HTC Merge first hands-on! (video)

HTC just rolled in to set up for our San Francisco reader meetup tonight, and what’s this? They brought a brand-new HTC Merge with them. No one’s talking about what carrier this interesting Android slider is going to launch on yet, but that Verizon-red earpiece and search button aren’t exactly coy. Apart from that, it’s pretty much exactly the device we’ve seen leaked all over for months now — a really nice landscape Android slider with a solid keyboard. More pics in the gallery, and a video after the break!

Continue reading HTC Merge first hands-on! (video)

HTC Merge first hands-on! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy S II gets very preliminary, expensive UK pricing

Don’t go jumping off the Android sailboat just yet, these are very early numbers, but the Samsung Galaxy S II has been priced by a couple of UK retailers and the category they’ve placed it in is the distinctly high end. Expansys is listing £630 ($1,020) for the Gingerbread-sporting unlocked handset, while Play.com has it at £600 ($971) and is promising a March 31st release date. Even if you’re zany enough to put the cash up for a pre-order today, do take note that Play was showing the cost at £650 (with £670 RRP) only yesterday, so pricing still seems to be fluctuating and finding its sweet spot. Whatever happens, with such a high starting point, we doubt the S II’s price will be its most attractive attribute at launch.

Samsung Galaxy S II gets very preliminary, expensive UK pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GSM Arena, Phandroid  |  sourcePlay.com, Expansys  | Email this | Comments

HTC Merge official, coming to ‘multiple’ US carriers this spring

Boy, we’ve had so many leaked materials relating to the HTC Merge that we kind of assumed the handset was official by now. Never mind, HTC is taking care of that little oversight now, admittedly much later than we expected the phone to show up, by announcing that the Merge will arrive on multiple US carriers in the spring. It brings Android 2.2, skinned with HTC’s Sense UI, a 3.8-in touchscreen plus that slide-out keyboard, and a 5 megaixel autofocus camera with 720p video recording. Not bad, now let’s see how those carriers decide to price this mid-range contender.

Continue reading HTC Merge official, coming to ‘multiple’ US carriers this spring

HTC Merge official, coming to ‘multiple’ US carriers this spring originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile released, available on Android, N900, your computer

Tired of using the default browser on your smart phone to browse Engadget? Got a thing for Firefox? Great, ’cause Mozilla just pushed out the fifth beta of Firefox 4 for mobile. You might be familiar with the on-the-go version of Mozilla’s creation, but if not, here’s your chance to grab the latest (and probably) the most stable build to date. In addition to the Android and Maemo version, the company has released a Fennec build for use on Windows, OS X and Linux.

We tinkered with the OS X build of the browser on our Macbook Pro and although pages appear to render quickly, we can’t quite figure out how to navigate backwards. You can pinch-to-zoom with the trackpad and scroll with the d-pad, but once you’ve loaded a page, it seems you need to be on a mobile device do any further navigation. Of course, as you’ll see in the gallery below, the beta comes packed with the usual — preferences, downloads, add-ons, bookmarks and Firefox Sync. If you want to give the software a whirl, hit the source link to grab the build of your choice.

Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile released, available on Android, N900, your computer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Download Squad  |  sourceMozilla  | Email this | Comments

Barnes & Noble updates Nook Android app, promises a Honeycomb version this spring

On the heels of the announcement that it’s grabbed 25 percent of the US e-reader market, Barnes & Noble has decided to give the world a heap of details on its Android developments. First up, we’ve got an updated Android app, and while it’s not exactly a drastic upgrade, version 2.5 has been refreshed with a new library grid view (apparently optimized for 7-inch tablets), a book download progress bar, and a wish list feature. We told you they were rather minor updates, but our guess is that the Nook Honeycomb app that’s being promised for some time this spring will be far more exciting. Yep, it’s a lot of B&N Android, but while we’re on the topic, we’ve got to admit we’re wondering about the whereabouts of that Nook Color app store, which was announced back in October. Look not everyone has taken to rooting, okay? Alright, we’ve totally digressed — hit the gallery below for some screens of the new app or the source link to try it out on your own.

