Author: Greg Kumparak

Tired of all that boring ol’ two finger pinching-and-zooming and swiping on the iPhone? Ready for some fancy new gestures to be thrown into the mix? Wish granted. Soon. Maybe.

Last night, Apple released a new beta of iPhone OS 3.2 to developers. As is par for the course at this point, people almost instantly began tearing through the OS looking for secrets hidden within – and it looks like they just found one.

Tucked deep within the file system is a set of gesture recognizers, defining which fancy finger tricks that iPhone OS can recognize. In this latest build, it seems that two new gestures have made the list: “3tap” and “LongPress”. While no one has nailed out any way to make use of either just yet, we’re pretty sure we can deduce what they are from the names: three finger tapping, and long-hold presses.

Neither of these are really brand new; long-hold presses are already used by Apple to rearrange apps on the homescreen, and developers could have been detecting three-finger taps manually from the beginning. Their presence as official gestures, however, indicates that Apple might be looking to make them more easily accessible to developers and more widely used throughout the OS.

I’m having a hard time thinking of ways that a three-finger press could be used in an intuitive way where alternatives wouldn’t work just as well. Any ideas? Let us know in the comments below.

Update: As Mike points out in the comments, “3tap” could also mean 3 taps in quick succession. For example, 2 quick taps on a map could be zoom, while 3 quick taps could be super zoom. What say you?

[Via 9to5mac]

Handset manufacturers are usually pretty good about holding their tongue about specific release dates until the launch date is a sure thing, so it’s not too often that we see delays in the mobile world. What’s even more rare than a delay, however, is something shipping way earlier than expected.

And yet, that seems to be exactly the case with the HTC Legend.

No one was expecting this thing to launch until April, but a handful of forumgoers over at Dutch gadget blog Tweakers.net are reporting that their lovely new aluminum uni-bodied handsets arrived fresh from the factory early this morning. Alas, there’s still no official word as to whether or not this thing is ever coming stateside (though unofficial word points to “Yes.”)
[Via Engadget]

WAAAAY back in November, Casio and Verizon showed off the G’zOne Brigade, an ultra-durable clamshell phone with a surprise QWERTY keyboard packed inside. “Push to talk!” they said. “It’s weatherproof!” they said. And then the radio went silent; nearly four months later, not so much as a release date had been mentioned.

Well, it looks like the release might sneak up on us, with a shelf date as early as tomorrow. We just got a flurry of tips indicating as much, all of which came in within a few minutes of each other. When the tips avalanche like that, it usually indicates that the store employees themselves just found out and felt like spreading the news.

We’ll work on digging up a bit more confirmation as to whether or not this thing is shipping tomorrow (drop us a line at [email protected] if you know), so don’t go breaking your current, non-rugged phone in the mean time.

You know what weirds me right the hell out? Companies doing their own unboxing videos. That’s our job. I realize they’re probably proud of their work and are just itching to show it off, but a new handset getting its first video unboxing by the company that made it is like a dad taking his own daughter to prom. Wrong? Not technically. Kind of awkward? Absolutely.

Oh well. Sony Ericsson decided to debox their ultra-pretty Android phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, themselves. Go ahead and watch it after the jump — I won’t be too hurt.

[Via AndroidCommunity]

Do you love Android? Like, really love Android? So much so that those Android action figures just don’t seem like enough? Well, now there’s a way for you to show the world how much you really care about your favorite OS: by bringing it to bed with you.

Now, now, get your mind out of the gutter (There are no intentional innuendos anywhere in this post. Honest!). Etsy seller Craftsquatch has just started churning out the Android-themed throw pillows you see above for $19.99 a pop. If you want one of these, you may want to act fast for two reasons: A) it’s Etsy, so its handmade, thus inherently being limited edition and B) we’re guessing that, unlike the aforementioned Android toys, this use of the Android logo isn’t exactly licensed.

Samsung’s pretty proud of their Super AMOLED technology – and why shouldn’t they be? With next to no fanfare, they managed to knock out the readability issues that plagued AMOLED handsets any time they were within view of the sun. And if vastly improved readability wasn’t enough, they went and slimmed the whole thing down into a package considerably tighter than the competition’s not-so-sun friendly offerings.

