Google introduced the world to their new mobile payment service for smartphones aptly named, Google Wallet. While the service isn’t officially live just yet, you can hit up Google.com/wallet to signup and get notified as soon as it is. At present, there is only one telephone in the US that is in fact NFC enabled to take benefit of their new service and I’d envision Google is waiting for the release of some new NFC chipped devices ahead of going live. In case you had been questioning what type of individual would benefit from Google Wallet, nicely — Google already has their very first customer and supplied the video below.
I have liked the Nokia Nseries devices over the years for their media creation experiences, but it was always the Eseries that earned a spot in my pocket and long term use of my SIM card due to their workhorse functionality. The Nokia E61 was the first front facing QWERTY keyboard Nokia Eseries I bought and I enjoyed using it. However, when the E71 came out in that ultra-sleek form factor and design I jumped all over it and picked up one of them.
I wasn’t as impressed with the E72, but the E73 Mode won me back and up until now I consider that my ultimate Nokia front facing QWERTY device. After spending a couple of weeks with my new Nokia E6 I have to say that I find little reason to pull out my T-Mobile SIM card and think this device may just have all that I need in a beautiful form factor and it trumps all other front facing QWERTY Nokia devices.
I also think it easily beats the BlackBerry QWERTY devices as I have said many times because it has dedicated keys for commonly used things such as @, ?, period, and comma that alone make it more functional for me.
The hardware of the Nokia E6 is just about what I wanted with a 640×480 pixel resolution display that rivals the iPhone 4 retina display with a density of 326 pixels per inch (the iPhone 4 is the same). It is only a 2.46 inch display though, which causes some issues with apps (Slacker Radio is offset and doesn’t fill the display). I like the solid metal back plate, huge 1500 mAh battery that matches my other Eseries devices, 8 megapixel camera, touchscreen display, slider/lock switch, and microSD card expandability. There is a lot more to the hardware I will cover in a full review.
Overall, I am pleased with the software, primarily that the E6 comes with Anna loaded out of the box. I still have issues with Nokia’s email solution and Gmail wasn’t working right at first and is still lazy about updating properly. Mail for Exchange works well though and I can now respond to meeting invites. I like the new home screen layout with 3 customizable widgets on the right and three common ones always on the left for time/date and quick alarm access, quick profile switcher, and notifications area. Including JoikuSpot out of the box has been helpful for keeping me connected during my vacation.
I am find a LOT to like with the E6, but also some things that need work. I still thik it is a fabulous Eseries QWERTY and a testament to that is the fact that my SIM has been in it most of these past two weeks. Stay tuned for more thoughts in a week or so.
While I am on vacation this week I still wanted to give you a few of my first thoughts on the device and show you some photos of it. For more in-depth analysis on the Nokia E6 take a look at these great articles:
The Momentum laptop card will sell for $ 49.99 with a two-year contract. It has a slot for a MicroSD card that can hold up to 32GB of data. Elevate 4G hot-spot device will cost $ 69.99 with a two-year contract. It has a color 1.77-inch LCD display that shows the Wi-Fi network name and security key. It can be used for up to five hours and connect up to five devices. Like the Momentum, it has a slot to allow for a 32GB memory card.
AT&T is playing catch up to Verizon and Sprint Nextel in the 4G game. Both have true “4G” phones, using LTE and WiMAX, respectively.
In January, AT&T followed T-Mobile USA’s footsteps and rebranded their 3G HSPA+ network, with the 4G title. T-Mobile generally offers faster speed on their HSPA+ network, however, because they gang two AWS band channels together.
Next year Verizon plans to deliver voice calls over LTE, using Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for video chatting and Skype. Currently, only the LG Revolution supports VoLTE. Unfortunately, while a VoLGA solution supports seamless call handover to/from the existing GSM/3G networks, it doesn’t support voice fallback on Verizon’s CDMA network. It also appears that there will be no handover between the LTE networks run by AT&T and Verizon, even though they use the same basic technology.
A software update that leaked last week is now being officially pushed out to unbranded HTC Sensation handsets across Europe. The small 27MB update file brings the Sensation’s software version to 1.35.401.1, but looks to be little more than a collection of bug fixes and patches. This is not an update to unlock the phone’s bootloader, nor is it a bump up to Android 2.3.4.
