Hasta La Gadget!

We’d recommend taking this all with a healthy grain of salt for now, but according to a fortunate Steam Powered forum member who scored a trip by Valve’s headquarters, the company’s considering an iOS / Android port of Steam. Yeah, Steam — you know, that wildly popular game distribution service that’s doing its darnedest to kill off boxed video game sales. As the story goes, Political Gamer was able to sit down with Valve’s own Gabe Newell for a tick, and while the topics of conversation were obviously varied, one point in particular piqued our interest. Purportedly, Gabe confirmed that the company is “looking into the iOS / Android platform for possible expansions with Steam,” which makes absolute sense given just how well-received the iPod touch and iPhone have been by gamers. To boot, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play is just around the bend, and if Amazon’s able to launch its own app store, why not push out a game-centric one from a name that people already know and trust? Of course, pondering the possibility is far different than investing resources into a new product, so until we hear that the latter is definitely happening, we’ll be doing our best to suppress our expectations. Call it self-preservation.

Valve’s Gabe Newell hints at possible Steam port to iOS / Android, may be blowing hot air originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The road to Android 2.1 may have been a long and treacherous one for Milestone users, but the one to Android 2.2 wasn’t even certain of reaching its goal. Thankfully, Moto has managed to conclude its “exhaustive testing process” and is now making a Froyo firmware update available to Milestone users wishing to step their software up a notch. Flash Player 10.1, a faster browser and mobile hotspot capabilities await the intrepid updater, but Motorola warns that any DRM-locked media you have on your SD card will be lost. Weirdly enough, there’s also a caution that “users may experience some adverse effects associated with the upgrade which could include slower operation of some phone functions and applications.” Once you’ve read and understood all the warnings, smash the source link to download the new software.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Milestone achieves Android 2.2 milestone at last, Froyo update ready for download originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to Gartner’s latest mobile sales numbers, the rise of Android hasn’t been quite as meteoric as you might think — even with 888.8 percent growth in 2010. Last month, Canalys quoted Android as the top earner for smartphone platforms in Q4 of last year, beating out Symbian for the top spot, but Gartner says it ain’t so. In fact, IDC already quietly chimed in on the topic a few days ago saying that Symbian was still the smartphone OS “market leader.” Gartner’s numbers do show Android overtaking Nokia’s Symbian devices in unit sales, but it points out that the OS’ use across a variety of brands in Q4 actually “kept Symbian slightly ahead of Android.” Symbian ultimately outsold Android by more than 44 million units last year, but considering the little green robot’s astronomical growth in 2010, we’d say even super star is an understatement. Check out the PR after the jump to see how the rest of the competition stacks up.

Continue reading Gartner and IDC dispute Android’s dominance over Symbian in Q4 2010

Gartner and IDC dispute Android’s dominance over Symbian in Q4 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cutting through the back and forth surrounding Windows Phone 7 tethering are two new hacks, with one being markedly easier than the other to implement. After discovering the option in Samsung’s Focus and Omnia 7 late last year, engineering minds over at xda-developers have now uncovered a method to allow USB internet tethering on HTC’s smattering of Windows Phone 7 handsets. Unfortunately, you’ll need to unlock your device before any of this will work, but the case is definitely different for Dell’s Venue Pro. For that one, you’ll simply need to modify the .INF file — no unlock required. Hit the links below for the devilish details, and try not to set up a P2P farm using your phone’s 3G connection. We hear carriers are none too fond of that foolhardiness.

[Thanks, Lake]

Hack brings USB tethering to HTC Windows Phone 7 devices, Dell Venue Pro originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The only hard news we’ve seen from Microsoft regarding Windows Phone 7 sales was less than revealing, but it seems that LG is stepping out from the behind the curtain a bit to let us in on how things are going — from its perspective, anyway. In a sit-down with the folks over at Pocket-lint, LG’s marketing strategy and planning team director James Choi noted: “From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected.” Nothing too shocking there, but he followed up by noting that LG feels Windows Phone 7 “is absolutely perfect for a huge segment out there.” Perhaps more shocking was this tidbit: “What we feel is that some people believe that some operating systems, mainly Google, are extremely complicated for them; but Windows Phone 7 is very intuitive and easy to use.” He followed his not-terribly-subtle Android jab with a WP7 jab, oddly enough, noting that “for tech guys, [WP7] might be a little bit boring after a week or two, but there are certain segments that it really appeals to.” What’s left unclear is exactly how much support LG is going to give Microsoft after launching the Optimus 7, but we’re guessing that next month’s outlay at Mobile World Congress will be a huge indication. Naturally, we’ll be there with our eyes peeled.

LG: Windows Phone 7 launch did not meet expectations, still a fine OS for ‘a huge segment’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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