supposed to land in the hands of those who pre-ordered until July 11th, but we’ve received two independent confirmations that they are indeed arriving early in select locales. Stay close to your current phone — you may be getting a pick-up call in the not-too-distant future.

Update: A tipster has just sent in a gallery’s worth of unboxing shots — looks like these are indeed being handed out early! Huzzah!

[Thanks, Anonymous and Justin]

White HTC EVO 4G lands early in Best Buy stores (update: unboxing!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Latest EVO 4G root uses Flash Lite exploit to do its deed

The cat-and-mouse struggle between Android users, carriers, and manufacturers to gain, patch, and re-gain root is one that shows no signs of slowing down, but the EVO 4G’s latest recommended root method is particularly creative. Made necessary after the most recent over-the-air firmware update patched the old way of doing it, you’ve now got to visit a page on Adobe’s site for tweaking local Flash settings, at which point a script works some magic and apparently takes advantage of a vulnerability in the EVO’s Flash Lite build. Of course, that’s just one of twelve harrowing steps in the whole process — but regardless, it’s not often we’re thanking our lucky stars for a security issue.

Latest EVO 4G root uses Flash Lite exploit to do its deed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Daring Fireball  |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

Motorola Droid Rules Android

Motorola’s Droid is the most popular phone among Android users, followed by HTC Hero, while Google’s Nexus One ranks tenth on the list, according to a monthly metrics report from mobile advertising firm AdMob. AdMob has ranked the top ten Android smartphones by market share.

The data is based on 12.7 million Android phones in the AdMob network in May. It’s also why the HTC Evo, released in the first week of June, is missing from the mix.

About 21 percent Android users have the Droid, while 16 percent users own the HTC Hero. Just 2 percent of Android phone users have Google’s Nexus One phone, says AdMob.

Motorola launched the Droid in November 2009 and made it available exclusively on Verizon Wireless. And despite the gaggle of Android phones launched every month, the Droid has been holding strong.

The only Android phone that could challenge the Droid’s position is the HTC Evo, which is available exclusively on Sprint. It will be interesting to see if the Evo can beat the Droid, though Sprint has a smaller marketing budget and fewer subscribers than Verizon.

Here’s a chart that shows the popularity of different Android smarpthones.

About 67 percent of Android users are in North America while China is the second largest market for Android with 13 percent of Android users coming from the country, says AdMob.

Combined HTC and Motorola have 83 percent share among Android devices. Since the Android OS debuted in 2008, the two companies have been on a roll, churning out phones faster than consumers can keep up with.

Last week, Motorola introduced its eleventh Android phone, the Droid X. It was also a big month for HTC, whose Evo phone is the first and only 4G device available currently.

See Also:

Data: AdMob


Nokia (N9 / N8-01?) prototype sized up against iPhone 4 and EVO 4G on video

Setting aside the naming confusion, this Nokia prototype procured by Negri Electronics just keeps attracting our attention. Though we saw plenty of it in an earlier video, this latest rendezvous between Finnish hardware and camera lens includes a few familiar suspects to offer us the best size comparison we’ve had so far. Squaring up against a 3.5-inch iPhone 4, the QWERTY slider from Nokia seems barely any larger from the front though quite a bit thicker from the side — an expansion justified by its inclusion of a physical keyboard. It does a lot better when compared to the EVO 4G and the departing iPhone 3GS, looking only marginally chunkier than those keyboard-less devices. Don’t take our word for it though — skip past the break and see for yourself.

P.S. — The UI on this device looks to us a lot more like Symbian^3 than the S60 the narrator believes it’s running, leading us to think that this is most likely a keyboard-equipped variant of the N8.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Nokia (N9 / N8-01?) prototype sized up against iPhone 4 and EVO 4G on video

Nokia (N9 / N8-01?) prototype sized up against iPhone 4 and EVO 4G on video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 06:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceTechnoBuffalo  | Email this | Comments

Latest EVO 4G update is back online, presumably won’t brick your phone this time

That didn’t take too long, did it? That pulled EVO 4G update promising a handful of fixes for WiFi, Exchange, and battery life (no Froyo yet, sorry) is back online according to our contacts at Sprint — and indeed, we’re getting prompted on our own unit, so that’s that. Go forth, readers; get your update on, now with less brick than ever before.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: To be clear, you don’t need to apply this update if you already have done so successfully — the only change that we’re aware of here is that attempting to apply the update multiple times won’t kill the phone.

Latest EVO 4G update is back online, presumably won’t brick your phone this time originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Video Shows iPhone 4 FaceTime Call Over 3G

There appears to be a very good reason why the iPhone 4’s new FaceTime video-calling app only work on Wi-Fi: On a cellular network, it sucks.

Mike Prospero of Laptop Magazine used the HTC EVO to turn a 3G (not 4G) connection into a Wi-Fi hotspot, tricking the iPhone into making a FaceTime call over the cellular network. The second iPhone was on regular Wi-Fi. The result, as you’ll see if you check the non-embeddable video that accompanies the post, is painful. If you have ever had a bad, stuttering Skype call you’ll know what to expect: audio breaks up, and calling the choppy images “video” is charitable to say the least.

“Audio came through only in patches, and video was like a slideshow at best,” says Prospero. Poor video performance over 3G isn’t limited to FaceTime, either. Tests of Qik and Fring show similar problems. Clearly, cellular networks aren’t up to the task just yet.

So what of FaceTime’s future? I have a feeling that the iPod Touch will be getting an iPhone 4-style makeover at the usual September iPod event this year, and will incorporate FaceTime. Thanks to the Wi-Fi limitations, this feature will be at parity with the iPhone. And then, surely, it will come to the iPad, too.