There is already a rather lengthy thread over at the XDA forums stemming from the aforementioned leak of the update. For the nitty gritty on the update you will want to browse through its many pages. If you have not received the update yet and are the owner of the a carrier unlocked HTC Sensation, navigate through the Settings menu to About Phone and you should be able to pull the new software to your handset.
We have heard rumors of a MeeGo device coming from Nokia for some time and late last night Nokia announced the Nokia N9 MeeGo device. As much as I like Nokia products, I don’t know why they want to again have four operating systems to support with Symbian, Series 40, Windows Phone, and MeeGo. I think MeeGo will just end up being another hobby device, like the N900, and according to FoneArena the US is not a launch country so we may not even see it here until 2012.
Their press release states it will ship later this year and honestly I would rather just see Nokia devote these resources to Windows Phone or even improving Symbian rather than spending time on a phone that will appeal only to the most die hard Nokia fan who doesn’t care about smartphones being part of a complete ecosystem.
The N9 specifications include the following:
1 GHz Arm Cortex A8 OMAP3630 processor
MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan operating system
Penta-band 3G radio (Yeah Nokia, why can’t anyone else do this?) at just 14.4 Mbps
8 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with dual LED flash
Front facing camera for video calls
3.9 inch AMOLED display at 854×480 pixel resolution
NFC chip
Bluetooth 2.1
802.11 b/g/n WiFi
A-GPS
1450 mAh battery
Dimenions of 116.45 x 61.2 x 7.6 mm and 135 grams
It looks to have specs matching current devices, except for the processor and slower wireless cellular radio and in six months won’t stand out in the crowd at all. There are no buttons on the front and everything is controlled by the touchscreen interface. The N9 will come in Magenta, Cyan, and Black and the design does look beautiful with the curved Gorilla glass.
Check out some Nokia N9 resource sites for more information:
It’s kind of become a rite of passage for new Android devices to get their own custom ROMs. Every major Android tablet and phone has gone through it, and it looks as though the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is joining the club. This comes just 9 days after the Moto Xoom got its own custom ROM. The Tab 10.1 ROM appears to be a faster, deodexed version of the stock ROM that the device ships with. Granted, it’s not perfect, but it’s definitely usable.
So, if you’ve got a hankering for a faster experience on your Galaxy Tab 10.1, you can check out the KhasMek ROM here. Has anyone installed this ROM yet? What do you think? Sound off in the comments below, or on our Facebook Wall!
The Motorola XOOM has received it’s first custom-baked ROM, the result of work undertaken by bigrushdog of XDA and the Tiamat Team. The ROM goes by the fairly uninspired XOOM Rom 1.0 Deodexed name, but the custom software is far from basic. – all sorts of advanced options come neatly packaged inside. The bad news is though the ROM is based off of a stock build of XOOM software taken from the Verizon 3G version of the tablet, installing it will break 3G service if you are a current VZW subscriber. A pretty epic win for the XOOM community, nonetheless. Find full instructions at the source link below.
The Droid Charge has been out just over a week, and is a solid device. Samsung has always given us fairly “moddable” phones, and have been doing it for quite a while…it’s not a huge surprise that the mod community is quick to pounce, successfully, on a custom ROM. Read More…
An interesting announcement from Sharp today, as they have launched the worlds first Android powered clamshell flip phone. Introducing the Sharp Aquos Hybrid 007sh, an Android 2.3 device with a 3.4 inch flippable touch screen. It has some impressive specs under the hood, including a 16 megapixel camera!The specs for the 007h are as follows:
1 GHz second gen Snapdragon
16 megapixel rear cam
Front facing cam for vid chat.
3D ready display, with a 3D TV tuner.
Dropbox and Qik apps pre-installed
The phone is being released in Japan first, but Sharp has plans for a world wide release sometime in the future. This is a pretty beefy handset spec wise, the 3D ready display and TV tuner is an interesting addition as well. More news on this as it is released.
