Author: Greg Kumparak

It’s still not ready for its “official” launch, but Firefox Mobile just took one big ol’ step closer to the big day with the launch of Release Candidate 2. As with the past few releases, this one’s only available for Maemo device. Don’t got Nokia’s latest greatest tablet? Don’t sweat it — you can still play with it by way of emulation.

We didn’t expect too much more to be packed into this release, but we were pleasantly surprised. They’ve bumped the rendering engine up to Gecko 1.9.2, which just so happens to be the same engine that will power the upcoming release of full-blown Firefox 3.6. Perhaps most important for those waiting to dabble, they’ve also fixed a pretty nasty bug that kept things from running smoothly on the Nokia N900.

If you’ve got a Maemo-powered tablet, you can download the release at https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/m/. Stuck without a tablet to tap at? You can also find it for Windows here, Mac OS X here, and good ol’ Linux here.

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It’s been a big week of sequels for LG at CES 2010; first they launch the LG Lotus’ slightly-upgraded sibling, the Lotus Elite, and now they’re following up the LG Rumor with the finger-centric Rumor Touch.

The LG Rumor Touch is a feature phone, but it’s probably about as fancy as feature phones come before you start wondering why the didn’t pack a bigger, badder operating system on it. It’s got a 3″ WQVGA touchscreen, 2 megapixel camera, support for up to 32GB of storage via microSD, and support for Sprint 3G. In terms of availability, LG is only going as far as to say it’s coming “in the first quarter”, and they won’t say a word about pricing. The past 2 Rumors have launched at $49.99 – but considering the touchscreen upgrade and the $99 price tag on the similar Lotus Elite, I’d wager that this thing will come in somewhere between $100 and $150 at launch.

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We’re big fans of the idea of external keyboards for the iPhone around these parts, so I more than get where ION’s going with the nearly full-sized keyboard accessory they just launched. Unfortunately, decisions on Apple’s part keep the idea from really being worthwhile.

You see, limitations of the iPhone platform prevent accessories like this from being able to input keystrokes to any and all applications. As a result, ION’s new keyboard can only type into its own companion app, from which you can then take the text and push it into an email or copy it to your clipboard for use in any other app. It’s by no means the optimal execution, but it’s about as good as it gets until Apple gets around to supporting proper text-input.

No official word yet on pricing, but we’ve heard rumblings that they’re aiming for around $100 bucks.

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Remember that quirky little square LG phone from last year, the Lotus? Well, they’ve gone and made another one: the Lotus Elite. This ought to sound pretty familiar for anyone who’s been reading MobileCrunch for a while, as we scooped all the details on this handset (sans the name) way back in October.

All of the details coming out today, from the January launch date to the touchscreen face and 32GB microSD card support, are spot-on for what we wrote at the time. The rest of the specs stayed more-or-less the same; there’s a QWERTY keyboard hidden inside the clamshell, and they’ve kept the same 2.0 megapixel camera on the back. Available in red beginning January 10th, and black as of February 14th. Expect it to set you back $99 bucks after a 2-year contract and a $50 rebate.

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Fresh out of Las Vegas, Palm just confirmed the existence of the long-rumored Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. They’re not announcing pricing details yet, but they did spill the beans on the launch date: January 25th. We’ll update you as we hear more.

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We’re live from Palm’s CES 2010 Press Event, where they’re expected to announce … something. Will they tell us which two phones AT&T will be carrying? Will they finally confirm that they’ve got handsets heading to Verizon?

We’ll keep the live blog goin’ as long as the mighty mobile broadband overlords allow – follow along after the jump.

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All the signs were already indicating that T-Mobile was planning on launching the gloriously beautiful HTC HD2, but good ol’ Stevie Ballmer just confirmed it during his CES 2010 keynote. Dates? Nope. Pricing? Nope. The best we’ve got is still HTC head honcho Peter Chou’s confirmation that it’d be launching in the US in “Early 2010″ – but that’ll just have to do for now.

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No sooner had AT&T announced they were making a massive leap onto the Android bandwagon than Dell went and announced their part in the plan.

