Naturally, we need to first disclaim this noise by saying that rumors of third-party multitasking capability in the iPhone are as old as the iPhone SDK itself. That said, it’s hard to ignore a new reference to a “multitasking dialog box” buried deep within the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta that — while not new to beta 4 specifically — we’re told didn’t exist in 3.1.3. Now, the wildest possible speculation would have us believing that this is the very first by-product of a new multitasking system for developers that’s being developed for the platform, presumably destined for an appearance in OS 4.0 when it’s introduced along with new hardware this summer — but it’s just as likely that Apple will continue to keep the iPhone’s multitasking capability to itself, a function it uses liberally among the phone and music apps, just to name a couple. For what it’s worth, AppleInsider is citing a tipster claiming that Apple’s got a “full-on solution” to multitasking that would properly address its main concern — battery life issues — for release this year, so maybe we’ll be able to chuck those awful push notifications before we know it. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be over here in the corner running a few dozen apps on our Pre Plus.
iPhone SDK 3.2 showing first hints of multitasking for third-party apps? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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ZDNet is receiving tips claiming Apple will upgrade its Mac Pro line with an Intel Core i7-980x chipset certainly isn’t the first time we’ve heard Core i7-shaped gossip. Supposedly it’ll all be unraveled next Tuesday, the 16th of March. [ZDNet via BGR] More »
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Would you believe that Acer is working on a frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? As far-fetched as the idea might be, it’s certainly plausible, expected even. The idea, as rumored by DigiTimes, involves doing away with the display’s frame by printing colors directly onto the back of the display’s reinforced glass substrate from Corning (a la Gorilla Glass presumably). Coupled with a touchscreen keyboard, the rumored device should be impossibly thin by traditional laptop comparisons. Keep in mind that we’ve already seen this Frame Zero concept pictured above from Fujitsu and Acer’s arch-rival ASUS has been showing off its dual-display laptop prototype with touchscreen keyboard for months. Even the OLPC XO-3 plans to eschew the clickity keyboard in favor of a touchscreen version. And anyone who has ever seen a scifi movie knows that tactile keyboards and display bezels have no role to play in our computing future anyway, so we might as well get things started now — or in the second half of 2010 according to DigiTimes‘ sources.
Acer working on frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We don’t see too many Gigabyte phones in these parts, but all indications seem to suggest that the company is throwing in with Android for future handset releases (which is what we would recommend, if it ever asked us — which it doesn’t). As we wait eagerly for the
GSmart Android phone to make its debut, which should happen any second now (right, guys?) we have word of a second Donut-powered device with the oh-so-unappealing name Codfish. According to
PointGPhone, this bad boy is of “good manufacturing quality,” “very responsive,” and counts among its many charms a 3.2-inch display and 5 megapixel camera. We’re just hoping that Codfish is either a codename or translates into something
really bad-ass in Mandarin.
Gigabyte ‘Codfish’ Android 1.6 handset outed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HTC’s HD2 is a near perfect combination of physical hardware and silicon that delivers impressive performance on a device that’s surprisingly sleek given the display’s massive 4.3-inch exapanse. Even Microsoft’s much maligned Windows Mobile 6.5 is expertly masked by HTC’s Sense interface. So it’s easy to understand the anticipation felt by the HD2’s first US release, questions of a Windows Phone 7 OS upgrade path notwithstanding. T-Mobile has the release honors and is now showing the HD2 as “coming soon” in its phone inventory. We’ve also got the first “in the wild” shots courtesy of TmoNews showing that big Blockbuster shortcut linked front and center for downloading On Demand movies directly to the device. Still no firm price or date but $199.99 on contract ($449.99 unlocked) sometime around 24 March sounds about right. One more shot with official T-Mobile branding after the break; the rest at the source link below.
