Posts tagged BreakingNews

iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 drops in

Mar 9th

Posted by Chris Ziegler in Gadgets

Suspense! Drama! Surprises! Unrealistic expectations! It's always a veritable roller coaster of emotions whenever Apple gets around to cutting a new SDK build -- and without a doubt, iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 is no exception. We don't yet have a good read on what's new here, so if you're a member of Apple's $99 dev program and happen to get it downloaded and installed, let us know if you find anything awesome, like an iPhone 4 or iPad 2. Or, you know, anything else. Have fun!

iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 drops in originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s Courier ‘digital journal’: exclusive pictures and details (update: video!)

Mar 5th

Posted by Nilay Patel in Gadgets

We've been dying to know more about Microsoft's Courier tablet / e-book device ever since we first caught wind of it last September, and while our entreaties to Mr. Ballmer went unanswered, we just learned some very interesting information from an extremely trusted source. We're told Courier will function as a "digital journal," and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. That's a lot smaller than we expected -- this new picture really puts it into perspective -- and the internals apparently reflect that emphasis on mobility: rather than Windows 7, we're told the Courier is built on Tegra 2 and runs on the same OS as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series, which we're taking to mean Windows CE 6.

As we've heard, the interface appears to be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing, with built-in handwriting recognition and a corresponding web site that allows access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format complete with comments. We're also hearing that there will be a built-in camera, and there's a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft's e-book device, with a dedicated ecosystem centered around reading. It all sounds spectacular, but all we have for a launch date is "Q3 / Q4", and we have no idea how much it's going to cost, so we're trying to maintain a healthy skepticism until any of this gets official -- call us any time, Microsoft. One more pic showing the interface after the break.

Update: We've added a gallery of user interface shots -- some of which we've seen and some of which are new.

Update 2: We've just gotten two full-length HD videos of the interface in action. We've seen parts of these before, but there's some new stuff here that's quite interesting. Check it below.

Gallery: Courier user interface

Continue reading Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details (update: video!)

Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leak: Microsoft Pink phones coming to Verizon, on shelves April 20th?

Mar 5th

Posted by Nilay Patel in Gadgets

Details on Microsoft's Pink phones seem to be leaking all over the place this week, and we just got a huge piece of the puzzle: an extremely reliable source just told us the two Sharp-made devices will launch exclusively on Verizon, with a possible street date of April 20th. We've also got two more photos of the Pure and Turtle -- which are legit, as far as we can tell -- and some info on the Pink ad campaign, which will indeed be targeted at teens and twentysomethings and centered around that "truly madly deeply" line Microsoft employees have been tossing around lately. (Sort of explains that 4/20 launch date, right?) Whether any of this is good enough to overcome the fact that Pink seems to be a limited featurephone platform launching into a world of cheap smartphones remains to be seen, but this thing is definitely happening. New pic of the Turtle after the break.

Update: We've just heard that Pink will be coming to Vodafone internationally as well -- which explains why we've heard of both CDMA and GSM variants of the two devices.

Continue reading Leak: Microsoft Pink phones coming to Verizon, on shelves April 20th?

Leak: Microsoft Pink phones coming to Verizon, on shelves April 20th? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad launches on April 3rd, pre-orders begin March 12th

Mar 5th

Posted by Joshua Topolsky in Gadgets

Word from Apple is out -- so get your credit cards ready. The iPad will be launching on Saturday April 3rd (and on the shelves, er... display tables at Apple retail stores), but you'll be able to plunk down cold, hard cash for it in just a week. Pre-orders will begin on March 12th for the US version (non-3G) for that April street date, with the 3G version coming in late April along with iPads for eager buyers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Says our man Steve Jobs: "We're excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before." Remember, it's magic. US pricing will be as follows (just in case you need to figure out how many piggy banks to smash):
  • 16GB WiFi only -- $499
  • 32GB WiFi only -- $599
  • 64GB WiFi only -- $699
  • 16GB WiFi + 3G -- $629
  • 32GB WiFi + 3G -- $729
  • 64GB WiFi + 3G -- $829
Need more info? Full PR after the break!

