Cox ditches 3G network infrastructure, sticks with airwaves borrowed from Sprint
May 25, 2011 No Comment
Cox Communications had some grand designs on the cellular market, but they’re not panning out quite as the company planned — FierceWireless reports that though Cox already poured cash into rolling out 3G equipment, it’s going to scrap the whole thing, in favor of continuing to pay Sprint for borrowed airtime. Cellular service in the original three launch markets will reportedly continue, though a quick peek at Cox’s website shows the current phone selection is getting a bit stagnant. While we’ve yet to hear any particular reasons why Cox would want to stick it out as an MVNO, we imagine that mandatory roaming agreements make it a tad easier to offer those ” Unbelievably Fair ” contracts. There’s also the possibility that with all the 4G fervor, Cox has decided there’s no point in moving forward with CDMA equipment when LTE is ripe for the picking — and when Cox has $304 million worth of 700MHz spectrum waiting for such a network. Cox ditches 3G network infrastructure, sticks with airwaves borrowed from Sprint originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a ‘general-purpose’ machine
May 25, 2011 No Comment
Sure, IBM’s ten petaflop supercomputer may sound impressive, but Cray can do you five better — the outfit just announced the Cray XK6, an upgradable, hybrid supercomputing system capable of more than 50 petaflops of computational muscle. Powered by Cray’s Gemini interconnect, AMD Opteron 6200 processors, and NVIDIA Tesla 20-Series GPUs, the XK6 system blends x86 and GPU environments with the firm’s own flavor of Linux. The folks at Cray won’t resort to bragging, however — they’re humbly declaring the machine to be the first “general-purpose supercomputer based on GPU technology,” and not, as they put it, a stunt to place high on any Top 500 lists. Suggestive, aren’t they? Check out the unassuming press release after the break. Continue reading Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a ‘general-purpose’ machine Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a ‘general-purpose’ machine originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 06:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Nokia Oro is covered with 18ct gold on the outside, tinged with Symbian regret inside
May 25, 2011 No Comment
Nokia has just unveiled a strange new beast of a smartphone. Internally, it’s your good old C7 — 3.5-inch AMOLED screen, 720p video recording, 8 megapixel camera, a pentaband radio, and Symbian as your zombie OS — but externally it’s taken on a lick of gold paint and a rear cover made of real leather. The price for a phone built quite so luxuriously is said to be upwards of €800 ($1,126) before taxes and subsidies and launch is expected in Q3 in select countries across Europe and Asia. Russia in particular is called out as a successful market for such “premium” phones, with Nokia’s Gabriel Speratti, General Manager for its operations in the country, explaining that: “We have a large number of users who are looking for products with a build quality and superior materials that attest to their success and social standing. In some areas, possession of such premium products is the passport to being taken seriously.” We have to agree, owning a phone like this will certainly have an effect on your social life, we’re just not so sure it’ll be a positive one. Continue reading Nokia Oro is covered with 18ct gold on the outside, tinged with Symbian regret inside Nokia Oro is covered with 18ct gold on the outside, tinged with Symbian regret inside originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 05:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Windows Phone ‘Mango’ will be used on first Nokia WP devices (updated: multiple!)
