Nuance, the company behind Apple’s Siri, isn’t content with the current state of mobile voice recognition. Instead, it wants smartphones to be able to react to voice commands even when they’re asleep. More »
HTC, Nokia and Samsung have each showcased their initial volley of Windows Phone 8 handsets, but Huawei has yet to reveal the Ascend hardware it promised would run Microsoft’s smartphone OS. The firm’s Richard Yu took to the social network Sina Weibo and outed the device as the Ascend W1 earlier this week, but kept other specifics under wraps. Citing sources from within the company, Chinese language outlet Winp is now claiming that the W1 will ship between November and December, carry a price tag of 2,000 RMB ($317) and arrive in black, blue, pink and white hues. Though a September 25th unveiling is also rumored, Yu mentioned that Huawei will make it a habit of launching phones as they’re unveiled, so it may be a while before the curtain is fully pulled back if the November / December window is correct.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Huawei’s Windows Phone 8 handset outed as Ascend W1, supposed launch window surfaces originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It looks like all the big companies now have got an 8 megapixel camera in their smartphones, and although I’ve had one for almost a year on my iPhone, I am somewhat disappointed that no one has released a smartphone with a better camera, except that PureView craziness Nokia released. Nevertheless, HTC comes right back at Nokia with their own brightly-colored Windows 8 Phone, complete with 8MP camera.
Ever since HTC admitted that they had way too many phones and that most of them were too big, I had to reconsider my opinion of them. The HTC 8X is the company’s new signature handset, with a 4.3-inch HD LCD screen (720 × 1280), with a Gorilla Glass 2 covering, Beats Audio for be a better headphone experience, a 2.1 MP front facing camera and a 8MP backside-illuminated camera.
The phone has full quad-band support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE and WSPA/WCDMA networks, as well as 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. It’s also got built-in GPS, compass, motion sensors, and is NFC capable. There’s even a dedicated headphone amp, which is kind of an interesting feature. The 1,800 mAh battery isn’t bad, but I would have liked something bigger, given what Samsung puts in their phones these days.
Under the hood, the HTC 8X runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual core processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It will be available this November in blue, black, red and yellow.
[via Uncrate]
ASUS is never shy at showing off its creative side. At Taiwan Designers’ Week last Sunday, we spotted the company’s above art installation dubbed “Palette”: a mesmerizing circle of 50 overlapping Nexus 7 back covers, each in its very own shade of color. Interestingly, all of these were actually used in the development process of Google’s Nexus 7, which just goes to show the kind of mad dedication ASUS had put into the joint project.
But wait, there’s more! To match the event’s “Flow” theme this year, ASUS decided to also show off parts of the design process that determined the final appearance of its other hero products — hence the title “Becoming” for the booth’s own theme. For instance, much like what the company’s lovely Michelle Hsiao showed us on the Engadget Show, the booth again featured a handful of tablet chassis parts and dummies (mainly of PadFone, Zenbook, Transformer Prime and a 7-inch device) at different stages of their development, complemented by a generous selection of colors and finishes. Only this time the designers used some of them to create gradient wall art that we wouldn’t mind having at home. Check them out after the break.
Continue reading Visualized: 50 shades of Nexus, by ASUS
Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Tablets, Alt
Visualized: 50 shades of Nexus, by ASUS originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While folks are waiting for their precious new iPhones to arrive on their doorsteps, word has it that the leaky iPad mini has unsurprisingly entered mass production, but with a twist. According to today’s front page news on Taiwan’s Economic Daily News, reports from two local securities firms claim that Pegatron’s managed to nab a staggering 50 to 60 percent of iPad mini orders from Apple, meaning Foxconn is finally no longer the sole assembler of iPads. Together (plus component suppliers Foxlink, AUO, TPK and others), both companies will apparently be able to churn out up to 5 million iPad minis monthly.
Then there’s the iPhone 5 as well: the paper says at least 53 million units are expected to be shipped this year, therefore Apple’s adding Pegatron to the assembling front line as early as Q4 in order to maintain a steady supply of products. Obviously we can’t use this information alone to deduce whether Apple is moving away from Foxconn, but as long as people get their iDevices then it’s all dandy.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets
Pegatron reportedly nabs 50 to 60 percent of iPad mini orders, breaks up Foxconn’s monopoly originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but recently Oppo Mobile CEO Chen Mingyong teased that his upcoming flagship phone, the Find 5, will again feature a non-removable but “certainly big enough” battery (for the sake of anti-counterfeiting and, consequently, safety) as well as a 1080p, 441ppi display. That’s right, 441ppi! We’re finally getting a phone with a display that’s impossibly sharper than the 326ppi on the latest iPhones (up to 4-inch, 1,136 x 640), the 331ppi on the Nokia Lumia 920 (4.5-inch, 1,280 x 768) or even the 342ppi on the Sony Xperia acro S and the Xiaomi Phone 2 (4.3-inch, 1,280 x 720).
