Aug 30

Cobra Tag review

Posted in: Android, app, BlackBerry, bluetooth, Google, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, review, RIM, Today's Chili, video

Phone, keys, wallet. Discovering that you’re missing any of these three items could easily trigger a panic attack, yet they’re all so easy to misplace. How many times have you spent twenty minutes looking for keys that were buried between the couch cushions? The Cobra Tag may help you win that losing battle. Acting as a Bluetooth device that attaches to your key ring and connects to your phone, it gives you the opportunity to find the missing item if it’s less than 30 feet away. It can also send notifications when the two devices are out of range from each other. The concept sounds convenient, but how does it work in practice? Let’s find out.

Gallery: Cobra Tag Review

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Cobra Tag review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 29

BlackBerry Bold 9900 torn down, put back together for your amusement (video)

Posted in: BlackBerry, mobilepostcross, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, teardown, Today's Chili, video

Nothing like a little gadget carnage to get your week started off right. This week, DirectFix takes you on an eight-and-a-half minute journey inside a Rogers-branded version of the new BlackBerry Bold 9900. The video is intended as an instructional guide on repairing the RIM smartphone at home, but should also provide vicarious thrills for the warrant-wary. Video of the process in action after the break. And if you do try this at home, here’s hoping you don’t wind up with any extra screws.

Continue reading BlackBerry Bold 9900 torn down, put back together for your amusement (video)

BlackBerry Bold 9900 torn down, put back together for your amusement (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 28

Refresh Roundup: week of August 22, 2011

Posted in: Android, att, BlackBerry, firmware, firmware update, FirmwareUpdate, HP, HTC, leak, leaks, mango, mobilepostmini, motorola, nokia, refresh, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, roundup, rumor, rumors, Software, software update, SoftwareUpdate, Today's Chili, update, verizon, vzw, webos, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android Updates

  • Motorola’s Photon 4G was the recipient of a minor over-the-air firmware revamp that offers improvements to responsiveness and voice calls, and offers more bug fixes and other enhancements. [via PhoneArena]
  • Want another bug fix update? The HTC EVO 3D is the next contestant, rolling out its second OTA refresh in as many weeks. This time it appears that a new “Corporate 4G” widget and a new radio have been added. [via AndroidCentral]
  • Gingerbread 2.3.4 is now rolling out to Bell’s Motorola Atrix 4G OTA. [via MobileSyrup]
  • Now that its official Gingerbread support page has gone live, Verizon’s Motorola Droid 2 will likely be receiving Android 2.3 in the very near future. [via AndroidCentral]
  • Sasktel’s HTC Incredible S is now the beneficiary of Android 2.3.3 in an OTA install. [via MobileSyrup]

Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc hackery

Other platforms

  • The Nokia N8 was recently blessed with Symbian Anna, but a few camera-related upgrades were left out. No need to fear, as an “experimental” update is now being offered, which adds continuous auto-focus and tweaks the UI to allow for faster access to the camera — among other improvements, such as a boost to 30fps. Check out the change log here. [via ZOMGitsCJ]
  • Given last week’s news about webOS, we were concerned the newly-launched Pre3 would be DOA, with no promise of future updates. HP’s proving this isn’t the case, however, as the device got a minor update that brought the phone’s help center live and fixed a few bugs along the way. [via PreCentral and PhoneArena]
  • Research in Motion released an upgrade to its Tablet OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Unfortunately, it’s not the 2.0 version we saw leaked screenshots of earlier this week, but it still brings a nice feature to the tablet: differential updates. This means that in future OS refreshes, only the affected sections will be changed. In addition, the new version, dubbed 1.0.7.2942, will improve WiFi connectivity via WEP and enhancements to BlackBerry Bridge. [via RIM]
  • WP7Mod showed a video of the HTC HD2 booting up with Windows Phone Mango’s RTM build installed. We’ve been told that it’s almost ready for any daring souls interested in a new challenge for their Windows Mobile device. [via WMPowerUser]

Refresh Roundup: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 27

Mobile Miscellany: week of August 22, 2011

Posted in: 4G, BlackBerry, korea, lte, Miscellaneous, mobilepostmini, motorola, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, samsung, Sony Ericsson, SonyEricsson, South Korea, SouthKorea, t-mobile, Today's Chili, verizon, vzw

This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011:

