We’re still coming down from that rush of adrenaline that accompanied the launch of the dual-core Optimus 2X last night, but we’ve had a hunch lately that LG is planning on taking Android very seriously in 2011 — seriously enough to have something even sexier than the 2X up its sleeve. Looks like that sexiness could be delivered in the form of a device codenamed “B,” shots of which have been delivered to Phandroid in a direct comparison with the iPhone 4 and the Galaxy S — two handsets we’re sure LG would love to embarrass. As you can see up there, the screen’s looking pretty insane, especially when you consider that those other two phones in the picture have arguably the best displays in the mobile business right now; it’s claimed to offer 700 nits of brightness, a 40 percent improvement over the Galaxy S. Oh, and if that doesn’t impress you, Phandroid‘s tipster has also sent in a shot of the edge that appears to make the 9.3mm iPhone 4 look downright chubby. No word on a release date for the B just yet.

LG ‘B’ Android phone caught in the wild, looking thin and ready to spank Super AMOLED originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t normally cover the “business crime” beat, but there’s a pretty interesting gadget angle here. As part of a larger crack down on insider trading, three technology executives and a “salesman for an ‘expert network’” have been arrested for leaking confidential tips to hedge funds. What sort of secrets, you ask? A certain executive for Flextronics, Walter Shimoon, happened to pass on information concerning an iPhone update and the iPad well before they became official (Flextronics supplied Apple parts). “At Apple you can get fired for saying K48 … outside of a, you know, outside of a meeting that doesn’t have K48 people in it. That’s how crazy they are about it,” he said during an October 2009 phone call intercepted by authorities, where K48 wass the codename for the iPad, which didn’t see the light of day until 2010 (we’re assuming here that’s not all he said). The others arrested hail from AMD (leaking financial details) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and a fifth person already plead guilty (a former Dell global supply manager). Remember, kids, crime doesn’t pay.

Apple secrets leaked early by inside traders, arrests reveal originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Unreal Engine 3 already made a quite spectacular debut on iOS with Epic Games’ own Infinity Blade, but the company’s decided it’s time to finally stop teasing and give us the software to really play with it. Tomorrow’s planned update to the UDK will deliver iOS support, meaning that all the fancy tools that helped make Infinity Blade such a blindingly gorgeous game will be at your fingertips should you be feeling creative. Licensing for the Engine is free for testing and non-commercial use, but you’ll have to pay $99 if you want to sell anything you produce with it, to be followed by a 25 percent slice of your earnings beyond $5,000 and, of course, Apple’s 30 percent cut of whatever’s left. That might not sound like the best business plan in the world, but consider that Infinity Blade is estimated to have racked up over $1.5 million in sales already — we’re sure there’ll be enough change left for ice cream even after Epic and Apple have had their share.

Unreal Engine 3 dev kit adding iOS support tomorrow, Infinity Blade clones coming Friday originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android boss Andy Rubin almost always makes for an entertaining interview, and his appearance at AllThingsD‘s D: Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco last week was certainly no exception. The introduction of Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the Nexus S were the official news items of the day, but Rubin took the opportunity to showcase the next version of the platform — Honeycomb — running on a prototype Motorola tablet that no one had seen before. He also runs through a breakdown of Android’s business model (hint: it’s profitable), muses about video calling, and gives us a look at that crazy new 3D-capable Google Maps app. Follow the break for the footage.

Continue reading Andy Rubin’s full D: Dive Into Mobile interview video posted

Andy Rubin’s full D: Dive Into Mobile interview video posted originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Google rolls out NFC-equipped Places business kits, muscles in on location-based territory in Portland

Google rolls out NFC-equipped Places business kits, muscles in on location-based territory in Portland originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can’t begin explain our exasperation at running a Samsung Galaxy Tab on Sprint’s 3G, knowing full well the WiMAX airwaves floating just overhead could make our experience speedy. Thankfully, we won’t have to dwell on our frustration for long, because a Sprint executive told Forbes that a 4G tablet will arrive in 2011. Sprint’s Paget Alves, president of business markets, wouldn’t say where it would be made, but hinted that the company intends to sell tablets running different operating systems — so it’s probably not another Android device. What could it be, then? We can’t say, but paired with the knowledge that Verizon also plans to debut LTE tablets in 2011 — possibly including one Motorola Stingray — it seems like 2011 will be a fine year for goodies on CDMA.

