Hasta La Gadget!

Moving from regular SIMs to micro SIMs for the iPad and iPhone 4 was a fairly user-hostile move on Apple’s part, seeing how it made moving between an iPhone and virtually any other GSM device quite a bit more difficult; the official explanation (for the iPhone 4, anyway) was that there simply wasn’t room for a regular SIM, but that seems unlikely considering that you’re only saving 10mm of length, 3mm of width, and 0mm of thickness. A more plausible scenario is that Apple viewed micro SIMs as a way to get ahead of the industry curve a bit and make it unpleasant for users to try to share an iPhone line with other devices, a concept that gets at the core of Apple’s mantra of owning the entire ecosystem from end to end.

But could they be trying to take that concept another step further? GigaOM is reporting a rumor today that Apple is working tightly with security firm Gemalto — you know, the SIM guys — to integrate software-reconfigurable SIMs right into European iPhones that would be activated on the carrier of your choice using an App Store download. Why European models? Multiple carriers offer the iPhone in a number of European countries, so distribution is a bit more complicated there than it is in the US, though it’s a reasonable leap to suggest that the same integrated SIMs would be use on new North American iPhones as well. From Apple’s perspective, it’s a win-win: trying to use your iPhone line with another device would be akin to pulling teeth, and more importantly, Apple wouldn’t need to worry about bundling carrier-specific SIMs with devices. In fact, the move would make Apple’s (and the consumer’s) interactions with the carrier entirely virtual, all the way from manufacture to activation. Seems like the plan would require an extraordinary amount of buy-in from carriers who’ve become increasingly suspicious of Apple’s goals lately — but then again, they managed to get carriers to suddenly and rapidly deploy micro SIMs en masse, and if anyone could pull this off, it’d be Steve’s boys and girls.

Apple, Gemalto working on integrated SIM for next iPhone? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More from DigiTimes this morning and its chatty sources within NVIDIA and Taiwanese supply chains. First up is talk that ASUS’ 10-inch Eee Pad — presumably, the Android loving EP101TC said to cost less than $399 — will launch in March of 2011 with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 taking care of the processing duties. DigiTimes‘ sources also remind us that Tegra 2 tablets are on the way from Dell, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba in addition to smartphones from ASUS, Motorola, and LG. Good to know, but for as long as Tegra 2 has been discussed, we’ve yet to see the SoC ship inside anything worth getting too excited over. And don’t even mention the Boxee Box, they switched to Intel at the last minute, remember? Maybe Dell’s Looking Glass tablet will change all that when it launches any day now.

ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC getting Tegra 2 treatment ahead of March launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were just getting used to HTC Knight when along comes more supposed details of the still-unconfirmed slider. Boy Genius Report has what it claims is a leaked accessories list from Sprint that reveals a case for the Knight is due on January 6th, 2011. Does that mean the phone itself is launching on the same date? Would that date have something to do with the start of CES? Oh, and BGR also claims from a source the Knight is getting a new title. What do you think about the HTC Speedy — descriptive, eh? As far as we can tell, there isn’t really much else to go by at this point, so our jump to conclusion will just have to stay under the bed for now.

HTC Speedy a Knight in Sprint armor coming January 6th? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chalk another up to the rumor mill. Just as we’d heard, the Garmin-Asus partnership will soon be no more. After a few arguably valiant attempts to break into the smartphone market, it seems as if ASUS is walking away in hopes of finding greener grass elsewhere. According to Reuters, an unnamed ASUS official has confirmed that it would be “ending its mobile phone cooperation agreement with Garmin.” We’re expecting the rest of the breakup details to roll tomorrow, but honestly, you’d turn the other cheek and move on if you were classy. But we both know that’s not happening, right?

ASUS officially walks away from Garmin-Asus partnership originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew it was coming, now the WiFi only Galaxy Tab looks to have leaked with pricing in a Best Buy advertisement. According to some extracts obtained by Pocketables, a silver WiFi-only Tab will be available for $499.99 (a buck more than its WiFi-only iPad rival). Best Buy will also be selling a black 3G model (Verizon) and silver 3G model (Sprint) with contract or month-to-month plans. The “and up” verbiage is probably a hat tip to the $599.99 on-contract price that Verizon announced for the 3G Galaxy Tab it will begin selling on November 11th. Unfortunately, no date was revealed for the Best Buy offerings but a second rumor sourced from an inventory spreadsheet (pictured after the break) by the cats over at AndroidCentral has the Verizon Tab coming to Sprint on November 14th. In other words, it’s safe to expect Best Buy to start selling Samsung’s 7-inch Android tablet in November in the run-up to the holidays. See a screengrab of that after the break.

Update: As noted in the comments, the Galaxy Tab doesn’t ship with a 7-inch Super AMOLED display — it’s Super TFT LCD. We suspect that’s a printing error and not a hint of things to come.

Update 2: Sprint confirms

[Thanks, Chris]

Continue reading Galaxy Tab WiFi-only model hitting Best Buy for $499.99, Sprint 3G model on sale November 14th?

Galaxy Tab WiFi-only model hitting Best Buy for $499.99, Sprint 3G model on sale November 14th? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 02:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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