Continue reading iPad launches on April 3rd, pre-orders begin March 12th

iPad launches on April 3rd, pre-orders begin March 12th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft talks Windows Phone 7 Series development ahead of GDC: Silverlight, XNA, and no backward compatibility

Mar 5th

Posted by Chris Ziegler in Gadgets

Microsoft is keen on unveiling the meat of its developer story around Windows Phone 7 Series at MIX10 in less than two weeks, but with GDC coming up next week, they're figuring that now is a good time to start dropping hints -- they'll want to be capturing the collective imagination of the gaming industry, after all, what with that Xbox Live integration they've got going on. To that end, Charlie Kindel of WinPho's developer experience team has outed a few key items at a reception in San Francisco this evening.

The major points are that Silverlight, XNA, and .NET will figure prominently into the developer story -- not a surprise considering that Microsoft is heavily invested in both, gaming is central to the Windows Phone 7 Series story, XNA is a big deal on Zune HD already, and this all lines up with what we'd heard in the past. In fact, Kindel boldly proclaims that "If you are Silverlight or XNA developer today you're gonna be really happy." On the flipside, it's a bit ironic considering that Silverlight spends much of its existence going head-to-head with Flash, and all indications are that we won't see Flash support on 7 at initial availability (though it's sounding like a lock post-launch).

One final note at today's event is that Microsoft has now officially confirmed for the first time that 7 represents a clean break from Windows Mobile as we know it today; existing apps won't be compatible. Though that's likely to be a pain for existing owners with specialized apps who are looking to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem, Windows Phone 7 Series itself is a very different beast than the operating system it replaces -- it feels different, seeks a different demographic, and symbolically represents a very important clean-slate departure for a company that had lost its way in the mobile space. The bright side for the 6.5 faithful, we suppose, is that Kindel closes by saying that they "will continue to work with our partners to deliver new devices based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and will support those products for many years to come" -- a message Microsoft has been echoing recently.

We expect to hear much, much more on this at MIX -- and we might hear a few more tidbits at GDC as well -- but in the meantime, there's a developer Q&A going down on Twitter around 9:00PM ET (check the #wp7dev tag) where we could get some details. Stay tuned.

Microsoft talks Windows Phone 7 Series development ahead of GDC: Silverlight, XNA, and no backward compatibility originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceCharlie Kindel, Twitter Q&A session  | Email this | Comments
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Verizon suffering ‘nationwide’ data outage (update: fixed)

Mar 3rd

Posted by Tim Stevens in Gadgets

Verizon suffering 'nationwide' data outageHaving a little trouble checking in on your tweeps this morning on your Droid? Is your new Pre Plus not syncing with Facebook, or your Storm2 acting a little too calm? The problem seems to lie with Verizon, which is suffering from a "nationwide" data outage at the moment. The reason we keep putting that in quotes is because we in NY are not affected (our Droid is connecting just fine) but Verizon representatives have confirmed the issue, while people in various places all over the US are unable to connect according to the forums we've been perusing this morning. Verizon indicated it does not have an ETA for when things will be fixed and, sadly, it doesn't have any status message on its site, but we'd advise not calling and bothering the support folks about this -- based on how long we were on hold we're guessing they have their hands full at the moment.

Update: We're hearing that things are popping back online for most folks, so enjoy a little 3G with your morning cuppa.

