02/13, 6:45am
HTC Endeavor UI leaked all over the Internet
The yet to made official HTC Endeavor has had its ROM leaked ahead of its official unveiling, which expected to made at the World Mobile Congress at the end of February. The leak has confirmed the rumored Tegra 3 processor and has also yielded screenshots of HTC’s revamped Sense 4.0 UI overlay for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). In addition to confirming that the Endeavor will be one of the first Tegra 3 smartphones, it also offers the first look at how one of the leading Android smartphone makers has reworked Google’s stock ICS interface for its own hardware.
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02/12, 3:25pm
Google Experience Center would target Project X
An investigation into Google's public records has hinted that the company is planning large expansions that would be incubators for multiple secret projects. The Mercury News sleuthing found that Google was spending over $120 million in construction around its Montain Vew headquarters for both public and private work. Secret projects would reportedly play a part, including for the Android@Home wireless audio device and Google's well-known but still secretive Project X labs.
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02/12, 2:30pm
comScore shows shift to mobile in mail
As part of a larger study, comScore has shown that e-mail is making a large shift away from the web. Among teens and those aged 18 to 24, webmail use dropped by about a third in December from where it was one year earlier. Declines also appeared among the 35 to 44 set (down one point) and 55 to 64 (by seven points).
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02/12, 1:45pm
ATT gets ready for shared data plans
AT&T's efforts for shared data plans came closer to fruition Sunday after leaks from its Telegence account management system. Staffers showed Engadget that the interface for family plans was being changed to include a data section so that staff could add the eventual data plans at the same time as voice and text. No clues appeared for when shared data would take effect.
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02/12, 10:00am
SNL shows troubles of modern 4G ads
Saturday Night Live made technology an unusual target after it poked fun at Verizon in a pre-recorded skit (below). A customer (Fred Armisen) comes in asking about the carrier's 4G LTE network and is barraged with an increasingly technical and nonsensical sales pitch. By the end, LTE is likened to orange juice, and Verizon is described as an "old person's nightmare."
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02/11, 10:35pm
Google Wallet prepaid cards go down for now
Google quickly reacted to mounting Google Wallet security issues by putting a temporary freeze on new prepaid cards. While at least some existing users could keep paying with theirs, Google was preventing new uses as a "precaution" before it could get a surefire fix, Wallet VP Osama Bedier said in a post Saturday. He nonetheless insisted that Google Wallet had multiple security layers, ranging from its own PIN code requirement to an auto-wipe of local Wallet data if the phone is rooted after the Android app is installed.
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02/11, 1:40pm
Apple lawsuit vs Samsung expanded
An expansion upon what few details have been available from Apple's new Samsung lawsuit has suggested that it reaches more at the core of Android and less at Samsung's specific actions. Along with accusing Samsung of violating a newer unlock gesture patent than what was covered in Germany, a second patent for a "universal interface" for retrieving data appeared to Florian Mueller to accuse Samsung of violating Siri-style searches, where stitching together keywords presents just the immediately needed results. While Android on a base level doesn't do this, it would prevent Google from providing a narrower search method in Android.
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02/11, 12:55am
Spotify and Foursquare get special features
Two major mobile apps got updates for special features at the end of the week. Spotify on iOS (App Store) now has the option to both stream and sync audio at 320Kbps, the same quality as it exists on the desktop. While it requires either a more intensive Internet connection or extra storage for cached tracks, it puts the app's audio quality ahead of other on-demand music rivals.
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02/10, 7:45pm
Instagram gets significant visual update
Instagram finished the week with a significant update to its app (App Store). The 2.1 update now has Lux, an image adustment option that automatically brings out details in highlights and shadows in a rough equivalent to high dynamic range (HDR) shooting. Similar to the tilt-shift effect, Lux can stack with other filters.
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02/10, 7:40pm
Android malware, RootSmart, infecting phones
A new piece of Android malware is afflicting thousands of users. North Carolina State University professor Xuxian Jiang, who documented the nature and behavior of RootSmart last week, believes that between 10,000 to 30,000 user devices are connecting to a botnet without their knowledge everyday. Most of the affected users thus far are located in China and have installed the GingerBreak root access tool for Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
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02/10, 7:05pm
LG Optimus Vu caught in the wild, wider than Note
The LG Optimus Vu has surfaced in live photos. The large ‘phablet’ centers on a 5-inch display that uses a 4:3 aspect ratio resulting in wider 90mm body than the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note, which comes in at 83mm wide. The device is expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, which runs from February 27 through March 1.
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02/10, 6:40pm
FCC puts up $300 for Phase 1 of Mobility Fund
The FCC has scheduled a reverse auction to help facilitate a build out program to expand 3G services to rural regions. The agency has compiled a $300 million Mobility Fund for Phase 1 of the project as it aims to give US citizens ‘universal broadband and advanced mobile coverage by the end of the decade.’ The money has been made available as part of the Connect America Fund.
