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Okay, so maybe Palm hit its head on the corner of a goalpost in a charity hockey tournament recently (stupid ego -- no helmet) and hasn't been the same since. Maybe they've lost their ever-loving minds, gone back to 2006, and resurrected the original Centro ID with a build of webOS so janky that it looks like a knockoff of webOS. We prefer a couple more reasonable theories: someone's hard at work on a webOS skin for Palm OS (bless their heart) or Palm had used a Centro for early mockups / prototyping on webOS and the shots of that effort are just now starting to leak out. Either way, dude pressing on the screen in the middle picture: nice stylus. Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds Don't worry, this isn't the Centro 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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While perusing the Samsung booth for something fresh and fun we happened upon this, the Samsung SCH-M830. The M830 is a WiBro (mobile WiMax) and HSPA set, WiFI, Bluetooth, 3 megapixel camera, a 3.3-inch LCD, memory expansion with microSD, and runs Windows Mobile 6.1. The interface and all the UI elements were in Korean (see that Anycall branding? That's the hint) so if there were any special goodies in there we definitely didn't catch them. Impressions? It felt great and was really solid, but as to performance we can't add much there -- though just that big display had us smiling. Lovely gallery and a quick video flip-through follow the break.
Continue reading Samsung SCH-M830 hands-on Filed under: Cellphones Samsung SCH-M830 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
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We've seen many wonderful, exciting things at Mobile World Congress this year. This isn't one of them. Chris: "Listen, you (expletive), I'm only two months behind on the Easy Bake." Darren: "Hawha? Iaowe u six five dolars? Huh? Moommiieeee!" Josh: "It will be a $35 charge to reinstate service, and no, you can't have a cookie." Richard: "How could I have sent that many SMS? I can't even read. Put your manager on." Joe: "Is this what they mean by 'the future underwriting the present?'" Jose: "Sshhhh! I'm talking to my marketing consultant - he loves the banner!" Paul: "Sure, the hold times suck, but at least they play tunes from The Wiggles in the background." Nilay: "I'm sorry, but they just haven't taught us the difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents in math class yet." Filed under: Cellphones Caption contest: the most depressing thing we've seen all day originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
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If you were thinking offline Gmail on your desktop was the greatest thing since sliced bread, prepare yourselves people. If an MWC keynote from Google's VP of engineering, Vic Gundotra, is any indication, the same functionality might be coming soon to an iPhone / Android phone near you. Amongst other things, the souped up web app boasts an overhauled interface, supports labels, and of course, offline access. Despite our own hunch that Google's just using black magic and voodoo to make this happen, Gundotra claims that it's all made possible through HTML5 standards -- AppCache being the biggie. This development certainly opens the doors to more offline-enabled web apps in the future -- Docs, anyone?. Of course, we know Apple has a thing about people messing with its own apps, so it's probably going to take some time / knee-breaking to get them to come around, but for some reason, we don't think it'll take as long with Android. There's a demo video available after the break, and please, try to contain yourselves. Continue reading Google demos offline Gmail for iPhone, Android at MWC Filed under: Cellphones Google demos offline Gmail for iPhone, Android at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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We had a brief peek at yest another pico projecting set at MWC, this time an NTT docomo Samsung affair without a name, price, or even a release date. Specs are as sketchy as these are usable in a brightly lit room, but the hopes are this device will be used for services like mobile TV, home theater (yeah, right), document editing, presentations, and video calling. We were enthused to see the mock ups (pictured above) of where the design of this device could go -- and we're hoping that by next year the bricks we've seen lately will be gone and sleek design will become the norm. We filmed a bit of it in action and honestly, we've seen TI's pico projector before and it doesn't seem to have changed significantly. Follow the link to see the media.
Continue reading NTT docomo and Sharp show projector phone at MWC Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Portable Video NTT docomo and Sharp show projector phone at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Well, it looks like RIM's top executives weren't about to get off the hook after just paying a little fine to the Ontario Securities Commision over that backdated stock options issue, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission is now getting on the act with some charges of its own. In a bit of a twist, however, the SEC has simultanesouly announced that it has already reached a settlement with the four top RIM executives in question (co-CEOs Balsillie and Lazaridis, plus Chief Operating Officer Dennis Kavelman and former vice president of finance Angelo Loberto), who have agreed to pay $1.4 million in fines and give back the more than $800,000 they made in profits. No more shakeups on the board, it seems, although there's only so many times you can step down from your position before you start to look silly. Filed under: Cellphones SEC charges, settles with RIM executives over backdating issue originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Never mind the Magic -- we've run across another Android device lurking in the midst at MWC, and if you squint, you might just see some HTC influence in this one, too. We'd heard General Mobile's dual-SIM DSTL1 would launch here, granted, but given its reasonably high-end look and the fact that we'd only seen renders ahead of the show, you have to appreciate our skepticism. Of course, we're delighted to be proven wrong in these sorts of situations, and we had a chance to play around with a DSTL1 today; WQVGA feels weak and there might be just a little too much Touch Diamond influence, but you have to respect the 5 megapixel AF cam, 4GB of internal storage plus microSD expansion, dual SIM slots, and on-board FM radio. Ultimately, the fact that this thing'll only be available in two tri-band EDGE flavors kills the dream, but goodness, these guys are getting close, aren't they? Follow the break for video!
