Isn’t it fun when you hit the right place at the right time? We just happened to be chillaxing in Hong Kong when Dell chose the city for the Venue’s global launch (and it’s actually hitting the shops slightly ahead of South Korea), so a quick hands-on is inevitable. As we’ve seen previously, this HK$3,999 (US$514) handset is essentially the Venue Pro’s Android 2.2 cousin, sporting the same curved (or “Shear Design”) vibrant AMOLED display at 4.1 inches and 800 x 480, but missing the slide-out keyboard. Under the hood lies a 1GHz Snapdragon with 1GB ROM and 512MB RAM, along with the usual microSD expansion, 1400mAh battery, 8 megapixel AF camera with LED flash, Bluetooth 2.3 EDR, WiFi and AGPS.
There aren’t any surprises in terms of software — the Venue shares the same snappy Stage UI and Swype keyboard with the Streak, except for the lack of landscape orientation for the homescreen (and that’s with orientation enabled in system settings). As for hardware, the killer feature here is the screen, and we found its curved Gorilla Glass to be surprisingly nice for our thumbs while swiping across it. The AMOLED panel underneath is also vibrant with great viewing angles. Elsewhere, build quality is almost solid bar the squeaky battery door, but at least it provides some grip. That’s all we got for now — we’ll delve into more details in our forthcoming review, so stay tuned.
Lava Mobile Phones has unveiled a new mobile device with a big 3-inch IPS touch panel screen called the A10. The new phone has a cool design and Lava promises lots of features and cool aesthetics for users that want functionality and style. The device has the latest IPS panel tech with sharp images and high quality still photos and video. Lava says that the screen tech allows images on screen to be viewed at angles up to 178 degrees.
The phone has a gunmetal finish body and the 3-inch panel has high brightness as well. Other features include a 3.2MP camera that has flash and the device has a Yamaha PA system. It can play video games and has maps of India by my India. The phone also has a G-sensor and can support microSD cards up to 16GB.
Headphones can be used that have a 3.5mm audio jack and the device is Java enabled and the phone has a privacy lock as well. It will access social networks like Facebook and Twitter. That PA system is to allow the phone to play music so more than one person can listen at a time. The device sells for Rs 5499.
This isn’t the first time that Sony Ericsson’s dabbled in the field of spy-like Bluetooth wrist accessories, but as we all know, extortionate prices and limited functionality meant these old timers never really took off. But now, things may be different: SE’s freshly baked LiveView promises to offer a generous set of features — alongside your Android 2.x device — while going a little easier on your wallet. It sure sounds tasty, but before you grab your virtual shopping cart, be double sure to read our full review first… right after the break.
HTC’s come a long way since its first ever portrait QWERTY slider phone Blue Angel (O2 xda IIs, Vodafone v1620, Sprint PPC6600, etc.) circa 2004, the legacy of which is carried by the TyTN, Touch Pro, G1, myTouch 3G Slide, and many more sliders albeit in landscape form. The cumulative phone-building expertise leads us to the Desire Z, which is probably better known as the European alter ego of the T-Mobile G2 (which we’ve already reviewed). The difference? As far as hardware goes, the two Androids are practically identical twins; but for software, the AWS-free Desire Z comes tattooed with HTC’s Sense UI, and packs a handful of extra goodies. So will this phone trump its American cousin? Read on to find out.
HTC’s come a long way since its first ever portrait QWERTY slider phone Blue Angel (O2 xda IIs, Vodafone v1620, Sprint PPC6600, etc.) circa 2004, the legacy of which is carried by the TyTN, Touch Pro, G1, myTouch 3G Slide, and many more sliders albeit in landscape form. The cumulative phone-building expertise leads us to the Desire Z, which is probably better known as the European alter ego of the T-Mobile G2 (which we’ve already reviewed). The difference? As far as hardware goes, the two Androids are practically identical twins; but for software, the AWS-free Desire Z comes tattooed with HTC’s Sense UI, and packs a handful of extra goodies. So will this phone trump its American cousin? Read on to find out.
