Dell Streak official: exclusive to O2 UK in early June

Let’s all feign surprise now, as Dell has just gone official with its worst kept, though perhaps sexiest, secret ever. The former Mini 5 has been christened the Streak and is launching at the beginning of next month. The UK will be getting the first bite at this cherry, with the rest of Europe following soon thereafter and the US a disappointingly distant third with a launch “later this summer.” If you’ve been living under a (Round) Rock, this is Dell’s big foray into the smartphone market: a 5-inch supersized Android handset, housing a 1GHz Snapdragon, a 5 megapixel cam, 16GB of built-in memory (expandable to 48GB via MicroSD) and a customized UI. Curiously, Dell’s opting to market the Streak as “the ultimate portable tablet pc” and would prefer that this device, albeit fully equipped to carry out cellular calls like a phone, not be called a smartphone.

We got a chance to play with it during a briefing in London recently, and frankly, aside from the snazzier paintjob, there’s nothing new to report. Just like the prototype unit we’ve previewed to exhaustion, the device on hand was running Android 1.6 and Dell’s skinning team hadn’t yet laid on the goodies that we’ve been promised. The battery is the same 1,530mAh cell as before, and we even managed to get the browser to crash in the exact same fashion that our own Streak exhibits on occasion. Now that’s consistency. We’re not being told the specific Android version that the Streak will ship with, but a couple of flavors are being mulled over right now. Till we get more info, we suggest sitting back, relaxing, and perusing the gallery below for the roaring red number that’s currently on show. It won’t be available at launch — you can have any color so long as it’s black — but “a range of colors and designs” will swiftly follow to sate any aesthetic concerns. Video and full press release after the break.

Update: The Carphone Warehouse listing for the Streak shows Android 1.6 as the OS with an “OTA upgrade available soon.” Pair that with word direct from Dell that Android 2.2 and Flash 10.1 are coming “later this year,” and you can connect your own dots [Thanks, Azza].

Update 2: O2’s website now has a precise date for us: June 4.

Continue reading Dell Streak official: exclusive to O2 UK in early June

Dell Streak official: exclusive to O2 UK in early June originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 05:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos 7 Home Tablet now shipping, days ahead of schedule

Looking for a cheap Android tablet that’s neither KIRF nor vaporware? You could do worse than the $199 Archos 7 Home Tablet, now shipping from Amazon a full week ahead of its “early June” release window. For three Benjamins less than that other slate, you’ll get a thin, spacious device that serves as an excellent media player, coupled with a sub-par Android 1.5 experience and a resistive touchscreen. If the lack of Android Market isn’t a dealbreaker, you can slap down your bills right after the break, but we’d recommend reading through our full review to see it in action (complete with video) and find out exactly what you’re getting yourself into.

Archos 7 Home Tablet now shipping, days ahead of schedule originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 01:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Viliv’s AMOLED Prime P3 media player sports both Android and Windows CE

We’ve never been comfortable with the fact that Viliv’s many fun and fashionable PMPs have yet to gain a real foothold in the states. Maybe this will change with the Prime P3 media player. As near as we can tell (our Korean is a little rusty) this bad boy sports a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen, has both Android 2.1 and Windows CE 6.0 partitions, and supports 720p video. But that ain’t all! Connectivity is via microUSB, and additional storage comes courtesy of microSDHC. Rounding things off are an 800 MHz ARM Cortex CPU, accelerometer, and WiFi — all in a pretty classy little package. Available in flavors up to 32GB, we have no idea when this will see release, or for what price. We’ll let you know as soon as we get a heads up. For reals.

Continue reading Viliv’s AMOLED Prime P3 media player sports both Android and Windows CE

Viliv’s AMOLED Prime P3 media player sports both Android and Windows CE originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 00:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile Garminfone looks confirmed for June 2 release

It seems that your wait for Garmin’s first T-Mobile-bound phone — the aptly-named Garminfone — might be a short one. We’d already known it was coming in June for $200, but this shot here makes it sounds like June 2 is the date you should start lining up in front of the store at four in the morning (we kid, we kid) for your shot at arguably the best turn-by-turn experience available on an Android phone today. You can get over the lack of Froyo and a 3.5mm headphone jack, right?

