Hasta La Gadget!

Looks like the Motorola i1 Android set (not pictured above) will stand as the highest-end Nextel phone ever — Sprint just announced that it’s phasing out the iDEN network sometime in 2013 as it begins a new four to five billion dollar network enhancement project called “Network Vision.” We’ve expected this for a while — the Sprint / Nextel merger has been beset by subscriber losses and rumors of a breakup for years now — but this is the first time we’ve gotten a date. Sprint’s rolling out push-to-talk on its own network to support its 10.6 million Nextel customers, but we don’t have a schedule for that yet. Sprint’s also announcing vendors for Network Vision: Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung, and Ericsson will each handle a region and be tasked with expanding and fortifying Sprint’s existing 1900MHz 3G network while buying 800MHz, 1900MHz, and 2.5GHz spectrum for future use. Interestingly, Sprint’s definitely hedging its WiMAX bets a little — it can upgrade its new gear to LTE with swapping in a baseband card and issuing a software patch, which certainly gives the company some 4G flexibility should Clearwire not pull things together. We’ll see what happens — the underdog’s making some moves.

Sprint phasing out Nextel’s iDEN network, selects vendors for $5b network upgrade project originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chris Walsh — one of the forces behind the ChevronWP7 app sideload hack for Windows Phone 7 — went on record earlier this week saying that the first platform update coming early next year would be “massive” with so many improvements and new features that “they could have called it Windows Phone 8.” That’s a pretty bold statement, and it’s been making the rounds so fiercely today that Microsoft felt the need to lay down the law with an official statement — albeit not a very strongly-worded one:

“Microsoft is committed to delivering regular updates to the Windows Phone experience. Our first update will make copy & paste available in early 2011. In addition to this first update, all Windows Phone 7 users should expect to see additional updates delivered in the future as part of Microsoft’s ongoing update process.”

So it sounds to us like priority one in Redmond is to get copy and paste up and running (which is basically the message they’ve been delivering for a while), though we should expect plenty more through future updates. When you figure in the size of the team Microsoft has built for engineering this platform — and the fact that they’ve now got the initial retail release out of the way — we’re hoping they’ve got nothing better to do than to churn on some of these pain points users have identified over the next few months. Should be a heck of a year coming up, eh?

Microsoft reiterates copy and paste is Windows Phone 7’s first update, ‘additional updates delivered in the future’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve waited a long while for this day to come, but here it finally is. Apple is today rolling out iOS 4.2 to iPads and qualifying iPhones (3G, 3GS and 4) and iPod touches (second, third and fourth generation) across the globe, delivering the long-awaited multitasking and app folder enhancements to a tablet that was already supposed to be magical and revolutionary. To see whether this new update — replete with Game Center, AirPlay and AirPrint additions — really helps the iPad step up to doubleplusgood territory, check out our full review; everyone else, hit up your nearest iTunes 10.1-equipped computer to get your update on.

Update: Plug in your iPhones and iPads, the 624.3MB update is rolling out now. Looks like it’s starting in Europe, given the joyous cackles from our editors across the pond. Screenshot after the break.

Update 2: Now available within US borders as well.

Continue reading iOS 4.2 available today, brings the iPad into the multitasking era (update: it’s live)

iOS 4.2 available today, brings the iPad into the multitasking era (update: it’s live) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally teased at Computex, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460M has just recently started to slip out into a limited amount of laptops, and naturally, Dell’s Alienware line is amongst the first to get it. The almighty M15x can now be configured down in the source link with a 460M that boasts 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory, and best of all, it’s only a $119.84 upgrade over the stock 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850. Mama always said frames per second were worth paying for, now didn’t she?

[Thanks, Zhi Hao]

Dell’s Alienware M15x now available with GeForce GTX 460M, a $120 upgrade originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon has just announced that its lovely HTC Droid Incredible will be getting a fresh software update pushed over-the-air starting next week, and among the “software enhancements” will be the automatic installation of the carrier’s V CAST Apps app store. Since this doesn’t mean the Android Market is going away, we suppose it’s not the end of the world — and Verizon is quick to note that V CAST Apps supports carrier billing — but the benefit of having two app stores on a phone is still anyone’s guess. Here’s Verizon’s full statement:

“Verizon Wireless will begin pushing a software update to the DROID Incredible next week. The update includes software enhancements that will pre-install V CAST Apps on the phone. We said earlier this year that we’d be expanding V CAST Apps to the Android platform, and the DROID Incredible is the first Android phone with the store. Developers continue to submit apps, and as a reminder, V CAST Apps allows carrier billing, so customers who purchase applications through our store will see those charges on their monthly bill. For more information about the update customers can go to www.verizonwireless.com/droidincrediblesupport.”

Droid Incredible getting V CAST Apps next week, whether you like it or not originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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