New mobile phones: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Sprint Adds Asurion’s Mobile Recovery to TEP

Sprint Asurion Mobile Recovery Sprint has announced that it has added support for Asurion’s Mobile Recovery application for Android and BlackBerry to its Total Equipment Protection insurance plan. The Mobile Recovery app functions by allowing web-based tracking of lost/stolen devices via GPS, sound alarms, remote device lock and wipe. The app itself is free and requires TEP on the account in order to be given a login for the app.

Dell Venue Pro arrives in the UK at long last: 459 off contract, shipping in 10 days (update: Germany also)

Time for a quick memory check: remember the WP7 slider that Dell announced some months ago? That's right, it's the Venue Pro -- the one that's been struggling to meet demand in the US due to some mysterious reworking. Well, here's some good news for the folks on the other side of the pond: starting today, Dell's UK store is taking orders for this unlocked slider for a hefty £459 ($745), and the first deliveries are expected to arrive in 10 days. Man, these wicked people from Round Rock sure love making us wait, but better late than never, right?

Update: We've been informed by our friends over at BestBoyZ that Germany's also getting the Venue Pro today for around €534.

Show full PR text

DELL'S EXPANDING MOBILE PORTFOLIO DELIVERS UNRIVALED BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCES FOR PROFESSIONALS

• Venue Pro Smartphone designed with the mobile professional in mind

• Cutting edge form factor seamlessly switches between entertainment and productivity

• Versatile Smartphone joins Dell's growing family of mobility products and solutions

BRACKNELL, UK, 28 February 2011– DellTM today announced the availability of the Venue Pro, a new Windows Phone 7-based Smartphone designed for the mobile business user. The new device allows business professionals to maintain productivity levels while away from the office thanks to the one-of-a-kind, vertical QWERTY keypad for faster text entry, and integration with the Microsoft® Office Hub including the ability to view and edit Microsoft Office documents, and to view, post and sync documents on a SharePoint site. The Venue Pro also allows easy integration with Microsoft Exchange Server email messaging, and customers can be assured of broad compatibility and interoperability with other hardware, software, and peripherals for an end-to-end solution.

Spanning both business functionality and entertainment, the Venue Pro is also ideally suited for taking social networking and on-the-go entertainment to new heights. This all-round ability gives busy professionals more options to stay connected and access the content they want, when they want it. The Venue Pro is available starting March 1 direct from Dell in the UK and Germany from £383 ex VAT, ex shipping / €449 ex VAT, ex shipping.

Mix Business with Pleasure

In addition to the QWERTY keypad, the new Venue Pro comes with a sharp, bright and responsive 4.1-inch AMOLED touch display featuring rugged Gorilla Glass® for exceptional durability. Windows Phone 7 Live Tiles keep priorities in focus, and the Venue Pro's simple interface delivers easy access to a full range of applications including Bing for search, Xbox LIVE for games, and Zune for music and video.

"No matter your requirements, the Dell Venue Pro with Windows Phone 7 brings a fresh approach of doing more with less," said Aongus Hegarty, Dell vice president for Consumer, Small and Medium Business in EMEA. "We're committed to creating smart, innovative mobile experiences to help people discover new ways to work, enjoy the web, connect with friends, and navigate their lives. The Venue Pro truly mixes business with pleasure and is the perfect phone for those who appreciate the work/life balance."

Elegantly designed, the Venue Pro's elliptical, slender form factor makes it easy to carry. A 5-megapixel camera, high-speed wireless, and cloud-based services make it simple to keep in touch, share experiences and enjoy music, movies and more.

Availability

The Dell Venue Pro is available starting March 1 direct from Dell for £383 excluding VAT and shipping by visiting www.Dell.co.uk/VenuePro.

Specifications:

• Portrait slider with QWERTY keypad

• 4.1" WVGA AMOLED multi-touch display

• Windows Phone 7 operating system

• 1GB Flash ROM storage, 512MB DDR SDRAM

• 16GB MicroSD card pre-installed (non-removable)

• Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon solution with integrated 1GHz processor

• 3G + Wi-Fi + Bluetooth

• Bands/Mode: UMTS 900/1700/2100/AWS, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900; HSDPA 7.2Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps

• 5MP auto-focus camera

Deutsche Telekom revenue up 0.4 per cent in 2010

Revenue up slightly but German operator says it could have been more if not been for government taxes, the economic crisis and depreciation

Deutsche Telekom posted an increase in net revenue of €62.4 billion – a year-on-year rise of 0.4 percent and an adjusted net profit of of €3.4 billion – a sum that is on par with 2009.

However profits could have been larger were it not for a €582 million loss in Q4 which was blamed on depreciation costs and a new special tax on mobile operators in Hungary.

Adjusted core earnings also declined by 6 per cent to €19.5 billion but the company said this was expected due to the fact T-Mobile UK figures are no longer calculated into results.

Deutsche Telekom said economic conditions were still making trading difficult in Greece and Romania but said other countries such as Poland and the Netherlands had developed “very positively”.

Strong growth trends continued in the US, where T-Mobile USA average data revenues per user climbed 25.5 per cent over the year due in part to the number of smartphones in use on its network rising by 1 million to finish at 8.2 million.

T-Mobile USA recorded total revenue of $21.3 billion in 2010 – on par with 2009 results.

Deutsche Telekom chief executive Rene Obermann (pictured) said: “We delivered solid figures in 2010. We have battled through the headwind caused by the economic environment, special taxes in several countries, and stiff competition.

“I am particularly pleased about the slight increase in revenue.=

At the same time, we have started to implement our new strategy and invested in the future. You have to sow before you can reap.”

Deutsche Telekom said it expects earnings to remain “almost” stable in the 2011 financial year.

