Feb 18

ZTE’s Smooth Android slider is a not-so-smooth Pre knockoff

Posted in: Android, kirf, mwc, mwc 2010, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, slider, Today's Chili

We hate to yell “Pre!” at the top of our lungs here, since we’d really like to see further exploration of the portrait QWERTY form factor for Android, but it’s hard to avoid the form factor and stylistic comparisons. The new “Smooth” phone from ZTE is a low-end handset running Android 1.6, with a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and a love for Palm industrial design. The phone, which is being shown off at MWC, should retail under 1000 Yuan (about $146 US) and be released in August of this year as a low-end smartphone contender.

ZTE’s Smooth Android slider is a not-so-smooth Pre knockoff originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

Adéu, Barcelona: MWC 2010 draws to a close

Posted in: mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, Today's Chili

For the industry, the press, and phone geeks alike, the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in the lovely Catalonian capital of Barcelona is the biggest event of the year — and apart from a few unplanned power outages at Engadget’s home base, an average nightly rest hovering around three hours, and unseasonably cold weather, 2010’s gathering didn’t disappoint. Let’s take a quick look back at some of the highlights:

Windows Phone 7 Series coverage
Windows Phone 7 Series: that’s the name
Live from Microsoft’s Windows Phone press event at MWC 2010
Windows Phone 7 Series hands-on and impressions (updated with video)
Editorial: Engadget on Windows Phone 7 Series
Windows Phone 7 Series: everything you ever wanted to know

Liveblogs
Live from Samsung’s 2010 MWC press event
Live from Sony Ericsson’s MWC 2010 press conference
Live from Nokia’s (and Intel’s) MWC 2010 press event
Live from Microsoft’s Windows Phone press event at MWC 2010
Live from HTC’s MWC 2010 press event
Live from Eric Schmidt’s keynote at MWC 2010

Hands-ons
Aava Mobile’s Intel Moorestown prototype hands-on
Acer Liquid e, beTouch E110 / E400, and neoTouch P300 / P400 hands-on
Alcatel OT-980 with Android hands-on, we feel frugal just looking at it
Bug Labs’ BUGbase 2.0 prototype hands-on
Chumby prototype with Marvell innards spotted at MWC 2010
Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 and A50 hands-on
General Mobile’s Touch Stone: how can something so wrong be so right?
Hands-on with TAT’s dual-screen phone concept and augmented reality app
HTC Desire first hands-on (updated with video)
HTC HD mini hands-on
HTC Legend hands-on (updated with video)
iWonder why the logo is upside down
LG Mini GD880 hands-on
Motorola MOTOROI hands-on with video
Motorola MT710 quick hands-on
Motorola Quench hands-on with video
Myriad Dalvik Turbo hands-on: Android apps just got fast
Notion Ink Adam hands-on (with video) at MWC 2010
Puma Phone hands-on
Sagen Orga shows off pricey SIMfi prototype at MWC
Samsung Wave first hands-on: Bada-packed and super fast (video!)
SK Telecom shoves Android onto a SIM, we check it out
Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro hands-on
Sony Ericsson X10 mini and X10 mini pro hands-on with video
Toshiba K01 hands-on
Toshiba TG02 hands-on
Windows Phone 7 Series hands-on and impressions (updated with video)
ZTE and OKWAP team with Intivation to deliver next generation solar devices

On-site podcasts
Engadget Mobile Podcast 035: MWC Day 1 – 02.16.2010
Engadget Mobile Podcast 036: MWC Day 2 – 02.17.2010

As fantastical as it might sound, mobile trade show season isn’t over just yet — CTIA Wireless and Microsoft’s MIX are on deck for next month, so stay tuned for the kind coverage of those shindigs that only Engadget can offer. See you next year, Espanya!

Adéu, Barcelona: MWC 2010 draws to a close originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

SK Telecom shoves Android onto a SIM, we check it out

Posted in: hands-on, mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, Today's Chili
SK Telecom was showing off some interesting ideas about where it’d like to see SIM cards go in the future here at MWC this week, including a couple particularly juicy ones called Android SIM and the SIM Theme Package. Android SIM shoehorns a CPU, the Android OS, applications, user data, and 1GB of storage into the card pictured above. SK Telecom envisions it being used in dumbphones — as the CPU is onboard, there wouldn’t be a need for the device to have one — letting consumers move between sets or perhaps to a tablet with even more ease than they already can. SKT’s Theme SIMs use a similar smart card to take advantage of the storage space for theme elements, music, pictures, and any variety of apps that vendors or operators care to put in them. Follow on for a quick demo (and some minor failure — typical demo time Murphy’s Law) of moving the themed chips between two handsets.