Just as we’d guessed in our post on the matter earlier, Dell’s contribution to AT&T’s Android endeavour is the Mini 3. We knew this long-available-elsewhere handset would be launching stateside sooner or later, but it’s nice to see a carrier finally take it under its wing.

No word yet on pricing or availability, outside of the previously disclosed “first half of 2010″ window.

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They’re keepin’ mum on exactly which devices they’ll be getting, but AT&T just announced at their press developer conference that they’ll be offering up not one, but two Palm webOS devices by mid-2010. Sure, it could be the Pre and the Pixi – but at this point, that’d be all kinds of disappointing.

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This page just went live over on AT&T’s site. While it doesn’t give a whole lot of specifics, it does confirm that we’ll be seeing no less than three (Update: make that five!) Android handsets hit AT&T’s shelves sometime in the first six months of this year.

The “unique form factor” Moto phone is undoubtedly the kinda-wonky Backflip, Dell’s probably throwing in something along the lines of the Mini 3i, and we might just see the HTC Lancaster that we expected last year. As for the other two? Your guess is as good as ours.

[Thanks Dave!]

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With the nationwide roll-outs of 4G and WiMax finally on the horizon, it’s just about time to upgrade the ol’ gadget collection. Netgear just announced a couple of new toys that might pique the interests of the road warriors out there: wireless routers that play friendly with 4G/WiMax USB dongles.

They’re offering up two models: the MBRN3000, and the DGN2200M. Both are 802.11n routers built to share 3G/4G/WiMax connections, but the DGN2200M’s got a bit of a trick up its sleeve: a built-in DSL modem. While this model will work as an on-the-go router, it’s primarily built for business that need a backup connection; if your DSL cuts out, it’ll automatically fall back to the mobile broadband dongle.

The sans-DSL modem model should launch in March for around $149, while we should see the DSL-totin’ one in April for $179.

DGN2200M Product Page
MBRN3000 Product Page

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Another year, another CES. Each year brings bigger, badder gadgets, and each year we put our nose-to-the-grindstone in hopes of bringing you guys the best coverage yet. We’re kicking things up a few notches this year; we’ve got more happy faces from the CrunchGear and MobileCrunch team roaming the halls of the Las Vegas Convention center than ever before — and this time, we’ll be bringing it to you live.

We’ll be posting up a storm as we normally would, but we’ll also have a live video feed (brought to you by the wonderful folks over at Livestream) going around the clock over at CrunchGear to give you guys at home a little peek into the madness that is the Consumer Electronics Show. Follow us during the day as we dig for the latest gadget gossip, and then during the night as we make the terrible combination of desert heat and hard alcohol.

With all that said, I’m off to the airport. While I’m up in the air, be sure to check out John Biggs’ predictions for What to expect from CES 2010.

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Looking to make sure they’re not entirely overshadowed by Google’s much hyped Nexus One announcement later today, Rogers Canada has squeaked out a last minute Android-related press release — fortunately for them, it’s a handset we’re still pretty excited about.

Rogers has announced that they’ll be carrying the Android-powered, custom-interfaced Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 by the second quarter of 2010. Not only will they be the first carrier in Canada to offer up the device, but they’re claiming that they’ll be the first in all of North America with it – bad news for us Statesfolk that were hoping to pick one up before April.

No word yet on pricing.

You can find all of our coverage on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 here.

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T-Mobile might have been a bit late off the plate in rolling out their 3G network compared to the competition, but that gave them one small advantage: foresight. By the time T-Mobile started setting up towers, the world was already well aware that the same technology that powered their 3.1 Megabit per second 3G network could be bumped all the way up to 21 Mbps without drastic overhauls.

They’ve taken one step toward that today, kicking the speed dial up to 7.2Mbps across their entire network. They’re the first carrier to be able to claim a 100% rollout of the doubled speed — even if it is largely because their 3G network is a wee bit smaller than all of their competitors. Good news for all you speed demons: they’re looking to drive it from 7.2Mbps to 21Mbps by mid-2010, with tests already underway in Philadelphia.

