Hasta La Gadget!

The only way to open this editorial is to admit something I’ve been rather shy about on the pages of Engadget: I’ve been an avid BlackBerry fan and user for about six years now. I mean a real addict — the kind who wakes up each morning looking for a blinking red LED, the kind who’s refused to give up push email and BlackBerry Messenger in favor of more powerful, polished, and progressive mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, and webOS. In fact, when my Verizon contract was up last year I opted to get a Curve 8530 instead of the Motorola Droid or Palm Pre — to say nothing of making the leap over to AT&T for the iPhone.

There were lots of reasons I didn’t want to give up my BlackBerry, but five days ago I lost that very Curve in a San Francisco cab. Then coincidentally, a day later I saw RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis speak at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference, where he almost embarrassingly avoided every question about the company’s immediate smartphone strategy. I had always known that RIM was behind the curve (always a great pun!), but I also always had hope that the company would catch up with modern smartphones of today. Sadly, watching Mike dodge questions on the D stage took that hope away from me — it’s crystal clear that RIM won’t have a solution to compete with those powerful smartphones anytime soon. So, what happens to a BlackBerry diehard like myself? Where do I go from here?

Continue reading Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry

Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are a lot of things to like about Google’s prototype Chrome OS machine, the CR-48, not the least of which its name that makes it sound like a relic from the future. Indeed that’s what Google wants it to be, a sort of beacon of our instant-on, cloud-based tomorrow, but that’s rubbing a few industry pioneers the wrong way. One is Friendfeed creator and former Google employee Paul Buchheit, aka the dude who created Gmail. He’s a bit confused about the overlap between Android and Chrome OS, as indeed many of us are, saying flat out that “Chrome OS has no purpose that isn’t better served by Android” — or, at least, it won’t when Android gets some tweaks to make it work better in a traditional laptop-style environment.

Meanwhile, GNU founder and free software pioneer Richard Stallman is lashing out a bit more strongly, calling cloud computing “careless computing” because it causes users to give up rights to their own content:

The police need to present you with a search warrant to get your data from you; but if they are stored in a company’s server, the police can get it without showing you anything. They may not even have to give the company a search warrant.

As we’ve recently learned that is at least not the case for e-mail, but what about Google Docs and browsing history and all those private musings you made on Google Buzz? Will ease of access trump data security fears? Will Cara on All My Children ever stop having flashbacks about Jake? Important questions, these.

GNU founder Richard Stallman and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit hate on Chrome OS originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even the most loyal Android user is bound to kvetch about the stock keyboard at some point or another, and while Swype has definitely grabbed the hearts of a good many Froyo users, Swiftkey remains our third-party keyboard of choice. After escaping beta just a few months ago, TouchType has just outed an ‘HD’ build that’s designed to cope with many of the higher-resolution displays being used on today’s gargantuan Android phones. Moreover, we’re guessing that this was done to look a bit better on devices like the Galaxy Tab, and there’s no denying that the new design elements are a real step forward. Aside from the makeover, the app is also gaining five new languages (Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Norwegian and Polish), improved language prediction quality and a new US layout that nixes accented characters. For those who’ve yet to try it, the latest version can be tested for a full 31 days, after which you’ll be coerced into ponying up $3.99 for the real-deal. Hit the source links below (or the QR code shown here) to give it a go.

Continue reading Swiftkey Android keyboard goes HD, adds new tongues and improved language prediction

Swiftkey Android keyboard goes HD, adds new tongues and improved language prediction originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How are you killing the time until the Nexus S finally goes on sale? Google’s answer to that question has been a typically outlandish affair, involving seven Nexi, a collection of weather balloons, and another quest to see how much can be learned from a humble smartphone’s sensors when they’re shot to the edge of space. Yes, the Mountain View madmen fired a week’s worth of their latest and greatest smartphones through the Earth’s atmosphere, hoping to test both the durability and the information-gathering skills of the onboard compass, gyro, and accelerometer, while dedicated GPS modules were installed in each “shuttle” (made out of styrofoam beer coolers, if you can believe it) to help recover the cargo on its return to terra firma. So far, only six of the phones have been recovered — might this be another of Google’s crazy puzzles? A treasure hunt for an Android fallen from heaven? Video after the break.

Continue reading Google fires Nexus S into space, invites tenuous Galaxy S analogies (video)

Google fires Nexus S into space, invites tenuous Galaxy S analogies (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So this is how it was supposed to go: Best Buy would start selling the Nexus S in the States on December 16th, and Carphone Warehouse would follow on a few days later — the 20th, to be exact — in the UK. Looks like the British are going rogue here, though, because Samsung’s Gingerbread-packed slate is showing “in stock” on Carphone Warehouse’s site right this very moment, which should theoretically mean it ships the same day if you order it before 5PM local time. Let us know if you get it in your paws before the 20th, alright?

[Thanks, Daniel K.]

Nexus S in stock on Carphone Warehouse’s site a little early originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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