Hasta La Gadget!

We thought about calling this podcast “Unchained Melody” or “The Engadget Podcast: RAW” but our COO got a little concerned about violating some sort of intellectual property laws, so you just get the plain vanilla name. Regardless, it is quite a monster, complete with a radio play set in an AT&T store and 3-D versions of Jerry Seinfeld and Jar-Jar Binks. Dunno how else we can sell you on this one.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: The Addams Family
AT&T Store music: El Remolon – Riki Ticki

00:02:37 – T-Mobile G2 now shipping to some pre-orderers
00:03:45 – T-Mobile G2 preview
00:06:30 – Editorial: Firmware, forums, and desperation — the dark side of Android hacking
00:08:00 – Apple TV review (2010)
00:13:15 – Roku adding Hulu Plus channel this fall
00:14:32 – Hulu Plus coming to TiVo Premiere too
00:24:38 – Roku XDS review
00:36:18 – Sony’s Google TV makes an early public appearance, reveals little
00:43:45 – RIM introduces PlayBook — the BlackBerry tablet
00:50:00 – BlackBerry PlayBook first eyes-on!
00:57:20 – HTC Mondrian stars in leaked AT&T ad campaign, jump-kicks lesser smartphones? (video)
00:58:02 – LG’s Optimus 7 gets previewed by Korean newspaper, has voice to text feature?
01:21:30 – Sony Ericsson LiveView acts as a 1.3-inch remote control for your smartphone, requires Android 2.0

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1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 214 – 09.30.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Come one, come all — let’s gather and act shocked, shall we? It’s no secret that Google’s Android Market is far easier to penetrate than Apple’s App Store, which is most definitely a double-edged sword. On one hand, you aren’t stuck waiting a lifetime for Apple to approve a perfectly sound app; on the other, you may end up accidentally downloading some Nazi themes that scar you for life. A curious team of scientists from Intel Labs, Penn State and Duke University recently utilized a so-called TaintDroid extension in order to log and monitor the actions of 30 Android apps — 30 that were picked from the 358 most popular. Their findings? That half of their sample (15, if you’re rusty in the math department) shared location information and / or other unique identifiers (IMEI numbers, phone numbers, SIM numbers, etc.) with advertisers. Making matters worse, those 15 didn’t actually inform end-users that data was being shared, and some of ’em beamed out information while applications were dormant. Unfortunately for us all, the researchers didn’t bother to rat out the 15 evil apps mentioned here, so good luck resting easy knowing that your library of popular apps could be spying on you right now.

Update: A Google spokesperson pinged up with an official response to the study, and you can peek it after the break.

Update 2: Looks as if the full study (PDF) has been outed, with the 30 total apps named. Here they are: The Weather Channel, Cestos, Solitaire, Movies, Babble, Manga Browser, Bump, Wertago, Antivirus, ABC – Animals, Traffic Jam, Hearts, Blackjack, Horoscope, 3001 Wisdom Quotes Lite, Yellow Pages, Dastelefonbuch, Astrid, BBC News Live Stream, Ringtones, Layer, Knocking, Barcode Scanner, Coupons, Trapster, Spongebob Slide, ProBasketBall, MySpace, ixMAT, and Evernote. Thanks, Jordan!

Continue reading Study: select Android apps sharing data without user notification

Study: select Android apps sharing data without user notification originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint said it was coming, and lo and behold, the carrier has proven to be true to its word. Here on the final day of September, the year 2010, Sprint has issued a highly anticipated firmware update for the Epic 4G. We’re told that it’ll be pushed automatically to phones, bringing along four major fixes: WiFi standby battery drain, Amazon MP3 cannot download in 4G, large emails lag in upload speeds and increased 3G upload speeds. The new version is S:D700.0.5S.DI18, should take seven or eight minutes to download and will be beamed across The Now Network over the course of the next few days. Is that a congregation celebrating off in the middle distance? Sure is.

Sprint Epic 4G update now rolling out, promises ‘increased 3G upload speeds’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were proactive enough to pre-order a T-Mobile G2, there’s a better-than-average chance that your shiny new smartphone is already en route to your abode. For those who slept in, it looks as if RadioShack will be the go-to place if you’re looking to snag one early from the retail universe. According to the badly formatted flyer pictured above, The Shack will be the first B&M location to stock the US version of the HTC Desire Z, and it’ll be hawking ’em for $149.99 on a two-year postpaid contract starting October 3rd. Got that penciled into your little black book? Good.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Continue reading RadioShack to sell T-Mobile G2 ‘first’ starting on October 3rd

RadioShack to sell T-Mobile G2 ‘first’ starting on October 3rd originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Italian design-house Alessi’s new Alessi Tab comes on like a digital photo-frame with benefits. The Android-powered tablet is meant to be used at home – the odd angular shape means it prefers table and countertops to pockets and bags.

Astonishingly, the press release says the Tab is aimed at the ‘young housewife’, who will presumably move the Tab from room to room whilst enjoying real-time news from the ANSA agency, weather from Epson (?), recipes (of course!) from Domus magazine’s Silver Spoon cookbook, internet radio and nutritional information. Further, she can make video calls and watch digital TV broadcasts (it actually has an antenna) while “having fun in the kitchen.”

If all this looks to you like the future as envisioned by Mad Men, you’re not alone. Even the styling has a slick, retro 1950s feel to it. This is all the weirder when you see the specs, which are decidedly up to date:

• 10.1-inch capacitive display
• Auto-rotation sensor (accelerometer)
• Android 2.1
• 1GB RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• DVB-T with detachable antenna
• Front-facing camera and microphone
• HDMI output
• USB port
• SD card reader

There’s no mention of processor speed, but we suppose the average housewife wouldn’t want to worry her pretty little head about things like that. Aside from the awkward shape, though, the Tab looks very capable, and all that installed crapware can presumably be cleaned off.

Price and availability are both still secret. You can be it’ll be expensive, though: Alessi charges $150 for a teapot.

Alessi Tab [Alessi via Uncrate]

See Also:

• $250 Korean Android Tablet Looks Strangely Familiar
• Velocity Cruz Android Tablet: 7-Inch Display, $300
• Android ePad Tablet Reviewed. Verdict: Junk
• Attack of the Pads: Tablets Take On Apple

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.