Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s iOS may be undergoing the biggest change since its inception, but that doesn’t mean the spirit of the operating system hasn’t been floating around designer’s heads for hundreds of years. In 1525, before the iPhone was even a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye, German polymath Albrecht Dürer was espousing similar design principles using the same, now-infamous letters: I, O, and S.

Read more…

Oppo smartphones may have a good reach in China, but it’s a name that most people in the Western Hemisphere haven’t heard of. As many other OEMs from the area, the manufacturer is hoping to reverse that trend, and its strategy is to first appeal to the most hardcore of enthusiasts with its latest device, the R819; is it any wonder, by the way, why Oppo would choose today of all days to launch it? This isn’t the product’s first rodeo, actually, because it’s already available as the TD-SCDMA-friendly R819T on China Mobile, but now it’s ready to reach other markets throughout the world. While it doesn’t appear poised to replace the flagship Find 5 (still available at online retailers for roughly $500), the R819 should make for a solid handset in the mid-range tier.

The reason we mentioned that Oppo plans to win the hearts of Android enthusiasts is because the company’s mantra is to let you, the user, do whatever you want to the phone. While the R819 will come with an already existing version of Color ROM out of the box, Oppo promises to have vanilla Android 4.2 available on its site, where all you need to do is download the ROM on your computer, sideload it onto the phone, install in the recovery and reboot the device. A new version of Color ROM should be ready for update in November, and reps tell us that the phone will be upgradeable to Android 4.3 sometime soon.

So what did we think of the R819? Check out our gallery and video below, followed by a few more thoughts. %Gallery-slideshow72864%

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Duck and cover — Samsung announced this morning that its latest monster handset, the Galaxy Mega, will be arriving on our shores this month. The 6.3-inch monolith will be coming to AT&T, Sprint and US Cellular. Beyond that, availability information is one thing about this phone that’s still on the small side — as the company explains in a press release this morning (which you can find in all of its PRy glory below), “each carrier will announce their specific availability, colors and timing.” We do know that it’ll have Android 4.2.2 and a 1.7GHz dual core processor. Expect more info on the only smartphone visible from space to follow soon from each of the aforementioned carriers.

Update: As expected, the carrier announcements have begun trickling in. You can find Sprint’s below. It adds…a little information to what we already knew, namely the fact that the Now Network will be offering up unlimited data with the handset.

Update 2: More info now from the AT&T camp, and this time out, it’s stuff we can really use — namely price and date. The carrier’s got the massive handset arriving the 23rd, priced at $150 (with, you guessed it, a two-year contract). The rest of that release is after the break — beneath all the other releases, naturally.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

Comments

You know how QR Codes still aren’t really a thing? Just imagine how popular Microsoft’s proprietary alternative to the format has been. In a letter to its users, Redmond has conceded that Microsoft Tag will pass the way of all things on August 19th, 2015. That said, if you can’t live without the system, QR Code company Scanbuy will be supporting certain Tag components from September of this year. We’ve included a suitably redacted version of the company’s letter after the break, but be warned — it contains toe-curling phrases like “digitally engage with brands in their everyday surroundings through smartphones.”

[Thanks, Carter]

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Microsoft

Comments

Whether you like the company or not, people are snapping up Beats Electronics’ wares left and right. It’s no surprise then that Beats is looking to branch out into some new frontiers, and it may not want to do it without getting rid of some old baggage first. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Beats is considering buying out Taiwanese gadget maker HTC’s remaining stake in the company and is also trying to lock down a new investor to help fund its expansion into consumer electronics and auto tech.

At this point, there’s no word on how much such a deal would cost, or if HTC is even willing to sell. To really get a feel for the situation though, we need to do a little rewinding.

This whole sordid situation started back in August 2011 when HTC revealed that it acquired a majority stake (about 50.1%, to be specific) in Beats Audio, a deal that cost the Taiwanese company just north of $300 million. It wasn’t long until the first Beats Audio-powered smartphones started rolling off of HTC’s production lines, and since then just about every one of the company’s notable smartphones bore that familiar red logo somewhere on its body.

Of course, that relationship wasn’t without its rough patches. Between the moment HTC finalized its deal with Beats Audio and today, the company has been absolutely battered — sales revenue is down, profits are down, and more than a few pundits have already written the company off (or are close to doing it). The situation grew so grim that HTC found itself selling nearly half of its stake back to Beats Audio in mid-2012, which reportedly resulted in a net loss of about $4.8 million for the Taiwanese gadget maker.

What’s still unclear at this point is what this turn of events could mean for Beats Audio in smartphones going forward. If Beats indeed buys out HTC’s stake, it’s not inconceivable that other smartphone manufacturers could swoop in and license whatever Beats Audio assets the company originally made available to HTC. And for all we know, HTC may be one of them — it could just decide to fold Beats Audio into its phones like nothing ever happened, albeit without most favored nation status. It’s near-impossible to make a call there without a closer understanding of the agreement the two companies forged, but I wouldn’t expect the Beats Audio brand to remain dormant in the mobile space for very long (if at all).

But Beats’ bid for another investor comes at a pretty peculiar time. There’s little doubt that HTC wanted to lock up a partnership with Beats because of the marketing clout the brand would bring its mobile gadgets, and now Beats is looking for a way out just as HTC is trying to tap into another vein of star power to revitalizing its anemic marketing efforts. For better or worse, the company is spending nearly a billion dollars on a massive marketing push that will apparently see Hollywood hotshot Robert Downey Jr. spout nonsensical interpretations of the company’s name. I may be veering slightly into the realm of the hyperbolic, but HTC really can’t afford for this kooky new approach not to work. Couple that with the fact that a Beats buyback would be yet another sizable signifier of lost faith in HTC and things are starting to look seriously dire.

I’ve reached out to HTC for a comment on all this, but it’s pretty late and the company hasn’t yet responded at time of writing — I’ll update the post with a response if/when I get one.