[Via Phonescoop]

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As any long time MobileCrunch reader (hey, they exist!) ought to know, we’ve got a bit of a soft spot for pink phones. I’m not really too interested in carrying one (nothing against’em, it would just clash with my depressingly grey-hued wardrobe), but I like to keep a careful eye on them as they surge in popularity right around February 14th of each year. This time around, it looks like Palm might be hopping on the brightly-colored bandwagon.

Engadget just scrounged up this shot of a Sprint inventory screen. The gem is right in the middle of the list: “PALM PIXI PINK”. While not entirely damning, it’s a pretty good sign that our friends out in Sunnyvale are preppin’ a pink Pixi (Pinkzi?) just in time for the Holiday of Hallmark love.

Whatd’ya say, folks – would you rock a pink Pixi?

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I’ll go ahead and say it: the fact that this unnamed, mostly undetailed Sony Ericsson touchscreen/QWERTY handset is running Symbian S60 5th Edition rather than Android is a travesty.

We only know that it’s running 5th Edition because of the one leaked shot you see above — and outside of that, we dont know a whole lot. It’s obviously packin’ a touchscreen above a fairly monstrous QWERTY keyboard. As GSM Arena points out, this looks a whole lot like a previously leaked Sony Ericsson handset called the Kurara, which didn’t have a keyboard. What the Kurara does have, however, is an 8 megapixel camera and 600Mhz processor — so if Sony Ericsson’s going for the whole one-with-keyboard-one-without twinsies idea here, we can probably expect something similar from this unnamed piece of kit.

Update: According to SEMC, the handset we’re looking at is called the Kanna and features a 3.2″ 360×640 display, Wi-Fi, 8.1 megapixel camera, and shoots video in full 720p. They say it ought to be announced on February 14th at Mobile World Congress.

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Ever wonder what stories of 2009 the people of the Internet found most interesting? I can’t really help you there, but I can tell you which stories on MobileCrunch got the most pageviews. Now, you might assume that most of our popular stories involved the iPhone, but — well, actually, you’d be right.

The iPhone isn’t alone on the list, of course; Android makes a handful of appearances amongst our most popular stories, including one that I never would have seen coming.

1. Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid: It was the battle of the century – or at least the battle of the year. Our final call may not have been decisive, but at least it was exhaustive.
2. Tutorial: How to Tether on an iPhone 3G or 3GS running OS 3.1.2: I wrote this post on a whim while killing time in a coffee shop in early November, and it goes on to dominate just about every other post we’ve written this year. Thanks, Google!
3. iPhone Homescreen Exposé Concept: Would you use this?: In October 2009, a Swedish design house made an awesome mock-up video of an alternative homescreen for the iPhone. Within weeks of this post blowing up on various social sites, the jailbreak community turned the concept into a reality.
4. Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid Round 2: People always say that sequels are never as good as the original – and in terms of pageviews, it looks like they’re right. It probably doesn’t help that we warned people that part 2 was strictly for the Droid-obsessed.
5. Rumor: HTC working on new flagship Android device – the Dragon: This one was a sleeper success. It flew almost entirely under the radar until word of Google’s Nexus One began trickling out months later. As the rumor mill churned over the Nexus, the pageview count on related posts spiked.
6. Exclusive: Everything There Is To Know About Nokia’s Next Tablet: It’s one of our top posts of the year, and also one that I’m most proud of. We not only scooped the existence of the Nokia N900, but we exhaustively confirmed every single minute detail many months before Nokia made it all official.
7. Ten Apps All New Android Users Should Check Out: The name says it all; with the Android Market exploding the way it is right now, we’re going to have to do another one of these.
8. Apple moves to block jailbreaks once and for all: Gasp! Apple blocks jailbreaks in new iPhones! (Minutes later: Gasp! Jailbreakers find their way around the block.)
9. Apple bans another developer, 1,000 apps pulled: There was no shortage of stories about Apple denying or pulling applications from the App Store this year – but when they nix 1,000 applications in one fell swoop, it’s worth reading about.
10. 8 Little Things We Still Can’t Stand About The iPhone: What better way to cap off a year dominated by the iPhone than to discuss all the things we don’t like about it?

