As promised , the Acer Iconia Tab A501 is hitting AT&T just before summer draws to an official close. The carrier just announced it’ll start selling the 16GB model next Sunday, September 18th for $480 — or $330 with a two-year contract. When we first heard about this way back in March, we knew it would be a “4G” device, and today AT&T clarified that this means HSPA+, not LTE, so sorry to burst anyone’s bubble. Even so, five months after the A500 went on sale it remains one of a select few slates with a full-sized USB port, so there’s that to consider if you’re still on the fence about getting a tablet. As planned, it’ll ship with Android 3.0, and an Acer rep confirms 3.1 is coming via an over-the-air update, though she couldn’t say when, exactly, that’ll happen. If you walk into an AT&T store and you can sign up for a monthly plan, if you so choose, though you can also pay as you go, with $15 getting you 250MB and $25 expanding your allowance to 2GB. Customers who commit to two-year agreements will have the same choices, to be honest, except they’ll also have to contend with overage fees — $10 per gigabyte or $15 per 250MB, depending on the plan. Gallery: Acer Iconia Tab A501 Acer Iconia Tab A501 with HSPA+ hits AT&T on Sept. 18 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On , a column about consumer technology. The first thing worth noting about Sifteo Cubes — which recently became available for pre-order at $149 for a starter pack of three that should start shipping this month — is that they are not geometrically true to their name. Their square surfaces sit atop depths that are less than half their side length, so even stacking two Cubes won’t produce three-dimensional symmetry. They are a little smaller than the game pieces from the much more limited and less expensive Scrabble Flash digital letter-arranging game that was a hit last holiday season. The pieces fit comfortably between two fingers for easy gripping, flipping and rearranging, which you’ll need to do a lot of in their various games. They are also a good size to substitute for many handheld playthings, reminding one of overstuffed Mahjongg tiles but also akin to shrunken toddlers’ alphabet blocks or playing cards. The sides and back are otherwise nondescript except for a set of contacts on their rear used for charging. Sifteo Cubes are charged via their tray, which showcases them through a translucent plastic top with room for three more Cubes at $45 each. Different games derive different levels of benefit from having more than three tiles, but most work fine with the starter set. Continue reading Switched On: A toy for the smartphone gaming generation Switched On: A toy for the smartphone gaming generation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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What can you get for $300 these days? A bunch of stuff, probably, including the latest soundbar from Yamaha . The YAS-101 Front Surround System offers up 7.1 sound, a built-on 60-watt subwoofer and support for Dolby Digital and DTS. The UniVolume feature, meanwhile, helps maintain a constant level through loud volume increases during commercials. IR codes can also be sent through the speaker bar, so you don’t have to worry about it blocking the set. Check out some press info after the break. Continue reading Yamaha YAS-101 walks into a soundbar, orders a stiff glass of 7.1 Yamaha YAS-101 walks into a soundbar, orders a stiff glass of 7.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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What can you get for $300 these days? A bunch of stuff, probably, including the latest soundbar from Yamaha . The YAS-101 Front Surround System offers up 7.1 sound, a built-on 60-watt subwoofer and support for Dolby Digital and DTS. The UniVolume feature, meanwhile, helps maintain a constant level through loud volume increases during commercials. IR codes can also be sent through the speaker bar, so you don’t have to worry about it blocking the set. Check out some press info after the break. Continue reading Yamaha YAS-101 walks into a soundbar, orders a stiff glass of 7.1 Yamaha YAS-101 walks into a soundbar, orders a stiff glass of 7.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Sure, you could pre-order your Tablet S direct from Sony and wait until the 16th for your slate, or you could skip over to your local Best Buy and play a round of early-release roulette. Our local shop, however, is telling us the tablet is available for “pre-order and display only,” so your mileage may vary. [Thanks @DaHarder] Sony Tablet S arrives at Best Buy, ready to be touched, pre-ordered originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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A funny thing just happened over at the Bluetooth SIG’s website: the group may have just outed Motorola’s first Facebook phone . As Unwired View rightfully points out, the EX225 is likely a feature phone that’s based on BREW , as Android’s navigation buttons are nowhere to be found. The handset ofers two variants, one that supports dual-SIMs and another that accommodates only one. Further, a nearly identical version, the EX226, is displayed in a separate listing that lacks the notorious “F” button. Both models share a common 2.4-inch TFT-LCD display, a 3 megapixel camera and five row QWERTY keyboard — along with a sizable protrusion at the bottom rear of the device. That’s all we have for the moment, but it seems that the Status shouldn’t be too concerned about this Moto. Is Motorola joining the Facebook phone bandwagon with its EX225? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If you need to channel your inner MacGyver, there’s a tool for that… predictably, it’s powered by your smartphone. By connecting an iPhone 4 to the Scout Observer’s Toolkit, it’s transformed into a spectrum analyzer , power meter, multimeter and Low Noise Block Downconverter (LNB). In English, that means the device lets you locate and verify satellite signals (including other mobile signals), measure their strength, and determine GPS location (amongst other things ). The six-pound device replaces the standard 160-pound SATCOM terminal, making it the perfect accessory for covert operations — if those are the kinds of romps you prefer on the weekend. The company is now accepting pre-orders for shipment sometime in Q4, and hopes to roll out versions for other phones in the near future. Scout Observer replaces military SATCOM, is powered by the iPhone 4 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …All Samsung Wave phones will get Bada 2.0, if they can handle the upgrade
September 11, 2011 No Comment
Bada 2.0 won’t just be riding the Wave 3, Wave M and Wave Y, but according to a tweet from Samsung, it’ll be available on all older Wave models as well. The company did warn that the OS could run “differently” between devices based on specifications like CPU and memory size, which may affect lower end models like the Wave 525 and Wave 533 . However, if you are the proud owner of any of the fancier Wave phones like the S8500 , expect the full OS makeover. The upgrade is due to splash across Europe some time in the fourth quarter, rolling out worldwide soon thereafter. All Samsung Wave phones will get Bada 2.0, if they can handle the upgrade originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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So a regional carrier from the home of Palin and moose meat beat ‘em to the punch, but AT&T’s at least showing signs that it’s ready to get the Samsung Galaxy S II train rolling. While it still looks like Sprint will be the first of the Big Four to bring its variant of the Android phone to the US, AT&T’s page for the handset is now live and sporting a nice big “Coming Soon!” That’s all she wrote for now, but if you’re dying to find out when Ma Bell will bring this Galaxy to you, hit the source link and sign up to get your email updates on. Samsung Galaxy S II ‘coming soon’ to AT&T, sign up page goes live originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Official Android updates Verizon was spitting out new refreshes left and right this week, as we saw Gingerbread begin to roll out as OTA downloads on the Motorola Droid 3 , HTC Droid Incredible , and — get this — even the Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 edition . [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Interestingly enough, Android 2.3 for the Droid 2 Global was already getting pushed out, but was pulled just a couple days later after a Microsoft Exchange encryption issue was discovered. We’ve been told the updates will resume “soon.” [via Droid-Life ] Finally, Verizon also pushed out one other software upgrade — this time on its 4510L LTE MiFi . (Thanks, Matt) HTC continues to expand its bootloader unlock tool to more phones, region by region. This week the company enabled support for the EVO 3D in Canada and Europe. [via Phandroid ] Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc hackery The Motorola Droid 3 and Droid X both now have access to an SBF — System Boot File — to act as a safeguard for anyone who manages to brick their phones. [via Droid-Life (1) and (2) ] Recently we heard about the Honeycomb ROM for the HTC Flyer getting leaked by MoDaCo , but no screenshots were available at the time. This week, however, someone successfully grabbed a few images to share with the world (shown in the above image). The ROM appears to run on Android 3.2 with HTC Sense 1.1 for tablets as the featured UI. [via AndroidBugle -- thanks, Dennis] Let’s talk a little more about leaked Sense ROMs. We’ve already seen Sense 3.5 working on the Desire HD , and now we have another device to add to the list: the EVO 4G . [via XDA ] The first kernel for unlocked bootloaders on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is now waiting for your download, so head over to the link for instructions. [via XDA ] If you’ve been waiting and hoping for CyanogenMod 7 on your HTC Sensation or EVO 3D so you can shed the Sense UI, that time may be very close at hand. According to a member of the CyanogenMod team , an early alpha build for both devices may be available by the end of this weekend, so keep an eye out. [via Phandroid ] Other platforms Two new unofficial ROMs — one for Windows Phone Mango and another for NoDo –are now available for the Samsung Omnia 7 . The Mango ROM improves the device’s radio, camera drivers and motion sensors, in addition to a few other enhancements. [via WPCentral ] Refreshes already covered this week Vizio rolls out Tablet software update, promises performance boosts aplenty Refresh Roundup: week of September 5, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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