Mobile, Internet, etc

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, NTT DoCoMo

It’s apparently not quite the same fire hazard that the truth in advertising standard-bearer Quickfire is, but NTT DoCoMo doesn’t seem to be taking any chances with its newly-launched BlackBerry Bold, with the Japanese carrier now suspending sales of the smartphone after some reports of it getting a bit too toasty for comfort. Apparently, some 30 users reported that the keyboard “heated up” while the phone was recharging, although it’s not clear if that’s due to the charger or the handset itself. For its part, RIM says that the issue “appears to be specifically limited to the BlackBerry Bold devices sold in Japan,” and that expects to be able to fix the problem and resume sales of the Bold “shortly.” In the meantime, stay frosty, Japan.

[Via Yahoo! News / AFP]

NTT DoCoMo halts BlackBerry Bold sales after reports of overheating originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

There was a bit of a false alarm at the flagship stores yesterday — Nokia’s New York and Chicago stores got inventory, but didn’t start selling the 5800 right away, causing much anguish in the hearts of American plectrum lovers and our very own Chris Ziegler. Well, all has been rectified, and now you can pick up Nokia’s touchscreen pioneer, the 5800 XpressMusic, for $399, unlocked and unsubsidized. If you aren’t so much into retail stores you can head to Nokia’s online store, though the phone is still inexplicably listed as “pre-order” there — we’re sure things will be rectified soon enough.

Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic finally up for grabs Stateside originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Features, LG, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

It takes a awful lot of ingenuity and creativity — and maybe just a touch of dumb luck — to come up with a unique, truly innovative phone form factor in the year 2009. Somehow, LG and Verizon have managed to hit that rare combo with the Versa, a full touchscreen bar that can be augmented with add-on modules for those times when function takes priority over form. Right now, the only module available is a full QWERTY keyboard — a good first choice, we’d say — and it’s included with the package. Cool concept, yeah, but is it usable? Read on.

Continue reading LG Versa hands-on

LG Versa hands-on originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Bell Mobility, Windows Mobile, EV-DO, CDMA

We’re still waiting on a solid bit of subsidized US availability on Sprint, but Canada’s got things all figured out — how typical. Palm’s Treo Pro is doing the EV-DO Rev. A thing on Bell Mobility up there, going for $99.95 on a three-year contract — 1 and 2-year contracts are $0 and off contract is only $49, so we’ll likely be updating when things settle down. That sounds like a silly amount of time to be tied to Windows Mobile 6.1, but we’re temporal pessimists like that. Bell Mobility customers can pick up the phone as of today.

Palm’s Treo Pro hits Bell Mobility in Canada originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, ATT, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

We’re not sold on that Propel Pro’s weird, gaudy, glossy / chromy, bezel-tastic looks, but that doesn’t mean it’s not coming to AT&T’s lineup whether we like it or not — and in order to get there, it’s got to make a quick pit stop by the FCC’s crib to pick up some certifications. Now, we can’t say for certain that we’re looking at the Propel Pro here; in fact, all we can make out from the documentation here is that it’s an 850 / 1900 3G device with Bluetooth and WiFi (which probably has additional GSM bands for world support that the FCC has no interest in testing), and we know from experience that an “i” in a Samsung model’s name means it’s a smartphone and the “7″ ending means it’s destined for AT&T. That said, if it ain’t the Propel Pro, we’re at a loss.

Some Samsung smartphone for AT&T hits the FCC — Propel Pro, perhaps? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, RIM, NTT DoCoMo, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

Here’s one that’s guaranteed to rub loyal T-Mobile subscribers the wrong way. Based on a specifications sheet on the Japanese BlackBerry site, the forthcoming Bold — which is destined for NTT DoCoMo — has a fourth 3G band in addition to the 850/1900/2100MHz bands found on the US model. The addition of 800MHz 3G covers the operator’s FOMA Plus Area network, which is used in less populated areas throughout Japan. Needless to say, T-Mob users are probably wondering why they can’t get a version with AWS 3G baked in, but we get the feeling they’ll be wondering for eons.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Specification sheet reveals quad-band 3G BlackBerry Bold for Japan originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Palm, webOS

We knew this day would come, and at last we’ve been faced with 56+ minutes of webOS-related video that we could barely keep our eyes open for. Palm Software CTO Mitch Allen did a rundown for an O’Reilly webcast detailing the structure and paradigms of webOS, and then went ahead and built a simple little app using TextMate and Safari. While we’re sure some JavaScript fanboys out there will have a field day with this, there weren’t too many juicy tidbits in there for us mere mortals. It did seem like Palm’s still working on the whole app DRM situation — exacerbated by the fact that webOS apps aren’t really executables — so it sounds like Google isn’t the only one. What is clear is that the barrier for entry to app development here is stunningly low, and we suppose we’ll all find out soon enough exactly what sort of awesomeness and terror that will mean for us end users. Video is after the break.

