It would appear that the European commission has decided that it’s not good for the greater cross-section of the public for roaming charges to exist – so says a leaked draft of legislation shown off this week. This information comes from the Guardian where they say they’ve got their hands on this proposed bit of […]
“If you’re an ’80s guy like me, then you know it’s important to be a shark. That means getting up, choking down a double espresso and listening to Huey Lewis. Then it’s time to hit the trading floor and make a cool hundred mil or something before dinner. Lunch? Lunch is for wimps. Talking about wimps, those hipsters who use Native Union’s Pop retro smartphone handset are scum. Me? I’m all about the Binatone Brick. Cram in a SIM card and you can make calls on this thing AND play Snake (I mean, we are living in the future) even while riding the elevator. But pair it over Bluetooth to your smartphone, and you’ll impress everyone when you’re walking and talking. It’ll launch soon for you mere mortals, priced at £50 in the UK with a 1,000mAh battery, but for a big-shot like me who’s always making deals, I’m holding out for the 2,000mAh version that’ll come later for £80. Oh, and one more thing — in the time it took you to read this, I just bought San Marino.”
-G. Gekko
Mr. Gekko’s views are entirely his own and do not reflect those of Engadget or AOL.
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Dana Wollman learned during this report that greed, for want of a better word, is good.
Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile
Source: Binatone
If all of the possible combos afforded by MotoMaker just aren’t enough to properly outfit that Moto X handset, MAKEwithMOTO has a tool that’s ready to lend a hand. During the course of some recent make-a-thons, the crew has wrangled software and 3D printing tech to further customize those shiny new phones. MAKEwithX allows those that have splurged for that Android smartphone to design and 3D print unique accessories and cases with the help of generators like Radiolaria — furthering the user-designed motives behind the entire Moto X line. These add-ons include NFC-enabled topographic dog tags and tessellation bracelets as well as backplates and clear cases that keep that custom color visible. Output colors are said to match up with MotoMaker’s accent hues. Code for many of these generators are open source and built on the Cubify platform from 3D Systems. Tagging tweets with #makewithx if you’re in the northeast US (mostly between Boston and NYC) will put you in the running for a chance to construct your own creations with the MAKEwithMOTO crew. For a bit more info about the whole project, venture on to the coverage link that follows.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source: MAKEwithX Hangout
Pricing on Nokia’s Lumia 1020 just dropped to $200 at AT&T and Microsoft stores. The smartphone with the muscular camera
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I think smartwatches are a really neat idea. It’s been made clear to me—on Twitter, in the office, on the internet at large—that a lot of people disagree. With a burning passion
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Nokia has been rumoured to be preparing a Windows Phone-powered phablet for many months, to expand the upper echelons of its smartphone portfolio and battle Samsung’s Galaxy Note line (the latest of which, the Note 3, was unboxed only this week). Images purporting to depict a palm-stretching handset carrying Nokia’s branding have also cropped up online before now, but today prolific leaker @evleaks has posted a press image in Nokia’s typical style.
The image shows what’s evidently a larger than usual Windows Phone, with enough screen real estate to display 11 x 6 rows of icons (vs the 7 x 4 icons that the 4.5 inch Lumia 925 accommodates). The other notable feature is the gently protruding rear camera which looks to be the same as the 925′s PureView-branded 8.7MP lens — so not, in other words, the 41MP ‘true PureView’ Lumia 1020.
Nokia hasn’t officially confirmed its phablet launch plans, but the pattern of an increasing flow of leaks is consistent with other leaky Lumia launch trajectories (such as the Lumia 1020). It’s certainly no secret that Nokia has been weighing up getting into the phablet space on Windows Phone — and doing so for a long time. Back in February 2012 the company told TechCrunch that it was “looking closely [at the mid-size tablet market] and looking to see whether it will catch on”.
In the event, Samsung has continued building momentum in the category, while smartphone screens generally have inflated in size to try to keep up with the trend for bigger phones. Meanwhile Nokia has faced an uphill battle trying to sell its smartphones in a market dominated by Android and iOS. Indeed, it’s been such a struggle for the company that, at the start of this week, it confirmed it would be throwing in the towel by selling its Devices & Services unit to Microsoft for $7.2 billion and licensing its brand name for use by Redmond on mobiles and smartphones.
That transaction is not due to close til the first quarter of 2014, though, so Nokia has a few more months of pushing phones ahead of it. The Windows Phone phablet is named in @evleaks’ tweet as the Nokia Lumia 1520 and includes this year’s date — indicating a 2013 launch, which suggests Nokia will be launching the device, rather than letting Microsoft do the honours.
Getting into the phablet making-game — even at this late stage — is one way for Nokia to try to make its devices stand out against the iPhone, which has remained sub-phablet sized, despite Apple increasing the screen size of its current flagship iPhone 5 to 4 inches (up from 3.5 inches). But it’s not going to help Lumia stand out against Android, as many Android OEMs have been ploughing the big phone furrow for some time. As well as the Galaxy Note line (and Samsung’s other phablet brand, Mega), a Nokia phablet would compete with phablets from the likes of Sony, LG and Huawei.
