Hasta La Gadget!

One million units sold in the realm of smartphones isn’t quite as impressive of a feat as it once was — especially if your phone is available on numerous carriers around the world. Still, there’s something to be said for the pace at which it reaches the milestone, and for LG, the Optimus One managed Seven Digits in just 40 days after initial launch. Given that it’s still rolling out globally — Verizon’s about to pick it up November 18th as the Vortex — we doubt that number’s letting up anytime soon. On a related note, given the success of this budget-minded Android 2.2 phone, something tells us LG will be focusing much heavier on that market segment.

Optimus One is LG’s fastest-selling phone ever: one million in 40 days originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not exactly the Optimus T / S we saw hit T-Mobile and Sprint, respectively, but for all intents and purposes, it’s a fraternal twin. The LG Vortex for Verizon brings with it Android 2.2, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 3G Mobile HotSpot capability, Skype, Swype, a suite of pre-installed carrier / manufacturer apps (e.g. VZ Navigator), and as you might’ve guessed from it being a non-Droid Verizon Android phone, Bing Search and Bing Maps. Despite being a later arrival, this one’s actually the most expensive of the three — $80 on contract after $100 mail-in rebate. November 18th, if you want to mark a calendar.

LG Vortex puts a Verizon spin on budget Android — yes, Bing’s there, too originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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£999.99 ($1,612) for a Toshiba Folio 100?! That’s a fair bit more expensive than its original $560 price point — either its Tegra 2 chip’s made out of gold (which would explain its rarity) or someone got super bored at that PC World store in the British Midlands. Soon after receiving this photo, we put on our detective hat and headed over to our local branch in London, only to find that it had already stopped selling the offending Android tablet merely ten days after its European launch. We quizzed the staff about the aforementioned £999.99 pricing and then all was clear: apparently this is a standard internal convention to stop its folks from selling certain products, so the price tag and display unit you see above weren’t supposed to be there at all. Oopsie!

So why is PC World (and the whole DSG International chain) pulling the Folio 100? Turns out this has nothing to do with Toshiba; but it’s simply because of a high return rate from disappointed customers. In fact, head over to MoDaCo and you’ll see a screenshot of PC World’s internal memo that confirms this sad news. We had already given the tablet some decent (and disheartening) hands-on time back at IFA, but since our new friends at the store kindly offered to let us unbox a Folio 100 for a giggle, we decided to give it another go. And boy, it sure was a letdown: you’ll see in our hands-on video after the break that the 10.1-inch LCD is haunted by an inferior pixel density plus narrow viewing angles; and the cheap plastic casing doesn’t help, either. Most importantly, the official Android Market app was still MIA, which is no doubt the biggest turn-off for the buyers. Too bad, Toshiba, but do come back next year when you have Honeycomb and some decent screens.

[Thanks, John L. and Adam C.]

Update: Some commenters are pointing out that many software bugs — especially in the Toshiba Market Place app — and the lack of pinch-to-zoom in the browser are to be blamed as well. Yikes.

Continue reading PC World stops selling the Toshiba Folio 100, we go hands-on to find out why (video)

PC World stops selling the Toshiba Folio 100, we go hands-on to find out why (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still waiting on official Froyo builds for the American Galaxy S variants, but they seem to be getting close. How close? Well, close enough so that you can taste a leak for the Epic 4G if you like to live dangerously. The binary comes conveniently pre-rooted by the source and has a handful of known issues — most notably some sluggish / buggy web browsing — but we guess that’s the price you pay for stepping out on the bleeding edge. Let’s hope an official release isn’t too far behind.

[Thanks, Caleb E.]

Android 2.2 update for Samsung Epic 4G leaks out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, that new 2.3 version of Gmail that launched in September? Yeah, we’d steer clear if you haven’t nabbed it yet. Google’s currently trying to track down a bug that’s leaving many users (including our own hapless Chris Ziegler) unable to download any attachments. Interestingly, or disconcertingly if you’re of the pessimistic sort, Google actually has a “Gmail attachment issues investigation” page set up to allow highly technical users to submit debug reports of the problem. Sure, we’re all for crowd sourcing, but we also wouldn’t mind a big sturdy “hey guys, we’ve got this” on an issue of this magnitude. The worst part? You can’t revert to the old version of Gmail if you’ve got the latest OTA update on your fancy new T-Mobile G2.

Interestingly, while we were discussing this issue, ensconced in the Engadget HQ jacuzzi, adult beverages in hand, we got a tip from some poor soul detailing a bug that’s been in Android since the G1 days. Basically, if you fail at the pattern unlock too many times, the phone will ask you to enter your Google account info to unlock your phone. Sounds like a smart security feature, but unfortunately it doesn’t work. The insanely detailed thread on Google’s Android bug tracker reads like a history of the Android platform and the futility of man rolled into one, with various workarounds being discovered for different phones, and many desperate users resorting to wiping their phones and starting over. Sure it’s minimal in the grand scheme of things, and plenty of platforms have outstanding bugs years after release, but we figured a little *bump* couldn’t do anyone any harm. This one’s for you, Dylan R.

Rough edges cut deep: Android still facing years-old unlock screen bug, Gmail 2.3 attachment woes have Google stumped originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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