LG Andro-1 is a GW620 with a Korean keyboard, funnier name
Before this fancy-sounding LU2300 that we've been hearing about rolls in, LG's got another Android-powered phone in mind for its domestic market -- but we would've never guessed it'd be a rehash of a tired model that's been sold internationally for several months now. Indeed, the KH5200 "Andro-1" is little more than a remix of the GW620 QWERTY slider -- a phone known as Eve to its Canadian buyers -- with a 3-inch HVGA display and 5 megapixel cam on board. It's said the phone could launch on KT as soon as next week for around 600,000 won ($531), but what might make it more palatable is chatter that they'll get the sucker down to a nice, round 0 won on plans of 45,000 won or higher. If true, that would make the Andro-1 KT's first free-on-contract smartphone, ushering in an exciting new era of indentured servitude for Korea's wireless subscribers. Welcome to the club, guys! LG Andro-1 is a GW620 with a Korean keyboard, funnier name originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Categories: Android Tags: engadget-mobile, entry, known-as-eve, korea, make-it-more, make-the-andro, megapixel-cam, mobile, more-palatable, never-guessed, phone, said-the-phone
T-Mobile details HSPA+ data plan pricing
T-Mobile USA announced today that their first HSPA+ device, the webConnect Rocket, will be available beginning this Sunday, March 14. Their HSPA+ network offers a home broadband-like experience with a theoretical peak throughput speeds of 21Mbps. Initially, the service will only be available in Philadelphia, but major cities on both coasts will be announced in the coming months. The webConnect Rocket will retail for $99 (with 2 year contract) or $199 off contract. Customers who pay full price for the Rocket are eligible for the cheaper Even More Plus plans. The new pricing plans include : Even More webConnect data plan (two year contract): $59.99/mo. for 5GB per month ($0.20/MB overage) $29.99/mo. for 200MB per month ($0.20/MB overage) Even More Plus webConnect data plan (no annual contract): $49.99/mo. for 5GB per month ($0.20/MB overage) $19.99/mo. for 200MB per month ($0.20/MB overage) Unlimited nationwide T-Mobile HotSpot WiFi access is included in both plans and doesn’t count toward monthly data usage. HSPA+ data is capped at 5 GB per month. By comparison, Sprint’s 4G WiMax does not include a data cap for mobile usage. T-Mobile initially said they would have broad national deployment of HSPA+ by mid 2010, but it is now planned for the end of 2010. T-Mobile recently completed their upgrade to HSPA 7.2 across their entire 3G nationwide network and now they are working to put the necessary backhaul in place to support these faster speeds. Keep in mind that all current T-Mobile Android phones support HSPA 7.2 which is compatible with the newer HSPA+ standard. We expect T-Mobile will have an Android handset with HSPA+ support by the end of this year. Related Posts T-Mobile to launch first HSPA+ device next month T-Mobile “Very Fast Mobile Web” coming March 14 T-Mobile to upgrade backhaul on 25% of its towers within weeks Questions linger after T-Mobile’s 3G upgrade to HSPA 7.2 T-Mobile completes network upgrade – 3G to get even faster in 2010
Categories: Android Tags: annual-contract, connect-rocket, hspa, mobile, mobile-android, per-month, philadelphia, rocket, sunday, usa, webconnect
Inventor Of Cell Phone (Marty Cooper) Ditched iPhone For Droid
As the opening of the clip accurately explains, we all know the inventor of the telephone (Alexandar Graham Bell) but what about the cell/mobile phone? The man credited with that feat was Marty Cooper who worked for Motorola and is named on the patent for the first portable telephone. A few days ago this wonderful gentlemen who is responsible for one of my obsessions sat down with C-SPAN and discussed the history and future of cell phones. The 30-minute video is pretty fascinating in its entirety but one small portion we should be keenly aware of comes at JUST after the 30-minute mark: Question: What kind of cell phone do you have? Cooper: “It depends when you ask me. I uh, always have the latest cell phone, and I try every cell phone out, only because people like you keep asking me. Right now I’m using the Droid, because I want to get some experience with the Android operating system, and I, so far, have some favorable results. I’ve had an iPhone, which I gave to my grandson, which he used for three months and then I had to upgrade to a – better version. And I’ve tried many other phones. For my day to day conversations I actually use the Jitterbug. So I carry two phones – one very simple phone that I can flip open that has a very simple phonebook and nothing else. But when I want to twitter… tweet… then, I use my Droid.” If you’re not familiar with Jitterbug it’s actually a company that Marty Cooper co-founded with his wife in 2006 that is targeted at elderly mobile users who care only about making phone calls – the rest of the stuff just gets in their way. Another interesting discussion I found was about battery life. We complain when our mobile phones don’t last the entire day but guess how much battery life the first one – the one made by Cooper – got? Twenty minutes. But Cooper explains: “The cell phone weighed 2 and a half pounds. Uh… it was huge. (continues) The battery lasted for twenty minutes, but that was not a problem because you could not hold it up for twenty minutes it was so heavy.” And you thought the Droid was heavy! [ C-SPAN via AndroidCentral ]
Categories: Android Tags: cell-phone, droid, grandson, history, iphone, life-the-first, marty-cooper, misc, mobile, telephone, using-the-droid, wife