Telefonica posts 30.8 per cent rise in profit for 2010

Operator says strong growth from UK contributed to profits, but a weak performance in Spain and Ireland saw a drop in Q4 revenues

Telefonica has announced a 30.8 per cent rise in net profit for the year ending December 2010 to €10.2 billion following strong performances in the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic and Latin America.

Consolidated revenues reached €60 billion in 2010 – an increase of 7.1 per cent year-on-year , while operating income rose 21 per cent to €16.5 billion for the period.

Telefonica said its global customer base reached 56.3 million at the end of 2010 – 14.3 per cent higher than in 2009 after it added 7.1 million customers throughout the year.

However strength in the company’s home market of Spain was worrying – revenues there fell 5 per cent to €18.7 billion.

Telefonica blamed the dip on the economic crisis as well as a 20 percent unemployment rate in the country, government austerity measures which have affected consumer spending and strong price competition.

There was also a weak performance from O2 Ireland where year- on- year revenues slipped by 6.3 per cent to €848 million.

The performances in both these markets contributed to Telefonica posting a 45 per cent drop in Q4 profits to €1.3 billion, down from €2.4 billion for the same period in 2009.

In the UK revenue growth accelerated in Q4 to total €7.2 billion at the years end with revenues from mobile services topping €6.5 billion – an increase of 5.6 per cent on the previous year.

The continued growth of non P2P- SMS data revenues were highlighted by Telefonica, it said its UK business saw a growth in this market of 31.7 per cent year-on-year.

This meant total data revenues as a proportion of mobile service revenues stood at 40 per cent in 2010.

Telefonica Europe chairman and chief executive Matthew Key (pictured) said: “Strong results in a highly competitive environment fro Telefonica O2 UK were underpinned by the growth of mobile broadband and customers upgrading to smartphones, which now account for 70 per cent of new contracts .”

Telefonica said it predicted overall revenue growth would increase by 2 per cent in 2011.

Vodafone break-in shuts down signal

Break- in at technical centre causes signal drop, but operator maintains customer privacy not compromised

Vodafone customers are experiencing a loss of network signal following a break- in at one of the operator’s technical facilities last night.

The company issued a brief statement confirming the incident and to say voice, text and internet services were down in some parts of the UK.

It also maintained customers private information was safe and had not been compromised.

A Vodafone spokesperson said: “We had a break- in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment.

This means that some customers may be experiencing temporary loss of voice, SMS and internet services.

“We are working quickly to restore these and will be back to normal as soon as we can. There has been no impact on the privacy of customers’ data.”

Vodafone said it would issue an update on the situation later in the day.

More to follow.

Nokia E5 Price Drops: Nokia Online, Play & Expansys

The Nokia E5 has been on the market for a while now and it was going to happen soon enough with massive price drops, today we will let you know about these amazing prices via Nokia Online, Play.com and Expansys.

We would call this news because many of our readers love to know about price cuts, as we know many new mobile phones are being released quite often and some customers hold out for a long period of time for a certain make and model unless a bargain comes their way that is hard to resist.

Thanks to NokNok they report that Nokia Online has cut the price down on the Nokia E5 and that is when we decided to find other online stores to see if they have a good price tag as well, and here is what we found.

Nokia Online is offering the Nokia E5 (Originally 209) SIM Free for only 189, that’s 20 off the previous price, next up we visited Play.com offering the Nokia E5 Sim Free Unlocked (Carbon Black) for only 179.99 with free delivery. Then the cheapest of all three is Expansys who has the Nokia E5 on sale for only 177.99.

Who would you buy from? Do you know anywhere online that is cheaper? If you can find anywhere that is selling the Nokia E5 cheaper than the above stores please do let us know in the comments area below.

Nokia E5 Main Features: 5-megapixel camera, Video capture, Full QWERTY Keyboard, microSD slot up to 32GB, 3.5mm audio jack, Symbian OS v9.3, WLAN enabled, ARM 11 600 MHz processor, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, Stereo FM radio with RDS, GPS with A-GPS support, Ovi Maps and so much more.

More Android to Bring by Samsung Galaxy Ace and Mini En Route for O2 UK

Well quiet stunning to know that Samsung Galaxy Ace and Mini will bring more Android to O2 UK.

According to the reports Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570, will be available via carrier starting next month.

As its name suggests, the Galaxy Mini is a quiet small handset which features a 600MHz processor, 3.14-inch QVGA display, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3.2 MP camera, and a 3G. Also next month is when O2 will start selling the Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 (already available at Three UK).

Unlike the Galaxy Mini, the Galaxy Ace has an HVGA touchscreen display, 5MP camera, and an 800MHz processor. Find out more here at O2.O2 says about both new Samsung smartphones that they’re coming “with something special.” We have no clue what that might mean, but it sounds promising.

Source: Unwiredview

Apple adds pattern locking to an iPhone app that you can't have?

The nine-dot pattern lock option is one of those uniquely Android things -- it's been there ever since the G1, and even if you don't personally use it, odds are good that you recognize it. So when we see it on an iPhone -- apparently on an app used by Apple internally -- you can appreciate why we're going to do a double take. What you're looking at here is one of several screens obtained by 9 to 5 Mac, allegedly showing a version of Apple's employee-only AppleConnect app with support for pattern locking to keep prying eyes out. It seems that the app enforces some minimum gesture length to constitute a secure lock -- and considering some of the forensic science going on there, we bet it's gotta be pretty long. Of course, none of these means we'll see the feature show up in an actual iOS build, but the site says that the company's testing the mechanism in other internal tools... and if nothing else, Apple seems to be acknowledging that lock patterns aren't a terrible idea.

