You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Fitbit promised wireless syncing and, as of today, it’s finally delivered. An Android-only app update, currently live in Google Play, will now allow Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II users to transfer data wirelessly from their Zip or One Activity Trackers to the Fitbit application. The new feature, which works over Bluetooth 4.0, was previously announced at this past CES alongside news of the Flex band, and initially targeted for an end-of-January release. But that’s not all this update heralds — it also packs the ability to manage silent alarms, adds push notifications, a distance tile and additional tap-to-pair NFC functionality for use with the Flex. Unfortunately, you’ll still have to wait a bit for that lifestyle band to launch, as Fitbit’s only committed to a vague spring launch. For now, though, a small segment of existing users can enjoy this enhanced feature set.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Wireless, Software, Mobile
Via: The Verge
Source: Google Play
If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought the arrival of Cricket’s first waterproof smartphone and Three introduced an updated Galaxy S III known as the Ultrafast. Not to stop there, we’ll take a trip to India to highlight the latest value-oriented smartphone. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of February 4th, 2013.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Hankering for some fresh T-Mobile devices with LTE connectivity? According to a leaked roadmap courtesy of Mr. Blurrycam and TmoNews, Magenta will satisfy that craving on March 27th with the BlackBerry Z10, Samsung Galaxy Exhibit (in both pre-paid and monthly plan varieties) and the Sonic 2.0 LTE mobile hotspot. An LTE flavor of the Galaxy S III is also penciled in for March 27th, but the roadmap notes it could be available starting April 3rd instead. February’s only just begun, but T-Mobile seems to have its springtime planned out pretty well ahead of time.
Source: TmoNews
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile
Nothing super-shocking in this latest report from NPD — not after seeing fairly similar numbers from Strategy Analytics not all that long ago, that is. According to the research group, Apple’s leading the pack at 39-percent of US smartphone sales in the final quarter of last year — that number’s down from 41-percent this time last year. Bigger changes are afoot over at Samsung, however. The handset maker jumped from 21- to 30-percent from the same time last year, thanks in no small part to demand for the Galaxy S III. Go figure, NPD’s top five list is dominated entirely by iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S iterations — in fact, combined, the two manufacturers make up some 70-percent of sales. Motorola is in at a distant third, with seven-percent of sales, followed by HTC and LG, each at six-percent.
It’s no secret that T-Mobile is on the cusp of lighting up its first LTE network in Las Vegas, but with Kansas City soon to follow — and ambitions of extending LTE coverage to 100 million Americans by mid-year — it’s time to start factoring this consideration into your next smartphone purchase. While the carrier’s HSPA+ 42 network is certainly speedy, there’s no point in saddling yourself with a device that’s rooted in the past. Want to make sure you’re ready for what comes next? Read on for everything you need to know.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, T-Mobile
Despite all the nightly builds of CyanogenMod 10.1, there hasn’t been much of anything definitive to hang our hats on. There’s at last some sense of reliability now that Milestone 1 versions have hit the servers. Most Nexus devices, as well as swaths of Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab 2 ranges, can get the unofficial Android 4.2 build for themselves. The M1 code is deemed “mostly stable” and good enough for daily use, although that’s relative — it’s not yet to the level of a fully stable build, let alone factory firmware. If you only needed fewer risks than before, though, the downloads and details await at the source links.
[Thanks, Rashid]
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Google
Via: DonAndroid
Source: CyanogenMod (1), (2)
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile
Owners of the Samsung Galaxy S III on AT&T have had the opportunity to download and install Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) since early December, but the rollout was kept rather quiet and the ROM was limited to ambitious souls willing to install and use Kies — Samsung’s proprietary desktop software — to get it. Finally, AT&T has told us that an OTA (over-the-air) update will be available beginning today to anyone who is still using Ice Cream Sandwich, though it’ll require a WiFi connection. Still, this is a much better situation for the vast majority of GS3 users who may not have even realized that an update was even offered to them in the first place.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Samsung, AT&T
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