[Thanks Taylor]
Continue reading HTC HD2 breaks free in the T-Mobile USA wilds
HTC HD2 breaks free in the T-Mobile USA wilds originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Here’s a little spicy rumor for you Palm fans on this tranquil Sunday: according to TopTongueBarry who claims to work for AT&T, his company has just finished certification tests with GSM flavors of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus ahead of a possible April 26th launch — a date not far from what we’ve heard earlier. However, the bigger news from Barry is that the big A will soon be testing a third mysterious webOS device by the name of Palm Elan, which may greet us mere mortals on May 10th (but possibly in Europe first). Another forum member Shadow-360 also dug up some cached pages that claimed to have accessories for the non-existent device, as pictured above. Of course, this could be just a crude joke for a keyboard-less Palm device that many of us seem to desire — as reminded by the good folks at PreCentral, Elan is also the name of the company that sued Apple over multitouch patents last April. So, any thoughts on this leak? Are we all ready for a new webOS phone?
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: Turns out the Elan may just be the Pixi. Or it could be your wildest dreams about to come true.
Palm Elan to be the next webOS smartphone, heading to AT&T? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony’s gearing up to take on Apple this year, with the long-awaited PSP smartphone and a portable device to compete with the iPad. But will it be too little too late?
There aren’t extensive details available yet, but we can expect to see the devices sometime this year. The PSP phone, in particular, has been in the works since at least 2007, but has met with various delays since then. [WSJ]
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Alright, Droid owners, decent multitouch performance isn’t the only thing you’ve got to brag about. As you likely know by now, 2.1’s in the works for you — and from the latest video we’re seeing of an official test build running in the wild, we’re cautiously optimistic that it’s going to be a fantastic little update. As we’d reported some time back, the Nexus One’s revamped app launcher is missing, but multitouch appears to work like butter in both the browser and revamped Gallery app and the new news and weather widgets have made the cut as well. Most notable, though, might simply be the fact that everything flies — home screen switches, opening of the app drawer, zooming, it’s all mega-fast. Granted, anyone with an Android device knows that the speed of the device depends on the number of apps you’ve got running, the moon phase, and the direction of the wind, but it’s an encouraging sign nonetheless. Now if only Moto would stop fumbling the launch, we’d be good to go; in the meantime, though, check some video of the update after the break.
Continue reading Android 2.1 looking fast, furious on Motorola Droid
Android 2.1 looking fast, furious on Motorola Droid originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What looked like a drizzle last night seems to be turning into a full on downpour. The folks over at BlackBerry Leaks have gotten themselves even more facetime with that mysterious BlackBerry slider device — and it looks a lot better than we thought. Right now the theories are flying about just exactly what kind of phone this is, with BBL suggesting it might be the next phone in the Storm family, while Kevin over at CrackBerry has it on good authority that this new handset will be part of the Bold line. Kevin also says that the rumors he’s heard on this device call for a 360 x 480 touchscreen display (sans SurePress) and expectations for BlackBerry OS 6.0 to be onboard. The pictured phone apparently has a battery issue which is keeping it from powering up, but hopefully someone will find a way to spark this thing to life and we can get some more solid info. For now, check out one more pic after the break.
Continue reading More BlackBerry slider pics appear — is this the next Bold?
More BlackBerry slider pics appear — is this the next Bold? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A Mac mini with HDMI. Makes sense, right? Well, it hasn’t to Apple so far, but it looks like it just might be ready to change its tune. That’s according to AppleInsider, at least, which has it from “two people familiar with the matter” that prototypes of a Mac mini with an HDMI port have been seen making the rounds in the usual inner circles. At least one of those prototypes was also said to be based on NVIDIA’s MCP89 chipset, which means that any forthcoming Mac mini revision would pass over the latest Core i3, i5 and i7 processors in favor of older Core 2 Duos if it is indeed the chipset used in the final product. Unfortunately, there’s nothing more specific than “this year” in terms of a rumored release date, and this is still just one rumor about what would be a fairly big shift in Apple’s strategy — so, you know, keep that in mind before you start ripping apart your current HTPC setup.
Apple rumored to be readying Mac mini with HDMI originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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