Hasta La Gadget!

Looks like there are at least two things that the Danes can get right: butter cookies, and hyping it up for a delayed Android handset. According to Lumigon’s Facebook page, what we’re looking at here is the first official rendering of the T1’s redesign — quite a radical change here, especially with the new navigation pad and the now externally-accessible microSD slot. Apart from an earlier statement confirming Froyo for said device, this picture alone is literally all we’re being teased with right now, so feel free to “like” the Danish company’s Facebook page for some more forthcoming gadget porn.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Lumigon T1 gets Froyo and a major facelift, makes glamorous appearance on Facebook originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a battlefield now abundant with Android handsets, there’s only one easy way for a young smartphone brand to grab our attention: make a seriously dirt cheap handset. And we’re not just talking about a free phone chained to a pricey 18-month contract (like the Vodafone 845); we’re looking for a Pay & Go smartphone tagged with a standalone dumbphone price, so even the £200+ ($316+) “budget” HTC Wildfire and Sony Ericsson X10 Mini / Mini Pro are out of the question.

This is where Three UK’s ZTE Racer comes in: priced at just £99.99 ($158) or for free on various contracts, this Android 2.1 handset has quite rightly stolen the paper crown from the 845. But don’t let that price tag fool you — this 14.5mm-thick device still comes with a fairly modern 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset (as featured on the Aria and X10 Mini / Mini Pro), garnished with a 3.2 megapixel camera (sans flash), HSDPA 7.2Mbps connectivity, 2GB microSD card, FM radio, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a Skype app for free Skype calls within the UK. There is just one caveat: you’ll have to live with a 2.8-inch QVGA resistive touchscreen. So, is this an immediate deal-breaker? Can the other features make up for this flaw? Read on to find out.

Continue reading ZTE Racer review

ZTE Racer review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news for Wildfire owners: fresh from HTC’s oven is its 3.0 desktop sync suite that — like the one baked for the Desire over the weekend — enables iTunes sync for the company’s latest budget device. Since we had a Wildfire on hand, we decided to go through the trouble to check out this new feature. And boy, it sure was a bumpy start. We had no problems with obtaining the software, but in order to get the “HTC Sync” option to appear in the USB connection menu, we had to switch on USB debugging mode (Settings -> Applications -> Development) before establishing our first link. As fiddly as it sounds, this was actually the only tricky part of the preparation, and you can leave debugging mode switched off afterwards.

So, how does the iTunes sync work? Well, it’s certainly nowhere as thrilling as Palm’s cheeky hack — it appears to simply access iTunes’ database and playlists for the file locations, rather than fooling iTunes into thinking your Wildfire’s an iDevice. You’ll also be limited to syncing either everything or just selected playlists (smart playlists supported), so in other words, you can’t sync by artists or genres, and you’ll have to set up a dedicated playlist for syncing podcasts. Apart from this minor flaw, we’d say this is still a pretty neat solution for an age-old problem, and hopefully HTC will offer a similar app for Mac users. Hands-on video after the break.

Continue reading HTC Sync 3.0 for Wildfire hands-on: iTunes sync tested (video)

HTC Sync 3.0 for Wildfire hands-on: iTunes sync tested (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well this is one lucky Tiffany here, but she’s not alone. Wired UK was first to report that Samsung’s been quietly dishing out free Galaxy S handsets (the European flavor) to a few lucky British Twitter users. How so? Oh, four of them just made a fuss about their iPhone 4s, and the fifth guy needed help to choose between the Desire, iPhone 4 and Galaxy S. Before you all start tweeting your way to a free Android phone, though, it looks like the Korean giant’s only picking certain influencers for some cheap publicity — turns out our Tiffany here works in Digital Marketing for Condé Nast, which is coincidentally Wired’s parent company. Tut tut tut. The other tweeples all appear to be similarly involved in marketing or publishing, with the exception of one student.

As if it hasn’t already rubbed enough salt into Apple’s wound, Samsung UK’s also running new Galaxy S ads that take an indirect shot at the iPhone 4’s antenna controversy with a clever bit of typography — you can see the dirty work after the break. Very nice, Sammy, but you better be careful playing with fire here, as we’ve found it pretty easy to death grip Galaxy S phones like the Captivate into losing a fair bit of signal.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Samsung dispatching free Galaxy S handsets to iPhone 4 whiners on Twitter?

Samsung dispatching free Galaxy S handsets to iPhone 4 whiners on Twitter? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a smartphone market saturated with 3.5-inch and larger displays, Sony Ericsson reckons there’s still a little place for petite packages. Enter the Xperia X10 Mini (E10i) and Mini Pro (U20i) — both direct descendants of the beastly X10 Android 1.6 handset. Apart from the Pro’s slide-out keyboard, removable battery, and positioning of various features, the two Minis are otherwise internally identical — same processor, same camera, and same screen. So can these cute baby form factors offer more than just some palm-cuddling time? Can we get a decent smartphone performance out of them? Follow us after the break to find out.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro review

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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