Add to that, Apple continues to be rumoured to be testing bigger screen iPhones – albeit, testing different form factors is simply due diligence in such a competitive market as smartphones. It remains to be seen whether a phablet-sized iPhone will end up going into production — a Reuters report has previously suggested Apple is considering a 2014 timeframe for that. Meanwhile Cupertino of course has its iPad mini and full fat iPad to cover off the larger form factor tablet space in its portfolio (Nokia is rumoured to be lining up a Windows RT tablet too — doubtless on its soon-to-be-phone-owner Microsoft’s instructions).
Returning to the Lumia phablet, at the end of the day, a larger screen is not what Windows Phone needs to lure consumers away from Android and iOS. It needs more developers to make better apps — but with Android dominating market share and iOS still leading on app monetisation there’s precious little reason for developers to prioritise Microsoft’s OS.
And, from the consumer perspective, Windows Phone remains a solution looking for a problem. Android and iOS continue to be successful because of their apps focus and app-centric UIs. Just offering something different is not in itself enough of a reason for choice-spoilt consumers to care at this point — as the failure of Facebook’s Android launcher/app replacer, Home, also underlines.
Though Maxthon launched its Android browser three years ago, it might not be the go-to app most users have when they get their brand new smartphone. That might change soon however, thanks to a recently announced partnership between the software company and RollTech, the value-added services arm of MediaTek, one of the world’s largest mobile chipset suppliers. As a result of the collaboration, the Maxthon mobile browser will be pre-installed in more than 100 million MediaTek-based smartphones in 2014. Though we don’t know yet just which devices will have the software on board, a partially released list does include manufacturers like LG, ZTE and Lenovo. It appears that the phones will likely be targeted at emerging markets, with a focus on those in Brazil, Russia, China, India and Indonesia. Combine that with features like cloud syncing and LAN file transfer, and Maxthon might just gain marketshare over that other popular Android browser.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Over the course of the last week, we sent a crew of Engadget editors across the pond to liveblog press conferences and scour the show floor for hottest gadgets that IFA 2013 had to offer. In a brand-new issue of our slate magazine, we serve up the top devices and the best of the rest from Germany’s annual tech show. We also have a look at Microsoft’s recent acquisition, take a bite out of Android 4.4 and oogle quite possibly the most handsome activity tracker around. Settle in folks, because all of that and so much more lies inside the e-pages of another jam-packed issue that’s ready for broswing.
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Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile
Source: iTunes, Google Play, Windows Store
Want a clear look at Nokia’s Lumia 1520 (aka Bandit)? You may just have it. After posting a screen capture earlier in the week, @evleaks has released what’s reportedly a press image of the super-sized, 1080p Windows Phone. The render largely matches what we’ve seen before, including the additional Live Tiles on the home screen, but the back is new. It suggests that there will be a Lumia 925-style camera hump — sorry, no 41-megapixel sensor here — along with aesthetics borrowed from other members of the Lumia family. There’s no guarantee that this image is real, but we won’t be surprised if it accurately represents Nokia’s last flagship before Microsoft takes the reins.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
Source: @evleaks (Twitter)
Rumors about Google’s next Nexus device are heating up in the wake of a perceived leak via the company’s own promotional video for Android KitKat earlier this week. Today, a filing from the FCC (via Engadget) that details a new, unreleased LG device making its way to the U.S. offers up what could be some more granular information on Google’s next Android reference smartphone.
The Nexus 5 could be the “D820″ from the filing, a chance made more likely by the fact that the images shared with the U.S. wireless standards regulator line up closely with the sneak peek revealed in Google’s video, and by the knowledge that it contains wireless charging based on the Qi standard, a feature of its forerunner the LG Nexus 4. And per the filing, this supposed Nexus 5 would offer 7-band LTE, 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking, a 5-inch display, and come with Android 4.4 preloaded (which is named “Key Lime Pie” in the filing’s firmware name string, a sign the KitKat arrangement was one made late by Google).
Measurements of the device place it at 131.9mm tall and 68.2mm wide per the document, which is slightly thinner and shorter than the Nexus 4 despite the 0.26-inch larger diagonal display, so expect top and bottom bezel to be shaved slightly with the Nexus 5 if these reports do indeed describe that smartphone. The new Nexus phone as seen in the commercial can be seen in the screenshot below from 9to5Google, and a fan-made render by Philippine site Yugatech, pictured above, provides a better idea of what that device might look like up close.
Google started selling the Nexus 4 way back in November 2012, after announcing it at the end of October, so it’s nearly due for a refresh. At the time, the lack of LTE was a noteworthy admission, so the fact that its successor could get fairly broad LTE band support is big news, and the Snapdragon 800 is definitely no slouch in the processor department. We’ll likely have to wait a while yet to see what shape the next Nexus takes, but if this is it, and if Google can keep unlocked pricing in the same ballpark it managed for the Nexus 4, this could be a very good option for Android smartphone shoppers.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
