Hasta La Gadget!

Palm first started telling us webOS 1.4.5 was coming “soon” back in May, but after an interminable wait it looks like Pre Pluses on Verizon and AT&T are starting to get an OTA update. The release notes page on Palm’s site is currently down, but we’re looking for better PDK support, some GPS fixes, and improved gaming action. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out anything definite — but for now, let us know how it’s going on comments.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

webOS 1.4.5 for Palm Pre Plus on Verizon and AT&T finally arrives originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 01:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

It’s an unfortunately familiar phenomena — PC vendors suffering from razor thin margins load their devices with more stickers than a stock car and install gigabytes of useless applications that serve only to take up space and use system resources. Sony was perhaps the most egregious in 2008, offering to remove the offending bloatware for a $50 fee. It’s as if Tony Soprano went into tech — “Pay us and we won’t mess up your computer.”

It’s deja vu all over again for mobile phones. More and more devices I look at are coming installed with applications I don’t want, often popping up messages to try and upsell me on services I have no interest in. Even worse, unlike PCs where offensive applications can be removed or the OS reinstalled cleanly, there’s often nothing that can be done to get rid of unwanted mobile software without arduous work. It’s not limited to Android devices, but it seems that increasingly Android more than other platforms is shipping with the worst mobile bloatware. It’s a bad trend that’s going to lead to consumer backlash and it’s destroying the credibility of Google’s Android vision.

Continue reading Entelligence: Will carriers destroy the Android vision?

Entelligence: Will carriers destroy the Android vision? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Sep 2010 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally the fevered dream of Microsoft executives circa CES 2007, the Xbox 360 IPTV box is rapidly becoming a reality, first sneaking into Canadian carrier Telus’ Optik TV outlay and now reportedly in development at AT&T. Now, we wouldn’t have blamed you for doubting Microsoft when it briefly mentioned U-Verse subscribers would get Mediaroom functionality in their game console later this year, but it’s looking more likely now: a tipster just forwarded some legit-looking screenshots of Xbox prompts in AT&T U-Verse’s technical support database. Our source claims the Xbox is presently being tested internally with friends and family of AT&T employees, and that it’s likely only a couple of months away at this point. Not discussed: whether or not Xbox 360 will provide closed captioning for the “TV impaired.” See what IPTV on Xbox might look like in our January eyes-on.

AT&T technical support tool suggests Xbox 360 will bring IPTV to U-Verse households soon originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ll admit, we’d kinda figured that HTC’s venture into the seedy underworld of dumbphones with the introduction of the Smart earlier this year was a non-starter and that it’d quietly fade into the night before 2010 was out, but apparently not — at least, not if you ask AT&T. We’ve been slid a couple shots of a new handset from HTC for Ma Bell going by the model number F8181 (it’ll have a fancy name like “Bacon,” “Double Rainbow,” or “Nilay Patel” by the time it launches, obviously) that runs the Brew MP platform Qualcomm has been pushing this year for the sub-smartphone category; of course, it seems to us that smartphone hardware is getting cheap enough to push through nearly every price segment, but if we can expect this to be free on contract, we suppose there might be a market here. No word on dollars or dates just yet, but naturally, we’ll keep you in the loop.

Exclusive: HTC F8181 is AT&T’s Brew MP-equipped dumbphone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s bet on Android seems to have paid off big for the company. Samsung has shipped more than one million Galaxy S phones in the U.S. since the devices were launched in mid-July.

The news makes the Galaxy S devices one of the hottest Android phones available today, though the smartphones haven’t reached iPhone-like popularity yet. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices in just the first three days of sales in June. Though official numbers for the Droid weren’t released, analytics firm Flurry estimates 1.05 million Droid phones were sold in 74 days.

So far, Samsung has two models of the Galaxy S phones, Samsung Vibrant and Samsung Captivate, available on T-Mobile and AT&T respectively. But two more Galaxy S devices are expected to debut soon–Samsung Epic 4G on Sprint and Samsung Fascinate on Verizon Wireless.

Common to all these devices are features such as AMOLED display, a 1GHz processor called ‘Hummingbird’ and entertainment apps. Samsung says all Galaxy S devices will be upgraded to Android 2.2 Froyo operating system.

It will be interesting to see if the Galaxy S phones can topple Motorola Droid as the best-selling Android phone. Motorola recently launched Droid 2 on Verizon Wireless. Though HTC’s Evo has been a big hit on Sprint and Sprint has called a best-seller on the network, the two companies have never disclosed exactly how many Evos have been sold till date. The Evo has also suffered from shortages and a recent estimate suggests that only 300,000 Evo phones had been sold as of mid-July.

Samsung’s Epic 4G, which is scheduled to be available on Sprint starting August 31, could give the Evo some real competition, though it remains to be seen if the device can do better than the Evo.

Meanwhile, Samsung is gearing up to launch a 7-inch tablet in September called the ‘Galaxy Tab’. The tablet will run Android 2.2 Froyo OS, include video-calling capability and full web browsing—which likely means support for Flash, according to a teaser video that Samsung posted last week.

See Also:

• Motorola Droid Rules Android
• Samsung Android Phone Captivates AT&T
• Bloatware Creeps Into Android Phones
• Why You Should Avoid Phones With Android Skins

Photo: Samsung Vibrant (Stefan Armijo/Wired.com)