[Thanks, Jacob]

Sunday, February 27, 2011

HTC Incredible S, Desire HD, Desire Z and original Desire will all be eating Gingerbread by the end of June

When it launched the Incredible S at MWC a couple of weeks ago, HTC promised the new 4-inch device would be quick to get a Gingerbread update and now it's giving us a definitive schedule for it by saying that Android 2.3 will be distributed to its new flagship phone by the end of Q2 2011. We're not sure four months of sitting by the window waiting for the OTA update to float in necessarily matches up to our definition of "quick," but there are much better news for owners of HTC's older devices. The Desire HD and Desire Z -- both released in September 2010 -- will also be leaping away from Froyo and up to Gingerbread and will be joined by the original Desire, which was announced way back at last year's MWC. That handset was essentially HTC's own-brand Nexus One, so we already knew it was capable of running Gingerbread, but it's still rare to see a device go through two significant Android updates (the Desire began life with Android 2.1). All these old Desires are placed on the same update schedule as the Incredible S, whereas the newly announced Desire S and Wildfire S will ship with Gingerbread preloaded.

[Thanks, Johannes]

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Visual VoiceMail pulled from Android Market, Google accused of 'pulling an Apple'

Visual VoiceMail from Android Market for possible payment violations, Google accused of 'pulling an Apple'

Looks like Apple isn't the only one wanting to make sure that app payments are being run through appropriate channels. The Visual VoiceMail app, which has been downloaded about a million times (literally), has just been pulled from the Android Market. When developers at PhoneFusion asked the reasonable question, "why," they were simply directed to section 3.3 of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement:

If you want to collect fees after the free trial expires, you must collect all fees for the full version of the Product through the Payment Processor on the Market... All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the Market must be processed by the Market's Payment Processor.

The service allows users to purchase premium features through the company's website, something that many other apps do and that is certainly not new to Visual VoiceMail. What's next remains to be seen, but sadly Google is saying PhoneFusion must re-submit the app with a new name -- losing all the positive reviews it's racked up. Hardly an ideal solution.

Weekend Giveaway: Rebtel Wants You To Have A Motorola Atrix

Rebtel is offering us one hot little Motorola Atrix to give away this weekend to one lucky reader. How do you win? Well first you have to be very very nice to animals and the environment and then you need to click through to comment.

Rebtel, FYI, offers cheap VoIP calling on Android, iOS, and Blackberry devices and they want you to try the service on a brand new Motorola Atrix. To enter, comment below about how you rebelled today and we’ll pick one winner on Monday at noon Eastern.

To be clear, this is an AT&T Atrix without service so if you want to use it here or overseas, you’re going to have to find your own SIM card. Otherwise, comment away.

FrameGrabber For Android Lets You Capture Stills From Videos Right On Your Phone

If you frequently use you Android smartphone for shooting videos, you will occasionally want to grab stills from it for whatever purpose. While you can probably do that after transferring the clip to a PC, there's now an app you can use to cut still frames right from your handset: Framegrabber.

The process is simple. You launch the app and load a video from the SD card, which it will break up frame by frame in a circular 3D-style arrangement. From there, you can simply scroll through the frames, pick a still you like and save it as an image. You can then send that still as an email attachment or upload it to a social network.

Framegrabber's UI is quite attractive, with very intuitive navigation and straightforward operation. The split-screen design (with the scrolling frames at the bottom and the current frame at the top) very helpful, saving me from having to tap on a frame to see it in detail. There isn't much in the way of settings, though, beyond picking how videos will be indexed (either by frame or by time) and a couple other superficial items.

Do I love Framegrabber's function? Definitely. I'd probably love it more if I was really big into shooting videos on my phone and grabbing stills from it to send out to friends, though -- something I don't think I really have a need for. As it is, the $4.27 price sounds a bit too steep for something I'll probably use very sparingly. Your own needs may vary, though, so it could well be worth the price for you.

[FrameGrabber]

Visualized: the HTC keyboard slider family

Clockwise from the top left, that's the the Sprint Arrive, the likely-for-Verizon Merge, the Sprint Evo Shift 4G, and the T-Mobile G2. If we had to rate them, we'd say the Arrive has the best key feel, followed by the Merge, the Evo Shift, and finally the cramped G2 -- although the super cheap-feeling hinge on the Evo Shift knocks off several points. We'd also say the physical keys on the G2 feel better than the mushy keys on the Merge, but the G2's cramped layout doesn't do it any favors. In any event, picking one of these is a pretty great problem to have, don't you think?

Sprint HTC Arrive with Windows Phone 7 copy and paste first hands-on!

HTC also brought along a Sprint-branded Arrive to our San Francisco reader meetup, and while we're already familiar with this Windows Phone 7 slider from our time with the HTC 7 Pro it's still nice to see a CDMA WP7 device in the flesh. Oh, and the keyboard is pretty fantastic -- not only does it feel great, but the dedicated number row alone is reason for keyboard fans to give this thing a look. The best part? The demo unit was loaded up with the Windows Phone 7 copy and paste update, which is the first time we've seen it in the wild. The system worked well, but we noticed that you once you paste out of the clipboard your text is gone, so you can't multiple paste. It's a little odd -- we'll have a video up shortly.

HTC Arrive hands-on!

Official Android 2.3.3 updates for Nexus One and Nexus S unearthed, available to the impatient

Waiting sucks, doesn't it? Yes, yes it does -- which is why we're delighted to see that direct links to the official, final updates to Android 2.3.3 for the Nexus One and Nexus S have both been turned loose. This is especially exciting news for Nexus One owners who've stayed on the straight and narrow and haven't moved to a cooked Gingerbread ROM already, since they're still on Froyo -- but it's also good news for developers working on NFC apps with the Nexus S and Android's freshly-baked NFC API, since it means they'll have real-world devices to start playing with. So go on, get to it -- we know you're not going to wait for the over-the-air notification anyway.

[Thanks, Will]

Engadget's next reader meetup is tomorrow, February 25th in San Francisco!

