LG commits to upgrading Optimus Ones to Gingerbread, angry hordes abate
Well, we've got to hand it to LG for quickly doing the right thing here by keeping people informed and ultimately making the best decision for its customers. Just two days after a Facebook spat that suggested the Optimus series of midrange Android handsets wouldn't be getting Android 2.3 Gingerbread thanks to a seemingly made-up 1GHz processor requirement, they've reversed the decision, saying that "all" of the models that fall under the Optimus One guise (presumably including the Vortex , Optimus T , Optimus S , Optimus M , and Optimus U ) would be getting upgraded. Here's the full statement: "LG will upgrade all Optimus One smartphones currently using the Froyo OS to the next version of the Android OS, Gingerbread.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: confusion, decision, gingerbread, guise, hordes, misunderstanding, optimus-ones, thing, upgrade, vortex
Google’s Nexus S official, coming December 16th to US, 20th to UK (update: $199 on contract, $529 unlocked)
This thing is all but official anyway, but for what it's worth, Google's now got its own product page live for the upcoming Nexus S from Samsung. Here's the rundown: 4-inch WVGA display, triband HSPA with AWS support (no HSPA+, seemingly), 5 megapixel camera, NFC , 16GB of onboard storage, 512MB of RAM, available on T-Mobile. It's also got a gyroscope -- as do the existing Galaxy S phones -- along with something being called the "contour display" (which matches up with rumors we've heard ), integrated VoIP support, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: Best Buy, car phone warehouse, dual, engadget, gingerbread, hspa, nexus, nexus s, pricing, thing, video
iPhone DST bug causing alarms to fail across Europe
An iPhone bug already seen when Australia switched between Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time a few weeks ago has now hit Europe. Twitter is alight with reports of recurring iPhone alarms going off an hour later than usual.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: alarm, apple, australia, Clock, daylightsavingstime, engadget, europe-twitter, report, result, standard, Switch, thing, twitter
Huawei Ideos hands-on
Chinese telecom giant Huawei -- which has been playing the Android game with major carriers around the world for some time now -- has selected IFA to debut the Ideos, a new entry-level model running Froyo in a variety of colors. Huawei's press release calls the Ideos "the world's first affordable smartphone" -- which seems like a bit of an overstatement (okay, a huge overstatement) to us -- but really underscores the fact that this thing is going to be launching for somewhere between $100 and $200 unsubsidized in Europe, Asia, and both North and Latin America.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: america, debut-the-ideos, engadget, entry, huawei-ideos, price, responsiveness, thing
AmazonWireless selling Samsung Captivate for a penny on contract
This already happened to the Vibrant , but if you're in the market for a Galaxy S of one sort or another and you're more of the AT&T type (and you can't be bothered to do a little hacking ), you might want to take a look at Amazon's mobile store right now where they've got the Captivate listed for a big, fat cent on a new two-year contract. Of course, Amazon (and other third-party wireless retailers) pull these stunts all the time -- and considering that AT&T is still charging $200 upfront for this thing, we love 'em for it
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: 200-upfront, amazon, att, captivate, engadget-mobile, entry, little-hacking, look-at-amazon, mobile, mobile-store, result, still-charging, thing
Samsung Captivate coming to AT&T on July 18 for $200
We've just gotten official word that the Captivate -- AT&T's rendition of Samsung's global Galaxy S line of high-end Android phones -- will be available starting Sunday, July 18 for $199 on contract with no rebate required. That pricing is more or less what we'd expected considering that T-Mobile priced the Vibrant the same way -- and if rumors of T-Mobile's launch date bump are true, the Captivate won't be the first kid on the block.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: att, boys, breaking-news, breakingnews, captivate, entry, galaxy s, galaxys, make-it-happen, more-or-less, official-word, over-at-sammy, sammy-stay, thing, vibrant
MIT’s Android optometry app could help you stop squinting all the time (video)
Remember Bokodes , MIT's tiny replacement for barcodes and the like?
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: dots, entry, image, make-it-easier, media, mit, mitmedialabcameraculture, optometrists, perscription, property, thing, trip
Palm Pixi Plus now free on AT&T
Wow, that didn't take long! A couple days ago, you were paying $50 to take this thing home, but AT&T has moved perhaps quicker than any carrier in memory to adjust pricing on the Pixi Plus down to a more reasonable $0 -- on contract after rebates, of course. The only catch appears to be that you'll have to sign up for a data plan of at least $15, which corresponds to the carrier's recently-introduced DataPlus package that includes 200MB per month with overage of $15 per additional 200MB. That might seem low for your average power user on your average smartphone -- but this is a Pixi Plus we're talking about here.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: att, Carrier, couple, entry, more-reasonable, per-additional, pixi, pixi plus, pixiplus, result, thing
The iPhone 4′s outer case makes it on camera… in Portugal
iPhone 4 parts just keep on dribbling out of China and turning up around the world -- this time it's the next-gen phone's outer case on a video from iPhone Portgual. The site actually has two cases, which it says were purchased by a reader in China, and while they look genuine enough, we obviously can't tell for certain whether they're real.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: damn, days, engadget, iphone, iphone 4, iphone 4g, portugal, Steve, thing, video, wwdc
Samsung Moment 2 with Sprint branding and TouchWiz 3.0 peeks out
The Samsung Moment is due to get Android 2.1 sometime in the near future , but it looks like it's also going to get a bit of a refresh -- check out this pic of a Sprint-branded Moment 2 that's said to have TouchWiz 3.0 on top of Android 2.1. Unfortunately, the same source says this thing doesn't have Sammy's new Super AMOLED screen , so we'd assume it doesn't have that new faster processor from the Galaxy S either -- all of which means the HTC EVO 4G is still really the Sprint device to wait for. But hey, maybe you love TouchWiz?
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone Tags: assume-it-doesn, engadget, leak, Peeks, result, sammy, samsung, samsung-moment, sprint, thing, touchwiz3.0