Hasta La Gadget!

The last time we spoke with Stephen DeWitt, the head of HP’s webOS global business unit was on the defensive about the TouchPad. In spite of — or perhaps because of — the anticipation of the device, the first webOS tablet received a lukewarm reception at hands of reviewers. DeWitt vigorously defended the slate against the critics, suggesting that technology writers had been approaching the product the wrong way. A lot has happened since that conversation, of course, including reports of unmoved stock and, more significantly, yesterday’s news that HP would effectively be discontinuing production on its webOS devices, the TouchPad included.

There’s been a good deal of confusion around precisely what yesterday’s announcement means for both the company and the mobile operating system that it picked up with its purchase of Palm back in April of last year. In spite of his understandably packed schedule, DeWitt sat down with us to set the record straight and shed some light on the future of webOS — a future both he and the company remain rather optimistic about.

Read on for the full interview.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: HP’s Stephen DeWitt discusses the state of webOS

The Engadget Interview: HP’s Stephen DeWitt discusses the state of webOS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve ever wondered what companies take your advice (read: complaints) to heart, here’s yet another one that is: Sprint. Recently, HTC received oodles of praise from a minuscule-but-passionate group of folks who appreciate the company’s stance on unlocking its bootloaders, and today we learned that folks at The Now Network made a similarly impressive change after hearing yet another enthusiastic sect… our readers. If you’ll recall, Sprint’s VP of Product Development Fared Adib appeared on the November 2010 episode of The Engadget Show, and it was during that appearance that he heard a rather shrill cry of users begging for a smaller amount of “bloatware,” or at the very least, bloatware that users could customize or outright remove. For those unfamiliar with the term, it generally refers to applications that are preloaded onto devices from the carrier; by and large, these clutter up the application grid, and many power users aren’t exactly enthralled by any carrier-imposed OS changes.

In speaking at length today with Adib during a Sprint campus walkthrough, he confessed that he jetted back from NYC and immediately informed his team that the bloatware needed to go. To quote: “Ben, we’ve got to get rid of these preloaded apps on our devices. A lot of customers don’t want this.” You may have noticed a dearth of those very apps on the EVO 3D, and according to Fared, customer feedback on the newly cleaned slate has been overwhelmingly positive. We inquired on whether this approach would be pushed across the company’s product spectrum, and he seemed eager to admit that it would. In fact, Sprint’s taking quite the different approach internally than some folks may be used to. It’s effectively trying to get out of the way in as many areas as possible, and in turn, litter your future phones with as little content as possible. In fact, he’s pushing to make whatever programs Sprint does preload user-removable, and it’s a mantra we can only hope other carriers latch onto. Nothing against NASCAR, of course, but having the ability to burn rubber in our own way is definitely preferred.

P.S. – This slide was just one of many, and is definitely not a comprehensive view of partners and plans. We were specifically informed to not read into it as a solo slide.

Sprint’s Fared Adib: we made a conscious decision to scale back bloatware on smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Messin’ with hacked ROMs? Fuhgetaboutit. HTC’s Droid Incredible 2 is finally getting the Android 2.3 it has long deserved, with the luckiest of Verizon Wireless subscribers seeing the update pushed to their phones this evening. The update (coined 2.18.605.4) brings along performance improvements with mobile IM, solved Hotmail sync issues, better device connectivity, a built-in browser bookmark for the New York Times, the addition of the Wireless Charging UI and a new desktop dock app. Don’t be shocked if it takes a week to get to your particular phone, but be sure to let us know how things go in comments once your turn arrives.

[Thanks, Jimmy]

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) starts rolling out to Verizon’s Droid Incredible 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At first blush, the Nokia N9 is everything I’d ever wanted from the company: a smartphone with a competitive spec sheet, exquisite industrial design, and a touch-centric UI that looks to push things forward with the introduction of its own idiosyncratic ideas. Slick in terms of both responsiveness and appearance, the Harmattan interface is Nokia’s thunderous riposte to all those (myself included) that challenged the company to get with the touchscreen OS program and cast off the shackles of its Symbian legacy. The only traces of Symbian in the MeeGo 1.2-equipped N9 can be found in the iconography, which maintains the rounded look of its forebear, and support for Qt — in all other respects, this is a whole new software proposition (distinct even from its Maemo 5 roots), which has so far elicited a range of emotions in me, including delight, desire, and… despair. You must be wondering why, aside from alliterative convenience, I’d be feeling downcast having enjoyed my brief time with the N9 so much. To learn the answer, read on.

Continue reading Editorial: Dear Nokia, you cannot be serious!

Editorial: Dear Nokia, you cannot be serious! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, here’s the tally: as of June 14th, there’s just “not enough memory” in the Desire for Gingerbread to run properly. As of the 15th, however, there is. We won’t pretend to understand what changed so drastically in the past 24 hours, but what is clear is that the aforesaid handset maker is listening to its most demanding of users. While it’s safe to assume that the Average Joe (or Jane) wouldn’t be able to recognize the difference between Android 2.2 and 2.3, folks clamoring for the update seem to have coerced the company to make things work. In other words, it looks like the update is back on… now it’s just a matter of making it run well. Kudos HTC, and godspeed.

[Thanks, Frederik]

HTC pulls a 180, now says Gingerbread is coming to Desire originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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