There we have it, folks. The Engadgeters…Engies…Engadgineers… dudes over at Engadget just finagled a handful of spy shots of the handset-formerly-known-as-the-Nexus-Two, the Nexus S. So far, early suspicions seem correct: outside of the fact that this is running pure Android rather than Samsung’s customized variant, this thing is about as Galaxy-S-tastic as they come.. which really isn’t a bad thing. Pop over to Engadget for the full gallery.
If you’re due for a new contract with AT&T and don’t want an iPhone, I’d say Amazon has got a deal for you. They’re selling all their AT&T phones for a penny, including those brand new Windows Phone 7 Phone Series Mobile Phone handsets that everybody… well, some people are buying. The selection isn’t the greatest I’ve ever seen — the Surround and Quantum were my least-favored of the WP7 launch handsets — but the price is right. A Blackberry Curve 8900 probably isn’t much of an investment for a two-year stretch, but it is a good phone. You could get one of the really weird Motorola ones. No? Well I can’t help you then. You’ll have to decide for yourself. Head over to Amazon to check out the deals, which go until Monday the 15th.
Either one of the Best Buy Mobile graphic designers is gettin’ creative with his photoshops, or Best Buy just leaked a shot of an unannounced Android handset. If you’ll look closely at that itty bitty little shot over yonder, you’ll note that it’s a very Galaxy-S-Esque handset running what appears to be good ol’ pure Android… in other words, it’s exactly what the Nexus 2 (or, as it might now be known by, the “Nexus S”) is rumored to be. Whoopsie. [Via Engadget]
Still rockin’ the original Droid? Sick and tired of Android 2.2 (which, by the way, most Android handsets still don’t have)? I know, I know — all the cool kids (read: Nexus One owners) are on Android 2.2.1. Don’t sweat it, Droid owners — you can get all up in that marginally improved goodness. It just requires a bit of hacking.
The gents over at MyDroidWorld have gotten their self-proclaimed “grubby little hands” on a build of Android 2.2.1 built for the original Droid, and have opted to share it with all. The nice folks that they are, they went ahead and rooted it for you right off the bat. Find the download right over here. So what’s new? Erm, good question. Bug fixes? Probably. Speed improvements? Perhaps. An additional number at the end of the version number, thereby making your handset inherently cooler than everyone else’s? Absolutely!
So, you’re reading that headline, thinking, “But Greg! Microsoft said Windows Phone 7 won’t support tethering at launch!” You’re right, they did. And it doesn’t. At least, most Windows Phone 7 handsets don’t. Mysteriously, Samsung’s do — they just tried to hide it.
Italian gadget blog HDBlog.it spotted the option lingering deep within Windows Phone 7′s debug menu. The catch? It only seems to work with Samsung’s WP7 handsets. Got an Omnia 7 or Focus? Here’s how to access it:
Go to the phone dialer
Punch in ##634#, hit dial. This opens Diagnosis mode.
Punch in *#7284#, hit dial. This opens the tethering configuration window.
Select “Modem, tethered call”. Follow the prompts, and then the phone will restart.
Tada! Tetherable phone. Plug it in via USB, and your computer should see it is a modem/data device.
So, you’re reading that headline, thinking, “But Greg! Microsoft said Windows Phone 7 won’t support USB tethering at launch!” You’re right, they did. And it doesn’t. At least, most Windows Phone 7 handsets don’t. Mysteriously, Samsung’s do — they just tried to hide it.
Italian gadget blog HDBlog.it spotted the option lingering deep within Windows Phone 7′s debug menu. The catch? It only seems to work with Samsung’s WP7 handsets. Got an Omnia 7 or Focus? Here’s how to access it:
Go to the phone dialer
Punch in ##634#, hit dial. This opens Diagnosis mode.
Punch in *#7284#, hit dial. This opens the tethering configuration window.
Select “Modem, tethered call”. Follow the prompts, and then the phone will restart.
Tada! Tetherable phone. Plug it in via USB, and your computer should see it is a modem/data device.
