Engadget Mobile

iPhone 3GS Supreme is diamond encrusted, spectacularly expensive

posted Nov 27th 2009 at 3:53AM

Seeing as how the iPhone's exclusivity status has been slipping, it was inevitable that the bourgeoisie would invent a new way to distinguish themselves from the lowly masses. Enter a designer by the name of Stuart Hughes, already expertly familiar with slapping precious metals onto slightly less precious mobile phones. He classes up a 3GS handset with a 22 carat solid gold body, which he then sprinkles with no less than 190 diamonds. And just to make sure none of the riff raff can get their hands on it, this creation is priced at £1.92 million ($3.2 million), which places it precisely £1.92 million outside our budget. Completing the, erm, value proposition is a storage chest cut from a single block of granite, which you may peep after the break.

Phone Arena, Tech Ed Blog

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LG / Cyon SU630 caught in the wilds of South Korea

By Joseph L. Flatley

posted Nov 26th 2009 at 10:49PM

Were you shocked and surprised when LG put out a Christmas Edition of its Korea-only LG-SU630? Neither were we -- but we are mighty amused that a certain reader named James Roberson was cool enough to take us up on our (joking) plea for pictures of the handset when he came across one at the electronics market in Seoul recently. This isn't the Christmas edition, but it's all LG-SU630 -- as indicated by the Cyon logo and 8 megapixel camera 'round back. Get a closer look in the gallery below. And for our next request, do you think you could send us a Sciphone Dream G2? We hear they're pretty amazing. kkthanksbye.

LG / Cyon LG-SU630 caught in the wilds of South Korea

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Sony Ericsson acknowledges touchscreen issues on Aino

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 26th 2009 at 6:19PM

As if the Aino's odd name wasn't handicap enough, Sony Ericsson's taking another hit on its high-end Remote Play-capable full-touch (but Symbian-free) phone today with news that it's got a dodgy touchscreen. It's unclear exactly what's wrong or how it's ultimately going to get resolved, but several British retailers -- most notably behemoth Carphone Warehouse -- have elected to yank it from shelves until they've gotten confirmation that the mothership has fixed the problem. A company spokesman notes that "Aino has sold in limited numbers in the UK, so this issue affects only a very small number of customers," which is a backhanded way of saying "for once, we're incredibly lucky no one wants this thing" -- though considering that the Satio's on hold now, too, "lucky" might not be the right word for it. For what it's worth, Sony's US SonyStyle store is still hawking Ainos for $600, so part with that six-pack of Benjamins at your own risk.

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Windows Mobile 6.5 'second edition' bringing slightly revamped UI?

By Donald Melanson

posted Nov 26th 2009 at 4:38PM

We've already gotten a glimpse of an updated on-screen keyboard seemingly set for inclusion in the next update to Windows Mobile 6.5, and it now looks like Microsoft might have even more changes on tap to keep folks satisfied in the buildup to Windows Mobile 7. Apparently, something that may or may not be called Windows Mobile 6.5 'second edition' adds a number of UI updates that are supposedly designed to make it more usable with capacitive touchscreens. The biggest of those changes, it seems, is that the clickable buttons from the top bar have been removed in favor of a larger, more finger-friendly bar at the bottom -- which, judging from appearances, is not quite ready for prime time. Of course, of all this is still just based on what's been turned up in an early build of the OS, but at least one unnamed Microsoft representative has reportedly confirmed that the updated UI does indeed come from Microsoft, but he apparently wouldn't confirm much else.

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Navigon announces nav app for Android, Google threat looms

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 26th 2009 at 11:14AM

Google has taken much of the wind out of the turn-by-turn navigation industry's sails this Fall thanks to the introduction of fee-free Google Maps Navigation, but it's got a fatal flaw for the moment: it's only available in the States. Navigon must be banking on the fact that Mountain View is going to take its sweet time spreading the love around the world, because it has announced at iCE Amsterdam today that it'll be releasing its own app for Android on December 10. Pricing hasn't been revealed, but for comparison, Navigon's European solution for the iPhone runs a stout $140 -- and as long as Google doesn't tell everyone that European navigation is no longer a valid business model as they've done in the US, that could very well be the number we can expect on the Android side. It'll be compatible with devices running anything from 1.5 to 2.0, so Dreams and Milestones alike should be welcome to apply.

