Mobile, Internet, etc

Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Palm OS

With the economy in the tank (still) and the heat on, cost and profit margins are more important than ever to companies hoping to stave off the inevitable, apocalyptic doom of recession. Well, iSuppli’s released an estimated report of how much its costing Palm to cobble together the Pre — about $138, as it turns out. iSuppli has positively identified just two of the Pre’s suppliers thus far — that Texas Instruments OMAP chip, which runs Palm $11, and Qualcomm’s wireless chip — but they’ve formed a general picture of what’s under the hood for the estimate. That price is about 46 percent of the $300 iSuppli suggests Palm will be charging Sprint for the Pre (a number that’s completely unconfirmed at this point). To put it in perspective, the BlackBerry Storm costs about $203 to make and was sold for $199 initially, the G1 clocked in at $144, while the iPhone 3G costs Apple an estimated $174.33. Of course, we have no way of assessing the accuracy of the estimate yet, but if it’s in the neighborhood of correct, Palm’s profit margin should be pretty healthy.

Palm Pre: $138 to build according to iSuppli originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Palm OS

With the economy in the tank (still) and the heat on, cost and profit margins are more important than ever to companies hoping to stave off the inevitable, apocalyptic doom of recession. Well, iSuppli’s released an estimated report of how much its costing Palm to cobble together the Pre — about $138, as it turns out. iSuppli has positively identified just two of the Pre’s suppliers thus far — that Texas Instruments OMAP chip, which runs Palm $11, and Qualcomm’s wireless chip — but they’ve formed a general picture of what’s under the hood for the estimate. That price is about 46 percent of the $300 iSuppli suggests Palm will be charging Sprint for the Pre (a number that’s completely unconfirmed at this point). To put it in perspective, the BlackBerry Storm costs about $203 to make and was sold for $199 initially, the G1 clocked in at $144, while the iPhone 3G costs Apple an estimated $174.33. Of course, we have no way of assessing the accuracy of the estimate yet, but if it’s in the neighborhood of correct, Palm’s profit margin should be pretty healthy.

Palm Pre: $138 to build according to iSuppli originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, O2, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, Android

We don’t know everywhere that the i7500’s going to land yet — the presence of AWS 3G is still giving us loads of hope that it’ll come to T-Mobile USA eventually — but one place we’re quite sure of is Germany, where O2’s local outpost has now said that it’ll launch in “the next couple of months.” That lines up nicely with what we’d been expecting prior to the phone’s announcement — so now we just need, oh, say, about 20 more announcements around the world and we’ll be good to go. Any time now, Sammy.

Samsung’s Android-equipped i7500 confirmed for O2 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, O2, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, Android

We don’t know everywhere that the i7500’s going to land yet — the presence of AWS 3G is still giving us loads of hope that it’ll come to T-Mobile USA eventually — but one place we’re quite sure of is Germany, where O2’s local outpost has now said that it’ll launch in “the next couple of months.” That lines up nicely with what we’d been expecting prior to the phone’s announcement — so now we just need, oh, say, about 20 more announcements around the world and we’ll be good to go. Any time now, Sammy.

Samsung’s Android-equipped i7500 confirmed for O2 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone

We knew that endless product tie-ins would come along with the new Star Trek film, so this isn’t too big of a surprise (though it is rather a welcome one). A new Star Trek special edition of the 5800 has been announced to coincide with the release of the new J.J. Abrams epic, and while it doesn’t appear to be an official Nokia release, it does appear to be pretty rad. The handset is going to boast four animated screensavers, three wallpapers, and eight exclusive ringtones, including ones named “Phazer Shot,” “Red Alert” and “Kelvin Communicator.” We’ve also heard tell of a special “Phazer application,” and though we don’t yet know what that entails, we have really high hopes. The stellar 5800 will be available starting May 1st exclusively at Phones 4 U in the UK in blue, red, and black/silver on Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2. Make it so.

Star Trek edition Nokia 5800 announced: officially awesome originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone

We knew that endless product tie-ins would come along with the new Star Trek film, so this isn’t too big of a surprise (though it is rather a welcome one). A new Star Trek special edition of the 5800 has been announced to coincide with the release of the new J.J. Abrams epic, and while it doesn’t appear to be an official Nokia release, it does appear to be pretty rad. The handset is going to boast four animated screensavers, three wallpapers, and eight exclusive ringtones, including ones named “Phazer Shot,” “Red Alert” and “Kelvin Communicator.” We’ve also heard tell of a special “Phazer application,” and though we don’t yet know what that entails, we have really high hopes. The stellar 5800 will be available starting May 1st exclusively at Phones 4 U in the UK in blue, red, and black/silver on Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2. Make it so.

Star Trek edition Nokia 5800 announced: officially awesome originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, webOS

Odds are you’re going to have the phone to your ear nine times out of ten when this screen’s showing, but it’s still somehow interesting — nay, mesmerizing — so we’re happy to see that a recent build of Palm’s webOS emulator for developers has a polished version of the call screen included. Other goodies in PreThinking’s new gallery include options for adding Google, Facebook, and Exchange calendars, the pop-up battery / WiFi / Bluetooth status display, Google Maps shots, and a bunch of miscellany that only true Pre aficionados could appreciate (you know who you are). Follow the break for another shot — and let’s hope the next time you’re cycling through screens, it’s on a Pre of your very own.

Continue reading New webOS screenshots pop courtesy of SDK’s emulator

New webOS screenshots pop courtesy of SDK’s emulator originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Multimedia, Windows Mobile

While avoiding the juicier questions surrounding the mystery of Project Pink and its potential ties to Verizon for maximizing Pink’s launch, a Microsoft spokesperson has issued new comments that reiterate the stance Redmond has held from time immemorial: there’s no Zunephone, and furthermore, there won’t be any Microsoft-branded phones.

