Hasta La Gadget!

Look, let’s not beat around the bushes — Verizon Wireless will one day stock Palm’s Pre. It’s a rather well documented fact, and at this point the only real question is “when?” Judging by a mysterious Wi-Fi Certificate that just popped up, we’re beginning to think that the waiting period is nearly up, and with CES 2010 happening in a week, there’s hardly a better time for us to really start believing. If you’ll recall, Sprint’s Pre snagged a Wi-Fi Certificate number of P100EWW, and just this summer we spotted a few leaked Palm devices within VZW documents with “P101” and “P121” monikers; lo and behold, the certificate for this elusive dual-mode (WiFi and cellular) smartphone boasts a P101EWW label. We aren’t trying to read too deeply between the lines or anything, but if this isn’t a Pre destined for Big Red, we’re eager to know what kind of new mobile Palm has lined up for its presser at CES.

[Thanks, Rehman]

Continue reading Palm smartphone pops up in WiFi certification database: is this Verizon’s Pre?

Palm smartphone pops up in WiFi certification database: is this Verizon’s Pre? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, GPS can get you to the mall, but can it route you from the Bon Ton down to Penney’s? Not so much. Indoor navigation is still generally a paper map reliant affair, something Nokia attempted to do away with at the Kamppi Shopping Center in Helsinki. The service, also called Kamppi, relied on wireless LAN to position people within the complex, meaning anyone with an S60 handset with WiFi could simply browse to kamppi.nokia.mobi, see their current position, locate their friends, and find their way around as shown after the break. 15,000 people tried it out successfully over the summer and so the service is receiving a fitting send-off: it’s been “archived.” Nokia is pledging to use the tech in future products, but we expect to be reliant on those giant, obelisk-mounted maps for many years to come.

Continue reading Nokia’s Kamppi Trial succeeds at indoor positioning, gets shelved anyway (video)

Nokia’s Kamppi Trial succeeds at indoor positioning, gets shelved anyway (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Happy day, iPhoners; your days of living life one hotspot at a time are over. You can now use that data plan for all its worth as more and more apps break through the WiFi-only iron curtain. Last week it was Ustream, the week before Knocking, and now EyeTV has released an updated app able to stream your own personal TV broadcast to your iPhone wherever you are. Assuming, of course, you’re not situated within a “coverage gap” — or a major metropolitan area.

Update: To be clear, this isn’t actually a new App Store app, it’s a webapp, available at live3g.eyetv.com via Safari and fed by an update to the service’s desktop client.

EyeTV iPhone app granted 3G streamability, App Store’s WiFi-only club hemorrhaging members originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wondering what Sony has in store for the summer of 2010? We can’t tell you, but we can give you a few clues. A device called the HID-C10 “Home Information Device” has been given the full FCC once-over and, while confidentiality clauses keep the juicy bits secret, we do know that it somehow connects to a TV and that it possesses 802.11b/g wireless. Our first guess is that this is a simple WiFi adapter for Sony’s internet-streaming televisions, but with a name like “Home Information Device” it could be something a bit more, possibly letting you do a little home automation on your HDTV between Modern Warfare 2 matches. It’s anybody’s guess, but we’re inclined to believe that fiddling with thermostat settings in your home would be more exciting than hanging out at Home.

Mystery Sony “Home Information Device” unveiled by FCC, purpose kept secret originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon’s playing catch-up this week in a game some of its rivals have been playing for ages now — the WiFi business — by bundling access to a fairly extensive network of hotspots in the US, Canada, and Mexico with its broadband data plans. It’s a double-edged sword, though, because they’re not stepping up to the plate with as much conviction as AT&T and T-Mobile have; first off, Verizon’s limiting the service strictly to users of its modems and MiFi boxes while the other guys have succumbed to bundling it with smartphone data packages, and secondly, it appears hell-bent on forcing connections to go through the same crapware connection management app used with its data cards. Of course, you could argue that Verizon’s larger 3G footprint gives ’em less impetus to offload users to WiFi, but by the same token, they’re charging more for service — so yeah, we’re gonna predict they relent at some point just as AT&T ultimately did.

Verizon’s mobile broadband customers get bundled WiFi access originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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