Hasta La Gadget!

These five Nexus One smartphones may seem to have defects, but there’s actually nothing wrong with their AMOLED screens — the funky colors are an attempt to improve battery life by turning off unnecessary sub-pixel LEDs. Hooking up his handset to an industrial power meter, Android engineer Jeff Sharkey discovered a blood-red screen drew 42 percent less current than full color — the least of any combination by far — purportedly doubling the effective battery life of the phone. While you’re probably not going to be able to test the requisite software patch for yourself unless you’re mildly familiar with Google code, you’ll find a video of the crimson wonder after the break to fuel your dreams of a eyestrain-free astronomy cheat sheet… and Android bullfighting, of course.

Continue reading Nexus One sees red, nearly doubles battery life? (video)

Nexus One sees red, nearly doubles battery life? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Seeeduino Film is just the thing for all your flexible Arduino needs

Seeeduino Film is just the thing for all your flexible Arduino needs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not feeling hot about the trouble–prone iPhone 4, but still tempted by its optional iMovie app? Now you have a choice! Turns out to run said app on other devices (including iPod touch, supposedly) running iOS 3.0 and above, all you need are a jailbroken iOS device, iMovie for iPhone from the App Store, and two quick edits in the app’s info.plist file — change minimum system version to “3.0.0” and front-facing-camera to “false.” Sounds easy enough, although we’ve yet to see the hacked app actually running on devices other than the 3GS demoed in the video after the break. And sorry, Redmond Pie’s already confirmed that this sucker doesn’t work on the iPad… yet.

Continue reading iMovie for iPhone gets a cheeky hack for jailbroken 3GS, runs well-oiled

iMovie for iPhone gets a cheeky hack for jailbroken 3GS, runs well-oiled originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sorry, we couldn’t wait — having spent 11 hours on the streets waiting for the iPhone 4, it’s only natural to give our precious new toy some extra special care. With the help of iFixit’s teardown guide, we decided to take the plunge with our steaming hot Chinese delivery — a white front cover (with a shiny proximity sensor area above the earpiece), a white back cover (with “XXXXX” marked as the model number, ergo a prototype), and a Retina Display unit. Alas, there weren’t any white buttons in stock at the time, but let’s pretend this black-and-white combo is the new cool. Read on to find out how the surgery went.

P.S. — We’ve had many readers asking where we got the parts, but the link’s already in the post. Knowing some Chinese helps, too.

Continue reading White iPhone 4: early DIY edition, with a touch of black

White iPhone 4: early DIY edition, with a touch of black originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The great thing about the HD2 is that it remains one of the most gorgeous pieces of smartphone hardware ever released — but as long as it’s saddled with the dead OS walking known as Windows Mobile 6.5, its stature in the power user community is perpetually stuck in first gear, no matter how pretty HTC has managed to make it. To that end, some of those very same power users have been working tirelessly to salvage the beast and shoehorn Android on there, but they’ve been tripped up by some errors involving the phone’s Snapdragon core and the so-called HaRET tool used to boot Linux from Windows CE-based devices that have made a proper port seem all but impossible. Those hurdles have been overcome in the past couple days, though, which means a marginally consumer-friendly Android build might finally be within reach — and considering that there’s no proper EVO 4G equivalent from HTC in Europe yet, this project could have an awful lot of value.

[Thanks, Aaron H.]

Android port for HTC HD2 overcomes big hurdle, finally getting close originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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