[Via Palm Pre en español]

Continue reading Palm finally manages to bore us to tears with webOS Mojo SDK tutorial

Palm finally manages to bore us to tears with webOS Mojo SDK tutorial originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Telstra, Misc

Great job, thief. Just days after Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo had his HTC handset stolen at Mobile World Congress, the guy has decided that enough is enough. All kidding aside, Sol Trujillo has indeed announced his intentions to vacate his seat and return home to the United States. During his four years as head honcho, the Australian operator has managed to do quite well for itself, and as they say, there’s no better time to leave than while on top. He has vowed to keep pressing on until June 30th, after which he’ll hop a (presumably first class) flight back to the US of A and watch Telstra attempt to fill his shoes — probably from a sweet shack in Key West, if we had to guess.

Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo leaving, heading back to America on June 30th originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, RIM, EV-DO, CDMA

In the unlikely event that you needed a few final shreds of evidence to be convinced that the CDMA version of the BlackBerry Pearl flip — the 8230 — is real, feast your eyes on this heavy reading. Just-approved FCC documents show a device outline that can only be described as that of a clamshell, and sure enough, the SAR report indicates CDMA and EV-DO on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, so yeah, if this isn’t the 8230, we can’t imagine what it’d be. The timing on this development really couldn’t be any better since we’re expecting it to hit both Verizon and Telus in the near term, so quick show of hands: who’s buying?

BlackBerry Pearl 8230 flips its way into the FCC’s heart originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Boost Mobile, Sprint, iDEN

[Via Unwired View]

QWERTY iDEN Motorola i465 official press shot leaked originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software

Fennec, as it has become so well known, is the codename for Mozilla’s attempt to bring Firefox to the mobile realm. As it closes in on a final release, everyone (and seriously, we mean everyone) is wondering what the darn piece of software will actually go by. WMExperts has learned that the browser will simply be titled Firefox — not Mobile Firefox, not Firefox for Mobiles, just Firefox. We needn’t tell you just how confusing this is going to get, but whatever, so long as this gets pushed out on the double, we’ll call it anything it wants.

[Via phoneArena]

Fennec to be known as Firefox… just Firefox originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, GSM

The Samsung GT-C5212 (sounds fast, doesn’t it?) seems to be the candybar twin to the Samsung B5702 we mentioned a little earlier in the month — but lacks the wowee factor those SIM indicator lights brought. Featuring dual-SIM slots — also apparently has a button to choose which to use for data, calling, and so on — a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 64MB of internal memory expandable to 8GB, and dual-band GSM. So, yeah, no awards for innovation here, but knowing Samsung, it’ll likely be a workhorse and at only $194 we suppose that’s a fair shake. The C5212 it expected to ship by the end of this month, though, pricing is listed in Rubles so we expect Russia may well be its only home.

[Via UnwiredView]

Samsung’s dual-SIM C5212: for when two numbers are important, style isn’t originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, RIM, BlackBerry OS

Storm firmwares have been leaking out of Waterloo at a positively breakneck pace for a couple months now — and naturally, new builds of the operating system are liable to bring along new functionality every once in a while. Here’s a particularly interesting one: it seems like RIM might have some sort of new clipboard action in store for an upcoming release, adding a visible box around text that you want to select — just drag the handles on each side to make your selection. Considering that fingers tend to be a little fatter than your average line of text, it seems like a solid plan, but so far, there’s no word on when we might see this in a leaked build — let alone a build officially released by a carrier.

[Via BlackBerryNews]

New copy / paste paradigm in the works for Storm? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, Rogers Wireless, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

So either Rogers’ UR magazine is writing the Sony Ericsson C905 up, or, the multi-megapixel monster is on its way to the shops. Of course, a leaked slide show from early December shows this set — and piles of other greatness — coming to Rogers this year, so I tend to agree with MobileSyrup that this one is legit. Pricing is rumored to be set at the $299 on a three-year deal and the release date is shakily pegged at Q2 2009. So hurry up already Rogers, we’ve seen it, the specs, taken pics, and now we’re only left with the owning part.

[Via MobileSyrup]

Rogers Wireless’ own UR magazine outs Sony Ericsson C905? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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