Samsung’s compiled a nifty little video showing off all the reason why their Super AMOLED displays deserve their name.

Interestingly, they left out any sort of audio track. Come on, Samsung – this is 2010. We’ve been nursed by booming bass, and embraced by endless loops. If it doesn’t have a crazy techno soundtrack, how do you expect to keep our attention? Don’t worry, dear reader; I’ve got your back. Press play on the provided track below, then start the video.

[via Engadget]

Given that the HTC Touch Pro 2 saw upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.5 on just about every other carrier months ago, Sprint Touch Pro 2 owners might be feeling a wee bit rebuffed right now. On the brightside, chances are good that the upgrade is coming eventually, right?

Well, it looks like “eventually” might be sooner than later.

PPCGeeks forumgoer Platin465 scanned in the above table from a Sprint Small Business Catalog which indicates that the Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade will be coming down the pipes some time in March.

Also worth noting: whoever made that table sucks terribly at making tables. Why the heck would you list “Windows Mobile 6.5″, “Android Market”, and “BlackBerry App World” as separate comparison items? No phone is ever going to have more than one. Just list what operating system they have and call it a day.

[via WMpoweruser]

If you’ve been messing with the App World on your favorite BlackBerry device lately only to be plagued by some nasty glitch, you might want to check out the brand-spankin’-new App World update that just went live — it might have fixed it.

I say “might” here because, well, we’re not really sure whats changed. RIM didn’t release a changelog, and the only thing people have noticed so far is that it runs “smoother”, which may very well be a subconscious side effect of having just updated something.

We’ll update you if we get any positive confirmation about any changes – in the mean while, feel free to go dig through the new build and let us know if you find anything. It’s like an Easter egg hunt!

[Via CrackBerry]

Good news, everyone! We’ve got another acronym for you to remember! Back at CES 2010, Palm announced that they’d be launching a “PDK” at some point in the future – and, well, it’s here, and it’s time to pay some attention to it.

You see, “PDK” stands for “Plug-in Development Kit” (as opposed to “SDK”, or Software Development Kit). Being that webOS is built on various web technologies, its been tough for them to get any boastable number of games into their app store — it’s tough to design a killer 3D game in HTML and Javascript, you know? That’s where the PDK comes in.

The PDK allows programmers to execute native C and C++ code in webOS apps. Ran through the geek translator, that means that game developers can make radically more intensive games in a programming language they’re long accustomed to working with. Even better, it helps folks who have already designed games on other platforms (coughiPhonecough) port their games over to webOS with considerably less effort, as they can use code they’ve already written. It’s still not a matter of pressing a button and flipping a switch, but it’s less mind-blowingly-difficult now.

Be sure to check out Palm’s FAQ on the topic here. It seems like Palm actually fielded questions from developers , like this gem:

Q: Does the webOS PDK amount to an admission that your original SDK was not robust enough to produce compelling applications?

Not at all! Palm remains fully committed to the web as a mobile development platform, and the App Catalog today features thousands of compelling applications built using the current webOS SDK. The webOS PDK complements the webOS SDK by allowing developers to use C and C++ code in their webOS apps when it makes sense for business reasons (like leveraging existing code) or technical reasons (like implementing functionality not currently achievable using web technology alone). 3D games are one category where the PDK is a great fit for both business and technical reasons.

Doodle Jump for the iPhone is something like a developer’s fairy tale: two brothers set out to make a game using only the talents they’ve got at hand, and end up striking gold. They keep pushing out minor updates, and the game just keeps selling.

Tomorrow morning, Lima Sky will be announcing that Doodle Jump has just surpassed 3 million sales — a feat, they claim, is a first for any Indie development house. If it seems like we were just writing about Doodle Jump surpassing the 1 million download mark, it’s because we were; that last landmark only just came in mid-December of last year. Less than 3 months later, Lima Sky has managed to triple an already impressive haul.

At 99 cents a pop, this game has pulled in at least $2.97 million in revenue since it launched in March of 2009. Given that Apple takes 30% of all sales revenue, that works out to about $891,000 for the folks in Cupertino, and $2.08 million for the two brothers behind Lima Sky. A million bucks per year (per person) from a single iPhone game? Not too bad, guys.