Update 2: According to this official tweet the problem has been resolved: "VZW resolves early AM data issue that involved parts, not all, of eastern US: mix of some out, slower service, many unaffected from 4-8 AM." So, if you're still out, the time has come to hit up those customer service agents.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Verizon suffering 'nationwide' data outage (update: fixed) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceDroidForums.net, CrackBerry.com  | Email this | Comments
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Nokia and Alpine integrating handsets into cars, bringing Ovi Maps to your dashboard

Mar 3rd

Posted by Vladislav Savov in Gadgets

What's the one biggest hurdle to throwing out your dedicated GPS nav unit and going ahead with the free turn-by-turn navigation offered by your smartphone? If your answer was that most phones don't have the great big screens or easy installation systems of some satnav devices, look out, because Nokia's about to shake up your world all over again. Alpine has just announced its partnership with the Finnish giant aimed at integrating Nokia handsets -- complete with free Ovi Maps navigation -- into car dashboard systems. Yes, that means you can use your superb six-amp speaker system to boom out music or voice nav instructions from the phone, as well as your in-dash 7-inch LCD for showing you the right way home. There's further interaction with widgets keeping an eye on your fuel levels and engine condition, leading to location-based services such as the phone notifying you of the nearest and cheapest petrol station. Connectivity is done over either USB or Bluetooth, and Nokia promises that this Terminal Mode will be showing up in its phones in the very near future. The sooner the better, we say.

Nokia and Alpine integrating handsets into cars, bringing Ovi Maps to your dashboard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia adds Skype to Ovi Store, foreshadows death of regular phone calls

Mar 3rd

Posted by Vladislav Savov in Gadgets

Skype for Symbian. A freely downloadable application that allows you to converse with your Skype-equipped friends over a WiFi or 3G connection. Seriously, why would you ever make another cellular call again? Nokia's just announced the addition of the online communications client to its Ovi Store, meaning that now more than 200 million users worldwide have access to essentially free calls over their beloved Symbian S60 5th handsets. You knew there was a reason to stay loyal to that stale user experience and here it is. There's not much else to say here, we're off to sell whatever stock we have in mobile network operators while you should click the source links for the full list of compatible handsets. High fives all around.

Nokia adds Skype to Ovi Store, foreshadows death of regular phone calls originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry slider photos leak out!

Mar 3rd

Posted by Joshua Topolsky in Blackberry

You can consider our minds completely and utterly blown tonight, as we've just stumbled upon these photos of what appears to be a new BlackBerry device... a vertical slider. The source (BlackBerry Leaks) doesn't seem to be able to confirm the legitimacy of the photos, but we're mostly convinced that this is some variation of a RIM device. While BB Leaks speculates on the possibility of this being the Storm 3, Kevin Michaluk over at CrackBerry suggests this might not be a device headed to market, rather an early version which has been scrapped, similar to that Magnum handset that floated onto the internet recently (though Kevin suggests that our friends in Canada may very well have plans for something in this form factor). What we can say with assurance, however, is that this device coupled with those new BIS 3.0 Gmail integration upgrades, that forthcoming RIM WebKit browser, and a rumored new OS would help push things into the territory of that dream smartphone we pleaded for back in 2008. Coincidence? We think not.

BlackBerry slider photos leak out! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown

Mar 2nd

Posted by Nilay Patel in Gadgets

Apple suing HTC over 20-odd patents before both the US District Court and the International Trade Commission has certainly caused some chaos this morning, but we thought we'd take a quick breath now that we have the complaints and tease out exactly what patents are at stake here. Of note, most of the patents were granted in the past year, but overall they span a range from 1995 to February 2. Yes, last month. That's a pretty big gap, and most of the patents are pretty dry and technical -- and none of them cover anything like pinch-to-zoom. In fact, you might remember #7,479,949, "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics" -- we blew apart the myth that it was Apple's "multitouch patent" back when Cupertino was making noise about Palm. It's impossible for us to say exactly how this case is going to play out -- just like the Apple / Nokia lawsuit, it could settle tomorrow, or it could last for 10 years -- but what we do know is that Apple's going after Android as much as it's going after HTC. Some of these patents are from 15 years ago and cover OS-level behavior, so it's hard to see how they can relate only to HTC's implementation of Android and not Google's OS as a whole. Yeah, it's wild, and while we're not going to blow out all 20 patents to sort out what they mean -- not yet, anyway -- we can certainly walk through the claims. Let's see what we've got.

Continue reading Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown

Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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