February 11th, 2011. It looks set to be a day to remember in the grand history of that titan of the mobile industry, Nokia Corporation. Its fearless new leader has been trumpeting the need for change both in public appearances and in the private corridors of Espoo, and tomorrow he gets the stage all to himself, having been handed the keys and told to pick a direction in which to drive. Will he steer Finland’s proudest export into the warm embrace of Microsoft and its developing Windows Phone 7 platform? Will he respond to being described as the orchestrator of a turkey sandwich ? Or will he be his usual understated self and lay out a sensible roadmap for righting the wrongs of Nokia’s recent past? If we’re lucky, he’ll do all three tomorrow morning. The show gets started early, at 10AM GMT, but whether you’re staying up late or getting up early, we don’t expect you to miss a moment of it. 12:00AM – Hawaii 02:00AM – Pacific 03:00AM – Mountain 04:00AM – Central 05:00AM – Eastern 10:00AM – London 11:00AM – Paris 01:00PM – Moscow 03:30PM – Mumbai 07:00PM – Tokyo 09:00PM – Sydney Nokia’s Capital Markets Day is tomorrow, and we’ll be there live! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If you don’t have a Windows Phone 7 device, you may have assumed that first major update with copy and paste support had been released to end users by now — and we wouldn’t necessarily blame you. If you do have a Windows Phone 7 device, however, you know how very untrue that is… and the latest rumors suggest that you won’t be on track to get it this month. To be fair, Microsoft never promised that we’d see the update on handsets in February in any official capacity, but rumors at one time had suggested it’d happen; of course, they also suggested January , so you see how that goes. Anyhow, both Neowin and ZDNet ‘s Mary Jo Foley are liking March 8 as a possibility, citing the difficulties in getting carriers and manufacturers on board for a coordinated launch of a firmware update that they’re all accustomed to having more control over. Since early last year, Microsoft had said it’d be controlling platform updates pretty tightly — certainly more tightly than in the disjoint Android world — and we can imagine that takes a little bit of adaptation for the likes of LG and Samsung. Anyhow, here’s hoping everyone’s up to date on the 8th, eh? Windows Phone 7′s copy and paste update now coming in March? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …HTC to debut Android phone with dedicated Facebook button, doubles as Winklevii irritant
February 10, 2011 No Comment
Do you know how much time is lost having to jump out of an application to click on the Facebook icon (or widget) on your home screen? That 0.4 seconds, when done hundreds of times each and every day (assuming you ever leave the Facebook screen in the first place) can really add up — precious time you could spend updating your status and liking your girlfriend’s brother’s Business Cat wall post. INQ figured it out , and HTC may have found a way to restore those precious seconds, as well. According to The Financial Times , the company plans to introduce an Android device with a dedicated Facebook button (note: not a “Facebook phone” ). We wouldn’t expect anything crazy out of the clicker, however, as the dream crushers known currently as “people familiar with the device” say its purpose is to take you to the Facebook front page — if you want something more. HTC is expected to introduce it this month, and if we were betting folk, we’d say that meant Mobile World Congress next week. HTC to debut Android phone with dedicated Facebook button, doubles as Winklevii irritant originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The decision to move to WiMAX instead of LTE will probably be second-guessed by pundits and investors for years to come, but regardless, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has emerged as one of the wireless industry’s great comeback kids now that he appears to be succeeding in his goal of turning the carrier’s tailspin right around. The latest victory comes in the form of Sprint’s fourth quarter 2010 results, which reveal its largest subscriber gain since the first and second quarters of 2006 — yes, 2006 . Total adds were 1.1 million, though net postpaid adds were only 58,000, suggesting that prepaid services are the big push right now. Additionally, Sprint reported its lowest postpaid customer churn in the fourth quarter of any year in its history at 1.86 percent. On the downside, the company’s still technically in the red, reporting an operating loss of $139 million on revenues of $8.3 billion. Overall, Hesse says they’ve got “momentum” heading into the new year, anticipating net customer additions in 2011. Give us an EVO 4G 2, Dan, and we might just be willing to agree. Sprint posts best customer gains in five years originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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That pretty much says it all, folks. It’s an app for your iPhone that lets you run your finger across the mic on your handset or headset and use it to trigger the camera. Simple? Yes. Genius? Maybe, so long as you aren’t the sort who mindlessly strokes your headphone cable while on the subway or bus. Yours now for a buck. Camera Mic app turns your iPhone mic into a shutter release originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Pelican Imaging’s prototype array camera could make your pictures better, phones thinner (video)
February 10, 2011 No Comment
