Hasta La Gadget!

Everyone’s favorite WiMAX-powered Android device finally has a date and a price, and you don’t have terribly long to wait: June 4 is the date that you’ll want to be lining up outside your local Sprint store for an EVO 4G, $199 in hand (assuming you’re signing up for a new contract, of course — according to the fine print, the full cost is $450 before all discounts). Interestingly, Sprint has specifically called out that you’ll be able to video chat (remember, the EVO 4G has a front-facing cam) over both 3G and 4G using Qik — not a bad choice, considering the company’s well-established expertise with streaming live video out of handsets.

Unfortunately, there’s a downside to all this: customers will be paying a mandatory (as confirmed to us by Sprint reps) $10 per month “Premium Data add-on” on top of their plan — ostensibly for the privilege of enjoying WiMAX when they’re in a Sprint 4G market — and the 8-device WiFi hotspot feature runs an extra $29.99 a month, which Sprint is quick to point out is half what you’d pay for a dedicated mobile broadband account. As we saw at CTIA, the phone is the first to offer on-phone YouTube high quality video, a feature that automatically kicks in when you’re in the sweet confines of a WiMAX tower. Oh, and check this out: Sprint was hesitant to commit to offering simultaneous voice and data before, but HTC must’ve worked out the kinks, because it’s all systems go — you’ll be able to yap and browse on 4G at the same time.

We’re at the EVO 4G’s announcement in New York as we type, and we can tell you that everything Sprint is demoing is crazy fast — we’d expect no less from an WiMAX device with a 1GHz Snapdragon — and we’re particularly stoked to see them demo Need For Speed Shift on it, which will be launching on Android around the same time as the device. Follow the break for Sprint’s full press release!

Update: According to Phone Scoop, that $10 premium add-on has the benefit of no data cap for either WiMAX or 3G connections. Since we’re on the subject of updates, have you seen our bevy of new EVO 4G videos yet?

Update 2: Starting today, Best Buy is accepting pre-orders for the device, and per usual, they won’t require you to wait for the mail-in rebate — it’s just $199.99 straight-up on contract. Thanks, all!

Continue reading Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G on June 4 for $199

Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G on June 4 for $199 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Sprint  | Email this | Comments

Look, we’ve no beef with Osram Sylvania (nor Artison, for that matter), but calling these MusicLites “a first of its kind” is a bit of a stretch, if not an outright falsity. Klipsch launched essentially the same thing back at CES this year with the LightSpeaker, but hey, we’ve no gripes with a little competition in the space. The aforementioned duo has joined up in order to produce something that should make the art of integrating whole home audio into your own abode a good bit easier, with the MusicLites design combining a 10-watt LED light, a 70mm full-range loudspeaker and a wireless audio receiver. The device can slide into four-, five- or six-inch recessed cans, and we’re told that it’ll provide light output equivalent to a 65-watt reflector bulb. As you’d probably expect, there’s a proprietary 2.4GHz transceiver that works with a variety of sources, some of which include USB, smartphones and PMPs. Each kit will ship with a pair of 3.8″ x 5.3″ modules and a remote that controls light dimming and audio settings, and while mum’s the word on pricing, it’ll be commercially available sometime in the fall.

Continue reading MusicLites shoves a speaker, wireless transmitter and LED light into single canister

MusicLites shoves a speaker, wireless transmitter and LED light into single canister originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Sprint announces that its first 4G device, the HTC Evo 4G, will be available starting June 4 for $199. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20004833-94.html” class=”origPostedBlog”News – Wireless/a/p

Lap desks abound, but this one has a twist–an integrated circular plate, made from matte, soft-touch plastic, that lets you swivel the iPad between portrait and landscape views.

Apple has lost not one, but three prototype iPhones in the past year. That’s a perplexing development for a company that is famously tight with security.

A leaked fourth-generation iPhone popped up in Vietnam this week, with a detailed video and teardown photos that show the ins and outs of the hardware. That video follows an iPhone lost in March, and put on display by Gizmodo in April. And there may be a third iPhone prototype out there somewhere — the one whose disappearance reportedly led a Chinese worker to commit suicide in 2009.

Three lost prototypes would be a big deal at any company, but they’re especially unusual for Apple, which operates on a level of secrecy comparable to the CIA, taking extreme measures to prevent leaks. Former employees have said workers in product-testing rooms are required to cover up gadgets they’re working on with black cloaks, and they must flip a red warning switch when prototypes are unmasked to tell everyone to be extra careful. The company is known to even spread disinformation to its own employees about product plans to track down leakers, according to The New York Times.

So what gives with the repeat leaks of the most anticipated handset of the year? With the case of the Gizmodo iPhone, the answer is obvious: An engineer field-testing the next-gen iPhone left his prototype in a bar. We’re guessing that Apple’s field-testing program has been severely curtailed since that happened. But the other two iPhones overseas point to a bigger problem for Apple: The bigger the company gets, the more partners it must work with, and the less Apple has control over the whole process.

More disconcerting is the rumor that the Vietnamese man may have bought the prototype for $4,000 from the black market. Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the lost iPhone in California. These transactions raise questions of whether Apple’s partners — or unscrupulous people with access to those partners — might create a business out of pilfering and leaking products.

It also makes you wonder how much of this goes on unpublicized. Perhaps companies who produce knockoffs have had their hands on a next-gen iPhone prototype for months, or perhaps one of these will make their way to a major competitor like HTC.

This is getting pretty ugly, and we can’t imagine Apple is going to sit still. But what can they do? Leander Kahney, former Wired.com news editor and owner of the Cult of Mac blog, said he spoke to a private eye about how trade secrets leak. In 2008, the characteristics about the second-generation iPhone were leaked because the suppliers creating the plastic cases likely had connections to those creating third-party protective cases for the iPhone, Kahney said. (They are all in the plastics industry, after all.) In that scenario, Apple would simply have to fire the unfaithful supplier.

In the case of the Vietnam iPhone, Kahney said he believes this was an act of corporate espionage. However, MacRumors’ Arnold Kim told Wired.com he disagreed, because if a spy stole a phone, he or she would probably keep it quiet rather than sell it to a publication.

Whatever the case may be, Apple is likely tracking down the people who ended up with the latest prototype to determine where it was sold, and ultimately, who sold it.

“It’s a major problem for them and a major leak,” Kahney said. “Intelligence about what components they’re using is extremely valuable. The economic stakes are huge.”

See Also:

• iPhone Finder Regrets His ‘Mistake’
• Apple May Have Traced iPhone to Finder’s Address
• Expert: Invalid Warrant Used in Raid on iPhone Reporter’s Home …
• Wired Urges Judge to Unseal Gizmodo Search
• Gizmodo Gets Hands On New 4G iPhone
• Gizmodo Dissects Unreleased Apple iPhone