Sep 14

Motorola Admiral outed as mystery Sprint Direct Connect device, strikes a pose for the camera

Posted in: Android, cdma, exclusive, gingerbread, Google, mobilepostmini, motorola, qwerty, Sprint, Today's Chili
That unnamed Motorola smartphone coming this fall to help usher in Sprint’s new CDMA-based Direct Connect service? It appears to be the Admiral. If the name sounds familiar, its trademarked logo actually appeared simultaneously with the Samsung Epic 4G Touch. But it’s so much more than a name now, thanks to a tipster who sent in an image of the device next to some well-detailed specs. The Admiral will likely be a portrait QWERTY Android 2.3 device powered by a 1.2GHz single-core Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU, and will feature a 3.1-inch VGA display, 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording and a stellar 1,860mAh battery. Oh, and it’s a rugged phone that’s built according to 810G military specifications. If this truly is the mystery Motorola Direct Connect smartphone we’ve been waiting for, it’s bound to turn a few hard-hat-donning heads.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Motorola Admiral outed as mystery Sprint Direct Connect device, strikes a pose for the camera originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 14

Yamaha updates AV Controller Android app for its networked devices

Posted in: Android, android market, AndroidMarket, app, Google, hdpostcross, market, minipost, remote control, RemoteControl, Today's Chili

Yamaha is now ready to shout about its updated AV Controller app for Android, which it quietly launched on the Market a couple of weeks back. It lets you power up and control networked AV receivers from your phone or tablet, including switching inputs and selecting media from iPods and other devices connected to the receiver via USB. It also provides limited play, stop and forward control over compatible Blu-ray players. Some users report problems but most seem content, so it’s worth a spin if you have one the devices listed in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Yamaha updates AV Controller Android app for its networked devices

Yamaha updates AV Controller Android app for its networked devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 14

Sharp FX Plus venturing beyond Walmart this month, we go hands-on

Posted in: Android, att, froyo, Google, mobile, mobilepostcross, Sharp, Today's Chili, walmart
If you haven’t heard of the Sharp FX Plus, you must not be the type to troll the halls of your local Walmart. The phone went on sale there a few weeks back, and a PCD rep just confirmed it’ll soon venture outside Walmart’s massive aisles, hitting select AT&T stores by the end of the month. We spotted it tonight as we were wandering around a New York City media event. There it was, sitting on a lone table, overshadowed by the likes of the HTC Thunderbolt and Incredible 2. Alas, the device on hand wasn’t active, so we didn’t get to peek the software / performance, but hit the break for some quickie impressions of just how much hardware this free phone’ll get you.

Gallery: Sharp FX Plus hands-on

Continue reading Sharp FX Plus venturing beyond Walmart this month, we go hands-on

Sharp FX Plus venturing beyond Walmart this month, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 14

ASUS Eee Pad Slider arriving at month’s end, starting at $475 (video)

Posted in: 10-inch, Android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, ASUS, Google, hands-on, honeycomb, impressions, preview, Today's Chili, video

It’s been more than eight months since the ASUS Eee Pad Slider was born at CES and since then, we’ve seen listings online and heard endless promises that it’s coming “soon.” Today, though, at a media event here in New York City, we managed a prolonged hands-on with the thing — along with assurance that it’ll hit the US before month’s end. According to an ASUS rep, it’ll ship with Android 3.2 and start at $475 for the 16GB model (roughly as leaked) with the beefier 32GB number fetching an extra hundred bucks. That means we’ll be putting it through its paces soon enough, but in the meantime, head past the break for some early impressions.

Gallery: ASUS Eee Pad Slider hands-on

Continue reading ASUS Eee Pad Slider arriving at month’s end, starting at $475 (video)

ASUS Eee Pad Slider arriving at month’s end, starting at $475 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 14

Google launches Flight Search service, Kayak shrugs it off (video)

Posted in: Google, interface, launch, Online, price, search, Today's Chili, Travel, ui, video, web
Google’s DOJ-approved acquisition of ITA has finally borne fruit, in the form of Flight Search — a new tool that aims to streamline the chaos that is online travel booking. The Mountain View contingent unveiled the interface yesterday, with an “early look” at what appears to be a fairly straightforward service. Once you enter your starting point, destination, price range and duration, a list of results will appear in ascending order of fare and duration, below a map displaying each flight’s trajectory. From there, you can filter your results by airline, number of layovers or specific departure times, before booking your itinerary on the carrier’s site (Google was careful to point out that flight selection and results will not be “influenced by any paid relationships”). At the moment, the service is restricted to a select group of US cities and only features round-trip economy class flights, but Google says future updates and expansions are on the way. We’re eager to see how the company dresses up this relatively bare bones platform and, perhaps more importantly, how competing travel sites react to it. Kayak, for one, responded with confident nonchalance to Flight Search, explicitly describing it as an inferior product. “We’re confident in our ability to compete, and we believe our flight search technology is superior,” the company said, in a statement. “We recognize Google is a formidable competitor but they haven’t been successful in every vertical they’ve entered.” Let the games begin. Demo video after the break.