That's right human beings -- it's happening again! The Engadget crew is getting together their best party outfits and shipping out west for another installment of our fabulous reader meetups. Our last event in NYC drew loads of people and was an all around blast, and the San Francisco installment is sure to be just as explosive (or maybe more? c'mon... show us what you've got). This time around we're partnering with Sprint, as well as Sony PlayStation, Motorola, HP, Roku, Samsung, VUDU, RIM, Sling, Sonos, HTC, Corning, Sphero, OnLive, Plantronics, Snapstick, and more to bring you a night of gadget geeking, giveaways, delicious foodstuffs, and some awesome music (provided by none other than our podcast producer, Trent Wolbe). Also, a whole mess of the Engadget editors will be on hand to entertain and inform, so if you have any pressing questions -- jot them down!

The all ages shindig will take place tomorrow, February 25 at City View at The Metreon, which is located conveniently in downtown SF. If you're a nerd in the city, you most likely already know what we're talking about. The doors will open at 6:30PM, and capacity is limited to 1200 people -- so if you want to get inside, get there early!

Microsoft details Windows Phone 7 update problem, 'small number' of Samsungs affected

Redmond is opening up and offering a few facts, stats, and tips around its first update to Windows Phone 7 -- an update that didn't go smoothly for everyone -- and it sounds like there are at least three distinct failure modes, two of which are pretty simple to fix. The company figures that somewhere around 10 percent of users attempting the upgrade encountered a problem, but of those, "nearly half" failed because they lacked a proper internet connection or enough disk space (turns out the update process takes a backup of the phone's contents just in case something goes horribly awry). Most of the remainder may have been swept up in the issue affecting "a small number" of Samsung devices, an issue that the company says it's working to fix as quickly as possible -- and in the meantime, they've turned the update off for those models.

Put simply, when you get prompted to install the update, Microsoft simply recommends that you've got plenty of hard drive space on your PC (you can't do this one over the air) and a solid connection to the interwebs; some 90 percent succeeded in installing the new code, which isn't too shabby considering this is the very first update to the platform they've attempted so far. Let's just hope that brick rate is down to zero by the time the good stuff comes, right?

Latest Sprint teaser tweet all but confirms February 24th announcement is for Windows Phone 7

How many mobile platforms can you think of that integrate "with your home game console, like Xbox?" Unless we're completely spacing something out, the answer is one: Windows Phone 7. We'd already figured the Thursday announcement that Sprint has been teasing this week on Twitter -- and that little Arrive leak all but confirmed it anyhow -- but if you needed any more evidence that the phone formerly known as the HTC 7 Pro would be formally announced in CDMA guise this week, here you have it. We'll know more tomorrow, hopefully.

Verizon Drops Thousands of Emergency Calls, FCC to Investigate

Apparently Verizon has had some problem when handling emergency calls, as the word is during a storm late January the Big Red actually managed to drop thousands of emergency 911 calls, something the Federal Communications Commissions isn’t too happy about.

According to an article over on the Boy Genius Report, and by way of Wireless Week, roughly ten thousand 911 calls were placed on the Big Red network in Maryland during a major snowstorm on January 26th and were dropped.

James Arden Barnett, FCC public safety and security chief wrote a letter to the US carrier saying… “The large number of missed 9-1-1 calls on January 26 is truly alarming. I therefore request that Verizon provide an explanation of the causes of this and similar failures, provide Verizon’s assessment of the possibility of occurrence in other locations and describe what actions Verizon is taking to prevent recurrence of these problems.”

Apparently the Federal Communications Commission has requested a written reply from Verizon over their inquiry and also to attend a meeting with them within 2 weeks so that a resolution of the issue can be discussed.

The director of public relations for Verizon Communications, Harry Mitchell, said in a statement… “Our objective is to provide the best service to our customers, and we will continue to work with 911 centers and others to ensure that callers receive the level of service they deserve and expect when they call 911.”

If you wish, you can check out the full FCC letter sent to Verizon on the 17th of Feb by hitting up here, (PDF)

Time to slap the Big Red on the wrist and make sure they sort out their problems so this never happens again, especially when it comes to emergency calls don’t you agree?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile released, available on Android, N900, your computer

Tired of using the default browser on your smart phone to browse Engadget? Got a thing for Firefox? Great, 'cause Mozilla just pushed out the fifth beta of Firefox 4 for mobile. You might be familiar with the on-the-go version of Mozilla's creation, but if not, here's your chance to grab the latest (and probably) the most stable build to date. In addition to the Android and Maemo version, the company has released a Fennec build for use on Windows, OS X and Linux.

We tinkered with the OS X build of the browser on our Macbook Pro and although pages appear to render quickly, we can't quite figure out how to navigate backwards. You can pinch-to-zoom with the trackpad and scroll with the d-pad, but once you've loaded a page, it seems you need to be on a mobile device do any further navigation. Of course, as you'll see in the gallery below, the beta comes packed with the usual -- preferences, downloads, add-ons, bookmarks and Firefox Sync. If you want to give the software a whirl, hit the source link to grab the build of your choice.

Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile hands-on

Sprint Windows Phone 7 HTC Arrive Release Date and Price

So Sprint has been teasing about a new smartphone coming to play nice on their network recently and it just so happens that the device turns out to be a Windows Phone 7 smartphone called the HTC Arrive and is the first CDMA WP7 device for Sprint.

According to an article over on Engadget, the QWERTY packing HTC Arrive Windows Phone 7 device will be available from Sprint as of the 20th of next month and will command a price tag of 200 bucks after a 100 buck mail in rebate and based on a 2-year term.

Spec wise according to Phone Arena the HTC Arrive packs a 3.6 inch capacitive touch screen, side-slide full QWERTY keyboard, Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and 720p video, music player, built-in Facebook, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and 16GB internal storage.

According to the guys over at Engadget, Sprint is saying that the HTC Arrive will come out to play including Microsoft’s copy and paste update.

Apparently potential customers can get their pre-order in for the device right now at any Sprint store with the purchase of a 50 buck Sprint gift card.

