Hasta La Gadget!

March 18th may seem like an eternity if you expected your Motorola Xoom to come with Adobe Flash on day one. But you know what? If you put your trust in a mysterious file floating about the internet, there’s no need to wait that long. MyDroidWorld obtained possession of a leaked build of Adobe Flash Player for the Xoom, which doesn’t need root or even a preliminary update to install — you just need to check the “Unknown sources” box under Settings > Applications, sideload the file or download it from the Xoom’s browser and you’re good to go. The best part? Based on our preliminary testing, Flash performs exceedingly well on the Xoom’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor.

While this early build of Flash was pretty choppy during HD playback, low-res video content rendered at perfectly viewable speeds, and we were able to play games (like Nanaca Crash and Canabalt) so long as they didn’t require anything more than single-button control schemes. By contrast, Hulu was a no-go (it’s still blocked), and this build has some kinks to work out when it comes to multitasking — while any single Flash site ran well and we could quickly tab between, the more Flash-heavy tabs we had open, the slower each one ran individually — which is why the video above starts out so choppy. Adobe’s UI also seemed to have some difficulty detecting when we wanted to make a Flash item full-screen. Typically, you double-tap an item to enlarge it, but sometimes that didn’t work… but with some Flash content, we found we could long-press on a Flash window to bring up a UI bar that would let us focus on it individually. Before you judge the merits of Flash on tablet, remember that this is a leaked version of a beta release, and if it’s this good out of the gate, we’re pretty excited about how well it might perform after a few tweaks. Don’t miss our video above, and find the file you need to install Flash yourself at our source link.

Update: We managed to get Flash to drop one of those context-sensitive buttons during a session of Canabalt and make the window full screen, which not only enlarged the window but also seriously sped up our little runner — probably by redirecting the tablet’s resources to our game. Photographic proof after the break!

Update 2: We’ll be shooting a second video later in the day to show how the Xoom handles Flash one site at a time.

Update 3: There’s a brand-new video after the break! As it turns out, you can make certain Flash windows full-screen by long-pressing on them, and we’ve updated the article to reflect that.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Adobe Flash Player leaks for Motorola Xoom, we go hands-on (update: more video!)

Adobe Flash Player leaks for Motorola Xoom, we go hands-on (update: more video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shocking as it might be, we still haven’t had a Galaxy Tab from Samsung that rocks nothing but the WiFis, though that seems about to finally change. The 3G-deprived 7-inch Tab, promised for Q1 2011, has slipped on its schedule a little and looks set to now hit retail in the first week of April, at the admittedly appealing price of $399. Now, we all know the tablet market of April 2011 is shaping up to be extremely rich on machines with high specs, large screens and inflated opinions of themselves, but there could still be a fine little niche for an affordable, well built slate, even if it does only run on Froyo.

Samsung Galaxy Tab’s WiFi-only version rumored to cost $399, arrive on April 4th originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 05:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Image of Samsung’s previously unnamed 4G LTE smartphone, the Stealth. Photo: TechnoBuffalo

An anonymous tipster leaked photographs and specs of Samsung’s previously unnamed 4G LTE phone, now reportedly known as the Samsung Stealth.

According to TechnoBuffalo, the Stealth will include a 4.3-inch, 480 x 800 Super AMOLED Plus display, an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and autofocus, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and an upgradeable Android 2.2 OS running on a 1GHz Hummingbird processor.

A 1500 mAh lithium-ion battery is purported to provide all day, 8-10 hour service with no problems.

This new smartphone is anticipated to harness Verizon’s full LTE speed capabilities—5-12 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up.

The Samsung Stealth was originally spotted at CES in January amidst a bevy of other Android handsets including Samsung’s own Infuse. It was referred to as the SCH-i510, and only information about its screen size and type and camera specs were available. Originally set to become available mid-year, the Stealth is now headed for a mid-April release according to the tipster.

The Stealth, which has already passed through the confines of the FCC, is said to include Samsung’s standard TouchWiz interface (although the leaked photos show it running Android LauncherPro).

HDMI out, a microSD card slot, 828 MB internal storage, and a 3.5mm headphone jack round out the phone’s hardware specs.

Samsung Stealth Caught in the Wild [Technobuffalo]

If 32GB just isn’t enough to carry your entire collection of Police bootlegs and Greatest Hits compilations, prepare to look enviously upon this bastion of storage salvation. It’s a 64GB iPhone 4, a supposed prototype leaked by a Foxconn employee. M.I.C. Gadget scored a quick video of the phone, even prying off the back cover revealing internals that certainly look official. The back is curiously designated “XXGB,” which thankfully does not indicate a turn to Roman Numerals, while the model number and FCC ID are similarly X’d out. Other details, like a missing silver ring around the camera lens, indeed make this look like a prototype, but of course the question now is whether this plucky little handset will ever follow its dreams of becoming a production model before getting relegated to obsolescence.

Update: We went over to the Sin Tak shopping mall in Hong Kong to get up close and personal with this mysterious device. Shockingly, the folks wanted a hefty HK$13,500 (US$1,734) for their phone, but this alone doesn’t really prove whether it’s a legit Foxconn prototype. We also got some folks to run the numbers through Apple’s system, and while the serial number is invalid, the model number indicates that this device was manufactured in early 2010, which probably means at one point Apple intended to release a 64GB version of the iPhone 4, but then changed its mind. Ah well, let’s see what this summer will bring us.

Continue reading 64GB iPhone 4 prototype spotted in China? (Updated)

64GB iPhone 4 prototype spotted in China? (Updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Go to Lenovo’s online store looking for an X Series laptop to call your own and you’ll be greeted by the familiar X201. But go to Lenovo’s spec sheet repository and you’ll find a lush PDF file detailing a new ThinkPad X220 model that seems set to become available very shortly indeed. Sized at a somewhat unconventional 12.5 inches, this fresh contender will feature a new “buttonless” touchpad — though it retains the mouse keys in support of the TrackPoint navigator — while offering the sweet nectar of a 1366 x 768 IPS display, up to a 2.7GHz Core i7-2620M CPU, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and a choice of Intel SSDs ranging up to 160GB. The 9-cell battery is rated to last you 15 hours and there’s an additional external battery pack that will keep you tether-free for 23 hours. Click past the break for the full specs.

[Thanks, Chris]

Update: Hello! The X220 Tablet is listed on Lenovo’s site as well. Thanks, Joe!

Continue reading Lenovo posts ThinkPad X220 specs online, includes IPS display, SSD, and 23-hour battery options

Lenovo posts ThinkPad X220 specs online, includes IPS display, SSD, and 23-hour battery options originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 04:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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