Hasta La Gadget!

Chatter over the Milestone’s impending Android 2.1 update has reached a rolling boil in recent days, but it’s actually the Milestone’s American cousin that’s getting the official coverage today. That’s right: Verizon’s just posted details on the Droid’s upgrade to Google’s latest and greatest cut, and you’ve got the expected host of goodies including the new 3D Gallery app, voice-to-text, news and weather widgets, pinch-to-zoom support, “improved” pattern lock, and — get this — live wallpapers, something we’d originally thought Motorola might leave out. It appears to lack the Nexus One’s 3D app launcher (which we’d expected), but it’s still pure gold for owners. Let us know when you’ve gotten it, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Leaked documentation indicates we’ll see this start to get rolled out in batches of 250,000 at a time starting on Thursday — not too long of a wait (unless you’re in the very last batch, that is).

Verizon posts Android 2.1 upgrade details for Droid originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Throughout the histories of Windows Mobile and Android, many handset developers have talked the talk of supporting these mobile operating systems, dribbling out a couple of handsets per year as they focused on other priorities. But not HTC. The company has created more Windows Mobile and Android handsets than companies many times its size, and in fact developed the very first Android handset. Microsoft cited HTC at Mobile World Congress 2009 for being an exceptional partner, while Google’s Nexus One is an HTC-built handset sold exclusively by the search giant.

HTC has done more than simply create a lot of phones for these operating systems. It has attracted attention for its designs that include some of the largest displays and best QWERTY keyboards, as well as clever touches like the Touch Pro2’s speakerphone, which activates simply by placing the handset face down on a table during a call. But most distinctively, HTC has invested heavily in developing engaging user interfaces on top of both mobile OS foundations, with development teams focused on delivering skins like TouchFLO and Sense to both Windows Mobile and Android. But now that Microsoft is radically changing Windows Phone 7 Series, HTC will have to change course, and in the process lose the distinction of having its custom user experiences live across both Windows Mobile and Android.

Continue reading Switched On: Halting Total Customization

Switched On: Halting Total Customization originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spring Design said its Android-powered Alex e-reader is now on sale, and customers can pre-order their complementary e-books in a variety of formats.

Customers can order the $399 Alex e-reader at www.springdesign.com. The company announced the Alex e-reader late last year, sporting a dual-screen 6-inch E Ink display, a second 3.5-inch Android-powered touchscreen, and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Pre-orders will be shipped no later than mid-April, Spring Design said.

Spring Design will allow e-books to be shipped with what it calls a novel feature: LinkNotes,” which “opens up a whole new dimension in publishing,” according to the company. “Authors may
insert
hyperlinks in their books that show up on the EPD reading screen
indicating that
there is linked-in Web-based content available.  Users can click on
hyperlinks
in eBooks, corporate documents, or periodicals that lead to relevant
web-based
information or to multimedia content stored on the Alex eReader that
will enrich
their reading experience. “

Spring Design has hooked up with Google’s bookstore (with over one million titles) and other bookstores that
support Adobe’s DRM technology.  Spring has also engaged with multiple international partners to
jointly deliver multi-language versions of Alex for countries speaking Chinese,
Spanish, Russian, Korean and Hebrew, the company said.

It’s possible Spring Design may be the launching pad this whole “hypertext” idea needs to really take off.

Well it’s about time, Spring Design! After missing its February ship date, the company is finally ready for you to whip out the plastic and pre-order its Alex — that dual-screen, Android-based ereader we liked so much at CES. While you can shell out the $399 today, you’ll still have to wait until mid-April for the mailman to drop off the package. We’d like to say the wait stops there, but we’ve also learned that early buyers won’t have access to the promised Borders eBook store until June. When we chatted with Spring Design CEO Priscilla Lu last week she confirmed that Borders will officially launch its store in the “June time frame,” which will be around the very same time that the 3G version of the Alex will be ready to hit the market — at least there’s access to Google Books and an micro-SD card slot for sideloading in the meantime. With so much coming down the pike it may be worth waiting a bit more time for this one, but our own Alex arrived just last night so no matter what it’d behoove you to wait a few days for our review before you hit the source link to pre-order.

Update: Well, this is odd. Even though this news hit the wires today, the shop page on Spring Design’s website is definitely non-functional right now. Instead, you’ll see a message to check back soon. We’ll keep doing just that until we see signs of life… or hear otherwise.

Update 2: And we’re back…the pre-order page is finally up!

Spring Design Alex finally up for pre-order, Borders eBook store launching in June originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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