Hasta La Gadget!

Are you a T-Mobile subscriber itching for more “Wonder?” You might be in luck, as Cell Phone Signal notes that the T679’s FCC schematic lines up perfectly with the previously announced Galaxy W — you know, Sammy’s midrange 3.7-inch, 1.4GHz Gingerbread smartphone that we briefly coddled at IFA. Of course, there’s no word on when it’ll land on our shores, but here’s to hoping Deutsche Telekom delights us with its white tuxedo variant.

Is Samsung’s T679 a T-Mobile bound Galaxy W? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A funny thing just happened over at the Bluetooth SIG’s website: the group may have just outed Motorola’s first Facebook phone. As Unwired View rightfully points out, the EX225 is likely a feature phone that’s based on BREW, as Android’s navigation buttons are nowhere to be found. The handset offers two variants, one that supports dual-SIMs and another that accommodates only one. Further, a nearly identical version, the EX226, is displayed in a separate listing that lacks the notorious “F” button. Both models share a common 2.4-inch TFT-LCD display, a 3 megapixel camera and five row QWERTY keyboard — along with a sizable protrusion at the bottom rear of the device. That’s all we have for the moment, but it seems that the Status shouldn’t be too concerned about this Moto.

Is Motorola joining the Facebook phone bandwagon with its EX225? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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

• Verizon was spitting out new refreshes left and right this week, as we saw Gingerbread begin to roll out as OTA downloads on the Motorola Droid 3, HTC Droid Incredible, and — get this — even the Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 edition. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
• Interestingly enough, Android 2.3 for the Droid 2 Global was already getting pushed out, but was pulled just a couple days later after a Microsoft Exchange encryption issue was discovered. We’ve been told the updates will resume “soon.” [via Droid-Life]
• Finally, Verizon also pushed out one other software upgrade — this time on its 4510L LTE MiFi. (Thanks, Matt)
• HTC continues to expand its bootloader unlock tool to more phones, region by region. This week the company enabled support for the EVO 3D in Canada and Europe. [via Phandroid]

Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc hackery

• The Motorola Droid 3 and Droid X both now have access to an SBF — System Boot File — to act as a safeguard for anyone who manages to brick their phones. [via Droid-Life (1) and (2)]
• Recently we heard about the Honeycomb ROM for the HTC Flyer getting leaked by MoDaCo, but no screenshots were available at the time. This week, however, someone successfully grabbed a few images to share with the world (shown in the above image). The ROM appears to run on Android 3.2 with HTC Sense 1.1 for tablets as the featured UI. [via AndroidBugle — thanks, Dennis]
• Let’s talk a little more about leaked Sense ROMs. We’ve already seen Sense 3.5 working on the Desire HD, and now we have another device to add to the list: the EVO 4G. [via XDA]
• The first kernel for unlocked bootloaders on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is now waiting for your download, so head over to the link for instructions. [via XDA]
• If you’ve been waiting and hoping for CyanogenMod 7 on your HTC Sensation or EVO 3D so you can shed the Sense UI, that time may be very close at hand. According to a member of the CyanogenMod team, an early alpha build for both devices may be available by the end of this weekend, so keep an eye out. [via Phandroid]

Other platforms

• Two new unofficial ROMs — one for Windows Phone Mango and another for NoDo –are now available for the Samsung Omnia 7. The Mango ROM improves the device’s radio, camera drivers and motion sensors, in addition to a few other enhancements. [via WPCentral]

Refreshes already covered this week

• Vizio rolls out Tablet software update, promises performance boosts aplenty

Refresh Roundup: week of September 5, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phones. Phones, phones, phones, phones, phones! There are SO many of them out there right now, and this week brings another flood of releases to add to the pool. Listen closely and Breakout of your ignorance of the week’s releases and rumors as we make a Thrill-ingly Vigor-ous Play at Conquer-ing the Amaze-ing pile of news and hardware that Torch-ed our inboxes over the past few days. (We try, you know?)

Host: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Daestro – Light Powered (Ghostly International)

00:03:25 – Droid Bionic review
00:15:00 – Droid Bionic arrives at Verizon tomorrow, we go hands-on today (video)
00:40:33 – Samsung Stratosphere makes its obligatory FCC visit, confirms membership in Verizon’s LTE club
00:41:30 – Verizon’s Pantech Breakout rendered, is four inches of LTE goodness
00:41:42 – HTC Vigor hits the FCC with a dose of Verizon LTE
00:46:24 – BlackBerry Torch 9850 review
00:53:14 – Samsung Conquer 4G review
00:59:05 – LG Thrill 4G review
01:09:09 – Engadget giveaway: win a white T-Mobile G2x prototype!
01:15:45 – AT&T introduces Huawei Impulse 4G, available September 18th for $30
01:20:10 – Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play 4G hitting AT&T on September 18th for $50 on contract
01:22:25 – HTC Amaze 4G gets snapped with the lights on, confirms 1.5GHz dual-core CPU
01:26:58 – LG Univa pictured in the wild, may be the Optimus One’s young Padawan
01:29:49 – IFA 2011 wrap-up

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 103 – 09.10.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week, as always, was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of September 5, 2011:

• It appears that Sprint employees are being informed that vacation requests anytime between September 30th and October 15th won’t be approved, due to “the possibility of a major phone launch in October.” Vacation blackouts are typically used during certain times of the holiday season, so the timing on this particular memo is a bit striking — as usual, we invite you to come to your own conclusions here. [via SprintFeed]
• Two BlackBerry devices breathed life on T-Mobile this week in the form of leaks. First, the Curve 9360 began showing up on marketing material focusing specifically on its prepaid campaign, which says the device will be offered for $230 without having to sign a new contract. It didn’t mention the on-contract price, but if all goes according to rumors, it’ll likely be out this time next week (September 14th, to be specific). [via TmoNews]
• Speaking of the Curve 9360, the phone will probably be hopping across the pond to a Carphone Warehouse near you (if you live in the United Kingdom, that is). It’s ready for pre-order now on the retailer’s site with a prepaid option for $200. Not bad for a brand-new BlackBerry at full retail cost. [via TechnoBuffalo]
• The second BlackBerry we saw leaked for T-Mobile this week was the Torch 9860, which may have been discovered in T-Mo’s inventory system, according to a leaked screenshot. This doesn’t help us know the date or pricing of the new Torch, but it does signify that it’s likely just around the corner. [via TmoNews]
• It’s possible that the Droid Prime and Nexus Prime have passed through Bluetooth and WiFi certification. Since names were not provided in the documentation, we’re left to speculate using the devices’ model numbers — rumored to be the SCH-I515 and GT-I9250. We’re naturally skeptical, but we’ll keep a close eye on the FCC in hopes that we’ll see these mystery devices pop up soon with at least a few revealing details. [via Droid-Life]
• We’ve been expecting the recently announced Samsung Galaxy W to arrive this month in the UK, but all of our sights have been set on Three as the only known carrier… until now. O2 placed a teaser page on its website this week, listing the Galaxy W as “coming soon: September.” [via MobileBurn and AndroidCentral]

Mobile Miscellany: week of September 5, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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