If you want to look for life on another planet you don’t build one radio telescope that’s miles wide, you build a bunch of smaller ones and create an array out of them. As it turns out that basic idea works for capturing visible wavelengths as well. It’s called a plenoptic camera , using an array of very small lenses that, when combined, can create an image as good as a larger one. Pelican Imaging is largely interested in the slim factor this kind of system could offer, potentially allowing for thinner phones, but this could also open the door to some interesting effects. Check out the video after the break for an example of the dynamic aperture control this sort of setup can allow, where you can change the focal plane of an image after it was taken . Given the small size of the array here you probably couldn’t do anything too crazy, like take a picture through a tree, but the days of poorly focused cameraphone shots might finally be at an end — whenever this actually comes to market. Continue reading Pelican Imaging’s prototype array camera could make your pictures better, phones thinner (video) Pelican Imaging’s prototype array camera could make your pictures better, phones thinner (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …RunCore USB 3.0 Express SSD offers 64GB of storage and two ports in one killer device
February 10, 2011 No Comment
Let’s say you have a laptop . It has an ExpressCard slot but, because it’s a little old, it doesn’t have USB 3.0 . Also, it just doesn’t have enough storage to suit your needs any more. Oh, and the keys are kind of worn and shiny, especially H for some reason. RunCore can’t help with that last problem, but it certainly has a tidy solution for the other two, a solution with a highly appropriate name: the USB 3.0 Express SSD. It offers 64GB worth of SSD storage plus a pair of cerulean USB 3.0 ports poking out the side just waiting for something — like maybe another SSD. No word on price or availability, but we’re hoping for soon, because this ExpressCard slot here isn’t going to fill itself. RunCore USB 3.0 Express SSD offers 64GB of storage and two ports in one killer device originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Marvell unveils Avastar 88W8797, first wireless SoC for mobile devices with 2×2 MIMO
February 10, 2011 No Comment
The days of the shotgun modem live on with MIMO — multiple-input and multiple-output adapters that offer numerous antennas to aggregate numerous parallel connections. Marvell just became the first to put such a solution on a tiny SoC , debuting its Avastar 88W8797 with dual 802.11n connectivity for transmission and receiving. This allows for 300Mbps transfers along with Bluetooth 4.0 and even FM transmission and reception, all built into a single chip with “advanced power management designed specifically for handheld products such as smartphones and tablets.” You know what that means: shotgun WiFi in next-gen mobile devices. Yee haw! Continue reading Marvell unveils Avastar 88W8797, first wireless SoC for mobile devices with 2×2 MIMO Marvell unveils Avastar 88W8797, first wireless SoC for mobile devices with 2×2 MIMO originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Immersion’s MOTIV development platform integrates haptics into Android, we go hands-on
February 10, 2011 No Comment
You may know that Immersion’s haptic technology is in everything from surgical simulators to game controllers , but we’re willing to bet you didn’t know it’s already baked into over 200 million existing devices — including every Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and handsets by Nokia and LG. Now, using Android handsets’ existing vibrator motors, a cheap software upgrade can inject force feedback into existing elements across the entire Android UI (2.2 and up), and with future devices — built with multi-dollar piezoelectric actuators that vibrate the screen itself — the haptic experience goes hi-fi. Now that it’s revealed that little easter egg to the world, Immersion wants you to build some apps, and to that end it’s releasing the MOTIV developer platform this March. Read all about it after the break. Gallery: Immersion’s piezoelectric haptic reference handset, hands-on Continue reading Immersion’s MOTIV development platform integrates haptics into Android, we go hands-on Immersion’s MOTIV development platform integrates haptics into Android, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We can’t accuse Inq of having the best timing in the world — the company announced its new Facebook-centric Cloud Touch and Cloud Q phones at about the same time that HP was busy blowing minds with its new webOS range in San Francisco — but at least that gave us an excuse to get out of the Engadget bunker this morning and go check out some new gear. We’ve gotten to grips with the 3.5-inch touchscreen-equipped Cloud Touch and have broken down our first impressions of the device for you after the break. Aside from Facebook, Inq has chosen to integrate Spotify Premium into this phone along with Fluency, the typing prediction engine that powers SwiftKey . The two serve as significant upgrades on the default media player and keyboard software, respectively, and add a nice sprinkling of value to a phone that’s already expected to go easy on the wallet. The gallery below will illustrate anything else you may need or want to know, although you’ll have to check out the video to see the multifunctional unlock screen and Facebook widgetry in action. Gallery: Inq Cloud Touch preview Continue reading Inq Cloud Touch preview Inq Cloud Touch preview originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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