Dec 19

How would you change Motorola’s Droid?

Posted in: Android, cdma, droid, feature, Features, Google, HowWouldYouChange, HWYC, moto, motorola, smartphone, Today's Chili, verizon

The anti-iPhone. The phone that “does.” The first Motorola device that we’ve seen in years that’s downright awe-inspiring. Naturally, we’re referring to the Droid. VZW spent all kinds of money to hype up this Android 2.0 handset as the phone to get if AT&T’s 3G coverage was just too weak for your liking, and it seems to have been at least decently effective. We know the phone had its fair share of quirks right off the bat, but we’re happy to say that most of those nuisances were taken care of via firmware update. Still, we know geeks, and those suckers are never happy. If you were in charge of redesigning this thing, what aspects would you tweak? Is the slide-out QWERTY up to snuff? Is the display crisp enough? Are the transitions snappy enough? Do you wish it was impossible to turn off the “Droid” sound emission each time you received an email? Dish out your hot fury below.

How would you change Motorola’s Droid? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 07

HTC Passion runs Android on 3.5-inch OLED and Snapdragon in Verizon’s early 2010?

Posted in: Android, cdma, Google, HTC, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, OLED, qwerty, rumor, snapdragon, Today's Chili, verizon

Ever since the WinMo-powered HTC HD2 started to drip, drip onto our pages in the form of leaked images and details, we’ve been asking ourselves one question: where’s the Android version? And while we’ve heard whispers of a supposed Snapdragon-based Dragon device running Android ever since early October, we’re left to rely on Motorola’s Droid / Milestone to fulfill our Android 2.0 dreams this holiday season. And if DigiTimes is correct, that picture likely won’t change until early 2010. Taiwanese DigiTimes‘ sources have its Taiwan-based neighbor launching its Passion handset running Android 2.0 (or even 2.1 by then) on a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset with 3.5-inch multitouch OLED display sometime in early 2010 (not 2009 as previously tipped) as HTC continues to tweak the device’s software. And if previous rumors are true then this CDMA variant of Dragon will be making its debut on Verizon at that time. DigiTimes‘ sources also claim that HTC will announce a QWERTY-toting Android device, possibly named Espresso, at the huge Mobile World Congress event in February. Of course, all this is rumor for now so hold tight as HTC’s roadmap unfolds.

HTC Passion runs Android on 3.5-inch OLED and Snapdragon in Verizon’s early 2010? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 16

Samsung’s Ubicell CDMA base station going 3G in 2010

Posted in: cdma, Today's Chili

We’re all for upping our cell service in-home, so a few cheers to Samsung for upgrading its Ubicell personal CDMA base station to 3G. Joining the femtocell party in 2010, all we know beyond its primary directive is built-in GPS for more accurate E911 calls. Mum’s the word on price, carriers, or any more definitive launch date. The last Ubicell (pictured) was launched with Verizon, so nah, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this one here followed in its ancestor’s footsteps.

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Samsung’s Ubicell CDMA base station going 3G in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 10

Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend

Posted in: Android, cdma, cellphone, droid, Google, iPhone, moto, motorola, sales, smartphone, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless

The lines may have been subdued, but one way or another, it sounds as if Motorola managed to sell quite a few DROIDs over the weekend. According to analyst Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech, the outfit managed to move around 100,000 of ’em during the opening weekend, with most stores moving at least half of their original shipments. He also estimated that Moto would sell one million Android-based phones in Q4 2009 alone (which includes the CLIQ, obviously), and that he viewed the first few days as “encouraging.” It’s been a long, long while since we’ve been able to say this, but hey — nice job, Motorola.

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Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 09

Samsung pays Qualcomm $1.3 billion to secure wireless licenses

Posted in: 4G, cdma, Law, legal, mobile broadband, mobile internet, MobileBroadband, MobileInternet, patent, patents, qualcomm, samsung, Today's Chili, Wireless

Samsung and Qualcomm have wrapped up a cross-licensing deal with ten figures of US currency in it, which will permit the Korean giant to continue producing 3G- and 4G-enabled wireless devices for the next 15 years. In exchange, Samsung is letting Qualcomm make use of its own 57 patents on mobile technology and splashing out a further $1.3 billion as a down payment. Further royalty payments are involved, but not detailed, but just as a reference point, that’s more than the new Dallas Cowboys stadium and its ultra-huge scoreboard cost to build. The move is a renewal of the two companies’ current arrangement and Samsung has boldly claimed the terms of the new contract are more favorable to it, but we get the feeling the champagne will be flowing in San Diego this week.

