For years, HTC has been investing in its core business. But since they’ve just wrapped up their best year in history, HTC is looking to spread its wings a little. In the past two days, HTC has announced their acquisition of Saffron Digital and a $40 million investment in OnSmart Mobility. Saffron Digital is one [...]
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HTC purchases Saffron Digital, invests $40 million in OnSmart Mobility
Sprint and Kyocera Communications have proudly introduced the first dual-touchscreen Android smartphone, the Kyocera Echo. This Android-powered smartphone features two high-resolution 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen displays connected by a patent-pending “pivot hinge” that enables the two displays to operate independently, side-by-side or combined to form an oversized 4.7-inch (diagonally) integrated display. In its closed position, the Kyocera Echo is a pocket-friendly, single-display smartphone. When opened, the Echo reveals a revolutionary new platform for wireless multitasking and provides users a new level of versatility in Android. The Kyocera Echo also has a 1GHz processor, the Google Android 2.2 OS, a 5MP camera with 720p video capabilities and 3G. Folks in the US will be able to purchase this smartphone for around $199. [Kyocera]
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Kyocera Echo Dual-screen Android Phone
Despite rumors to the contrary, most people are convinced that Android 2.4 doesn’t exist. Google doesn’t shy away from hyping up its Android updates, after all, and they’ve given no indication suggesting that a minor upgrade from 2.3 is actually in the works. That is, until now.
In an article published on Pocket-lint, Viewsonic allegedly claimed that Android 2.4 will be released in April, with their ViewPad 4 being one of the first handsets to get it. From the sound of it, the update was made for one reason alone: to allow smartphones to run apps made for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the OS Google built specifically for tablets.
Honeycomb apps are meant to run on dual-core systems — Google’s minimum requirement for tablets using version 3.0 of their OS. According to the blog’s source, Android 2.3 Gingerbread won’t be able to work with those apps, making the 2.4 update necessary.
The new OS version will reportedly retain the Gingerbread name, which hasn’t been the norm for Android releases (thus, leaving the rumor a little suspect). If the April date is true, though, then expect all upcoming smartphone releases in the second quarter that have been announced with 2.3 will actually get this new and improved Gingerbread version.
You can read the full Pocket-lint report from the link below.
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Android 2.4 Coming Out In April?
With bandwidth caps still a major part of the broadband experience on smartphones, torrents haven’t made the leap to mobile platforms in a big way yet. Still, you get the occasional app like uTorrent Remote, which lets you manage the torrent downloads currently running on your PC.
Naturally, you can check on the status of all uploads and downloads happening on the computer. More than that, though, you can use the app to actively control your torrents, with options for adding, starting, pausing and removing file downloads right from your handset. It can work with torrents from RSS feeds, too, allowing you to stay on top of your favorite podcasts.
uTorrent Remote only works with uTorrent 3.0, which is currently an alpha build. As such, it’s still quite buggy — if you can live with that, though, being able to do the management from a handheld is extremely convenient.
You need to choose a username and a password, which the app will use for communicating with the desktop software. It doesn’t stop at managing torrents, either — you can send finished ones to your Android handheld for playback. Do note that copying files will depend heavily on file size and signal strength, so you’ll need to wait a while to play your files. Oh yeah, there’s no file conversion on board, either, so pick and choose what you stream wisely.
The uTorrent Remote’s UI is simple but intuitive, making it a very convenient way to manage your torrents away from a computer. It’s available now from the Android Market.
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uTorrent Remote Lets You Manage Your Torrents From An Android Phone
TeleNav announced they are bringing their GPS voice navigation software to the Verizon iPhone 4. They haven’t been on Verizon before and are offering a significantly low cost solution.
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TeleNav GPS coming to Verizon iPhone 4 for just $22/year
Here’s the first leaked image of the upcoming Nokia E6 (aka Nokia E6-00) QWERTY smartphone. Based on the informations we got, the handset will sport an 8.0-megapixel camera with dual LED flash at the back, a front-facing VGA camera, a physical QWERTY keyboard and run on Symbian OS. The Nokia E6 itself is expected to make its debut at this year’s MWC. [Engadget]
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Upcoming Nokia E6 QWERTY Smartphone
Word has it that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S2 will feature a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display along with the Google Android 2.3 OS, Orion dual-core processor, NFC, an 8MP camera with a LED flash, a 1.3MP front-facing camera, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and a microSD card slot (up to 32GB). Samsung will introduce this highly anticipated smartphone on February 13, 2011 at Mobile World Congress. We will keep you posted. [Tweakers]
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More Info About Samsung Galaxy S2 Specs
Samsung has finally announced the availability of the Wave II (SHW-M210S) in the South Korean market. This Bada-powered phone will be available in South Korea via SKT. For your info, the Samsung Wave II (SHW-M210S) features a 3.7-inch Super Clear LCD, a 1GHz processor, T-DMB, a 5MP camera with a LED flash, HD video recording and playback, DivX support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, a microSD card slot for storage expansion and Social Hub. Available in Ebony Elegance Grey, Pink and Platinum Silver, the Samsung Wave II (SHW-M210S) is priced at 700,000 Won or around $629. [SamsungHub]
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Samsung Wave II (SHW-M210S) – South Korea’s First Bada Phone
The all new HTC Inspire 4G is now available for pre-order via RadioShack. The handset is sold for $99 with a new 2-year contract and will get $30 credit towards accessories. To refresh your memory, this Android smartphone offers a 4.3-inch 480 x 800 S-LCD capacitive touchscreen display, a 1GHz processor, an 8-megapixel autofocus camera, a 768MB RAM, a 4GB of storage, a microSD card slot (up to 32GB), 720p HD video recording support, A-GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and runs on Android 2.2 Froyo OS. [RadioShack]
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HTC Inspire 4G Now Available For Pre-Order At RadioShack
Kyocera Echo Announced By Sprint, Features Dual Touchscreens
Sprint’s event from yesterday promised an “industry first.” Well, they didn’t disappoint with the Kyocera Echo, a new Android smartphone packing dual touchscreen displays for simultaneously using two apps at the same time.
Multi-tasking on Android is a much-lauded feature. The fact that you’ll have to hide one screen to use another, however, makes it just a little less functional compared to PC multi-tasking. That changes now (well, somewhat).
The Kyocera Echo has a clamshell form factor that hides two 3.5-inch screens (480 x 800 resolution) under the lid. When unhinged, you can use the dual screens for separate apps or as a single 4.7-inch 960 x 800 surface. As a single screen, it literally splits up the display in two halves, which shouldn’t be an issue for most apps, but could be a headache for watching videos. The two-screen “Simul-Task Mode,” on the other hand, is only available for the seven core features, namely messaging, e-mail, web browsing, phone, gallery, contacts and VueQue (a custom YouTube app with a split screen — videos on top and a queue at the bottom).
Other details of the phone include a 5.0 megapixel camera (with 720p video recording), a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, stereo Bluetooth, 3G with HSPA, WiFi (with mobile hotspot capability), 1GB of onboard storage and microSD card expansion (8GB preloaded). Aside from the built-in battery, they threw in a spare 1,370 mAh, which hints how much of a power hog they expect this two-screen smartphone to be. It comes with Android 2.2 preloaded.
Sprint will release the Kyocera Echo this spring, priced at $199.99 on a two-year agreement.
[via Dvice]
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Kyocera Echo Announced By Sprint, Features Dual Touchscreens