As AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity reluctantly teeters on the brink of oblivion , it seems a good time to take one last look at the smartphone playground, the way it is before V-Day . The New York Times has handily done that job for us with the above chart, which simultaneously gives us a sense of scale when comparing US carriers and lays out the concentration of Android devices across those networks. It also shows a big fat bump of iOS on AT&T, making it the biggest carrier in terms of combined iPhone and Android users — nothing shocking there, but the real fun will be in taking a look at this same data a few months from now. Will the iPhone fragment itself all over the four major networks? Will AT&T’s Android stable ever be respectable? Tune in to your next installment of “fun, but mostly irrelevant statistics” to find out. Visualized: the state of the smartphone wars originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’re a little short-staffed on Qualcomm chipset engineers at the moment, so forgive us if we can’t immediately confirm this tale, but we’re hearing iPhone hacker Zibri has discovered proof of the Apple / Qualcomm collaboration in his very own build of iTunes. Zibri claims that by tearing apart the latest version, he found the chunk of code above, which contains files that are allegedly the exclusive “building blocks” of Qualcomm radio firmware. That doesn’t tell us anything about a supposed iPhone 5 or iPad 2, unfortunately, as it’s probably just referring to that CDMA chipset in the Verizon iPhone 4… but with the right building blocks, one can craft any number of wonders. Apple hacker digs up Qualcomm baseband proof by decompiling iTunes? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Peanut butter and jelly. Gin and tonic. Peaches and cream. Some strange combinations make perfect sense paired, but how about the mouse and the PC gamepad? Those two items are what a Hong Kong peripheral manufacturer decided to combine, and the result was the Shogun Bros. Chameleon X-1 — a gaming mouse you can flip to find twelve buttons and two miniature analog sticks on the bottom. It works as a gamepad, sure enough, and functions as a one-handed multimedia remote too. But is it any good? We’ve used it as our primary peripheral for over a week, and after the break, we’ll tell you. Gallery: Shogun Bros. Chameleon X-1 gamepad mouse, unboxing and hands-on Continue reading Shogun Bros. Chameleon X-1 review: the mouse that’s a gamepad, too Shogun Bros. Chameleon X-1 review: the mouse that’s a gamepad, too originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Audi Auto Union Type C e-tron study puts your pow-pow-Power Wheels to shame
January 22, 2011 No Comment
Top speed of 18mph, and a range of 15 miles? Charges in only two hours? No, this isn’t the future of transportation we’re talking about here, it’s a toy. A toy from Audi , of all places. The company has created this electric-powered and half-scale recreation of an Auto Union Type C, grand prix racer of the late 1930s, and done it in e-tron guise, applying the moniker from its grown-up line of EVs, like the luscious e-tron Spyder . This one’s intended for kids of all ages — so long as they’re shorter than 5’11” — and it will be on display at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg. At this point there’s no mention of a plan to produce it nor a price if Audi did, but surely it’s one of those “if you have to ask” things — that body is entirely made of carbon fiber, and that stuff doesn’t come cheap. Gallery: Audi Auto Union Type C e-tron study Continue reading Audi Auto Union Type C e-tron study puts your pow-pow-Power Wheels to shame Audi Auto Union Type C e-tron study puts your pow-pow-Power Wheels to shame originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 10:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …AirPlay video support comes to Linux courtesy of Totem media player plug-in
January 22, 2011 No Comment
This one’s about as unnofficial as it gets, but Linux users do now have a relatively easy way to receive and play video streamed to their PC via Apple’s AirPlay . To get things going, all you have to do is download a plug-in for the Totem media player (which ships with most popular Linux distributions), install it in the usual Linux fashion, and then start streaming video to your Linux PC with AirPlay just as if it were an Apple TV. That’s it. Hit up the link below to find the plug-in, along with some more detailed installation instructions if you need them. AirPlay video support comes to Linux courtesy of Totem media player plug-in originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 09:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …AMD ships 1.3 million Fusion APUs, 35 million DirectX 11 GPUs, says it has ‘momentum’
January 22, 2011 No Comment