Continue reading General Mobile's DSTL1 Android phone eyes-on Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds General Mobile's DSTL1 Android phone eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
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The Engadget Spanish team just got their hands on the Samsung Show (the European, i7410 model) projector phone that we first caught a sneak peek of a CES. The Show's projector is powered by Texas Instruments' DLP pico technology, and though the fact that it packs a projector does increase the bulkiness of the phone as far as looks are concerned, the phone is still rather small and light. The Show can project an image of anywhere from five to fifty inches, with a 480 x 320 resolution . It's got a 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen, the TouchWiz U
and also boasts a 5 megapixel camera. There are plans for this bad dude to hit Asia and Europe (but no word on if it'll ever make its way to North America), but we still haven't heard when, nor how much it'll cost when it arrives. Check the video after the break. [Via Engadget Spanish] Continue reading Samsung Show hands-on and video at MWC Filed under: Cellphones, Displays Samsung Show hands-on and video at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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 Verizon went a step beyond simply revealing its LTE infrastructure partners at MWC this week (they're Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson if you're curious), announcing that it'll actually have live networks in action by the end of the year. Two lucky to-be-named cities will be recipients of the 4G action -- which sounds suspiciously similar to Sprint and Clearwire's current WiMAX situation -- where the company will get a better sense of the data rates commercial users can expect. Speaking of commercial users, they'll be added into the mix come next year in 25 to 30 to markets. With a clear path for continued HSPA evolution up to double-digit Mbps under its belt, AT&T is pretending like it's not feeling the heat here -- but there've got to be a few beads of sweat forming on executive foreheads at this point. [Via Unwired View] Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless Verizon launching LTE trials this year, commercial network in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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The talk this week at Mobile World Congress has been largely positive about Microsoft's latest iteration of its smartphone UI, Windows Mobile 6.5. Still, some of us at Engadget (well, one of us, at least), feel like the folks in Redmond missed the mark by a longshot. Instead of demonstrating its technical prowess and vast resources, Microsoft limped out a half-hearted rehash of an OS we've seen all too much of, and managed to blind most onlookers with a storm of big time partnerships and bloated PR. While their major competitors (and even some allies) in the mobile space seem bent on changing ideas about how we interact with our portable devices, the company proved once again that it's content to rest on its laurels and learn little from its mistakes. To give you another side of the story -- a side which I think Microsoft has done an immaculate job of hiding this week -- here's ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 disappoints. Continue reading Editorial: Ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 misses the mark Filed under: Cellphones Editorial: Ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 misses the mark originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Word on the street has it that the Meizu's M8 -- that vaporous iPhone killer from the east -- is now officially on sale, as of February 18. For real. Wait, you ask -- wasn't it available last week sometime? Well, yes and no. Apparently, the unit we've seen making the rounds was a beta version -- if you slapped down your $440-ish dollars on that one, you got something with "a fair amount of problems to be ironed out," according to DAP Review. The site, whose Chinese-to-English translator is apparently functioning better than ours, goes on to point out that while the test units had WiFi enabled, the final production version does not. A strange decision, sure, but this is a tale fraught with strange decisions. And danger. And excitement and glamor. By the way -- we just hit up the official Meizu site, and the 16GB version of this device is "out of stock" -- probably due to the rapturous reception the unit's received all over the world. [Via DAP Review; Thanks, Michael] Continue reading Meizu M8 defies the odds and officially goes on sale - again Filed under: Cellphones Meizu M8 defies the odds and officially goes on sale - again originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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We were really impressed with Texas Instruments' OMAP 3-based mobile development platform when we saw it running Android earlier today, and the hardware seems to hold up well to all sorts of video-accelerated magic for a multitude of Linux-based interfaces. Not so much with Windows Mobile 6.5. Granted, this is a very early build of the OS according to Microsoft, and is lacking all sorts optimization mojo that will go into the final product due end-of-year-ish, but at the same time this is basically an interface skin to Windows Mobile 6 that Microsoft has had nearly a year to work on since 6.1, and it's not exaggerating to say that performance is a complete joke at the moment. TI's OMAP 3 was clearly struggling to handle basic scrolling of the home screen and app menu, though "smoothness" was slightly improved in scrolling through a gallery of photos. TI has been working with 6.5 for "a few months," and claims to have added optimizations to interface performance -- and interestingly is running this on a capacitive touchscreen device, something that isn't officially supported as far as we're aware. They're also saying that they plan on achieving full smoothness by the time this launches, but there's really a long way to go, and it's difficult to understand why this seems to be a last priority for Microsoft at the moment. On the other hand, TI is doing great things with its own 3D-accelerated interface, something which Windows Mobile 6.5 brings support for, so perhaps these will all one day (soon) meet in the middle and give us the sort of interface smoothness and usability we'd expect on a phone built a decade into this century. Check out the painful videos after the break. Continue reading TI's OMAP 3 hardware doesn't manage to do Windows Mobile 6.5 any favors Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds TI's OMAP 3 hardware doesn't manage to do Windows Mobile 6.5 any favors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
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