Visual VoiceMail pulled from Android Market, Google accused of ‘pulling an Apple’
February 26, 2011 No Comment
Looks like Apple isn’t the only one wanting to make sure that app payments are being run through appropriate channels . The Visual VoiceMail app, which has been downloaded about a million times (literally), has just been pulled from the Android Market . When developers at PhoneFusion asked the reasonable question, “why,” they were simply directed to section 3.3 of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement: If you want to collect fees after the free trial expires, you must collect all fees for the full version of the Product through the Payment Processor on the Market… All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the Market must be processed by the Market’s Payment Processor. The service allows users to purchase premium features through the company’s website, something that many other apps do and that is certainly not new to Visual VoiceMail. What’s next remains to be seen, but sadly Google is saying PhoneFusion must re-submit the app with a new name — losing all the positive reviews it’s racked up. Hardly an ideal solution. Visual VoiceMail pulled from Android Market, Google accused of ‘pulling an Apple’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Have you heard? We’re having a party tonight and you are invited! If you happen to be in San Francisco, we’ll be here at The Metreon playing with the latest gadgets from loads of companies, including Sony, Motorola, HTC, HP, and Jawbone. It all starts at 6:30PM and goes until 10:30PM. Oh, and did we mention there’s awesome music and a taco truck parked outside? As you can see, the line is already around the corner, but there’s plenty of room. If you can’t make it, we’ll be liveblogging and uploading tons of pictures in this very post. All the details on how to get here and what to expect can be found right here . Continue reading Live from the Engadget reader meetup in San Francisco Live from the Engadget reader meetup in San Francisco originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Clockwise from the top left, that’s the the Sprint Arrive, the likely-for-Verizon Merge, the Sprint Evo Shift 4G, and the T-Mobile G2. If we had to rate them, we’d say the Arrive has the best key feel, followed by the Merge, the Evo Shift, and finally the cramped G2 — although the super cheap-feeling hinge on the Evo Shift knocks off several points. We’d also say the physical keys on the G2 feel better than the mushy keys on the Merge, but the G2′s cramped layout doesn’t do it any favors. In any event, picking one of these is a pretty great problem to have, don’t you think? Visualized: the HTC keyboard slider family originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Sprint HTC Arrive with Windows Phone 7 copy and paste first hands-on! (video)
February 26, 2011 No Comment
HTC also brought along a Sprint-branded Arrive to our San Francisco reader meetup, and while we’re already familiar with this Windows Phone 7 slider from our time with the HTC 7 Pro it’s still nice to see a CDMA WP7 device in the flesh. Oh, and the keyboard is pretty fantastic — not only does it feel great, but the dedicated number row alone is reason for keyboard fans to give this thing a look. The best part? The demo unit was loaded up with the Windows Phone 7 copy and paste update , which is the first time we’ve seen it in the wild. The system worked well, but we noticed that you once you paste out of the clipboard your text is gone, so you can’t multiple paste. It’s a little odd — we’ll have a video up shortly. Update: The video is up — check it below! Update 2: Okay, so you can multiple paste! The paste icon just disappears after the first paste, which is super confusing. You can just swipe to the right to bring it back, though. We’d suggest Microsoft re-think this implementation a little for an update, since it wasn’t clear to anyone here at first glance. Gallery: HTC Arrive hands-on! Continue reading Sprint HTC Arrive with Windows Phone 7 copy and paste first hands-on! (video) Sprint HTC Arrive with Windows Phone 7 copy and paste first hands-on! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Clash of the Titans sequel will be another 2D-to-3D conversion, and Inception too?
