Hasta La Gadget!

In case you were still wondering, yes, the Galaxy Nexus is Verizon bound. We certainly didn’t need to see another signup page to tell us that, but if you find your way to Verizon’s mailing list form through the outfit’s own search bar, you might find an interesting banner: “Exclusively from Verizon,” it reads, “Galaxy Nexus.” Well, that certainly flies in the face of a certain FCC filing we’ve seen, not to mention Samsung’s own Galaxy Nexus signup page and all of our hopes and dreams. With any luck, the handset will still launch on multiple carriers, perhaps only landing on Verizon’s grid first. If old rumors hold true, however, Verizon customers won’t be the only folks seeing red on November 10th.

[Thanks, John]

Verizon throws Galaxy Nexus signup page live, claims exclusivity originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Take that, Xperia Play. USB gamepads are already supported in Honeycomb, so we had plenty of hope that Android 4.0 — also lovingly referred to as Ice Cream Sandwich — would offer the same functionality. We finally have the answer, and it’s a resounding yes, courtesy of Google framework engineer Romain Guy’s Twitter account. The cool part, though, is that HDMI’s playing nice as well. In short, you could hook up an external gamepad to a USB-to-microUSB adapter on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, connect it to your TV and transform your handset into a fancy portable gaming console. It’s definitely something we can see developers flock towards, and we’ll expect some cool stuff to come out of it. Just in case you thought the Nexus wouldn’t let you get anything else done around the house already, this pretty much seals the deal. Move below the break to see a screenshot from the SDK.

Continue reading Ice Cream Sandwich supports USB game controllers and HDMI, turns your phone into full game console

Ice Cream Sandwich supports USB game controllers and HDMI, turns your phone into full game console originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s Galaxy Nexus may be a lot of things: the fourth-coming of Android, an HD Super AMOLED showcase and iPhone 4S competitor. But weather forecaster? Alright, so it won’t give you hourly atmospheric updates with an air swipe, but the built-in barometer that’s got so many of us scratching our heads has a much different purpose. Android engineer Dan Morrill took to the social pages of Google+ to clarify the confusion. Turns out, Sammy added the barometer to help the device more rapidly acquire a GPS lock by delivering altitude coordinates to the required latitude and longitude GPS equation. Morrill goes on to note that the original Xoom also packed a similar feature, so if anything, this Nexus is simply following that Moto tab’s lead. Next quandary Morrill needs to solve? Why, that would be the omission of carrier release dates.

Galaxy Nexus barometer explained, Sam Champion not out of a job originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung and Google still haven’t officially revealed which US carriers will be getting the Galaxy Nexus next month — even though Verizon has been leaked, is shown in the official trailer (included after the break, look at 0:22), and there was a quickly-retracted Facebook confirmation earlier today. Now, the official signup page for release info on Samsung’s site allows users to show their carrier preference between AT&T, Cellular South, Metro PCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon. It’s hardly a confirmation this latest Android phone will ever be available on all of them, but even if you’re not on Big Red, we won’t kill your Ice Cream Sandwich dreams yet.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Galaxy Nexus signup page includes seven US carriers, endless speculation

Galaxy Nexus signup page includes seven US carriers, endless speculation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wondering what the 5 megapixel sensor within the Galaxy Nexus is capable of? So were we. We didn’t have a huge variety of subjects to photograph here in our meeting room, but we ran about and captured as many as we could just for a quick comparison. As promised, snapping multiple pictures in a row was a cinch, with the camera taking just a fraction of a second before being ready to shoot again. In fact, we couldn’t even tap the screen fast enough to find its limit. We have to say, though — the built-in “Edit” menu could stand to be stronger. The “effects” were thoroughly underwhelming, and Instagram addicts will find plenty to laugh about. The cropping and twisting, however, is appreciated. Have a look at a rough-and-dirty comparison between the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus S in the galleries below (as well as a few panorama samples), and find a one minute 1080p sample video from the former just after the break.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Nexus camera and 1080p video samples

Samsung Galaxy Nexus camera and 1080p video samples originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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