| Refresh Roundup: week of February 20th, 2012 Feb 26th 2012, 21:04 Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of February 20th, 2012 Refresh Roundup: week of February 20th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Fish are lazy, naive, easily led by robots (video) Feb 26th 2012, 20:46 What does a fish look for in a leader? No doubt a nice fishy smell is important, and maybe a sense of direction too, but the overriding factor happens to be something much simpler, and indeed simple enough for a robot to mimic. Our old friend Maurizio Porfiri and a colleague from New York's Polytechnic Institute have shown that a fish-bot will quickly attract live followers if it has a nice, fluid swimming motion. When the stroke is just right, real fish will pull up alongside and visibly relax their own motion to conserve energy, just like geese flying at the rear of a 'vee' formation. It's hoped that, in the future, robots might be used to guide endangered fish populations away from oil spills and other calamities, in much the same way as battery-powered leaders have guided humanity since the dawn of time (allegedly). Continue reading Fish are lazy, naive, easily led by robots (video) Fish are lazy, naive, easily led by robots (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  PhysOrg |  Journal of the Royal Society | Email this | Comments | | HTC One V unveiled: Sense 3.6 on ICS, Beats audio, 3.7-inch WVGA LCD Feb 26th 2012, 19:46 It's not often that device codenames serve as a direct mission statement, but with the outing of the One V, neé Primo, first-timers are getting an entry level HTC-welcome. The Ice Cream Sandwich-laden handset, running a Sense 3.6 overlay, hearkens back to the design of the Legend, with a black-ish gray, aluminum unibody, hardware keys (three for back, home and apps) and prominent chin jutting out below its Gorilla Glass-coated, 3.7-inch WVGA LCD display. The company hasn't specified the exact CPU powering the phone, but we do know it's a 1GHz single-core affair buffered by 512MB RAM. Storage-wise, you're looking at a paltry 4GB onboard with plans to augment that capacity via 25GB of Dropbox, as there's no available microSD slot. Beneath its sealed enclosure lies a 1,500mAh battery, quadband GSM and WCDMA radios, in addition to support for GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth. Directly benefiting from the manufacturer's recently announced ImageChip, is its 5 megapixel rear shooter, outfitted with an AF f/2.0 lens and capable of recording 720p video. There's no front-facing camera to be found on the unit, although situated as it is on the lower end of the consumer spectrum, that's to be expected. Check after the break for HTC's video preview. Continue reading HTC One V unveiled: Sense 3.6 on ICS, Beats audio, 3.7-inch WVGA LCD HTC One V unveiled: Sense 3.6 on ICS, Beats audio, 3.7-inch WVGA LCD originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | T-Mobile gets the HTC One S first in the US, coming this spring Feb 26th 2012, 19:45 See HTC's new superstar handset the One S earlier during our MWC 2012 liveblog and want one for your very own? Well, we've got some good news for you T-Mobile aficionados, as the One S will be coming to the magenta-clad masses before anyone else. That means you'll be able to enjoy its super-slim profile, prodigious Snapdragon S4 computing power and ICS with Sense 4 on T-Mo's blazing HSPA+ 42Mbps network before your friends on Ma Bell, Big Red, or the Now Network. Unfortunately, we can't neither tell you exactly when you can get your hands on one, nor how much it'll cost to do so, but we do know it'll be on sale this spring. T-Mobile gets the HTC One S first in the US, coming this spring originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | HTC One X exclusive to AT&T in the US, brings LTE, Beats, ICS and Sense 4 to Ma Bell Feb 26th 2012, 19:45  Just frothy thinking about HTC's recently unveiled superphone, the One X? Well, for those of you that call the US home, outside of importing HTC's latest, you're going to have only one network choice, and that's AT&T. Unlike the global Tegra 3 version announced today, Uncle Sam's variant swaps out that quad-core goodness for an LTE radio paired with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 by Qualcomm -- specs which curiously match a video titled One XL, which we've embedded after the break from its YouTube page. This also marks the first occasion a Beats by Dr. Dre-powered handset has made an appearance on the carrier. Other then that, you're looking at the same gorgeous 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 HD screen, 8-megapixel f/2.0 shooter and Sense 4 running atop Ice Cream Sandwich. As for when it'll land? The duo's playing coy, only mentioning it'll come in the "coming months." Stay tuned for a hands-on. Update: If you're wondering how the dual-core switcheroo will impact performance, AnandTech lays out some thoughts on the brain swap. Continue reading HTC One X exclusive to AT&T in the US, brings LTE, Beats, ICS and Sense 4 to Ma Bell HTC One X exclusive to AT&T in the US, brings LTE, Beats, ICS and Sense 4 to Ma Bell originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | HTC unveils One S, arrives with dual-core power, engineered metal finish Feb 26th 2012, 19:45  HTC's new phone appears to be its middle-weight offering, but