Phone Releases

  • Fido launched the Samsung Galaxy Q, also known as the Gravity Smart in the US, on Thursday. [via MobileSyrup]
  • The BlackBerry Curve 9360 can already be purchased on Telus for $50 with a three-year contract, and the Torch 9860 will be available on August 30th. [via IntoMobile and CrackBerry]
  • SouthernLINC Wireless announced the immediate availability of the Motorola Titanium, offered for $150 with a two-year commitment.
  • T-Mobile released the Samsung Gravity TXT, a basic messaging phone that’s on sale for $10. [via UnwiredView]
  • Cricket has begun offering a new messaging phone called the Samsung Comment, which offers a full QWERTY keyboard, stereo bluetooth, a microSD slot and 1.3MP camera. It can be had for $90 with no commitment required. [via PhoneScoop]

Other news

  • The government of South Korea, in reaction to Google’s planned acquisition of Motorola, now intends to form a consortium of local companies that will work together in building a brand new mobile operating system. [via IntoMobile]
  • Randall Milch, Chief Counsel for Verizon, is so frustrated with the patent wars going on that this week he filed an appeal to President Obama, asking for him to provide assistance in the matter. [via PhoneScoop]
  • The Motorola PRO is expected to debut in the UK in mid-September, though pre-orders are already taking place at select authorized resellers. [via UnwiredView]
  • Leaked posters indicate the BlackBerry Torch 9850 will be offered by Verizon and screenshots show the same phone going to US Cellular, though we’re still unsure of the release date or pricing. [via CrackBerry(1) and (2)]
  • Last week we reported on the rumored Sony Ericsson Nozumi, a smartphone that will likely feature a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm S2 CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, and 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution. At the time, it was assumed to be only selling in Japan; however, there’s a good possibility the Nozumi will end up available globally instead. [via XperiaBlog]
  • Pantech’s LTE phone on Verizon may actually end up being called the Breakout (rather than the “Apache”), according to a leaked screenshot. When released, it’ll feature a 1GHz CPU with 512MB of RAM, dual cameras, and will be preloaded with Gingerbread. Not much to write home about at this stage in the game, considering these are incredibly similar to the specs of the LG Revolution. However, it would be the first 4G phone on Big Red that has a 4-inch display. [via AndroidCentral]
  • T-Mobile may be planning to throw a data pay-per-use feature onto any smartphone that currently has its internet access blocked. If this happens, it will affect current customers as well as new ones. [via TmoNews]
  • Dish has petitioned the FCC for permission to use 40MHz of allocated spectrum to begin building out an LTE-Advanced network. [via PhoneScoop]

Mobile Miscellany: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 26

FCC Fridays: August 26, 2011

Posted in: BlackBerry, mobilepostmini, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, samsung, Today's Chili

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol’ Federal Communications Commission’s site. Since we couldn’t possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we’ve gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don’t need). Enjoy!

Update: It appears the FCC is doing some work on its website, which means some of the links may show up as an error for the next few days.

Phones

Read – Huawei G3512
Read – Huawei U8652
Read – Huawei U5200
Read – RIM REM71UW
Read – Samsung GT-S7250 Wave
Read – Samsung GT-I8150 Galaxy W
Read – Samsung GT-I9100P
Read – Samsung GT-C3330
Read – Samsung SGH-T989 Hercules
Read – Samsung E110S
Read – Vertu RM-681V (Constellation T)
Read – Fujitsu TSI11

FCC Fridays: August 26, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 26

Samsung Galaxy W to launch on Three network in the UK next month

Posted in: BlackBerry, cellphone, mobile, mobilepostmini, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, smartphone, Sony Ericsson, SonyEricsson, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom

Samsung-thusiasts in the UK will be happy to know that the brand spanking new Galaxy W is coming to the British Three network in September. Just yesterday, we caught a glimpse of this beaut running Gingerbread with a 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, 4GB of internal memory, a 1.4GHz processor and HDSPA connectivity. Those on Three can also expect the new line of BlackBerrys — the Curve 9360, the Torch 9810 and the Bold 9900 — soon, as well as the white Samsung Galaxy S II and the Sony Ericsson Xperia ray sometime in September. We hope to get some hands-on time with the W at IFA in Berlin next week — roadtrip anyone?

Samsung Galaxy W to launch on Three network in the UK next month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 06:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 25

BlackBerry to run Android apps on future QNX devices?

Posted in: Android, android market, AndroidMarket, app, apps, BlackBerry, blackberry playbook, BlackberryPlaybook, gingerbread, playbook, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, smartphone, Smartphones, tablet, tablets, Today's Chili

One of the biggest gripes from BlackBerry users is the lack of apps, which is why RIM hopes to boost sales by adding Android compatibility in future devices — DroidBerry, anyone? According to Bloomberg, sources familiar with the matter say RIM may add support for Android apps on future QNX-based devices, enabling access beyond RIM’s relatively limited App World. The feature is said to go live in the QNX-powered PlayBook tablet by the end of the year, but there’s no word yet whether the 2012 line-up of QNX phones will get a Google-friendly makeover. Rumor has it that anyone who bought the most recent batch of BlackBerrys won’t get to have a taste of Gingerbread, Honeycomb or any other mouth-watering Android flavor for that matter. Guess they’ll have to settle for plain old vanilla.

BlackBerry to run Android apps on future QNX devices? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 24

BBM Music gets official for BlackBerry owners lusting after Spotify

Posted in: BlackBerry, mobilepostcross, Music, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, social networking, SocialNetworking, Today's Chili

Nothing warms our hearts quite like the thought of corporate suits and government workers pumping out the tunes of Iris DeMent and Amy Martin as they scurry throughout their busy days. As we’ve previously speculated, a new service for BlackBerry Messenger — dubbed BBM Music — has now become real official. For $5 per month, users may keep up to 50 songs in their personal library, which is kinda reminiscent of the wistful days filled with 128MB MP3 players. Fortunately, it gets better. A social component allows you to add BBM Music friends, which gives you access to their current 50 songs, too — and serves as a real incentive to grow your social circle. Once you get bored of your jam selection, up to 25 songs per month can be swapped out for new ones, and your current library can be stored locally on the handset. The new service begins today in closed beta for residents of the US, Canada and the UK, but more countries will be added down the road. Curious if yours made the list? Just hop the break for the full PR to find out.

Continue reading BBM Music gets official for BlackBerry owners lusting after Spotify

BBM Music gets official for BlackBerry owners lusting after Spotify originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 24

AT&T’s fall and winter 2011 roadmap leaked in spreadsheet glory

Posted in: Android, att, galaxy s ii, GalaxySIi, gingerbread, Google, HTC, leak, leaked, leaks, mango, Microsoft, mobilepostmini, motorola, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, roadmap, samsung, smartphone, Smartphones, Today's Chili
Summer is in full swing, but if you happen to take a peek at AT&T’s leaked roadmap for the upcoming two quarters, you might just sense the chill of winter in the air. While this doesn’t appear to be official from Ma Bell, or entirely exhaustive, we’ve gotten a spreadsheet that goes in-depth to out the carrier’s upcoming smartphones. A host of Android devices are on the list — all with Gingerbread — along with two handsets that strut Windows Phone 7.5 and another duo with BlackBerry 7. Of particular note, we see the Samsung SGH-i777 (otherwise known as the Attain), along with the SGH-i927 for you QWERTY slider lovers. Both Sammy’s sport Category 14 HSDPA, or (up to) 21Mbps downloads. Curiously, the Impulse — Ma Bell’s rumored LTE phone — is nowhere to be found. The Motorola MB865, with a full gigabyte of RAM and 8 megapixel camera, aligns very well with the rumored Atrix refresh. You’ve seen the two phones from RIM before, and while Samsung’s Mango handset spent a brief moment in the wild, little is known about HTC’s counterpart. Hopefully we won’t need to wait for the actual change of seasons to learn more.

AT&T’s fall and winter 2011 roadmap leaked in spreadsheet glory originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 21

BlackBerry Torch 9810 available on AT&T today for $50

Posted in: att, BlackBerry, mobilepostmini, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, Today's Chili
The wait is over for BlackBerry fans from coast to coast who happen to use Ma Bell, as the BlackBerry Torch 9810 — the first of three devices in RIM’s fall lineup — is now available at AT&T stores. All it’ll set you back is a respectable $50 (with a two-year commitment, of course), and you’ll then be ready to get your OS 7 on along with Liquid Graphics, a full QWERTY keyboard, a 1.2GHz CPU, and more than plenty of the usual RIM features you’ve come to love or hate. If this phone’s flame burns within you, it may be time to head to the source link below.

BlackBerry Torch 9810 available on AT&T today for $50 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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