Hasta La Gadget!

Ever wondered what life was like before the mobile phone? Well for swathes of O2 customers in the UK, that has been their reality since mid afternoon yesterday. Okay, network outages happen. It’s a fact of modern-day life. But a nationwide problem that persists for so long is a horrible reminder of our digital dependency. The BBC reports that the problem O2 is facing relates to a core network element called the HLR, or Home Location Register. Essentially a big fat database of who’s allowed onto the network. It seems that one of these has headed south, and has failed to be resuscitated. This means that while the problem can affect users from Lands’ End to John O’Groats, there will be users in the same locations totally unaffected. Naturally the operator has been throwing out the apologies like rice at a wedding, but with such a long bout of radio silence, and a few MVNOs to answer to, it’s more a case of “Oh no” than O2. We contacted the firm for comment, and they advised us that all aspects of the service, including 3G, will be restored by this afternoon. So when your Twitter suddenly floods with updates, you can let the world know you’re back on.

Update: For the sake of completeness, here’s the latest update from from O2 —

Following the previous update that our 2G network service has now been restored, our 3G service has been restoring gradually. We expect full service to return this afternoon. In the meantime customers should now be able to make and receive calls (and may wish to try switching their mobile phones off and on as service returns).

We are sorry again for the inconvenience this has caused some customers. We continue to deploy all possible resources, and will do so until full service is restored.

Filed under: Cellphones

O2’s continued outage reminds us to spend less time connected, (try) to call our mother originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feeling nerdy? Good, because the folks at DisplayMate have put together quite the comparison of the three different AMOLED displays featured in the Samsung Galaxy S, II and III smartphones. While the study places an emphasis on quantitative measures — and thus leaves more subjective qualities out of the discussion — the comparison is nonetheless an insightful look into the progression of Samsung’s AMOLED display technology. Curiously, some elements remain unchanged, such as color gamut, which is 138 percent of the sRGB standard across all displays and is to blame for images that appear over-saturated. In terms of color temperature, DisplayMate reveals that while Samsung is trending closer to a white of natural daylight, even the Galaxy S III — which measures 7,900 K — is still far too bluish in comparison to an ideal 6,500 K.

Believe it or not, but there’s one area that DisplayMate suggests is subtly worsening over time, and that’s light reflection. The issue is nearly moot, however, as the 5 percent reflectance of the Galaxy S III is but a small shift from the previous iterations, and what’s more, this remains among the lowest reflectance in the industry. We’d be fools to try and summarize all of DisplayMate’s findings, but if you’re curious to learn more — and we hope you are — be sure to hit up the source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Galaxy S, II and III pitted against one another in DisplayMate shootout originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 01:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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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Followers of FreedomPop’s saga have seen the fledgling data-only provider make a few audacious claims: providing free bandwidth, for one, and basing its 4G device lineup as much on iPhone sleeve cases as on traditional access points. Add another one to the list — the MVNO is planning to switch from Clearwire’s WiMAX network to Sprint’s LTE before 2012 is over. While FreedomPop is still planning to go forward with WiMAX for the initial deployment, it’s now looking to use tri-mode EV-DO, LTE and WiMAX modems and phone cases just months later. We’ll see if that leads to existing iPhone 4 and 4S owners getting an LTE fix without having to spring for a new phone; marketing VP Tony Miller wouldn’t tell GigaOM more. Either way, it’s a mixed blessing for data addicts that might find themselves crashing that much faster through the 500MB regular cap on free data.

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

FreedomPop jumping from WiMAX to LTE by year’s end, iPhone sleeves intact originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More and more people understand that texting while driving is a bad idea, but RIM has just been granted a patent that would have smartphones step in before things get out of hand. Going beyond just filtering inbound messages like some motion-based lockdown apps, the BlackBerry maker’s invention also turns off the creation of any outbound messages as long as the phone is moving within a given speed range. The override for the lock is the dictionary definition of ironic, however: the technique makes owners type out the answer to a CAPTCHA challenge onscreen, encouraging the very problem it’s meant to stop. As much as we could still see the hassle being enough to deter some messaging-addicted drivers, we have a hunch that the miniscule hurdle is a primary reason why the 2009-era patent hasn’t found its way into a shipping BlackBerry. Maybe RIM should have chronic texters solve a Rubik’s Cube instead.

Filed under: Cellphones

RIM patent uses motion, CAPTCHAs to stop texting while driving, shows a fine appreciation of irony originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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