Pantech is one of the leading mobile phone companies in S.Korea, and they always announce some amazing devices but mostly in S.Korea. They are also offering some of their devices in the States via AT&T and Verizon, but all of them are just mid-range devices, and we are still waiting for Pantech to announce their superphones in USA, like the new Pantech Vega Racer. It’s the first device to come with a 1.5 GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm MSM8600, 1GB RAM and a blazing fast Adreno GPU. Unfortunately, the device will be available only on SK Telecom later this month. It comes with a 4.3-Inch TFT LCD display with a resolution of 800×480 and the phone is rocking on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. There is an 8 MP camera on the back side and a 1.3 MP front-facing camera. It’s only 9 mm thin, features 1650 mAh battery and weighs 120 grams. Pantech is also planning to launch a tablet later this year, so let’s see if the tablet is powerful enough to beat XOOM and other tablets.
Well friends, that’s all we know about this device. Anyone looking forward to it in USA? Give us your feedback in the comment box below!
To put a nice, red bow on this wrapped up story about the Motorola ATRIX 4G and Motorola XOOM’s sales on AT&T and Verizon respectively, both carriers chimed in to say that they are pleased with customer reception and the sales of said devices.
Verizon said about the Motorola XOOM, ”We are pleased with customer response to the Xoom.” (Yes, I could pick that statement apart like a cherry tree, but I won’t.) Conversely, AT&T stated that their “customers are very satisfied with the Atrix, and [they] are equally as pleased with the results to date.”
Without seeing some hard numbers we can’t see just how pleasing these numbers really are, but we can’t argue with them. (And if they are as bad as folks have said they are then you better believe they won’t be releasing any sales figures any time soon.)
At least for the Motorola XOOM, one analyst cleverly pieced together information from Google and other research firms and came up with 100,000 – the number is .2% of 50,000,000 with the .2% being how many Android devices out and about are running Android 3.0.
It’s worthy to note that Verizon’s number for their 3G (and soon to be 4G)-enabled version could be significantly lower than that as the WiFi-only Motorola XOOM made its way into the market as early as March 25th – the data that firm Deutsche Bank based their study on was taken from a two week period ending April 1st.
Whatever the case is, Verizon’s happy, AT&T’s happy, so why can’t we all just be happy? [via Computer World]
To put a nice, red bow on this wrapped up story about the Motorola ATRIX 4G and Motorola XOOM’s sales on AT&T and Verizon respectively, both carriers chimed in to say that they are pleased with customer reception and the sales of said devices.
Verizon said about the Motorola XOOM, ”We are pleased with customer response to the Xoom.” (Yes, I could pick that statement apart like a cherry tree, but I won’t.) Conversely, AT&T stated that their “customers are very satisfied with the Atrix, and [they] are equally as pleased with the results to date.”
Without seeing some hard numbers we can’t see just how pleasing these numbers really are, but we can’t argue with them. (And if they are as bad as folks have said they are then you better believe they won’t be releasing any sales figures any time soon.)
At least for the Motorola XOOM, one analyst cleverly pieced together information from Google and other research firms and came up with 100,000 – the number is .2% of 50,000,000 with the .2% being how many Android devices out and about are running Android 3.0.
It’s worthy to note that Verizon’s number for their 3G (and soon to be 4G)-enabled version could be significantly lower than that as the WiFi-only Motorola XOOM made its way into the market as early as March 25th – the data that firm Deutsche Bank based their study on was taken from a two week period ending April 1st.
Whatever the case is, Verizon’s happy, AT&T’s happy, so why can’t we all just be happy? [via Computer World]
You’ve probably all heard about the partnership announced by Nokia and Microsoft earlier this week, and maybe even all the hysteria over at Nokia dumping MeeGo and Symbian for WP7. ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’, should have been the title of Nokia’s event at MWC earlier today, because this is definitely the time for Nokia to do or die.
That being said, Stephen Elop making the statement “first priority is beating Android” is pretty gutsy considering how much market they’ve already lost to Android over 2010 as we reported here. Thing is though, how exactly does Stephen Elop plan on taking down Android? I don’t see Windows Phone 7 showing numbers that even remotely suggest that OS gaining ground on Android, not even close.