May 25, 2011 No Comment
Nokia has noted Microsoft’s announcement of the new Windows Phone 7 (aka Mango ) with word that the software being demonstrated today will be the one we’ll see on the first Nokia with Windows Phone device. That’s singular, not plural, indicating that Nokia will likely start off with one phone and work its way up. It also slightly contracts the roadmap for the first handset born from the Microkia partnership, though Nokia’s statement makes sure not to make any promises about when said device will show up. Finally, we find the “Nokia with Windows Phone” phrasing somewhat peculiar, don’t be surprised if you see it turn into a branding strategy for Nokia’s smartphones going forward. Here’s the relevant statement, straight out of Finland: “Today Microsoft has announced the key new ingredients of the latest ‘Mango’ release of the Windows Phone operating system. This is the software that will be used on the first Nokia with Windows Phone device, and so should be of keen interest to Nokia-watchers everywhere.” Update: Microsoft just concluded its keynote with word that it already has Nokia phones running Mango in its labs. And none have leaked out yet, amazing! Update 2 : We were just contacted by a Nokia representative indicating that there was a mistake in the original announcement the company distributed. It wasn’t supposed to read device, it was supposed to be devices . More than one! Update 3: Nokia’s Executive VP of Smart Devices, Jo Harlow, has told Forbes that the forthcoming “small portfolio” of phones — which are currently on target for a 2011 release — won’t look like the renderings we’ve seen before . Not only that, we may see a CDMA Nokia handset at some point, as the company is “working in that direction.” Windows Phone ‘Mango’ will be used on first Nokia WP devices (updated: multiple!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 20:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …BT and Everything Everywhere will start LTE trial in rural UK this September
May 25, 2011 No Comment
Some of the UK’s most remote parts still don’t have access to broadband of any kind, but later this year, they might have the sort that makes us look on in envy. BT and Everything Everywhere are planning to start an LTE trial in Cornwall, England’s most southerly county, which will last from the 1st of September through to the end of December. Connection speeds could scale as high as 40Mbps, though the typical rate is expected to be closer to 10Mbps. Volunteers are now being sought to participate in the trial, though they have to reside (or be willing to move, we presume) in the pretty tiny 4G coverage area near Newquay. BT and T-MOrange have been allowed a temporary slice of 800MHz spectrum to do their experimenting in, which will likely be up for grabs in the LTE spectrum auction that’s set for next year. First we take Newquay, then we take the world. Continue reading BT and Everything Everywhere will start LTE trial in rural UK this September BT and Everything Everywhere will start LTE trial in rural UK this September originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 03:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sony Ericsson’s Canadian online store hacked, more than 2,000 customers’ data taken
May 25, 2011 No Comment
The hackers just won’t give poor Sony a break, will they? Following the infamous PSN breach last month and an attack on the company’s Greek online music service earlier this week, Sony Ericsson saw another intrusion that extracted personal data of more than 2,000 Canadian Eshop customers. Fortunately, the company claims that passwords taken were encrypted and no credit card details were lost, but this is still worrisome nevertheless. Right now, the Eshop service has been taken off line — for the sake of Sir Howard and his Japanese chums, let’s just hope that this will be the last Sony breach we hear about. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Sony Ericsson’s Canadian online store hacked, more than 2,000 customers’ data taken originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 03:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If you’ve been following along, you know that a phone enthusiast named DJ_Steve has kept the Dell Streak fresh, thanks to a series of hacked ROMs, dubbed StreakDroid. The latest version, 2.0.0 (or GingerStreak, if you’re feeling cute) brings Gingerbread to the 5-inch smartphone — expanding on the last ROM , which gave hackers the option of selecting Gingerbread’s app launcher. As always, though, dear Steve has noted a handful of bugs in the ROM’s early stages, including issues with the Superuser app, less-than-stellar graphics performance, and the fact that both GPS and 720p video recording require an engineering baseband and DSP to be flashed. As of this writing, all of the comments are from Streak owners eager to download this for themselves. We assume you are, too, so let us know how the new ROM works out for ya. StreakDroid 2.0.0 gives the gift of Gingerbread to Streak hackers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 01:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If you’ve been following along, you know that a phone enthusiast named DJ_Steve has kept the Dell Streak fresh, thanks to a series of hacked ROMs, dubbed StreakDroid. The latest version, 2.0.0 (or GingerStreak, if you’re feeling cute) brings Gingerbread to the 5-inch smartphone — expanding on the last ROM , which gave hackers the option of selecting Gingerbread’s app launcher. As always, though, dear Steve has noted a handful of bugs in the ROM’s early stages, including issues with the Superuser app, less-than-stellar graphics performance, and the fact that both GPS and 720p video recording require an engineering baseband and DSP to be flashed. As of this writing, all of the comments are from Streak owners eager to download this for themselves. We assume you are, too, so let us know how the new ROM works out for ya. StreakDroid 2.0.0 gives the gift of Gingerbread to Streak hackers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 01:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’ve got some good news and some bad news. Let’s do the bad news first: much like the Sensation, Thunderbolt, and Incredible S, Android Police has confirmed that the upcoming HTC EVO 3D will also be sporting a locked down bootloader of similar fashion, meaning custom ROM modders will have a hard time glamming up said phone. Not that anyone should be surprised by this finding though, given the sad trend. That said, there is still hope: earlier today, HTC announced on Facebook that it’s “reviewing the issue and our policy around bootloaders” — looks like someone’s pulled a page out of Sony Ericsson’s good book. If all goes well, we’ll just have to wait and see whether HTC will beat Motorola to making their fans smile again . [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] EVO 3D shipping with locked down bootloader, but HTC may reconsider policy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 00:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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