Hasta La Gadget!

After going most of the year with very little noise on the Nexus One’s successor — a phone Google has never committed to making, by the way — we’ve gotten a handful of conflicting rumors about this thing in the past few days. Let’s take a swipe at the buzz that’s circulating this week:

• British publication City A.M. says the Nexus Two is a Carphone Warehouse exclusive, will be released in time for the holidays, and probably won’t be made by Samsung.
• Android and Me is convinced that the Nexus Two will in fact be a Samsung product, will be announced at its November 8th press conference, will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (assuming 3.0 is Honeycomb), and will be available on multiple carriers.

Meanwhile, a quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt from back in July may suggest there will be no Nexus One successor at all:

“The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one.”

Of course, he goes on to say that the Nexus One’s sudden sunset was a shining example of Google’s “nimbleness” — and since the quote is from nearly four months ago, there’s little reason to doubt that the company could’ve easily done a 180 since then, particularly since we’re sure they’d like to have a clean, skin-free, and possibly carrier-free device to showcase Gingerbread. At any rate, time’s running out to get a product advertised and available in time to catch holiday buyers… so this’ll all have to shake out pretty quickly.

Update: Gizmodo says “a friend of [theirs] got to play with it,” and they describe it as basically a Samsung Galaxy S with a front-facing camera and a stock build of Gingerbread that’s still “really buggy.” Is that really what you want to bring to the table as your Gingerbread flagship, Google?

Nexus Two does (or doesn’t) exist, is (or isn’t) being released this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peter Dille — Sony’s Senior Vice President of marketing at SCEA — sat down for a “fireside chat” with CNN, and made some interesting comments regarding the PlayStation Phone. Despite kinda / sorta sticking to the company’s policy of refusing to discuss rumors, Dille allegedly said that the lack of a cellular data component in current PSP devices could be holding the line back. “The PSP is a Wi-Fi device,” he said. “People are used to having always-connected devices.” Dille also noted that current smartphone platforms don’t give users a hardcore experience, instead providing “Time-killers,” which “gamers aren’t satisfied with.”

While the CNN article certainly includes some healthy speculation, Dille (and a company spokeswoman who told the publication that Sony “has relationships with Google”) was pretty talkative when it came to the PSP and more specifically the PlayStation Network. Apparently, Dille alluded to the fact that the current PSP doesn’t fulfill Sony’s goal for creating a content delivery hub that’s always accessible, saying “I don’t think we fully realize that vision with a Wi-Fi device… If it’s not connected [to a cell network] then it does sort of limit people.” Of course, we’re not taking this as any kind of confirmation from the company, but Sony seems awfully talkative about a device that they won’t comment on.

Sony’s Peter Dille thinks the PSP could use a cellular data connection, iPhone gamers ‘aren’t satisfied’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s easy to forget at this point, but Android wasn’t a Google creation. Google bought the company in 2005 for an undisclosed sum (estimated to be around $50 million) and, well, let’s just say things worked out pretty well for them. How well? Google’s vice president of corporate development, David Lawee, told attendees at the Stanford Accel Symposium this week that the acquisition was quite simply Google’s “best deal ever.” Lawee further went on to note that he did have some initial skepticism about the deal, and recalls saying “I hope this guy does something” after seeing Andy Rubin around the building for two years. The fact that Rubin actually stayed after the acquisition eventually did inspire some confidence, however, with Lawee adding that it’s obvious when a deal doesn’t work out “because the people leave.”

Google exec calls Android acquisition its ‘best deal ever’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ooh, Sprint’s just going to love this. T-Mobile just announced the launch details for its latest HSDPA+ handset, with a November 3rd touchdown date (possibly to go along with new data plans?) and a $200 pricetag (after $50 mail-in rebate). But just to spice things up a little bit, T-Mobile also swapped names on the phone: what was previously known as the myTouch — a back-to-basics follow-up to the original myTouch 3G and myTouch 3G Slide — is now the myTouch 4G. In fact, it looks like T-Mobile has had this name for a little while, but was just waiting for the right moment to spring it on us. Wait, you didn’t know HSPA+ was 4G? Ah, welcome to Sprint / Verizon / AT&T’s branding nightmare.

Continue reading T-Mobile myTouch redubbed ‘myTouch 4G,’ landing on November 3rd

T-Mobile myTouch redubbed ‘myTouch 4G,’ landing on November 3rd originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kmart may have been the first department store to get into the cheap Android tablet business, but it looks like Walgreens isn’t about to stay out of this race to the bottom — it’s now offering the Maylong M-150 Android tablet for a mere $100. As you can see above, it’s pretty much the tablet of your dreams. Not only does it run Android, but it boasts a familiar iPad design and interface, plus Internet Explorer for a web browser (icon), and access to the always useful “App Market.” As for specs, it looks like you’ll get a 7-inch resistive touchscreen with an 800 x 480 resolution, a 400MHz VIA VM8505+ processor, built-in WiFi, an unspecified amount of built-in flash memory, and a microSD card slot or expansion. Head on past the break for a video, and hit up the source link below if you’re ready to place your order.

Continue reading Walgreens now selling $100 Maylong M-150 Android tablet

Walgreens now selling $100 Maylong M-150 Android tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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