Hasta La Gadget!

Assuming you resisted the temptation to either root your Hero or update it with the recently leaked 2.1 firmware, this is your very first chance to finally slap a dash of Android future on your senescent device. Sprint has at long last made the update available, though it isn’t quite yet ready to download from its site. Fear not, the good folks behind the yellow network have put together a guide on upgrading through your phone and we’ll link up the download as soon as it’s ready for consumption. Time to start enjoying that Google Maps Navigation magic and all the other goodies constituting Eclair‘s delectable filling.

Update: It’s now available direct from HTC’s website, as well as Sprint’s own site. Thanks, all!

[Thanks, Jonathan]

Sprint’s Hero finally gets official Android 2.1 upgrade originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 06:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh sure, having Boxee nailed down to the desktop of your PC is fine and dandy, and that Boxee Box will ensure that the same experience is enjoyed by all who plant their fundament in front of your HDTV. But we all know what you’re after — lemon drops. And a mobile version of Boxee. In a post today by the company, it expressed outright joy in inking a deal with Vindicia in order to bring a payment processing solution to the platform; slated for implementation “by the end of the summer,” this CashBox add-in would enable users to purchase “premium content” from Boxee’s programming partners via credit card, gift card or PayPal. It’s a vital step in Boxee finally finding a revenue stream (something it confessed to needing on a previous episode of The Engadget Show), and better still, “Vindicia’s flexibility makes it possible for [Boxee] to enable payments on its website and across mobile platforms like the iPhone, Android and iPad.” Yeah, those are the company’s own words right there, and in case you still aren’t believing your eyes, chew on one final quote:

“Boxee’s eventual expansion to these platforms will pave the way for universally accessible content no matter where a user is (we love this idea!).”

Huzzah!

Boxee for iPhone, iPad and Android all but confirmed in Vindicia payment processing deal originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 20:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This one isn’t official just yet, but if some changes in employment status on LinkedIn is any indication, it looks like Motorola may have recently acquired mobile Linux OS company Azingo. It may not exactly be a major player in the mobile OS field, but its Linux-based Azingo Mobile OS does look to be capable enough (complete with a Webkit-based browser and Flash runtime), and the acquisition is especially interesting in light of some recent comments made by Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha. Back during Moto’s Q1 earnings call, he said that he has “always felt that owning your OS is important, provided you have an ecosystem, you have all the services and you have an ability and the scale to execute on keeping that OS at the leading edge,” adding that he continues to believe “that at some point, if we have all of those attributes, that owning our own OS will be a very important thing.” Is Azingo Mobile that OS? Probably not, but it’ll certainly be interesting to see where this leads — as long as it doesn’t lead to something called MOTOZINGO.

Motorola rumored to have acquired Azingo, part of some grander OS plans? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Has the Nokia N8 made a Symbian^3 believer out of you? If so, you’ll be glad to know the beta tag has been peeled off the web application development tools for the platform, which — according to Executive Director Lee Williams — provide “an ideal entry point” for coders of all skill levels. This is because the primary languages spoken are HTML, CSS and JavaScript, familiar to almost anyone who’s tried to create for the web, and with just a little extra JavaScript exercise, you’re promised access to the phone’s contacts, camera, accelerometer, and location. It sounds all kinds of refreshing, but the usefulness of this tool set and the entire environment will be determined by what people produce with it — and to that end we’ve provided you with a link to the downloads page (Windows, Mac and Linux users are all being served) where you can get your Symbian dev career started in earnest.

Continue reading Symbian^3 web app development tools come out of beta, aim for standardized simplicity

Symbian^3 web app development tools come out of beta, aim for standardized simplicity originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Before the iPhone’s release, there were four major smartphone operating systems — Symbian, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry OS. And after the iPhone’s release, their user interfaces all seemed dated in some way. Palm OS and Windows Mobile have essentially been replaced by new operating systems dubbed WebOS and Windows Phone 7. Symbian stakeholders, though, has decided that there is no need to throw out the past completely, and are instead looking toward a series of evolutionary upgrades to make the now open source operating system more competitive.

This week at RIM’s WES conference, the company is announcing a similar evolutionary path for the BlackBerry OS. Like Symbian, the BlackBerry OS has a reputation for being fast and efficient but has not kept up with many of the aesthetic and input amenities offered by more modern competitors. The challenge will be to preserve what users love about the platform while disrupting it in many ways. For example, while the new BlackBerry OS will be better optimized for touchscreens, reports are that it will not require one.

Continue reading Switched On: Revamps in Motion

Switched On: Revamps in Motion originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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