We’ve reached the point where buying a “new” Android phone could still mean you’re using firmware that’s 18 months old. There’s got to be a better way. More »
It didn’t take long for Visa to react to the three-headed beast of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon entering the mobile payments arena. The world’s foremost payment processing company has just announced that it’s about to start a trial of its contactless payment system in partnership with Bank of America. Kicking off in the New York area this September and lasting through the end of the year, the scheme will most likely involve the MicroSD NFC communicator and In2Pay iPhone case that DeviceFidelity has been developing for Visa. No disclosures are being made on the size of this pilot scheme, though we’re told that only a “select” group of employees and customers will be getting the mobile payment chips. Don’t worry if you miss out on this one, though, as a similar trial is scheduled to begin in October with US Bancorp. That should give you enough time to turn yourself into a high-rolling select customer, right?
Visa gets Bank of America on board for mobile payments trial, starting in New York next month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Christmas came early at Engadget HQ this year, as evidenced by the picture above — you’re looking at two Dell Thunder prototype smartphones, each with some surprising quirks, and hints that they might include global HSPA, AWS for the likes of T-Mobile, and maybe even a dash of CDMA support. We’ll warn you ahead of time that these are labeled EVT1 for “engineering verification test” and date back to the April leak, so they’re about as early as you can get — don’t expect the final handset to arrive without some significant differences. Good? Then peek the gallery below, hit the break, and let’s get on with the show.
Gallery: Dell Thunder prototype preview
Continue reading Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype preview (video)
Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apparently the folks at EFO decided to defy conventional wisdom when designing their external board. Instead of a standard-size keyboard, the iPazzPort Mini Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard is the size of a credit card.
Intended for the iPad, iPhone, other smartphones and mobile devices, the iPazzPort keyboard is a full QWERTY keyboard, with all the function keys, CTRL, ALT, DEL and multimedia keys (play, pause, next, previous, mute, and volume up and down). Resembling a BlackBerry keyboard (without the trackball), the keys are angled upward, toward the sides. The keyboard has a backlight for typing in dim lighting.
Since it’s both Bluetooth and wireless, you can use the keyboard without any unsightly cables snaking from your mobile device.
For smartphones with an on-screen keyboard and the iPad, this portable keyboard could make texting and taking notes less cumbersome. On the other hand, for mobile devices and smartphones that already have their own keyboards (like the BlackBerry and a number of HTC models), I am not sure where the value is. It can serve as a wireless remote control for those devices, but I wonder how many people are going around wishing, “Man, I wish I had a remote for my phone!”
It’s normally priced at $40, but EFO is currently offering an $8 discount (for a bargain of $32) for anyone who pre-orders the mini keyboard. Shipping is expected in early September.
Our friends at iFixit have made short work of the Dell Streak, doing what they do best. They’ve torn apart everyone’s favorite giant mobile phone (or is it a tiny tablet?), and found some interesting innards in the process. iFixit reports that the Streak is extremely easy to disassemble, and inside they found a Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon CPU, and cameras which they report are “similar” to those found inside the iPhone 4. There’s nothing earth-shattering here, though iFixit’s taken the Dell Streak teardown as an opportunity to debut a new “fixability” rating — and you’ll be happy to know that this baby has scored an 8 out of 10. Hit up the source for the full rundown.
Continue reading Dell Streak gets ripped to shreds by iFixit, Blondie reportedly satisfied at last
Dell Streak gets ripped to shreds by iFixit, Blondie reportedly satisfied at last originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The BlackBerry Torch only sold 150,000 units in its first three days? That’s not bad at all. The real disappointment here is how deeply RIM bought into its own hype. More »
The second ever 4G phone has added pressure to be better than the first. Aldrin was better than Armstrong at punching skeptics in the face, for example. So is the Epic 4G better than the EVO? In almost every way. More »
It’s unlikely the Nokia Kinetic will actually ever make it to widespread production, but the idea of a phone that rests flat on a surface when not in use but stands to display the screen to you when you get an incoming call is an interesting one. The Kinetic is actually a concept from Jeremy Innes-Hopkins, a design student who wanted to create a truly unique looking telephone. What makes the Kinetic special however is the rounded bottom that controls the way the phone rests, and how it stands up when you get a phone call or tap the screen to make it stand up.
The device looks like just about any other smartphone at first glance, with a nice large screen and buttons at the bottom of the face. It even has spots on the side for camera capture and mini-USB for charging and data, and a camera on the back. The idea of a phone that can stand on its own both to alert you to calls and to make it easier to watch movies is a fun one, even if it’s unlikely to ever appear on store shelves.
[via Gajitz]
Voice Actions work! Really well! The video above is a good demo, showing it it navigating to Giz, sending an email, finding Starbucks and and making a self-memo. I didn’t even have to hold the phone up to my face. More »
Last quarter we reported on some pretty stellar growth numbers for Android in the global smartphone marketplace. Back then, Google’s OS had a 9.6 percent slice of the pie, but today that’s ballooned to a robust 17.2 percent, meaning that in terms of end-user sales over the last three months, Android has nearly matched RIM’s BlackBerry sales. That’s quite the feat when you consider that a year ago the latter was shifting ten times more units than the former. This extraordinary growth rate has narrowed down Symbian’s lead at the top, in spite of Nokia’s favorite OS actually shipping on more phones this year, while the big loser of the quarter has to be Windows Mobile, which contracted both in terms of market share and actual shipments.
Overall, smartphone sales were up by 50 percent year-on-year, according to both Gartner and IDC, while Gartner adds that mobile devices as a whole grew at a tamer 13.3 percent pace. In terms of phone manufacturers’ global share, Nokia and Samsung have held on to their top positions, LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola have experienced some uncomfortable shrinkage, and HTC, RIM and Apple have capitalized to expand their portions. Looking over to IDC’s smartphone share data shows, again, that all smartphone makers are growing remarkably well, but it does highlight HTC (129 percent) and Samsung (173 percent) as really improving their presence in the sector. The reason? Android, Android, Android.
Continue reading Gartner and IDC agree: the Android invasion’s accelerating around the world
Gartner and IDC agree: the Android invasion’s accelerating around the world originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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