it's still with a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display and a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 inside set to do the heavy-lifting. Previously known to leak fans as the Ville, HTC's brought Ice Cream Sandwich to the fold, alongside the very latest version of its Sense UI -- 4.0 to match that Android version number. The highlight here appears to be that uniformly thin alloy unibody; in science terms, it's a plasma-heated micro arc oxidation process, giving HTC's typical aluminum frame a smooth ceramic finish and apparently toughening it up in the process. Camera-wise, it's wielding a potent eight megapixel sensor with HTC's very own ImageChip and a f/2.0 autofocus lens that's likely to blow all of its previous camera modules out of the water. HTC has focused on the camera software too -- the One S apparently capable of nabbing shots in under a second and the ability to capture full-size stills during 1080p recording. All this, and it's a mere 7.9mm thick. We'll be hunting down a model for a hands-on as soon as we're finished here. Expect to see our impressions very soon, check HTC's video preview after the break now. Continue reading HTC unveils One S, arrives with dual-core power, engineered metal finish HTC unveils One S, arrives with dual-core power, engineered metal finish originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | HTC unveils One series camera upgrade, gets dedicated chip, f/2.0 lens, 0.7-second capture Feb 26th 2012, 19:36 We've not even seen the devices yet, but HTC CEO Peter Chou is very excited about the camera sensor inside his mysterious new phones. The module packs a f/2.0 camera lens, while the company's been busy crafting its own image sensor put behind it, called the HTC, er, "ImageChip." It'll help to clarify low-lit pictures and ensure a capture speed of under a second -- 0.7 seconds from starting up the camera app, in fact. It also has the tantalizing ability to shoot pictures while recording continuous-focus 1080p video. Add in a new LED flash that has five different levels of brightness control and as you might be able to guess, we really want to see these phones -- now. HTC unveils One series camera upgrade, gets dedicated chip, f/2.0 lens, 0.7-second capture originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | HTC One X announced at MWC 2012 Feb 26th 2012, 19:32 HTC's launched a new flagship handset for Mobile World Congress 2012, the HTC One X -- codenamed Endeavour. Dipping into design notes from The Nokia Lumia line, the One X is a unibody device machined from white polycarbonate that uses Gorilla Glass to protect its 4.7-inch 1280x720 non- pentile Super LCD 2 display. Stunning outside appearances aside, HTC's newest features an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor for the Global edition and a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core for the LTE iteration. Memory specs on the box show 1GB DDR2 and 32GB of built-in storage -- 26GB of which is available to the user -- and an additional 25GB free for two years through DropBox. Connectivity options abound with quad-band GSM and quad-band 42Mbps HSPA+ -- which includes AWS frequencies, huzzah! At the heart of its 8MP f/2.0 camera section is HTC's ImageChip silicon for clearer shots even in low light conditions and the ability to shoot pictures while recording continuous focus 1080p video. Rounding out the new set's photographic prowess is a unique LED flash with support for 5 levels of automatic brightness control and a front facing 1.3 megapixel number that'll sort your 720p HD needs. All things considered we'd say HTC has likely knocked it out of the park with this Engadget specced device, the only thing some might possibly nitpick would be that the 1800mAh battery nestled in the housing is never coming out nor will you find a spot to pop an additional memory card in. We'll be back as quick as we can with some detailed hands-on details, pics, and video. What we do know is that it'll be out globally in April. Continue reading HTC One X announced at MWC 2012 HTC One X announced at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | HTC debuts One brand at MWC 2012, unifies Android device lineup Feb 26th 2012, 19:16 Shearing clippers meet HTC's Android device portfolio. It appears UK head Phil Roberson wasn't just blowing the proverbial smoke this past January when he stated intentions to tighten up the manufacturer's portfolio with fewer releases focused on "amazing hardware" experiences. At today's MWC keynote the company announced an initiative that'll quite literally institute a One product line to rule them all ethos. Functioning much like Samsung's Galaxy series does, all smartphones and tablets that fall under the 'One' brand umbrella will showcase an attention to three distinct areas of detail: top-notch imaging, integrated Beats audio and industrial design. And, unlike the divisive monikers that often results from heavy-handed carrier intervention, the 130 operators already on board for the OEM's newborn products will retain that streamlined naming convention. No word yet on whether the outfit intends to group its Windows Phone array under this same tree or if that'll warrant an entirely new family itself. HTC debuts One brand at MWC 2012, unifies Android device lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | |
