Motorola’s Droid 2 in the wild, looking as blue as ever

And that, folks, is our first in the wild look at Motorola’s second generation Droid. It’s not officially supposed to hit retail until tomorrow, but that obviously hasn’t stopped a delivery truck from unloading a few at a nondescript Sam’s Club. We’re still waiting to hear back on whether or not they’re actually being allowed out of the store today, but hey, tomorrow ain’t too far away.

P.S. – Nice Sony Ericsson mat.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Motorola’s Droid 2 in the wild, looking as blue as ever originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s Streak Tablet Is Priced Like a Phone

Dell’s Android-powered Streak with its 5-inch display is being billed as a tablet. But when it comes to pricing the device, it’s being sold like a phone.

After a false start last month, Dell has announced that the Streak will be available to U.S. consumers starting Thursday. The Streak will cost $300 with a two-year contract on AT&T and $560 without one.

The Streak is targeted at smartphone users who crave a larger display but at the same time need a device that’s portable and could potentially replace their phone. The Streak has a 5-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera, phone, browser and access to Android apps. (Read Wired.com’s review of the Dell Streak.)

But does the Streak deserve the ‘tablet’ tag attached to it?

With its 9.7-inch display and a monthly data plan that requires no contract, Apple iPad doesn’t draw direct comparisons against a smartphone.

So far with the Streak, Dell has done everything that it would with a smartphone–including pricing the device on a long-term contract. The only thing that sets the Streak apart from other Android-powered smartphones is that the home screen on the Streak is locked in the landscape mode.

Meanwhile, Android smartphones are getting bigger–the Motorola Droid X and HTC Evo have a 4.3-inch display. The Streak with its 5-inch screen is not a big leap forward.

Dell may be insisting on calling the Streak a tablet because the company is afraid to directly jump into the extremely competitive and crowded Android smartphone market. With devices such as the Evo and Droid X, HTC and Motorola are constantly pushing the hardware specs for a phone.

By positioning the Streak as a tablet, Dell can avoid being directly compared to these other devices. At the same time, it can tap into the consumer demand for tablets. After all, Apple sold more than 3 million iPads in just about 80 days of the launch of the product in April and it says it hasn’t seen signs of demand slowing down.

If that’s the case, calling the Streak a tablet is clever marketing wizardry but it may not be enough to convince consumers.

See Also:

Photo: Dell Streak (Priya Ganapati/Wired.com)


Samsung Captivate Processor Overclocked to 1.2 GHz

Samsung’s Captivate phone on AT&T has a 1 GHz processor. It’s the fastest available in smartphones currently, but that’s not enough computing power for some Android enthusiasts.

An Android developer at the xda-developers forum has overclocked the Samsung Captivate to run at 1.2 GHz, nearly 20 percent faster than the standard-issue phone. Theoretically, the processor, called ‘Hummingbird,’ can be overclocked to 1.6 GHz.

Samsung introduced the Captivate, part of its Galaxy S family of devices, last month. The phone has a 4-inch OLED touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and Android 2.1 operating system.

Overclocking Android phones is becoming popular among hard-core Android users. In June, Android developer Michael Huang overclocked the 1 GHz processor on HTC to 1.27 GHz.

If you want to push your Samsung Captivate phone to run faster, check out the thread that offers instructions on how to do it. It isn’t for amateurs but if you love tinkering with your phone, try it out. Be warned, it may void the warranty on the device.

See Also:

[via Ubergizmo]


ZTE Racer review

In a battlefield now abundant with Android handsets, there’s only one easy way for a young smartphone brand to grab our attention: make a seriously dirt cheap handset. And we’re not just talking about a free phone chained to a pricey 18-month contract (like the Vodafone 845); we’re looking for a Pay & Go smartphone tagged with a standalone dumbphone price, so even the £200+ ($316+) “budget” HTC Wildfire and Sony Ericsson X10 Mini / Mini Pro are out of the question.

This is where Three UK’s ZTE Racer comes in: priced at just £99.99 ($158) or for free on various contracts, this Android 2.1 handset has quite rightly stolen the paper crown from the 845. But don’t let that price tag fool you — this 14.5mm-thick device still comes with a fairly modern 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset (as featured on the Aria and X10 Mini / Mini Pro), garnished with a 3.2 megapixel camera (sans flash), HSDPA 7.2Mbps connectivity, 2GB microSD card, FM radio, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a Skype app for free Skype calls within the UK. There is just one caveat: you’ll have to live with a 2.8-inch QVGA resistive touchscreen. So, is this an immediate deal-breaker? Can the other features make up for this flaw? Read on to find out.

Continue reading ZTE Racer review

ZTE Racer review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Droid Android 2.2 Froyo OTA updates are go

Judging by the deluge of tips that just hit our inbox, it looks like Verizon just pulled the trigger and released the Android 2.2 Froyo over-the-air update for its venerable Droid handset. At least it has for some lucky owners. So tell us, did you get yours?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Droid Android 2.2 Froyo OTA updates are go originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola XT806 Android flip phone strikes a pose on Chinese website

You’d think Motorola would be done for the summer after pushing out the much anticipated Droid 2, but no — apparently it has yet more Android handsets to deliver before it could head to the beach. Spotted on a Chinese regulatory website is this XT806 flip phone, which is destined for China Telecom’s CDMA2000 network. Like the other MING handsets, the main selling point here is the Chinese handwriting input on the 3.6-inch 854 x 480 LCD screen — no word on touchscreen type, but we’d be surprised if it isn’t resistive. The phone — powered by a 600MHz TI OMAP3430 chip — also comes with microSD explansion, FM radio, Bluetooth, WLAN of some sort, and a 5 megapixel camera that does 720p video. As for which version of Android, no idea, but we’d still pick the MT810 over this newbie any day.

Motorola XT806 Android flip phone strikes a pose on Chinese website originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Tab said to be debuting at IFA next month

We’d already heard that Samsung’s 7-inch Android-based tablet (apparently known as the Galaxy Tab) would be rolling out sometime in the third quarter of this year, and it looks like we now also know when it’ll be making its official debut. According to South Korea’s JoongAng Daily, an unnamed “high-ranking official” at Samsung has confirmed that the device will be officially unveiled at IFA, which kicks off September 3rd in Berlin. No more new details beyond that, unfortunately, but previous reports have suggested that the device will match its smartphone counterpart with an AMOLED display, and boast some decent specs across the board, including Android 2.2, a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor, 16GB of on-board memory, and both WiFi and 3G connectivity.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab said to be debuting at IFA next month originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stats Show iPhone Owners Get More Sex


Gadget lovers have long held to the secret belief that the right camera, smartphone or large-aperture lens will make them sexier.

Now dating site OK Cupid has proof.

According to OK Cupid’s survey of 552,000 user pictures, digital SLRs make you look more attractive, Panasonic cameras make you sexier than Nikons, while using a flash will make you look 7 years older, and large-aperture lenses make you hotter.

And iPhone users have more sexual partners than BlackBerry or Android owners. By age 30, the average male iPhone user has had about 10 partners while female iPhone users have had 12. By contrast, BlackBerry users hover around 8 partners and Android users have a mere 6.

As the blog’s author’s wryly observe: “Finally, statistical proof that iPhone users aren’t just getting fucked by Apple.”

That should give iPhone and iPad users some comfort for being considered ‘selfish elites,’ as another recent survey found.

OK Cupid has been analyzing the behavior of the site’s millions of users for some time, and has discovered many interesting tidbits: People tend to lie on their profiles, people’s political preferences change as they age, and men can increase their chances of getting a date by being open to older women. The site’s massive dataset, huge volume of activity, and interesting slicing and dicing combine to produce some keen observations on human nature.

But for gadget heads, there’s no more pertinent observation than (hard) data. The Panasonic Micro 4/3 camera will make you look far more attractive than a Canon DSLR, which in turn is better than a Nikon or Sony DSLR. And forget about cameraphones: Android, Nokia, BlackBerry and Windows phones all make you look less attractive, with Motorola phones at the absolute bottom of the list.

Similarly, the type of camera you wield makes a big difference. There’s a dramatic illustration showing how the same woman looks photographed with a cameraphone, a point-and-shoot camera, and an SLR. That makes sense: As we’ve explained before, larger image sensors give you better-quality images.

Along the same lines, a larger-aperture photo lets you put the background out of focus, increasing the apparent attractiveness of the person you’re taking a picture of.

So if you wanted an excuse to buy a fancier camera with a bigger lens, OK Cupid’s got all the rationale you need.

As for switching from Android or BlackBerry to an iPhone? Well, that’s up to you. Unlike with the photos, it’s hard to tell whether iPhone use is the cause, or the effect, of having more notches in one’s bedpost.

OkTrends, via EthanZ

Image: via OKCupid

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iPhone Users Have Twice as Much Sex as Android Users (Plus! Sexiest Cameras) [Science]

According to 11 million plus images indexed by users of dating site OK Cupid, iPhone users get laid twice as often as Android users. More »

Dell Streak on sale August 13 for $300 on AT&T contract, $550 without

After a brief delay in getting the ball rolling stateside, Dell’s finally ready to start selling its Streak this Friday to all comers. If you go for a new two-year contract through AT&T, you’ll be paying $299.99; if you value your freedom, though, you’ll be looking at $549.99 out the door — oh, and if you signed up for the pre-sale, you’ll be able to place your order a day earlier on the 12th. Unfortunately, we don’t have any indication that it’ll be launching with anything newer than Android 1.6, so let’s hope that juicy 2.1 update with 720p video capture wastes no time getting rolled out. Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Dell Streak on sale August 13 for $300 on AT&T contract, $550 without

Dell Streak on sale August 13 for $300 on AT&T contract, $550 without originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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