Archive | December, 2009

Samsung i899 does EV-DO, AMOLED, Android for China

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

Imagine, if you will, a slightly revised Galaxy for CDMA with EV-DO Rev. A. What have you got brewing in your head right now? Odds are it looks a little something like this, Samsung’s freshly-announced i899 for China. Since China Telecom is the patron saint of EV-DO over there, you can probably gather where this sucker will be going — and it’ll come in swinging big with WiFi, a 3.2-inch HVGA AMOLED display, 3.2 megapixel cam with flash, and an 800MHz core (probably the same one used in the Moment, if we had to guess). It’ll be launching shortly — but unless you happen to be in the area, this is probably going to be a tricky one to get.

Samsung i899 does EV-DO, AMOLED, Android for China originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

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Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video)

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

Eager to get a hold on your very own Dell-branded Android smartphone? This guy here took matters into his own hands with nothing more than his modding skill, his imagination, and a Dell Inspiron Mini. Of course, this thing won’t exactly fit in most pockets, but as a curiosity (and a conversation starter) it performs admirably. Have you ever seen a 10.1-inch novelty handset in action? Now’s your chance — peep the video for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video)

Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Joseph L. Flatley

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Picture of Motorola ‘Shadow’ leaked, inverted on Taiwanese forum

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

While everyone’s gearing up to celebrate New Year’s Eve, it seems that Motorola‘s busy squeezing out the last bit of rumor juice of 2009. We’re looking at what’s purported to be Motorola’s “Shadow” (not “Mirage” as Google Translate unhelpfully suggests) — a phone with 9mm thickness, 4.3-inch 850×484 screen (larger than the devices on the leaked roadmap), HDMI port and 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p video recording. Not much else came out of the “tight-lipped” tipster who might’ve inverted the picture’s colors — see above for our fix — but an educated guess should point to that friendly green robot (though that battery icon certainly isn’t part of Android’s game). Any brave souls dare to guess otherwise?

Picture of Motorola ‘Shadow’ leaked, inverted on Taiwanese forum originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Richard Lai

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Hardware accelerated ‘Doom’ comes to the Pre

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

Pre homebrew has certainly come a long way in its short but happy life — and now it’s just gotten another little notch in its belt. Apparently, with the release of webOS 1.3.5, Palm has included a software library called SDL (or Simple Directmedia Layer) which allows developers low-level hardware access — like the kind needed to tap into accelerated 3D graphics. With a little bit of elbow grease, webOS hacker extraordinaire zsoc was able to put together a port of Doom which can be run within a card in the OS, and completely functions (including keyboard controls). You’ve got to get your hands a little dirty with the Terminal app to make things happen right now if you want to try it for yourself, though the experimenters promise an easier solution in the coming days. Exciting stuff for webOS users hungry for a little more horsepower… now let’s see if Palm puts this into play come CES.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Hardware accelerated ‘Doom’ comes to the Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

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Orange plans to bring ‘HD Voice’ calls to UK next year

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

We’ve had some indication that Orange planned to expand its “HD Voice” technology beyond the hot testbed of Moldova sometime in the coming year, and it looks like the carrier is now starting to get a bit more specific about when the UK will finally have an alternative to standard definition calls. Apparently, Orange will begin trials of the new and improved, 3G-facilitated service early in the new year, and fully roll it out along with a “range of handsets” before the end of the year. Just what can you expect from HD voice? Why, it will make it “sound as if callers are actually in the same room,” according to Orange UK chief executive Tom Alexander, who further added that “HD voice really does inject a level of innovation into mobile phone calls,” and that “once people have tried it, they won’t want to go back.”

Orange plans to bring ‘HD Voice’ calls to UK next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

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Samsung Corby Speed breaks new ground for odd phone names

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

We still think “Corby” alone is an odd name for a phone, but Samsung liked it enough to spin it into a whole low-cost series. Today, that series grew another notch with the introduction of the Corby Speed, which sounds more like a comic book hero (or possibly an overrated Olympic slalom skier with GQ good looks) than it does a modest touchscreen handset. It looks a whole lot like some of the other Corbys you may have seen out there, but the key difference here is that we’ve got Open Mobile-compliant CDMA on board, meaning the phone can be toted among India’s CDMA carriers much as you would an unlocked GSM set. It’s got a 2 megapixel cam, FM radio, 2.8-inch display, and your choice of three “fashion jackets” — black, white, and yellow — and if you’re interested, you can nab it for 10,300 rupees (about $223) as long as you’re willing to make the trek to South Asia.

Samsung Corby Speed breaks new ground for odd phone names originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

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Mophie iPhone credit card reader coming to a CES near you

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

iPhone accessory maker and recession antidote regular Mophie is about to make the most buzzworthy move of its short history by offering a credit card reader and accompanying transaction app for the Apple handset. Positioned as a direct competitor to Jack Dorsey’s Square iPhone Payment System, Mophie’s solution looks to be integrated into an iPhone case — making it possible to keep the reader on permanently, albeit at a slight cost to your device’s aesthetics. The decidedly cube-shaped Square system has a less ergonomic design, but we suspect that the winner (if either of these two succeeds) will be primarily determined by the usability of the app and affordability of the service. Look out for more info to emerge at some point during the maelstrom that will be CES 2010.

Mophie iPhone credit card reader coming to a CES near you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Vladislav Savov

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Nexus One trounces 3D benchmark, gets caught in high-res photoshoot

Posted on 31 December 2009 by

Just when you thought you’d seen it all with Nexus One, along comes an old friend with some higher resolution shots of the handset (hooray!) and a pretty impressive 3D benchmark test using Qualcomm’s Neocore. Video’s after the break –that Snapdragon chip outputs a mean framerate, no?

Continue reading Nexus One trounces 3D benchmark, gets caught in high-res photoshoot

Nexus One trounces 3D benchmark, gets caught in high-res photoshoot originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Ross Miller

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