Mobile Miscellany: week of August 22, 2011

This week 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 August 15, 2011:

Phone Releases

  • Fido launched the Samsung Galaxy Q, also known as the Gravity Smart in the US, on Thursday. [via MobileSyrup]
  • The BlackBerry Curve 9360 can already be purchased on Telus for $50 with a three-year contract, and the Torch 9860 will be available on August 30th. [via IntoMobile and CrackBerry]
  • SouthernLINC Wireless announced the immediate availability of the Motorola Titanium, offered for $150 with a two-year commitment.
  • T-Mobile released the Samsung Gravity TXT, a basic messaging phone that’s on sale for $10. [via UnwiredView]
  • Cricket has begun offering a new messaging phone called the Samsung Comment, which offers a full QWERTY keyboard, stereo bluetooth, a microSD slot and 1.3MP camera. It can be had for $90 with no commitment required. [via PhoneScoop]

Other news

  • The government of South Korea, in reaction to Google’s planned acquisition of Motorola, now intends to form a consortium of local companies that will work together in building a brand new mobile operating system. [via IntoMobile]
  • Randall Milch, Chief Counsel for Verizon, is so frustrated with the patent wars going on that this week he filed an appeal to President Obama, asking for him to provide assistance in the matter. [via PhoneScoop]
  • The Motorola PRO is expected to debut in the UK in mid-September, though pre-orders are already taking place at select authorized resellers. [via UnwiredView]
  • Leaked posters indicate the BlackBerry Torch 9850 will be offered by Verizon and screenshots show the same phone going to US Cellular, though we’re still unsure of the release date or pricing. [via CrackBerry(1) and (2)]
  • Last week we reported on the rumored Sony Ericsson Nozumi, a smartphone that will likely feature a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm S2 CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, and 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution. At the time, it was assumed to be only selling in Japan; however, there’s a good possibility the Nozumi will end up available globally instead. [via XperiaBlog]
  • Pantech’s LTE phone on Verizon may actually end up being called the Breakout (rather than the “Apache”), according to a leaked screenshot. When released, it’ll feature a 1GHz CPU with 512MB of RAM, dual cameras, and will be preloaded with Gingerbread. Not much to write home about at this stage in the game, considering these are incredibly similar to the specs of the LG Revolution. However, it would be the first 4G phone on Big Red that has a 4-inch display. [via AndroidCentral]
  • T-Mobile may be planning to throw a data pay-per-use feature onto any smartphone that currently has its internet access blocked. If this happens, it will affect current customers as well as new ones. [via TmoNews]
  • Dish has petitioned the FCC for permission to use 40MHz of allocated spectrum to begin building out an LTE-Advanced network. [via PhoneScoop]

Mobile Miscellany: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget NYC Reader Meetup recap

Meetup

What can we say? It was an amazing night. We filled the joint to capacity, made about a million new friends, smashed (and fixed!) an iPad 2 live on stage, and literally had so much stuff to give away that we ran out of time. The staff is still buzzing (and our ears still ringing) after a fantastic night in the City, and we’re hugely thankful for everyone who came out last night to party with us. And, of course, we’re hugely thankful to our sponsors that helped to make it possible, including Motorola, Get-a-Game, RIM, HTC, Samsung, and AT&T — who brought artist Matt Siren to create a little art live. We have a time-lapse video of that coming together after the break, along with footage of what happens when a set of in-line skates meet up with the display on an iPad 2 provided by uBreakiFix. Spoiler alert: it ain’t pretty.

Continue reading Engadget NYC Reader Meetup recap

Engadget NYC Reader Meetup recap originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid Bionic gets a silent walkthrough (video)

Sure, there’s no sword-wielding lady in a leather blouse, but this silent hands-on walkthrough will no doubt prove exciting in its own right for anyone who has been aching to get their hands on the forthcoming Droid Bionic. It’s four minutes and change of scrolling through the Verizon phone’s fancy animations, with a speed test thrown in for good measure. Overall, there’s nothing too earthshaking, but it’s one of the most in-depth walkthroughs we’ve seen of the anticipated and long-delayed device in its current form, adding to that start up video we spotted the other day — and unlike those Verizon ads, it actually has a phone in it.

Continue reading Droid Bionic gets a silent walkthrough (video)

Droid Bionic gets a silent walkthrough (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid Bionic teases boot sequence, LTE prowess to anxious onlookers (video)

That’s right folks, the Droid Bionic is back with another leaked appearance. This time it stars in a video clip that reveals the phone’s boot sequence, which is followed by an all-important thrill ride / speed test on Verizon’s LTE network. As if you needed further proof, this Moto reveals itself to pack dual cores, and as you might expect, it sports Motorola’s animation-laden skin. What about the LTE test, you ask? It pulls in respectable numbers — approximately 4.5Mbps down and 1.9Mbps up — but as you’re likely aware, these speeds pale in comparison to what we’ve seen on the Droid Charge and Revolution. It’s entirely possible the test is simply an outlier, so we’ll hope for better scores as the phone approaches its September arrival. Curious for the sneak peak? You’ll find the full video after the break.