If you dive and use your smartphone a lot you are asking for trouble and in many states and cities that can actually get you a ticket. You should be using a hands free device for calls and if you use that smartphone for navigation, you probably want a holder of some sort for the phone too.
A new holding clip has surfaced called GoSmart Clip. The thing has a design that should work with any smartphone, though the iPhone is what you see in the company’s photos and materials. GoSmart says that the Clip will work with smartphones between 4″ to 5″ tall and under 0.75″ thick. The company does say you need to remove any cases before using it.
The GoSmart clip is designed with a strap that wraps around the top portion of your steering wheel. It has a leather pad that actually sits against your wheel to help keep it from marring your wheel. The biggest problem I see is that the GoSmart Clip will block the speedo and tach on my car and probably on several others as well. You can pick it up in red or black colors for $25.95 and you can get two of them for $39.95. They will ship on December 1.
Dell Streak. Froyo. Need we say more? If you’re not already getting giddy, let us remind you that said tabletphone’s technically still stuck on the aging Android 1.6 OS, so this is obviously great news for all anticipating (and presumably very patient) users. Well, the handful of us anyway, given the majority’s distaste for this five-inch device’s abnormal form factor. Here at Engadget, we’ve been fortunate enough to give this final 2.2 build a thorough and exclusive test over the weekend, but has it fixed the bugs that plagued the 2.1 release? And will it make the Streak relevant again? Read on to find out.
Dell Streak. Froyo. Need we say more? If you’re not already getting giddy, let us remind you that said tabletphone’s technically still stuck on the aging Android 1.6 OS, so this is obviously great news for all anticipating (and presumably very patient) users. Well, the handful of us anyway, given the majority’s distaste for this five-inch device’s abnormal form factor. Here at Engadget, we’ve been fortunate enough to give this final 2.2 build a thorough and exclusive test over the weekend, but has it fixed the bugs that plagued the 2.1 release? And will it make the Streak relevant again? Read on to find out.
You know I’m not really getting the whole craze behind paying for things with your mobile phone. It sounds cool, but I always have my wallet on me and my phone so paying with one is just as good as paying with the other in my book. Moreover, when I use my wallet, I don’t have to put money into weird accounts to use with my phone.
If you like the idea of paying with your mobile phone, like sandwiches, and live in California you can hop over to Subway and pay for your food with FaceCash. FaceCash is a mobile phone payment service that lets you pay for your sub in all Subway locations in California with your phone.
You have to set up a FaceCash account if you want to use the payment method and put money into the account. The FaceCash app is available on the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices. Other devices can use the service through a web browser.
At a 30,000-foot level, the global mobile phone sales numbers for the third quarter of 2010 just released by Gartner match up with what IDC posted a few days ago, but you might say the devil’s in the details. These guys have all of the top five players — Nokia, Samsung, LG, Apple, and RIM — at noticeably lower total market shares than IDC did, suggesting that second-tier players like Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and HTC (if you can really call them “second-tier”) are grabbing more hearts and minds. And hey, considering Motorola’s prominent role at Verizon and HTC’s ever-growing global presence, we could totally believe it. Notably, Nokia is well below 30 percent in Gartner’s report at 28.2, a whopping drop of 8.5 percent year-over-year — way more than the 4.1 percent drop that IDC’s got pegged. Of course, there’s no way of knowing which of the two reports is more accurate — and you know how margins of error work with these things. Hey, at least the rankings are the same, right?
[Thanks, Tad]
Update: As commenters have pointed out, the Gartner report also puts Android at 25.5 percent market share, moving past BlackBerry OS to become the number two smartphone platform behind Symbian (they’ve got iOS at third, BlackBerry fourth). Considering the platform’s trajectory this year and sheer variety of Android phones now being solid worldwide, it’s no surprise.
