Jun 28

Dell Streak’s supposed US packaging is gorgeous, unboxed with elegance

Posted in: Android, att, cellphone, mobile phone, MobilePhone, phone, smartphone, snapdragon, streak, Today's Chili, unboxing, us

Well, the Brits ain’t gonna be happy when they see this in the AM. What we’re looking at here is presumably the Dell Streak’s final US packaging — a far cry from the cardboard boxes that the Englishmen are given (and let’s not forget the silly photoshop error on the top). If the features list is correct, this five-inch Android phone is definitely headed to AT&T’s 850MHz 3G band for now (hang in there, T-Mobile fans). Other than that, the accessories and the phone itself look identical to what we’ve got in London, but we totally wouldn’t mind getting hold of this sexy acrylic box — it’d make a pretty cool cradle, don’t you think? Head over to the source link to feed your eyes.

Update: Here’s another found on eBay. [Thanks, Johnny S.]

Dell Streak’s supposed US packaging is gorgeous, unboxed with elegance originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 28

HTC Wildfire review

Posted in: Android, cellphone, Features, HTC, htc sense, HtcSense, mobile phone, MobilePhone, phone, review, sense, smartphone, Today's Chili, video

If phones could make babies, then this HTC Wildfire would indubitably be the love child of the Desire and Nexus One. But of course, the humdrum reality is that ’tis just an Android 2.1 replacement for the entry-level Tattoo — same 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, 3.2-inch 320 x 240 capacitive LCD touchscreen instead of 2.8-inch resistive, 384MB RAM instead of 256MB, and a 5-megapixel camera instead of 3.2 (although quality matters more, obviously). So can this affordable handset provide enough bang for the buck to satisfy Europeans and Asians? Can the aging processor keep Sense UI well oiled? All will be revealed after the break.

Gallery: HTC Wildfire review

Continue reading HTC Wildfire review

HTC Wildfire review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 27

Huawei’s Android 2.2 entry-level phone spied in China, coming in August

Posted in: Android, cellphone, froyo, Google, leak, mobile phone, MobilePhone, phone, smartphone, Today's Chili

Froyo may already be out to the masses in one form or another, but it ain’t doing much good with just the one phone semi-officially supporting this Android release, while some other devices are only given a vague release window for the update. Luckily, it looks like Huawei’s taking a step further and may be pushing out a 2.2 device in August. According to Engadget Chinese’s tipster, this entry-level phone’s rocking a 2.8-inch QVGA capacitive touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera (possibly with dual-LED flash), and HSDPA 3G connectivity. Can’t say we’re all that stoked about the screen, but we’ll let our wallets do the talking in a month or two — assuming, of course, that August time frame applies to any region or carrier band we care about. One more pic after the break.

Continue reading Huawei’s Android 2.2 entry-level phone spied in China, coming in August

Huawei’s Android 2.2 entry-level phone spied in China, coming in August originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceEngadget Chinese  | Email this | Comments

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Jun 25

How would you change Microsoft’s Kin One and Two?

Posted in: cdma, feature, HowWouldYouChange, HWYC, Microsoft, smartphone, social networking, SocialNetworking, Today's Chili, twitter, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7

Hey! Microsoft debuted two new phones earlier this year! Remember that? Okay, so there’s a fair chance that Microsoft actually moved fewer Kin One / Two handsets than Fusion Garage did JooJoo tablets, but we’re pretty confident that a few of you fell for the whole “my life is so social, so I’m buying in” thing. We’re still personally trying to figure out why the full Windows Phone 7 wasn’t used here instead of an OS that’ll likely be forgotten by the time you finish reading this, but enough of our rambling — this space is all about you. Did you pick up one of the Kin brothers? How’s the experience? Are you still kosher with paying the same data plan price as future Droid X users? Have you gained more friends than you know what to do with? Starred in your own commercial? Tell us below, tweeps.

How would you change Microsoft’s Kin One and Two? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 25

Motorola’s Droid X up for pre-order today at Best Buy: $200, no pesky mail-in rebates

Posted in: Android, BestBuy, cdma, droid, Google, GoogleAndroid, motorola, on sale, OnSale, pre-order, smartphone, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless

Sweatin’ those iPhone 4 reception issues? Got a thing for beastlier phones? Still perturbed that your white iPhone 4 pre-order didn’t exactly “work out” as expected? If you’ve found yourself nodding that noggin’ up and down upon reading any of the above questions, you should know that Best Buy’s offering pre-sales of Motorola’s forthcoming Droid X starting today. The benefit, naturally, is that you can avoid Verizon’s pesky $100 mail-in rebate, paying just $199.99 (plus all applicable taxes and bribes) to BB while grabbing a coveting spot in line for the next giant Android phone. Not like you needed an excuse to take a half-day today, but hey — at least you’ve now got a legitimate one.

Continue reading Motorola’s Droid X up for pre-order today at Best Buy: $200, no pesky mail-in rebates

Motorola’s Droid X up for pre-order today at Best Buy: $200, no pesky mail-in rebates originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 24

MobileProtect now officially ready to insure your iPhone 4 from everything*

Posted in: Apple, att, iPhone, smartphone, Today's Chili

And just like that, it’s confirmed. We’d heard through the grapevine that AT&T may be fixing to certify a third-party to sell an iPhone insurance program, and now it looks as if Asurion has been given the green light by Ma Bell, and not a moment too soon. According to the company, MobileProtect is the “only iPhone (and iPhone 4) insurance to protect against loss or theft (the reason for nearly 50% of phone claims), while also covering water or other liquid damage, accidental damage, and out-of-warranty failure.” Of course, you’ll have to shell out a borderline-ridiculous $11.99 per month for the coverage (and yeah, there’s still a deductible), which is made even more outrageous by the fact that the iPhone 4 and its Gorilla Glass is nigh indestructible. Er, wait…

*Claims of “everything” are subject to interpretation, as anyone who has ever dealt with an insurance company will attest.

