Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, EV-DO, HSDPA

If you’re looking to sprinkle just a pinch of Mr. T into your life, there’s hardly a better way than to pick up Sony Ericsson’s forthcoming Sandy Gold W595. Reportedly, the only thing changing is the color, and Europeans enamored by that can get their jollies next February.

Sony Ericsson W595 headed to Europe in Sandy Gold hue originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Culture, Motorola, Misc

The words “job security” and “Motorola” haven’t coexisted in a non-sarcasic manner for quite some time, and things just seem to be deteriorating by the day. Not even two full months after the flagging company announced that 3,000 employees would be sent packing, a new Reuters report has it that the axing process in Q4 will be accelerated. Specifically, some 1,900 (versus 1,500 as originally predicted) will be cut in an attempt to save $800 million in 2009, though there’s no word on how damaging the inevtiable productivity losses will be given the markedly low morale. To no one’s surprise, most of the Q4 cuts will be in the mobile devices segment; we’re beginning to think Sad Moto Face[TM] here will never, ever vanish.

[Via UnwiredView]

Motorola hastens layoff plans, axes 400 earlier than anticipated originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Handsets, HTC, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE

That new (well, “new” might be a stretch) Dash for T-Mobile has itself this unflattering official shot now, and we’ve got to say: the silver front worked just fine for us. If anything, the freshly-blackened handset just looks like it’s had the aluminum highlights torn off, exposing a nightmarish landscape of raw, unfinished plastic bits never meant for the public eye. Okay, that’s going a bit far, but do you see what we mean? In other news, the old Dash has disappeared from T-Mobile’s retail site, suggesting that the launch of the new model is imminent, WinMo 6.1 and all. Honestly, guys, you could run it over a belt sander and change the keyboard layout to Dvorak — just give us Android and 3G, and we’re all in.

[Thanks, Ellis D.]

Refreshed T-Mobile Dash looks more real than ever originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Nintendo has gone to some lengths to keep one step ahead of the modding community, but to little avail. We’ve recently seen a product that enables DVD playback on the Wii, and now we’ve been hepped to FLATMII, a device that plugs into the Wii’s drive ribbon, letting you stream ISO backups of your games (or the Gecko OS, Mplayer, emulators and more) from your Windows XP or Vista PC — which your console now takes for its DVD drive. If you’re the sort of sane and sober Wii owner who figures that it is wise and prudent to backup games that you own legally — the kind who would never ever ever think of stealing software — hit that read link. And be sure to catch the video after the break.

[Via Max Console]

Continue reading FLATMII streams games to your Wii, via USB

Filed under: Gaming

FLATMII streams games to your Wii, via USB originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Joseph L. Flatley

Filed under: Software, HTC, T-Mobile, Android

Despite a decent selection, we get the feeling Android developers have really been holding back until they can make a little money for their hard labor. Google exec Eric Chu is telling registered Android Market members via email that the rollout of paid apps is still coming first quarter of next year. He said it will occur in stages, starting with the US and UK first, followed by Germany, Austria, and Netherlands for phase two and France, Italy, and Spain after that, with more countries to be announced by the end of Q1 2009. Chu also said to expect an update to the Market website in mid-January that’ll allow developers to target specific countries for their apps. Android devs, we hope you’re ready — we can’t wait to see what toys you’ll give us once you’re able to make some coins from it.

Paid apps still coming to Android Market in Q1 ’09, US and UK rollout first originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Ross Miller

Ever wondered if that 93 octane you’re paying two arms and a leg for is really 93 octane? Pondered the legitimacy of that “homogenized and pasteurized” claim on your most recent milk purchase? If so, congratulations. You’re the target market for the D+caf caffeine test strip. Reportedly, these strips keep the paranoid abreast of the truth whenever they venture out for a decaf drink; java sippers simply insert a tester into their beverage, wait for it to grow intolerably cold (or 30 seconds, whichever comes first) and then view the findings. The creator proclaims that they’re 98% accurate for detecting greater than 20-milligrams of caffeine per 6-ounce serving, but we’re not willing to pay $9.95 for a 20-pack in order to find out.

[Via medGadget]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

D+caf caffeine test strips makes sure your decaf is decaf originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Here’s an odd one for you. Tobias Engel of the Chaos Communication Congress has discovered a rather nasty exploit that’ll cause any Nokia S60 devices running versions 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 or 3.1 to stop receiving SMS and MMS messages. The “Curse of Silence,” which has been independently verified by F-Secure, is triggered by sending an SMS that begins with an email address that’s at least 32 characters long. The attacker must also change the protocol identifier to internet electronic mail before sending. Devices with versions 2.8 and 3.1 lock up after 11 such messages and still have some limited receiving capabilities, while 2.6 and 3.0 devices will go completely mum after just one attack. In both cases a factory reset is required to fix it, and he says there is no other known workaround for the user. We don’t imagine this being a pervasive issue, but if you’ve got any tech-savvy enemies or malevolent pranksters in your life, you’ve been warned. Video demonstration is after the break, or hit up the read link to see if your device is among those listed at risk.

[Via Hack a Day]

Read – Vulnerability Advisory
Read – F-Secure Verification

Continue reading ‘Curse of Silence’ exploit squelches inbound SMS/MMS to Nokia S60 devices

Filed under: Cellphones

‘Curse of Silence’ exploit squelches inbound SMS/MMS to Nokia S60 devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Ross Miller

Filed under: Software, RIM

While you may be in love with the 480 x 360-pixel screen on the latest and greatest ‘Berry straight out of Waterloo, we know that the really tantalizing draw of the 8900 is that gorgeous theme. Luckily for all you wannabe addicts out there, CrackBerry Forums member Tom1|21 has worked some magic with Plazmic’s Theme Builder and has made the theme available for all 83xx and 88xx devices — albeit for a price. Of course, the truly classifiable BB elite would’ve known that this very same theme — or something remarkably similar — was available for the incredibly low price of free just days ago. Interestingly, the original forum post has been updated and points to purchase links rather than the free-OTA download links that it was pointing to prior. A little bit of searching might lead you to the free version, and you can start saving up that coinage for the finally-available Sling client — once it loses the beta label and gets priced, that is. Or, you can just bypass the whole theme situation and hopefully get the real deal sometime around February 18th.

Read – CrackBerry Forums thread
Read – CrackBerry Blog theme availability

Curve 8900 Replica theme now available for impatient, theme-obsessed CrackBerry addicts originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Jacob Schulman