“Forget what you thought you knew, because you’ve never seen a Droid like this.” is really just a nice way of saying “Oh, that Droid we spent millions advertising like 5 months ago? Old news. This one is the best one. Seriously. At least, for the next 5 months, unless it isn’t.”
Get excited, Verizon Pixi Plus or Pre Plus owners! But not too excited. Just a little bit excited. Less “Holy crap, I’m getting a petting zoo for my birthday!” excited, more “Neat, it’s probably not going to rain on my birthday!” excited.
Verizon just pushed out a minor update for webOS, bumping things up to version 1.4.1.1. While there’s nothing in terms of new features, it’s jam-packed full of bug fixes. Check out the full list after the jump.
The full list:
Improvements:
Ready for the new tweaks? Go pound the update button a few times — failing that, look for it to be automagically rolled to your kit within the next 48 hours.
Back in February, Skyfire (makers of the popular, Flash-enabled smartphone browser of the same name) announced that they’d snatched up Kolbysoft, the company behind the well-established Steel browser for Android. Today, we’re seeing the first fruits of that purchase coming to the market: Skyfire for Android is here.
Skyfire’s flagship feature is that it supports Flash video playback, so you’d expect their Android port to do the same, right? And it does! It just does it… a bit differently.
In past versions of Skyfire, Flash videos were embedded and played back directly within the page, just like you might expect from a PC version of the page. With Skyfire 2.0, one more step is thrown into the mix: the “Skybar”. When they’re ready to play back a Flash video, users tap the menu key to bring up the Skybar, click the “Video” label, and then choose which Flash video they want to view. Skyfire converts the video from Flash to H.264 in the cloud on-the-fly, and the video plays back (in full screen) on the device.
Why the change? A rep for Skyfire shared a few reasons with us:
Besides being the window to video, the Skybar also packs a few other tricks. An “Explore” option digs through Youtube, Twitter, Digg, and other sites for relevant video/imagery on the same subject as the content you’re currently looking at. For example: Believe it or not, they have videos of cats doing hilarious things on the Internet now; if you’re watching one of these and tap Explore, it’ll dig through the aforementioned feeds for other, equally hilarious cat videos. The “Share” button will let you sling the page out to Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, SMS, or save it for offline viewing.
Beyond the Skybar, Skyfire’s got a few other features that make it worth checking out: Pinch-to-zoom, tabbed browsing, on-the-fly user agent switching, and optional automatic history dumping (Porn mode!), to name a few.
Check out the video demonstration below, and look for the download to go live here and on the Android Market at right around 9 a.m. PST.
Breaking news, fresh off of the wire: HP just finalized agreements to buy Palm for $1.2 billion dollars.
HP’s $1.2 billion dollar purchase breaks down to roughly $5.70 per share of common stock. While this is spot on with the $1.2-$1.3 billion pricetag Palm was rumored to be shopping around as of late, it’s still a mammoth difference from what Palm was trading at just months ago. In October 2009, Palm was worth about $17.46 per share; by January of this year, that was down to $13.41. It has, unfortunately, been a downward spiral ever since.
And for all you webOS fans out there: Don’t worry — it doesn’t look like the platform is going anywhere just yet. It appears that the companies plan to continue the development of webOS, leveraging HP to “rapidly accelerate the growth” of the platform.
HP has seemingly been lightening their efforts in the pocketable mobile space lately — but with the iPAQ line and countless Pocket PC handsets behind them, they’re by no means strangers to it.
However, the smartphone space might not be HP’s only interest here – given HP’s recent desire to take on Apple in the tablet space (with the HP Slate) and that Windows-powered tablets just don’t seem to sell, might we see a webOS-powered tablet sometime in the future? Paired with the proper hardware, webOS could easily make for an absolutely incredible tablet experience.
Even if HP abandoned webOS altogether (which, again, doesn’t appear to be the plan right now), they just bought them selves a monstrous card to play: Palm’s patent catalog. It’s a porcupine tactic: It’s hard to make a big dent in the smartphone biz when every company around can throw patent infringement suits at you — but when you’ve got hundreds upon hundreds of patents (or quills) in your armory, people are going to be a whole lot more careful about stepping on you.
Contrary to previous whispers, it appears that CEO Jon Rubinstein will be staying with the company. To quote the release, “Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.”