Android enthusiast p3world has posted some images from an upcoming software update for the Motorola Droid 2 over at the My Droid World forums that show off profiles, USB tethering, and an updated home screen. Profiles — similar to HTC’s “Scenes”, or any profile feature in any phone from the last 15 years — allow you to select certain wallpapers, widgets etc that are appropriate to your current situation. For example, select a quiet ringtone, minimalist background, and work-email widgets for your “Work” profile, and an Opeth ringtone, bikini background, and Mikandi (NSFW) on your desktop for your “Home” profile (you dirty dawg, you). In addition to this feature, p3world also has screenshots of the USB tethering feature that the update will bring (p3world also notes that wireless tethering still works), as well as the tweaked home screen. The “Profile” feature will also appear on the upcoming Droid Pro, and I’ve embedded a video of it in action, below. You will note that the video makes no mention of the profiles being able to control ringtones/volume (also like HTC’s “Scenes”), making the feature significantly less useful than the profiles seen on your old featurephone from 1999. I guess we won’t know for sure until we see the feature in action, but don’t hold out hope.
If you pre-ordered a Droid 2 Global, last week, then you may want to check your tracking status, as some lucky customers are receiving their phones as I write this. In fact, why don’t you go check your doorstep now. It’s ok, I’ll wait. Not there? I’m sorry to hear that… in the absence of a real phone, you can always head on over to Droid Life for a quick gander at an unboxing sent in by a lucky owner. The owner also mentioned that the keyboard is flatter and “clickier” than the one found on the (non-Global) Droid 2. Also, you may be happy to hear that the box includes an international charger (and the required adapters — thus the “Global” moniker, I suppose), an 8GB MicroSD card, and the SIM card pre-installed, for your convenience. There is also a VPN app and SIM Manager pre-installed. If you didn’t pre-order it, you can either wait until Nov 29th when it appears in-store or else just order it and get it before then through the wonders of “direct fulfillment”.
If you’re unlucky enough to own a Motorola Backflip, and have been joenesing for that all-too-late update to Android 2.1 (as a HTC Hero user, I feel your pain), then today will be a day to remember: Motorola have now released the Éclair upgrade out to the masses. If you’re keen to get your upgrade on (and you should be, given the features that it brings), follow your nose to either Moto’s website, or AT&T’s, where you will find full instructions, and the knowledge that you are living on the dull edge of deprecation. [via Talk Android]
The QWERTY packin’ HTC Merge (previously known as the HTC Lexicon, pictured above) was previously rumoured to launch on November 11, but — according to Twitter user and Verizon Engineer, V3rdict — has been delayed due Verizon’s last-minute decision to equip it with an LTE radio, which will make it their first “4G” device. He does later say that he may be wrong on the delay, though, but that LTE is a go. But V3rdict didn’t stop there, also claiming that the Incredible HD (an EVO 4G-like spec refresh of the Droid Incredible) will be the second LTE device from Verizon, launching in early 2011. Still not enough for ya? Well, he also claims that there will be a new Android device released each month of Q1 2011 (for a total of 4 new phones). All up, a juicy leak from a Verizon employee. For the full(ish) skinny, you can peek the original tweets in the gallery below.
