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HP and Palm: what happens next

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

HP announcing that it’s going to buy Palm in a $1.2b all-cash transaction certainly took everyone by surprise, but in many ways the deal makes perfect sense. HP is a gigantic player in the tech industry but has no appreciable presence in rapidly-growing mobile space, and Palm — well, you should know how we feel about Palm by now. Even still, we can’t say we were expecting this one, and it looks like most of you weren’t either — HP only got two percent of the vote in our “who should buy Palm” poll, while Engadget (that’s us!) got… fourteen percent. Oops.

But now that we’ve had a day to wrap our heads around the news and think about what Palm and HP said to us last night and to analysts on the conference call announcing the deal, we think we’ve got a pretty good set of educated guesses on how things might shake out over the next few months. Read on!

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HP and Palm: what happens next originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skyfire 2.0 beta for Android video preview!

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

We just spent a few minutes playing with the beta version of Skyfire 2.0 for Android that was released today, and we’ll cut to the chase: this is easily the best browser we’ve used on the platform. Clearly we’ll need to spend more time with it to make sure it can handle all the typical sites you’d want to visit while you’re on the road — but loading the desktop version of Engadget is always a great barometer for this sort of thing, and this browser rocked it. Rendering is about as reasonably fast as you can expect it to be (on our Snapdragon-powered Nexus One, anyhow), and everything we saw displayed spot-on perfect (save for embedded Flash, of course), but if you’re in a situation where you don’t need to see the full page or it looks screwy, you can toggle it to send an Android user agent right from the app’s toolbar below the URL field. It works just about as well as Steel and the built-in browser on a G1 we tested, and Flash videos work just fine there as well.

The browser touts compatibility with Flash videos, too, so we headed over to YouTube to try our hand at it; it immediately detected the presence of a video and popped up the so-called “SkyBar” at the bottom of the screen, where you can press the Video button to load the video in a new window. It doesn’t work embedded in the page, but considering how small your phone’s screen is, that’s really for the best — you get the full-screen experience, and in our testing, it looked fantastic. One downside is that you don’t seem to be able to scrub videos while they’re playing, but maybe this is something these guys can get patched up for the final release. Follow the break for our full video!

Update: One annoyance we’ve noticed is that pinch-to-zoom works in “steps” — it’s not smooth, which makes it pretty weird to use, but remember that Opera Mini doesn’t support it at all.

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Skyfire 2.0 beta for Android video preview! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola posts another tiny quarterly profit, phone division not yet pulling its weight (update)

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Moto’s earnings for the first quarter came out today, and they pretty much echo what the company managed to do in the fourth quarter of 2009 — pull a small profit thanks to performance from the Home, Enterprise Mobility, and Network groups in the face of an operating loss from the Mobile Devices (read: phones) division. Unfortunately, all of the numbers are just a little bit worse across the board; Motorola didn’t have any Droid-style blockbuster launches or major gift-giving holidays to help it along this quarter, and ended up dropping $192 million in the hole compared to $132 million in the quarter prior. Co-CEO Sanjay Jha still seems upbeat, though — and he’d better, considering that he’ll lead the spun-off phone division after the breakup — pointing out that shipments actually increased in the quarter with the release of six new handsets. When you throw all the numbers together, the combined company posted $69 million in earnings, down from $142 million in the fourth quarter; hey, that’s still better than a loss, especially considering that it’s estimating considerably higher earnings in the current quarter. Follow the break for Motorola’s release.

Update: Despite the slight profit, poor phone sales may have finally cost Motorola the stateside mobile crown. The Associated Press is reporting that with 8.8 million iPhones sold in Q1, Apple has edged out Motorola as the largest phone maker in the US.

Continue reading Motorola posts another tiny quarterly profit, phone division not yet pulling its weight (update)

Motorola posts another tiny quarterly profit, phone division not yet pulling its weight (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plantronics Explorer 395 Bluetooth headset review

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

At Engadget, we’re used to playing with premium Bluetooth headsets like the Jabra Stone and Jawbone Icon, so it’s only natural this $49.95 Plantronics headset would lower our expectations, but turns out it’s not bad for the money. For starters, the actual earpiece looks much better than the renders we saw, with a retro look that we quite liked. We’re also promised easy operation with few buttons — the silver paddle-like button (with LEDs underneath) for phone calls and Bluetooth pairing; the black volume button on one side with five incremental volume steps; and the ridged power slide switch on the other side. You’ll find a micro-USB port at the end of the silver button, followed by the ear plug underneath and the mic on the other end. Enough with the list of features — read on to find out how well this headset performs.

