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Good ol’ Nokla, with its punny branding and utter shameless, has taken upon itself to build the touchscreen N98, based on a sketchy Nokia concept that was making the rounds last year and never materialized. There’s a 3-inch QVGA screen and dual-sim support, but things lean into the realm of Nokia parody with the complete lack of 3G or EDGE data. The worst part is that this phone actually looks kind of nice. All this unintentional humor can be yours for a mere $78.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIV: Nokla beats Nokia to the touchscreen N98 punch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for some totally prototypical corporate non-answers regarding the alleged release of Android 1.5 on T-Mobile USA’s G1s? Good. Here you go:

“T-Mobile USA will confirm details of Android 1.5 availability for our T-Mobile G1 customers in the near future.”

Doesn’t mean much to us — and it’s hard to tell from that alone whether 1.5’s actually begun over-the-air distribution — but at any rate, it seems like they’re not ready to talk about it yet. Don’t keep us waiting long, guys.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

T-Mobile neither confirms nor denies Android 1.5 availability for G1 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Liked that blurry photo of a new Palm webOS phone we saw earlier? Well how about some specs, a name, and a better look at this thing? Enter the device above, apparently dubbed the Palm Eos (codenamed Castle… where have we seen that before?), which it seems will be the company’s proper follow-up to the Centro — a quadband GSM / HSDPA phone notably rocking the 850 / 1900 AT&T and Rogers-friendly frequencies. The phone will supposedly be an astounding 10.6mm thin, will measure just 55mm x 111mm (about 2.1 by 4.3-inches), weigh 100 grams, and will tout a 2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive display. Of course, the info we’ve got right now can’t be verified, and since there are a couple of minor question marks here (like barely rounded corners in the OS), you should take it all with a grain of salt… as usual. Needless to say, we’re working on getting more details (and some confirmation), so stay tuned!

Update: Oh boy — looks like we just got the full spec list. And yes, it’s definitely coming to AT&T (if it’s really coming).

• 4GB storage
• Price: $349 (pre-rebate)
• Camera: 2 megapixel fixed focus digital camera and flash / video capture
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP and EDR, USB 2.0 via micro USB
• Removable 1150 mAh battery (4 hours 3G talk time)
• Messaging: SMS, MMS (picture and video only), integrated IM client
• Contact sync with AT&T Address Book
• MediaNet
• Cellular Video
• Email: POP3, IMAP4, and EAS support
• A-GPS
• Audio: WAV, MP3, AAC, AAC+ ringtones
• Video Playback: MPEG4, H.264, H.263

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Eos: super-thin, 3G, and headed to AT&T? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d kinda gotten used to the cold, hard reality of being teased with the promise of a Cupcake build on our retail G1s out in some distant, nondeterministic future that we may or may not be a part of — but all of a sudden, it looks like we might’ve vaulted right past Cupcake. We’ve now received multiple tips this evening suggesting that T-Mobile may have started distributing Android 1.5 as an over-the-air update to G1 owners, which would bring customizable widgets, messaging enhancements, virtual keyboards, and UI tweaks (among many other goodies) to an eager public. Anyone out there seeing this?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

P.S. - No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: these are little green pastries baked by T-Mobile. “We heard people wanted cupcakes,” one representative told us.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Android 1.5 already hitting T-Mobile G1s? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, now we get it — the flood of Android phones we were expecting at MWC and CTIA this year are actually arriving a month or two late. Nice. Anywho, with Samsung just recently dishing out official dirt on its Google-fied I7500 and HTC pushing out its Magic overseas, Acer is making darn sure it’s not left out as the bandwagon cruises by. During the firm’s Q1 investor’s conference today, Gianfranco Lanci (President and CEO) noted that “the entire industry is looking at Android,” and that his company “is testing Android on a lot of different solutions.” Specifically, he stated that it was “working on an Android solution for the smartphone, but it’s too early to say if [Acer] is going to [put the OS] on a netbook in the near future.” ‘Course, he could be spitting out positive vibes to just make sure we don’t forget about ‘em, but here’s hoping Mr. Lanci takes him own quotes seriously. We’ll be watching — like Rockwell, minus the catchy chorus.