At last! Worms is finally on the iPad in a form we can be proud of. The previous version of Worms on iOS was obviously hastily put together, with poorly resized graphic elements, interface problems, and ridiculous 3D backgrounds that served no purpose and likely drained your battery. To say nothing of the lack of features and modes! I was thoroughly disappointed. But Worms 2 Armageddon fixes nearly every problem, and if you’re a Worms fan, it’s definitely worth your $5. Pros:
Full selection of weapons from Worms games
Customizable game types, worm health, hats, etc
Charming, polished artwork
Cons:
Levels seem slow to load
Computer players are either Terminators or Wall-E
No play-by-mail
If you’ve played the Worms series, you know what to expect. If not, you might be a little lost, but you must have seen the franchise around. You’ve got teams of worms, a huge variety of weapons to blow each other up with, and a randomly-generated 2D landscape on which to battle. It’s a great game to play with friends and kill a few minutes (or hours). But the last version on iPad was rife with problems, and didn’t let you do some of the things that made Worms what it is. No unlimited ninja ropes? No customizing worm health? The basic game was intact, but missing quite a bit. It wasn’t worth the money, straight up. Not the case with Armageddon. They’ve added a bunch of weapons we’re all familiar with (banana bomb, super sheep, concrete donkey) and the layout is better. There’s also now a campaign mode where you earn gold to unlock weapons, hats, and other stuff for use in customizing game modes and teams. I’m not going to lie. I knew I was giving this game a good review after the first few minutes. I haven’t finished the campaign mode, I haven’t bought every hat, and I haven’t tried all the modes, because I could tell within moments that this was a different beast from the half-baked version I’ve been playing on and off for a couple months. My main criticisms are relatively minor: the game moves slowly when you’re playing the computer and when generating terrain; the computer always lets his five-second timer tick down and often spends a little while thinking. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but over ten or twenty turns it starts to add up. And why do they even bother thinking when all they do is bulls-eye you every single time with a bazooka or grenade? These guys are murder. Except when they just fire their shotgun into a wall, think for five seconds, and then fire it into the wall again. Really, the computer seems to only have two modes: completely retarded or precision killing machine. Also, and this may strike some as an unfair hit, but there’s no play by mail. By that I mean like Words With Friends, where you take your turn and that information is sent to the other player, wherever they are, whenever they have the bandwidth to download it. I asked about it and a representative said that the turn information was too large, but I really don’t believe that — the generated map could be stored locally and the turn information is as simple as time-stamped command information. I can’t imagine a full 60-second turn of moving around could be more than a few hundred kilobytes. That would have made this game a must-buy not only for me, but for all my friends. Conclusion: Like Worms? Buy this. Never played Worms? This is a good a place as any to start. Get your feet wet in campaign, play dirty, and then get ready for a great time with your friends. I didn’t realize how much I missed this game until Armageddon hit the iPad. Note: I have not been able to test this on an iPhone or iPod touch, so I can’t guarantee it’s good on those. But it’s certainly better than its predecessor. iTunes Store: Worms 2 Armageddon ($4.99)
I’m going to keep this one brief, as these sorts of posts tend to turn into walls of text. No one likes walls of text. Remember that free Augmented Reality SDK from Qualcomm that we showed you back in July? It’d lower the bar for Augmented Reality stuff considerably, nixing the requirement for developers to reinvent the image-recognition-capable wheel. Well, consider the bar lowered even further. Today, Qualcomm has released that same Augmented Reality SDK as an extension to Unity 3, a cross-platform (and rather incredible) game engine/development environment. This comes one week before Qualcomm opens up their Augmented Reality developer challenge, wherein a few talented folks will walk away with anywhere from $25,000 to $125,000. Ready to throw down some semi-colons and make you some monies? You can nab the Unity extension right over here.
I’m going to keep this one brief, as these sorts of posts tend to turn into walls of text. No one likes walls of text. Remember that free Augmented Reality SDK from Qualcomm that we showed you back in July? It’d lower the bar for Augmented Reality stuff considerably, nixing the requirement for developers to reinvent the image-recognition-capable wheel. Well, consider the bar lowered even further. Today, Qualcomm has released that same Augmented Reality SDK as an extension to Unity 3, a cross-platform (and rather incredible) game engine/development environment.
This comes one week before Qualcomm opens up their Augmented Reality developer challenge, wherein a few talented folks will walk away with anywhere from $25,000 to $125,000. Ready to throw down some semi-colons and make you some monies? You can nab the Unity extension right over here.
Sony Ericsson really hasn’t done the best job with Android so far. The Xperia X10 took almost half a year to come to the US after hitting Europe, and promised software updates for their Android devices have been met with delay, after delay, after delay. As this latest leak (not to mention all that Playstation Phone stuff) shows, Sony Ericsson’s not done trying their hand at this whole Android thing just yet, though. See that guy up top? That’s purportedly the X12 (Codenamed “Anzu”), Sony Ericsson’s next addition to their Xperia line. Caught in the wild by The Unofficial Xperia X10 Blog, word is that it’s packing a big ol’ 4.3″ display and HDMI out into an ultra slim shell. How slim, you ask? Bam! That slim. Oh, and because nothing rounds off a good set of spy shots like some bonus rumors: according to the original source, Sony Ericsson is aiming to launch this thing with Android 2.3 (as opposed to 2.1, as pictured) sometime in the first quarter of next year. Given Sony Ericsson’s track record so far, though, we’ll, uh.. just have to wait and see about that.
