| Xperia U, HTC One X and One S coming to Orange UK Feb 27th 2012, 12:39 Orange, the only cellular network that's also one of your five-a-day has announced that it'll be releasing Sony's Xperia U, HTC One X and One S to smartphone demanding Britons in the second quarter of the year. Depending on your point of view, it's either fantastic or terrible that the network bagged the white edition of Sony's handset as an exclusive, but it's going to tempt some of you to the citrus-side of the force. There's no word on pricing, but we'd expect them to cost something we've heard called "money." While you wait for them to arrive, why not decide on which handset you'd rather purchase by reading our splendid hands-ons with each of the handsets? Xperia U / One X / One S. Xperia U, HTC One X and One S coming to Orange UK originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | ZTE 910 hands-on at MWC 2012 Feb 27th 2012, 12:25 ZTE's LTE FDD, CDMA, EVDO-enabled N910 -- we've also seen it referred to as the N91 -- also popped up at Mobile World Congress, so we gave it a quick once over. The spec sheet isn't bursting with this set but it does pack an 800 x 480 display, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, a 1080p capable front-facing lens, WiFi, Bluetooth, and of course its running Android 4. The N910 is a pretty thick handset as its posterior is a rounded affair, though, it feels hollow, and is impossibly light. Unfortunately for us -- and you -- it refused to power on during our brief visit, even after 10 minutes or so of charging. We will swing back around and see if we can't capture a bit of video, but until then the following gallery will have to do. ZTE 910 hands-on at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Panasonic Eluga hands-on Feb 27th 2012, 12:17 Well, Panasonic wasn't lying. Turns out, the company's Eluga smartphone is, as promised, quite elegantly designed. The stunning handset, which made its debut at this year's Mobile World Congress, isn't racing towards the finish line with Google's latest OS or even top shelf internals. Rather, this Android device places a heavy emphasis on style, durability and display tech much to the delight of our overloaded mobile-senses. We spent some quality time with device at the company's booth, so click on past the break to get the rundown on our initial impressions. Continue reading Panasonic Eluga hands-on Panasonic Eluga hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Starz Play movies disappear from Netflix streaming this week Feb 27th 2012, 12:15 A little more than three years after arriving on Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming service, Starz is packing up its online package of movies and original TV shows and heading home at the end of this month. While the deal brought in high profile movies from Disney and Sony (not to mention shows like Spartacus and Boss), it's also caused problems with the availability of certain movies / features on the Xbox 360, a renegotiation of terms between Starz and Disney followed by the removal of Sony's flicks from the service last year. Finally Starz reportedly asked Netflix to change its pricing strategy to a tiered one, but the companies couldn't agree and renewal negotiations ended September 1st of last year. Netflix is trying to fill the gap with more deals directly with studios and offering its own original shows, while the selection of kid-friendly movies will be supplemented by a Dreamworks arrangement that kicks off in 2013. That means subscribers have until midweek to enjoy Toy Story 3, Tangled or about 800 (mostly somewhat lesser-known) other movies that may be kicking around in their queues. While Netflix breaks out the Starz Play titles on its site, TVandMoviesNOW has put together a list of all of them, sortable by release date, rating, genre and other items including the 50 or so that are viewable on Amazon's Prime streaming service. We probably won't dive in too deeply since the movies lack HD res and surround sound, but if you haven't seen Party Down yet then this is the time. Starz Play movies disappear from Netflix streaming this week originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  TVandMoviesNOW, Netflix | Email this | Comments | | ZTE Mimosa X hands-on Feb 27th 2012, 11:58 ZTE's oddly named -- like most of its sets, honestly -- Mimosa X doesn't bring to mind bubbly champagne breakfast drinks, but it does have a glossy display and Android 4. Packing niceties such as a Tegra2 1.2Ghz processor, 4.3 qHD 960 x 540 display, 8-megapixel camera with 1080p vid recording capability, and HD voice it seems a pretty well