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02/10, 6:05pm
High-end phone to be waterproof, get LTE, NFC
A new smartphone from NEC Casio is due to launch in Japan at provider NTT DoCoMo. The high-end Medias LTE N-04D will support 4G LTE speeds and sport a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. As is typical of high-end Japanese phones, a 1Seg TV tuner will also be onboard.
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02/10, 5:55pm
ATT upgrade fee hike coming February 12
A staff memo has leaked plans for AT&T to hike its device upgrade fee. The BGR copy had the cost jumping from $18 to $36. The cost was allegedly necessary because the "overall costs" for upgrading to a new device had gone up, AT&T said.
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02/10, 4:45pm
Apple uses patent exhaustion versus Motorola in US
Apple's lawsuit retaliation continued on Friday after it sued Motorola in the US over 3G patent issues. The iPhone designer sought to block Motorola from making patent violation accusations based on its use of Qualcomm's MDM6610 cellular chipset as well as any others it might use. It came after Qualcomm confirmed to Apple that it was already paying for a license to Motorola's 3G patents, which Apple took to mean that it was exempt from paying itself.
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02/10, 4:00pm
Galaxy Mini 2 due out at Mobile World Congress?
The Galaxy Mini from Samsung may soon get a successor in the form of the leaked Galaxy mini 2 S6500. GSM Arena was sent an image of the device from a source, together with some basic specs. The touchscreen has grown to 3.3 inches and has a higher resolution, while the processor is 200MHz faster, now at 800MHz. The internal storage space got the biggest bump, to 3GB.
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02/10, 2:55pm
LG Miracle given full look before MWC
LG's Miracle was given its first fully outlined look Friday after it was spotted in live photos. Briefly popping up on a Romanian auction site, the Windows Phone seen by GSMArena lined up with descriptions of a device with a four-inch screen. The device, clearly an escaped prototype, also verified the five-megapixel rear camera and what looked to be a front camera.
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02/10, 1:25pm
EU seen as likely to approve Google buy as US
Two insiders claimed Friday that the European Commission was likely to approve Google's acquisition of Motorola. In sync with talk of a likely US approval, Reuters understood that the EU regulatory body would greenlight the deal in "unconditional" form. The EC had reportedly decided that the takeover wouldn't be anti-competitive.
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02/10, 12:55pm
Nokia outs Public Transport app for Belle phones
Nokia has just detailed its new Nokia Public Transport app (free, Ovi Store), for its Belle-powered smartphones. It offers bus, train, underground and suburban train schedules for nearly 80 cities and urban areas around the world. Users can also bookmark often-visited locations such as their home or work.
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02/10, 12:35pm
Will take wrap off previously unknown phone at MWC
Acer will soon be launching its flagship CloudMobile smartphone. Pocket-lint reports that the company will be revealing the Android 4.0 device at the upcoming Mobile World Conference in Barcelona later this month. Only some details are available.
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02/10, 12:35pm
Apple sues Samsung twice in one week
Apple scaled up its legal attacks late this week with lawsuits against Samsung both in the US and in Germany. The American complaint, details of which were filed in a Northern District of California court in San Jose on Wednesday and published on Friday, accuses Samsung of violating two patents that it had only just obtained in December. Samsung was accused of copying iOS' techniques for heuristic information finding as well as its method of suggesting a replacement word when a misspelling is highlighted.
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02/10, 11:50am
Chitika claims iOS now used online more than Mac
New Chitika traffic data has seen Apple possibly cross a milestone for web use online. As of February, 8.15 percent of all web traffic being monitored was coming from an iOS device, passing the Mac for the first time with OS X share at 7.96 percent. The two platforms had been converging since October, with the Mac losing share mostly as Apple's other OS gained prominence.
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02/10, 11:15am
Phones 4U JUMP offer combines two contracts
UK cellphone store chain Phones4U has introduced a new upgrade plan for users who want to upgrade their handsets as often as six months. Dubbed JUMP (Just Upgrade My Phone), the scheme involves splitting up the cost of a new phone over a new, second two-year contract. Users also have the option of trading in their current handsets.
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02/10, 9:50am
HTC Droid Incredible 3 may go 2-core, Android 4
A telling scoop Friday has shown that Verizon plans at least one more HTC Droid Incredible phone. The hardware seen by Phone Arena, known at least temporarily as the Droid Incredible 3, would be a major leap in speed over the Droid Incredible 2 with both LTE-based 4G and a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon. The hardware is conspicuously using the same Android 4.0 plus Sense 4.0 interface as the Ville and could be the first US phone to get the updated layer.
