Hasta La Gadget!

Oh, sure — our international contemporaries have been toying with the Dell Streak for the better part of 2010, but Americans have just recently had their equal opportunity to indulge. It’s a mini tablet, or a huge phone. Or both. And sometimes neither. But whatever the case may be on any given Sunday, the 5-inch Streak has caused more of a stir for the folks in Round Rock than any product since the Adamo. For those who eagerly pre-ordered and then not-so-eagerly paid the credit bill upon receipt, we’re interested in knowing exactly how things are going so far. Are you still stoked about having a 5-inch phone? Would you have made it any larger / smaller? Changed the casing? Made it available on another carrier? Thrown in a slide-out QWERTY keyboard? Let us know in comments below, capiche?

How would you change Dell’s Streak? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Sep 2010 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

If you think there’s something in the air, you could know for sure by just pointing your Android phone at it.

An Android app called Visibility, developed by researchers at University of Southern California, lets users take a photo of the sky and get data on the air quality.

The free app is currently available for phones running Android 2.1 version of the operating system.

“Airborne particulate matter is a serious threat to both our health and the environment,” say the researchers on their blog. “We are working towards an optical technique to measure air visibility, and hence an estimate of some kinds of air pollution, using cameras and other sensors available on smartphones.”

It’s a neat idea and it’s interesting to see how smartphones are giving rise to the trend of citizen science and crowdsourced data.

As smartphones become ubiquitous and increasingly powerful, researchers are increasingly using the devices to do complex computations and use it for crowdsourced data gathering. For instance, as part of a project called ‘Common Sense’ Intel’s research labs developed sensors that could be attached to GPS-enabled phones and measure air quality.  The data gathered from these sensors would be brought back and processed to help researchers understand pollution levels.

The Visibility Android app hopes to offer something similar but make the process more user friendly.

With the Visibility app, each user photo of the sky is tagged with location, orientation and time. The data is transferred to a server where the calculations take place. The level of air quality is estimated by calibrating the images sent and comparing their intensity against an existing model of luminance in the sky, say the researchers.

The result is sent back to the user and the data is also used to create pollution maps for the region. An iPhone version of the app is in the works.

See Also:

• Social Networking Meets Apps in New Android App Store
• Independent App Stores Take On Google’s Android Market
• Hands-On: Android App ‘Layar’ Brings Reality’s Unique Snowflakes
• Indie Coder Proves Android Apps Can Make Money, Too

Photo: Mobile Sensing/USC Robotics
[via TreeHugger and Gizmag]

You might not be able to score a Flipout in AT&T stores just yet — in fact, AT&T still hasn’t fessed up to the fact that it’s coming — but if you’ve got $388 and a can-do attitude, you can still grab one. The swiveling Android set in full AT&T livery and packaging has shown up on eBay for $388.88… which, ironically, is probably less than you’ll pay off contract once it officially launches. There appear to be a few available at that price, so let us know if you pull the trigger.

[Thanks, Jon]

AT&T-branded Motorola Flipout released… on eBay originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  eBay  | Email this | Comments

The suggestion has been made countless times that manufacturers who customize their devices’ builds of Android (that is to say, nearly all of them) should have the decency to offer users the option of reverting to a completely clean, stock version of the platform if they so choose. The concept came up at a press lunch featuring Google CEO Eric Schmidt last week, and the dude responded with an interesting explanation for why they don’t require that of their partners: “if we were to put those type of restrictions on an open source product, we’d be violating the principle of open source.”

Of course, “the principle of open source” is open to wild differences in interpretation, the source of well over 20 years worth of intense debate in the developer community and the reason why countless types and versions of open source licenses exist (GPL, BSD, MIT, and so on). We’d also argue that the fact that Google is allegedly placing a range of arbitrary restrictions on certified devices (that is, those that feature the Market and other Google apps) gives them the platform they need to impose one more… but hey, Schmidt’s an opinionated guy, and until Android stops growing by leaps and bounds, there’s probably not a great capitalism-inspired argument that can be made here. Peep the video of the luncheon after the break.

Continue reading Google’s Schmidt says requiring stock Android would violate ‘the principle of open source’

Google’s Schmidt says requiring stock Android would violate ‘the principle of open source’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Search Engine Land  | Email this | Comments

Just as promised, T-Mobile has started offering its subscribers that “exclusive access” to early G2 pre-orders. There have been a couple of early hiccups with the pre-order page for that select group, but they’re being ironed out as we type and there’s also word that the rest of us unwashed Android geeks will be able to join in on October 6. One of our tipsters forwarded along a bill for his purchase showing the phone to be valued at $249.99 and an estimated delivery date of September 30. That’s quite the steep entry fee, considering Best Buy will have the phone on October 6 as well for just under $200 and Radio Shack is undercutting all with a $150 price on the typical two-year contract.

[Thanks, Justin and Wei]

Update: Our tipster’s $250 levy is before the standard $50 mail-in rebate, making for the predictable $200 price when all’s said and done.

Continue reading T-Mobile G2 pre-orders go live for current customers, available to all on October 6

T-Mobile G2 pre-orders go live for current customers, available to all on October 6 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 02:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  T-Mobile  | Email this | Comments