Hasta La Gadget!

Things look to finally start to get interesting with hardware selection on MetroPCS’ LTE network — a network that still offers nothing more than the Samsung Craft dumbphone to tame those wild 4G speeds several months after the commercial launch. The latest leak here is for a device allegedly called the Forte — also from Samsung, naturally — that features a sliding landscape keyboard along with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5 megapixel camera, and Android 2.2 at launch, all specs that would suggest this might be a Galaxy S-branded device. What we don’t know is whether the Forte is the same as the SCH-R910 that was leaked for MetroPCS a few days ago; Samsung Hub‘s tipster claims there are two LTE devices in the pipeline here, so they could be different (perhaps one with a keyboard, one without) even though the tops are identical at a glance.

Update: Another couple shots of the alleged Forte have shown up on Samsung Hub, prominently showing off a “4G” logo planted back and center; rumor now has it we’re looking at a February 11th launch, though it’s still not clear whether this is the same device as the SCH-R910.

Samsung Forte Android phone with LTE for MetroPCS leaked? (update: more pics) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Philips has been touting its uWand “direct pointer” remote for a good while now, but we’ve never had the chance to actually use one ourselves. Today that omission has been rectified as we got our mitts around this motion / gesture-based controller and gave it a quick test drive. It works by having an infrared camera embedded in the front, which detects an IR beacon in your TV and thereby judges its own distance, tilt and relation to the TV. That then allows for things like motion-based zooming, pointing the remote at the particular thing on the television that you want to “click” on, and navigational shortcuts attached to gestures performed with this handheld. There’s also a nice spacious keyboard on the back, assisting in the use of all these Smart TVs CES has been littered with. Philips’ intention is to license the technology out to other manufacturers, which could result in consumer products by 2012 — so yeah, it’s not terribly close to your living room yet, but our gallery of images is.

Continue reading Philips uWand hands-on

Philips uWand hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did a Thai company we’ve never heard of just make the best-looking portrait QWERTY Android phone to date? We might not jump the gun that quickly — but it’s definitely up there. Spriiing Design (yes, three i’s) is launching its Smile model in Bangkok on January 18th and the rest of Thailand thereafter, featuring a 3 megapixel camera, 512MB of ROM, 256MB of RAM, microSD expansion to 16GB, and a 2.6-inch QVGA display along with 3G support on the 900 and 2100MHz bands paired to a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 core atop Android 2.1. In other words… yeah, this pretty low end fare. More interestingly, though, the handset was apparently designed in Sweden and manufactured by Huawei — in fact, it’s got “In connection with Ideos” silkscreened on the back, and Ideos is the brand that Huawei’s been pushing this year for its Android-powered gear. Small world, ain’t it? Follow the break for Spriiing’s video teaser.

Update: Turns out this puppy is on sale in Australia, too, through Boost Mobile (yep, there’s a Boost Mobile there). Thanks, Matt!

Continue reading Spriiing Smile Android phone hits Thailand by way of Sweden with China’s help

Spriiing Smile Android phone hits Thailand by way of Sweden with China’s help originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC’s worst kept secret (this side of the Thunderbolt) has popped up online again, this time as part of some RadioShack promo materials, which list its price, launch date, 4G capabilities, and screen size. Earlier indications had this Android slider launching on January 9th at a $150 price point with a two-year contract and now, lo and behold, both data points seem to have been confirmed. $450 is the price for the EVO Shift 4G sans any carrier obligations, though you’ll probably want to stick with Sprint to make use of that WiMAX radio contained within. Bring on 2011 already!

HTC EVO Shift 4G headed for a January 9th launch at $150, according to RadioShack leak originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A number of iPhone keyboard cases have popped up lately, from the TK-421 flip-out case (which we reviewed) to the BoxWave Keyboard Buddy. We’ve spent the better part of 24 hours using an engineering sample of Nuu’s MiniKey QWERTY slider for iPhone 4 — expect “a few minor changes to be made” before actual launch — that the company was kind enough to send over. So, how’s it stack up?

Continue reading Nuu MiniKey for iPhone 4 preview: yep, another (bulky) keyboard case

Nuu MiniKey for iPhone 4 preview: yep, another (bulky) keyboard case originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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