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02/10, 9:05am
Verizon ships Droid 4 LTE messager
Verizon delivered one of its first smartphones of the new year Friday in the Droid 4. The Motorola headliner we tried at CES is up for $200 on a contract, making it one of the more affordable LTE phones. Buyers can also pick it up for $550 contract-free.
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02/10, 8:25am
ATT stocks first LTE micro-SIM cards
AT&T's plans for the year took a step forward Friday after a sighting of its first LTE-capable micro-SIM cards. A store contact for Phone Arena caught a briefing that sales staff were to get rid of older cards and replace them with the new versions fully capable of talking to the 4G network. The memo didn't specifically attach the cards to any one device.
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02/09, 10:25pm
Motorola intros sleek Gleam+ flip for Europe
Motorla kept its basic feature phone roster going Thursday with the Gleam+. The flip phone is 13.5mm thick and sports a unique LED matrix on its clamshell that displays the time or notifications and alerts. It earns its plus tag partly through its inclusion of an HTML-capable browser, still a rarity in something its size.
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02/09, 7:00pm
Hand wave starts voice recognition reportting
Waze, an Israel-based mobile-apps start-up has issued a new release of its iOS version of its app to let drivers report traffic conditions while still staying focused on the road (free, App Store). The app makes use of the iPhone's proximity detector to activate voice recognition by waving a hand. It then asks a series of questions which helps the driver create and send a traffic report.
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02/09, 7:00pm
Profit margin is nine times industry average
The ability of Apple to dominate the telecom industry while only selling about nine percent of all handsets comes mainly from its ability to leverage a healthy profit off its products, something most of the other manufacturers are unable to do, according to a new report from Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley. Apple earned 80 percent of all profits in cell handsets (both feature and smartphone) with an operating margin of 47 percent, about nine times the industry average.
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02/09, 6:40pm
Bug allows users to create new PIN
Yet another Google Wallet vulnerability has been spotted, just one day after security researchers published details of a similar issue that only affects rooted devices. The latest vulnerability is claimed to affect all Android devices, however, including those running stock software.
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02/09, 6:25pm
Motorola says Android too linked to hardware
Motorola was unusually critical of its likely future acquirer Google late Wednesday in an interview. Senior enterprise business VP Christy Wyatt claimed to PCMag that Google made timely Android OS updates difficult because of its tendency to target each major release against a reference phone like the Galaxy Nexus. Since the initial release only supported that hardware, no other Android partner could get started on drivers and other code they needed to get moving.
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02/09, 5:15pm
Earlier indications from phone-maker prove false
Nokia has told Astound smartphone owners that they won't be upgraded to the latest Symbian OS release, Belle. Apart from thanking owners for their patience, it didn't say more. Its international equivalent, the C7, is getting the new version.
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02/09, 4:55pm
Google may tap Android at Home for own speakers
Google may be making its own wireless audio system and dipping into its own hardware, an apaprent leak uncovered Thursday. The unnamed system, purported by the Wall Street Journal to have been in the works for years, would share at least music throughout the home. It would be sold directly under Google's brand, including the speakers, but could talk to other hardware and could use a phone or tablet for control.
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02/09, 4:20pm
iPhones, iPads become de facto hardware
The US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is dropping BlackBerries from the roster of supported devices for workers, reports indicate. A memo from CIO Joseph Klimavicz, dated February 3rd, is said to show that BlackBerry support will end after May 12th. Beyond that point, the organization is throwing its weight behind iOS, the minimum standards being iOS 5, an iPhone 4, or an iPad 2.
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02/09, 4:20pm
Leaked Sprint trial program allows early upgrades
Sprint will soon begin an Upgrade Now trial that will give some of its subscribers the option to buy out the remainder of their contracts in order to upgrade to new hardware early, SprintFeed learned. The trial will only be available at corporate stores, and there are restrictions on who's eligible. Fees will be determined based on how much time is remaining on a user's contract, with new two year contracts started as well.
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02/09, 4:05pm
Verizon releases slew of Android updates for gear
Verizon has just released a slew of software upgrades for its Android-powered gear, including the Droid Xyboard tablets which are getting the 1.6.0M_279 update. It promises to enhance third-party pen and native touch performance, better browsing, maintaining a data connection while swapping from Wi-Fi to broadband, and in a twist now has global roaming for data. The update is nearly 84MB.
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02/09, 2:40pm
HTC stalls some Android 4 updates despite vows
HTC had to backtrack on upgrade promises Thursday with a follow-up posting delaying most. Only the Sensation, Sensation 4G, and Sensation XE will get the new OS by the end of March. The Sensation XL would come soon afterwards, but the Amaze 4G, Desire HD, Desire S, Evo 3D, Evo Design 4G, Incredible S, Rezound, and Vivid would only get updates "later this year."