[Via MobileTechWorld]

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Samsung pays Qualcomm $1.3 billion to secure wireless licenses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 04

Verizon looking to bump early termination fee to $350 on ‘advanced’ devices

Posted in: BlackBerry, carrier, cdma, cellphone, droid, price, pricing, rumor, smartphone, Today's Chili, us, usa, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw

You know what’s worse than showing your Bitter Beer Face to the world after you passed on Apple’s iPhone and let AT&T enjoy the spoils? Raising your early termination fee to stratospheric heights. Just over a year ago, we honestly though this whole ETF thing was headed in the right direction, as most of the major carriers (VZW included) sought to prorate contracts in order to lessen the charge as one’s contract drew closer to an end. Now, however, Big Red is evidently gearing up to pull a 180, with the slide above showing a $350 ETF for “advanced” devices (read: probably anything deemed a smartphone). The newly hiked rate will go into effect on November 15th, and while that $350 will decrease by $10 per month over the life of the agreement, this pretty much guarantees that you won’t be adding a line, disconnecting and then flipping that phone on eBay.

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Verizon looking to bump early termination fee to $350 on ‘advanced’ devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 26

Palm ‘Pixe’ (probably Pixi) populates FCC pages

Posted in: cdma, palm, Today's Chili

Thought you could fool us by renaming it “Pixe” in the file, eh Palm? We’re onto you… not that it matters given you’ve already announced a release date. At any rate, the Palm Pixi has popped up in the FCC database, being tested for CDMA/1xEVDO Rel 0 and EVDO Rev. A along with Bluetooth… and naturally, no WiFi. Not much else to say here and the most interesting pics are locked under a confidentiality agreement. Of course, there’s always a chance this is an entirely different Sprint-bound phone lacking WiFi, but that’d just be cruel.

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Palm ‘Pixe’ (probably Pixi) populates FCC pages originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 26

Verizon’s BlackBerry Curve 8530 gets reviewed early

Posted in: BlackBerry, cdma, reviewed, RIM, smartphone, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless

The phone you’re peering at above has more names than we’d care to count, but the so-called Aries (or the Gemini‘s CDMA’d sibling, if you please) may end up on Verizon as one of two things: the BlackBerry Curve 8530 or the BlackBerry Curve 2. The folks over at CrackBerry managed to get their hands on a unit far before this thing has even been officially released, and of course they’ve given us the rundown just as the Storm2 is stealing all of the attention over at Big Red. The WiFi-equipped handset (yeah, you read that right) was said to be “identical to the Curve 8520” with the exception of the back cover design, meaning that while solid, the device definitely felt “entry-level.” The interface was said to be satisfactorily snappy, the optical trackpad was dubbed “really great” and the web browser was still thoroughly worthless. If you really need to hear more, give that read link a look.

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Verizon’s BlackBerry Curve 8530 gets reviewed early originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 23

Motorola’s Zeppelin spotted, found to contain Android rather than hydrogen

Posted in: Android, cdma, moto, motorola, Today's Chili
Motorola's Zepplin spotted, found to contain Android rather than Hydrogen

Last week’s blurry little roadmap from Motorola gave us our first glimpse of the codename Zeppelin, and now just a few days later the back half of the thing has floated its way into the hands of someone at DIGI.QQ.com. The Android-powered handset is said to sport a five megapixel camera with flash, WiFi, a 3.1-inch 480 x 320 screen, HDMI output, and, in a first for Android, dual SIM slots marked GSM and CDMA — technically an R-UIM slot for CDMA, actually, which pretty much limits this thing to China. And indeed, rumor has it release will come behind the Great Wall sometime in the first quarter of next year, with worldwide shipments (of some other variant, we’d imagine) sometime later. Sure, that’s a long time to wait if your contract expiration is nigh, but we hear that Droid thing is pretty neat.

[Via AndroidOS.in]

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Motorola’s Zeppelin spotted, found to contain Android rather than hydrogen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 17

Verizon confirms: Palm Pre hitting Big Red “early next year”

Posted in: cdma, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, smartphone, Today's Chili, twitter, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, webos

Oftentimes a picture shouts a thousand words. Other times it belts out precisely a dozen. Straight from Verizon Wireless’ official Twitter account comes this, a confirmation that the Palm Pre we knew was coming to Big Red, well, is coming to Big Red. If you can hold off through the tempting holiday rush, you’ll find Palm’s first-ever webOS device on VZW “early next year.” Huzzah!

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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Verizon confirms: Palm Pre hitting Big Red “early next year” originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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