Just about every time I write about SkyFire, the cross-platform (and generally free) smartphone browser capable of churning through most Flash videos, someone always says: “Great! But uh, how are they going to make money?” Well, looks like they’ve figured that out. In their first weekend on iOS — the first and only current platform on which SkyFire isn’t free — SkyFire managed to pull in right around $1 Million bucks in sales.
The company isn’t sharing exact numbers, but they did just tell me that their download numbers for their first weekend on the store were well over 300,000. At $2.99 a pop, that works out to one hell of a bounty. SkyFire isn’t walking away with that whole million, of course; Apple’s going to get their 30% cut, which brings SkyFire’s share down to somewhere between 600-700,000. This success comes regardless of their rather rocky start on the App Store. Just a few hours after SkyFire went live, it was gone; they weren’t quite as prepared for the initial onslaught of users as they thought, and given that their flagship feature, Flash playback, requires some beefy middle-man servers to transcode things into an iPhone-friendly format on the fly, they just couldn’t keep up. They pulled the app from the store temporarily, allowing users to download SkyFire “in batches” as they improved their backend. Did these troubles hurt them.. or did they help them? Were users spooked away by the technical difficulties, or did the simulated shortages play out in their favor by further increasing demand? I’d bet money on the latter. Check out our early hands-on of SkyFire here
We’ve already shown you some cool cell phones Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, plans to roll out in the next few months (see the list below for a recap). But there were quite a few more worth mentioning in the company’s new winter line-up (in English). Here are all of them (I left out simple updates, rebranded versions etc.). First, here’s a good summary of the most interesting ones on video (in English, provided by DigInfoNews in Tokyo):
Here are the other cell phones Docomo announced for the Japanese market: NEC N-01C (3.2-inch screen with 480×854 resolution, 8.1MP CMOS “Beauty Camera” that lets you highlight certain features of faces, Wi-Fi, 12.9mm thin body, targeted at women) Fujitsu F-02C (3.3-inch screen with 480×854 resolution, 0.8-inch OLED sub display, 12.2MP CMOS camera (Exmor for Mobile), waterproof IPX5/8, microSDHC slot) Sharp SH-02C (3.2-inch screen with 480×854 resolution, 1.4-inch OLED sub display, 9.6MP CCD AQUOS SHOT camera, waterproof IPX5/IPX7) Fujitsu F-05C (3.1-inch touchscreen with 480×854 resolution, special touch pen that you can use to “decorate” pictures, 5MP CMOS camera) Sharp SH-01C (3.4-inch screen with 480×854 resolution, 14.1MP CCD camera with full HD recording, HDMI port, DLNA support, Wi-Fi) Panasonic P-01C (3-inch screen with 240×427 resolution, 5MP CMOS camera, 10.4mm thin body)
The Droid X has been enjoying the US states for the last 5 months, and what an adventure it’s had: from talk of self-destruction mechanisms, to its first root, custom recoveries, and — finally — an update to Froyo, the Droid X is eager to take a new journey down south… to Mexico. Adopting the new name “Motoroi X” and being sold through Iusacell in this final quarter of 2010, the phone is the same Droid X that you’ve all come to know and love, with the additional bundling of a mobile WiFi hotspot app, as well as a slick new red background. There is no price just yet, but you can get all the other information you need from the press release below. [via Motorola]
If you’re due for a new contract with AT&T and don’t want an iPhone, I’d say Amazon has got a deal for you. They’re selling all their AT&T phones for a penny, including those brand new Windows Phone 7 Phone Series Mobile Phone handsets that everybody… well, some people are buying.
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