Hasta La Gadget!

Well, Sony Ericsson might just deserve a gold star for effort. A week ago we reported that a possible rollout of the long-rumored Facebook integration update would come to select Xperia series phones this week, and we’re seeing the process begin today. The recipients of this particular push are the Arc and Play, though it will come to all new Xperia devices down the road. While the download includes Android 2.3.3, the major focus is on “Facebook Inside Xperia,” another way for you to sync your social media with other aspects of your phone, such as contacts, calendar, and photo gallery. Other improvements in the package include WiFi stability, improved battery performance, HD video recording performance (Arc only), and bug fixes. Don’t stress if your phone hasn’t seen the update yet; Sony Ericsson says it’s rolling it out gradually due to issues with individual markets and carrier branding. No specific timeframe was given, though the company mentioned that “it can take a while.” Should you be one of the lucky recipients to get it today, however, sound off in the comments below.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson boosts Xperia Arc and Play to 2.3.3, includes Facebook integration

Sony Ericsson boosts Xperia Arc and Play to 2.3.3, includes Facebook integration originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 00:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if the one-call-wonder’s battery life wasn’t enough, the update pushed out to HTC Thunderbolt owners a couple weeks back has some devices randomly rebooting. Verizon and HTC have said they’re working on the issue, but that’s of little comfort to customers whose phones are spontaneously restarting several times a day. If you were hoping to solve the issue by installing the leaked version of Gingerbread, we’ve got bad news — there have been a number of reports at the XDA Developers Forums that the Sensed-up version of Android 2.3 is bricking phones and sending them into an endless bootloop. But don’t despair, a fix could be arriving soon. A source at Verizon told Droid Life that Thunderbolt-owning employees “may be entitled” to a software update before it gets rolled out to the general public — presumably a final test run for that reboot repressing patch. If you’re too impatient to wait for yet another firmware update, you can apparently stroll down to your local VZW store and simply trade in your troublesome T-Bolt for a new one. Just make sure it’s running the older software before you take it home.

HTC Thunderbolt issues abound, but a fix is on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been following along, you know that a phone enthusiast named DJ_Steve has kept the Dell Streak fresh, thanks to a series of hacked ROMs, dubbed StreakDroid. The latest version, 2.0.0 (or GingerStreak, if you’re feeling cute) brings Gingerbread to the 5-inch smartphone — expanding on the last ROM, which gave hackers the option of selecting Gingerbread’s app launcher. As always, though, dear Steve has noted a handful of bugs in the ROM’s early stages, including issues with the Superuser app, less-than-stellar graphics performance, and the fact that both GPS and 720p video recording require an engineering baseband and DSP to be flashed. As of this writing, all of the comments are from Streak owners eager to download this for themselves. We assume you are, too, so let us know how the new ROM works out for ya.

StreakDroid 2.0.0 gives the gift of Gingerbread to Streak hackers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 01:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, tabletphones are coming back! Joining the eccentric Dell Streak 5 is Pantech’s conveniently named Vega No.5 (or IM-T100K), a 5-inch Android 2.3.3 smartphone powered by Qualcomm’s brawny dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8660. Apart from the extra 0.7 inches of screen size, what we have here is essentially the same package as the Vega Racer: 800 x 480 LCD, 8 megapixel 1080p camera, front-facing camera, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 16GB of memory, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and 14.4Mbps HSPA+ connectivity. No word on international availability, but expect this slate to hit the shops in Korea later this month. Hands-on video after the break.

Continue reading Pantech Vega No.5 bringing sexy back to tabletphones, packs 1.5GHz dual-core chip

Pantech Vega No.5 bringing sexy back to tabletphones, packs 1.5GHz dual-core chip originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 06:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC brought in the 4.3-inch craze, but now that that form factor has gone mainstream, it’s looking to even larger dimensions. A 4.5-inch HTC Holiday has been dug up by none other than 911sniper, which is said to pack a qHD resolution (960 x 540), a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660, 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, and the very latest version of Android Gingerbread (2.3.4). That comes on the heels of Pocketnow unearthing a supposed image of the AT&T-bound smartphone, showing a predictably uncomplicated design framing a vast display. Let’s just hope the Holiday codename doesn’t mean we’ll have to wait till the holidays to see this overpowered new beast in action.

[Thanks, Connor]

HTC Holiday to be a 4.5-inch behemoth with qHD resolution, 1.2GHz dual-core, and AT&T future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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