Continue reading Google launches Flight Search service, Kayak shrugs it off (video)

Google launches Flight Search service, Kayak shrugs it off (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Search Engine Land, TechCrunch  |  sourceGoogle Flight Search, Google Search Blog  | Email this | Comments

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Sep 14

Google SMASH: Why No Industry Is Safe

Posted in: Google, search, Today's Chili, top

There’s not much Google loves more than playing in other people’s sandboxes. Like a Walmart built entirely of zeros and ones, once the behemoth moves into your town, you’re officially f*cked. Here’s how they do it, and why it matters. More »

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Sep 14

Western Digital launches WD 2go, WD 2go Pro cloud apps, cures PC separation anxiety

Posted in: Android, app, Apple, apps, cellphone, cellphones, Google, ios, ipad, ipod touch, IpodTouch, minipost, mobile, Today's Chili


Western Digital is no stranger to connected storage, which is why it launched two new mobile apps for maximum My Book Live mobile manageability: the WD 2go and the WD 2go Pro. Both are compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phones, giving users the power to pull files from any PC or Mac remotely — without monthly fees. For $2.99, there’s a pro version with added functionality to save files locally and share them — so you can be assured access to all your old Alf episodes wherever you go.

Continue reading Western Digital launches WD 2go, WD 2go Pro cloud apps, cures PC separation anxiety

Western Digital launches WD 2go, WD 2go Pro cloud apps, cures PC separation anxiety originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 14

Google outbid itself by 33 percent in Motorola Mobility acquisition, SEC filing reveals

Posted in: Android, financial, Google, industry, merger, mobilepostcross, money, moto, motorola, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, price, smartphone, Software, Today's Chili
Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility is already starting to lose that new car smell, but a fresh batch of financial details has now emerged, providing deeper insight into how the deal actually went down. According to an SEC filing that Motorola Mobility released yesterday, Google made an initial offer of $30 per share on August 1st, but soon raised that bid to $37 per share on August 9th, after Moto and its advisers asked for $43.50. On that same day, Google again raised its offer to $40 per share, even though Motorola wasn’t accepting bids from other firms, for fear that a public auction would jeopardize its sale. This 33 percent increase ultimately added some $3 billion to the pot, bringing the final price tag to $12.5 billion. A Mountain View spokeswoman declined to comment on the negotiations, though its aggressive bidding suggests that the search giant desperately wanted the deal to go through. The documents also reveal that patent-related issues were at the forefront of discussions from the very beginning, when Google’s Senior Vice President Andy Rubin met with Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha to talk about their mutual concerns, way back in July. According to the Wall Street Journal, these talks eventually convinced Jha that his company would be better off under Google’s stewardship, amid fears that Moto could get swallowed by the stormy seas of patent litigation — anxieties that the exec made all too apparent just four days before the merger was announced. You can dig through the full SEC filing at the source link below.

Google outbid itself by 33 percent in Motorola Mobility acquisition, SEC filing reveals originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 13

Google planning opt-out option for WiFi data gathering

Posted in: Google, minipost, network, Today's Chili, wifi, Wireless

Privacy concerns have caused Google to back down a bit on its information collection amongst residential wireless networks. Beginning in the fall, the company will allow owners of the WiFi networks to opt-out of the data gathering. Google has assured concerned parties that it doesn’t collect personal details when nabbing the information for its databases, but such comments haven’t done much to calm the nerves of privacy advocates.

Google planning opt-out option for WiFi data gathering originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 13

Apple wants to press pause on patent suits, calls Motorola a lame duck

Posted in: Apple, Google, lawsuit, mobilepostcross, motorola, patent, patents, Today's Chili

In what could turn out to be a very expensive lesson in minding one’s mouth, Apple plans to use Google’s and Motorola’s own words against them in court. Over the weekend, Cupertino’s lawyers filed two motions to stay in patent-related litigation with Moto, claiming the OEM’s pending merger renders its patent suits indefensible. According to Apple’s legal team, the proposed Motorola Mobility acquisition effectively transfers patent control over to Google, an allegation that public-facing statements from both companies seem to corroborate. Citing the potential waste of resources and probable reversal of future pre-merger settlements, the house that Jobs built is hoping to hold off on the court room fisticuffs until after the GoogMo consolidation is settled. With both cases set for far-off trial dates in April and August of 2012, it looks like all parties involved have plenty of time to sort this mess out, and then battle it out once again.

Apple wants to press pause on patent suits, calls Motorola a lame duck originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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