Cell Phone Hub

Step aside, JAC Hero, there’s a new firmware in town. Fatal1ty (that Fatal1ty?) and nk02 have not only managed to obtain the HTC Hero’s new (and almost final) Sense UI-infused firmware, but have spruced it up for consumption by HTC Magic / Dream users. There’s naturally a bit of glitchiness — apparently WiFi and Bluetooth don’t work at the moment, and the camera is all funkified, but the real treat here is the first implementation of Flash 10 on Android, even if it is a bit “laggy” on the RAM-starved G1. The widgets are also on display, and other than Flash the general experience is apparently pretty snappy. Naturally, the xda-dev folks won’t be leaving well enough alone, and we should be seeing refined versions of this and future Hero firmwares leading up to and after the release of the actual device.

[Via xda-developers forum; thanks Jeremy W., screenshot by johnnylicious]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

New HTC Hero ROM leaked, Flash 10 already chugging along on a few lucky G1s originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The HTC Hero has made its first appearance on a UK carrier’s website, but finds itself burdened with a teasing “coming soon” badge. Having talked to Orange, we can confirm previous reports that the device will be available for free on some, as yet undetermined but surely eye-gouging, price plans. The company said they are still testing the device and should have pricing information by tomorrow. Expect T-Mobile to quickly follow suit and unveil their Hero by another name (G1 Touch?), also fully subsidized. Both carriers will be offering the graphite edition of the phone, so if you have your heart set on the white Teflon-coated goodness, you may have to go the SIM-free route.

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Hero spotted on Orange UK website originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of our favorite intellectual property rips of recent months is without a doubt the SciPhone Dream G2 from China. Having completely missed the point of Google’s open-source OS being, well, open-source and thus free for SciPhone’s use, the company instead chose to hack the G2’s “proprietory” OS to look like Android. The charger, however, built to look like the iconic Android mascot is pretty damn cute; enough so that the idea of paying $150 just to get our hands on the 100-240V USB charger has crossed our minds. See the Android’s naughty bits after the break.

[Thanks, Steven]

Continue reading SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever

Filed under: Cellphones

SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We don’t know exactly what’s new yet, but Palm’s released firmware version 1.0.4 for Pres on Sprint (not to say there are any other Pres out there at the moment, anyhow). Stay tuned for details.

Update: Looks like the only changes here address security vulnerabilities — and interestingly, Palm gives a shout-out to the guy who helped find them. Cheers to that.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Palm Pre gets upgraded to 1.0.4 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple’s guided tour videos have featured an endless variety of creepy-android perfect “Apple Store employees” in the recent past, but we’d just like to take a moment and pour one out for OG Bob Borchers, who kicked off the entire series in 2007 with the original iPhone tours and followed ‘em up with the iPhone 3G tour. Bob’s leaving his post as Apple’s senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing to join VC group Opus Capital — yeah, it’s not hard gadget news, but we’re getting a little misty on Sunday evening remembering how closely we all watched those initial demos looking for any tiny nuggets of information about the then-mysterious platform. Peace out, Bob — it’s been a ride. Video after the break.

Continue reading Bob the Apple guided tour guy leaves for greener pastures

Filed under: Cellphones

Bob the Apple guided tour guy leaves for greener pastures originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We doubt the July 15 delivery date is set in stone, but UK residents itching to get a little Hero in their lives are now able to pre-order HTC’s latest for £429 ($708). That’s pretty much what we’d expect for an unlocked set, but Orange is planning to offer the Hero free on contract, so we’d be inclined to hang on just a teensy bit longer. Video after the break.

[Via Phandroid]

Continue reading HTC Hero up for pre-order on Amazon UK: £429, July 15 delivery

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Hero up for pre-order on Amazon UK: £429, July 15 delivery originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So Microsoft France’s product manager for Windows Mobile, Audrey Zolghadr, is saying that the company’s upcoming Windows Marketplace launch will be accompanied by around 600 apps certified and available on day one. Depending on your perspective, that’s either ridiculously anemic — the iPhone’s App Store has a couple orders of magnitude more currently available, for example — or a veritable cornucopia. Though the Ovi Store has no shortage of “items” to buy, an overwhelming majority of those are currently wallpapers, ringtones, and the like, and Palm’s App Catalog launched with so few apps that many folks (we’re not naming names) literally had every app installed within a few minutes of buying the phone. At the end of the day, it’s all about signal-to-noise ratio; if Microsoft can deliver 600 apps and half of those are terrific, they’re on the right track — though at this point, we’re thinking the next battle in Smartphone Platform Wars doesn’t really kick off until WinMo 7 swings by anyway.

[Via PhoneArena and WMExperts]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Windows Marketplace launching with 600 apps, or one bazillion times what the App Catalog has originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As recently as May Sony has itself stated that a PSP phone “could happen,” and now a report from Nikkei business daily states that Sony is planning on putting together a team as early as next month to build product that would act as a combination of a PSP and a Sony Ericsson handset. It makes plenty of sense, both as a differentiation from Nintendo and as a confrontation of the looming iPhone threat — and hey, it might also act as a decent salve over the lukewarm reception of the pricey PSPgo. Unfortunately, if Sony is just about to get started on this, we likely wouldn’t be looking at any resulting product for a while to come. Sony declined comment according to Reuters, which doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it’s worth keeping in mind that we’ve been hearing this sort of rumoring since back when the N-Gage (as a product) was still almost relevant.

[Via Mac Rumors]

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds

Sony investigating PSP phone? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Palm has done its darnedest to keep the riffraff away from webOS development while it finishes up its Mojo SDK for webOS development, but the floodgates have finally opened with an opportune leak of Mojo to Torrent-vill. Naturally, Palm will still be locking out unapproved developers from releasing their creations to the App Catalog for the time being, but this should hopefully give the everyman a chance to hone apps in anticipation of a day of approval — and should really beef up the homebrew community in the meantime. The other good news is that Palm is actually adding developers to its “early access program” at a fairly rapid pace, announcing that it doubled its membership this week, and plans to double it again next week. It’s all coming together.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Palm’s Mojo SDK beta for webOS leaks into the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Firms like Cradlepoint have been dishing out generic portable hotspots for years now, but it wasn’t until recently that US consumers had a carrier-branded option for creating their own WiFi zone via EV-DO. Novatel’s shockingly diminutive MiFi 2200 portable EV-DO router has officially arrived on both Sprint and Verizon Wireless, and while GSM followers have been unfortunately left out for the moment, we’re still eager to hear how early CDMA adopters are faring. Are you pleased with the convenience factor here? Have you had any odd and unexpected connection issues? Are you kosher with that 5GB limit on monthly throughput? Let us know if you think this thing’s worth its asking price, and if not, what would make it so. And… go!

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

How would you change Novatel’s MiFi 2200 portable EV-DO router? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.