Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Gadgets / Other, ebooks  The Amazon for Kindle application is coming pre-loaded on the Samsung Galaxy S, but you can grab the application now on other Android devices. The Kindle for Android app is now in the Android Market, providing access to 620,000 e-books.
Non-US customers should be aware that not all books will be available to them because of licensing and distribution issues. However, those who already have a Kindle account and an Android 1.6 or higher device can log-in to read their treasured works. We got a quick preview of the Amazon app while at Google I/O and we were impressed (video demo is below). Kindle provides a phone-friendly format for reading ebooks, bookmarking the last read page through Amazon Whispersync, and allows users to adjust text size, color, and brightness. That will obviously be useful when reading your favorite books, newspapers, and magazines that offer content in Kindle for Android. Download from the Android Market or scan this QR code. 
Read [Amazon] Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones  Even though the Motorola announcement several days ago did not include any information on the Motorola Droid 2, the rumors for the Motorola smartphone are alive and vague once again. According to a “trustworthy source” of AndroidandMe, Motorola will launch the Droid 2 on August 23. The reason for the late release is supposedly because Motorola wants the phone to be the first to ship with Android 2.2. This seems like a valid reason as it would be a nice point to make when advertising the phone that it ships with Android 2.2. Current models of the Motorola Droid 2 floating around are running Android 2.1, so the main difference between the current prototypes and the actual phone will be the software. The Droid 2 and Droid X are very similar phones hardware-wise, but the Droid 2 will come with a physical QWERTY keyboard as its main, notable difference. Pricing hasn’t been announced, but I expect it to be the normal $199 after MIR on a 2 year contract. Via [AndroidandMe] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones 
Just like the rumor indicated, Sprint HTC EVO 4G owners are finding an update available on their phones known as version 1.47.651.1. The file size is a mere 21.43MB, so it looks like it contains the fixes to the bug fixes outlined in the rumor. The bug fixes are minor but definitely helpful to the overall improvement of the Android smartphone. It supposedly enables the EVO 4G’s WiFi 802.11n support, improves upon ActiveSync, and prevents social networking updates from wasting the battery. We will have to wait a little bit longer to find out if the update indeed fixes the problems in the rumor. Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Business News, Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Web Browsers, Google  For Google Chrome fans, the relatively new browser just claimed third place in the United States by overtaking Apple’s Safari browser in a weekly statistic count by StatCounter. From June 21 to June 27, StatCounter analyzed 874 million website views from the United States and checked to see which browser accessed the website. They determined Google Chrome was responsible for 8.97% of web views, while Apple’s Safari was responsible for 8.88%. Of course, it would be pretty difficult for either Chrome or Safari to catch the second place Firefox who claims a 28.5% share, while Internet Explorer claims a dominating 52%. In terms of global usage, Chrome holds a 9.4% market share, while Safari is at a dismal 4%, Firefox is at 31%, while Internet Explorer finishes first at 53%.
Via [Businesswire] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Computers, Netbooks Verizon, as of late, has focused on smartphones such as the Motorola Droid X, Samsung Fascinate, and the BlackBerry Bold 9650. For Verizon customers who simply want a phone that will get the basic job done, Verizon has been slow in producing those phones, but on their ‘coming soon’ list, several basic, feature phones are listed. The Pantech Jest and the Samsung Haven u320 are on the list as well as the netbook Samsung N150. The Pantech Jest sports a 2MP camera, QVGA display, slideout QWERTY keyboard, native VZ Navigator, and MicroSD memory expansion. No word on pricing at this time, but the phone is expected to launch sometime in July. The Samsung Haven u320 is the conventional flip phone, designed for easy communication, and has a few hot keys for voice command, voicemail, speakerphone. Again, no word on pricing the phone is supposed to launch in July as well. Lastly, we have the Samsung N150, the 10.1 inch netbook with 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and a 1.66GHz processor. We will have to wait until we get closer to the launch date to find out the pricing on these three Verizon devices. Via [unwiredview] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Apple, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones The iPhone 4 officially launched on June 24 and by the end of the day on Saturday (June 26), 1.7 million iPhone 4s were already sold. In fact, Steve Jobs says they didn’t even have enough in stock to meet the high demand for the product. Since the iPhone 4 is available in AT&T, Apple, Best Buy, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart stores, customers have quite a few options on where to buy the iPhone 4. As of now, the iPhone 4 is available in the UK, France, Germany and Japan. However, Apple plans to expand to 18 more countries by the end of July including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. If Apple can keep up the hype surrounding the iPhone 4 and keep enough of the device in stock, they should see a very successful debut month. Via [PR Newswire] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile  According to Android Guys, the rumor killing off of the Droid Incredible seems to be accurate. Last week, rumors of the Droid Eris and Incredible life-cycle completion circulated but most figured the Incredible still had some legs. According to a “Verizon guy” tipster, the Incredible is at the end of the road.
