Hasta La Gadget!

Okay, so T-Mobile confirmed on Saturday that it’s launching “multiple” Android devices from “three partners” later this year, and since most people assume the HTC Magic / Sapphire / myTouch / whatever and the Samsung I7500 are pretty much locked in, speculation has generally centered around that mysterious G1 v2 and the identity of the third partner — and it looks like it’s going to be Motorola. Not only did commenter Someperson notice that the button labels on the alleged G1 v2 are basically identical to those on other recently-launched Moto phones, Boy Genius Report says today that they can “more or less confirm” the v2 will be Schaumburg’s first Android set — a development that lines up perfectly with last month’s rumors of a slider QWERTY piece. Yep, it all fits together nicely, except for the fact that HTC is oddly out of the loop on the sequel to the G1 — but since T-Mobile owns that particular trademark, it can do whatever it wants, you know? Hopefully we’ll find out more soon — if that sketchy leaked roadmap is correct, we’ll be seeing this guy in the fall.

Update: Or… the G1 v2 could really be the Samsung Bigfoot. It’s a mystery for now, we’ll let you know.

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola’s first Android phone to be the T-Mobile G1 v2? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 18:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been hearing vague murmurs of revised Sony Alpha DSLRs all week, but now we’ve got some actual proof: these shots of the new Alpha 230, 330, and 380 went up briefly on Sony’s Russian website earlier today. The biggest improvements seem to be smaller cases, a revised interface, and HDMI out, but there’s also a new “handbook” to help new users get started and a Bravia control mode that allows the camera to be controlled by your TVs remote while it’s displaying pictures. A nice enough upgrade, but unless these are somehow super cheap we’d say the omission of a video mode is going keep most people focused on the Nikon D5000 and Canon T1i. Bigger screenshot with the full feature list at the read link.

[Via Photo Rumors]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Sony Alpha 230, 330, and 380 DSLRs leak out a little early originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 May 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone screenshots are easy enough to fake, and lord knows some odd claims come from the Boy Genius Report, but this seems such an obvious addition to iPhone hardware that we’ll bite.

The shot above is from a debugging menu inside the 3.0 beta iPhone OS, and shows options to save logs of a compass, as well as the current accelerometer and also “motion”, which we think is either a combo of the others or a log of the GPS unit’s findings. It makes complete sense. The iPhone hardware was mature at its first launch, and there’s not much — bar a decent camera and a thinner case — that could be added.

The G1 Googlephone already has a compass and it powers the neat but slow live street-view function, where the phone rather redundantly overlays pictures of the world onto the actual real world. Knowing the position of the phone and also the direction it is pointing in opens up some neat options.

This seems like a juicy and accurate rumor. In fact, now we have read it, it seems very odd that Apple wouldn’t include this in the new iPhone.

Magnetometer in next iPhone confirmed? [BGR via MacRumors]

Got enough electronic ink yet this week? Hope not, cause here’s the Samsung Alias 2 in the wild, complete with that segmented E Ink keypad. Apparently mode changes happen smoothly and quickly, so our usability fears now just boil down to feel — those buttons do not look fun to press. We’ll see when it launches on May 11.

Oh, and teenyboppers on the V might want to check out the blurry pic of the Motorola Rival a445 / Rush 2 after the break — it’s not going to blow your mind, but we hear you’re into the colorful QWERTY slider scene these days. You scamps.

Continue reading Samsung Alias 2 and Motorola Rival a445 appear in the wild

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Alias 2 and Motorola Rival a445 appear in the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 May 2009 13:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still no word on pricing or a release date, but the kind chappie running Inside Sprint Now has posted up a little Pre FAQ to tide us over. If you’re inclined to believe this information indeed comes from deep within Sprint customer service — and we’ve no reason to not to — you’ll find some interesting factoids in the mix, including full support for Office 2007, ringback tones, and custom ringtones. There’s also a promise of video recording support and wireless PictBridge printing sometime down the line. Great, great — but we’d really rather learn all this stuff on our own after release, you know?

[Via PalmInfoCenter]

Filed under: Cellphones

Pre deets continue to trickle out; Office 2007 support in the mix originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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