Hasta La Gadget!

When we first caught wind of Fring a while back, Skype compatibility was the draw, but as the years progressed and Fring grew some, the VoIP services didn’t exactly get along. Today, the company’s taking matters into its own hands with the not-so-subtly named FringOut, which appears to provide even cheaper calls to landlines and mobile phones than its powerful namesake. Starting on Nokia’s S60 platform and “coming soon” to Android and iPhone, FringOut’s promising as-low-as one-cent-a-minute calls. Sounds like a deal to us, but of course, call quality is paramount — let us know if you like what you hear if you happen to try it out. PR and video after the break.

Continue reading Fring reveals FringOut for cheap VoIP calls, challenges Skype head-on

Fring reveals FringOut for cheap VoIP calls, challenges Skype head-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thought EA had no love for Android or Windows Phone 7? Not quite — it’s just the existing market opportunities that the company doesn’t seem to enjoy. CFO Eric Brown told the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference that the game publisher is actually quite bullish on Google’s rapidly popularizing mobile OS and plans to ‘position its mobile business’ accordingly, but first he said this: “I think the next big positive way to push better growth in mobile will be the deployment of an App Store equivalent for the Android operating system.” Since we’re fairly certain Brown would be aware of a little thing called the Android Market, we figure he’s talking about the same mysterious reason that caused Gameloft (which produces a number of Android titles already) to circumvent the Market in favor of their own online store. One thing’s for certain on the EA Mobile front: the company really needs to update their smartphone games page to support a wee bit more than the “Google Android-Powered T-Mobile G1.”

Electronic Arts ready to embrace Android, but wishes it had an App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Sep 2010 01:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We figured Skyhook’s business interference and patent infringement lawsuits against Google would turn up some dirt, and we didn’t have long to wait: the location-services company’s complaint flatly alleges that Google’s Andy Rubin ordered Motorola’s Sanjay Jha to “stop ship” on the Droid X because it used Skyhook’s XPS positioning system instead of Google Location Services, a tiff that ultimately delayed the phone’s release while Moto reworked the software and dropped Skyhook entirely. Following that, Skyhook claims that Google then went after an unidentified “Company X” (likely Samsung) and forced it to drop XPS as well — which would certainly explain why Samsung’s Galaxy S phones have WiFi positioning turned off by default, unlike every other Android phone. Ouch.

If you’re thinking that makes no sense because Android is “open,” well, you might have another think coming — Skyhook claims that Google’s decisions to allow access to Android Market and its branded apps are an entirely subjective ruse based on something called the Compliance Definition Document, which can be “arbitrarily” interpreted any way Google wants with no recourse. Skyhook says that Google has now told Android OEMs that they’re required to use Google Location Services, preventing Skyhook from fulfilling its contracts and costing the company millions in expected royalties.

Now, this is Skyhook’s side of the story and we’re sure Google will make a persuasive argument of its own, but let’s just back up for a moment here and point out the obvious: Google’s never, ever come out and clearly said what’s required for devices to gain access to Android Market and the branded apps like Gmail — even though we’ve been directly asking about those requirements since Android first launched. Remember when Andy Rubin told us that there would be full-fledged “Google Experience” phones with no carrier or handset manufacturer limitations? Or when we were told that phones with skins like HTC Sense or additional features like Exchange integration wouldn’t have Google branding? And then all of that turned out to be a lie? Yes, Android might be “open” in the sense that the source code is available, but there’s no doubt Google’s wielded incredible power over the platform by restricting access to Market and its own apps — power that hasn’t been used to prevent carrier-mandated bloatware or poorly-done manufacturer skinning, but has instead apparently been used to block legitimate competitors like Skyhook from doing business. We’re dying to hear Google’s side of this story and fill in some of the gaps — and you can bet we’re digging as hard as we can for more info. Stay tuned, kids.

Skyhook: Google forced Motorola to drop our location service, delay the Droid X originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We certainly weren’t expecting it, but we can now confirm that the Desire HD announced yesterday lacks any 3G for use in North America thanks to the FCC filing that just hit today. Frequently, we don’t know how HTC’s internal product codes map to unreleased devices, but by pure happenstance we got a shot of the Desire HD’s battery slot during our hands-on where we see that “PD98100” definitely lines up. What does this all mean? Well, it means that the EVO 4G seems poised to soldier on as HTC’s only 4.3-inch Android option for Americans in the near term, though there have been plenty of situations in the past where they’ve snuck in a second model code with 850 / 1900 on board. We’ll hold out hope, we suppose.

HTC Desire HD hits the FCC, lacks American love originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola is indeed looking to go head to head with the iPad, just don’t expect a new consumer tablet from the company any time this year. Motorola co-chief executive Sanjay Jha told a crowd at the company’s investor conference, “we want to make sure that any tablet that we deliver is competitive in the marketplace, and I think all of us will make sure that we will only deliver that when that occurs.”

Such a tablet may arrive as early as next year, but there are still a number of roadblocks, not the least of which is the latest build of Google’s Android. The search giant is convinced that Froyo, Android 2.2, is not quite ready for the full-on tablet treatment. Jha said that his company will wait until the software is more tablet-friendly before going ahead with the product.

Motorola has been heavily invested in Google’s open operating system as of late, having released a number of Android-based smartphones, including the Charm, Cliq, Backflip, Devour, Droid, Droid 2, and Droid X.

Samsung last night revealed its own Android-based tablet, the Galaxy Tab, which runs Froyo.