Hasta La Gadget!

A Swedish company will be the first to sell an internet-connected, Android-based TV set. The TV, from the amazingly-named People of Lava, will also be the first television made in Sweden for decades.

The TV is set, fittingly, to enter beta-testing in early Summer, and other than size and price, tech-specs are still to be finalized. The first model will have a 42-inch high-definition LED screen and cost between $2,000 and $2,500 ($2,700 and $3,400). This will be followed by 47 and 55-inch models.

An internet-connected TV is surely a Good Thing, allowing things like YouTube, Netflix and Hulu to stream straight to the big screen. The use of Android, too, seems smart: it already works, it’s free and it is all about the internet.

But after video-streaming, and perhaps a news or weather screensaver, we don’t see a whole lot point in other services. The People of Lava TV will come with a browser, Google Maps, and you’ll be able to grab more apps (Twitter and Facebook head the list). But these will require a keyboard, and if you’re going to grab a keyboard, why not just grab your laptop, cellphone or even iPad off the coffee table? This has the added advantage of not annoying everyone else in the room.

The web-TV is the future, but just treating it as a giant-screened PC is the wrong thing to do. Take this in the direction of Boxee, however, and we’re willing to talk.

Company site [People of Lava. Thanks, Robert!]

Press release [PDF]

HTC Incredible spotted in Verizon’s system (again) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following the Legend, HTC continues its Android 2.1 lineup with the Desire — a gorgeous cousin of the renowned Nexus One. We can trace our drool all the way back to the Desire’s leak in December, but there have been some changes since then that made it slightly less desirable — DivX support and 720p video capture never made it to the final build, but it’s not like the company laid down any official promise on them, right? Anyhow, there’s still plenty to be loved here, namely the speedy 1GHz Snapdragon, the large AMOLED screen, and HTC’s latest revision of Sense UI that we’ve already seen on the Legend. Now, there are probably two questions floating in the minds of our readers: is the Desire worth the extra moola over the Legend? And is it any better than the Nexus One? Let’s all find out together.

Update: commenter NigelL pointed out that HTC will push out DivX support in a future update. Thanks!

Continue reading HTC Desire review

HTC Desire review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid owners who have been jealously eyeing the extra features of the Nexus One Googlephone can now update their device. Motorola’s Droid launched on Verizon with Android v2.0. The Nexus One, which launched first on T-Mobile, came loaded with v2.1. This may not sound like much, but the extras are more than a single point update would suggest.

The update for Droid brings Google Goggles pre-loaded, enables pinch-to-zoom in the browser, maps and gallery apps, activates speech-to-text for filling out forms and writing messages and adds support for (somewhat ironically) Yahoo mail.

The update should be rolling out now, so if you are not the hacking type, just wait for your phone to be updated over the air. If you are more impatient, you can perform the update manually by downloading a zipped file, copying it to an SD card and then performing some cryptic button presses to install the new OS. If you have previously “rooted” you Droid (hacked it to allow root, or super user access), you’ll lose that status. Also, the download doesn’t come from either Verizon or Motorola, so exercise due caution before installing.

UPDATE: Reader Se7enLC points us to this download from Google. I haven’t tested it, due to the lack of a Droid, but at least it comes from Google’s servers. Thanks, Se7enLC!

2.1 Official OTA download is here for the Droid [Alldroid via MobileCrunch]

2.1 Download Link [Alldroid Forums]

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

As is pleasantly often the case with Android devices, it turns out there’s already a quick, easy, nearly painless way to circumvent the phased rollout of Android 2.1 to Verizon’s Droids out in the field. Anyone who’s already been through this will feel right at home with the process: grab the binary straight from Google (so you know it’s legit, which is always nice), rename the file, transfer it to your microSD card, and reboot to the recovery mode screen. The rest is pretty self-evident, and when all is said and done, you’ll have a Droid equipped with the very latest and greatest that Google has to offer. Let us know how it goes, y’hear?

Droid mercifully gets a manual 2.1 update option originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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