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02/09, 1:25pm
Apple hits symbolic stock value
An exceptional run on Apple stock over the past few days has made Apple's stock value worth more than either of its two most direct rivals combined. A comparison has shown that, as of mid-day Thursday, Apple's market cap of about $456 billion was greater than both those of Google ($198.9 billion) and Microsoft ($256.7 billion). As noted by AppleInsider, Apple was taking advantage of both Google missing targets and bruising its share as well as Microsoft's historic inability to excite shareholders.
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02/09, 1:00pm
Samsung files for Galaxy Camera trademark
Samsung may apply its Galaxy smartphone branding to a dedicated camera if a recent trademark filing with the USPTO is any indication. The "Galaxy Camera" name it's seeking would likely involve an Android-powered compact digital camera with a significantly larger lens, perhaps similar to the Polaroid SC1630 we had a chance to check out at CES. The filing falls under the "Cameras and Camcorders" section of the patent office and therefore wouldn't be a phone.
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02/09, 12:25pm
SmartData claims Apple violates modular PC idea
Apple is facing a rare instance of foreign patent trolling this week after a discovery that Swiss firm SmartData has sued it over a lone patent. The accusation, quietly filed earlier in the week in Apple's home court district in San Jose, alleged that the Apple TV, the iPhone, and the iOS Remote app violated a patent for a "modular computer." Using Remote on the iPhone to control content on the Apple TV copied the technology, the plaintiff argued.
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02/09, 8:55am
Telus becomes 3rd Canadian carrier with LTE
Telus became the third Canadian carrier with an LTE-based 4G network on Thursday. Starting on February 10 in Halifax, the carrier will have the same 75Mbps peak download speeds and 12-25Mbps averages as the existing networks from rivals Bell and Rogers. It plans to kick off the network with the Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE, LG's Optimus LTE smartphone, and Novatel's Ovation MC679 modem; the Galaxy Note with LTE will be available on February 14.
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02/09, 6:00am
Google+ for Android gets revamp
Google has updated its Google+ app (Free, Android Market) for Android. The latest version incorporates significant speed boosts, including quicker load times. One of the new features added includes a ‘What’s hot’ stream allowing users to quickly see the latest buzz from friends.
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02/08, 11:00pm
NVIDIA likely to show HTC Endeavor at MWC
NVIDIA has sent out invitations to a special event at Mobile World Congress that's likely a strong clue of what at least one partner will show at the event. It plans to show more "quad-core firsts," hinting that a Tegra 3 phone will appear at the event. Most likely, the reference is to either the HTC Endeavor or the upcoming Fujitsu Arrows phone.
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02/08, 10:25pm
Google working quickly to fix bug
Researchers at security firm Zvelo have released details surrounding a Google Wallet vulnerability that is claimed to leave a user's PIN data exposed. Engineers were reportedly able to develop a crack that quickly determines a user's four-digit PIN, which serves as an essential security layer to prevent the NFC system from transmitting card data without authorization.
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02/08, 10:15pm
Lenovo Q4 results show banner gains
Lenovo as part of record results for its fall quarter clinched the top spots in key parts of the PC business. While it wouldn't give exact numbers, it mostly sided with IDC rankings that saw it claim 14 percent of the computer market worldwide, or second place. It was now large enough that it was the leader for shipments in work PCs of any kind as well as in home desktops.
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02/08, 9:30pm
Company focusing on Microsoft's mobile OS
Nokia may be putting all of its weight into Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, according to the company's European manager, Victor Saeijs. The executive told the Swedish news outlet Dagens Industri that the handset maker's Windows Phone investments must prove successful, as there is no "plan B."
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02/08, 9:10pm
First Android/LTE phone to hit Europe
Vodaphone will soon launch Europe's first smartphone to support both Android and LTE in the continent's first real adoption of 4G. The carrier has confirmed that it will soon begin shipping the HTC Velocity in Germany, with other countries arriving soon afterwards. It represents a white colored variant of the HTC Vivid being sold in the US by AT&T, and elsewhere as the Raider.
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02/08, 7:50pm
DOJ may OK Google-Motorola with conditions
The Department of Justice is leaning towards approving Google's takeover of Motorola, insiders leaked Wednesday. It wasn't clear what the motivating reasons were in the Wall Street Journal tip, but the approval could be publicized as soon as next week. Regulators would mostly be watching to see if Google abused the patents it would get with Motorola to attack competitors.
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02/08, 7:20pm
Low-end phone features four-inch screen
Motorola has set out official plans to launch the MOTOLUXE in the UK. The entry-level phone sports a four-inch display and runs Android 2.3. Carriers weren't named, but resellers should have the phone by late February.
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02/08, 7:15pm
Pricing and launch date expected soon
Microsoft has quickly terminated its pre-order program for Nokia's Lumia 900 handset, after taking deposits for a week. The company has yet to disclose full details surrounding the move, however it has ignited speculation that the flagship Windows Phone 7 smartphone may be nearing its ship date.
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