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Plantronics Explorer 395 Bluetooth headset review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skyfire 2.0 beta now ready to set Android ablaze

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

We’ve been seeing mobile browsers steadily raising their game lately, so it was inevitable that Skyfire would look to shock and awe us with its first release for the Android platform. Version 2.0 introduces a brand new SkyBar — which ironically sits at the bottom of the screen — providing users with a trifecta of new features. Firstly, the Video link serves as a workaround for those pesky “your phone ain’t got no Flash” missives by doing server-side conversions of Flash video into universally comprehensible formats like HTML5. If implemented well, this should be a major coup for the company, particularly in light of a potential iPhone release as well. There’s also a streamlined sharing feature for social networks, and an Explore function that suggests internet content on the basis of what’s currently on display. We’ll be testing out the usefulness of these shortly — for now, hit the source link to get your own Skyfire going.

Update: Check out our hands-on preview of the new browser right here. Hint: it’s pretty awesome.

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Skyfire 2.0 beta now ready to set Android ablaze originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s ‘quick and simple’ Stride for US Cellular is exactly that

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

When you pay $29.95 for a phone on contract, you have a pretty good idea of what you’re going to be getting: basic communication. Indeed, that’s exactly how we’d describe the Samsung r330 Stride for US Cellular, a red-accented flip sporting a 1.3 megapixel cam, Bluetooth, speakerphone, 55MB of internal storage for all of your address book needs, and not much else. It’s available now; follow the break for Samsung’s full press release.

Continue reading Samsung’s ‘quick and simple’ Stride for US Cellular is exactly that

Samsung’s ‘quick and simple’ Stride for US Cellular is exactly that originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Droid Incredible arrives as promised (Update: not yet!)

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. HTC’s impressive Droid Incredible has arrived, so if you pre-ordered one you can expect it today (if you haven’t already gotten it) — and if you didn’t, well you can pick one up at a nearby Verizon store. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our full review of the Incredible.

Update: So, a friendly tipster pointed out to us that on Verizon’s website, it actually still lists the Droid Incredible as available for pre-order. To quote: “Due to high demand, this device will ship by 5/4.”

Continue reading HTC Droid Incredible arrives as promised (Update: not yet!)

HTC Droid Incredible arrives as promised (Update: not yet!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs publishes some ‘thoughts on Flash’… many, many thoughts on Flash

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Steve Jobs just posted an open letter of sorts explaining Apple’s position on Flash, going back to his company’s long history with Adobe and expounding upon six main points of why he thinks Flash is wrong for mobile devices. HTML5 naturally comes up, along with a few reasons you might not expect. Here’s the breakdown:

• It’s not open. “While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.” Man, that’s some strong irony you’re brewing, Steve. Still, we get the point — HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript are open web standards.
• The “full web.” Steve hits back at Adobe’s claim of Apple devices missing out on “the full web,” with an age-old argument (YouTube) aided by the numerous new sources that have started providing video to the iPhone and iPad in HTML5 or app form like CBS, Netflix, and Facebook. Oh, and as for flash games? “50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free.” If we were keeping score we’d still call this a point for Adobe.
• Reliability, security and performance. Steve hits on the usual “Flash is the number one reason Macs crash,” but adds another great point on top of this: “We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.” You’ve got us there, Steve, but surely your magical A4 chip could solve all this?
• Battery life. “The video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software.” Steve Jobs is of course H.264′s #1 fan, and it’s hard to blame him, since he cites 10 hours of H.264 playback but only 5 hours with software decode on the iPhone. Still, those “older generation” sites that haven’t moved to H.264 yet are pretty much the exact same sites that aren’t viewable with HTML5, which means we’re being restricted in the content we can access just because some of it doesn’t perform as well.
• Touch. Steve hits hard against one of the web’s greatest hidden evils: rollovers. Basically, Flash UIs are built around the idea of mouse input, and would need to be “rewritten” to work well on touch devices. “If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?” That doesn’t really address the Flash-as-app scenario (that’s point #6), but it’s also a pretty silly sounding solution to a developer: your website doesn’t support this one UI paradigm exactly right, so why not rewrite it entirely?
• The most important reason. Steve finally addresses the third party development tools situation, but it’s really along the lines of what we were hearing already: “If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features.” We doubt this will end all debate, but it’s clear Apple has a line in the sand.

