HTC Amaze 4G gets snapped with the lights on, confirms 1.5GHz dual-core CPU

The only images we’ve seen of the upcoming HTC Ruby Amaze 4G, the high-powered smartphone inbound for T-Mobile, have left us eager for more substance; few pictures show the phone powered on, and even those offer no visual evidence of its rockin’ specs. Our thirst for more info about the beast has been slightly more quenched, as Droid Sans snapped some pics of the prototype proudly displayed at a public gathering. From what we can tell by the snapshots, the device’s “about” screen confirms the presence of a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 4.3-inch qHD display and an 8MP rear camera (2MP front) with dual-LED flash. The source tells us that it will come shipped with HTC Sense 3.5 running atop Gingerbread, so don’t let these photos — showing off stock Android — get your hopes up so fast. All in all, though, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S II may have a fierce battle on its hands for the title of T-Mobile’s Next Top (smartphone) Model.

Continue reading HTC Amaze 4G gets snapped with the lights on, confirms 1.5GHz dual-core CPU

HTC Amaze 4G gets snapped with the lights on, confirms 1.5GHz dual-core CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bell prepping its LTE network, Samsung Galaxy S II LTE and Tab 8.9 to be offered at launch?

We’ve known that Bell’s intended to make the jump to LTE for nearly three years, but the Canadian carrier has kept incredibly silent about when or how it was going to leap. If we’re to believe an unnamed source, that silence may be soon coming to an end: supposedly the company will be launching its 4G network “soon” and is rumored to have a phone and a tablet prepped for launch right away. The suspected devices? None other than the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy Tab 8.9. If this happens sometime in the fall, such a move would put Bell in the running to become the second carrier in Canada to adopt the next-gen standard — Telus and Sasktel are expected to upgrade next year — which gives advocates of choice some wonderful things to look forward to over the next twelve months.

[Thanks, Doug]

Bell prepping its LTE network, Samsung Galaxy S II LTE and Tab 8.9 to be offered at launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WikiLeaks cables shed light on Apple’s battle against counterfeit wares

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but if you’re Rolex, Gucci or Apple, you probably aren’t very interested in being flattered. Due to Apple’s intense popularity, an entire industry has arisen that thrives on knocking off the iconic wares Designed in Cupertino. We’ve seen plenty in our day, and while it may strike some as if Apple’s doing absolutely nothing to curtail the aping, a new WikiLeaks release confirms otherwise. According to an electronic memo from the Beijing embassy dated September 2008, Apple began to put obvious and deliberate pressure on China to act against businesses who were copying its wares a few years back. As it turns out, knocking out the knockoffs isn’t exactly high on China’s list of governmental priorities, and progress on halting the KIRF extravaganza has been sluggish at best. The entire story is quite the exhausting read, but it’s worth delving into if you’re curious — per usual, you can get educated in the links below.

WikiLeaks cables shed light on Apple’s battle against counterfeit wares originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint to double Upgrade Fee to $36 starting September 9th?

It’s time to either find your favorite teddy bear or pinch a few hundred pennies. In today’s second bout of unfortunate news coming from Overland Park, SprintFeed is reporting that we should brace ourselves for yet another hike in one-time charges on September 9th. This time, it’s the oh-so-beloved Upgrade Fee that’s the victim of inflation, getting beefed up to $36 for any existing customer who desires a new phone; if you’re hoping to renew contracts on multiple lines, Sprint is graciously willing to cap the fees at a maximum of $150. There’s speculation that these bumps may have something to do with the latest rumor coming out of Cupertino, but it may also simply be a routine policy change. Regardless of the motive, it means anyone holding out for the next best thing should start looking under every couch cushion they sit on, in hopes of scrounging up a few extra bucks.

Sprint to double Upgrade Fee to $36 starting September 9th? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fujifilm X10 Photos and Specs Leaked

These leaked shots show the X10 is going straight at the Canon G12’s market

Just like its big brother the X100, Fujifilm’s X10 is not so much launching as leaking out a drip at a time. Now we have some proper product shots and specs for the high-end digicam intended to go up against the Canon G12, the Nikon P7100 and the Panasonic LX5.

