Toys & Gadgets

It was facing an August 31st deadline before India banned BlackBerry service in the country, but it looks like RIM has now managed to avoid that scenario — at least for a little while. According to India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, “RIM have made certain proposals for lawful access by law enforcement agencies and these would be operationalized immediately,” and that “the feasibility of the solutions offered would be assessed thereafter.” Details are still a bit light beyond that, but India’s assessment will apparently come after 60 days, and there’s still no guarantee that we won’t end up back at square one at that point. Interestingly, India is also still raising complaints about Gmail and Skype, with it now saying that it wants Google and Skype to set up servers in the country that would give it greater monitoring capabilities.

RIM averts BlackBerry ban in India… for now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  The Globe and Mail, NDTV  | Email this | Comments

For all the stupid pet tricks, first-person confessionals, and clips from Conan O’Brien’s formative years that form YouTube’s content, the one territory it doesn’t really venture is pay-per-view à la Apple, Amazon, and others. Well, it’ll be a Brave New World for the service — and parent company Google — if this Financial Times report is worth its weight in 3mm. According to the publication, the G-Men have been in talks with “Hollywood’s leading movie studios” for several months, touting its reach as one of the main draws for the players involved, for the launch of an international pay-per-view service by the end of this year. Some prices are also thrown around here, to the tune of about $5 for new titles (streaming, not download) available the same time as the DVD releases. The video site has been doing rentals on a trial basis since early this year, with just a smattering of indie titles. The thought of paying to watch Blockbuster titles in the same window we watched three dozen (if not more) remixes of Keyboard Cat is still a bit of a new concept, but hey, that’s the future for you.

YouTube courting Hollywood for pay-per-view movie service by end of 2010, says Financial Times originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Financial Times  | Email this | Comments

App stores get no breaks. Once they get thousands of apps, then everyone complains that good apps are hard to find. The AppBrain web site is the result, and is a mandatory destination for Android owners. Members can share app lists making the experience very social.

We’d reported before our belief that the rumored Droid Pro is nothing more than the dual-mode version of the Droid 2, but the question remained: knowing that the Droid 2 has a model code of A955, what the heck is the difference between the model codes A956 and A957 that have been showing up in Verizon’s systems? Looks like we might have some clarification on that question this afternoon thanks to a new shot clearly calling out the A957 as the R2-D2 version of the Droid 2 that’s launching late next month. What does that mean? Well, it means that if the Droid Pro is a separate product with insane specs, it hasn’t shown up in any screen shots and we don’t have a model code for it. Our original tipster was pretty insistent that Verizon didn’t have any product on its 2010 phone roadmap with crazier specs than the Droid X — and besting it inside of six months would seem like an awful business move anyway — so now, the only question seems to be whether Big Red will go with the “Droid 2 World Edition” or “Droid Pro” branding when this thing launches in the coming weeks.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Droid Pro is the global Droid 2: the evidence grows originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Logitech’s promoting its Revue with Google TV box in a new “Lonely TV” series of advertisements, but while they’re suggesting the relationship between internet, TV and you should be closer this latest spot only makes us want to search for a restraining order. In light of concerns some have about online privacy and exactly how much information Google is revealing about our habits, maybe a giant screen with an eyeball on it sending a teenaged girl into a panic (and not the Bieber fever) is the wrong mascot. Check out the full ad after the break and see if we’re wrong — remember, being weird worked out great for Palm.

Continue reading Logitech’s ‘Lonely TV’ Revue with Google TV ad may be sending the wrong message

Logitech’s ‘Lonely TV’ Revue with Google TV ad may be sending the wrong message originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GTVHub  |  YouTube  | Email this | Comments

The rich landscape of Android versioning just got a bit richer, with word of an official Froyo update for the Droid Incredible being launched tomorrow (based on the screencap pictured above), while the EVO 4G’s recent Froyo software just got rooted. If you’re crazily impatient, an Android 2.2 ROM for the Incredible just leaked out into the wild, and can be installed with a bit of work, but from the official-looking-ness of this leak from Droid Life, a painless official update is not far off. Meanwhile, in Sprint land, the xda-devs have a rather complicated, rather scary method posted for rooting 2.2 on the EVO 4G — you’ll have to ask yourself how much that freedom is worth to you, or just wait for the inevitably easier methods to come along and hold your hand.

The revolving door: Froyo for Droid Incredible coming tomorrow, Froyo for EVO 4G gets rooted originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Police  |  xda-developers, Droid Life  | Email this | Comments

It’s a sad day for fans of Android, brushed aluminum exteriors, and retina-searing AMOLED displays. Bell’s HTC Legend seems to have come to the end of its days, the provider moving the phone to “end of life” status due to “ongoing supply constraints from the manufacturer.” Phandroid speculates this is due to AMOLED shortages slowing down HTC manufacturing, and that certainly seems like a reasonable conclusion. We also checked out some other suppliers of the phone and they too are not listing it in stock, so this could be a rather abrupt end of the road for one of the best looking, though not necessarily best performing, Android handsets.

[Thanks, Tati]

Bell HTC Legend prematurely put out to pasture due to AMOLED supply constraints? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phandroid  |  MobileSyrup  | Email this | Comments

The Motorola Droid is the top-selling phone on the hottest platform (Android), a winning combination for Motorola and Verizon. In this video you see how the Droid 2 improves on the original in the areas that make sense, while leaving the popular form the same.

The Nexus One retail situation has been pretty dire since Google humanely put down its own online store, leaving only paid developers with an easy option to get an unlocked unit (and only an AWS 3G version at that). Now, even that’s been taken away — at least temporarily — thanks to unexpectedly strong demand that left Google to “blow through the (substantial) initial inventory in almost no time” and run up a backorder with HTC. Interestingly, Google specifically points out that HTC is doing a good job with manufacturing despite the AMOLED shortage, which leads us to wonder whether the SLCD version is shipping in quantity yet — and considering how the Nexus One and Desire are well into midlife, we wonder whether it makes sense to even bother at this point when we’ve got next-gen products just around the corner. Good news is that Google still seems committed to getting Nexus Ones back in stock for developers, we just don’t know when that’s going to happen.

Google sells out of Nexus Ones for devs, ‘working hard’ to get more; SLCD not alleviating backorders yet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Android Developers  | Email this | Comments

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/hardware/T_Mobile_G2_in_the_wild’;
So we just got a second batch of T-Mobile G2 shots dropped in our mailbox — and this time, you can get a much better look at the inner workings of the carrier’s version of the upcoming HTC Vision. Looks like this bad boy slides and tilts, which eliminates the need for a kickstand and is very likely causing you to breathe an audible sigh of relief right about now. Meanwhile, the backside reveals that HTC looks ready to really get into this asymmetrical design concept — something we’ve definitely seen on the Schubert / Mozart — and realistically, it’s probably going to polarize some buyers. Check out the gallery for a few more shots!

Update: We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’ve just been told that the G2 doesn’t have a tilting screen, despite what you see up there — it’s just the inner workings of the slide being pulled up. Our hearts have been ripped from our chests on this one, rest assured.

T-Mobile G2 again, this time with less Mr. Blurrycam originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments