Google Drive for iOS hands-on

Google Drive for iOS handson

It’s an exciting time when two worlds collide, especially for iOS users that have an affection for Google services. The head honchos in Mountain View took to the stage at Moscone West today and announced two programs were going to be made available in the App Store by the end of day: Chrome and Drive. The latter pushed out first, so we decided to give the free app a closer look. Head below for some screenshots and our impressions of the service.

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Google Drive for iOS hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM announces Q1 earnings: $518 million net loss, 5,000 job cuts, BB10 not due until Q1 2013

The last quarter has been about as rough as they come for RIM, and it’s now detailed just how things stacked up in terms of hard numbers. For the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year, the company brought in $2.8 billion in revenue, down a full 33 percent from the prior quarter, while it reported a net loss of $518 million — much worse than analysts were expecting. What’s more, it’s also announced that it’s cutting an additional 5,000 jobs as part of its ongoing restructuring efforts, and that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones now won’t launch until sometime in the first quarter of the 2013 calendar year (that includes a QWERTY model launched in “close proximity” to the touchscreen-only device). As for why, RIM only went as far as to say that the integration of some key BlackBerry 10 features and the “associated large volume of code” has “proven to be more time consuming than anticipated.” For his part, though, CEO Thorsten Heins says he remains “confident that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will provide a ground-breaking next generation smartphone user experience,” and that he’s “encouraged by the traction that the BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining with application developers and content partners.” He further notes that the response to BB10 from key carrier partners has “been very positive.”

In terms of its existing devices, RIM reports that BlackBerry smartphone shipments (not sales) for the quarter totaled 7.8 million, while there were about 260,000 PlayBooks shipped — on the company’s earnings call, Heins noted that the total BlackBerry subscriber base now stands at 78 million. Not surprisingly, the company is warning of more bad news to come. It says it expects the “next several quarters to continue to be very challenging,” with everything from the “increasing competitive environment,” lower handset volumes, impact from the BlackBerry 10 delay, and the company’s plans to “continue to aggressively drive sales of BlackBerry 7 handheld devices” expected to cut into its bottom line. In another bit of news, the company also announced that it has appointed Steve Zipperstein, Verizon’s former General Counsel, as its new Chief Legal Officer. You can find the full earnings report at the source link below.

RIM announces Q1 earnings: $518 million net loss, 5,000 job cuts, BB10 not due until Q1 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Orange France begins nationwide NFC SIM rollout in the name of ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’

Orange France begins nationwide NFC SIM rollout, takes that whole 'Libert, Egalit, Fraternit' thing seriouslyNFC’s potential uses are numerous — contactless mobile payments, automated actions and content sharing to name a few — but aside from its scattered inclusion in a limited number of handsets in the US and overseas, we’ve yet to see it truly take off. Cue Orange France. The wireless carrier’s taking a non-traditional route to spur adoption by sidestepping manufacturers and bringing the near field communication tech to all 27 million of its subscribers directly. To do this, the operator’s implementing Gemalto’s UpTeq SIM, a secure NFC solution the company claims is on par with existing chip-based implementations. Going forward, the enhanced SIMs will be standard issue for new post-paid users throughout the carrier’s home footprint, while current subs will have to contact Orange to specifically request it. Head on past the break to check out the company’s official PR.

Continue reading Orange France begins nationwide NFC SIM rollout in the name of ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’

Orange France begins nationwide NFC SIM rollout in the name of ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy S III for T-Mobile review

DNP Samsung Galaxy S III for TMobile review

If three’s a crowd, the Samsung Galaxy S III party in the US is about to get pretty stuffy. Having already reviewed AT&T and Sprint’s variants — not to mention the original I9300 before them — we’re now ready to put a third iteration through its paces, this time from the country’s fourth-largest carrier, T-Mobile.

Of course, the phone itself needs no grand introduction, as it’s fast become the new darling of the smartphone world. And rightfully so, in many respects: it’s the first high-end device to launch on all four major mobile operators in the US (a feat in and of itself), and it’s done so with minimal carrier branding, hardware changes or bloatware levies. It is, in essence, an unadulterated handset. The reason this piece of news is so wondrous is that it opens up your ability to choose your phone service based on the network, not on the actual phone each individual carrier offers.

Sadly, the big tradeoff here is the loss of an Exynos quad-core processor in exchange for a Snapdragon S4 dual-core chipset and additional RAM. Join us as we take a deeper look at the T-Mobile Galaxy S III. Is it the best phone on the network? Is it worth shelling out $280 (with a two-year contract) for the 16GB model or $330 for 32GB? How well does it perform? This and more answers await you in our full review below.