MySpace Out-Androids Facebook: Most Downloaded Social App
Make fun of MySpace all you want for getting up and on their way to becoming the next Friendster – they have a much different view of their direction. And that view is supported by a pretty startling statistic: “ MySpace Mobile has become the number one social application on the Android platform, and the third most popular downloaded application on Android.” I found that news to be quite outrageous, but checked each app in Android Market under the “Social” category, and sure enough MySpace is listed above Facebook. I believe those listings are based on a number of qualities – not just download count – but while both apps have “> 250,000″ downloads, MySpace has nearly 20,000 more ratings which suggests their facts are accurate. They attribute their success to their “deep integration with the Android platform” and note such unqiue features as homescreen widgets, voice-enabled status updates, setting photos as wallpaper, integration with camera and more. These are mostly features that Facebook has as well, but MySpace DOES enjoy a better rating on Android Market. So is my view about MySpace greatly lagging behind Facebook a figment of my imagination, skewed by my own use and preference? I realize the Phandroid readership isn’t exactly a cross-section of the average Android-using public (You and I are much more cool) – but just for Giggles let’s find out who has what installed: View Poll [Via MySpace Pressroom ]
Categories: Android Tags: direction, friendster, greatly-lagging, image, mobile, mobile-photos, phandroid, readership-isn, space-pressroom
MOTO BING: Microsoft Seeking Android Coup (Worse Than We Thought?)
Burning the midnight oil at about 2am I saw the huge news that Motorola Android Phones would feature Bing and wrote up a lengthy article exploring what the move would mean for Google, Android and consumers. I didn’t realize it would be this bad… While we knew the Motorola/Microsoft partnership would be aimed at countries where Google isn’t the primary search engine or isn’t operating at all (China?) we explained the door was left open for a much more broad and sweeping integration. Motorola has just issued a Press Release essentially verifying that it WILL be much more broad and sweeping than I thought it would be even a few hours ago – just check out the first paragraph: LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced a global alliance with Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MSFT) to deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android. This new offering, launching in China on smartphones in Q1, will provide consumers a choice when using search and map functions on their Android-based devices. It’s that phrase “Global Alliance” that worries me. It’s an intentional use of the word global that clearly states it isn’t just China, it isn’t just a region – this baby could be implemented EVERYWHERE. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they just omit a geographic descriptor altogether and just explain it would be launching in China? I’m holding out hope that this isn’t some exclusive partnership to be extended on the majority of Motorola Android Phones. If this IS the case… it would be a major coup in a continually developing story. In my original article , which goes further into depth with my concerns, I feature a poll that asks if you would prefer Google, Bing or Yahoo services on your Android Phone. I’m interested to see the results so make sure you go and vote . Here is the entire press release: LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced a global alliance with Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MSFT) to deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android. This new offering, launching in China on smartphones in Q1, will provide consumers a choice when using search and map functions on their Android-based devices. With this collaboration, consumers will enjoy a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on their mobile browser and an enhanced search widget with Bing integration. By enabling users to customize their devices and select their own Search provider, Motorola, with help from Microsoft, is expanding the capabilities and range of services currently offered in the marketplace and opening the doors for increased personalization. “We believe that consumer choice is one of the most critical components to ensuring a rich and seamless client experience,” said Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services, Motorola Mobile Devices. “Motorola and Microsoft have enjoyed a longstanding collaboration and the addition of Bing services to our Android-based smartphones in China is another important step in empowering our end-users.” “Mobile devices continue to be a critical place for customers to access location-based services such as local search and mapping,” said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Services Division at Microsoft. “We are pleased to expand our long-standing relationship with Motorola to bring powerful Bing location-based services to Motorola’s innovative new mobile devices, providing consumers with more choice and flexibility in mobile search.” Search and Maps capabilities through Microsoft will initially be available in China, starting in Q1 2010, through either pre-load or over-the-air updates for devices already in market. I can’t wait to hear what the stakeholders have to say about this one – it’s going to be awhile before the dust settles if you ask me.