February 26, 2011 No Comment
After a poor response to the first Clash of the Titans movie and its substandard 3D effects, courtesy of a rushed conversion process , you’d think they would never try that again, and you’d be wrong. Director Jonathan Liebesman, fresh off of Battle:LA is helming sequel Wrath of the Titans and says was talked into doing the conversion process again (but shooting with that in mind, Piranha 3D -style ) on this flick by a series of demos including, Christopher Nolan’s Inception . This is notable both because no 3D re-release has been announced for the visually engrossing flick, but also because Nolan himself has suggested 3D would be a bad choice due to the dimming effect of the glasses. Warner Bros. could only manage to tell Cinematical “At this time, the plans for Inception 3D cannot be confirmed,” leaving the possibility of a return alongside Star Wars , Titanic and others to twist in the wind for now. Clash of the Titans sequel will be another 2D-to-3D conversion, and Inception too? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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HTC just rolled in to set up for our San Francisco reader meetup tonight, and what’s this? They brought a brand-new HTC Merge with them. No one’s talking about what carrier this interesting Android slider is going to launch on yet, but that Verizon-red earpiece and search button aren’t exactly coy. Apart from that, it’s pretty much exactly the device we’ve seen leaked all over for months now — a really nice landscape Android slider with a solid keyboard. More pics in the gallery, and a video after the break! Gallery: HTC Merge first hands-on! Continue reading HTC Merge first hands-on! (video) HTC Merge first hands-on! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …HTC Thunderbolt said to have terrible battery life, might explain delay?
February 25, 2011 No Comment
We’re hearing from… well, let’s call them “people familiar with the matter” that HTC’s Thunderbolt — a phone that’s supposed to be Verizon’s first with LTE — is experiencing positively miserable battery life that’s making it difficult for testers to avoid carrying a second phone around as a backup. How bad? Two to three hours from full to empty in some cases. Of course, we wouldn’t be surprised if battery life was really bad with the LTE radio left on — the EVO 4G wasn’t much different at launch with WiMAX lit up — but the word on the street is that the power situation is largely responsible for the delays we’ve been seeing. In fact, our source tells us the phone is currently working on its sixth retail delay at the moment. More on this situation as we get it. Update: We’ve just heard from another trusted tipster that there’s definitely a new firmware in the works to address battery life and signal issues (which — you guessed it — are interrelated). Thanks, HTC Kid! HTC Thunderbolt said to have terrible battery life, might explain delay? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Intel’s spent the last nine months prepping its Oak Trail silicon to improve the battery life and performance of Windows 7 tablets , and come the end of next month we should finally have some slates with the new 1.5GHz Atom Z670 chip inside. While Fudzilla has heard that the tablets will hit in the general March time frame, the eagle-eyed guys at Netbook News spotted the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 press materials stating that the new platform will launch on March 30, 2011. That seems to line up with what we’ve heard on timing, since both the Oak Trail-powered Samsung Sliding PC 7 and MSI WindPad 100W were announced with March availability. Chances are we will hear more about it all at CeBIT next week, but honestly, at this point we’re just really eager to get one of these in our hands to see what Chipzilla’s really improved. Intel Oak Trail Atom Z670 tablets to arrive at the end of March originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Netflix: 30 percent of Watch Instantly titles subbed with more on the way, plus Xbox & Roku support
February 25, 2011 No Comment
It’s been a slow climb since Netflix first announced it was adding closed captioning to the PC and Mac in early 2010, but today’s blog post indicates its reached 30% of the available titles. So far platforms on the second revision of its streaming frontend like the PS3, Boxee Box, Google TV and Nintendo Wii support optional captions while the Xbox 360 and Roku players should “later this year.” Of course, while its per-episode count is significantly higher, it’s still only a few hundred of Netflix’s available series, and deaf/hard of hearing users face problems like having some episodes subbed while others aren’t. Netflix’s new page breaking out supported titles should help, while nc-mac-asl’s blog or InstantWatcher.com also can provide a filter. The plan is apparently to have subtitles on 80% of content by the end of the year and here’s hoping it gets to 100% soon — makes our quibbling over 5.1 surround sound seem sort of trivial doesn’t it? (But, while we’re on the subject, Netflix, where’s 5.1 on non-PS3 clients?) Netflix: 30 percent of Watch Instantly titles subbed with more on the way, plus Xbox & Roku support originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Samsung’s been waffling on Google TV for quite some time — prototypes aside — and now Bloomberg thinks it might know the reason why. According to an anonymous source, Mountain View’s been requiring that OEMs use Intel’s CE4100 chip in their television products, and as any self-respecting chipmaker might be expected to do, Samsung declined. Now, with Google TV’s efforts to break into the living room floundering, the search giant has allegedly lifted the restriction and allowed Samsung to use its own silicon, meaning we’ll likely see Google TV running on a certain dual-core ARM in the months to come. Anything to save us from Smart TV , right? Samsung’s Google TV delayed by Intel exclusivity agreement? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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