Gallery: SK Telecom Smart SIM Technology hands-on

Continue reading SK Telecom shoves Android onto a SIM, we check it out

SK Telecom shoves Android onto a SIM, we check it out originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

Sagem Orga shows off pricey SIMfi prototype at MWC

Posted in: hands-on, mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, Today's Chili, wifi

Sagem Orga was on the floor of MWC this week, a company that really doesn’t typically draw a lot of attention outside wireless industry suits who fly out to Barcelona to broker deals — at least, not until they do something totally insane like stuff a WiFi radio into a SIM card. We talked to the company a little bit about its coin-sized technological tour de force and we were shocked to learn that it doesn’t instantly nuke your phone’s battery — the gentleman running demos said that he was getting about a days’ worth between charges with occasional use. Of course, “occasional use” could mean anything, but he added that the card is currently throwing out a hotspot cloud of anywhere between 5 and 50 meters, and it could easily be reworked to stay within a much smaller radius which improves battery consumption in the process.

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the actual SIMfi; this is just a dummy pictured above, but our demo guy took off the battery cover of his phone and we were shocked to find that the real thing looks no different from any other SIM (no, seriously). We guess that makes sense since it has to fit into a standard SIM slot, but it’s rocket science how they managed to fit all that circuitry into a board that tiny — in fact, we were shown an x-ray view of the card, and the number of chips, resistors, and miscellaneous pieces of technology in there is nothing short of mind-bending. It’s hard to say when (or if) we’ll see these on carriers around the world, but it’s going to be a little while — Sagem Orga tells us the prototypes cost a stout €5,000 (about $6,800) each.

Sagem Orga shows off pricey SIMfi prototype at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

iWonder why the logo is upside down

Posted in: Android, hands-on, mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, tablet, Today's Chili

Among Marvell’s many demos at MWC this year was a curious white tablet out of well-traveled ODM Foxconn — the so-called iWonder — that will see duty in China later this year. It’s got a pretty awful 10.1-inch display (resistive with nary a trace of meaningful brightness or contrast), but when you consider that they’re targeting an exceptionally thrifty price point in the low $100s, it’s actually a pretty reasonable package. It’s got Android 1.6, WiFi with a dedicated hardware on-off switch, an accelerometer (though it was totally flaky on the version we used), and a handful of touch-sensitive buttons around the bezel, including last- and next-page buttons for using the iWonder as an e-reader. Marvell touts that the tablet is using its reference design as a starting point — now the next trick is helping Foxconn find a decent LCD supplier. Follow the break for some video of the iWonder showing off its Donut prowess — if you can avoid the distraction of the curiously inverted logo, that is.

Gallery: iWonder why the logo is upside down

Continue reading iWonder why the logo is upside down

iWonder why the logo is upside down originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

Beceem’s BCS500 4G modem splices WiMAX and LTE into one chip, sampling later this year

Posted in: 4G, lte, mobile broadband, MobileBroadband, motorola, mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, Today's Chili, WiMAX

When we were told market research pointed to WiMAX and LTE standards for 4G connectivity coexisting, we didn’t expect they’d do it quite so closely. Beceem, the maker of the WiMAX chips inside “every device in Clearwire’s network,” is working on a 4G modem that can handle both WiMAX and LTE, with the added extra of being able to move seamlessly between the two networks in order to find the best signal possible. The mashup of the two standards makes sense in light of all the equivocation from Clearwire and Sprint on the subject of which one they’d prefer, and would be a more than welcome simplification of our collective 4G future. Anyhow, the latest development is that Beceem and Motorola are working to pair the BCS500 to the latter’s WiMAX 4G infrastructure, with the first dual-mode chips set to start sampling “later this year” and hit mass production in early 2011.