With Nokia losing ground constantly, and partnering with a weak selling mobile OS like WP7, i don’t know…2 wrongs don’t make a right…do they?
If you’re like us, you’re still probably trying to figure out how a 3D mobile phone experience is going to affect your life. We’re but a few days away from LG dropping the Optimus 3D on us and we’re scrambling to understand how our world will be impacted by glasses-free 3D on an Android handset. What sounds awesome to some of you leaves the rest of us scratching our heads. Thankfully, LG has put together a 1-minute video that speaks to everyone. Everyone in the Yoga community that is. Hit the break to see what we’re talking about.
So, now that you know what to do with it, are you buying one?
It looks like things are getting better and better for Mr. Developer and his good friend Mrs Advertizer. Tapjoy has recently announced that they will be offering a “mobile industry’s first” with their new Pay-Per-Action application distribution service. The goal, obviously, is to improve the effectiveness of advertising and to benefit brand advertisers and mobile app developers.
More specifically, the new service will allow developers to reward the end user for completing a certain action within that application. It could be completing a full tutorial, reaching a specific level on a game, or any other detailed action the developer would like. The Pay-Per-Action model is said to deliver a higher return on investment as it tracks users’ actions, guaranteeing a high level of value both for the developer and the user.
In addition, Tapjoy has teamed up with Apsalar, which is a mobile behavioral analytics company. With the assistance of Apsalar’s software, advertisers or developers can better pin point and decipher conversion funnels in one or more applications. Not a bad market to corner if you ask us. The Pay-Per-Action SDK is bonded with Apsalar’s analytics platform. It allows for grouping similar users together based on their patterns and user behaviors, thus making it effective for developers and advertisers to monetize on. After all, it all comes down to the user experience right? Well, this will be one method of improving just that. Let us know what you think of it all in the comments below.
I really enjoyed playing with the Nokia E7 at Nokia World last Fall and was thinking I might pick one up. My orange Nokia N8 is performing quite well at the moment and I cannot justify the $800+ likely unlocked price of the E7 so unless Nokia sends out an eval unit for a bit I won’t be writing a review here on Nokia Experts. However, my buddies over at All About Symbian will indeed be providing full coverage of the device and now that the E7 is shipping you can check out Rafe’s first part that covers an overview of the hardware and some first impressions.
In the past, the Eseries devices have all been priced quite low compared to Nseries smartphones, but with the E7 that looks to have flip-flopped. Rafe’s first part is very detailed and after reading it I started trying to figure out what I could sell to pick one up for myself
I have to try the keyboard though to see if that is enough for me to give up the better camera, smaller form factor, and expandable memory of the lovely N8. As great as the E7 looks, I am not sold that a physical QWERTY keyboard justifies getting rid of my N8.
How many readers are planning to pick up an E7 when they become available?
It looks like there is a possibility that we could at least see one handset sporting “Ice Cream” or “Ice Cream Sandwich” in April before the Gingerbread updates roll out, “if” they even roll out. That’s a crazy thought, isn’t it? In an exclusive interview with Pocket-lint, ViewSonic has stated that their ViewPad 4 smartphone will come packed running Android 2.4 upon launch, which will be sometime in April. Supposedly, the update will allow for some of those Honeycomb elements we heard Mr. Andrew Kovacs mention, which we should see trickle down onto smartphones.
According to sources at Pocket-lint, 2.4 is being released to ensure that dual-core apps customized for Honeycomb (3.0) have the ability to function with single core devices. And get this, it will still be called Gingerbread! Huh? That’s right, according to those same sources, the current Gingerbread 2.3 doesn’t make this possible. This is why we could see a big push for 2.4 on mobile devices ahead of Android 2.3. It looks like this could be the single cause as to why we are seeing a slow implementation of the 2.3 Gingerbread update on devices other than the Nexus S. Read More…
I have mixed feelings about the Kyocera Echo. It’s dual-screen design is actually pretty clever — a lot like the NEC dual-screen tablet we saw at CES — but something about it doesn’t scream “your next Android device.” Maybe it’s the Kyocera name tag and the history of disappointment that goes along with it. Maybe it is the fact that the two screens come off more gimmicky than anything. But really it has a whole lot to do with the fact that the touted technology isn’t across the whole system. Only certain applications built with Kyocera’s multi-tasking dual-screen APIs really benefit, and in the case of the Echo this includes only core apps right now.