2009 was a huge year for MobileCrunch; readership is many, many times higher than it was just a year ago. We’re going to start 2010 off with a bang next week at CES, and things will only get better from there. We’ve got big plans for this place, and I look forward to every minute of it. Happy New Year, folks!

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Remember the last time Samsung went more than a few days without launching a new phone? Yeah, neither do we – so you’ll have to pardon us if we sound a bit skeptical here. When we got word that Samsung Mobile was holding their CES press conference at the ungodly hour of 7:30 A.M on the Day 2 of CES (otherwise known as Day 1 of being hungover), my curiosity was piqued. I mean, who the hell launches a new phone at 7:30 in the morning, halfway through a show? Not Samsung, it seems.

We reached out to a source who has never steered us wrong with the Samsung-related knowledge before, in hopes that they could shed some light on what ol’ Sammies prepping for launch. Their response? There’s nothing to shed light on. As of this morning, roughly a week before what is quite easily the most important electronics show in the US, we’re told Samsung Mobile has no plans to launch any handsets at CES. Expect TVs-a-plenty from Samsung – but unless something changes soon, all will be quiet on the mobile front.

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Oh, Android – how good you have been for Motorola. It was only months ago that they were teetering on the edge of obscurity; one 350-person Android task force later, they’ve got the most popular Android handset in the lands and are being name dropped on a nearly daily basis around the rumor mill.

A Chinese leakster managed to get his mitts on this (confusingly obscured) shot of an unreleased Motorola handset, and was nice enough to share it with the world. According to the original source, the handset you see up there is called the Motorola Shadow (or “Mirage”, depending on who’s translation you believe.) What the tipster lacks in well-framed pictures, they make up for with knowledge of the specs: coming in at a ridiculously thin 9mm, this baby supposedly packs a monstrous 4.3 inch screen running at a resolution of 850×484, an HDMI port (shown in the pic), and an 8 megapixel camera ready to shoot video in 1080p. They don’t mention an operating system, and the pic doesn’t help much in that department – but unless Motorola’s doing something crazy, it’s a pretty safe bet that we’re looking at a UI mod of Android.

[Via Electronista]

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Between CES and Google’s press event, next week is bound to be a torrential mess of press releases. Looking to sneak onto the radar before every tech writer in the lands is pulled into cranking out post after post on the latest and great from the industry’s big guns, iPhone accessory maker Mophie has gone ahead and put their upcoming wares on the table.

Known primarily for their battery packs and cases, Mophie is about to jump into a whole new ball pit: credit card readers for the iPhone.

Considering that Mophie has thus far stuck solely to the hardware end of the iPhone add-on game, this seems like an odd market for them to dive into. So much so, in fact, that I initially thought they were just releasing the credit card reader (pictured above) as an alternative to typing your credit card into various applications by hand or, perhaps, as a more aesthetically pleasing piece of hardware for Jack Dorsey’s Square.

With a bit more reading, however, it looks Mophie might be prepping to square off (had to do it) against Dorsey’s service with a software solution of their own. Here’s what Mophie said on the matter:

Marking its first combination hardware and private label iPhone application device, mophie is launching its innovative new credit card reader, empowering users to complete financial transactions on the go.

The wording of that was just vague enough that it left things a bit unclear; they are indeed bringing their own software – but what was it for? Under that definition, this could still be little more than an easier (if a bit silly) way for consumers to input credit card numbers whilst ordering online. We prodded for more info – here’s the response:

The credit card reader works with an iPhone application and is meant for small business owners to conduct transactions easier.

So there we have it folks – Mophie’s getting into the transaction business. Whether or not they’ll be handling the payment processing themselves (as Square is) or simply acting as a middle-man for a service like Paypal or Authorize.net is still unclear. Look for more details to emerge during CES next week.

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