‘Trilobite’ compound eye puts a Paleozoic spin on mobile camera design
Extinct marine arthropods make for great design references -- just ask Andreas Br
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: aforementioned, arthropod, components, design, fraunhofer, mobile, optics, Precision, research, smaller-camera, video
How would you change the T-Mobile G2?
Outside of the Nexus One (and recently-launched Nexus S , of course), T-Mobile's G2 is about as close as one can get to stock build of Android. 'Course, it's now a point release behind Gingerbread, but we're hoping that'll be remedied in short order.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone, nexus one Tags: design, entry, gingerbread, keyboard, light, phone-if-given, result, schematics, scratch, smartphone, stock
Swiftkey Android keyboard goes HD, adds new tongues and improved language prediction
Even the most loyal Android user is bound to kvetch about the stock keyboard at some point or another, and while Swype has definitely grabbed the hearts of a good many Froyo users, Swiftkey remains our third-party keyboard of choice. After escaping beta just a few months ago, TouchType has just outed an 'HD' build that's designed to cope with many of the higher-resolution displays being used on today's gargantuan Android phones. Moreover, we're guessing that this was done to look a bit better on devices like the Galaxy Tab , and there's no denying that the new design elements are a real step forward.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: deal, design, elements, entry, even-the-most, hearts, languages, makeover, polish, real, source, swiftkey hd, touchtype
Angry Birds nets 50 million downloads, still not enough for a three-star rating
And yet the pigs go marching on. Rovio's Angry Birds is just over a year old now, and in that time it's racked up 50 million in downloads, with 10 million of those from Android. An impressive number in its own right, and that puts it in a very elite group of gaming franchises that counts Bejeweled (50m) and Legend of Zelda (59m) among its members.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: design, impressive, jackets, milestone, millions, new-versions, number, penney-design, rating, result, sequel, still-on-stores, stores-shelves
Keepin’ it real fake: Mini Galaxy S gazes meaningfully skyward next to a mini grand piano
If you were going to make a "mini" version of something else you'd probably want it to be significantly smaller.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: camera, capacitive, design, dual, galaxy s, galaxys, keepin it real fake, keepinitrealfake, mini, phone, result, samsung, Sim, yuan
PlayStation Phone espied in Greece, said to have Gingerbread and 4-inch screen (video)
It's quite fitting for a device that's purportedly codenamed Zeus to make its first video appearance somewhere in the wilds of Greece. What we have here is the apparent full motion debut of Sony Ericsson's big crossover device, the PlayStation Phone , one half portable gaming console, one half Android smartphone. Unfortunately, we never see it flexing out its slider to reveal that delicious control pad , but judging from its curves and little design details, it does indeed look to be the real deal
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: design, ericsson, inthewild, leak, playstation, sony ericsson z1, sony-ericsson, sonyericsson, video, wilds
Exclusive: Samsung ‘flagship’ phone with Gingerbread and huge display coming in early 2011
Okay, so you're not feeling Samsung's Nexus S . We'd say that's a little premature, but still, we get it. We understand.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: amoled, camera, design, entry, exclusive, from-the-side, gingerbread, having-either, liking, samsung
HTC Wildfire coming to some regional US carriers this year
We didn't really see this coming, but HTC has teamed up with "multiple regional North American carriers" to deliver its Wildfire stateside, a low-end Android device that might appeal to folks who aren't looking for Desire HD -class performance but still appreciate HTC's design sensibility (of course, the Desire HD isn't an option in America period , but we digress). The company hasn't named partners, but it'll launch with Android 2.1 beginning this quarter -- hopefully with a Froyo update in the pipeline, though there's no commitment in the press release, which you can find after the break.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone Tags: admiration, america, carriers, design, engadget-mobile, mobile, north, pipeline, press, some-regional, wildfire, year
Acer Liquid Metal S120 spotted running Android 2.2 on AT&T bands in FCC
Rumors of a 3.6-inch 800 x 480 Liquid Metal handset from Acer have been heating up in recent months. Now the aluminum handset said to be housing an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230-1 processor just cleared the FCC sporting GSM/EDGE 850/1900 and WCDMA Band II and V making it the perfect candidate for an AT&T launch. The listing also confirms Android 2.2 Froyo, GPS, Bluetooth, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi on the tested model S120 DVT2 (that's Design Verification Test 2) prototype
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: acer, after-the-break, aluminum, design, edge, fcc, gps, Metal, north, perfect, qualcomm, spotted-running, wcdma
T-Mobile myTouch hands-on
That front-facing camera, optical trackpad and Genius button are all in plain sight, but we're afraid we didn't get to give them a try -- the screen on this T-Mobile myTouch is pitch black because it's just a hardware prototype. That didn't keep us from snapping plenty of pictures when we spotted the Froyo-filled HSPA+ handset at the carrier's booth, though -- including a few of the phone side-by-side with its predecessor, the myTouch Slide . First, you'd probably like to hear about the hardware on display, so here's the executive summary: the device feels fairly solid, it's got a neat two-tone design with a fancy metal battery cover, and there's a nice big shutter button
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone Tags: design, entry, hspa, landscape-dock, mytouch, mytouch hd, mytouchslide, smartphone, trackpad