You know how everyone is on Skype and FaceBook because everybody else is on Skype and FaceBook? The same thing will happen for iOS devices as soon as people get a little bit of FaceTime. When the cellular networks finally catch up, they’ll realize that they have become nothing but dumb pipes for shifting data.

We Use iPhone 4’s FaceTime over 3G (Sorta) [Laptop Mag]

See Also:

Screen capture from Laptop Mag’s Video


Samsung Launches 4G Phone on Sprint

The HTC Evo has competition. Samsung has introduced its first 4G handset, called the Samsung Epic, on Sprint’s network. The Epic will be the second 4G smartphone on Sprint, following the Evo 4G’s debut earlier this month.

The Epic 4G will have a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard. Inside, the device packs a 1-GHz Hummingbird processor from Samsung, and two cameras: a 5-megapixel camera to shoot movies and photos, and a front-facing VGA camera (0.3 megapixels) for video chat. The phone will run Google’s Android 2.1 operating system.

Samsung’s 4G phone is up against some strong rivals. The HTC Evo 4G has become the best-selling device on Sprint’s network. Meanwhile, Apple launched its latest iPhone, the iPhone 4, last week. Though the iPhone 4 runs on AT&T’s overloaded 3G network, the device has some features such as video chat and a luminous, high-resolution display that are drawing in customers. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the first three days of the device’s launch.

The Epic is part of a new family of Android smartphones called Galaxy S from Samsung. The Galaxy S phones feature 4-inch screens, run Android, and integrate social networking feeds from Twitter and Facebook — plus e-mail messages, calendars and contacts — into a single screen.

Sprint did not reveal pricing or availability for the Epic 4G.

When it comes to 4G services, Sprint is ahead of other wireless service providers in the United States.  Sprint’s 4G network is currently available in 36 cities. Sprint claims its 4G service can deliver up to 10 times higher speeds than existing 3G networks. Major areas such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., will get 4G connectivity later this year, says Sprint.

Verizon is testing its 4G ‘LTE’ network this year and expects to start rolling it out next year. AT&T is likely to start trials of its 4G service next year.

Not surprisingly, Sprint is pressing its advantage with 4G handsets.

Samsung’s Epic is largely comparable to the HTC Evo in its hardware, but it lags behind in a few areas. The Evo has an 8-megapixel camera, compared to the Epic’s 5-megapixel. The Evo can provide wireless access for up to eight devices as part of its hot-spot capability, while the Epic an support only up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously.

But Samsung hopes to offer content that will put the Epic ahead. For instance, over the next few months, Epic users will have access to the Samsung Media Hub, a video store with movies and TV available for purchase or rental, says Samsung. A 4G network should help make downloads much faster, says the company.

The phone will also have a service called ‘AllShare’ to wirelessly exchange music, pictures and video with other devices. For business users, the phone supports push e-mail, integrated calendar and Exchange ActiveSync.

Samsung and Sprint say the Epic will be upgraded to the latest flavor of Android, Android 2.2 Froyo.

As for other cellphone service providers, Samsung isn’t neglecting them. In the next few weeks, Samsung plans to offer Fascinate, a 3G phone running Android 2.1 OS on Verizon and Vibrant, and an Android smartphone on T-Mobile’s network.

Photo: Samsung Epic 4G/Samsung

See Also:


Idiot-Proof Guide to Rooting the HTC Evo [Evo]

Why hack your Evo? Free Wi-Fi tethering and plenty of other benefits. OK, but how hard is it? Not too bad with the help of a few apps. This step-by-step, “idiot-proof” guide from Android Forums will hold your hand, gently. More »

Sprint halts EVO 4G update due to reports of it bricking phones

Uh oh. There’s been a tiny little hitch in the latest EVO 4G update, which has resulted in a number of people finding their superphones becoming unusable. Aside from rooted handsets having their predictable woes with new official software, some users have found that applying the update twice bricked their phones, stock OS and all. That’s pretty worrying, particularly when you consider that checking for updates after a successful install gives you the option to apply it all over again. Sprint and HTC have acted quickly to pull the OTA for the moment, and promise to restore it as soon as its lethal streak has been ironed out:

While the vast majority of consumers successfully downloaded and installed the most recent HTC EVO 4G software update, we have received a handful of reports from customers having some issues with the update. In light of this, HTC and Sprint have decided to temporarily halt distribution of this software release until we can investigate further. We expect to be able to resume software updates shortly.

In the mean time, let’s all just sit, wait, and hope the sky doesn’t fall on our heads.

Sprint halts EVO 4G update due to reports of it bricking phones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Central  |  sourceMobileCrunch  | Email this | Comments

HTC EVO 4G gets an OTA software update

We don’t know exactly what’s included, but Sprint’s sending out that rumored over-the-air Android software update to HTC EVO 4G devices this morning. It’s labeled as version 1.47.651.1, and it’s just 21.43MB, so we’re guessing it’s just mostly bug fixes, but word on the street was that it would “enhance” WiFi, so there’s a chance it could enable the EVO’s 802.11n support, and we’re also hoping for some improved battery life. We’ll update you once we see some release notes, but in the meantime let us know how it goes, yeah?

Update: Release notes have been posted, and they’re just as expected — and unfortunately, we still don’t have confirmation on whether “improvements to WiFi performance” means 802.11n. Check the full notes after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC EVO 4G gets an OTA software update

HTC EVO 4G gets an OTA software update originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSprint  | Email this | Comments