Discounts are raining down from the heavens these days as retailers try to offload old stock and do a bit of tidying up before rolling in the fresh batch of 2011 smartphones. Best Buy is keeping with this trend by treating its customers to a nice big saving on the AT&T-attached Dell Streak, offering it up for a mere $100 in upfront costs. The typical two-year commitment will be required from you, but that might just be worth it for this 5-inch Android slate, particularly if you load it up with the latest firmware. Pricing is the same for both the black and white versions, so if you’re keen to swap a small bulge in your wallet for a large protruding tabletphone in your pocket, you know where to look.

[Thanks, Jeremy C.]

Dell Streak slips to $100 on contract at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s common knowledge that the first words uttered by any nerd are “hello world.” That is, unless some CEO starts bad-mouthing your open-source motivations. Google’s Andy Rubin — the father of Android, as it were — just uttered his first words on Twitter with the tweet you see above. From the looks of it, Andy (assuming this is him, the account is not “verified”) is demonstrating how easy it is for anyone to download and compile the latest build of Android. Presumably Jobs will now join Twitter with a response like, “The definition of closed: shut up.”

Andy Rubin responds to Steve Jobs with a coded tweet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We didn’t think competition in the cheapo calls market was quite so intense, but here we are, with Fring and Skype gunning for each other with near-simultaneous launches. After Skype finally released its long-awaited Android app, Fring is countering with an Android rollout of its own FringOut service — an additional option to the chat and video calling client which lets you call phone numbers for as little as one American cent per minute. You’ll recall this addition started its life on Symbian initially, has now landed on Android, and will soon be making the transition to the iPhone. To experience it for yourself, update your Fring app to the latest version and enjoy the benefits of a competitive marketplace.

Fring matches Skype, intros FringOut for low-rate Android calls originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 06:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking a bit like a myTouch 3G Slide sans slide, the newly-announced myTouch — yes, just “myTouch” — is the latest addition to the consumer-centric side of T-Mobile’s Android lineup, featuring a 3.8-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel primary camera with 720p capture, and a next-gen MSM8255 Snapdragon core running at 1GHz. Notice how we said “primary camera”? Yep, it’s true: the myTouch features a second, front-facing cam as well, becoming the first phone from T-Mobile (and one of the first in the States, of course) to offer video calling. Looks like it’ll be supported over both WiFi and 3G using Qik and Yahoo Messenger, so you’ll be able to see the beautiful faces of your EVO-sporting friends from afar. Like the G2, it’s got full support for T-Mobile’s up-and-coming HSPA+ network along with 802.11n and Android 2.2 out of the box. We don’t have pricing or a launch date yet, but we’re told it’ll be available “in time for the holidays” in your choice of four scintillating colors: white, black, plum, and red. Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading T-Mobile myTouch announced: Android 2.2, video calling, and HSPA+

T-Mobile myTouch announced: Android 2.2, video calling, and HSPA+ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We told you so. The Wall Street Journal has updated its recent article detailing disclosures from Verizon Wireless chief Ivan Seidenberg, and the latest news is as bad as it is predictable: VZW plans to consign unlimited data plans to the annals of history over the next four to six months, to be replaced by tiered, consumption-based pricing. Seidenberg says Verizon’s prices will surely differ from what AT&T recently introduced, noting that his company values data differently to the competition — though he wouldn’t say whether that means costs will be higher or lower. Either way, Droidsters, enjoy your last few months in the unlimited sun.

[Thanks, Tyler]

Verizon CEO confirms plans for tiered data pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 05:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The drama, the excitement, the fanfare. No, those aren’t new HTC model names, they’re just what you can expect tomorrow. HTC is hosting a little shindig in London the day after today in order to announce the latest hardware it has “dreamt up” — and since we’re suckers for hot new smartphones, we’ll be there to liveblog the hell out of it. The event kicks off at 12PM British Summer Time or 1PM Central European Time. In American parlance, that’s 7AM for the East Coast and a frightful 4AM for West Coasters. Our intuition says to expect the Desire HD and Desire Z to make their debuts, but there’s only one way to be certain: keep it locked to Engadget and we’ll demystify everything as soon as superhumanly possible.

HTC is launching its next big thing tomorrow, and we’ll be there live! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like TWC is the latest victim of tablet fever. Not wanting to get left behind as Comcast flaunts its iPad app for remote scheduling, Time Warner Cable is showing off its own, slated to hit the iPad and the iPhone at some point in the future. (It’s called “prototyping work” at this point.) The app would allow a subscriber to view current TV listings and change their DVR’s recording schedule from afar, plus use intuitive searches to find new content. That’s promising, because whenever we search through TWC’s current Scientific Atlanta DVR interface we wind up spiking our remote control in frustration, and that’s getting expensive. Even more promising is the plan to pump TV Everywhere to iOS and, down the road, to provide an API for other devs to write their own apps against. Care to watch a bunch of TWC executives lounging in a corner office while discussing the app? Check the video after the break. It’s part one of a series and, if you stay awake through all four, you win a prize!

Continue reading Time Warner Cable developing iOS app, laptime viewing may never be the same (video)

Time Warner Cable developing iOS app, laptime viewing may never be the same (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can you believe we’ve waited on the N8 long enough for (at least) three KIRF versions to beat it to market? This latest one’s pretty special too, as it gives us a glimpse into one of the fevered dream of Engadget commenters: a Nokia flagship rocking Android (2.1, in this case). The iZiNN CJ-3 copies the N8′s form factor, styling, and 3.5-inch screen, but throws in an upgrade of its own by going with a higher-res 800 x 480 capacitive panel. Yeah, we’re shocked too. A 5 megapixel imager, a budget Rockchip CPU, and an HDMI port fill out the rest of the known specs, while a release in China is expected some time later this month. Anyone know why this thing isn’t being built and sold by a legitimate manufacturer?

[Thanks, Ludger]

Keepin’ it real fake: Nokia’s Android N8 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uh, RIM ol’ buddy, is there something you’d like to tell us about this unannounced BlackBerry Curve 9300 that’s up and dancing on Rogers’ website right now with a $79.99 Canadian price tag on a three-year contract? We’re looking at a quad-band GSM and HSDPA 850/1900/2100 candybar with 802.11n WiFi, GPS, 256MB of RAM, a 2 megapixel camera, microSD expansion (2GB in the box), and 2.4-inch display throwing 320 x 240 pixels. And no, that’s not the latest and greatest OS which makes us wonder about the possibility for a BlackBerry 6 upgrade. Maybe T-Mobile USA would like to say something, anything?

[Thanks, Samir A.]

BlackBerry Curve 9300 for sale on Rogers, still not announced originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back when we outlined the iOS 4 features missing from iPhone 3G, we forgot one key bullet point: performance. As more and more two-year veterans of Apple’s phones have taken the plunge and upgraded to the latest firmware, slowdown and battery drain issues have become a common complaint, which is even more irksome when you think of just how little the update really adds to the UI. The Wall Street Journal reports speaking to an Apple spokesperson who said the company is looking into the matter. That doesn’t necessarily mean a fix is coming anytime soon, but hey, at least you can hold the darn thing however you want.

Apple investigating issues with iOS 4 upgrade on iPhone 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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