Filed under: Cellphones

Acer already working on “several Android devices,” smartphone included originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While avoiding the juicier questions surrounding the mystery of Project Pink and its potential ties to Verizon for maximizing Pink’s launch, a Microsoft spokesperson has issued new comments that reiterate the stance Redmond has held from time immemorial: there’s no Zunephone, and furthermore, there won’t be any Microsoft-branded phones.

Of course, the devil could lie in the precise wording, and the exact quote was as follows: “Microsoft is not going into the phone hardware business. Microsoft is not building a Zune-specific phone.” Just because there’s not a “Zune-specific phone” doesn’t mean you can’t steal some Zune tech for the phone business, and we have every reason to believe that Microsoft would want to be building Zune-esque features into Windows Mobile — you can start to see tiny slivers of that in 6.5 with the home screen design, for example — so we’re still pretty confident that Pink (or another project) will ultimately marry portions of the technology and branding. In other words: Zunephone, no; Zune on Windows Mobile, though? Yeah, sure, why not?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio

Microsoft reiterates what we knew: no first-party handset, no Zunephone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Odds are you’re going to have the phone to your ear nine times out of ten when this screen’s showing, but it’s still somehow interesting — nay, mesmerizing — so we’re happy to see that a recent build of Palm’s webOS emulator for developers has a polished version of the call screen included. Other goodies in PreThinking’s new gallery include options for adding Google, Facebook, and Exchange calendars, the pop-up battery / WiFi / Bluetooth status display, Google Maps shots, and a bunch of miscellany that only true Pre aficionados could appreciate (you know who you are). Follow the break for another shot — and let’s hope the next time you’re cycling through screens, it’s on a Pre of your very own.

Continue reading New webOS screenshots pop courtesy of SDK’s emulator

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

New webOS screenshots pop courtesy of SDK’s emulator originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s crazy, we know. Just hours after hearing shockingly believable whispers that Apple’s white-hot iPhone 3G could be sashaying over to Verizon Wireless, in flies a Wall Street Journal report asserting that the suits in Redmond are (also?) in talks with America’s largest carrier. ‘Course, we’ve heard rumors that Microsoft was banging out a smartphone behind closed doors for centuries now, but much to our chagrin, there’s no mention of “Zune” in “Project Pink.” Instead, we’re told that said handset in a touchscreen-based multimedia phone that will aim to extend the Windows Mobile OS while “adding new software capabilities.” Not surprisingly, we’re told that Windows Marketplace would be front and center on the phone, and potentially most interesting is this tidbit: “a third-party is expected to make the device.” Hey HTC — seen any strange calls originating from the 425?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft’s “Pink” smartphone could rival iPhone on Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Released into the developer wilds yesterday, Cupcake (Android 1.5) is already making its video debut on an Android Dev Phone. Arsen goes through some of the main new features including the camcorder (with YouTube sharing feature), new on-screen keyboard required for Android devices like the HTC Magic and Samsung I7500, and enhanced Web browser. 3GP videos captured by the G1 were a bit choppy with dropped frames and weak audio but on par with what we’d expect. The on-sceen keyboard and enhanced browser fared far better with Google providing real-time suggestions during URL lookups and the browser itself feeling a bit snappier when zooming and scrolling. All-in-all the latest build seems more stable than previous iterations and leaves us itching for the May release. See for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Video: Android 1.5 ‘Cupcake’ on-screen keyboard and camcorder action

Filed under: Cellphones

Video: Android 1.5 ‘Cupcake’ on-screen keyboard and camcorder action originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While mere mortals will most likely have to wait until May to get at Cupcake (probably even stooping so low as to refer to it as Android 1.5, those commoners), the proud, good-looking possessors of Android Dev Phones can get at the update right this instant from HTC’s website. Naturally, we’d assume somebody’s going to figure out how to get these images onto rooted G1s before long, but we wouldn’t want to over estimate the intelligence or temerity of the proletariat.

[Via Talk Android]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Android Dev Phones get early shot at Cupcake originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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