Beceem’s BCS500 4G modem splices WiMAX and LTE into one chip, sampling later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

Alcatel OT-980 with Android hands-on, we feel frugal just looking at it

Posted in: Android, hands-on, mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, qwerty, slider, Today's Chili

This is arguably one of the cheesiest Android devices we’ve ever handled — and yes, we’re including KIRFs in that observation — but you’ve got to give Alcatel some credit here for taking the platform to a form factor that’s entirely under-served and doing so with an affordable price point in mind. The company plans to aggressively target HTC’s Tattoo when the OT-980 launches in its usual non-US markets later this year with Android 2.1, full HSPA, WiFi, AGPS, compass, and a 2.8-inch display. The thing is a straight-up fingerprint magnet (and the harsh lighting certainly wasn’t doing it any favors), but that’s not really any different from the Pre that it vaguely apes. The only prototype Alcatel had on hand had a busted display — if you look closely, you can make out the UI, so it seems the backlight may have passed on to the giant circuitboard in the sky. That doesn’t speak very highly of the build quality here, but then again, this is an homage to the Pre, right?

Gallery: Alcatel OT-980 with Android hands-on, we feel frugal just looking at it

Alcatel OT-980 with Android hands-on, we feel frugal just looking at it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

MWC: ZTE Making Windows Phone 7s, Too

Posted in: mwc, Today's Chili, windows phone 7

Major Chinese mobile phone manufacturer ZTE wasn’t on Microsoft’s initial list of partners for Windows Phone 7. But they’re making phones based on the new OS, said ZTE Europe CEO Lin Qiang.

“We have our Windows Phone 7 that we are going to launch in Q4 at the end of this year,” Qiang said.

Windows Phone 7 doesn’t mean Windows Mobile 6.5 is dead, according to Qiang. Like competitor HTC, ZTE sees a continuing role for Windows Mobile 6.5 in low-cost or smaller devices that don’t match up to Windows Phone 7’s high-end specs.

“We will develop 7 and 6.5 devices in parallel,” Qiang said. “The requirements of hardware are totally different.”

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Feb 18

Chumby prototype with Marvell innards spotted at MWC 2010

Posted in: hands-on, mwc, mwc 2010, Mwc2010, prototype, Today's Chili

Even though they don’t make retail devices, the booths of component makers like Qualcomm, Broadcom, TI, and Marvell at trade shows are often great venues for actually seeing retail devices — these guys have to help showgoers make the connection between a boring chunk of silicon and an end product if they’re hoping to score orders, after all. Indeed, Marvell’s tent at MWC this year is a veritable cornucopia of Good Things, and we couldn’t help but notice that they’re showing what appears to be one of Chumby’s not-for-sale reference designs sporting an 800 x 600 display with an 800MHz Marvell Armada core (hence the appearance here in the booth). For the record, we’re told this is a successor to last year’s reference platform known as “Silvermoon” that had been running on a 1GHz PXA168 and that there’s a chance it’ll be available in retail form later this year. The UI’s attractive, but not really as multi-functional as Sony’s Dash — you can think of this as more of a giant Chumby One, really, with some extra screen elements designed to take advantage of the significantly higher resolution. There’s no guarantee this’ll ever be produced — or if so, when — so for the time being, our video UI tour after the break is about as close as you’re going to get.

Continue reading Chumby prototype with Marvell innards spotted at MWC 2010

Chumby prototype with Marvell innards spotted at MWC 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

MWC: ARM Wont Admit Theyre In Apples iPad

Posted in: Apple, arm, ipad, mwc, Today's Chili

Apple’s secrecy around their products is famous, paranoiac, and frequently infuriating. Some of it makes sense: they stop leaks to maximize the surprise potential of new product announcements. But some of it doesn’t make as much sense, for instance refusing to release basic details about the capabilities of their existing products.

For instance, take the iPad. The iPad has an “Apple 1Ghz” processor in it, and it’s running iPhone OS 3.2. The iPhone OS, at least up until now, has been written for ARM processors; Samsung makes the one in the iPhone 3GS. So the iPad also has an ARM, right? Right?

ARM executives interviewed today at Mobile World Congress not only wouldn’t confirm that there’s an ARM processor in the iPad, they wouldn’t even confirm that Apple is an ARM licensee, or that Apple acquisition PA Semi was.

The reason the iPad’s processor architecture is important is because it directly impacts performance. Apple quotes it as a “1 Ghz” processor. But 1 Ghz ARM11, Cortex-A8 or Cortex-A9 processors would be very different speeds – and we’re not even talking about the graphics hardware yet.

I guess we’ll just have to wait until the teardown firms get iPads and tear them apart with an electron microscope. Of course, things could be much worse. Unlike the Reuters investigative reporter checking out Apple’s suppliers, I wasn’t actually assaulted by any guards.

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