TI’s OMAP4440 processor brings two blazing Cortex-A9 cores to the table
Phones and tablets based on TI's first production OMAP4 processor -- the OMAP4430 -- won't even be on the market until early next year, but TI's already planning ahead with the announcement of an upgraded chip that promises a 50 percent boost in overall performance. The new OMAP4440 can send its two Cortex-A9 -based cores as high as 1.5GHz, while the 4430 tops out at 1GHz; TI says that means we should expect a 1.25x improvement in graphics performance, a 30 percent decline in webpage load time, and 1080p playback performance that doubles the slowpoke (comparably speaking, anyway) 4430
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: announcement, Cores, decline, dual-core, omap4430, quarter, result, texas-instruments, upgraded-chip, volume
The Fingerist turns your iPhone into an iKeytar, available now
Remember The Fingerist , the guitar headstock-themed speaker and case for your iPhone or iPod touch? You know, the one with the shoulder strap for public (and private) performances with all of your favorite music making apps? Well, it seems that it's finally available in the states.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: air guitar, announcement, app, available-now, bad, guitar amp, ipodtouch, musicapp, musicmaking, performances, result, rick, rick wakeman, Speaker, the fingerist
Rogers, Ericsson turn Ottawa into an LTE trial playground
Rogers is breaking LTE out of the confines of its labs for the first time with the announcement today that it's flipping the switch on a trial network in Ottawa -- a place where infrastructure partner Ericsson conveniently just happens to have some facilities. The 4G network won't be open to customers yet, but it seems like that'll be a relatively small step -- in the Ottawa area, anyway -- once all the technical issues have been ironed out.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: 700mhz, announcement, confines, critical, critical-step, deployment, ericsson, flipping, lte, rogers, technical
Library of Congress adds DMCA exception for jailbreaking or rooting your phone
This is a wild one, and we're still parsing through the announcement, but on the surface it looks like the Library of Congress has added new anti-circumvention exceptions to the DMCA that, among other things, allow people to tweak their handsets for the purpose of installing legally obtained software -- known as jailbreaking in iOS land, and rooting in the Android / webOS world. Check out the full statement from the Librarian of Congress, which is mostly an update of existing exceptions on record, after the break, but here's the primary excerpt: Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset. Now, before all you EFFers go all totally wild (although it's undoubtedly a win for the EFF line of thinking on this issue), you should know that this in no way requires Apple to jailbreak your phone for you, or lay down its arms in this ongoing fight.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: announcement, Controls, exceptions, infringement, jailbreak, jailbreaking, library, result, softw, wireless, youtube
BMW’s Pathfinder ‘microNavigation’ system promises to augment GPS
BMW has been working on augmenting GPS navigation for some time now, and it took another big step forward in recent weeks with the announcement of its Pathfinder "microNavigation" system. As the name suggests, that would supplement your basic navigation system with maps and directions for areas not covered by GPS -- a parking lot, for instance -- and it could be continually updated on an as-needed basis, with users able to download so-called microMaps for a specific area before they go on a trip
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: announcement, car, does-at-least, journey, Lot, maps, micronavigation, navigation-app, parking, phone, result, specific-area
RIP: Emblaze kills First Else
Hate to say it but we were right : Emblaze just announced that it's shutting down the First Else handset. $40 million dollars and the hopes of many (ok, a few) gone in an instant
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: after-the-break, announcement, breaking-news, breakingnews, dollars, emblaze mobile monolith, emblazemobile, engadget, result, shutting-down, user
AT&T 3G MicroCell now available in all markets
Completing a phased roll-out that kicked off back in April, AT&T has finally gotten around to launching its 3G MicroCell in all of its markets, giving the entire customer base some flexibility when "more bars in more places" doesn't happen to include your place. Interestingly, the announcement was made in passing during comments by AT&T director Gordon Mansfield at the Femtocells World Summit in London this week, where he spent much of his time trying to quell a minor furor over the carrier's continued application of data caps when using the MicroCell
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: announcement, att, data, data caps, entire-customer, from-diverting, micro, microcell, phased-roll-out, ultimately-ends
Same as it ever was: you can’t tether an iPhone to the iPad
This isn't so much news as it is a public service announcement: even in markets where iPhone tethering has launched, you've never been able to use it to connect to an iPad, and you won't be able to when AT&T flips the switch on tethering with the release of OS 4. That's clearly not AT&T's fault, it's Apple's -- the iPhone inexplicably supports only USB and Bluetooth for sharing its internet connection, even though jailbroken apps like MyWi prove that a WiFi connection is totally doable and countless other handsets already support WiFi routing. And iPad doesn't support using another device as a Bluetooth modem, either
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: announcement, apple, att, data, device, gobble-the-data, ipad, tethering
Boost Mobile launches Motorola i1 on June 20
Since the Android-powered i1 was originally announced for Sprint's Direct Connect service, you might've assumed that it'd be the first to get a hard launch date -- but subsidiary Boost Mobile is breaking that news first for some reason with the announcement today that the phone is coming June 20 in Boost retail stores plus Bust Buy locations. Pricing hasn't been announced, but Best Buy had previously teased it for $350 , so we wouldn't expect this to be a cheap purchase; then again, you've gotta remember that it's coming at you contract-free.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: announcement, Boost, boost-mobile, bust, mobile, moto, motorola, network-either, phone, result, sprint
Google changes Nexus One plans, will stop selling handsets online
Although Google launched the Nexus One with grand plans to radically change the way consumers purchased phones and service, it looks like the experiment has fizzled to an end -- the company just announced that will eventually stop selling handsets online and instead partner with carriers to sell the N1 in-store while using its website to promote "a variety of Android phones available globally." Google says customers simply want a hands-on experience before buying a phone, but we'd say the lack of subsidies from any carrier except T-Mobile and some serious customer service issues probably played in killing Google's original sales strategy -- and of course, both Verizon and Sprint essentially refused the N1 in favor of the bespoke Incredible and EVO 4G . We'd also say that Android as a whole will remain unaffected, since the Nexus One was never a huge seller , but it's still rare that a company simply gives up a business model like this, and we don't know if Google will ever follow up with a successor to the Nexus One.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone, nexus one Tags: announcement, consumers, cutting, entry, experiment, google-nexus-one, googlenexusone, htc, issues, mobile, model, nexus, result, sales