Hasta La Gadget!

The farce that has been Sony Ericsson’s bungled, delayed, and deservedly maligned Android upgrade story for the Xperia X10 family is coming to a fittingly silly end. Questioned by Android Community on the possibility of a Froyo (Android 2.2) upgrade for its initial set of Android handsets, the SE team has just come out and admitted that there’ll be no future OS upgrades, at least in terms of Android iterations. The X10, X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro are not being abandoned, not at all, but the only software enhancements you can look forward to will come directly from Sony Ericsson. The company hardly sees that as a bad thing, however, judging by a recent tweet announcing its belief that an SE-customized Eclair tastes better than Google’s untouched Froyo. We’d protest, but what’s the use?

Sony Ericsson: no OS updates for Xperia X10 beyond Android 2.1, it’s better than 2.2 anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, never mind then. Google’s ever-informative and ever-knowledgeable Dan Morrill has disabused the world from the bogus belief that Android’s “made for tablets” iteration, aka Honeycomb, will require a dual-core processor as a minimum to run. Dan says there are no specific CPU requirements for aspiring Android 3.0 tablets to meet and we should all sit back, relax, and enjoy our breakfast. That’s reassuring to note, but let’s not read more into it than what’s said — while Honeycomb might not technically require a dual-core beastie to power it, there’s a reason why the Motorola Xoom (which is soon to become the first device to offer Honeycomb onboard) is launching with a Tegra 2 chip inside.

[Thanks, Dean]

Honeycomb will not require dual-core CPU as minimum hardware spec originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And you thought those Recon-Zeal Transcend goggles from last fall were hot stuff. Truth be told, they still are, but Recon Instruments’ plans for the future make the present seem downright mundane. Here at CES, the company has just revealed its next-generation technology, which should be ingrained in its next line of specs. The big news here is that the revised platform will be based on Android, enabling developers to craft apps and in turn, owners to customize their GPS-enabled goggles in ways not previously possible. Moreover, the technology will be available separately from the company’s own eyewear, with a “snap fit” version ready made to work with Uvex, Alpina and Briko products. Wearers will then be able to navigate through the interactive LCD in real-time with the use of a wireless remote, and Recon hopes to eventually craft the first pair of goggles with a real-time navigational system. You’ll also get Bluetooth capabilities, allowing users to connect with their smartphones and see their music playlists, caller ID and text messages. Head on past the break for the full rundown, and do your best to not get those hopes too high. As if it’s not too late for that already.

Continue reading Recon details next-gen GPS goggle technology: Android, Bluetooth, endless fantasies

Recon details next-gen GPS goggle technology: Android, Bluetooth, endless fantasies originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At CES, NEC’s showing off the hinged Android tablet it teased last month, pitching it as a great way for third parties to… well, do awesome stuff. They’re kind of leaving the doors wide open as to how (or to whom) it’ll be sold, suggesting it could make a great e-reader, a digital notebook for students, a scrapbook, or whatever devs dream up. The “Cloud” part of the “Cloud Communicator” name means that NEC thinks the LT-W would be great for generic cloud services, but really, it’s just an Android 2.1 tablet with WiFi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G — there’s nothing special in here that makes it particularly well-adapted for magically pulling data out of the cloud.

Unfortunately — cloud or otherwise — we didn’t come away with a very positive impression of this thing. Our very first red flag was the stylus, which matches up with a pair of 800 x 600 resistive touchscreens that don’t seem particularly bright or contrasty. Some of NEC’s sample apps (which you can see in the video after the break) make decent use of the dual display setup, but nothing blew us away — and more importantly, everything seemed just a little too jerky for a Cortex-A8 core. If NEC were to remix this with a Tegra 2, two capacitive touchscreens, and Honeycomb, we might be singing a different tune… but for now, this seems like little more than a Courier gone wrong.

Continue reading NEC dual-screen Android Cloud Communicator LT-W hands-on

NEC dual-screen Android Cloud Communicator LT-W hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still coming down from the euphoria of introduction, but Dutch site Tweakers.net claims that Google’s not entirely passing the torch to Honeycomb just yet — beforehand, there’s apparently another Gingerbread build in the cards. Having played with some sort of cobbled-together Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc with a 2.4 build, the site says that we can expect an incremental build that seems to feature miscellaneous stuff Google might not have had time to include in 2.3 — random things like a new animation when deleting icons off the home screen, to much bigger features like visible video calling hooks. Unfortunately, said hooks didn’t seem to be tied to any video calling-enabled Google Talk client, but considering how early this build seems to be, there’s reason to believe they’ll add it in by launch time. It’s an open question when this is coming — or to what devices — and when you think about Eclair’s progression from 2.0 to 2.1, it could happen sooner than you expect.

Android 2.4 Gingerbread breaks loose on a prototype Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 01:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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