Hasta La Gadget!

The terms “Philips” and “phone” aren’t as synonymous as they used to be in the US, but the manufacturer does crank out a smartphone from time to time in China nonetheless. Following the Gingerbread-based W632, Philips is now readying the W732: the smartphone features Ice Cream Sandwich, a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 WVGA LCD IPS panel, 1GHz single-core MediaTek MT6575, 5MP camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA / 5.76Mbps HSUPA and dual-SIM support. Its most intriguing claim, however, is that its 2,400mAh battery, combined with a few other power-saving methods, will best a Motorola RAZR Maxx at battery life when surfing the web (lasting for 10.5 hours, according to the company). It’s still not going to beat the Maxx in overall talk time, but Philips claims its choice of LCD IPS over AMOLED should see significant power savings when looking at the browser, due to the prominence of white screens that drain the battery faster on AMOLED-equipped phones. We’ll be eager to see how that turns out, but it’s destined only for China at the moment. Head to the source link for all the details.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Philips W732 Android 4.0 smartphone coming to China, has 2,400mAh battery for extended web surfing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The gaming public at large has spoken. In less than 12 hours, Yves Behar’s Android-based Ouya gaming console has reached its lofty funding goal of $950,000 on Kickstarter. To refresh your memory, the $99 system (which was only $95 for 1,000 swift early adopters) packs a Tegra 3 CPU, 8GB of storage, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, a USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot — that price also grants you a single controller with a touch sensor. Most notably, the system is aimed at being extremely developer-friendly, having open hardware and software with a push for free-to-play content. There are only about 5,000 units (out of 10,000) (update: that number has been bumped to 20,000, with just under 10k available) left at the $99 price, so feel free to check out our in-depth chat about Ouya with Behar himself here before you head over to Kickstarter. It appears that the traditional business model for gaming consoles just got rocked, and we can’t wait to see the final results.

Update: If you thought that was fast, you’d be right: Kickstarter has confirmed that Ouya achieved the biggest first day ever for one of its hosted projects, and it’s just the eighth project ever to crack the million-dollar mark, joining an esteemed company that includes Double Fine’s upcoming adventure game and the all-time champion, the Pebble smartwatch.

Ouya’s $99 Android-based gaming console meets Kickstarter goal: $950k in under 12 hours (update: it’s a record) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Galaxy Note isn’t the only device on AT&T getting the precious upgrade to Android 4.0 today, as the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is jumping on the bandwagon. Sadly, it’s not an OTA update, which means you’ll need to get into the Kies client on your computer to get your refresh on. If you’ve never done an update this way, head to the source link for plenty of details on how to propel your device to the next level.

[Thanks, Horst]

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket gets updated to ICS originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A handful of details briefly slipped out about the project earlier, but now it’s here: the Ouya, an attempt not just to delve into the cutthroat world of TV game consoles but to try and shift the goal posts. At its heart, the design sounds more like a smartphone than a gaming rig with a quad-core Tegra 3 and 8GB of storage running Android 4.0. The upscale, RF wireless gamepad’s standout is a built-in trackpad for playing mobile games alongside the familiar sticks and buttons — clever, though not entirely new. But with completely open hardware and software, an emphasis on free-to-play gaming and an all-important $99 price, the system is a gamble by a handful of game industry luminaries that at least a subset of players are frustrated with the status quo enough to want a real break. Read on for the full details, including a Kickstarter project as well as added details from our chat with Ouya (and Jambox) designer Yves Behar.

Continue reading Ouya’s Android-based, hackable game console now official: we chat with designer Yves Behar

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Ouya’s Android-based, hackable game console now official: we chat with designer Yves Behar originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How much better will that Samsung Galaxy Note be when you have Ice Cream Sandwich on it? AT&T users are about to find out, as Samsung confirmed to us that the long-awaited upgrade will be knocking on their doors beginning tomorrow (with a few lucky testers getting it later today). As for the new features, the Galaxy Note’s latest refresh won’t offer anything we weren’t already expecting: in addition to the standard suite of ICS features, it’ll also come with the same Premium Suite we saw show up on the international Note a couple months ago. The new Suite offers some huge improvements in S-Memo and S-Note, as the latter is now integrated with Wolphram Alpha. Sadly, the software features we’ve seen highlighted in the Galaxy S III series (S-Beam, S-Voice, Smart Stay and so on) are nowhere to be found, but at least you’ll have plenty of other new items to keep you occupied for a while.

AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note ICS update coming tomorrow, offers Premium Suite originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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