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Samsung Galaxy S III for T-Mobile review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dolphin unveils Garage, API access for add-ons and web apps

Dolphin unveils Garage, API access for add-ons and web apps

The Dolphin browser has earned quite a following, by offering a healthy mix of speed and features. Now the company is opening up its offerings to further expansion though an open API service called Garage. The new portal opens up 150 APIs to third party developers who might want to build upon Dolphin’s solid browser base, or integrate their web apps. As part of the launch of the Garage, four new add-ons have been added to the Dolphin repository. Dropbox, Evernote, Pocket and Wikipedia all now tie directly in to the browser’s UI, exposing all the important features of those services. For more, check out the PR after the break and the Garage portal at the source.

Continue reading Dolphin unveils Garage, API access for add-ons and web apps

Dolphin unveils Garage, API access for add-ons and web apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today

Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today

We’re live at day two of I/O and the theme of this keynote is all about “Going Google.” With this focus on Mountain View’s various cloud-based apps, Clay Bavar, Director of Product Management for Google Apps, announced that Docs will now work offline for editing. In the onstage demo, Bavar was able to log into several devices, including a Nexus phone and tablet, to interact and collaborate in real-time on a document. Thanks to the smooth syncing at work, edits made from each device showed up as they were being entered, keystroke-by-keystroke. Now, those edits can also be created without a working internet connection and synced up later. You won’t have to wait long, either, to take this offline mode for a test spin, as the feature will be enabled later in the day, with that functionality “coming soon” for presentations and spreadsheets. Check out the official PR after the break.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Continue reading Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today

Google announces offline editing for Docs, available later today originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it’s out!)

Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad

Google just did what many thought wasn’t possible — it just put mobile Chrome on iOS. Both iPad and iPhone users will get the app, either with incognito browsing, syncing and that unique tabbed browsing interface intact. The company hasn’t said what’s changed versus the Android build, but it’s likely the main differences are matters of integration — Apple’s app rules won’t let Google bring in its own WebKit rendering engine tweaks or change the default browser. Whether or not that switch is a dealbreaker, Chrome should be available later today in the App Store for those who want a break from the Safari norm.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s developer conference at our event hub!

Update: No download just yet, but Google is teasing us with a video that you can find after the break. The iOS port shows up at the 43-second mark.

Update 2: It’s available! Hit the source link to get your copy.

Continue reading Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it’s out!)

Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it’s out!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple reportedly planning major iTunes overhaul, better iCloud integration and sharing

Apple reportedly planning major iTunes overhaul, better iCloud integration and sharingWhile Google is beefing up its ecosystem, Apple is also planning some big changes to its iTunes platform according to Bloomberg. Sources inside the company claim, by the end of the year iTunes will undergo a major transformation seemingly designed to counter recent moves by Google. Key to the plans is iCloud. Cupertino’s cloud storage solution will be much more tightly integrated, allowing easier access to and management of media collections across devices. Another part of the online offerings will be content discovery. As Netflix has already discovered, and Google is trying to master, making accurate suggestions for new music and films is key to keeping customers coming back to a media market. Deeper social network integration is also part of finding and sharing new music. Apple is supposedly in negotiations with the record labels to allow users to send songs to friends for free — a feature both Spotify and Google Music already support. For a few more details check out the source.

Apple reportedly planning major iTunes overhaul, better iCloud integration and sharing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Play lets you update and uninstall apps from the comfort of your browser

Google Play lets you update and uninstall apps from the comfort of your browser

It’s surely been a crazy couple of weeks for the folks at Google. The company clearly has more new features than it can shove into a couple of lengthy keynotes — like functionality for Play that lets users update and uninstall apps by way of the My Android Apps tab in the browser-based version of the store. Check the source link below to begin your cloud-based bidding.

[Thanks, Allen]

Google Play lets you update and uninstall apps from the comfort of your browser originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC One V quietly pops up at Virgin Mobile USA for $200, iPhone tags along for online orders

HTC One V quietly pops up at Virgin Mobile USA for $200, iPhone tags along for online orders

HTC had broadcast its intentions to bring the One V to the US this summer, and that’s exactly what it’s doing, even if it’s keeping the formalities to a minimum. Virgin Mobile has started selling the entry Android 4.0 phone without fanfare at a very tempting $200 contract-free — certainly the lowest American price we’ve seen so far for joining the Sense 4.0 party. The hardware still won’t floor anyone, but Virgin Mobile Live is tossed in to perk up the experience. Should Google’s platform just not be your bag, you’ll also be glad to know that Virgin has recently started taking online orders for its prepaid iPhones, which officially hit the shops on Friday. With their $550 and $650 no-contract prices, though, some may question just how Retina their displays really need to be.

[Thanks, Marcus]

HTC One V quietly pops up at Virgin Mobile USA for $200, iPhone tags along for online orders originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceVirgin Mobile (One V), (iPhone 4), (iPhone 4S)  | Email this | Comments