Engadget Mobile Gallery

Palm demos web-based Ares SDK for webOS

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 5th 2009 at 6:50PM

Currently, mobile entrepreneurs wishing to hawk their wares on the Pre (or Pixi, or unnamed webOS device of the future) use a software development kit from Palm called Mojo, a stack of Java-based tools that must be installed, studied, understood, loved, and respected before serious development can get underway. Palm sees that as a barrier of entry for web-oriented developers who want to make the leap to mobile apps, though, which is why they've crafted a new SDK called Ares that's based entirely on web technologies -- in fact, there's no install at all, apparently. Much of the interface is said to be drag-and-drop with enough JavaScript exposed to make your local .com designer feel right at home, potentially opening the app landscape to a whole new set of folks -- and considering that the App Catalog is tens of thousands of goodies behind the App Store and Android Market, they can use every loyal dev they get.

Samsung unleashes WinMo 6.5 upgrade for AT&T's Jack

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 4th 2009 at 7:21PM

It's not often that a manufacturer pushes a Windows Mobile version bump in a timely fashion, so color us impressed to see that Samsung has now released an official 6.5 upgrade for the Jack on AT&T. 6.5 is a relatively minor bump over 6.1 in the non-touch Standard world -- Professional devices are getting the lion's share of improvements -- but users will be happy to find that they're getting an updated Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Marketplace access, and automated free connections to AT&T WiFi hotspots (anything to offload cellular strain, right?). Grab it now from Samsung's site, make sure your battery's charged, and let 'er rip.

Opera Mobile 10 features tabbed browsing, disses WinMo

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Nov 4th 2009 at 2:37PM

Symbian freaks, do we have a treat for you! While all your WinMo-lovin' friends are out there with Opera Mobile 9.5 (or possibly 9.7), a beta of version 10 has just been announced exclusively for Nokia / Symbian smartphones. As well as being as speedy as ever (fifty percent faster than previous Symbian versions, or so it's been claimed), this release features a new-and-improved user interface, a "speed dial" page that displays all your fave sites as icons, and tabbed browsing. Not too shabby, eh? Hit the read link to get the thing for your Symbian/S60 phone -- but not before peeping the video after the break.

[Via Mobile Tech World]

Continue reading Opera Mobile 10 features tabbed browsing, disses WinMo

Public Radio App lets you resume 'This American Life' whenever you please

by Darren Murph posted Nov 4th 2009 at 1:02PM

Now that you've got an NPR-lovin' stereo in your bedroom, the only thing missing in your otherwise completely fulfilled life is an NPR application that enables you to listen to your favorite programs whenever, wherever. If we just rung your bell, you can now drift away and die happy. Available this very moment in the 100,000-strong App Store is the Public Radio App, which essentially acts as a DVR for the iconic station. Once fired up, the app can "pause and rewind public radio streams from NPR, PRI, APM and local public radio stations," and there's even an alarm clock setting that wakes you up with your favorite public radio stream. Unfortunately, on-demand streaming is still a pipe dream, but there's nothing to stop these guys from adding that very feature in the next iteration. Go on -- try and lay off the trigger. It's not like that awfully low $2.99 price point is tempting or anything.

Apple's App Store breaks 100,000 apps

by Paul Miller posted Nov 4th 2009 at 9:47AM

Look, App Store, we just wanted to take this opportunity to say we're sorry about all the fart app jokes. We know it's not easy being a new App Store, making your way in the world, and when juxtaposed against the struggles your competition has had with putting together a compelling app gathering, we know now that our words in those early days were hurtful and lacking in understanding. With 100,000 apps in your store and over two billion downloads, we hope you can be the bigger man here and forgive us. Also, if you have any tips for improving our Canabalt score that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Symbian Foundation dares to call characters in the dialer a 'brainstorm idea'

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 4th 2009 at 9:37AM

The good news: the alphanumeric dialer keypad was integrated into Symbian's codebase from a community-submitted suggestion.

The bad news: it took a community-submitted suggestion to make the dialer keypad alphanumeric.

Palm: webOS speed fix in the 'immediate future'

by Thomas Ricker posted Nov 4th 2009 at 3:31AM

Palm device owners have little to complain about when it comes to webOS; not after enduring Garnet and empty Access promises for so long. Still, that OS which relies so heavily upon web technologies like HTML 5, JavaScript, and CSS can be surprisingly sluggish when compared to other smartphone OSes. Now we have a hint as to why thanks to Palm's Ben Galbraith and Dion Almae who made an interesting admission Tuesday related to the Pre's UI latency compared to the iPhone 3GS -- a phone based on the same ARM architecture. According to the duo, "the path to the GPU didn't exist" in webOS, something that will be solved in the "immediate future" using CSS transforms to modify visual elements thus freeing-up CPU cycles for other tasks. Hmm, immediate future sure sounds like a webOS update to accompany the Palm Pixi release on November 15th.

[Via Everything Pre]

Blacksn0w unlock available now for iPhone 3G and 3GS

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 12:23PM

There's no stopping the eternal tug-of-war between the powers that be and the hackers that will, and for the time being it looks like things are back in the hands of the hackers. As of noon today giddy jailbreakers can take the next step and go full-on with blacksn0w, the unlock for the latest 05.11.07 baseband (with tethering enabled to boot). And if that weren't enough, it looks like blackra1n RC3 is alive as well, with Mac and Windows support. What are you waiting for? Hit the read link to get started, if that's your thing. And the battle for the iPhone's immortal soul continues...

