Hasta La Gadget!

MobileCrunch claims to have pictures (which it can’t publish for security reasons, unfortunately) and complete specs for Nokia’s next-gen internet tablet — and although we don’t have any corroborating evidence to back up the story, everything they’ve got makes perfect sense. We’ve known for the better part of a year now that Nokia has been planning an OMAP3-based N810 replacement with 3G that would run Maemo 5, and that’s exactly what this new device seems to be with a 3.5-inch wide VGA display, WiFi, full HSPA, 32GB of onboard storage expandable to 48GB (presumably via microSD), and — get this — a 5 megapixel AF camera with dual LED flash. GSM voice and VoIP are both in the cards, making this the closest thing yet to a Maemo-powered phone — and in a sick, twisted way, the 5 megapixel camera plus sliding keyboard almost put it in direct competition with the upcoming N97. Indeed, carriers are taking direct interest in this thing, with T-Mobile apparently interested both in Europe and the States; it seems we could expect a European release as soon as July, with T-Mobile USA nabbing it in an AWS 3G flavor closer to fall. Makes an eventual divorce from S60 all that much more plausible for Nokia, doesn’t it?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia’s N810 successor coming later this year with 3G and Maemo 5? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 May 2009 03:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Modu may be down, but unlike one Ricky Hatton, it ain’t out. We haven’t heard a whole heck of a lot from the niche handset maker since it handed out pink slips to around one-forth of its workforce, but now that things are looking a bit brighter, it seems as if innovation is back in full force. In fact, a new report on the outfit has it that its next cellphone will pack a touchscreen in order to fit the mold of today’s finger-friendly array. Aside from being “iPhone like” (its words, not ours), little else is known about the forthcoming device, though we’re told that development should be complete in around eight months. So, anyone wagering that R&D accelerates that just a touch to get this thing out by CES 2010?

[Via Talking Mobile]

Filed under: Cellphones

Modu’s next handset to sport a touchscreen? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 May 2009 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Pre launch continues to befuddle — sure, we finally know that June 6 is when the magic happens, but the mechanics of actually snagging Palm’s baby on that day are still pretty mysterious, and that’s leaving a lot of room open for misinformation. Today’s cloudy tea-reading comes courtesy of an ever-changing list of stores on Sprint.com that are marked as having June 5 “special hours,” which some are reading to mean that only those stores will be blessed. We don’t buy it. First, we’ve been told specifically that all stores will have Pre stock, even if it’s minimal, and second, the special hours distribution just doesn’t seem right to us if it’s really correlated with Pre stocks: New York, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco are each currently showing just one store within 50 miles as having special hours, and Philly, Atlanta, and Houston have none listed at all. That’s a way different list than when our friends at jkOnTheRun checked earlier, and it’s a recipe for total launch chaos if it’s true — but we’re guessing the real deal is that all stores will get stock, but only one flagship store in each major metro area will be going all out on launch day with special hours.

Oh, and if you’re planning on avoiding all the drama and just rolling into Best Buy on the 7th, we’d say think again: Boy Genius Report says that the Blue will go “weeks after launch with little or no replenishment.” Ouch — guess Sprint CEO Dan Hesse wasn’t kidding around about shortages. Bottom line? Keep calling your local Sprint store to see if they get any information about the Pre, and keep it locked right here as we lead in — we’ll be working hard to let you know exactly when and where your best bet’ll be.

Read – Sprint Store Locator
Read – Boy Genius Report on Best Buy stock
Read – jkOnTheRun post

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre available at a single store in NYC on launch day? Unlikely. originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 May 2009 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson’s finance team may figure that it needs a wheelbarrow full of cold, hard cash in order to steamroll through the next decade, but we know better than that. What it needs, friends, is Android, and in the worst possible way. At a launch event over in Taiwan this week, SE Asia-Pacific’s vice president of marketing Peter Ang was quoted as saying that the outfit’s first Android-based smartphone would actually be humming along on Android 2.0. So, there are two ways to take this: one is that Android 2.0 is just around the bend, which would totally rule, but is absolutely unrealistic to believe. The other, more feasible possibility is that SE’s first Android-based phone won’t hit the market until your next grandchild is born, which definitely doesn’t bode well for a handset maker that can’t possibly reinvent itself soon enough.

[Via Slashphone]

Filed under: Cellphones

Sony Ericsson drops clues on Android 2.0-based smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 May 2009 08:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has a pretty good track record when it comes to Apple rumors — remember his spot-on predictions for the unibody MacBook Pro? — so when he’s got a thing or two to say about all the next-gen iPhone chatter, we listen. While not making any promises, he does say he’d wager quite a bit on a new model coming to WWDC, with about twice the CPU horsepower (and possibly twice the RAM, too) as the current model. He also adds some credence to all that talk of video recording, but makes no mention of potential background apps and plays down any surprise tablet or “iPhone mini” cameos. He goes on to add release date would be sometime in July in 16GB and 32GB varieties. We can’t say we’re willing to bet against him, but that doesn’t mean we’ll take his word as gospel. We can safely say, however, that we’re anxiously waiting to see what kind of shenanigans Schiller has in store for next month.

Filed under: Cellphones

More next-gen iPhone whispers: video recording, faster CPU, July release? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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