Mobile, Internet, etc

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, T-Mobile, Android

Well well, what’s this? Seems a certain Uncle Sam’s been poking around the lab with the Android-powered Motorola Morrison, and published his findings to the “World Wide Web.” And hey — are those T-Mobile 3G bands with UMA support we see in these action-packed RF reports? Why yes, they are — too bad Sam didn’t see fit to include any actual pictures of his new toy. Still, we’ve got a feeling this is one unreleased Motorola we’ll be getting our hands on real soon.

[Via CellPhoneSignal; thanks William]

Motorola Morrisson with T-Mobile 3G and UMA hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

You know the saying “where there’s an XX20 series BlackBerry, there’s an XX30 series BlackBerry”? Of course you don’t, because we just made it up right this instant. But you know the saying now, and you should commit it to memory, because it’s generally true. To that end, it makes sense that 8520 that’s about to launch on T-Mobile and Vodafone would have a corporate cousin in the 8530, which — you guessed it — is basically destined to become RIM’s new low-end CDMA QWERTY offering. Boy Genius Report has it pegged for a QVGA display, EV-DO, BlackBerry OS 5.0, and a 2 megapixel camera; coming hot off the Tour we can’t say we’re that excited, but we’re sure it’ll find a home in plenty of briefcases, especially considering that it’ll apparently have the WiFi — which, if true, means Verizon’s making good on its promise.

[Image via CrackBerry]

BlackBerry 8530 naturally coming to Verizon originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Palm

Google Voice might have just been unceremoniously thrown out of the iPhone App Store, but that doesn’t mean development isn’t racing forward on other platforms — say hello to dkGoogleVoice, an unofficial client for the Palm Pre. Yeah, it’s buggy and has a bare-bones feature set, but hey — it exists, and it’s only going to get better. Can’t say that about your little phone, can you Steve?

[Via PreCentral]

Unofficial Google Voice client for Palm Pre makes the scene originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, T-Mobile, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, Android

If you’ve preordered one o’ them fancy new myTouch 3Gs, check your mailbox, front porch, back door, administrative assistant, or dirty, thieving neighbor — because it might be there. T-Mobile said that preorders would be shipping at the tail end of July, and sure enough, some folks are starting to get lucky; plebes without preorders will still need to wait until August 5, though, so, you know, either sit there and drool or shout nasty remarks about how you’d rather have a Hero in the meanwhile.

[Thanks, sun]

T-Mobile myTouch 3G preorders now shipping, arriving, being touched originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia

We’ve already heard talk of a Nokia N97 Mini (or Mini N97, if you will) from folks who should know what the situation is, and it looks like things have now gotten more interesting still, with some seemingly legitimate pictures of the rumored device finding their way to us that show it out and about with its bigger brother. As you can see above and in another pic after the break, the device is slightly smaller and slightly slimmer than the regular N97, and it’s also received a few subtle design changes, particularly on the back, where the camera has lost its sliding cover. Could it be real? Almost certainly — either that, or it’s a tremendously talented KIRF — though we’re not sure we understand the business justification for a new version of the N97 that isn’t small enough (or different enough, for that matter) to hold its own spot in the lineup. Not much more to go on than that, unfortunately, but you can pretty safely move this one up a notch on the ol’ Rumor-o-Meter.

Continue reading Nokia N97 ‘Mini’ gets pictured in the wild?

Nokia N97 ‘Mini’ gets pictured in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Virgin Mobile, CDMA

Here we were, just minding our own business and thinking that the Samsung Link was going to be christened by Bell, then bam — out of nowhere, Virgin goes and steals some thunder. If you’re looking for EV-DO, go ahead and keep right on lookin’ because you’re not going to find it here — but otherwise, the Link offers portrait QWERTY on the cheap alongside a 1.3 megapixel cam, microSD slot, and stereo Bluetooth. If you like what you see, you can go ahead and grab it now for CAD $99.99 (about $92) on prepaid or CAD $29.99 (about $28) on a three-year deal. Sorry, Bell guys — it’s coming soon. We think.