We started drooling about the HTC Supersonic as soon as we heard the words “Android” and “WiMax” in the same sentence. Once “4.3 inch display” got thrown into the mix, our salivary glands just couldn’t be stopped.

While HTC hasn’t made even the smallest of official peeps about this thing yet, it looks like someone out there has gotten their hands all over it – and just as anyone with early access to a new, unannounced cell phone should do, they took some video.

Given that this thing is packing WiMax and a mysterious HTC device recently showed up in their inventory, all signs are indicating that its headed for Sprint. You can read our round-up of all the HTC Supersonic info we’ve got here.

[Thanks Andrew!]

Swype for Android’s finger-dragging input method goodness has been available to some extent through other means for a while now — some legit, some not quite as legit. Legitimate means or otherwise, Swype has still only been made available to pretty small group of people.

Well, things are about to open up — if only just a bit.

Swype has just announced their first official Beta release, and will be accepting applications to the testing program here. Swype does say that user-installed copies will be missing some of the features that the factory-installed versions have – but they’re not saying exactly which features that entails. The beta supports HVGA (320×480) and WVGA (around 480×800) screens, which should cover just about everything from the T-Mobile G1 to the Nexus One.

Be sure to get your application in quick to increase your odds of getting in – and if you do get in, be sure to let us know!

[Via Phonescoop]

Our full review of the Motorola Backflip should be up in a few days, but a few words of wisdom in the mean time: Don’t buy it. Between its crazy form-factor and the hidden trackpad tucked on the back of the display, everything we took as merits at face value have devolved into novelties.

Worst of all, it seems AT&T has taken a page from their time with the iPhone that no one wanted them to take. Like the iPhone — but unlike any other Android handset we’ve seen — the Motorola Backflip can’t install applications from any sources beyond the official, on-handset application store.

By default, all Android handsets are soft-limited to installing applications solely from Google’s Android Market. If a user tries to install an app through the browser with a brand new handset, they’ll get an error message telling them that they’ll need to flip a switch in the configuration screen before they can download from “Unknown Sources”. Alas, this switch is no where to be found on the Backflip.

While it can be said that Android’s less-restrictive market should make this a non-issue, it doesn’t. Certain applications, like the paid-version of Junefabric’s PDANet tethering application, can only be installed through the browser. Other times, developers will want to release their applications in beta form to a limited number of users outside of the market — something which, as it stands, Backflip owners will be unable to partake in.

What do you think? Knowing that AT&T is trying their damnedest to play gatekeeper on Android, would you still buy a Backflip?

[Thanks John R.!]

We’re still trying our darnedest to not feed the hype machine surrounding Project Pink, considering that all signs are indicating that neither phone is anything to get worked up about.

With that said, a couple of new shots of the Turtle (the stout, portrait sliding QWERTY handset) and the Pure (the horizontal QWERTY handset pictured above) have just leaked out, along with some information about its impending launch on Verizon.

According to the tipster who leaked the shots below to Engadget, Verizon is tentatively scheduled to launch one or both of these phones come April 20th. There are also whispers of a Vodafone release, though no date for that was given.

Last but not least, the tipster verified that the Project Pink phones will be aimed at a teen/young adult audience. In other words, it’s Microsoft’s best attempt to bring something to fruition after the purchase of Danger, all talent losses aside.

Can’t get enough of the ultra gorgeous, uni-body HTC Legend? Neither can we. That’s why we’re glad (and a bit jealous) that our buddy Chris Davies over at SlashGear got his mitts all over a near-retail version of the device, and proceeded to give it a proper unboxing.

We say “near-retail” version because there seems to be a few things missing; while the device itself seems primped and polished, the box is missing any sort of graphical wrapping, and the microSD card that should ship with the device wasn’t included. Things might change a bit before the Legend hits retail in April — but if you’ve got a Legendary itch that needs to be scratched, the video after the jump ought to help.

The wording in the headline may not be, you know, exactly what HTC said – but it might as well be.

