Hasta La Gadget!

If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, we discovered an abundance of special edition smartphones and T-Mobile gave ten new reasons for owners of unlocked iPhones to smile. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of November 19th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of November 19th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, Verizon

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Apparently feeling we were running low on Galaxy smartphones after the current lineup of Galaxy S III, Galaxy S III mini and Galaxy Note II, Samsung’s SHV-E270L just made the FCC rounds and is rumored to be next in line. Flashing its codename “Baffin” in the documents, this device does not seem destined for an appearance beyond Korean borders, but a unique blend of specs and rumors that it will arrive as the “Galaxy Grand” continue to intrigue. Listed as an LTE phone in the Bluetooth database, and appearing in GLBenchmark reporting a 1.4GHz (possibly quad-core) CPU like the Galaxy S III, but with a much lower 800×480 WVGA display. According to a report from Korea’s Money Today, the idea is to create a device for older customers that’s easier to read with bigger icons and letters on its large 5-inch low res screen (as opposed to the 5-inch 1080p pixel density monsters we’re now accustomed to), with a quad-core CPU pushing Android 4.1 and its Smart Stay features plus a 2,100mAh battery. We’re not sure if it will increase your parent’s scores in Fruit Ninja, but vision-challenged KT, LG U+ and SK Telecom customers may have an interesting decision to make very soon.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: FCC, Bluetooth, GLBenchmark

When a carrier says it will ship a phone in the “coming weeks,” there’s usually a certain ritual involved: after weeks of waiting, we get a more definitive press release nailing down the ship date and price. Verizon isn’t big on tradition, it seems. Just as many Americans settled down for Thanksgiving, the Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II popped up for sale at Verizon’s web store. The Android QWERTY slider is selling at its promised $130 contract price and costs $450 up front; about the only surprise left for the mid-range messaging phone is out-of-the-box Isis support for NFC-based mobile payments. There’s talk at Android Central of customers who’ve already managed to snag the Stratosphere II at retail, although the timing is such that most Americans won’t see one first-hand until they’re recovering from a food coma.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Verizon

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Via: Android Central

Source: Verizon

Nokia still has a ways to go before directions in Nokia Transit (also known as Nokia Transport) are on par with Google’s, but the Finnish crew is clearly on the right track with a fresh update to its Windows Phone and Symbian apps. Travelers now see segmented route maps that provide a closer look at key points in the trip as well as more focused directions at those crucial moments. The app is that much more savvy about travel times, as well — the forward-thinking can at last plan trips days in advance, and there’s new options for relative arrival times as well as a simplified destination history. Symbian even gets its own specific update with long-overdue support for route updates in-app, rather than through upgrading the app itself. Lumia owners on Windows Phone 8 devices can get the spruced-up version of Transit or Transport today as a regular update; Symbian and Windows Phone 7 users willing to live on the edge can get roughly equivalent betas at the same time.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile, Nokia

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Source: Conversations by Nokia, Nokia Beta Labs (1), (2)

It’s fair to say that some bugs take awhile to fix, and a public schedule isn’t always an option; HTC knows this well. Still, Google may be pushing the limits with the solution for a longstanding Android bug that prevents resolving hostnames on some WiFi networks without using the full domain. The company has officially committed to providing a patch — 2 years, 6 months and 23 days after the bug was first reported on April 29th, 2010. Google explains that the “next major release” after Android 4.2 should hold the remedy, and claims that a mix of “prioritization and resources” prevented the team from sorting things out between Android 2.1 and now. We’ll take Google’s word for it, although the vow won’t be much comfort for anyone who’s still holding on to that original HTC Desire and can’t upgrade. At least the Mountain View team won’t have to deal with any 17-year-old security flaws.

Filed under: Cellphones, Networking, Mobile, Google

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Via: Android Police

Source: Google