Cell Phone Hub

We had an inkling that Casio and Verizon were up to something when we caught an Exilim-branded phone working its way through the FCC, and it looks like that hunch was right-on — check out this hot snap of an Exilim NX9250 that just turned up. We’re told that the chubby-looking handset features a 5.1 megapixel camera (right, Exilim) and “possibly” a WVGA screen, and those hinges suggest a swivel-flip design — too bad it doesn’t look as slick as that W63CA we were secretly hoping for. We’ll see what this one looks like all dolled up — we’ve got a feeling we’ll find out soon enough. One more shot after the break.

Continue reading Casio Exilim NX9250 phone spotted in Verizon livery

Filed under: Cellphones

Casio Exilim NX9250 phone spotted in Verizon livery originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Come to think of it, this mod wouldn’t even be necessary (though, we suppose it would still be useful) had HTC bothered to put a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack on the T-Mobile G1, but alas, we’re stuck with some random ExtUSB port. In order to make that output jack compatible with the litany of iPod peripherals (namely sound systems), the modders over at WebNetta figured out what pins linked to what in order to connect the G1 to Made for iPod gear. Best of all, the secrets of the connections are all spilled out in the read link should you care to try this yourself, but please, tidy things up a bit if you do.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Portable Audio

Inelegant hack connects T-Mobile G1 to iPod dock originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The same wild and wacky Russians that demolished a Motorola ZN5 are showing the same courtesy to Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic. The so-called Crash Test involves putting Nokia’s first Comes With Music-enabled handset through a litany of horrible scenes, including a stay in the local freezer, a fall from grace, a ride in the washing machine, a dip in a freshly brewed beer and, of course, a crushing blow from a vehicle. The preview video is hosted up in the read link, and the full results of how it fared are promised in the near future. Let’s just say we’re betting the farm it doesn’t handle unlimited downloads, calls nor texts very well (read: at all) after this hellish experience.

[Thanks, Adam]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic gets torture tested, succumbs to the pain originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Dec 2008 10:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 hasn’t been the easiest handset to procure here on US soil, despite being “available” since Black Friday. Still, we know hardcore HTC / SE fanatics have figured out a way to get their palms in touch with the X1a (or X1i for international users). You already heard our spill on the handset, but now we’re interested in finding out how you’d tweak things if given the all-important keys to the design lab. Would you keep everything the same and just add Android? Would you rework the keyboard? Swap out the touchscreen with a capacitive replacement? Make it available only in turquoise and lime? It’s a pretty safe bet that this isn’t the last Xx smartphone you’ll see from SE, so your thoughts on the matter may actually prove beneficial in time. And… go!

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Not that Nokia’s current Communicator is in need of a major refacing or anything, but we’re always up for some innovation. A recent patent application from the outfit showcases a completely bizarre four-way folding Communicator, chock full of hinges, keys and pixels. In fact, the verbiage spells out a future device consisting of “at least four device parts,” leaving open the option for a handset that miraculously unfolds to completely envelope you in a glass case of emotion. Hit the read link for the full dream spilled out in entirely too much detail.

[Via Cellpassion]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia dreams up four-way folding Communicator originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

An Apple patent unearthed by Mac Rumors named Swipe Gestures for Touch Screen Keyboards suggests a future direction the company might be taking which would substantially change interaction with devices like the iPhone. According to the document, the new system would allow for simple finger gestures like swipes to the left or right to control basic functions of text editing. Some movements outlined in the application include a left swipe for deletion of characters, right swipes for a space, and a swipe down in place of the return key. Of course, these types of gestures are nothing new (and frankly, nothing patentable we suspect), as applications on the company’s own devices — namely the jailbreak-only MobileTerminal — feature almost this exact implementation of gesture control, and Microsoft has had a similar (albeit stylus-based) concept in WinMo for years. Still, adding in this functionality to the software’s existing tools would likely improve navigation and input, and opens the door for solutions to the lingering (and annoying) copy / paste problems Apple seems to have.

[Via Mac Rumors]

Filed under: Cellphones

Apple files patent for gesture-based text editing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We’re not really sure where to begin with this one, because the awesomeness is so thorough and so intense that we’re basically at a loss for words; we’ll see what we can do here, though. In brief, a HoFo poster has thrown up what appear to be slides from a Rogers event detailing the carrier’s release plans for the better part of 2009, and seriously, if you name a badass handset, odds are it’s here. Samsung will apparently be bringing the 8.1-megapixel Pixon, for starters, and Sony Ericsson will be throwing its name into the huge-cam hat with the C905. Turning our attention to Windows Mobile, the X1 is scheduled for release “around August if not sooner,” Motorola brings the lowly Q11, and HTC adds the Touch Pro, the Touch Viva (an unusual choice considering HTC’s intention to send it to emerging markets), and possibly the Touch 3G. Nokia will be offering the 5800 XpressMusic in the middle part of the year, Moto will be bringing a pair of 5-megapixel phones in the VE66 and ZN5, and finally, it seems RIM is signed up to bring the all-GSM 9520 Storm with WiFi — a feature sorely missing from the Verizon and Vodafone versions — and a 3G remix of the 8200 Pearl series flip that’ll have a front-facing cam for video calling (yeah, no joke, they offer it up there). So look, AT&T, you have two options here: either crib off this presentation and make it happen, or we hope you get bought by Rogers. Your choice.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Leaked Rogers slides make us want to move to Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Remember that wild, all-black Dash we peeped a couple days ago? We have no intention of scuttling your hopes and dreams, but aside from a few cosmetic differences (they removed the aluminum front piece, the keyboard has been spaced out a little bit, and the OS has been bumped up to Windows Mobile 6.1) it looks like the ‘new’ Dash isn’t all that new after all. But who cares if there’s nothing revolutionary here? Just take a look at the bright side — maybe this means we’ll be seeing a new Manhattan sometime soon.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

New T-Mobile Dash spotted in the wild, nothing really new about it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Personally, we wouldn’t want to be within 15 feet of a Centro being mercilessly overclocked to a mind-numbing 936MHz, but we reckon that’s where our fearless readers come into play. We’re told that this sucker reached prompt criticality and melted into the Earth’s crust shortly after this screen shot was taken, and you know what? We can’t say we blame it.

[Thanks, Jason]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

The gigahertz Centro, also known as ‘the Palm-powered grenade’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Goodness, we can already tell that China is going to be a frigging goldmine of weird and wild Android hardware for a long, long time to come. First we had the QiGi i6, which boasted compatibility both with Android and WinMo — and it’s looking like this might be a surprisingly common feature for some of these Chinese devices now that we have another doing the same thing. The HKC Pearl looks suspiciously like a first-gen HTC Touch — and nothing like its namesake, may we add — working with a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 256MB of ROM, 128MB of RAM, WiFi, and a 2-megapixel cam to back up its Google- and Microsoft-provided loads. As with the QiGi, the odds of seeing this one outside Asia are slim at best, but hey, at least our colleagues at Engadget Chinese have scored a hands-on to satisfy our collective curiosities.

Read - HKC Pearl announcement
Read - Android mode hands-on
Read - WinMo mode hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Household

HKC’s Pearl rips a RIM name, an HTC design, and a pair of OSes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.