Anyone hoping to snap up the HTC Arrive as of the 20th of March on the Sprint network if so feel free to let us know by posting to our comments area below.

Android Activations Visualised on Video

It’s not very often you get to really see just how well a mobile platform is growing in the mobile space, it’s usually done by charts and graphs followed by the usual rants and arguments that its wrong, so it would make a refreshing change to see what the growth of Android looks like.

So that’s what we have for your viewing pleasure below, video footage giving a visual representation of global Android activations from October 08 through to January 2011, and comes our way courtesy of Engadget and by way of Android Central and the Android Developers YouTube Page.

The almost three and a half minute video footage offers a visual insight into the expansion of the Android platform from the release of the first Android smartphone, and apparently shows spikes when devices such as the Motorola Droid was released in the US.

For those who doubt the rise of Android this is a visual reminder that the operating system is getting bigger, now all we could do with is one for iOS so we could make a comparison.

Anyway, head on down, mash that play button, and checkout the global rise of Android…enjoy

NEC Medias: Docomo To Offer The World’s Thinnest Smartphone In 3 Weeks

On Monday, we’ve just shown you some leaked pictures, but we can now confirm the “world’s thinnest smartphone”, NEC Casio Mobile’s MEDIAS N-04C, is real. And provider NTT Docomo, Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, doesn’t want to lose time in bringing it to market: it will hit stores over here as early as March 15.

As reported, the Medias measures just 7.7mm, which makes it the slimmest 3G smartphone out there (the Galaxy S II is 8.49mm thick).

At 105g, it’s pretty light, too (the iPhone 4 weighs 137g), especially when you consider what the device packs:

4-inch LCD touchscreen with 480 x 854 resolution

Gorilla Glass

Android 2.2 (2.3 update in summer this year)

5.1MP CMOS camera

i-mode compatibilty

1Seg digital TV tuner

e-wallet function

3G/GSM roaming

microSDHC card slot

GPS

Bluetooth Version 2.1+ EDR

Wi-Fi

HSUPA

infrared communication

Docomo plans to offer the Media in black and white. No word yet from NEC Casio Mobile if this beauty will be available outside Japan, too, at some point.

FCC Approves Huawei U8500 with T-Mobile 3G Support

The FCC has approved a variant of the Huawei U8500 Android smartphone with T-Mobile 3G support, suggesting a release on the carrier at some point in the future. The U8500 features Bluetooth, quadband GSM/EDGE and the 1700MHz band for 3G support. Other details confirmed by the manual and FCC images include a camera of unknown resolution, 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB port. Further specs include Android 2.2 and a microSD card slot, as well as GPS, Wi-Fi, and FM radios. Neither T-Mobile nor Huawei have confirmed the smartphone at this time.

HTC Incredible S shipping this week in UK, will come with Froyo to start

Though it'd originally been pegged for the second quarter, it seems HTC's bumping that up a smidge with the launch of its new flagship -- the Incredible S -- in the UK this week. Pre-orders are going on as we speak with shipments promised for tomorrow, but there's a catch: rather than shipping with Gingerbread, the phones will come with Froyo to start with an upgrade to Gingerbread promised for the near future. Buyers, we've got a little homework for you: if you're feeling adventurous and in a warranty-voiding mood, try to figure out what's going on with those auto-rotating capacitive buttons, alright?

Nokia sneaks a look at new Symbian UI during China event

Perched behind Nokia's head of smart devices, Jo Harlow, at a recent event in China is what appears to be a new home screen on an N8, yet more evidence -- hot on the heels of the company's MWC event -- that Espoo still has plenty of love in the wings for its dead-platform-walking. Notably, it appears they're looking at migrating key information to the top of the screen to create a dedicated status bar, which would presumably stay visible as you navigate from screen to screen -- akin to most other platforms on the market -- accompanied by a string of soft button icons at the bottom. Interestingly, the UI in some respects mirrors what we saw on the leaked shots of the apparently killed N9 -- small black status bar and icons along the bottom -- which would seem to tell us one of two things: either the N9 was a Symbian device all along, or the company had planned on standardizing UI elements between its future Symbian and MeeGo roadmaps. Either way, this looks like a nice improvement... and in all likelihood, a far cry from what we'll see when these guys start busting out Windows Phone 7 devices.

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone & iPad updated with video-out support

If you have an iPod, iPhone or iPad with the SlingPlayer Mobile app, you now have a Slingbox to go since the app was just updated with support for video out over component cables in high quality mode. Version 2.1 also includes a few unspecified bugfixes, but we're figuring the opportunity to watch TV, on a TV in high bitrate streams is more than enough to get users mashing that update button and digging out their unused connectors.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Thursday, February 24, 2011

HTC Aria Update Rolling Out Friday

AT&T HTC Aria Following up, AT&T has confirmed on its Facebook page that the Android Froyo update for the HTC Aria that was first teased as coming “very soon” is in fact coming tomorrow on Friday. Like the Captivate Froyo update, the Aria update will add USB tethering, Flash 10.1, device policy management, new home screen and improved Exchange support as well as an updated version of HTC’s Sense user interface.

Angry Birds Coming To Windows Phone 7 On April 6th

If your Windows Phone 7 handset was one of the unfortunate few that got bricked by Microsoft’s little-update-that-couldn’t, you’re going to want to get that fixed quick. At the very latest, you’re going to want to have things all patched up by April 6th. Why? Because it’s Angry Birds Time!

Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka confirmed last week at Mobile World Congress that the Birds were comin’ to Windows Phone 7, but he couldn’t get too specific about the launch date. Microsoft went ahead and filled in the gaps, with this post on the Windows Team Blog promising that Angry Birds and 5 other big-name titles (Doodle Jump, Plants Vs Zombies, geoDefense, Sonic The Hedgehog Ep: 1, and Hydro Thunder Go) will be hitting on April 6th.