[Via On The iPhone]

New Meizu M8 beta firmware looking desirable, bordering on original

by Paul Miller posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 10:33AM

It's been almost three years since we saw our first taste of the Meizu M8, which was at that point a fairly shameless rip of the iPhone, albeit mostly theoretical. In the ensuing years we've seen an ever-changing OS and two generations of hardware, but we might be finally coming upon something worth lusting after. The new M8 Firmware 1.0.0.1 beta has been demo'd on video, and seems to be taking some new cues from Android and Windows Mobile -- along with some original and sexy UI elements of Meizu's own devising -- that really set it apart from its iPhone-aping days of yore. We're particularly fond of the unlock screen, which has three icons at the bottom that can be swiped-up like an Android app drawer, but with quick access to phone and messages, similar to how Windows Mobile 6.5 can be unlocked into multiple modes. Apparently the OS is only 50% ready, and there's no telling how many changes we might see between now and when it's finished, but for now we're fairly impressed. Video is after the break.

Continue reading New Meizu M8 beta firmware looking desirable, bordering on original

Bug in Motorola CLIQ's OpenGL implementation breaks a few games

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 9:29AM

If you've run into trouble trying to load up Hexage's Buka or Totemo on your CLIQ, you're not alone -- it seems that some wonky handling of a few OpenGL API calls on Motorola's first Android device are causing heartache for users and developers alike. It's not clear how many apps in total make use of the calls, but we'd imagine they're in line to be fixed -- and thanks to the CLIQ's support for over-the-air updates, we're hoping those fixes come sooner rather than later. In the meantime, we suppose that DROID's always an option, right?

[Via I4U and Android and Me]

Adobe engages Apple in passive aggressive warfare with iPhone's Flash message

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 2:58PM

Adobe's seemingly tried everything in its fight to get Apple to tear down enough development barriers to get Flash ported to the iPhone, culminating in a native compilation option in CS5 that... well, really doesn't solve much of anything. So far, nothing's worked. What's next? Get the masses fired up with some old-fashioned propaganda and let 'em riot down at One Infinite Loop, of course! Visiting Adobe's Flash download page from an iPhone now shows a pretty tersely-worded message informing the user that they're getting short-changed simply by Apple's refusal to budge, so yeah, if you hear an occasional cry of "this is outrageous, I'm writing Apple immediately!" while sitting at an airport gate or a coffee shop, you can safely guess what just happened.

[Via Gear Diary]

RIM posts job listing for 'WebKit Developer,' gets one step closer to a real browser

by Joshua Topolsky posted Nov 1st 2009 at 4:33PM

Needed some more evidence that future BlackBerrys may be getting a much needed improvement in the browser department? You got it. Following up on the news that Research In Motion has acquired Torch Mobile (developers of the WebKit-based Iris browser), the Candian phonemaker is now looking to fill the position of "WebKit Developer," according to a job listing. The posting calls for a number of skills which would come in handy whilst creating a next-gen browser for the BlackBerry OS, clearly calling for someone with hands-on experience coding... WebKit style. Look, if you love Canada and hate the BlackBerry browser, here's your chance to make the world a better place. What are you waiting for?

[Thanks, Daniel M]

New Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video hits, still looks nothing like Android

by Paul Miller posted Oct 31st 2009 at 11:56PM

Calling this Rachael UI an Android "skin" is like calling Windows 95 a "DOS skin," but that's not to say there's nothing to love about it. In fact, we're rather relieved that Sony Ericsson seems to be addressing Android's incredibly lackluster media playback interface, the SE "mediascape" version of which dominates this particular video -- a sequel to the first Rachael UI tease we got back in July. You know what else is great? The video title name drops the same luscious screen resolution as the DROID, 480 x 854, which spells all sorts of good things for SE's first Android entry. Video is after the break, and if that doesn't do the trick for you, the Rachael hardware is being teased over on this end of the internet.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading New Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video hits, still looks nothing like Android

iPhone and Windows 7 don't play nice, Intel P55 chipset to blame

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 31st 2009 at 5:20PM

The iPhone is one of the most wildly popular phones the world has ever seen, while Windows 7 is well on its way to becoming the globe's most ubiquitous OS. So compatibility between the two would be kinda sorta important, right? Tell that to Intel's quality control team who seem to have somehow missed an issue between Apple's app carrier deluxe and the P55 Express chipset's USB controller. Consistent (and persistent) syncing issues have been reported on Apple's support forums, wherein iTunes on Windows 7 machines recognizes the iPhone, but spits out an "error 0xE8000065" message whenever the user attempts to sync. While some have found limited success with using PCI-based USB cards (and bypassing the chipset), this is clearly a major issue and something Apple would expect to be fixed before shipping its Core i5 / i7 iMacs, which are likely to sport the chipset. Hit the read link for the original thread of sorrow and regret, and do chime in with your own experience in the comments.

[Via The Register]

Palm Pixi definitely shipping with a new webOS version, but which?

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 31st 2009 at 2:44PM

Whoa, is that webOS 2.0 we see on the horizon? No, sorry, it definitely isn't -- but we can say with relative confidence that the upcoming Pixi will be shipping with a newer, slightly more feature-rich version of webOS than its Pre brethren around the world; if nothing else, Synergy supports Yahoo on the new model, as PreCentral observes. What remains to be seen is the exact version number that'll be shipping out of the gate -- recent DSLReports user agent logs suggest that 1.2.9 might be the gold build (for the record, the Sprint Pre currently rocks 1.2.1), but apparently there's some chatter going on about a 1.3 as well. Doesn't seem like much of a difference, but a 0.1 increment usually means more features, fixes, and changes than a 0.01 increment does, so naturally, we're pulling for a bigger number. There isn't any intel on what this mythical 1.3 might contain just yet or whether it'd be heading to Bell, Sprint, and O2 Pres, but we'll keep an eye out.