[Thanks, 0mie]

T-Mobile Garminfone looks confirmed for June 2 release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 21:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How to get Hulu running on Android 2.2, for now

Android 2.2 and Flash 10.1. A perfect combination for combination for a little Hulu on the go, right? Not quite, as Hulu has decided to block videos (for legal reasons) when it detects a mobile device, but it turns out there is a surprisingly simple workaround. As Absolutely Android explains, all you have to do is make Hulu think you’re using a desktop browser, which can be done simply by entering “about:debug” in the address bar and switching the UAString setting from Android to desktop. The only downside to the trick is that you’ll now also get the full desktop version of the Hulu site (and any other site, until you switch it back), and there’s a better than decent chance that Hulu will close this loophole before you can finish your first episode of Kojak.

How to get Hulu running on Android 2.2, for now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google: The Next 6 Months of Android Will "Blow Your Mind" [Interview]

Android 2.2 is out, and it’s pretty nice! But what’s next for Android? A better keyboard? More sexy? And how exactly does Google decide what goes into each version of Android anyway? Let’s ask Lead Android Andy Rubin. More »

Pandigital intros 7-inch Novel e-reader, nabs access to B&N eBookstore

Pandigital’s best known for its hard, hard work in the game-changing digital photo frame world, but the company’s feeling a bit froggy of late. It’s latest leap is into the burgeoning e-reader market, and unlike those from Barnes & Noble and Amazon, this one’s sporting a 7-inch LCD — you know, now that Apple has suddenly made that “okay” again. At any rate, the forthcoming Novel boasts a full-color 800 x 600 resolution touchscreen, inbuilt WiFi and dimensions of 5.5- x 7.5- x 0.5-inches. The highlight here is the partnership with B&N, which gives this guy access to the bookseller’s eBookstore, not to mention the ability to share content via LendMe. Pandigital also throws in 1GB of internal memory, an SD / MMC card slot, orientation sensor, and the rechargeable battery is said to be good for a mediocre six hours on a full charge. The $199.99 Novel should be out and about next month supporting PDF, ePUB and HTML formats (yeah, there’s a web browser), and in case you were wondering, it’s based around Android and gets powered by an ARM 11 processor. Did Pandigital — of all companies — just out a remotely interesting e-reader? Yes, yes it did.

Continue reading Pandigital intros 7-inch Novel e-reader, nabs access to B&N eBookstore

Pandigital intros 7-inch Novel e-reader, nabs access to B&N eBookstore originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVO 4G Hacked, Rooted Before Arriving in Stores

Google’s gift to attendees of its I/O conference last week was the hot new HTC EVO 4G cellphone. One of the lucky giftees was developer Matthew Mastracci, who showed his gratitude by teaming up with two friends and hacking the hell out of the poor little EVO.

A few hours later and the team had successfully rooted the phone, and “managed to get the standard su tool installed.” This means that they had root, or super-user access to the phone and its file system. This lets you do anything you like to it. Here’s the video:

What does this mean for security? Not much. If you have physical access and a little time, you can hack pretty much any device. More interesting is the reminder that the new wave of smartphones – Android and iPhone – both use variants of the UNIX operating system under the hood, first developed way back in 1969. That these modern pocket miracles are running on an OS invented before I was born still kind of blows my mind.

Root on an HTC EVO 4G! [Grack]

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Motorola expects Android 2.2 update to hit Droid ‘in the near future’

Hearing Google say that Android 2.2 would be filtering out to the Nexus One in short order was no huge shock — after all, it’s Google’s first smartphone. But for those who purchased Motorola’s first heavy-hitter since the RAZR, it looks as if they’ll be close behind in enjoying the spoils. According to a Motorola spokesperson quoted at Slashgear (full statement is past the break), the company is expecting the original Droid to get Android 2.2 “in the near future,” though he / she wouldn’t go so far as to provide specifics beyond that. Better still, the same person stated that Motorola is excited about Froyo in general, and it’s “looking forward to integrating it on [the firm’s] Android-based devices as [the software] is made available.” We hate to read too deeply into anything, but “devices” sure gets our digits tingling.

[Thanks, Alex]

Continue reading Motorola expects Android 2.2 update to hit Droid ‘in the near future’

Motorola expects Android 2.2 update to hit Droid ‘in the near future’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 05:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Evo 4G rooted in record time (video)


We’re still a good dozen days away from its public release, but the Evo 4G has already been given a rooting makeover. Google dished out Evo handsets to all the lucky (so lucky!) attendees of its blowout I/O 2010 event, and a trio of those visitors rolled up their sleeves and decided to get down and intimate with the phone over the weekend. The product of their labor is at this stage just a few screenshots and a blurry video after the break, but fear not, we’re sure details of the hack will be forthcoming promptly.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC Evo 4G rooted in record time (video)

HTC Evo 4G rooted in record time (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 03:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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