For those new to Angry Birds, just remember: Take a break every 15-30 minutes to stretch your legs, rehydrate, and rest your eyes. If you start to feel cold when you’re not playing Angry Birds, it’s important to get help.

Dell Streak Teams with Japan’s World Order for Promo Video

Well if you are going to promote a device in Japan why not do something out of the ordinary, which it appears is the move Dell has made with their Dell Streak device, by teaming up with Japan’s music and dance group World Order for some promotional footage.

The Dell Streak x World Order Streak man Project promo video comes our way courtesy of the guys over at Technobuffalo and by way of the Crnaviofficial YouTube page and last some two and a half minutes.

Have to say the video is kind of a weird way to promote a Android smartphone come tablet, but you have to give it to the World Order guys, their syncing is spot on, even though one falls over right at the end.

According to the TechnoBuffalo article, World Order ” has been a viral hit on YouTube thanks to their unique dancing style. For those unfamiliar with Japanese culture, the premise is that they are “salarymen”, or your average office workers, who are known to work crazy hours and then drink themselves into a stupor at night. This particular video showcases their unusual dancing skills while using the Streak for a variety of tasks.”

You just know you’ll be trying out that synced movement sooner or later even if you don’t pick up the Dell Streak…enjoy the video

Mobile Phone Recycling Site Offers Next Day Cash Payments

In today’s economic climate most are struggling to stay afloat and can always do with some extra cash in their pocket, and if you own an old mobile phone then why not turn it into a money maker ather than have it sitting in some drawer.

If you want to turn your old mobile phone into cash you can do so at Money4urmobile.com, who are now offering next day cash payments for your unwanted mobile phone, meaning you’ll no longer need to wait 4 or 5 days before you see the cash hit your bank account.

Apparently Money4urmobile doesn’t make reductions due to light wear and tear or cosmetic damage and uses a percentage grading system so customers can evaluate their device exactly and if a customer isn’t happy with the valuation their handset will be returned free.

Money4urmobile recycles numerous smartphones like BlackBerry, Samsung, iPhone, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and more, and for this month they are offering an extra bonus of a free 10 voucher for Wickedgadgets where customers can purchase phone accessories and phones at low prices.

Apple iPad, Motorola Xoom Tablet Battle Video

As the Apple iPad has been around for some time now, and just like most new smartphones get compared to the iPhone, new tablets are going to get compared to the Apple tablet, and as the Motorola Xoom is to see release soon the Xoom has now been compared to the Apple device on video.

Of course we have that tablet comparison battle video for your reader’s viewing pleasure below which comes our way courtesy of the guys over at Daily iPhone Blog and by way of Wirefly who did the deed and delivers this seven minutes comparison.

In the video the Android 3.0 Honeycomb Motorola Xoom gets compared side-by-side with Apple’s iOS tablet and goes through the motions of showing us the differences between the two devices and points out that the advantage the Motorola Xoom has over the Apple iPad is the Xoom can play nice on 4G and act as a WiFi hotspot.

Anyway for those that may be thinking of opting for the Motorola Xoom over the Apple iPad, or if you still quite haven’t made up your mind whether to go with an Android tablet or wait for the Apple iPad 2, head on down and check out this tablet comparison…enjoy.

Apple Store Down for New Mac Pro Not White iPhone

For those in the U.S and UK you may be aware the Apple Store is down and this is thanks to the new Mac Pro update and not a white iPhone, sorry had to get that in.

The new MacBook Pro 13-inch baby will feature on-board GPU built-in and the new Light Peak aka Thunderbolt port, apparently Apple may ask AMD to produce the graphics for the 15 and 17-inch models according to Thinq.

When you visit the Apple Store it says “We’ll be back soon, we are busy updating the store for you and will be back shortly”.

Personally we say Apple take as long as you like, in fact come back online when you have decided to release the iPad 2, iPhone 5, iPhone in white or even the iOS 4.3, have a holiday lap up the sun and enjoy.

Both UK and U.S Apple Stores are down and we would love for you to post your comments below, just for fun even though we know what is coming what would you like the store to have that is new?

Android Honeycomb Motorola Xoom Now Available from Verizon

For those who have been patiently waiting to snap up the first tablet device to run Google’s new Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, the Motorola Xoom, as of right now you can now purchase the device direct from Verizon.

According to an article over on Ubergizmo and by way of Droid-life, potential owners of the tablet can now either purchase the Motorola Xoom online to head on down to their local Verizon store.

Apparently the Droid-life guys managed to get a Motorola Xoom and are ” super impressed” with the device, saying Android 3.0 Honeycomb is a lot more polished than expected and the Motorola Xoom has a top notch build quality.

So the long wait is now finally over and Motorola Xoom wannabee owners can now hit their Verizon store and hand over the $599.99 price when signing on for a 2-year agreement, or walk out of the store without contract for $799.99.

So which of our reader’s will be snapping up the Motorola Xoom today, or are you going to wait a while and hope that after a couple of days/weeks/months someone will offer the Android tablet for less?

Today’s Mobile News in Brief (Feb 23, 2011)

As reported here on Cell Phones Etc. and across the Web, here’s your daily brief on what happened in the world of mobile phones this Wednesday, February 23rd 2011.