[Thanks, Daniel]

Update: As commenter live_strong points out, Bell’s bought out the remainder of Virgin Mobile Canada that it didn’t already own — so this is all making a whole lot of sense, though as far as we can tell, customers who are on the Bell branded service still won’t be able to get in on the Link just yet.

Samsung Link launches on Virgin Mobile Canada originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, ATT, Apple, iPhone OS

If trashing your push messaging wasn’t enough to steer you clear of using your iPhone in unauthorized ways, this next bit of news might have you back on the straight and narrow. According to Wired, Apple’s latest salvo in the fight over jailbreaking is a claim that pernicious, iPhone wielding techno-hackers at home or abroad could modify the baseband and use it to attack cellphone towers, “rendering the tower entirely inoperable to process calls or transmit data.” Of course, the idea that this would become more likely if the legal status of jailbreaking changes is totally absurd, but why let that stand in the way of a legal argument?

In a related note, one of our editors (whose jailbroken iPhone shall remain nameless) got a strange baseband pop-up error this morning — the very same morning that AT&T is suffering a “massive connectivity outage” throughout the northeast and midwest. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

Read - iPhone Jailbreaking Could Crash Cellphone Towers, Apple Claims
Read - Anyone Experience the AT&T Outage?

Apple: Jailbreaking encourages cell tower terrorism, “catastrophic results” originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Culture, Handsets, Messaging, Studies, Misc

It’s already been banned by a number of states and the District of Columbia, but a group of Democratic senators led by New York’s Charles Schumer are now set to introduce legislation that would ban texting while driving throughout the United States. That, as you may be aware if you’ve been watching the news this past week, follows a study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which found that truck drivers that texted while driving were 23 times more likely to get into an accident than non-texters — to say nothing of several calls for a ban from major safety groups over the years. While complete details on the proposed bill are still a bit light, it would apparently withhold 25% of the annual federal highway funding from states that did not comply with the ban, and would reportedly be modeled on the way the national drunken driving ban was introduced.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Senators to introduce legislation banning texting while driving originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sprint

The Pre might have slowed the drain at Sprint but it hasn’t managed to turn things around completely — America’s number three carrier posted a second-quarter loss of $384m as it lost another 257,000 subscribers. That just continues Sprint’s trend of bleeding customers to the competition, and we doubt this balance sheet will turn around anytime soon — not only will next quarter reflect the $483m purchase of Virgin Mobile USA, it’s pretty clear that Verizon will get the Pre and AT&T will carry another webOS handset, leaving Mr. Hesse and crew without their shiny halo device to lure new subs to the fold. We’ll see what Sprint does to turn this all around — did someone say they need a Hero?

Sprint loses $384m, 257k subscribers in first quarter of Pre availability originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Remember that midrange full-touch Samsung Infinity that was rumored for AT&T a while back? It looks like the stars are aligning for a model called the Solstice to be launching on the carrier in the next few days — and it looks (and sounds) suspiciously like what we’d all expected out of the Infinity. Basically, this looks to be Sammy’s mainstream touch offering for AT&T, with a relatively meager 2 megapixel cam, QVGA display, dual-band 3G, and not a whole heck of a lot else. The good news is that you should be getting a good deal in exchange for the light spec sheet — Boy Genius Report has the Solstice launching this coming Sunday, August 2 for $99.99 on contract. Coincidentally, Samsung’s official product directory conspicuously shows a Solstice off in the distance of its page banner, so yeah, this thing is definitely happening one way or another — only question is whether we’ve got the specs, pricing, and launch date all nailed.

[Thanks, Joey]

Read - Samsung AT&T phone directory
Read - Specs, pricing rumors

Samsung Solstice for AT&T spotted on official site, coming in at $99.99 next week? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Verizon Wireless

Verizon’s going full-force on its effort to roll out a be-all, end-all app store to its customers, starting with its Verizon Developer Community conference held in San Jose this week where devs schmoozed with carrier peeps, APIs were exchanged, and hands were shaken. Folks submitting apps will be looking at a 70 / 30 revenue split with freebies also allowed, but the real news might be the amount of firepower Verizon’s bringing to the table. The carrier used the conference to introduce the members of its Developer Advisory Board, including eleven firms ranging from Capcom and EA to Slacker to PacketVideo — heavy-hitters who probably know a thing or two about developing and distributing quality apps across multiple platforms. They’ve got the right idea there, but with platforms and carriers both desperately fighting for app attention right now, it still seems like there are going to be way too many cooks in the proverbial kitchen going into 2010.