Assuming Chen’s talking about a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, a quick calculation based on these two numbers would give us a 5-inch screen size, which matches what LG Display announced back in May. Taking into account that a reliable source of ours got to see HTC’s 5-inch 6435LVW phablet recently, this would make the Find 5 unofficially the second device to receive the same full HD panel. Still, there’s a significant difference inside these two phones: Chen had previously mentioned that the Find 5 will be joining the quad-core APQ8064 party, while the HTC device appears to sport the dual-core, LTE-enabled MSM8960. Speaking of which, the same source informed us that much like the Flyer, HTC’s 6435LVW will also feature N-trig stylus technology. Will Oppo follow in the same footsteps? And will it bring back the slide-out keyboard à la Find X903 (pictured above)? Go on, Mr. Chen, tell us more.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Oppo CEO says quad-core Find 5 will feature a 1080p, 441ppi display, forgets to wink at HTC originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Windows Phone 8 may not have a firm release date, but reports are flooding in that it’s just been released to manufacturers (RTM) so they can work on their side of the equation: hardware production. According to LiveSino, pictures posted to Chinese social network Sina Weibo show members of the Windows Phone team signing a banner marking the milestone. In particular, Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Phone Division, was caught penning his name alongside others. ZDNet’s own sources corroborate that Ballmer and Co. have deemed the operating system fit to ship. With manufacturers seemingly taken care of, developers will be able to get their mitts on the WP8 software development kit in roughly two weeks.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Microsoft employees ‘sign off’ on Windows Phone 8 RTM originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Reprising a Windows Phone 7 giveaway from back in 2010, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer announced at the company’s annual event that all 90,000 or so full-time employees are getting a taste of its latest hardware. That’s one Surface for Windows RT tablet and Windows Phone 8 phone (we’re told that last time around these came with two year contracts) in late December, along with a new touch compatible office computer running Windows 8, presumably arriving sooner. Forbes indicates those PCs can be a desktop, laptop, ultrabook or tablet, and we have a pic of one employee’s new Lenovo-built slate running Windows 8 on a Core i7 CPU with 8GB of RAM after the break. Pulling an Oprah, again, isn’t just one way to improve employee morale, it also ensures everyone’s familiar with the new products as they roll out and are ready to tell people about them. Will that provide the necessary bump to catch up with the competition from Apple and Google? Only time will tell, but if you’re wondering what to say when someone asks if every single person wants a Surface then our advice follows after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading Microsoft gifts full-time employees with Surface tablets, Windows 8 phones and PCs
Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile
Microsoft gifts full-time employees with Surface tablets, Windows 8 phones and PCs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 01:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’re still struggling to decide which carrier to use for your iPhone 5, you may have had some of the decision made for you. Following statements by Verizon that hinted simultaneous voice and data still wouldn’t be an option despite the inclusion of LTE, which theoretically frees up CDMA for calls, we’ve confirmed with Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison that this is indeed the case. It’s “not yet possible” to do side-by-side CDMA voice and LTE data on a “single-radio” design like the iPhone 5, she says. That’s technically true, although it may be a case of Apple wanting to keep hardware differences to a minimum between CDMA and GSM users. AnandTech founder Anand Lal Shimpi tells the New York Times that Verizon phones like the Galaxy S III, which don’t have this limit, follow a different approach: where Apple uses a second antenna to improve overall reception for a single connection, Samsung and other phone makers use theirs to keep both data and voice flowing in harmony. While it’s a tradeoff with its own benefits, the choice means that iPhone 5 units for Verizon, Sprint, and every other CDMA carrier still won’t let you check your e-mail in mid-call without WiFi. If that’s an issue, you’ll have to turn to AT&T (or T-Mobile with an unlocked phone) to get your fix.
Filed under: Cellphones
Apple confirms iPhone 5 won’t do simultaneous voice and LTE data on CDMA networks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nokia’s legacy Lumia devices won’t be graced with Windows Phone 8, but the company has reaffirmed its support for keeping them fresh with version 7.8 of Microsoft’s handset OS. In addition to a revamped start screen, the introduction of City Lens and other expected perks, Espoo is tossing in a few extras. Among the new additions are the Cinemagraph GIF creator, a ringtone maker app, updates to Smart Group Shot and Bluetooth support for both file transfers and the firm’s Contact Share application. Yearning to load up your smartphone with the raft of new features? Elop and Co. say the upgrades will be be rolled out in phases for the Lumia 610, 710, 800 and 900 models, but promise more details when their ETAs close in.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Nokia reaffirms WP 7.8 support for existing Lumia handsets, announces handful of features originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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