Microsoft temporarily disables Windows Phone 7 update for Samsung devices
Ironic is what it is. What was supposed to iron out the whole update processor for Windows Phone 7 handset turned out to be quite the oppose for a number of Samsung WP7 phones. As a result of this, Microsoft has decided to “temporarily” take down the said update until the the problem is properly resolved. No word how long it’ll take, but at least they’re on top of the issue already.
Winrumors

Samsung accounts for over “34% of all the Android powered smartphones in Canada”
Android is unquestionably today’s fastest growing mobile platform, and as far as Canada is concerned, IDC predicts that by 2012 Android will be the dominant mobile OS in the country. And of this figure, Samsung is turning out to be the biggest player in the local industry with 34% of Android phones in Canada coming from the Korean handset maker. This, no doubt, serves to reinforce Samsung’s leadership in the mobile phone industry in Canada.
Mobilesyrup

slingplayer iphone 4

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone & iPad updated with video out support
The good just got better. For users of the SlingPlayer iPhone app, you’ll be happy to know that your beloved movie streaming app just got updated, and now comes with video-out support. So essentially, you’ve now got a pocket-sized Slingbox at your disposal. Sounds like a good reason to finally invest in some component cables for your iPhone, don’t you think?
Engadget

Google begins pushing Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) to Nexus One, Nexus S
Finally, the wait is over. Google has announced they’ve begun rolling out the Gingerbread update for the Nexus One. This is an updated version of Gingerbread, Android 2.3.3 to be exact, and is also being sent out to Nexus S owners. They do advise, though, for everyone to “be patient” as it will take a “few weeks for the OTA to complete.”
BGR

Symbian UI refresh previewed on Nokia N8
Nokia SVP of smartphones Jo Harlow gave a preview of the new look of Symbiam, and I must say, it certainly looks all grown up now. They’re definitely moving in the right direction in the continued evolution of Symbian, but the more important question is, with their recent decision to partner with Microsoft in their future endeavors, isn’t this just an exercise in futility?
Slashgear

Huzzah! Android 2.2 Comes To AT&T Captivates Tomorrow

Excuses have been made, and delays explained away, but it seems that AT&T’s variant of the Galaxy S will be getting Froyo tomorrow. AT&T updated their Facebook page, saying that instructions will be posted tomorrow to Facebook. There are final builds floating around right now, but I think after waiting all these months, you poor guys can wait one more day.

[via TalkAndroid and Ubergizmo]

Sprint To Announce Their First Windows Phone 7 Device, The HTC 7 Pro, On 2/24?

With all this talk of copy-and-paste (or, more recently, talk of failed updates bricking handsets), it’s easy to forget about the other feature of Windows Phone 7′s first big update: CDMA support. In other words, it opens the door to Windows Phone 7-ville to Sprint and Verizon.

Based on a handful of tweets out of Sprint and the discovery of a page lingering around on Sprint’s own server, it looks like they’re planning to hop onboard right quick.

Back on Monday, Sprint teased an impending phone announcement coming up on February 24th, saying:

What do you think the next new Sprint phone will be? Find out Thursday! #comebackfeb24

Shortly thereafter, they followed up with:

If you could design a brand new phone, what would it have? Ours will have a hub for gaming, music, pictures and video. #comebackfeb24

Gaming, Music, Pictures, and Video “hubs”? Given that Windows Phone 7 is the only OS that uses the term “hubs”, that narrows it down a bit. Then:

Wouldn’t it be great to have your phone integrated with your home game console, like Xbox? #comebackfeb24″

Xbox integration? Yeah, it’s Windows Phone 7.

To bring everything together, Engadget found a tipster claiming that the 24th would bring a Windows Phone 7 device called the “HTC Arrive” — and sure enough, heading to sprint.com/arrive brings you to a page that’s obviously more than the standard 404-Page-Not-Found error. The same tipster claims that the mystery phone is none other than HTC’s absolutely gorgeous QWERTY-slidin’ HTC 7 Pro, though it’ll be known around these parts by the aforementioned “Arrive” name.

What do you think, Sprint fans Sprintsters Sprinters? Is the HTC 7 Pro/Arrive enough to pull you away from your Pre, or EVO 4G, or whatever else you may be carrying?

Facebook Contacts Removed from Nexus S in Google Fight

Tech toys and baby boys, it surprises me the lengths some of these people will go to just to prove a point, for example apparently the Google guys are in some conflict with Facebook over user contact data, and thus Google has thrown their toys out of the pram to get at Facebook over data portability.

According to an article over on Venture Beat, and by way of Tech Crunch, the latest update to the Android device the Google Nexus S removes the ability for owners to actually see their Facebbook contacts in the Android address book.

Apparently a Google spokesperson took time to remove the soother from their mouth to comment…” We believe it is very important that users are able to control their data. So in the over-the-air update for Nexus S, we have a small change to how Facebook contacts appear on the device. For Nexus S users who downloaded the Facebook app from Android Market, Facebook contacts will no longer appear to be integrated with the Android Contacts app. Since Facebook contacts cannot be exported from the device, the appearance of integration created a false sense of data portability.

Facebook contact data will continue to appear within the Facebook app. Like all developers on Android, Facebook is free to use the Android contacts API to truly integrate contacts on the device, which would allow users to have more control over their data. We are removing the special-case handling of Facebook contacts on Nexus S and future lead devices. We continue to believe that reciprocity (the expectation that if information can be imported into a service it should be able to be exported) is an important step toward creating a world of true data liberation — and encourage other websites and app developers to allow users to export their contacts as well.”

Apparently though Nexus S users will still be able to get to the info via the Facebook app but for now anyway Facebook contacts will not show up in the users lists. Currently the removal of Facebook contacts by Google is confined to the Nexus S, but just how far will this fight go?

Do you feel Google is being somewhat of a baby by removing Facebook contacts from the Nexus S, do you think Google will also do the same with other Android devices before this spat is settled?

Janet Jackson Lyrics Studio for iOS Devices

If you are a fan of Michael Jackson’s sister Janet and wish to learn the lyrics to Janet Jackson’s songs and own an iOS device you can do so with the help of the Janet Jackson Lyrics Studio app for iOS devices and enabling you to cut out the time spent searching the net for those lyrics.

The Janet Jackson Lyrics Studio app features videos and lyrics of Janet Jackson enabling the user to learn every word and features official authorised song lyrics along with corresponding video footage as and when it becomes available via YouTube.

Users of the Janet Jackson Lyrics Studio app can also add Janet Jackson songs to a favourites list, search songs by lyrics or name, share via email. SMS or Facebook, and publish status updates to Twitter and Facebook.