aligned device as far as specs go. We immediately noticed that the housing quality is a little weak -- specifically the handset's textured rear -- though, we're hopeful that will be reflected in its sticker price. Speaking of pricing, nothing was mentioned, though we can look to this to land sometime in Q2. ZTE Mimosa X hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Samsung's Exhilarate $50 AT&T LTE phone hits the FCC Feb 27th 2012, 11:45 Samsung's Exhilarate was first announced back at CES as AT&T's first sub-$50 LTE phone. It also apparently meets a variety of sustainability and environmental standards, but the FCC wasn't concerned about if it was made of bamboo when it shredded the handset for the public's good. Our boys in blue lab coats were more preoccupied with the internals and despite the small on-contract cost of the device, it's certainly packing some hardware. Beneath that 4-inch super AMOLED display are GSM, WCDMA, LTE Bands 4 and 17, HSPA, GSM, GPRS and EDGE modems as well as the GPS, NFC, Bluetooth and WiFi modules we expect all self-respecting handsets to carry. Given that this emerged from Washington this morning, we can imagine this to start arriving in stores very shortly. Samsung's Exhilarate $50 AT&T LTE phone hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | FCC | Email this | Comments | | Qualcomm's Gobi modem chipsets combine 84Mbps HSPA+, LTE-Advanced Feb 27th 2012, 11:37  Multiple goodies on a single chipset? Yes, it's Qualcomm again, this time spreading word at MWC of its new Gobi modems. These will be the first to support both HSPA+ Release 10 (84Mbps on dual carriers) and LTE-Advanced, while two of the new Gobis (the MDM9225 and MDM9625) will additionally support true LTE Category 4 with carrier aggregation, for increased bandwidth across multiple radio channels and speeds of up to 150Mbps. The chips also boast lower power consumption thanks to their 28nm fabrication process, and are backwards compatible with older standards like GSM, EV-DO Advanced, TD-SCDMA and both FDD and TDD types of LTE. Hungry for more 3LAs? You'll find plenty in the press release below.
Continue reading Qualcomm's Gobi modem chipsets combine 84Mbps HSPA+, LTE-Advanced Qualcomm's Gobi modem chipsets combine 84Mbps HSPA+, LTE-Advanced originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | ZTE's quad-core Era hands-on Feb 27th 2012, 11:21 ZTE showed up to Barcelona and Mobile World Congress with briefcases overflowing with handsets, we stopped to have a peek at its newest which features a quad-core CPU: the Era. Running the Tegra 3 quad-core processor at 1.3Ghz with an Icera i450 HSPA+ modem, 4.3-inch qHD display, an 8-megapixel camera that'll shoot 1080p video and all that stuffed into a 7.8mm-thin metallic housing. We'd already gotten our mitts on a couple other ZTE sets by the time we ran into the Era, and as far as build quality goes it's head and shoulders above the others. The feel in hand is sort of reminiscent of the Nexus One: outstanding balance and weight. The display quality is bright and crisp and in the short demo we saw, the 3D effects on the home screen are absolutely fluid. We're looking forward to this set, or at least a chance for a little more time to get acquainted. ZTE's quad-core Era hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | ASUS Transformer Pad 300 hands-on Feb 27th 2012, 11:19 Right after ASUS wrapped its Mobile World Congress 2012 press conference, the hundreds of journalists present all honed in on the Padfone -- that 4.3-inch handset whose various accessories can turn it into a 10-inch tablet with a full QWERTY keyboard dock. After the crowds thinned, though, we spotted a red tablet sitting by itself in the corner. That would be the Transformer Pad 300, ASUS' new low-end slate. On paper, at least, it's a slightly emasculated Prime, with a 10-inch IPS (but not Super IPS+) display and 16GB of storage, not 32GB or 64GB. Otherwise, the key specs remain the same: a quad-core Tegra 3 chip, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0, 1280 x 800 resolution and dual 8MP / 2MP cameras. (Some models will also have an LTE radio, but that's something we'll have to revisit in a full review.) In any case, we wondered if the 300 would be identical to the Prime in looks as well (those fancy press shots don't always tell an accurate story). Surprisingly, it isn't! Check out the photos below and see if you can spot the differences, and then follow past the break for some quickie impressions. Continue reading ASUS Transformer Pad 300 hands-on ASUS Transformer Pad 300 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | |