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Nokia X6 Comes with Music and capacitive touchscreen: shipping now

By Thomas Ricker

posted Nov 26th 2009 at 8:05AM

What are you thankful for today? If you live in Finland or the UK and pre-ordered a X6 then you might be obliged to Nokia for having just set your new handset free. That's right pilgrims, Nokia's new flagship Comes with Music handset is now shipping. The X6 you'll recall, introduces S60 5th to a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen riding 32GB of storage, a 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, TV-out, and tweaked homescreen with a media/social-centric layout. The X6 lists for €450 (pre-tax and pre-carrier subsidies) -- a price that ultimately includes the cost of Nokia's struggling "all-you-can-eat" music service. Perhaps this is the device that finally gives the service legs? Maybe, but we'd start by following through on plans to strip the DRM.

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Samsung Forever comes to Rogers, cue 'it took Forever to launch' joke

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 26th 2009 at 3:05AM

Samsung's a manufacturer of many smartphone platforms, and odds are good you can find at least one of 'em you like -- between S60 (for now, anyway), WinMo, and Android, they've pretty much got the major bases covered. Say you're the particularly picky type, though, and you want your full-touch widget experience delivered sans the open operating system for some odd reason. Well, turns out Samsung has that angle figured out perhaps better than any other company out there -- and Rogers is adding yet another one to the lineup this week with the introduction of the Forever with a WQVGA LCD (no AMOLED here, sorry), 3.6Mbps HSDPA, a 2 megapixel camera, and naturally, TouchWiz. Interested parties are welcome to sign on the dotted line to the tune of CAD $79.99 (about $77) on a three-year deal, so... you know, you'd better be darn sure you're not going to have the urge to install any third-party apps designed to simulate bodily noises over the next three dozen months.

Samsung Hub, MobileSyrup

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EU closes antitrust investigation into Qualcomm, doesn't levy fines

By Darren Murph

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 11:08PM

Qualcomm has spent an awful lot of time over the past few years dealing with lawsuits and nastygrams, but it looks as if things will be totally different in the new decade. Just months after Qualcomm and Broadcom settled their differences, the European Commission has agreed to drop a four-year antitrust investigation without levying the first fine or absolving the company. The reason? The entity stated that "companies that objected to Qualcomm's pricing for its technology have all withdrawn their complaints or are planning to withdraw them." Sounds like a reasonable reason to let bygones be bygones, no?

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Amazon selling Samsung Moment for $100 less than Sprint

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 8:02PM

Amazon is continuing its fabulous tradition of making carriers look like money-grubbing jerks this week with a solid deal on Samsung's Android-powered Moment for Sprint, which can now be yours for $79.99 on contract. That's versus a considerably more finance-destroying $179.99 figure if you were to walk into a brick-and-mortar Sprint store -- and even bests Best Buy's deal by $20. Considering that OLED display and the fact that the Sammy's core clips along at 10 times the megahertz of Amazon's price, $80 out-of-pocket sounds pretty reasonable. Unfortunately, Android 1.5 doesn't sound as reasonable these days -- so here's hoping that 2.0 trickles down to this sucker on the double.