Verizon Developer Advisory Board stocked to the rafters with heavyweights originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM, EDGE, China Mobile, Android

Well, at least some of the mystery is solved. If a machine translated source is to be believed — not to mention a healthy gathering of screengrabs — Philips’ elusive V808 smartphone will be a China Mobile exclusive. As with other Android-based phones on the operator, it’ll be the reworked OPhone OS handling the dirty work, which basically means a carrier-customized app market and a few other tweaks that seem to be frowned upon in the Chinese community. We’re also told that the phone will lack support for 3G, WiFi and multitouch, leaving us grieved, lugubrious and lachrymose. C’mon guys — why hamstring a good thing?

[Via Cloned In China]

Philips V808 smartphone to run Android-based OPhone OS on China Mobile originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Palm, Sprint, webOS

We’re doing our darnedest not to be recklessly optimistic here, but after weeks and weeks of nothing, a few new somethings have sauntered into Palm’s App Catalog. If you’ll recall, we actually heard earlier this month that said catalog was destined to get some serious additions in the near future, and we’re hoping that the surfacing of these two is a sign of things to come. Announced this morning over on Palm’s official blog, OpenTable and Fliq Bookmarks are now available to download on the Pre. The former allows hungry owners to secure themselves a spot at a nearby eatery, while the latter works with The Missing Sync for Palm Pre to transfer Safari bookmarks from your desktop (Mac for now, PC coming soon) to the Pre. Sure, it’s not like these two are the killer apps we’ve been longing for, but at this point, any progress is great progress.

Palm’s webOS gets a couple more apps — are the floodgates opening? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

Sure, the Touch Pro2 from HTC is available from a variety of carriers around the world at this point — but you won’t find many (read: none) that are offering it in the US right now, which makes T-Mobile’s launch especially notable. As expected, it’ll be hitting on August 12, bringing a 3.2 megapixel camera, AWS 3G, GPS, a glorious 3.6-inch WVGA display, WiFi, and that unique Straight Talk tech that should make the phone one of the best speakerphones you’ve ever used (frequent conference callers, take note). Pricing hasn’t been announced, but expect it in the lovely shade pictures above, which is being termed “mocha” (your choice of vocabulary may vary).

T-Mobile announces HTC Touch Pro2 for August 12 availability originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Apple, iPhone OS

So well-mannered, straight-laced iPhone users got a pretty big slap in the face yesterday by way of Apple’s (and AT&T’s, no doubt) total Google Voice rejection. Looks like jailbreakers are picking up the pieces, as GV Mobile developer Sean Kovacs — whose app was in the iTunes store for some time before being yanked yesterday — has ported the Voice client over to Cydia free of charge, although donations are gladly accepted. Even more interesting, but less concrete, Kovacs said he was already working on a web app version, possibly for submission to Palm’s app catalog. No word on the fate of GVdialer, an app that was also unceremoniously pulled, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it followed in similar footsteps.

Read - GV Mobile now on Cydia
Read - Sean Kovacs on Twitter

Google Voice app GV Mobile ported to jailbroken iPhones, web app version in the works originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Nokia, Symbian

Don’t get too excited — this isn’t bringing the 5530’s revamped home screen or anything awesome like that — but Nokia has now started releasing v30-level firmware updates for its various 5800 XpressMusic product codes around the world. Despite the seemingly significant boost in version number (the last big one to go around was v21), this appears to be mainly a maintenance release focused on bugs and such — the headlining feature so far seems to be the addition of email notifications on the home screen for Nokia Messaging, so yeah, don’t expect the world from this one.

[Via All About Symbian]

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic sees v30 firmware update originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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