As it is, regular apps will display across both screens or in single-screen mode. Core apps like mail, the gallery, and the browser can be set into dual-app mode using a gesture across both screens, or they can function in special modes designed to utilize both swaths of screen real estate individually. A cool concept that ultimately gets bagged down by the Echo’s lack luster performance. Sure, a 1GHz Snapdragon sounds good on paper but it just isn’t humming like it should in this device.
We’ll give the hardware some style points. It doesn’t look half bad and remains a pretty manageable form-factor despite the two screens. This is thanks to a specially designed hinge mechanism. But the benefits of a two screens are also their downfall. Admitting battery life is going to be an issue, Sprint is stocking every owner of the Echo with a backup battery and charging brick to combat excess drain caused by two glowing displays.
So my mixed feelings remain, but we like where this could go. If Android had some of this functionality built into its core to encourage more manufacturers to create dual-screen devices it might be something worth getting excited about, but as a system solely devoted to Kyocera’s product, we don’t see it catching on.
Verizon first announced their 4G LTE service back in December with 38 initial markets, including cities like Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York. Now it seems that information has emerged about an additional 49 markets slated for 4G coverage before the first half of 2011.
Verizon made a huge splash at CES this year with the announcement of four LTE ready Android smartphones, and two LTE ready Android tablets. However, one thing we have yet to learn is how much they will charge for 4G mobile data. Big Red currently charges $50 for 5 GB and $80 for 10 GB for their 4G USB modems, but it’s unclear if there will be an unlimited option like there is with the current 3G service.
Continue after the break to see the list of upcoming Verizon 4G LTE markets.
What’s that you say? Another mechanical Android robot? Yea, we’ve seen this before – some bigger and some smaller – but we love seeing the mascot in all its various shapes and sizes regardless of how many times it’s been done. Its name is RIC Android, apparently – not the coolest of them all, but dammit, who cares? He’s going to strut his stuff no matter what. This was just one of the many gems to come out of the Google Developer Days in Tokyo, one of the many Google Android-centric events we posted about earlier today. [via Androinica]
Surely, by now, you’ve heard about the newly announced Motorola Atrix. So, at CES, we stopped by the Motorola booth, got our hands on the new device, and started shooting some video. The overall experience on this phone is really nice; it’s fast and slick, and feels good in the hand. We tested out some Angry birds, scrolled through the menu a bit, and gave you a look at the docking experience on Motorola’s media center / dock. Be sure to hit the break for the video, and let us know what you think in the comments.
You knew this was coming – there’s always a part of me that gets excited when I see cases for new devices (or even new cases for old devices). Along with all of the insane BlackBerry PlayBook goodies being shown off here at CES 2011, BlackBerry has a huge line of cases ready to roll with the PlayBook. There are loads of styles including the BlackBerry Neoprene Sleeve, BlackBerry BookBinder, BlackBerry Zip Sleeve, BlackBerry Envelope case and BlackBerry Hard Shell case. Overall great to see such a variety will be made available at launch so there will be plenty to choose from. Keep reading for more images.
At CES, NEC has unveiled a hinged Android tablet with dual screens. NEC is not specifying if this is an all-work or all-fun tablet, it’s kind of in between. They suggest that it could make a great e-reader, a digital notebook for students, or whatever developers come up with. The “Cloud” part of the “Cloud Communicator” name means that NEC thinks the LT-W would be great for generic cloud services, but really, it’s just an Android 2.1 tablet with WiFi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G — there’s nothing special in here that makes it particularly well-adapted for magically pulling data out of the cloud.
As for the “Cloud Communicator” part of this tablet’s moniker, NEC is saying that this tablet would be great for generic cloud services. Other details on the LT-W; it’s running Android 2.1, interacts with a stylus, supports Wi-Fi connectivity, and optional 3G connectivity.
I really enjoyed playing with the 
On March 8, when Dragon Age II launches in North America, Mac users will be able to get their hands on the hotly-anticipated sequel the same day.
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