Engadget Mobile Podcast 066 – 12.11.2010
Slip into something comfortable as we give you this week's tour of the inside of our mobile minds. Hosts: Chris Ziegler, Myriam Joire ( tnkgrl ) Guest: Nilay Patel Producer: Trent Wolbe Music: Daestro - Light Powered ( Ghostly International ) 00:02:05 - Android 2.3 SDK revealed, Gingerbread improvements called out 00:21:37 - Google's Nexus S official, coming December 16th to US, 20th to UK (update: $199 on contract, $529 unlocked) 00:38:13 - Motorola Olympus shows up in the wild, demonstrates unyielding commitment to Motoblur 00:39:28 - LG Star struts its stuff on film, toys with an iPhone 4 (video) 00:40:19 - LG commits to upgrading Optimus Ones to Gingerbread, angry hordes abate 00:53:52 - Android Honeycomb coming 'next year,' adds tablet support 00:59:30 - Mike Lazaridis live at D: Dive Into Mobile (with the PlayBook!) 01:06:30 - Microsoft's Joe Belfiore live from D: Dive Into Mobile 01:08:34 - Dell Venue Pro finally available to order: $99 on contract, shipping December 9th 01:09:30 - Smartphone buyer's guide: the best phones for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and more! Hear the podcast Subscribe to the podcast [ iTunes ] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes [ RSS MP3 ] Add the Engadget Mobile Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically [ RSS AAC ] Add the Engadget Mobile Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator [ Zune ] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace Download the podcast LISTEN (MP3) LISTEN (AAC) Contact the podcast podcast (at) engadgetmobile (dot) com.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: dell, improvements, mobile, olympus, podcasts, result, stuff-on-film, the-podcast
Nokia SVP of Symbian Smartphones talks portrait QWERTY, Symbian ‘bashing,’ and MeeGo devices
Jo Harlow, Nokia's Senior VP of Symbian Smartphones was in Amsterdam for the kickoff of the Symbian Exchange and Exposition, giving us the chance for a sit down with the seven year Nokia veteran.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: appeal, approach, features, graphics, improvements, including-split, joharlow, meego, nokia, smartphones, stephen-elop, symbian, talks-portrait, transcript
New Facebook app for Android available, adds Places, Groups & improved notifications (update: iPhone, too)
Facebook admitted during its mobile event today that the app for Android devices has been lagging behind other clients and has already made a push to correct that with a new version, 1.4, now available on the Android Market. Not much has changed, but the list of fixes indicates it now supports check-ins with Places, Groups and some much needed improvements to notifications
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: facebook, facebook 1.4, facebookapp, fixes-indicates, improvements, iphone, like-the-iphone, places
Opera Mini 5.1 hits Symbian, moves away from Java
Version 5.1 has been Opera Mini's big push for much of this year, and the release is finally filtering down to Symbian today. The big news, though, is that S60 owners will be able to use a native version of the popular proxy-based browser rather than the Java build they'd been left with previously, so we can assume that the move to native code is probably going to have a positive effect on performance
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: browser-rather, engadget-mobile, improvements, opera, opera-mini, positive-effect, reading, release
Firefox 4 for mobile goes beta on Android and Maemo
After a healthy alpha (and pre-alpha ) period, Mozilla is taking the mobile version of Firefox 4 to beta on Android and Maemo this week, promising improvements in stability, performance, and functionality. Actually, this represents a shift in branding for Maemo, where Firefox 1.1 has already been gold for some time -- but odds are good you're going to want to upgrade in any event, since this new version nets you the so-called Layers framework that aims to improve scrolling and zooming responsiveness. As you might expect, you get built-in Firefox Sync -- basically making this a superset of Firefox Home -- and support for HTML5.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: beta, entry, firefox, firefox 4 beta, firefox sync, healthy-alpha, improvements, mozilla, n900, Promising, represents, responsiveness, the-so-called
RIM pushes out software update for BlackBerry Torch, promises speed improvements aplenty
Well, it looks RIM hasn't been ignoring all those complaints about its less than speedy BlackBerry Torch -- the company has just pushed out an updated version of BlackBerry 6 for the device that promises a whole host of speed improvements. That includes faster page loading and improved panning in the browser, improved responsiveness after unlocking the device, faster application launching, exiting and switching, faster rendering and smoother transitions on the home screen, faster rendering of thumbnails in the picture application, and faster and smoother scrolling in the message list and when reading email -- oh, and improved audio quality too. Look for the update (v6.0.0.695) to begin rolling out directly to devices over the next week and a half, or simply hit up either RIM or AT&T below to skip the wait and download the update right now
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: after-unlocking, berry-torch, BlackBerry, improvements, rim, scrolling, softwareupdate, thumbnails, torch
Google Voice for Android gets refreshed with widgets in tow
Google just pushed out a fresh build of its Google Voice app for Android, and it looks like the improvements are focused on a pair of new home screen widgets (previously, it had none). The inbox preview widget does exactly what you might think, letting you flip through recent voicemails -- complete with questionable transcriptions -- while tapping on a message will take you to it in the actual app. The aptly-named settings widget, meanwhile, lets you compose text messages, change dialing preferences, toggle Do Not Disturb mode, and see your available balance.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: addition, engadget-mobile, entry, google-voice, home-screen, homescreen, homescreenwidget, improvements, mobile, result, settings-widget, update, voice
Carl Zeiss Cinemizer 3D Plus glasses get OLED infusion, still no attention
Carl Zeiss keeps on making minor improvements to its Cinemizer head-mounted display, announced way back in 2008 and intended to be the most amazing way to watch stuff on your iPod. They didn't exactly catch on then, and two years later we're not entirely sure that the latest revision will either. The tiny screens that sit a fraction of an inch from your eyeballs have been upgraded to OLED, which should make them bright and lovely as they pummel your rods and cones, but sadly they're still stuck in VGA land -- 640 x 480 is not a lot of pixels these days.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: 3d display, 3ddisplay, 3dglasses, carlzeiss, catch-on-then, cinemizerplus, head-mounted display, improvements, minor
Retail Droid X getting latest firmware update, call log privacy bug emerges
That over-the-air firmware update that rolled out to early Droid X units in the field prior to the launch seems to be trickling out to retail units now, and along with that news comes a surprisingly long changelog. Along with a bunch of squashed bugs, the latest build has a few visual tweaks and improvements to Bluetooth, Exchange ActiveSync, and Visual Voicemail connectivity, so it seems like this is an OTA notification you'll want to promptly tap "OK" to
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: bug, bugs, call log, calllog, changelog, droidx, firmware-update, getting-latest, improvements, result, retail, thread, verizon, verizonwireless
Sony Ericsson pushes major firmware update for Xperia X2, all three owners celebrate
Alright, X2 owners, you ready for this? Odds are you aren't, since virtually all of you are east of the Atlantic where it's getting close to bedtime and you're not likely reading this -- and for our New World friends, the North American version is still inexplicably missing in action
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: atlantic, bedtime, design, goodies, improvements, result, stability, update, windowsmobile, wm6.5, xperia, xperia-x2