Of course, the devil could lie in the precise wording, and the exact quote was as follows: “Microsoft is not going into the phone hardware business. Microsoft is not building a Zune-specific phone.” Just because there’s not a “Zune-specific phone” doesn’t mean you can’t steal some Zune tech for the phone business, and we have every reason to believe that Microsoft would want to be building Zune-esque features into Windows Mobile — you can start to see tiny slivers of that in 6.5 with the home screen design, for example — so we’re still pretty confident that Pink (or another project) will ultimately marry portions of the technology and branding. In other words: Zunephone, no; Zune on Windows Mobile, though? Yeah, sure, why not?

Microsoft reiterates what we knew: no first-party handset, no Zunephone originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Windows Mobile, GSM, EV-DO, CDMA

We don’t have a formal unveiling for Motorola’s Verizon-bound A4500 world phone just yet, but an operation manual and some snapshots of its dress rehearsal from the FCC should suffice in the interim. From what we glean, it supports CDMA for VZW’s network and quad-band GSM for SIM-packing Vodafone customers and other overseas roaming needs. No points for design originality (Q9, anyone?), but it does boast a wealth of good features including two megapixel camera, EV-DO, stereo Bluetooth, 2 megapixel camera, Windows Mobile (presumably 6.1), and a biometric fingerprint reader on the back of the phone. Not that we expected you to be eagerly anticipating this one, but we’d venture to say a cameo in the FCC means it’s on track for release some time in the near future.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Motorola’s A4500 world phone caught in the FCC covered in Verizon tattoos originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Sprint

Hard to believe, we know, but another seemingly real Pre in the wild finally has us thinking that this whole “webOS” business Palm keeps yammering about might be an actual product after all. Time will tell.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Caltrain sighting suggests Palm Pre may be real originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, ATT, Apple, iPhone OS

Just two weeks after the last revision went up, Apple’s released iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4 to the developer community alongside an iTunes 8.2 pre-release. No word yet on what has / hasn’t been updated, but we do know the new iTunes is required to activate beta 4. More information as we get it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Update: We’ve toyed with beta 4 for just a few quick moments now, and naturally, the first thing we had to check out was that previously-empty “Store” settings pane. It’s now populated, and it’s mega-boring; all it does is allow you to sign in and out of your iTunes account, and while signed in, there’s an Account Info button that lets you get booted out to an unstyled web page where you can view and edit your credit card information and the like. On the iTunes 8.2 side of things, we noticed that we were explicitly warned that the app would verify that our phone was activated for use with the beta firmware — we don’t remember seeing that before — and the Gracenote legal mumbo jumbo in the About window now specifically calls out both DVD and Blu-ray metadata, which we’re taking as a promising sign of playback support in the not-too-distant future. Thanks, David!

iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4, iTunes 8.2 pre-release now live originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Apple, iPhone OS

Vinyl has been on the verge of a big-time comeback for ages now (and for some of us, it never ceased to be the format of choice anyway), so we’re pretty happy to see that even the land of zany iPhone / iPod touch apps is no longer immune to its charms. The spinning vinyl app by Theodore Watson makes use of the iPod’s accelerometer to control the speed that the “record” is played at. The video (which is after the break) might make you a little sick when you watch it, but it sounds great. Analog rules, doesn’t it?

[Via Make]

Continue reading Vinyl record iPod touch app gives you the spins

Vinyl record iPod touch app gives you the spins originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, Vodafone, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, Android

Vodafone Germany and HTC have risen above some nasty legal spats to get the Android-powered Magic out of the door, following the path forged by the carrier’s Spanish cousin by a mere 24 hours. Depending on your plan, you can end up nabbing the thing for as little as a single, solitary euro — all it takes is a minimum of €44.95 (about $59) on the monthly bill to make it happen. Otherwise, you’re looking at paying €59.90 for the phone on a €24.95 plan, which still isn’t too shabby as far as we’re concerned. Care to get this show on the road, T-Mobile?

[Via portable-devices.net]

HTC Magic now available on Vodafone Germany, too originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, CDMA

If you’re looking for 3G, well, you can keep on looking, but the new Tint flip from Samsung has a few things going for it. MetroPCS’ latest AWS-enabled piece does GPS, support for the carrier’s ChatLINK “push-to-talk social networking tool,” voice recognition, and changeable faceplates — and what’s more, you’ve got both pink and grey included in the box. If neither of those colors suit your fancy, you’ve got more options available to you a la carte — and you can use the Tint’s Bluetooth support to make it happen, if you’re so inclined. We haven’t seen the Tint go live on MetroPCS’ site just yet, but it should be available now.

MetroPCS nabs the Samsung Tint originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Others

When the New York Times sent one of its ace reporters to Shenzhen to check out the KIRF scene, they came to a startling conclusion: these things are really quite popular. And why not? Your iPhone might be a terrific device, but is it really $400 better than the Hi-Phone, or the iorgane? Well, it’s probably $400 better than the iorgane — we’ll give you that one. The article sites a general lack of concern from the Chinese government, new technology such as Mediatek’s turnkey circuit board solution, and a significant drop in the price of parts as reasons that knock-off phones are so prominent in that part of the world. There is also a bit of cultural pride at work, too: purchasing “shanzhai” technology is sometimes seen as a way to thumb your nose at the big players in the industry and throw some work to your local bandit. That said, we do have to cry foul at the way the paper lumps our beloved Meizu M8 in with the usual assortment of knock-offs: the thing sports nary an Apple (or “organe”) on its handsome exterior. Check out the price breakdown on a typical $40 KIRF after the break.

[Thanks, Ben]

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIII: New York Times undercover edition

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIII: New York Times undercover edition originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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