He concludes in saying that “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice.” Basically, it’s for the olds. And you don’t want to be old, do you? Follow after the break for the whole thing in brilliant prose form.

Continue reading Steve Jobs publishes some ‘thoughts on Flash’… many, many thoughts on Flash

Steve Jobs publishes some ‘thoughts on Flash’… many, many thoughts on Flash originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC expects 36 percent increase in Q2 sales thanks to Android

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

If Apple created the first round of disruption to the business-as-usual lethargy infecting the cellphone industry then Google appears poised to bring round two. When looking around at choices, it’s the Android OS backed by Google’s cloud-based services and the 50k app-strong Android Market we usually find underpinning the sexiest and most powerful hardware on the market. And guess who’s making the hardware? Right, HTC. Now HTC — thanks to its recently introduced Desire, Legend, HD Mini, Smart, EVO 4G and Droid Incredible — says it expects record revenues of $1.6 billion in Q2 on sales of 4.5 million handsets, up from 3.3 million handsets sold in Q1 and ahead of analyst expectations. Cheng Hui-ming, HTC chief financial officer, credits the bump to the “growing popularity of the Android platform in Europe and the US”. One can only imagine what HTC sales will do when its long-standing Microsoft partner releases Windows Phone 7 OS later this year.

HTC expects 36 percent increase in Q2 sales thanks to Android originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 04:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia X2

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Nokia X2 sports an impressive 5-megapixel camera with flash, 3.5mm jack – a must for a music phone – and it will lets you communicate through Nokia Messaging, as well as surf the web with Opera Mini. Being a model from the music series, the candybar features dedicated music controls on its left side. As the phone is not smart, you’ll be using the Series 40 interface on the Nokia X2′s 2.2-inch QVGA screen.

Basic specifications:

Photos:

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WebOS 1.4.1.1 now available for Verizon subscribers

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Hardly the most exciting Palm news you’re gonna hear this week, but the company that still owns itself for the time being has just updated its WebOS software on Verizon to the extremely granular version 1.4.1.1. The helpful changelog informs us there are no new apps, but pinch-zoom now works correctly in Doc and PDF views, a lag in the camera shutter sound has been rectified, and forwarding videos uploaded to YouTube on to your friends via email has also been made to work as it should. The most important fix of all, though, is to a keyboard input issue whereby a single key press would generate a letter twice — both Pre Central and one of our readers report that this problem appears to have been consigned to the past. Good stuff, now let’s see it go global, shall we?

[Thanks, subzero and Sam F.]

WebOS 1.4.1.1 now available for Verizon subscribers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s micro SIM card is the matryoshka doll of micro SIM cards

Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Alright, well played, AT&T: you’ve sort of managed to undo Apple’s unfortunate move of eschewing nearly two decades’ worth of deeply-entrenched SIM card standards in favor of a new one that literally nobody in the consumer cellphone world is using — and for that, we thank you. We’re being told that these new SIMs are now being sold in AT&T stores for $15 and will work both with the iPad 3G and… well, literally every other GSM device you’ve ever owned, thanks to a couple of well-placed perforations that can turn the standard SIM into a micro SIM. This is presumably a preemptive strike to support the next-gen iPhone, too, but otherwise, you can go ahead and use the big card without busting out the little one. Trust us.

Update: Our tipster wrote back in to say that they’re actually not being sold in stores yet, so if you’ve formed a line outside your local brick-and-mortar, go ahead and turn in for the evening. Sorry, folks!

AT&T’s micro SIM card is the matryoshka doll of micro SIM cards originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cyanogen ports Android 2.1 to G1 and MyTouch 3G (update)

Posted on 28. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Droid, Milestone, Eris, Moment, Spica, even the Hero, all have had their Eclair, one way or another. G1 and myTouch 3G? Not so much. But don’t worry, Android early adopters, because Cyanogen‘s got your back. Most all the bells, whistles and hardware-accelerated graphics of Android 2.1 are coming to the HTC Dream, Magic and Sapphire in CyanogenMod 5.0.7, and you can see a video of a T-Mobile G1 running the new build after the break. Twitter buzz indicates the ROM will be out any minute now is nearly ready; the dev himself tweeted that it’s good to go and just needs G1-friendly bite size packaging.

Update: Don’t stay up all night waiting — Cyanogen says he’s got “two more bugs to kill” and is “hoping for a test1 public beta tomorrow night.”

