Hasta La Gadget!

Nexus One owners feeling a little Nexus S envy can breathe a little easier — we’re hearing that Android 2.3 Gingerbread is being pushed out to the N1 as we speak. We’d imagine that all the slick new features that don’t require new hardware (like NFC support) will be there, and we’re definitely interested in playing with this built-in WiFi calling stack. We’ll let you know what we find — won’t you do the same?

Update: Looks like our flood of tips came from people who were seeing their N1s get a different, less-interesting update. Google tells us that Gingerbread isn’t rolling out just yet, but is coming. Of course, we’ll let you know when the actual 2.3 update hits the OG Nexus. Ah, the heady optimism of hope.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 2.3 update now rolling out to Nexus One owners (update: not yet) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Call it coincidence if you want, but a December 7th press conference to launch the NFC Forum’s new Certification Program likely has something to do with NFC read / write support built into Google’s new Android 2.3 “Gingerbread.” An OS that could be officially unveiled as early as today according to a cheeky blog post by Notion Ink that includes this bullet:

“6th December is another big day for Android and you will find out how fast Notion Ink can work. (Eden is extremely compatible with 2.3).”

Recall how gung-ho Eric Schmidt was on the topic of Near Field Communication while demonstrating it using a still unannounced Nexus S with an embedded NFC chip at the Web 2.0 Summit. That was way back on November 16th when Schmidt promised a Gingerbread release “in like the next few weeks.” According to the NFC Forum, a device must be certified in order to display the official “N-Mark” (pictured) — a symbol for NFC that tells you where to touch in order to initiate NFC services on your device. So, Google… anything you’d like to announce before Tuesday?

P.S. Almost forgot that Google’s Andy Rubin will be kicking off the D: Dive into Mobile event later today. We’ll be there live just in case Andy feels like introducing something pungent and tasty during the opening session scheduled for 6:30pm San Francisco time.

Continue reading NFC certification program announced just in time for Android 2.3 Gingerbread launch on Monday?

NFC certification program announced just in time for Android 2.3 Gingerbread launch on Monday? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If free Android phones on every US carrier weren’t enough to entice you into a Best Buy Mobile store this month, maybe a deeply discounted Droid Pro will be. Motorola’s Android 2.2 handset, which launched at $179.99 with the usual two-year Verizon tie-in, is now available for purchase for exactly $130 less at Best Buy’s mobile outlets — both the online and brick-and-mortar varieties will let you walk away with one for $49.99 and a 24-month commitment. We don’t know where all these crazy deals are coming from, but we ain’t complaining.

[Thanks, Tony]

Update: Amazon.com is undercutting Best Buy with a $19.99 price for those opening new Verizon accounts when buying the Droid Pro.

Droid Pro dropped to $50 on contract by Best Buy Mobile (update: $20 at Amazon) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Compared to last month’s report, it’s more or less business as usual in ComScore’s latest smartphone market share numbers for the three-month period ending in October, but there are a few interesting points worth calling out. Most notably, RIM’s decline seems to have accelerated — they’ve lost a claimed 3.5 percent of the US market in the latest period compared to 2.8 percent prior, which means they’re now down to 35.8 percent. Of course, that’s still more than enough to keep them comfortably in first place, but it’s a situation they’re going to want to reverse sooner or later — hopefully with TAT’s help. Meanwhile, Apple’s tacked on a slightly larger slice of the pie, but they’re still holding fairly steady; Google, meanwhile, continues its stratospheric rise, tacking on another 2.1 percent since last month’s numbers to hit 23.5 percent — nipping on Apple’s heels, we’d say. The most intriguing story, though, would have to be Microsoft: they’re lower than before at just 9.7 percent of the market, but these figures don’t include Windows Phone 7 yet — and clearly, no one’s buying WinMo 6.5 gear at this point. Should start to get interesting in the next month or two on that front.

ComScore: Android keeps chugging, BlackBerry falters, world awaits Windows Phone 7’s numbers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this point, there’s essentially nothing that we don’t already know about the Nexus S… except when it’ll be officially revealed, of course. But up until now, we haven’t had a good look at what exactly the impending smartphone’s camera sensor could do. Thanks to an unsuspecting Picasa stream, we’re now being treated to a handful of images captured by a Samsung GT-I9020 — or in other terms, a Nexus S. Better still, someone uploaded a brief video clip of its HD motion capturing abilities, and that’s embedded just past the break (horizontal and portrait versions, to boot). Have a peek yourself and see if you’re impressed.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Continue reading Nexus S shows off its camera, video recording abilities

Nexus S shows off its camera, video recording abilities originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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