The biggest similarity to the retro-styled X100 is the use of manual knobs and dials: Everything from aperture and shutter speed to exposure compensation and zoom are controlled by dials. There’s an optical viewfinder, too, but likely not the innovative hybrid electronic/optical found in the X100.

The back

The zoom is 4x, the top ISO is 12,800 (although you’ll need to drop to a lower resolution to get it) and the rear LCD is a disappointing 2.8-inch, 460,000-dot model.

Other leaked specs include auto-bracketing of exposure, ISO, dynamic range and film simulation modes, and a “360-degree motion panorama” feature.

From previous rumors, we’re expecting the price to be around $500, and the rumblings in the Internet say that the official launch may be tomorrow. If the image quality is goo, and Fujifilm didn’t mess anything else up (like the viewfinder), then this manually-controlled camera could be quite the hit.

The Fujifilm X10 name is confirmed, more specs available online [Photo Rumors]

See Also:


Refresh Roundup: week of August 22, 2011

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android Updates

  • Motorola’s Photon 4G was the recipient of a minor over-the-air firmware revamp that offers improvements to responsiveness and voice calls, and offers more bug fixes and other enhancements. [via PhoneArena]
  • Want another bug fix update? The HTC EVO 3D is the next contestant, rolling out its second OTA refresh in as many weeks. This time it appears that a new “Corporate 4G” widget and a new radio have been added. [via AndroidCentral]
  • Gingerbread 2.3.4 is now rolling out to Bell’s Motorola Atrix 4G OTA. [via MobileSyrup]
  • Now that its official Gingerbread support page has gone live, Verizon’s Motorola Droid 2 will likely be receiving Android 2.3 in the very near future. [via AndroidCentral]
  • Sasktel’s HTC Incredible S is now the beneficiary of Android 2.3.3 in an OTA install. [via MobileSyrup]

Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc hackery

Other platforms

  • The Nokia N8 was recently blessed with Symbian Anna, but a few camera-related upgrades were left out. No need to fear, as an “experimental” update is now being offered, which adds continuous auto-focus and tweaks the UI to allow for faster access to the camera — among other improvements, such as a boost to 30fps. Check out the change log here. [via ZOMGitsCJ]
  • Given last week’s news about webOS, we were concerned the newly-launched Pre3 would be DOA, with no promise of future updates. HP’s proving this isn’t the case, however, as the device got a minor update that brought the phone’s help center live and fixed a few bugs along the way. [via PreCentral and PhoneArena]
  • Research in Motion released an upgrade to its Tablet OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Unfortunately, it’s not the 2.0 version we saw leaked screenshots of earlier this week, but it still brings a nice feature to the tablet: differential updates. This means that in future OS refreshes, only the affected sections will be changed. In addition, the new version, dubbed 1.0.7.2942, will improve WiFi connectivity via WEP and enhancements to BlackBerry Bridge. [via RIM]
  • WP7Mod showed a video of the HTC HD2 booting up with Windows Phone Mango’s RTM build installed. We’ve been told that it’s almost ready for any daring souls interested in a new challenge for their Windows Mobile device. [via WMPowerUser]

Refresh Roundup: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Exclusive: HTC Holiday for AT&T in the wild — 4G LTE, 1.2GHz, 4.5-inch qHD display

Looks like AT&T’s fall lineup will include at least one slab of irresistible. The so-called HTC Holiday is indeed real, and it’ll soon be gracing Ma Bell’s airwaves — and not just the HSPA+ ones, either. We’ve confirmed that the Holiday will be amongst the first handsets to launch in AT&T’s LTE markets, bringing with it a rather gargantuan frame, a 4.5-inch qHD touchpanel, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of memory, an 8 megapixel rear camera (with flash), 1.3 megapixel front-facing shooter, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and a foursome of capacitive touch buttons below the panel. Software wise, it’ll ship with Android 2.3.4 and HTC Sense 3.0, and while we haven’t been able to nail it down with 100 percent certainty, there’s a better-than-average chance it’ll go by “Waikiki” upon launch — if “Holiday” doesn’t work out, that is. We’ll be bringing you more as it arrives; for now, cut loose in the gallery below!