Barnes & Noble updates Nook Android app, promises a Honeycomb version this spring originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAndroid Market (Nook)  | Email this | Comments

HTC Incredible S shipping this week in UK, will come with Froyo to start

Though it’d originally been pegged for the second quarter, it seems HTC’s bumping that up a smidge with the launch of its new flagship — the Incredible S — in the UK this week. Pre-orders are going on as we speak with shipments promised for tomorrow, but there’s a catch: rather than shipping with Gingerbread, the phones will come with Froyo to start with an upgrade to Gingerbread promised for the near future. Buyers, we’ve got a little homework for you: if you’re feeling adventurous and in a warranty-voiding mood, try to figure out what’s going on with those auto-rotating capacitive buttons, alright?

HTC Incredible S shipping this week in UK, will come with Froyo to start originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSlashGear, Pocket-lint  | Email this | Comments

Android Market adds e-books; movies and music soon to come?

The Android world’s been a-buzz this last week over a few new Android Market URLS, including http://market.android.com/music/ and http://market.android.com/movies/. In case you thought there was nothing to this tip, guess again: the third member of this trifecta (http://market.android.com/books/) has gone live. That’s right, visitors to the Android Market can pick up Glenn Beck’s mile-a-minute thrill ride The Overton Window for a mere $9. We hope that takes some of the sting out of the fact that a Google Music launch wasn’t part of this month’s Honeycomb event — although if we had to wager a guess, we’d say that the company will have Music and Movie offerings soon enough.

Android Market adds e-books; movies and music soon to come? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba AC100 smartbook gets Android 2.2 upgrade

Smartbooks may not have exactly caught on as the next big platform, but one of the more notable examples out there is now at least a bit more of an interesting option than it was before. That would be Toshiba’s Android-based AC100, which has finally gotten the Froyo upgrade that was promised last fall. According to Carrypad, that upgrade brings with it a “noticeable performance boost,” not to mention Flash support, and access to Toshiba’s own application store, the Toshiba Market Place. What’s more, the site also notes that the smartbook has recently received a fairly significant price drop, with the WiFi-only version now available for around €200 (or about $275, 3G will cost you an extra $50 or so). Head on past the break for a video of the update process and results.

Continue reading Toshiba AC100 smartbook gets Android 2.2 upgrade

Toshiba AC100 smartbook gets Android 2.2 upgrade originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Netbook News  |  sourceCarrypad  | Email this | Comments

Official Android 2.3.3 updates for Nexus One and Nexus S unearthed, available to the impatient

Waiting sucks, doesn’t it? Yes, yes it does — which is why we’re delighted to see that direct links to the official, final updates to Android 2.3.3 for the Nexus One and Nexus S have both been turned loose. This is especially exciting news for Nexus One owners who’ve stayed on the straight and narrow and haven’t moved to a cooked Gingerbread ROM already, since they’re still on Froyo — but it’s also good news for developers working on NFC apps with the Nexus S and Android’s freshly-baked NFC API, since it means they’ll have real-world devices to start playing with. So go on, get to it — we know you’re not going to wait for the over-the-air notification anyway.

[Thanks, Will]

Official Android 2.3.3 updates for Nexus One and Nexus S unearthed, available to the impatient originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BriefMobile  |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

Sprint pulls Epic 4G Froyo update, cites data connectivity and SD card issues

Well, we’re not quite sure what the trouble is with firmware updates for Samsung phones this week, but another one’s just been pulled days after it was rolled out. This one affects the Epic 4G, which has now seen its recently released Froyo update pulled by Sprint, which says it’s received reports of SD card issues and data connectivity problems from customers who’ve already installed the update. Still no word as to when a new update might be rolling out, but Sprint says that those who have already taken the plunge should be able to fix any problems with a hard reset — after they backup all their data, of course.

Sprint pulls Epic 4G Froyo update, cites data connectivity and SD card issues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BGR  |  sourceSprint  | Email this | Comments