[Thanks, Tu]

Continue reading Droid Bionic teases boot sequence, LTE prowess to anxious onlookers (video)

Droid Bionic teases boot sequence, LTE prowess to anxious onlookers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid Bionic ad has pretty much everything but a phone (video)

The new Droid Bionic ad sure has it all: a Portman-esque lady in an illuminated leather blouse, brandishing a giant sword against a Terminator-looking ‘bot shooting lasers from his hands, all taking place in some crazy sky coliseum thing. As for the actual handset? Not so much on that front, save for a name at the end and a promised September release date — oh, and the implied promise that the phone will literally slice the heads off of its Android brethren. Video after the break.

Continue reading Droid Bionic ad has pretty much everything but a phone (video)

Droid Bionic ad has pretty much everything but a phone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK Advertising Authority smacks Motorola for misleading Atrix advert (video)

Oh dear. Remember Motorola’s advert claiming the Atrix was the “world’s most powerful smartphone?” Well it’s now been banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority. Viewers complained about the misleading phrase as the Galaxy S II has a faster 1.2 GHz processor, compared to Atrix’s 1GHz. Moto said it meant “powerful” in the sense it could drive various devices — the ASA didn’t agree, since the phrase was read out over the final shot in the advert, where the phone appears in isolation. It ruled that as such, the advert was misleading and can only reappear on UK TV with the contentious phrase removed. Armchair adjudicators can decide for themselves in the video after the break.

Continue reading UK Advertising Authority smacks Motorola for misleading Atrix advert (video)

UK Advertising Authority smacks Motorola for misleading Atrix advert (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s fall and winter 2011 roadmap leaked in spreadsheet glory

Summer is in full swing, but if you happen to take a peek at AT&T’s leaked roadmap for the upcoming two quarters, you might just sense the chill of winter in the air. While this doesn’t appear to be official from Ma Bell, or entirely exhaustive, we’ve gotten a spreadsheet that goes in-depth to out the carrier’s upcoming smartphones. A host of Android devices are on the list — all with Gingerbread — along with two handsets that strut Windows Phone 7.5 and another duo with BlackBerry 7. Of particular note, we see the Samsung SGH-i777 (otherwise known as the Attain), along with the SGH-i927 for you QWERTY slider lovers. Both Sammy’s sport Category 14 HSDPA, or (up to) 21Mbps downloads. Curiously, the Impulse — Ma Bell’s rumored LTE phone — is nowhere to be found. The Motorola MB865, with a full gigabyte of RAM and 8 megapixel camera, aligns very well with the rumored Atrix refresh. You’ve seen the two phones from RIM before, and while Samsung’s Mango handset spent a brief moment in the wild, little is known about HTC’s counterpart. Hopefully we won’t need to wait for the actual change of seasons to learn more.

AT&T’s fall and winter 2011 roadmap leaked in spreadsheet glory originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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South Korea brings the big guns to the mobile OS knife fight

Publicly, Samsung and LG tersely supported Google’s union with Motorola (which we’ve taken to calling Moogle) — privately it appears the South Korean giants aren’t as thrilled to be at the mercy of Mountain View’s whim. Imagine their predicament if they were frozen out of Android tomorrow — which is why the Korean government has stepped in to create its own OS. Kim Jae-hong, deputy minister from Seoul’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy, thinks that American dominance in mobile software is generally a bad thing. The minister said that the country would “foster a habitat” for the open-source OS, which might mean incentivized pricing on these devices, and we’re hearing a cloud-based Chrome OS is also in the offing. The biggest news Jae-hong slipped is that Samsung had been very dismissive of a Korean OS until it heard about the Google / Motorola deal. What a difference a Moogle makes, eh?

South Korea brings the big guns to the mobile OS knife fight originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why Are All the Cellphone Companies Suing Each Other?

Apple is suing Motorola, Samsung and HTC; they’re all suing Apple back. RIM and Kodak are suing each other. Kodak is suing Apple. Sony is suing LG. Microsoft is suing FoxConn and Barnes and Noble. Oracle is suing Google. More »

Engadget’s back to school guide 2011: smartphones

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we’re tapping away on our smartphones — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

Now more than ever, collegiate studies require a wide variety of devices to help you get that prized “A.” The thirst for knowledge you so desperately seek can strike at any time, and you’re not always going to have that desktop or laptop nearby to find the answer to a burning question. Perhaps you just need to hurl birds at pigs for a while to blow off your stress. Whatever the case, you’ll need something to help you study, store (and edit) all of your important term papers, keep you in touch with classmates or family, and everything in-between. What better way to get all of that than with a smartphone? We’ve picked nine respectable candidates that can help you through your upcoming semester — three for each budget level. Oh, and while you’re looking, we’re giving away $3,000 worth of essential back to school gear to 15 lucky readers, and you can be one of them by simply leaving a comment below! So, which phones are most likely to help you get smart? Head past the break to find out.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2011: smartphones

Engadget’s back to school guide 2011: smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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