It seems far too soon. In fact, many still have the phone on order. According to the tipster, “...they are allowing customers who pre-orded it (droid Incredible) to cancel their order and get the Motorola Droid X instead.” Wow. A 2-month shelf life is unheard of for Android phones. The Eris had been available since last year, so it’s no real surprise that it’s reached the end, but the Incredible? It’s rather, well, incredible. The AMOLED screen is largely to blame, it seems. Gadgetell’s Hunter Clarke reported, “For weeks now Verizon has been suffering from a shortage of the devices and it is now confirmed that a screen shortage is the cause.” Read: [Android Guys] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Content, Portable Video, Gadgets / Other, ebooks 
Today, Amazon updated it’s Kindle app for iPhone and iPad devices bringing video and audio clips included with some books in Amazon’s store. There are currently a few books for sale on the market that include video and/or audio to expand the reading experience. The move is expected to create new opportunities for books to create new experiences through the combination of text, audio and video. Interesting, Amazon’s Kindle can’t perform video display. It can do audio, but Amazon decided to bring this feature to Apple’s iPad first. Maybe it’s a move to separate the purists from the technofiles, but I suspect the purists are still hooked on paper books. “Readers will already find some Kindle Editions with audio/video clips in the Kindle Store today—from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes with video tips on preparing the perfect cake to Bird Songs with audio clips that relate the songs and calls to the birds’ appearances. This is just the beginning—we look forward to seeing what authors and publishers create for Kindle customers using the new functionality of the Kindle apps,” said Dorothy Nicholls, director, Amazon Kindle. We can’t help but feel bad for the Kindle, watch the iPad gain this advance wistfully from the corner of the room. Read: [Amazon] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile Last week US Cellular mentioned that they were planning to release the Android-powered Samsung Acclaim in July and a second Samsung Android smartphone in October. Well, it looks like that October release is going to be the Galaxy S. Yup, US Cellular seems to have joined the big four carriers here in the US and offered up a press release announcing a Samsung Galaxy S of their own. According to the details in the release, the handset will be available “in the fall.” That said, nothing was given in terms of a price. Otherwise, the other big question that remains is what they will release the phone as. After all, T-Mobile has the Vibrant, Verizon has the Fascinate, AT&T has the Captivate and Sprint has the Epic 4G. With that, the release may not be coming until the fall, but we would still expect to learn the price sometime before that. Read [Business Wire] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile It looks as if the Nokia website has give us an accidental unveiling in the form of the C7. Of course, just like any other leak—the specs are not complete. That said, the Nokia C7 is expected to feature a 360 x 640 pixel display, an ARM-based processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, support for 3G UMTS/HSDPA and running Symbian^3. With that, we can check out and stare at the above image while we hope to see some pricing and release information come available. Read [Nokia] Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile And just like that, the Samsung Galaxy S comes to all four major US carriers. AT&T has the Captivate, T-Mobile has the Vibrant, Sprint has the Epic 4G and Verizon has the Fascinate. Of course, the big difference here is that the Sprint version is also touting a hardware QWERTY and 4G. Anyway, as of now we are still awaiting to see something a little more in terms of details. In other words, unlike T-Mobile and Sprint, Verizon has yet to announce the release date and pricing. That said, it seems likely we can expect sometime in late-July and a price tag of around $200. Heck, Verizon has not even released an press image yet, hence the reason for the generic Galaxy S above. Otherwise, the specs are what we are becoming quite familiar with and include the 4 inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display, 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, digital zoom and 720p video recording, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and microSD card slot. You will also find Android 2.1 with Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. And now we wait for Verizon… Read [Samsung] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile The Samsung Vibrant is not a mystery device, so far we have seen a pretty decent amount of coverage. That said, this latest is the official unveiling which included pricing, availability and specs. First and foremost, the Samsung Vibrant will launch with T-Mobile on July 21st. In terms of price, expect to pay $199.99 on a two-year agreement. The interesting part here come in regards to the apps that will be pre-installed. Those include Amazon Kindle for Android, Slacker Radio, The Sims 3 Collectors Edition, MobiTV and Gogo Inflight Internet. Of course, that Kindle app is not yet even in the Market. Additionally, the Vibrant will also include an Avatar app that features the full length movie. Of course, the 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display will make watching that movie (or reading books) that much nicer. Other hardware features include 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, microSD card slot and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, digital zoom and 720p video recording. Additionally, the Vibrant will ship with a 2GB microSD storage card as well as two battery covers including one in blue and one in lavender. Finally, the Samsung Vibrant will ship with Android 2.1, the TouchWiz 3.0 user interface, Samsung’s Social Hub and the Swype virtual keyboard. Read [T-Mobile] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile It was obvious that Sprint would eventually like to have more than just one 4G smartphone, and it looks like the next one will come from Samsung. The newest 4G phone on the network will be called the Samsung Epic 4G. Like all the other recent Samsung smartphone announcements, the Epic 4G will be a “Galaxy S smartphone,” though not the same phone we’ve seen called the Vibrant, Captivate, or whatever else carriers are calling it. The Epic 4G actually appears to be the rumored Samsung Galaxy S Pro. Basically a Galaxy S with a slide-out landscape keyboard. Other features include a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, 5MP camera with LED flash that can shoot 720p video, front facing camera and a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor. To further differentiate itself from it’s Sense UI-skinned brethren the EVO 4G, the Epic 4G has a six-axis accelerometer and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. Perhaps the only thing that could be seen as a downgrade from the EVO 4G (assuming you don’t count the loss in the camera’s megapixels and the 0.3 inches of screen) is that the Epic 4G will only support 5 devices while using it as a mobile hotspot as opposed to the EVO’s eight. In addition to the slide-out keyboard, like the Droid X, the Epic 4G will have Swype installed by default. Sprint isn’t announcing anything about the Epic 4G’s release yet, only mentioning that it will be out in “the coming months.” It is mentioned that the Epic will run on Android 2.1, though and upgrade to 2.2 will be coming soon. That could mean it will be running Froyo on release, thought it is more likely that it won’t. Either way, it is nice to have another option for a 4G phone, even if there’s only two so far. It’s likely we’ll be seeing a few more coming in the coming months. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if perhaps a 4G smartphone would be out before the end of the year running Windows Phone 7. We ca always hope that’s the case, at least. Read [Sprint] Read [Epic Fact Sheet]
Read [Epic 4G] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile According to one of Engadget’s sources, T-Mobile is set to launch a new Android handset featuring an improved Motoblur. The handset is called the Motorola Charm, which looks like a small, rectangular, compact phone. It features Android 2.1, a physical QWERTY keyboard, and improvements on the social networking side which should make Motoblur a better experience. This is still in the rumor stage, so we will have to wait for official confirmation by T-Mobile about the Motorola Charm. The next part of this rumor indicates the Motorola CLIQ and CLIQ XT will be updated with the new version of Motoblur that the Charm will feature. I guess if you like the functionality and design of Motoblur, this comes as good news. But for the rest of us on T-Mobile, who particularly don’t care about social networking, we really just want to see the Samsung Vibrant launch. Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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