After the folks over at Crave UK woke up to a broken screen — which they swear isn’t their fault, as the device had just been sitting on a desk charging — full of inky purple rage on their Nexus One , they shot a call over to HTC support. After investigating the device, HTC sent back a response: they were stumped.

Probed for more information, HTC’s support guy allegedly told them “Putting a phone in a tight pair of jeans and sitting down would usually cause that kind of damage,” and that “People sometimes forget that they don’t go in pockets.”

I somehow have a hard time believing that HTC’s official stance on pockets is that they’re bad news – instead, this sort of seems like something a support guy made up off the cuff for the sake of having something to blame. As someone who worked tech support for a few years and has blamed many a weird problem on the technical equivalents of pixies and boogie men, I salute you for your ingenuity, Mr. HTC Support Guy.

I’ve been trying to avoid writing much about Microsoft’s secret Project Pink as of late, primarily because we just don’t want to get folks hopes up too high; according to our sources, not a whole lot has changed since we passed on word that the handsets were pretty terrible.

With that said, it’s our job to inform you of the news when the news comes up – and some new stuff has just come up.

Gizmodo just got their mitts on a pair of real-world shots portraying the Pure, the horizontal QWERTY slider that makes up half of the Project Pink handsets that have leaked thus far (with the other one being “Turtle”, a stout portrait slider). At right around the same time, a gent by the name of Conflipper pushed a handful of Pink screenshots (and a camera sample pulled straight from the pre-release hardware) on to Twitter

Again — and I hate to sound cynical here, as cynicism is really the cheapest and least entertaining route to take — don’t get too excited. Everything I’ve been hearing for the past few months indicates that the Pink phones are glorified Sidekicks designed by committee.

[Conflipper link via Engadget Mobile]

It’s been a few days since webOS 1.4 made its debut, and each one of them has been filled with countless “Screw you @Palm!” tweets out of Canada. Turns out, them folks north of the border aren’t too fond of waiting for something after the vast majority of the Palm-carrying world already has it.

Well, Canadians, your time in the video-recording-capable sun has come. Palm has just flipped the switches to make webOS 1.4 available to Bell Canada customers. That just leaves one last carrier without 1.4: Telcel Mexico.

Good news, road warriors! AT&T has just churned out a pair of brand spankin’ new 7.2 megabit per second 3G dongles, just for you.

The first one up is the LG Turbo, a fairly standard fare; its got the aforementioned 7.2 HSPA, a microUSB slot for adding a bit of extra purpose to it. It’ll set you back $99 bucks on a 2 year data contract, but you’ll get $99 bucks back after mail-in rebate.

The second offering, the Option Velocity, has a bit of extra fun in its pockets: GPS. Do you need a GPS chip packed into your 3G dongle? Probably not. But you can get it! It’s a pretty cool option for road-trippers who want a really precise idea of where they are at any given time, plus a way for folks out there running carputers in their dash to slim things down a bit. The Velocity will cost $129.99 out the door, but a mail-in rebate knocks the long term price down to $29.99.

Both units should hit the AT&T retail stores on March 7th.

At long last, webOS has been granted a Facebook application worth its weight in kilobytes. A completely revamped version of the Facebook application has just gone live in the Palm App Catalog – and boy, is it an improvement.

Palm has offered some level of Facebook support on webOS since the launch of the Pixi – but as we noted in our Pixi review, calling what it had “Facebook support” was probably exaggerating. You could sync your Facebook contacts, read your news feed, and.. well, that’s it.

The new app seems much more properly endowed, offering up access to your news feed (with full liking/commenting support), full profiles, people search, photo albums, inbox, events, photo uploading, and more. And of course, it’s still fully intertwined with webOS’ Synergy system, allowing the user to automatically sync Facebook friends to their relative contacts, complete with profile pictures as caller ID photos.

We’re just cracking this app open for the first time right this second, but it certainly seems like the fully featured Facebook app that webOS deserves.

Update: Added a few screenshots below!
Update #2 Some people are reporting that the application in the App Catalog is still the old version. If that’s the case for you, try using the App Catalog’s built in update feature (Open app catalog, tap the shopping bag on the bottom right).