Semi-transparent smartphone screens floating in front of the user Minority Report style are all the rage right now. Palm started it back in May with their first “Life moves fast. Dont Miss A Thing.” commercial. Microsoft had the unfortunate timing of launching a strikingly similar ad just 3 days later — and then RIM showed up with their crazy impromptu dance club remix of the idea just yesterday.
Oh well. Copy-cats aside, Palm’s carrying on with the idea. Showing off their new found abilities to make ads that don’t creep us out or otherwise turn us away, they’ve just released two more TV spots. (Heads up: Instead of cute lady people, these ones feature hipster dudes, one of whom seems to be trying to dress like Neo.)
Looks like the Verizon/Vodafone exclusivity on the Kin 1 and Kin 2 might be short-lived — or at least, someone at Microsoft is already prepping for the day when it’s over.
Days before the Kin 1 and 2 were made official, a ROM hacker known only to the internets as Conflipper published screenshots pulled from an early copy of the Kin OS. After a bit more digging, Conflipper just stumbled upon some more goodies: Kin system provisioning files for other carriers. Lots.. and lots of other carriers.
Provisioning files are pre-packed settings bundles — in this case, it looks like they might be pre-packed setting bundles used to quickly configure Kin handsets for use on a variety of networks.
Conflipper’s full dump of the provisioning file directory can be found here — but for simplicity’s sake, here’s a cleaned up version of the list:
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that any of the carriers above (outside of Verizon and Vodafone) will be getting the Kin 1/Kin 2. Some could be getting exclusive Kins of their very own. Or these could just be temporary files created for demonstrating the handsets to the carriers on their own networks back when Microsoft was originally pitching them. Or some bored intern could have just created a bunch of provisioning files for the hell of it.
10 months. That’s how long its been since Adobe first demonstrated Flash on Android — and that’s pretty much a lifetime in the mobile world. And yet, official Flash support for Android is still nowhere to be seen*. Do these people not understand that I have virtual fish to feed and e-crops to tend?
While we still don’t have an exact date, we do know which version of Android it’ll be coming in: the next one.
In an interview with the New York Times, Chief Android Architect Andy Rubin made it official: Android 2.2, otherwise known as the “Froyo” build (with the latest device-ready build being 2.1, otherwise known as “Eclair”), will have Flash support built in. This goes hand-in-hand with Adobe’s previous indications that Flash for Android would be available sometime in the second half of this year.
Alas, it’s still not clear which already existing devices will be upgradable to 2.2, nor whether or not all upgradable devices will play friendly with Flash.
The first time the world ever saw the original iPhone, they saw a pair of clownfish, emerging from a tangle of anemone, set as the lockscreen wallpaper. Pulled straight from OS X’s wallpaper collection, this image would go on to be used in countless first-gen iPhone marketing materials; wherever the iPhone 2G went, so did the clownfish.
Now, take a closer look at that BlackBerry OS 6.0 sneak preview video from earlier. Skip to the 50 second mark. Notice anything funny? Its.. the same.. clown fish.
Pro Tip: If you mute your speakers, these people look absolutely insane.
Nokia’s not very happy right now. Just days before they officially announced their new flagship phone, the X8, someone managed to get their hands on an early prototype. Sound familiar?
Unlike Apple’s prototype iPhone, Nokia’s leaked X8 actually booted up, bearing its early software — and all of its early faults — for judgement.
Although Eldar’s early hands-on makes a passing mention or two of the device’s early state, Nokia says it isn’t enough:
“Buried deep down in the blogger’s salacious headlines about the software not being ready, was the most important point. This is a very early, pre-production prototype with dated software that is not yet ready. So the site’s comments that the software ‘felt premature’ is probably one of the more blindingly obvious things you will read this year.”
While they’re disappointed that the prototype was revealed in such a manner, they say it won’t let it affect the way things work at Nokia. While they avoid naming any names outright, they make a fairly transparent jab at Apple’s (generally) extreme security practices:
“However, whilst we are determined to protect our intellectual property and maintain the surprise when a shiny new gadget is introduced, we are not going to do so at the expense of the working conditions we enjoy here at Nokia. We are not the Secret Police, and we want to maintain our culture of openness”
In the end, they just want their prototype back, closing the post with “Now that the official news is out, we’d like our prototype back. Please.” Lets just hope Eldar doesn’t make them write a signed and dated letter.
Tiny wireless headsets getting new features, for free, by way of a software update? We’re living in the future, you know.
