Hasta La Gadget!

How are you killing the time until the Nexus S finally goes on sale? Google’s answer to that question has been a typically outlandish affair, involving seven Nexi, a collection of weather balloons, and another quest to see how much can be learned from a humble smartphone’s sensors when they’re shot to the edge of space. Yes, the Mountain View madmen fired a week’s worth of their latest and greatest smartphones through the Earth’s atmosphere, hoping to test both the durability and the information-gathering skills of the onboard compass, gyro, and accelerometer, while dedicated GPS modules were installed in each “shuttle” (made out of styrofoam beer coolers, if you can believe it) to help recover the cargo on its return to terra firma. So far, only six of the phones have been recovered — might this be another of Google’s crazy puzzles? A treasure hunt for an Android fallen from heaven? Video after the break.

Continue reading Google fires Nexus S into space, invites tenuous Galaxy S analogies (video)

Google fires Nexus S into space, invites tenuous Galaxy S analogies (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android boss Andy Rubin almost always makes for an entertaining interview, and his appearance at AllThingsD‘s D: Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco last week was certainly no exception. The introduction of Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the Nexus S were the official news items of the day, but Rubin took the opportunity to showcase the next version of the platform — Honeycomb — running on a prototype Motorola tablet that no one had seen before. He also runs through a breakdown of Android’s business model (hint: it’s profitable), muses about video calling, and gives us a look at that crazy new 3D-capable Google Maps app. Follow the break for the footage.

Continue reading Andy Rubin’s full D: Dive Into Mobile interview video posted

Andy Rubin’s full D: Dive Into Mobile interview video posted originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It can be difficult to review a phone like Google’s Nexus S in a world already populated by so many outstanding Android devices. Not only does the manufacturer of this phone make a series of handsets that are all essentially the same (the Galaxy S line), but countless other OEMs are cranking away on hardware for the platform. Of course, the Nexus S is a decidedly different phone altogether. Picking up where the company’s Nexus One left off, the S continues Google’s legacy of creating standalone, “pure Android” phone experiences, seemingly aimed less at the mainstream and more towards developers. Unlike the failed experiment of the Nexus One, Google appears to be taking a more realistic approach to the S; the phone will be sold through Best Buy (and Carphone Warehouse across the pond), which suggests that the company has bigger plans for this device.

And what a device it is — the Nexus S boasts a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU, 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch, 800 x 480 curved Super AMOLED display (dubbed the Contour Display), 16GB of storage, a 5 megapixel rear and VGA front-facing camera, and near field communication capabilities. But hardware is only half the story here — the big news is that the Nexus S showcases the next major evolution of the Android OS, namely, Gingerbread (or version 2.3). The update comes with a slew of new features alongside some UI improvements that show Google isn’t slowing down when it comes to pushing its mobile operating system forward. So is the Nexus S a real standout in the Android world, or is it more of the “me too” tech we’ve seen lately? Read on after the break for the full Engadget review to find out!

Continue reading Nexus S review

Nexus S review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We gotta hand it to Google: if its goal was to own the technology news cycle for 48 hours, mission accomplished. The Mountain View-based company spent the first two days this week laying out pretty much every big announcement it possibly could: a new flagship phone coming next week (the Nexus S), a new Android build (2.3 Gingerbread), a preview of the next Android build (Honeycomb) on a never-before-seen Motorola tablet, the debut of its cloud-based laptop platform (Chrome OS) with hardware, and a giant plunge into the growing e-book market — and that isn’t everything. We’ve done our best to condense all the days’ highlights into something easier to digest, so read on for a recap on all things Google!

Continue reading Google’s big week: Nexus S, Honeycomb tablets, Chrome OS laptops, and eBooks to boot

Google’s big week: Nexus S, Honeycomb tablets, Chrome OS laptops, and eBooks to boot originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Close your eyes: imagine an alternate universe where almost nothing you know holds true. A place where your entire system of beliefs has been torn asunder, flipped on its end for seemingly no reason whatsoever. How would you manage? How would you know right from wrong, up from down? Okay, now open your eyes, and feast them on this image — proof that we came indescribably close to making that frightening, foreign world a reality. Seems the Nexus S that we all know today was at one time known as the Nexus Two — internally, anyway — because Google’s official YouTube page for the phone makes numerous calls to a domain by the name of “nexustwophone.appspot.com” (and yes, appspot.com is a Google-owned domain). Why the name change happened is anyone’s guess; could’ve been Sammy’s desire to tie it in with the Galaxy S line, could’ve been Google’s long-term goal to avoid the Nexus Six Bladerunner reference, could have been Rubin’s last-minute whim. Whatever the case, thank goodness we all came out of this brush with destiny alive and relatively unhurt.

Note: We’re aware of the discussion that Samsung allegedly “didn’t want to be number two,” hence the “S” — but whether the story is true, it’s interesting to see just how close the Nexus Two name seems to have come to retail.

Was the Nexus S nearly the Nexus Two? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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