Hasta La Gadget!

As anyone who’s seen the last Engadget Show knows, we were incredibly lucky to have Google’s Erick Tseng as our guest. Erick is product manager of Android at Google, and he’s one of the sharpest, brightest, funniest guys around — it was great having him on the show, and I sincerely hope we see a lot more of him as time goes by. It’s obvious that Android is in capable hands.

Of course, the problem with having someone as funny, sharp, and bright as Erick on the show is that they tend to come in extremely well-prepared, and Erick was no exception — he’d read the many comments where you all asked for solid answers regarding the state of multitouch gestures on Android, and he had his answers ready and polished to a high shine. Like we’ve been hearing for months now, Erick told us that Android now supports the recognition of multiple touch inputs — the basic definition of “multitouch” — and that the real issue is actually how multitouch is implemented. It was a fascinating exchange that I encourage you to watch, but here’s the main quote:

When people say ‘why doesn’t Android have multitouch?’ it’s not a question of ‘multitouch’… I want to reframe the question. We have multitouch — what people are asking for is specific implementations in the UI that use multitouch, like pinch-to-zoom, or chording on the keyboard.

That’s a solid, respectable answer, and it was delivered with confidence, poise, and charm. There’s just one problem: it’s not actually an answer, because the semantics don’t matter. No matter how you look at it, the lack of “specific multitouch implementations” is still a huge issue with Android — one that’s become a growing distraction.

Continue reading Editorial: Google’s multitouch dilemma

Editorial: Google’s multitouch dilemma originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola launched a new Android phone in Korea this week, which appears to be coming to the United States at a future time.

The oddly-named Motorola Motoroi, which runs Android 2.0, “is expected in other markets around the world and we have no additional news to share at this time,” a Motorola spokesperson said Tuesday.

Oddly enough, the only person to confirm that the phone will be shipped to the U.S. is a senior vice president of the Motoroi’s carrier, SK Telecom — who would have absolutely no say in whether the phone ever arrives on American shores. Still, that didn’t keep Bae Joon-dong, a senior vice president at SK Telecom, from making it official: “”The Motoroi is a different model from the Droid, (Motorola’s Android
smartphone launched in the United States), and it will be launched in
the United States around March,” Joon-dong said, according to the English-language Korea Herald.

Here’s a list of the reported features, attributed to Nexus404 until we can track down the specs:

You have to love a good clash of legitimate titans, and they don’t get much bigger than Google and China. After deciding to stop censoring its Google.cn results, the Mountain View company of evil-non-doers has stepped up its offensive with the announcement that two Android phones — one from Samsung and one from Motorola — which were slated to make their arrival on China Unicom on Wednesday have now been postponed. We’ll read between the lines and guess that the phones will be “postponed” if China plays nice, or “never gonna happen” if it doesn’t. Google seems intent on demonstrating the full impact of its potential withdrawal from China, and this show of its sway with mobile manufacturers will hardly go unnoticed.

[Thanks, David Casteneta]

Google’s spat with Chinese government causes ‘postponement’ of Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wondering where Froyo is? It seems the boys and girls in Mountain View took a quick breather to commission one of the crazier stop-action short films we’ve seen in a while — and probably the craziest stop-action unboxing we’ve ever seen. If you questioned the Nexus One’s real ultimate power before watching this, you won’t any longer. Follow the break for video!

[Thanks, NordicOten]

Continue reading Tiny ninjas unbox the Nexus One on Google’s dime

Tiny ninjas unbox the Nexus One on Google’s dime originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China is one of Motorola’s last safe havens for Windows Mobile-powered devices, but even the Far East is falling to the inevitable onslaught of little green robots — one need look no further than the XT701, MT710, and XT800 for evidence of that. That leads us to believe that the company’s 2010 haul of smartphones for China will be primarily Android-based — particularly in light of China Mobile’s commitment to it through Open Mobile System — expanding on comments in Korea this week by Moto’s GM of the mobile devices business that there will “probably another four or five [smartphones] later” in the region following the recent announcements of the MT710 and XT800 and the upcoming launch of the XT701. Considering that China continues to be a stronghold for Moto, we’re not surprised to see so much of the company’s product R&D dollars go that way — as long as the rest of the world ends up getting some trickle-down benefit, of course.

Motorola China has a bunch of smartphones on tap this year originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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