[Thanks, Ron]

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HTC HD2 review

By Joshua Topolsky

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 5:37PM

Review

When Microsoft finally launched Windows Mobile 6.5 earlier this year, there may have been lots of fanfare, but there was little honest excitement. After a tepid showing at MWC in Barcelona followed by the proper launch this October, no one was exactly up in arms over the OS, though support from the big M's partners was characteristically plentiful. Still, there was nary a ray of light to be seen in the otherwise bleak and basic landscape of handset offerings... until the HD2 came along. In August of this year, HTC showed off what seemed to be one of the few Windows Mobile devices capable of generating honest enthusiasm. The massive, full touchscreen device boasts impressive specs: a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a generous 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive WVGA touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and lots of other bells and whistles. But the centerpiece here isn't the hardware, it's HTC's totally revamped user interface, Sense, which doesn't just hide Windows Mobile 6.5 -- it all but zaps it out of existence. Sadly for Microsoft, that's the most enticing part of this equation. So, is the HD2's new face enough to quell the bad vibes of Windows Mobile and make the platform seem viable again, or is that a challenge which takes more than just a coat of paint? We've taken a hard look at the phone... so read on to find out.

HD2 hands-on

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Windows Mobile looks to be getting new native keyboard in 6.5.3

By Donald Melanson

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 4:28PM

It's not exactly a wild accusation to say that the current native on-screen keyboard in Windows 6.5 is, well, bad, and it looks like Microsoft has now picked up on what HTC and others have been not-so-subtly hinting at. While's it's obviously still not official subject to change, that fresh new keyboard you see above has been turned up in Windows Mobile 6.5 build 28002 by the folks at XDA, and is likely similar to what should eventually hit the public in Windows Mobile 6.5.3. They also say that since the source is in a DLL file, the keyboard is prime for some customization -- we'll take ours with the "o" and "p" in their proper place, thanks.

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Motorola registers 'Backflip' name, could be for the Motus

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 3:13PM

We think there's probably a really good reason why landscape QWERTY handsets don't hinge in reverse, but hey, everyone gets a little wild and crazy once in a while, right? Cellpassion has discovered that Moto has recently secured rights to the "Backflip" name in Europe, which would dovetail nicely with that allegedly leaked image of the upcoming Motus a few days back -- we hadn't really considered it the first time around, but on second look, we can imagine how this wouldn't be your average mechanism here. Sadly, the latest rumors have this thing based on Android 1.5 when it hits next quarter, suggesting that Motorola's having a hell of a time updating BLUR for newer builds -- and that could be a huge sticking point for 'em going forward.

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4iThumbs overlay adds a tactile keyboard to your iPhone... sorta (video)

By Darren Murph

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 12:10PM

The iPhone keyboard (or the lack thereof) has been a polarizing point for many, and while we've seen a workaround or two in our day, we've yet to see a solution to the lack of tactility as beautifully simple as this. 4iThumbs is a screen overlay that adds minuscule bumps on your iPhone display -- bumps that correspond to where the keys are when using the vertical keyboard. 'Course, these things are apt to bug you when using the horizontal keyboard (or no keyboard at all), but we're guessing the heavy texters in the crowd won't mind. Have a look at the videos below the break for a better idea of what you're about to get yourself into. Oh, and be sure to pick up a pair of Awethumbs while you're at it -- we hear these two go great together.

Update: A horizontal version is available, hooray!

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SFR becomes second Euro carrier to launch femtocell service

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 12:05PM

Following Vodafone's lead, France's SFR has now become the second network operator in Europe to launch femtocell service for its signal-strapped customers. The Ubiquisys-sourced unit is being sold under the SFR Home 3G brand and runs €199 ($300), so you'd better really need a couple extra bars before you take the plunge -- though the good news is that they're not laying down any arbitrary restrictions requiring you to use it with SFR's DSL service. Coincidentally, SFR is minority-owned by Vodafone, so the move makes some sense -- so whether femtocells take off in Europe among any carriers without Voda interest remains to be seen.