And just to add a little bit of extra interest we have a video of Janet Jackson in action for your viewing pleasure below, (but mainly because I like her) courtesy of YouTube user Janetjacksonfan4lyfe, so feel free to check it out.

The Janet Jackson Lyrics Studio app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple iPad can be downloaded to your chosen device at a cost of $0.99 from iTunes.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Facebook Contacts Removed from Nexus S in Google Fight

Do you feel Google is being somewhat of a baby by removing Facebook contacts from the Nexus S, do you think Google will also do the same with other Android devices before this spat is settled?

FrameGrabber For Android Lets You Capture Stills From Videos Right On Your Phone

[FrameGrabber]

Facebook Contacts Removed from Nexus S in Google Fight

Do you feel Google is being somewhat of a baby by removing Facebook contacts from the Nexus S, do you think Google will also do the same with other Android devices before this spat is settled?

Janet Jackson Lyrics Studio for iOS Devices

The Janet Jackson Lyrics Studio app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple iPad can be downloaded to your chosen device at a cost of $0.99 from iTunes.

Verizon Drops Thousands of Emergency Calls, FCC to Investigate

If you wish, you can check out the full FCC letter sent to Verizon on the 17th of Feb by hitting up here, (PDF)

Time to slap the Big Red on the wrist and make sure they sort out their problems so this never happens again, especially when it comes to emergency calls don’t you agree?

Motorola Xoom on Verizon Gets Priced

Over in the good ole US of A if you are anticipating picking up the Android 3.0 Honeycomb toting Motorola Xoom when the tablet hits the Verizon network tomorrow the 24th of Feb, you might like to know how many bucks you’ll need to shell out to grab the device.

Well according to an article over on ITProportal, the Motorola Xoom commands a price tag of some $600 when signing up for a 2-year agreement; however if you wish to forgo the 2-year term the price of the Motorola Xoom gets kicked considerably to $800.

Those wishing to take advantage of the Xoom’s capability of playing nice on 4G LTE once it becomes available in spring, you’ll be required to hand over 20 bucks a month for 1GB data once the firmware has been pushed to the tablet of course.

According to said article over here in the UK potential customers can already pre-order the Motorola Xoom from King of Gadgets, although the asking price is a whopping 699.99, which seems to me to be way over the top when compared with the Verizon price.

So are any of our readers going to be purchasing the Motorola Xoom as of tomorrow and if so where will you be getting the Android device from?

Inexpensive Samsung E2330 Slider Upcoming Shortly to Europe

Samsung has a new entry-level phone: the E2330, a 3G-less slider that should be unveiled in Europe soon.

Speckled at Samsung Germany’s and Samsung Romania’s websites, the E2330 features a Music Player, a 2-inch TFT screen with 128 x 160 pixels, Facebook and Twitter integration, VGA photo camera, 3.5mm headset jack, and MicroSD card support (up to 8 GB).

This new device measures 99 x 47 x 14.9mm (when closed), weighs 88 grams, and comes with an 800 mAh battery. Though, price of the Samsung E2330 is not known at the moment, but it can only be a low one, probably around $100.

Source: Unwiredview

Nexus S and Nexus One get Android Gingerbread 2.3.3, which fixes random reboots and writes NFC

Your Nexus One is a second-class citizen no more: Today, Google's rolling out Android 2.3.3 to both its premier smartphones. The latest build, still referred to as Gingerbread, brings even more NFC goodies than fortold, as the Nexus S will soon be able to write (not just read) rewritable NFC tags as well as act as a glorified NFC tag itself. (You can see both possibilities in the three screenshots above.) What's more, Google tells us Android 2.3.3 will fix the random reboots that have plagued the Nexus S as of late, and offers other random bugfixes as well. You'll find the whole kit and kaboodle streaming to your phones over the air during the next few weeks to come.

Update: We're also hearing that integrated Facebook contacts will be treated differently in Android 2.3.3 -- we've reached out to Google for more information.

Update 2: Here's the deal with regards to Facebook.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK now available to all, API level literally cranked to 11

You've heard that it was en route, and you've seen the preview. Now, it's time to enter the wild, wacky world of Android 3.0 for yourself. Honeycomb's SDK is now available for all developers to download, with the API's being deemed final and able to withstand new apps that will target the fresh platform. We'd bother spilling the beans on the added features, but we know you've already torn your left click button off in a frantic race to the source link. Simmer down, son -- the URL ain't going anywhere.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Engadget's next reader meetup is this Friday, February 25th in San Francisco!

The all ages shindig will take place at City View at The Metreon, which is located conveniently in downtown SF. If you're a nerd in the city, you most likely already know what we're talking about. The doors will open at 6:30PM, and capacity is limited to 1200 people -- so if you want to get inside, get there early!

Update: Whoops! Looks like the previously mentioned sweepstakes have ended (a trip for two to the event). Congrats to the winners! Don't stress though, there should be plenty of room for everyone (provided it's no more than 1200 humans).

Motorola Atrix root found to be signed, hacking might not be so easy

Motorola Atrix root found to be signed, hacking might not be so easy That the Atrix got itself rooted before it was even available made us wonder just how... receptive it would be to the caresses of the hacker community at large. Sadly we're finding it's perhaps a bit more frigid than its friendly demeanor might have lead us to believe. User adlx.xda over at the xda-developers forums has found that the phone's system files are not encrypted, but they are signed. This will make the process of replacing them and loading custom builds and the like rather more complicated -- but surely not impossible.

[Thanks, chaoslimits]

The winners of the 2010 Engadget Awards -- Readers' Choice

The results are in, and well over 100,000 of you voted in the 2010 Engadget Awards. We'll have our own Editors' picks later this week, but for now, head on after the break to see who won our Readers' Choice awards. You can check out the voting results right here.