P.S. – SquareTrade still works on the iPhone 4, and it’s probably worth considering. Take a look at the price breakdown after the jump.

Continue reading MobileProtect now officially ready to insure your iPhone 4 from everything*

MobileProtect now officially ready to insure your iPhone 4 from everything* originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 24

Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds)

Posted in: Apple, cellphone, hands-on, iPhone, issue, mobile phone, MobilePhone, phone, smartphone, Today's Chili, video

What’s more annoying than spending hours lining up for a shiny new gadget? Learning that your precious phone can’t actually connect to the network. Well, depending on how you hold it — word has it that the iPhone 4’s bottom-left corner isn’t playing nice with your skin. If you recall from the keynote, that’s where the Bluetooth / WiFi / GPS antenna meets its GSM / UMTS counterpart. So we decided to test on two brand new iPhone 4 handsets purchased today in the UK.

One iPhone 4 demonstrated the issue everytime it was held in our left hand (as a right-handed person is apt to do) so that our palm was essentially bridging the two antennas. You can see that in the video after the break. Bridging the two with a finger tip, however, didn’t cause any issues with the reported reception. If we had to guess, we’d say that our conductive skin was acting to detune the antenna — in fact, we’ve already managed to slowly kill two calls that way so it’s not just an issue with the software erroneously reporting an incorrect signal strength. That said, we had no issues when Apple’s $29 rubber bumper accessory (given to us free for standing in line) was attached, creating a buffer between our palm and the antennas. Our second UK-purchased iPhone 4 was fine, showing none of these handling symptoms. See the video evidence after the break including Insanely Great Mac’s version which got us to worrying in the first place.

P.S. Don’t forget to take our poll and let us know if you’re seeing both the yellow spots / stripes and reception issues. Unfortunately, we’re suffering from both flaws which is not a good sign for quality control on this first batch of Apple handsets.

P.P.S. Since some of you are asking, our review unit showed none of these issues.

Update: Apple responds to the issue, and boy, it’s a doozy.

Continue reading Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds)

Some iPhone 4 models dropping calls when held left-handed, including ours (Update: Apple responds) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 24

Samsung plans to double its smartphone share by end of year, jump ahead of HTC and Motorola

Posted in: Android, GalaxyS, market share, marketshare, samsung, smartphone, Today's Chili

More than 10% of worldwide smartphone market share: that’s where Samsung plans to be, on triple its current handset volume, by the end of 2010 according to Lee Donjoo, senior VP of the company’s Mobile Communications division. Mind you, such a jump would be staggering in terms of growth with Samsung owning less than 5% of global smartphone market share currently. A move to 10% would place them at number 4 globally according to IDC’s numbers, behind Nokia, RIM, and Apple. The Android-lovin’ Galaxy S / AT&T Captivate is good, but is it that good? We’ll see. Regardless, the term “smartphone” can be defined many ways, and we suspect that Samsung’s new Bada OS being pushed into devices previously classified as featurephones could help pad Samsung’s numbers.

Samsung plans to double its smartphone share by end of year, jump ahead of HTC and Motorola originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 23

Yes, you can certainly scratch the iPhone 4 (updated with more photos)

Posted in: Apple, cellphones, iPhone, smartphone, Smartphones, Today's Chili

Well, this is not encouraging. The photo you’re seeing above is our leader Joshua’s iPhone 4 review unit, snapped by Ryan Block just moments ago. Ryan pointed out that there are some nasty scratches on the back of the phone. While we don’t have any better photos of it at the moment, Josh told us that they’re hard to see unless in bright light, but they look pretty notable to us for a five day-old unit made of Gorilla Glass. We’ll get some better photos for you as soon as humanly possible.

Update: We should note that while iFixit has said that the new iPhone’s front panel is made of Gorilla Glass (and they tend to be right about these things), the material on the back of the phone has not been positively identified, though it is also a hardened glass.

Update 2: We’ve added three higher quality photos after the break, and seen the scratch with our own eyes. It’s what we would call “incredibly minor,” not visible at all dead on, but in bright light at an angle… well see for yourself if the photos.

Continue reading Yes, you can certainly scratch the iPhone 4 (updated with more photos)

Yes, you can certainly scratch the iPhone 4 (updated with more photos) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 22

First iPhone 4 units being delivered

Posted in: Apple, att, breaking news, BreakingNews, iPhone, pre-order, shipping, smartphone, Today's Chili

Aw, suki suki now! Looks like we’ve got our first iPhone 4 delivery here in the US, a full 24 hours before the first batch is supposed to land. The best news isn’t that throngs of pre-orderers are seeing their units “out for delivery” today, but that this Mac Rumors user was able to activate his unit already in seamless fashion. ‘Course, we highly doubt it’ll be so easy for everyone else crashing the servers tomorrow and Thursday, but there it is. So, anyone else seeing their iPhone 4 marked as “out for delivery?” Or better still, “in hand?” Give us a shout in comments below.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Update: We’ve moved the FedEx image past the break, as one lucky Mac Rumors member already has his in hand. And so it begins. [Thanks, Adam]

Update 2: A reader has sent us over the above picture of his own brand new iPhone 4, which has only just arrived. [Thanks, Mark!]

Continue reading First iPhone 4 units being delivered

First iPhone 4 units being delivered originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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