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Palm and Sprint issue statement acknowledging Profile backup issue

By Darren Murph

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 10:18AM

Even in a world full of racket, it seems that the squeaky wheel still gets the grease. In yet another blow to this whole "cloud" agenda, a vocal segment of Palm users began to notice that information transferred from their online Palm Profile was only a fraction of what it should have been. Today, both Palm and Sprint have issued a joint statement acknowledging the issue and promising to work much, much harder in order to avoid having something like this ruin your life once again. To quote:

"We are seeing a small number of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Palm Profile information to another Palm webOS device. Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device."

Between this mess and the T-Mobile fiasco, we're pretty certain we're being forced to stay on the manual backup bandwagon for the foreseeable future.

[Thanks, Mike]

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Samsung Galaxy looking confirmed as Bell's first Android phone

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 8:58AM

Canada's Bell and Telus are going hog wild with handset selection since the launch of their new Rogers-matching (if not beating) 21Mbps HSPA network -- one need look no further than the launch of the LG BL40 for evidence of that -- but there's at least one glaring issue: Bell's yet to launch an Android set. That puts 'em at a distinct disadvantage against Telus, which already has an HSDPA 860 / 1900 cut of the HTC Hero on shelves -- but it looks like that won't be an issue for long. A scanned poster that's apparently already up in Bell stores has turned up on the ever-reliable interwebs this week clearly showing Samsung's Galaxy posing alongside the already-launched Omnia II and Impact; the carrier doesn't do us the favor of mentioning a date here, but it can't be long -- wouldn't want to lose the Google lovers to Telus and Rogers, right?

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Nokia N900 now shipping in the land of Ford freedom trucks

By Thomas Ricker

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 7:50AM

Love to tinker and tweak your smartphone? Find running beta apps a challenge, not a burden? Then you'll be happy to hear that Nokia's N900 running Maemo 5 is now shipping in the US, a week later than the press release suggested. This Cortex-A8 phone with 32GB of on-board storage is ripe with potential and the perfect holiday gift for grandma as long as she's comfortable dropping into the X Terminal for the occasional "rm -R /home/user/.microfeed" command. It's still listed for $649 unlocked from Nokia direct though that price will be dropping soon enough.

[Thanks, Alex]

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iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet

By Vladislav Savov

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 6:30AM

So we know the iPhone has been slumming it and selling itself on Walmart shelves in the US for a while now, but it's retained a somewhat more dignified cachet over here in Europe. Until today, that is. Just "in time for Christmas," British retailer Tesco will make it possible for you to buy your socks, no-frills groceries, and shiny smartphone all in the same place. You'll still be riding O2's network, thanks to the Tesco Mobile service, but the department store chain is likely to price its contracts more aggressively, as it already has a £30 per month plan that includes unlimited calls, texts, and web surfing. Maybe there's something to this whole "competition" thing after all then, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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LG bows its GW880 OPhone for China Mobile, we start packing our things

By Chris Ziegler

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 4:32AM

Breaking News

We don't know what exactly China Mobile is putting in its manufacturer partners' tea during contract negotiations, but considering how rapidly China's largest carrier has grown its OPhone line into the most desirable single-network lineup of Android handsets in the world, we'd strongly recommend they continue to do it. Rumors of an LG entry back in August have now come to fruition in the form of the GW880, a full touch handset launching this month featuring a solid 3.5-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, and support for a pair of pretty important homegrown standards -- TD-SCDMA for 3G and CMMB for mobile TV tuning. For comparison, LG's only other announced Android phone -- the GW620 Eve for global distribution -- steps down to a HVGA display, so yeah, if you'll excuse us, we've got a Mandarin lesson in a couple minutes.

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Sciphone's Android-loving N21 gets some time on video

By Laura June

posted Nov 25th 2009 at 12:04AM

There's just something about Sciphone's Android-based handset, the N21, that we can't get enough of. This KIRF-tastic little dude has attitude in droves, to go with its clunky exterior. The 3-inch touchscreener boasts a 5 megapixel cam, WiFi, and an onscreen keyboard -- not to mention what looks like a killer stylus experience. In the video (which is after the break), you can check out the many and varied features of this looker of a device.

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