Hey, this interim CEO thing doesn’t seem to be too hard at all. Thomas Seifert, the temporary solution to the problem created by Dirk Meyer’s departure from AMD’s top spot, has had a pretty comfy ride reporting the company’s latest quarterly results. The pecuniary numbers themselves ($1.65b revenue, $375m net income) were tame and unexciting, but Seifert got to make a pair of juicy milestone announcements. Firstly, on the mobile and ever-so-efficient front, he noted that 1.3 million Fusion APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) have been shipped to partners since AMD started deliveries in November, and secondly, in terms of discrete graphics chips, he disclosed that the Radeon HD 5000 and HD 6000 series DirectX 11 GPUs have surpassed the 35 million units shipped mark. To give you some perspective on what that means, sales of Nintendo’s bestselling Wii console are hovering somewhere around the same figure. So yes, AMD, your wagon has momentum, but shouldn’t it have a driver too? Continue reading AMD ships 1.3 million Fusion APUs, 35 million DirectX 11 GPUs, says it has ‘momentum’ AMD ships 1.3 million Fusion APUs, 35 million DirectX 11 GPUs, says it has ‘momentum’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Now that the number of App Store downloads to iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads around the world has handily exceeded the population of Planet Earth, we can hopefully put this story to bed until they hit another factor of ten — and as unreasonable as 100 billion downloads sounds, we’ll bet it actually won’t take that long. That’s right: just a few days after kicking off its online counter , Apple’s officially hit the 10 billion mark, which is a whole lot of software any way you slice it. So, Android Market , you’re next? Apple’s App Store hits 10 billion downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 05:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Mobile broadband shocker: AT&T looking at tiered data pricing and speeds for upcoming LTE service
January 22, 2011 No Comment
We all know AT&T just loves its tiered pricing models , so it’s no surprise to hear that the carrier intends to turn its forthcoming LTE service into a tier-vana of great new sophistication. BGR has come across an internal document detailing how AT&T plans to segment its 4G pricing on the basis of both speed and data allowance, meaning that your price will reflect both the amount of data you consume and the rate at which you gobble it down. To add further complexity flexibility, Top Ups will be available that’ll allow users to amp up their connection speed for a limited time or increase their allowance on a per-month basis. We’re hearing trials of this new offering will commence in May, which fits in neatly with the currently planned LTE rollout in the second half of this year . So it’s not all set in stone yet, but irrespective of the number of data options AT&T throws our way, the paramount question will always be the same: how much? Mobile broadband shocker: AT&T looking at tiered data pricing and speeds for upcoming LTE service originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Real-life mailbox mod tells your iPhone when you’ve got snail mail (video)
January 22, 2011 No Comment
Do you spend your days desperately awaiting credit card bills, coupons to Pizza Hut, and reminders from your dentist’s office that it’s time for another cleaning? We’ve pared down our dependence on USPS, but for those who still get physical communications of note, Make has developed an Arduino-based mailbox mod that sends push notifications when the post is in. Back in 2005, we saw a clunky device called POSTIN that did much the same thing. Thankfully, this system doesn’t require an extra gadget, instead it sends messages straight to your iPhone. The postal alert system uses a snap-action switch, connected to an Arduino sensor, to signal when your mailbox is opened. A piece of code waits for the signal and then requests a URL from a PHP-enabled server, pushing an alert to your cellphone using the Prowl iPhone app. Die-hard USPS fans can check out the instructional video after the jump. Continue reading Real-life mailbox mod tells your iPhone when you’ve got snail mail (video) Real-life mailbox mod tells your iPhone when you’ve got snail mail (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …China nationalizes eleven rare earth mines for environmental and strategic reasons
January 22, 2011 No Comment
Most of our favorite gadgets are constructed with parts made of rare earth minerals, and as many of you already know, China produces the lion’s share of the stuff. So news that Hu Jintao and company recently took control of 11 rare earth mines in order to more tightly manage the mines’ production is of great interest to hi-tech companies and consumers the world over — and could mean your next hybrid , smartphone , or PC just got a bit more expensive. The Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources indicates that nationalization of the facilities was prompted by illegal strip mining and dumping of toxic tailings in nearby waterways, but given China’s pledge to reduce rare earth exports by ten percent this year, it seems likely that the move isn’t entirely driven by environmental concerns. Consumers needn’t worry too much, however, as Japan and the US are currently searching for ways to break China’s monopoly on rare earths and keep us flush in affordable flat-screen TVs and hybrid cars for years to come. China nationalizes eleven rare earth mines for environmental and strategic reasons originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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