Hasta La Gadget!

If you want to be the first in your hood to take Minecraft with you wherever you go, you’ll have to pick up an Xperia Play. The block-building game where cubed avatars hide from creepers and create virtual CPUs will land on the so-called PlayStation Phone before coming to other Android devices and iOS later this year. The Play version will have customized controls that take advantage of the gamepad and button layout found on the Sony Ericsson handheld, though when exactly it will launch or how much it will cost is still unknown. It’s also unclear how long the title will be exclusive to the gamer-centric smartphone, but developer Mojang will be holding an event at E3 where, presumably, we’ll be getting more details. Now is the time to wrap up any loose ends in your life before what little free time you have left gets buried beneath a pile of bricks and mobs — even when your PC isn’t handy.

Update: If that pic of Minecraft running on the Xperia Play wasn’t doing for you, good news, we’ve got video of the title in action after the break.

[Thanks, stagueve]

Continue reading Xperia Play first in line for mobile Minecraft port (video)

Xperia Play first in line for mobile Minecraft port (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 10:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading LG Revolution coming to Verizon tomorrow for $250 on contract

LG Revolution coming to Verizon tomorrow for $250 on contract originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s been rumors of a Google-fied mobile payment system for some time, and now it looks like the Mountain View crew is teaming up with Sprint to finally make it happen. Last month, we heard that the Now Network would bring NFC payments to its customers this year, and Bloomberg reports that the partnership and payment system will make its debut on May 26th. Apparently, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are the first cities getting the service, which is a much broader initial footprint than its Isis mobile payment competition. The anonymous sources also say that Verifone and Vivotech are providing the hardware and software that will let you replace your credit card with a Nexus S — because you always wanted to replace your credit card with your Nexus S.

Update: According to All things D, the payment system will be put through its paces by none other than El Goog’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt at the D9: All Things Digital conference next week — where we’ll be on hand to peep the contactless payment presentation in person.

Google and Sprint team up to take your digital dollars with new NFC payment system? (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were expecting Toshiba to launch its Windows 7 tablet during the second half of this year, but rumor has it that the company may be abandoning the slate altogether. DigiTimes is reporting that both the 11.6-inch slab and a forthcoming Chromebook have disappeared from Toshiba’s product launchpad, according to sources within the industry. The Chromebook will reportedly be slashed due to disappointing netbook sales in 2010, whereas the reasons behind the tablet’s cancellation remain less clear. DigiTimes suggests that Toshiba may be throwing all of its weight behind its new Honeycomb-powered Thrive slate, meaning that its Windows 7 counterpart could either be delayed even further, or simply relinquished. There’s obviously plenty of speculation swirling around, but we’ll let you know as soon as we receive more concrete reports.

Toshiba abandoning plans for Windows 7 tablet, Chromebook? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Onavo runs your incoming data through a proxy server, saving bandwidth

Onavo is an app which cuts your cellphone data use drastically. Amazingly, it works in the background even on the iPhone and iPad, which sounds like some kind of impossible voodoo given Apple’s strict multitasking rules.

It turns out that the app does actually compress data, but not how you think. Once installed, it performs some tweaks to your network settings and runs all you non-Wi-Fi data through a proxy. Thus, any incoming data to Safari, Mail, Facebook, Google Maps and Twitter passes through Onavo’s servers where it is heavily compressed before being forwarded on to your iPhone.

This is similar to what Opera does when you use its iOS browser, but it works system wide.

Comments on the iTunes App Store page say that it works, with several caveats. First, images are compressed so drastically that they can pixelate, making the tiles in the Maps app hard to read, for example. Also, sometimes visual voicemail disappears, and you’ll lose the ability to tether your data connection. And of course you are running your data through a third-party server, which could give you the privacy heebie-jeebies.

Onavo is free, and although its probably not worth using at home thanks to the above problems, it could save you a lot of money when you’re on vacation with a roaming plan. What it won’t do is compress streaming video or VoIP calls, which are probably your biggest data-sinks, further limiting its utility. An Android version is coming “soon.”

Onavo product page [Onavo]
FAQ [Onavo]

See Also:

• Approved! Plucky Underdog Opera Now on iPhone
• iPhone Customer Sues AT&T Over 'Rigged' Data Charges
• 3G iPhone Unlimited Data Plan Will Cost $30 Per Month, But You Can …