Categories: Android Tags: china, collaboration, global-alliance, image, mobile, online, online-services, search, search-engine, yahoo
Navigons MobileNavigator für Android ist da
Navigon hat den MobileNavigator in einer Version für Android veröffentlicht. Die erste Fassung trägt gleich die Versionsnummer 2.5. Die Software wird mit Kartenmaterial ausgeliefert, so dass für die Navigation keine Internetverbindung erforderlich ist. ( Embedded Systems , Android )
Categories: Android Tags: embedded-systems, fassung, gleich-die, hat-den, internetverbindung, Jpg, kartenmaterial, mobile, systems, versionsnummer, wird-mit
We’ve upgraded our mobile website!
We've revamped our mobile formatted website to better support devices like the iPhone and all of the Android smartphones with nice WebKit-based browsers. But even older phones get some new mobile goodies, too. Read the full story here.
Categories: Android Tags: better-support, editor's corner, even-older, iphone, like-the-iphone, mobile, mobile-formatted, mobile-goodies, phones-get, some-new, the-full
Sprint’s HTC Touch Pro 2 Gets Updated to Android
The XD Android project has been helping WinMo phone users load an Android operating system on their phone for some time now, but recently the folks behind this mobile mash-up decided to try it again with a newer handset, the HTC Touch Pro 2. This process seems simple enough—and according to them, it is—and the best part about this project is the results.
Categories: Android Tags: been-helping, folks, mobile, mobile-mash-up, newer-handset, phone, phone-users, process, process-seems, project, results, simple-enough, their-phone
Google Lowers Projected Nexus One Sales to 1 Million
The Nexus One Android-powered smartphone is not doing too well in the mobile market these days. According to mobile-contracts, Google has lowered their projected total unit sales from 3.5 million handsets to just 1 million. That’s quite the jump for both Google and HTC. Honestly we find the jump to be rather surprising, but that’s mostly because we’ve seen the Nexus One at work and know just how fast and capable it is
Categories: Android Tags: jump, mobile, mostly-because, nexus, Nexus one, not-doing, projected, seen-the-nexus, surprising, the-mobile, their-projected, total-unit
Hands-on with the Opera Mini 5 beta browser for Android
Opera Mini 5 beta hit the Android Market this morning , and we've been putting it through its paces. It's important to remember that this is Opera Mini, not the Opera Mobile we saw at Mobile World Congress , and the two behave differently. Opera Mini features data compression on the server side, which means it's fast. Very fast. It will load almost anything faster than a standard mobile browser, so there's almost no point in comparing the two (we don't bother in this hands-on). Also remember that this is beta software, so bugs are likely. And, no, there's no Flash support, and no multitouch. But everything ran pretty smoothly in our brief testing. Check it out after the break. read more
Categories: Android Tags: after-the-break, check-it-out, congress, everything-ran, features-data, flash, mobile, mobile-world, morning, opera, opera-mobile, standard-mobile