We just got word from Aliph that their $99 Jawbone Icon headset will be gaining support for the A2DP (music streaming) protocol tomorrow, by way of a free update made available through their AppStore-esque headset customization portal, MyTalk
A2DP is a Bluetooth profile built for streaming 2-channel audio, so it’s generally reserved for stereo Bluetooth headsets. The Icon obviously isn’t a stereo headset (being that it’s a one-ear headset) but Aliph says they got a good number of requests from people who wanted to be able to stream their tunes regardless.
Scott Adams, everybody. If he’s not one of your heros, you probably just need to read up on him a bit more.
Adams wanted Dilbert to touch in on the lost iPhone prototype — but unfortunately, there wasn’t an open slot in his publishing queue until June 18th. Rather than pushing the comic out many weeks after it’d be relevant, Adams decided to push not one, but two comic drafts straight to his fans via his personal blog.
Neither of the comics will ever reach the newspapers. Be sure to check out the second (equally great) comic on Adams’ site.
Hey, Android handset owners! Tired of your iPhone-toting friends bragging about how they can tune into SiriusXM radio on the go, while you can’t? Me too. (Don’t have any friends who happen to have both SiriusXM accounts and an iPhone? Me neither. We’re pretending, okay?)
Fret no longer! Your time in the shadows of inadequacy is nearing its end, friend: SiriusXM is officially coming to Android.
While Sirius isn’t giving any specific dates, a sign-up page that went live recently promises that it will be “available soon”. The application itself will be free, though you’ll need a monthly SiriusXM subscription to keep the tunes pumping after your 7-day trial is up.
And before you Stern fans get too excited about listening to ol’ Curly on the go: just like with the iPhone app, Howard Stern (along with MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio) won’t be making an appearance here due to “contractual rights things“.
Obesity sucks. Unfortunately, smart phones generally don’t do much to make the problem any better. Sure, there are plenty of exercise-assistance apps, like RunKeeper, built to make exercising easier and thus more likely to happen — but for the most part, our smartphones help us to move less. Why walk to the computer downstairs, when you’ve got the web in your pocket? Why walk aimlessly around the city looking for a fun new restaurant, when there are a million review apps telling you where to go and Google Maps telling you the shortest way there?
Looking to counteract this, Snaptic has launched the “Move Your App!” developer challenge. The idea is simple: develop an Android app that gets people up and moving, and you could win an all-expense paid trip to the TED Global 2010 conference.
We don’t generally write about third-party developer challenges here on MobileCrunch, but I dig the motive of this one. Getting people to be healthy and live longer is a pretty noble goal.
The contest is free to enter, though there’s one catch: whatever your app is, it needs to make use of at least one of Snaptic’s APIs. Snaptic’s APIs are largely focused around the creation and syncing of notes — so, depending on what your app is, it might be tough to work that in.
The challenge runs until May 27th, so get crackin’. You can check out the full details for the dev challenge here. Be sure to let us know if you enter, won’t you? Good luck!
Nexus One owners, you might want to take a seat for this one. You know the HTC Incredible? That phone that popped up out of no where, matched or surpassed all of the Nexus’ specs, and then killed off any chance of a Nexus One for Verizon? Now, you recall that unfixable issue that the Nexus One has with handling multi-touch input properly?
Yeah.. erm.. the Incredible doesn’t have that issue.
You see, the Nexus One uses a slightly aged touch sensor by Synaptics, called the ClearPad 2000. It wasn’t built to do all the crazy multi-touch stuff that HTC and Google finagled it into doing — hence the wonkiness exhibited when you start to really push the Nexus’ multitouch abilities to the edge. After the Nexus One, HTC has ditched the ClearPad 2000 in favor of a sensor built with multi-touch in mind: the Atmel maXTouch.
The Atmel is a pretty fancy piece of kit. It requires less power, responds faster, and can track as many fingers as you can fit on screen. The bad news? That doesn’t really help anyone with any multitouch-enabled, HTC-made handset that came before the Incredible.
On the upside, this really only affects the small handful of Android games that use multi-touch for more than pinching and zooming. For the very vast majority of use cases, the bug really shouldn’t be an issue.
[Video via AndroidCentral, Source: AndroidAndMe via EngadgetMobile]
I sort of love the MiFi. (What’s a Mifi? It’s a portable, battery-powered WiFi router that pulls data over a 3G connection.) If I had a box of candy for every time the MiFi got me out of a jam, I’d be.. well, I’d probably be crazy fat.