[Thanks, Philosophics]

Continue reading Cyanogen ports Android 2.1 to G1 and MyTouch 3G (update)

Cyanogen ports Android 2.1 to G1 and MyTouch 3G (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile drops some overage charges in favor of bandwidth throttling

Posted on 28. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Well, it looks like T-Mobile has some good news and some bad news for customers using its 5GB webConnect data plan. The good news is that the carrier will no longer be charging its $0.20 per megabyte overage fee for any data used beyond the 5GB limit, thereby effectively making the 5GB plan an unlimited plan. The bad news is that in place of an overage charge, it will be implementing bandwidth throttling on any data used on top of the standard 5GB, although it’s not saying exactly how much it will slow things down. Customers using T-Mobile’s basic 200MB monthly plan aren’t left out of the changes either — while they won’t see any bandwidth throttling, they will see their overage charges cut in half from $0.20 to $0.10 per megabyte. Both changes are apparently effective immediately.

T-Mobile drops some overage charges in favor of bandwidth throttling originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple acquires virtual assistant search app maker Siri

Posted on 28. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

Apple acquires virtual assistant search app maker Siri originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone tethering on AT&T still waiting on better network performance

Posted on 28. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

AT&T’s own Ralph de la Vega mentioned as early as November of 2008 that you’d be able to tether your iPhone to your computer and use it as a modem “soon,” but here we are some ten months after the initial announcement of official tethering support in the platform and there’s no sign of it. Considering that many iPhone carriers around the world deployed it as soon as Apple had it ready — and many more came online over the months to follow — it seems that AT&T’s silence on the issue has spoken volumes. We reached out to the company today to get a statement on the feature’s status, and here’s what we got back (text bolded by us, not AT&T):

“We understand that there is great interest in tethering but cannot provide any details at this time. We know that iPhone users love their devices and mobile broadband, and that they’re likely to embrace tethering just as they have other features and apps – by using it a lot. iPhone tethering has the potential to exponentially increase traffic, and we need to ensure that we’re able to deliver excellent performance for the feature – over and above the increases in data traffic we’re already seeing – before we will offer the feature.“

Coincidentally, that’s almost identical to a statement the company issued last September, but regardless, AT&T can’t necessarily afford to meet its network “performance objectives” before acting — Verizon’s announcement that Palm’s Mobile Hotspot app would become a free add-on with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus was a serious shot across the bow of any other American carrier trying to woo business customers and road warriors. Think it’ll go live before the next iPhone does?

iPhone tethering on AT&T still waiting on better network performance originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP: ‘We’re doubling down on webOS,’ Palm: ‘That was the whole point’

Posted on 28. Apr, 2010 by IBM. 

We just spoke with both Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior VP of Strategy and Corporate Development, and Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein, and came away with a pretty positive picture for the future of Palm. The money quote is that HP plans to be “doubling down on webOS,” and that was confirmed in speaking with Palm’s honcho, who says that “that was the whole point.” Not only that, but we’ve confirmed on both ends that Jon will be staying on with the company, along with much of the existing Palm hierarchy. There are plenty of transition details to work out, but Jon says there will be lots of time for all that during regulatory and shareholder approval. The word is that Palm’s existing hardware roadmap is basically untouched at this point by this acquisition, but the good news on the HP end of things is that the company sees webOS as a “prized asset,” and they intend to “scale it across multiple connected devices.” That sounds like tablets to us, and HP didn’t beat back that assumption. On the Palm hardware end, Jon is very fond of saying “scale,” referring to the money and manufacturing resources at HP’s disposal, but he also says that he sees Palm working hand in hand with HP on devices. One point that both companies were less clear on was the Palm branding itself — you know, whether Palm will stay Palm. Both Brian and Jon said those kinds of details would be worked out as the acquisition went forward, but offered no concrete comment on it otherwise.

Money-wise we asked if Jon thought HP could provide the sort of “ammunition” to beat Apple, Google, and Microsoft at their own mobile game, and Jon says “I don’t think HP would do this unless they were willing to make the kind of investment necessary to win.” HP calls webOS a “compelling operating system,” but that Palm didn’t have the money to compete and “scale it across multiple form factors,” and that it’s exactly HP’s financial wherewithal, brand, and corporate culture that it brings to the table. HP and Palm won’t comment specifically on the forthcoming device roadmap, but HP did confirm that it had tested the platform “to make sure it scales.” They keep saying “scale,” but all we’re hearing is “tablet.”

HP: ‘We’re doubling down on webOS,’ Palm: ‘That was the whole point’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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