Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

You hear so much tough-talk and blustery grand-standing these days over data capping that it’s hard to take any of it too seriously. A recent announcement by Comcast, however, is sending chills down the collective spine of Engadget (and seriously threatening to put a crunch on Thomas Ricker’s… er, “movie” downloads). The company recently confirmed that it will begin capping its residential broadband service at 250GB per month (or roughly 124 SD movies) come October 1st, and could simply terminate customers who violate the cap more than twice. Of course, 250GB is a pretty large chunk of bandwidth, so you’ll have to be entertaining some pretty hefty habits to break that bank. Then again, who likes the Man breathing down their pipeline?

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Messaging

Like Canada, Mexico’s getting mobile payment’s, too, but these are just a bit different in two very important respects. One, this is a full-fledged service being underwritten by Telefonica, Iusacell, Citibank, and BBVA — not just a trial. Two, unlike the NFC-based Canadian system, this one will rely on text messages to get the cash flowing. The service is expected to launch in the next few months and get backing from restaurants, stores, and taxis, all places where we can recall specific times when we would’ve rather kept our wallets in our pockets when the time came to pony up. Of course, considering how miserably unsuccessful mobile payments have been across North America so far (we’ve still got our fingers crossed that NFC is going to take off one of these days), this one could die off as quickly as it started unless it catches a break and goes big.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve got our crack team of Engadget ninjas at IFA working to figure out exactly what’s going on, but early word is that over 220 German Customs agents have raided the show looking for patent infringements. It’s not clear how many booths have had visits from The Man, but it’s somewhere over 50 — we’ve been hearing a number in the 70s — and spokespeople for Customs says inspections will continue until tonight. Sounds like a repeat of what’s happened at CeBIT for the past few years, where German firm Sisvel has had several companies’ booths shut down and products seized over claimed MPEG patent infringements — you might remember last year’s kerfuffle with Meizu and the wrongful seizure of SanDisk DAPs in 2006. There are rumors that Asian companies, including MSI, are being targeted, and that the Taiwan Image Hall in particular was hit hard, but nothing’s been substantiated and German authorities say they’re looking at all companies equally. We’ll let you know what’s going down as soon as we find out more.

[Thanks, Adam]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Features, Reviews

The Treo Pro is the first of what is clearly a new design direction for Palm — a shiny, black mutation of the popular Centro coupled with a few lines from the Treo 500 and a dash of the original Xbox thrown in for good measure. Under the hood is the staid and familiar Windows Mobile 6.1, with few changes save for the typical Palm shortcuts and the inclusion of an HTC-licensed task manager. Is this combo powerful enough to lift the smartphone-maker out of the doldrums of its current lineup, or is it just another half-step along the uneven pavement the company has been treading? Read on to find out.

Continue reading The Engadget Review: Palm Treo Pro

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones

The Treo Pro is the first of what is clearly a new design direction for Palm — a shiny, black mutation of the popular Centro, but with Windows Mobile on-board and a unique marketing scheme allowing you to buy the device unlocked right at launch. Want to get the low-down, dirty news on whether or not it’s for you? Then truck on over to Engadget Mobile where we’ve got the full on review.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones

Ooh, Qualcomm you been naughty. You might remember that last year Qualcomm was banned from selling various 3G chips that infringed on Broadcom’s patents, but the big Q apparently believes that being in trouble is a fake idea, because it kept right on doing it — to the point where a judge today found the company in contempt for violating the injunction and ordered it to pay up gross profits from sales of its QChat push-to-talk tech to Broadcom. The court gave Qualcom 30 days to figure out how much it owes — Sprint’s paid over $39M to use the tech since last December, so it’s not going to be peanuts. Qualcomm says it’ll immediately comply, but is planning on appealing the order, so we’ll how this all goes down.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Trying to divine what Apple’s up to from patent applications is never easy, but every now and again the diagrams actually make it obvious — and it looks like Steve and his elves are hard at work on large-format touch interfaces, possibly for a tablet Mac of some kind. The latest touch-related filing is some 52 pages long and details everything from working with multiple finger inputs to onscreen keyboards how window controls would work, but we’re mostly transfixed by the claw-like demon-hands that seem to be operating all this kit — apparently Apple engineers have the same nightmares as the rest of us. If we had to bet, we’d say that a tablet Mac is still a long ways off, but we’ve been wrong before — and there’s always a chance Steve’s got something wild in store for next month.

[Via AppleInsider]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Messaging, Rogers Wireless, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, Misc

Now that Rogers’ iPhone users have had a month to play and Rogers have had time to look at usage, it comes as no surprise some new data plans are in the works. First off, the good news is that the $30 6GB plan will be extended until the end of September from the end of August — mind you, this is less generosity and more wanting to sign new BlackBerry Bold owners on to the plan. On October 1st Rogers — and Fido — will launch a new $15 2MB plan, $25 500MB plan, $30 1GB plan, $60 3GB plan, and an $80 8GB plan. These new plans will apply to smartphones, data cards, tethering, and of course BlackBerry devices. Most notable in the good news binge are a few “peace of mind” protection tools also being launched in October, including SMS data alerts, Freedom of Data, and a $100 data charge maximum. SMS data alerts will let subscribers know before, when, and after they’ve emptied the data bucket for the month. Freedom of Data will give 3 months of real unlimited usage just on the off chance you completely blow it out, the overages will be zeroed out and you can learn, adjust and move on. The $100 maximum idea means that no matter what data plan you’re on, your monthly bill will never be higher than a hundred bucks as a combination of your fixed cost plus your overage. It seems this may spell the end of outrageous data bills in Canada, and we’re thinking that deserves some applause.

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Original post by Sean Cooper