[Thanks, Stephen]

Sprint: 4G tablet coming in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not every day you see an old-school clamshell running Android, and really, there’s a great reason for that: when your entire UI is touch-centric, putting the screen a few inches away from the user’s thumb is a usability nightmare waiting to happen. Be that as it may, Samsung’s rolled out a fairly sophisticated new folder in China under the name SCH-W899 that features not one, but two separate 3.3-inch Super AMOLED displays on either side of the phone’s top half. You’ve got a 5 megapixel camera, 512MB of onboard storage expandable with a 32GB microSD slot, CDMA EV-DO compatibility for service on China Telecom, GSM roaming capability, and — of course — the kind of respect that only comes with using a phone with gold accents. We wouldn’t expect to see this one in the Western Hemisphere apart from the rare import, so if you were thinking of getting into the collectible Android phone business, there might not be a better time. Lucrative, we hear.

Bonus points: count the number of gratuitous lens flares on the phone’s official product page.

Samsung makes an Android 2.2 clamshell; unless you’re in China, you can’t have it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite the more recent releases of the Curve 8500 series and the Curve 3G, RIM has never really offered up a true successor to the venerable Curve 8900 — a device some would argue remains the prettiest that Waterloo has ever manufactured. Indeed, with the QVGA display and meager cam on the 3G, there’s a pretty magnificent gap between it and the business-class Bold 9700 / 9780… so we’re pretty excited to see a new model called the Curve 8980 get FCC approval. Oh, and what’s more, the filing’s now got access to a user’s manual and external shots where you can definitely picture this as being a proper optical pad-equipped follow-on to the 8900 of old, complete with a 3.2 megapixel cam with flash and — if we had to guess — a high-res display adopted either from the 9780 or the 8900. No word on a release, but here’s the kicker: as far as we can tell from the filing, it’s EDGE-only just like the device it replaces, which is pretty inexcusable for a device that’d presumably be released in 2011. Add 3G, though, and they’ve got a desperately-needed new model to slot in underneath the Bold.

BlackBerry Curve 8980 shows up in FCC, offers some glam shots originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just how much is the promise of anywhere, anytime cellphone reception worth to you? If you answered “one thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars,” well… your time has finally come. After initially launching through business channels alone for $800, TerreStar’s unique GSM / HSPA Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone for AT&T with satellite connectivity is now available to consumers from all walks of life, as long as you’ve got $1,149.99 lying around. The Genus features Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, a 2 megapixel camera, and pretty much every other amenity you’d expect form a WinMo 6.5 smartphone with circa-2008 hardware specs, with the obvious exception that it can be used anywhere you can see TerreStar’s satellite pretty much anywhere in North America. Of course, we’d be a little hesitant about buying a four-figure phone that operates on a bankrupt service, but if you need coverage in the boondocks, your options are pretty limited. Follow the break for TerreStar’s demo video and full press release.

Continue reading TerreStar Genus now available to anyone who wants one for just $1,150

TerreStar Genus now available to anyone who wants one for just $1,150 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• British publication City A.M. says the Nexus Two is a Carphone Warehouse exclusive, will be released in time for the holidays, and probably won’t be made by Samsung.
• Android and Me is convinced that the Nexus Two will in fact be a Samsung product, will be announced at its November 8th press conference, will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (assuming 3.0 is Honeycomb), and will be available on multiple carriers.

Meanwhile, a quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt from back in July may suggest there will be no Nexus One successor at all:

“The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one.”

Of course, he goes on to say that the Nexus One’s sudden sunset was a shining example of Google’s “nimbleness” — and since the quote is from nearly four months ago, there’s little reason to doubt that the company could’ve easily done a 180 since then, particularly since we’re sure they’d like to have a clean, skin-free, and possibly carrier-free device to showcase Gingerbread. At any rate, time’s running out to get a product advertised and available in time to catch holiday buyers… so this’ll all have to shake out pretty quickly.

Nexus Two does (or doesn’t) exist, is (or isn’t) being released this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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