Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve been following these here pages closely, you’ll know that a little device named the Nexus S 4G is coming to Sprint’s network, with the expectation being that it’ll be announced at CTIA early next week. Fueling our previous info on the matter, we’ve now gotten ahold of an image purporting to be the logo that Sprint and Google will be using to represent their new WiMAX-equipped collaboration. That can be found after the break, but what you’re really eager to learn more about is that image of a Motorola Xoom with a Now Network logo on it, right? Well, it comes from the same source, whose record of revealing Sprint pre-release hardware (and not getting fired) is quite exemplary, so we’re willing to credit it as the real deal. We’ve no launch dates or pricing details to share as yet, but it’s not unreasonable to expect Sprint will be disclosing all that juicy info during its extra-long CTIA presser. And if not, we’ll keep tracking down these leaks and get it to you anyway!

[Thanks, r0fl]

Continue reading Motorola Xoom with Sprint insignia, Nexus S 4G logo leak out

Motorola Xoom with Sprint insignia, Nexus S 4G logo leak out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today, Adobe Flash 10.2 will hit the Android Market for devices running Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb, and by now you’re probably familiar with what it brings — increased performance for dual-core smartphones running Android 2.2 and Android 2.3, and the promise of seriously sped-up Flash content and better battery life for Android 3.0 tablets (not to mention Flash, period). Well, we’ve already spent a full day with the latest build of Flash 10.2 for Android and quizzed the company thoroughly about the release, and there are a couple surprises in store.

First off, you don’t absolutely need a dual-core phone to take advantage of Flash 10.2 — Adobe VP Danny Winokur told us, and we confirmed in testing, that there are slight performance improvements on earlier devices too. With our trusty Droid 2’s 1Ghz OMAP3 chip, we saw a slight but noticeable boost in framerate when playing a YouTube trailer at 480p, which admittedly only took took that particular video from “unwatchable” to merely “fairly jerky.” With the Tegra 2-toting Motorola Xoom, however, 480p videos ran perfectly smooth, even as the tablet had trouble rendering 720p content as anything but a series of images. However, Adobe says even that will change soon, as this beta release doesn’t take advantage of full hardware acceleration — it’s actually turned off right now. Though the Tegra 2 is natively decoding video, Adobe told us that hardware rendering and compositing will be added in a subsequent release, and when they are it “will bring 720p playback to a really smooth, enjoyable level.” We also noticed that phone temperatures seemed slightly cooler with Flash 10.2, which suggests better battery life. The other work-in-progress is Flash integration into Google’s Honeycomb browser, which presently has trouble detecting finger taps when Flash isn’t played full screen, but which will — Adobe hopes — play exactly the same inside and outside the browser when work on Flash 10.2 is complete. Sounds promising, no? Then why not download it yourself this evening and give it a go?

Flash 10.2 hits Android today, Adobe hopes for viewable 720p playback in a matter of weeks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first LTE smartphone to ever grace Verizon’s networks finally got released from captivity yesterday, and its maker HTC has decided to mark the event with a little promo video. You won’t find much here that you don’t already know about the 4.3-inch Thunderbolt, but you do get to hear from a bunch of HTC’s bright lights, including Sense UI designer Drew Bamford, on the motivations behind the company’s designs. And hey, there’s no harm in seeing that marquee device in the flesh again, is there?

HTC talks up its Thunderbolt in four minutes of self-congratulatory oratory originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At about $200 on-contract, Dell’s Streak 7 is one of the cheaper ways to get yourself into an Android tablet — or at least into one made by a manufacturer you’ve actually heard of before. But, that “on-contract” bit means of course the 3G-equipped handheld will be considerably more expensive in the long-run — or $450 up-front if you skip the contract. Here’s one that isn’t. Early this AM we got word that a Wi-Fi only version of the tablet had been certified and, now, here it is up on Amazon for pre-order. No release date is available but the price is: $379.99. That’s about $70 less than the 3G model and $20 less than the 3G-free Galaxy Tab is expected to retail for. Is that cheap enough to make up for its flaws? That, dear reader, is a question you must answer for yourself.

Dell Streak 7 gets certified in Wi-Fi-only form, shows up on Amazon for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want a phone that can browse the Web faster than any other phone? Instead of trying to decide with carrier to use, you should be looking at the hardware instead. According to a new test, Android 2.3’s built-in browser is 52% faster than Safari on the iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3, even when runnin gon the same 3G network.

The test, which consisted of loading 45,000 individual sites on the same phone, found that 84% of Fortune’s 1,000 top websites loaded faster on Android.

The iPhone did respond well when it loaded a site that was specially optimized for mobile devices. Those sites loaded much faster than other sites. However, all sites, on the whole, loaded faster on Android.

Via Talk Android