Hasta La Gadget!

Qualcomm’s not exactly a novice when it comes to sizing up phones — it’s already responsible for the graphics benchmark Neocore. Now, it also wants to show you just how much your mobile browser is lagging. The company just introduced Vellamo, a suite of 11 tests designed to gauge browser performance on Android phones and tablets. In case you’re curious, it takes its name from the Finnish goddess of the sea who lures away sailors web surfers (Qualcomm’s joke, not ours). And yes, it’ll work with any device running Android 2.0 or above, even if it doesn’t pack a Qualcomm-made processor. These tests span four broad categories — rendering, JavaScript, user experience, and networking — with only two requiring an internet connection (even then, you can cherry pick specific tests to run). We took it for a spin on our aging, Froyo-packing, Motorola Droid, whose score of 237 landed at the very bottom of the list of results, far behind tablets and newer handsets. (As of this writing, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 took the cake.) Curious to see how your device ranks? Hit the source link to download the free APK file.

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Continue reading Qualcomm launches Vellamo browser benchmark for Android devices

Qualcomm launches Vellamo browser benchmark for Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve known since its recent announcement that T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G Slide will be a mobile photographer’s delight and now we get to see the camera UI in action on video. As a quick reminder, the carrier’s upcoming Gingerbread smartphone is made by HTC and features Sense 3.0, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, a 3.7-inch WVGA Super LCD display, HSPA+ connectivity on the AWS spectrum, and a trick 8 megapixel shooter. The f2.2 wide-angle lens is combined with a low-light capable sensor and a dual-LED flash, but it’s the camera software that really shines. Like on the Sensation, you’ll find support for 1080p HD video recording, but the myTouch 4G Slide adds multiple scenes, zero shutter lag technology, continuous autofocus, HDR stills capture, plus panorama and burst modes, along with a dedicated two-stage shutter key. While we doubt it will dethrone Nokia’s N8 in term of raw picture quality, we’re looking forward to putting HTC’s latest feature-packed shooter through its paces when the handset debuts this month for $199 on contract.

T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G Slide shows off its camera chops (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew that Android 3.2 was little more than a tailor-made edition of Android 3.1 for 7-inch slates, but even after speaking with Huawei, we weren’t exactly sure when it would be rolling out to things other than its own MediaPad. Our pals over at This is my next managed to confirm that it’ll be landing as early as this summer, and for better or worse, it’ll be the last major Android release prior to Ice Cream Sandwich hitting retail devices in Q4. Moreover, it’s bruited that v3.2 will bring support for Qualcomm CPUs as well as NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset, which could lead to HTC’s Flyer getting an upgrade of its own. As for more current plans, it seems as if the Motorola Xoom — a slate that was just recently updated to 3.1 — will see another point increase in the coming weeks, which should give us a solid indication of what to expect software-wise with the MediaPad drops a few months later. Speaking of which, both CNET and M.I.C. Gadget were on-hand in Singapore for a look at the show-floor model of that very tablet, and you can feast your eyes on the pictorial proof down in the source links below.

Android 3.2 shipping this summer for 7-inch tablets, Huawei’s MediaPad gets handled originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s here folks — the planet’s first Android 3.2 tablet. Huawei just introduced a downright luscious new slate over in Singapore, with CommunicAsia being the launchpad for the 7-inch MediaPad. It’s the first high-profile 7-inch tablet we’ve seen in quite some time, and somehow or another, it’s managed to leapfrog most of the currently shipping Honeycomb tablets with a build of Android we’ve only ever joked about. Huawei tells us that Honeycomb 3.2 is essentially the same as 3.1, but specifically tailored to 7-inch tablets as opposed to 10-inch. Packed within the MediaPad’s 10.5mm shell, there’s a 217 pixels-per-inch IPS capacitive touchpanel, GPS, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, 802.11n WiFi, a battery good for around six hours of life and a bona fide racehorse as a processor: a dual-core 1.2GHz chip from Qualcomm. If all goes well, it’ll ship in the United States in Q3 2011.

It’s a fair bit chunkier than the newfangled Galaxy Tab 10.1 (8.6mm), but still slimmer than the original Tab, which clocked in at 11.98mm. It weighs in at 390g (0.86 pounds), supports full 1080p playback, includes HSPA+ (14.4Mbps) 3G support, offers 8GB of internal storage (as well as a microSD slot) and comes pre-loaded with Facebook, Twitter, Let’s Golf and Documents To Go. There’s also a Bluetooth module, an HDMI output for catching those high-def flicks on the go, and the Flash 10.3 player ensures that those websites won’t be a problem. Unfortunately, the company’s left a great deal to the imagination — like pricing, which is being “sorted with retail partners and providers” — and all we’ve got for system RAM is a promise that it’s “working with partners on specifics.” Oddly enough, the company has “no current plans” to produce a WiFi-only model, which definitely puts a damper on those who aren’t interested in ponying for carrier data. You can bet we’ll be digging for more, but even with the surrounding mystery, calling us “excited” would be a severe understatement.

Update: There’s a demo vid just after the break, and the first eyes-on shots have emerged from the conference.

Continue reading Huawei MediaPad revealed: world’s first 7-inch Android 3.2 tablet, dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm CPU

Huawei MediaPad revealed: world’s first 7-inch Android 3.2 tablet, dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has mail. It’s only a page and a paragraph long, but the letter he’s received this week has much gravitas attached to it, coming as it does from a select group of the tech industry’s biggest companies, all of whom are lending their support to AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. Of the eight new proponents of the deal, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo form a sub-group of software / web content distributors, whereas Qualcomm, RIM, Avaya, Brocade, and Oracle will have been motivated to speak up because they see the takeover as expanding opportunities to sell their mobile and networking hardware. The entire octet agrees that the melding of AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks into one is a requisite move for broadening mobile broadband availability in the US and for keeping the country competitive with the rest of the world. In their words, “an increasingly robust and efficient wireless network is part of a virtuous innovation cycle.” Virtuous for them, perhaps, but what about consumers faced with an increasingly binary choice of mobile carrier? Who shall protect their virtue?

Microsoft, Facebook, RIM, and others write to the FCC in support of AT&T-Mobile merger originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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