android

I cringe every time I hear the phrase "iPhone killer." And in a month like this, when we've reviewed the Palm Pre, the iPhone 3G S, and the next Google Android phone that is expected to land at T-Mobile, I've heard it way too many times.

My biggest issue with the phrase is not that's it's overused--though that's part of it--it's that it implies that the iPhone needs to be killed. Calling the latest touch-screen phone an "iPhone killer" automatically elevates the iPhone to a place that it doesn't … Read more

For those of you who don't care about a certain phone from a certain fruit-flavored company, you might be interested to know that T-Mobile announced on Wednesday the upcoming availability of its latest smartphone, the T-Mobile Dash 3G.

The Dash 3G is T-Mobile's take on the HTC Snap, which debuted at CTIA 2009. The carrier expects the smartphone to ship nationwide in July, though it did not release a specific date or pricing at this time. Sprint also announced that it will offer the HTC Snap on June 21 for $149.99 with a two-year contract, so we … Read more

China electronics maker Haier on Tuesday displayed its first Android mobile phone, the H7, at CommunicAsia 2009 held at the Singapore Expo.

The H7 is probably the fourth phone we know of that's employing the Google-developed OS, besides the HTC Dream, Magic, and the Samsung I7500. It's understood that the Haier phone will definitely operate on Android OS 1.5, but the company does not dispute that it will ship the handset with OS 2.0 if the firmware is available by then.

As the unit displayed at the booth was just a mockup, we weren't able … Read more

China-based Huawei announced its first Android-based smartphone, dubbed the U823X, at Singapore's CommunicAsia 2009. One key feature is the 3.5-inch display, which is larger than all the HTC Android devices released so far. It will also contain a 1,500mAh cell for longer battery life and connectivity features such as HSDPA, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Huawei also mentioned on its specs sheet that the phone will come with the "Chrome Lite" browser. Google co-founder Sergey Brin mentioned last year that the Android browser could possibly bear the Chrome name, but the company has never done that officially. … Read more

While video recording, more storage space, faster processor speeds, and better games have been the main calling cards for the iPhone 3G S, the biggest reason to upgrade may be yet to come--and it has to do with the seemingly most innocuous feature of all, the magnetometer.

Imagine a browser in which you view the real world through a camera lens and a heads-up display picks out interest points amid the living cityscape. This type of augmented reality has been the stuff of science fiction, but the cell phone browser Layar by Dutch software developer SPRXmobile claims to make it real. See the video for yourself.

Layar takes the sort of GPS POI data in current map-based apps, like ATMs, houses for sale, or nearby hotspots, and displays them overlaid on the landscape as seen through the camera lens.

It's debuting later this month for Android phones in the Netherlands--not exactly a huge starting demographic, but if it works, this could be the start of something big.… Read more

This past weekend, Google introduced a new version of its glossy Maps application for Android phones. Version 3.1.0 brings with it several new features, including voice search to go with its text search field and transit and walking directions to go with step-by-step driving directions.

In tests, Google's voice search on Android was fairly consistent with other voice search apps we've tested. That is to say, a skosh inconsistent. Most searches for banal items of daily life like "shoe repair shop" and "coffee" plotted the sought-for neighborhood responses on the map. Once … Read more

At CommunicAsia Tuesday, Garmin-Asus showed off its Nuvifone G60 and M20 devices. The former was first developed independently by Garmin and later rebadged with the new brand name after the two companies decided to collaborate on a line of navigation-focused smartphones.

The Linux-based G60 has been delayed for a while, but Tuesday Garmin-Asus announced that both devices will be commercially available in the second half of 2009. The company's regional director for Southeast Asia sales, Hektor Tung, said this will happen as early as August for some markets.

When asked about the potential of Garmin-Asus' current Linux platform for … Read more

Android running on devices at Computex was "snappy," while Windows 7 less so, according to a Gartner report published Monday. The report concluded that there is momentum behind the ARM chip platform.

"Android is the first Linux OS backed by a strong consumer brand--Google," write analysts Christian Heidarson and Ben Lee in Gartner's Semiconductor DQ Monday Report.

Though they stopped short of endorsing the platform--saying that Android is a work-in-progress--they did offer some hope for future Android-based devices running on ARM processors versus Windows 7-based Netbooks running on Intel's Atom processor. "There is … Read more

After the Apple iPhone 3G S and Palm Pre, the most gossiped about smartphone is one that may or may not exist.

Dell, which has hinted about getting into the category for more than a year, is supposedly working on a device right now, and the image to the right is said to be a picture of the device.

Engadget posted the photo Monday, and it's from a Chinese Web site called PDAFans.com. Though it's blurry, there's nothing distinguishing about the design of the handset itself besides a Dell logo, and that it appears a bit … Read more