Hasta La Gadget!

We recently caught first sight of the ZTE Engage at a press event in New York, but while Cricket was more than happy to let us play with its latest smartphone, the carrier stopped short of providing us with its pricing or arrival date. All of that changed this afternoon, as we now know that the ZTE Engage will become available on October 2nd with a no-contract price of $250. As a quick refresher, the handset will feature a near-stock Android 4.0 environment and a Snapdragon S2 SoC with a CPU that’s clocked at 1.4GHz. Other relevant specs include a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) TFT-LCD display, an 8-megapixel rear camera with a VGA front-facing counterpart and a 1,900mAh battery. For complete details, you’ll find the full PR right after the break.

Continue reading ZTE Engage cleared to land at Cricket on October 2nd for $250

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

ZTE Engage cleared to land at Cricket on October 2nd for $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kingston’s unveiled two new SDXC cards for anyone looking to upgrade the capacity (or performance speed) of their current removable storage of choice without denting the bank balance too much. The SDXC Class 10 cards arrive in 64GB and 128GB sizes, and Kingston reckons they’d go great with your new digital camera — as long as it’s compatible with the SDXC format, naturally. Both are available to buy now, direct from the storage manufacturer, alongside smaller capacities, with the 128GB card priced at $182 and the 64GB setting you back $80. The full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Kingston Digital SDXC cards arrive with lower price, larger capacities

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Kingston Digital SDXC cards arrive with lower price, larger capacities originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you own a BlackBerry, it might not have been immediately apparent that Facebook Messenger has been an option since October; unlike with Android or iOS, you had to track down the download on Facebook’s website. We don’t know why it’s been kept out of a more accessible channel, but that ends today with Facebook’s chat-focused app arriving on BlackBerry App World like most any other title. There don’t appear to be any new tricks included with the expanded availability, although we’d say that the wider exposure is enough of a highlight for an audience that just needs to get by until BlackBerry 10. Those who don’t use BBM for all their instant messaging can find what they need at the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Facebook Messenger for BlackBerry reaches App World, sates compulsive chatters originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We usually associate smartphones in news reporting with citizen journalism, not full-time journalists. However, a confluence of events has just led to the BBC’s Nick Garnett becoming a pioneer for mobile broadcasting on the professional level. When a shortage of satellite trucks prevented Garnett from getting the usual video feed for the BBC News Channel, he successfully arranged the British network’s first live video interview piped through a smartphone. The key, Garnett says, was Dejero’s Live+ iPhone app: while live streaming apps are already commonplace, Dejero’s let him merge the 3G and WiFi connections together, getting enough bandwidth to make a TV-worthy broadcast in a country where LTE is still very new. Combined with some very ad hoc staging and help from the BBC’s technical teams, the coordination resulted in a surprisingly smooth interview about flooding in northeastern England with relatively few hints of the extra-tiny recording equipment involved. It’s unlikely that broadcast crews will reach to their pockets for live coverage solutions before anything else, but the BBC is actively testing Dejero and other apps that could make smartphones as much a part of the field reporting arsenal as a camcorder and an eye for a good story. As we can’t embed the clip, check the source link to see it for yourself.

Update: We’ve now managed to embed the clip after the break.

Continue reading BBC News Channel conducts live video interview over smartphone, goes where satellites can’t (update with video)

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BBC News Channel conducts live video interview over smartphone, goes where satellites can’t (update with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Few of us who live outside of Asia or Eastern Europe know the potential convenience of a dual SIM phone. Own one and you can globetrot, or else keep separate home and work lines without the bulk of an extra device in the pocket. Sony is gambling that enough Americans have that multi-line desire by selling the Xperia tipo dual and its regular, single-SIM counterpart in the US as unlocked GSM models. Neither of the Android 4.0 phones is what we’d call a powerhouse with the same 3.5-inch screen, 3.2-megapixel camera and 800MHz Snapdragon inside, but both can latch on to HSPA 3G on AT&T, refarmed T-Mobile coverage and 2100MHz carriers abroad, even if the single-SIM tipo curiously has 900MHz 3G support that the tipo dual lacks. It’s undoubtedly price that Sony is counting on more than anything: at respective contract-free prices of $180 and $190 for the tipo and tipo dual, the pair of Xperias may be sold most often as travel-only phones for the jet set.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Sony Xperia tipo and tipo dual reach the US in unlocked form, give Americans a taste of dual SIMs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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