Cell Phone Hub

We already had plenty of reason to believe that Samsung’s QWERTY-packin’, landscape-layin’ SGH-a877 was headed to AT&T, but now it’s pretty much a lock. phonescoop has dug up a few more pertinent details about the so-called Impression, confirming the 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen and adding that the handset will include an accelerometer and built-in Bluetooth. If this one has your eye, we’d wager that it won’t be long before it goes on sale for real — maybe all’s that is left is a formal CTIA unveiling?

Filed under: Cellphones

AT&T-bound Samsung SGH-a877 gets detailed further originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mark your calendars, BlackBerry fans: BusinessWeek says RIM’s going to launch the BlackBerry App World April 1 at CTIA. What’s more, the company is apparently planning on going after Apple by courting developers with higher profit margins and the relative sophistication of the average corporate BlackBerry user, which explains that minimum $2.99 paid app price we saw a few weeks ago. An interesting move to position the new service, but we’ll see if it takes hold with users — anyone ready to blow their budget on ‘berry software?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry App World to launch April 1, says BusinessWeek originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is one of Acer’s mysterious smartphones packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon? According to the folks at All About Phones who reportedly attended an Acer event recently, the F1 will be running the 800MHz ARM chip, which is a tad slower than the 1000MHz equivalent in the TG01. The device will be Windows Mobile 6.5-based, but that’s supposedly gonna be shrouded by a Flash-based Acer Suite 2.0 shell. The report also mentions a September release, which jibes with what we saw on that makeshift roadmap at Mobile World Congress, and a 560 Euro ($760) price tag. Nothing’s confirmed, but between Acer, HTC, Samsung, and LG, surely someone’s gearing up to join Toshiba in the Snapdragon bandwagon.

[Via Unwired View]

Filed under: Cellphones

Acer F1 coming in September, powered by Snapdragon? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The XOHM label may be gone, but the potency of Sprint’s WiMAX network is still kickin’ in and around Baltimore. For those itching for wicked fast mobile broadband outside of The Charm City, Sprint has just unveiled a slew of expansion areas that’ll get gifted in 2009 and 2010. As for the rest of this year, folks in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle can expect Sprint 4G rollouts, while residents of Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. can be on the lookout in 2010. In related news, the carrier is also taking this opportunity to reveal that it has “several new 4G devices planned for 2009 and 2010, including a single-mode 4G data card, embedded laptops, a small-office-home-office broadband modem and a tri-mode phone.” Lovely.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Sprint unveils WiMAX expansion cities, devices for 2009 and 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sure seems like your handheld is a lot more secure than your computer, at least in some sense — although the desktop versions of IE 8, Safari, and Firefox were each almost instantly cracked on the first day of the Pwn2Own contest, no one claimed the $10,000 bounty placed on each of the major smartphone platforms. That’s certainly reassuring, but it may not ultimately mean much: according to contest organizers Tipping Point, the bugs in Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and the iPhone and BlackBerry OSes are still there, but they’re harder to exploit because of device, OS, and carrier variations. That makes any vulnerabilities even more valuable — one of the contestents apparently had an iPhone exploit ready to go, but wasn’t willing to part with it since he wanted more than $10K for it. Tipping Point says it’ll try and nail down specs of each platform earlier next year to make it easier on hackers, but let’s hope the results are similar.

[Via Slashdot]

Filed under: Cellphones

Major smartphone platforms emerge unscathed from Pwn2Own originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You may have seen some reports today about a new app from Ripdev called InstallerApp, which some people have mistakenly been covering as a desktop client that lets you install Cydia and Installer apps without having to jailbreak your iPhone using something like PwnageTool. Just to set the record straight, here’s the deal: InstallerApp is a kind of jailbreaking tool (let’s call it “jailbreaking lite”) coupled with a separate application management client for your computer. From what we can tell, the first thing it does is jailbreak your device (or, if you’re already jailbroken, installs some additional software so it can talk to your phone). In no way is it allowing you to install non-Apple-approved apps onto a non-jailbroken phone: it’s tweaking your underlying system to allow for those apps to run, and giving you an iTunes replacement to add and delete programs on your device. Keep in mind, RipDev is charging $7 for this, which isn’t a bundle, but not free either… unlike PwnageTool and QuickPwn, which essentially do the same thing (minus the desktop client). We’re not saying it’s not a useful app — it might be to some — it just isn’t the “get out of jail free” solution that you may have heard it is. And now you know… which is half the battle.

Filed under: Cellphones

Debunk: Jailbroken apps on a non-jailbroken iPhone? Not quite originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Alright, we have no idea why Lenovo’s phone division is suddenly pumping out copycat handsets, but these supposed shots of the Android-based oPhone’s UI look awfully familiar, don’t you think? Combine that with the equally-fishy rip of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI found in the recently-announced X1, and it more or less seems like Lenovo’s running a high-end KIRF outfit over there — no wonder this stuff never leaves China.

[Via The Raw Feed]

Filed under: Cellphones

Lenovo KIRFs again with the oPhone UI originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Most of us are going to have to wait until at least May to get our hands on a 9630, but for well-connected individuals whose blogs rhyme with “Soy Beanius Report,” patience isn’t in the vocabulary. BGR’s gone and landed a 9630 and put it through its hybrid CDMA / GSM paces, and in short, it sounds like it’s a phone worth waiting for (not to say you’ve got many other options if you’re tied to Sprint or Verizon anyhow). Voice quality is described as “the best phone we’ve ever used,” battery life seems to be enough to get through a full day of use (and we wouldn’t be surprised to see this get better as the firmware continues to get tweaked ahead of launch), the screen is as good as the Bold’s amazing example, and the keyboard is “just right.” What’s amazing is that RIM’s managed to package all of this action into a device considerably smaller than the Bold — and if only they’d manage to throw in WiFi, it seems like we might be looking at the closest thing to BlackBerry perfection here. Verizon, Sprint, your move.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

BlackBerry Niagara 9630 reviewed in all its prerelease glory originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Depending upon which source you believe, Michael Dell either directly commented on Dell’s smartphone plans or just hinted at them. DigiTimes has Michael Dell paraphrased as saying in Taipei that Dell will not delay its smartphone lineup and is on schedule to release devices in line with its internal roadmap. The IDG news service, however, has him in Tokyo just hinting at smartphones. “It is true that we are exploring smaller screen devices,” said Dell, adding, “We don’t have any announcements to share today but stay tuned as when we have new news we will share that with you.” Mr. Dell also mentioned Dell’s carrier agreements already in place for the 3G radios Dell ships in it laptops. As such, “it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future.” Look Michael, just spit it out. We don’t care how dull they look — we know you’re probably going after the big, fat chewy center of corporate market share here. Just don’t call it the Ditty Talker and we’re cool.

Read — Dell on schedule with smartphones
Read — Dell hints at smartphones

Filed under: Cellphones

Michael Dell does/doesn’t confirm Dell smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So much for the “last stand,” huh? After getting pictured way back in August of last year, Motorola has quietly let CES, Mobile World Congress and (almost) CTIA slip by with nary a peep on why this thing has yet to ship. We’d initially heard that Q4 2008 was the window, and then Q1 2009; just last week, we heard that Moto could be shooting out ten new smartphones in the latter half of this year, but evidently this one won’t be included. According to the always questionable DigiTimes, Motorola has inexplicably “canceled the planned launch of the Alexander handset and also reduced the number of markets in which it will sell its A3100 smartphone,” though it gave no reason as to why. Is it sad that we’re not at all saddened? Onward and upward, we say.

[Via WMPowerUser]

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola cancels Alexander smartphone? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.