Good news, people of Japan! Now you have the opportunity to get crazy fat, too!
Today, Novatel is announcing that the MiFi is now available in Japan via Inter Communications, a big ol’ mobile tech retailer. Alas, it seems like this is a per-day rental deal only — and at about $17 USD per day, it’s not exactly cheap.
NTT DoCoMo MVNO a2network has also announced plans to carry the MiFi 2372 beginning sometime around the end of April, though pricing hasn’t been announced there yet. Lets hope it’s cheaper than 17 bucks a day, yeah?
About eighteen seconds after word got out that a prototype of Apple’s next iPhone had been lost, found, and then subsequently sold to Gizmodo (for somewhere around $5,000), commenters and pundits everywhere started asking: is all this legal? There are a bunch of complicated laws involving the ownership and selling of lost goods — not to mention lost top-secret intellectual property — and this iPhone seemed to be sitting in a pretty nasty gray area.
Turns out, the people of the Internets aren’t the only ones interested — the Santa Clara County police are curious, as well.
The folks at CNET spoke to a source at the Santa Clara Police department, who said that a “computer crime task force led by the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office” is now investigating the matter.
It’s not at all clear who (if anyone) they’re aiming the law hammer at, be it the gent who found the prototype for turning around and selling it, or Gizmodo for buying it. Either way, things get even more complex when you bring in the First Amendment and freedom of the press; what if Giz won’t reveal who sold them the iPhone? Is that protecting a source, or some sort of crazy mixed up obstruction of justice?
Giz took things to a new level, for better or worse, in purchasing the prototype and publishing what they did — and if any legal action goes down as a result, it’ll undoubtedly set a precedent. With that said: In the long run, it’s just a phone. No one died, nothing too earth shattering was revealed from a trade secret standpoint was revealed (Gasp! New shape!), and Apple got their prototype back. Sure, it’ll make Apple’s June announcement ever so slightly less exciting — but is that worthy of a mark on someone’s criminal record?
Is the world ready for yet another smartphone platform? Probably not – but it’s got until June to get prepped. According to Samsung, that’s when they’ll be launching the Wave, their first phone to be powered by Bada.
The good word comes after a handful of UK retailers started promising that Wave pre-orders would be filled in the next few weeks, implying that the handset would drop in April or May. Check out Samsung’s statement after the jump.
The comment from a Samsung Spokesperson, which was sent to TechRadar this morning: “The Samsung Wave is not currently available for sale in the UK, but we look forward to its launch in June 2010, at which time details of tariffs and stockists will be released by our operator partners.”
So what do you think? Are you dying to ride the Wave?
[Via SamsungHub]
NOOOOOOOOOOO.
There I was, letting myself get excited about possibility of HTC acquiring Palm. I mean, can you imagine webOS on HTC-made hardware? I’d buy one for each hand. Alas, those hopes and dreams have been dashed.
According to Reuters, HTC took a look at Palm’s numbers and decided that it wasn’t such a good deal. Along with whatever bits of webOS they kept around, HTC’s purchase of Palm would have also earned them one of the biggest, most insurmountable patent catalogs in the industry, thereby securing themselves against future lawsuits from Apple or anyone else. For HTC to give that up because of the numbers doesn’t make the numbers sound too great.
Oh well – there’s always Lenovo.
What’s that you say? Your Nexus One can’t hold a 3G signal worth a damn?
Bummer, dude! In a response to the angry masses demanding a OTA fix to rid them of their woes, Google employee Ry Guy has disclosed that they’re no longer “investigating further engineering improvements”.
The full text of the post:
I’ve seen some recent speculation on this thread about an OTA to improve 3G connectivity and I want to give you an update on the situation.
While we are continuing to monitor user feedback regarding the 3G performance on the Nexus One, we are no longer investigating further engineering improvements at this time.
If you are still experiencing 3G issues, we recommend that you try changing your location or even the orientation of your phone, as this may help in areas with weaker coverage.
-Ry Guy
Can’t get 3G where you’re standing? Well, then “[change] your location.” Duh.
It’s entirely possible — likely, even — that there’s simply no way to improve reception via a software update. They can only improve basebands and radio firmware so much; at a certain point, it’s like trying to improve your car’s mileage by changing the shape of the gas pedal.