Exclusive: HTC Holiday for AT&T in the wild — 4G LTE, 1.2GHz, 4.5-inch qHD display originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Sense 3.5 beta screenshots leak, bring tears of joy to weather widget lovers

Now that you’ve seen high-quality images of the HTC Bliss with the screen turned off, are you curious to see what it looks like when it’s on? The same folks at XDA.cn who got hands-on time with the Bliss have now come forth with possible screenshots showing the phone is indeed running on a beta version of Sense UI 3.5. What’s new here? Even though the lock screen uses the same ring-style unlocking feature as its predecessor, it appears that the new UI will feature two dedicated buttons at the bottom of the home panel — for the app tray on the left and phone on the right — and refreshed widgets (including a larger weather panel), among other minor changes. Word also has it that HTC is removing hardware requirements that restricted version 3.0 to the company’s highest-end devices, which gives hope to millions of Sense users still on an older, more streamlined UI. More screenshots can be found at the source link.

HTC Sense 3.5 beta screenshots leak, bring tears of joy to weather widget lovers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AndroidLife  |  sourceXDA.cn (translated)  | Email this | Comments

Droid Bionic teases boot sequence, LTE prowess to anxious onlookers (video)

That’s right folks, the Droid Bionic is back with another leaked appearance. This time it stars in a video clip that reveals the phone’s boot sequence, which is followed by an all-important thrill ride / speed test on Verizon’s LTE network. As if you needed further proof, this Moto reveals itself to pack dual cores, and as you might expect, it sports Motorola’s animation-laden skin. What about the LTE test, you ask? It pulls in respectable numbers — approximately 4.5Mbps down and 1.9Mbps up — but as you’re likely aware, these speeds pale in comparison to what we’ve seen on the Droid Charge and Revolution. It’s entirely possible the test is simply an outlier, so we’ll hope for better scores as the phone approaches its September arrival. Curious for the sneak peak? You’ll find the full video after the break.

[Thanks, Tu]

Continue reading Droid Bionic teases boot sequence, LTE prowess to anxious onlookers (video)

Droid Bionic teases boot sequence, LTE prowess to anxious onlookers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s GT-19220 shows up in leaked photos, preps for battle with iPhone 5? (update: nope!)

If you’re a sucker for juicy handset rumors, then this one’s for you. A few months ago, a supposed Samsung roadmap leaked, revealing a slew of new Android, Bada and WP7 handsets on the horizon. Today, a picture purporting to be one of those phones, the GT-19220 (W43) surfaced, complete with some specs to further grease the rumor mill. Word on the web says that the Sammy will have a 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED Plus display that measures in at 5.29 inches diagonally — even bigger than the 5-inch Dell Streak tablet. If our observational geometry is right, we’d say that screen size is probably pretty accurate. Rather than taking tablet status like the Dell, however, it seems bound to be the Galaxy S II’s big brother, as sources claim it’s running Gingerbread with a 1.4GHz dual-core processor and packs an 8 megapixel camera. Of course, these specs can’t be officially confirmed until the phone is launched, but it’s safe to say it’s likely a part of the Android army taking on the iPhone 5 this fall.

Update: Alas, as many of you have pointed out in comments, there’s not a lot of truth to this story. First, both devices you’re seeing above appear to actually be PMPs, not phones — the Galaxy S players we’ve seen before. Secondly, we’re hearing the actual name of this supposed smartphone is GT-i9220, not 19220.

Samsung’s GT-19220 shows up in leaked photos, preps for battle with iPhone 5? (update: nope!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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