Clarion is primarily known for its aftermarket car audio and navigation solutions, but it’s increasingly moving into the realm of smartphone integration. Looking to court iPhone users who’d appreciate the connectivity and convenience of Pioneer’s AppRadio, but don’t care to fuss with the installation, Clarion’s Next Gate can be easily mounted to one’s windshield. It offers access to popular apps such as TuneIn and Pandora, along with navigation, hands-free calling and voice-dialing functionality. Scarily enough, users will even be able to access Facebook and Twitter via the voice-activated Vlingo app — please, just promise to keep your focus on the road. The display itself is a 7-inch, WVGA affair, and as you’d expect, the unit is powered by the vehicle’s 12 volt accessory jack — otherwise known as the cigarette lighter receptacle. Similarly, the Next Gate connects to the iPhone via Apple’s dock connector, which means that users will need to manage a bit of cable clutter.

All in all, the Clarion Next Gate could certainly be a compelling solution for some, and its $270 price is within the realm of reason. While we’re a bit concerned about what it entails for driving distractions, the unit shouldn’t be any worse of a diversion than the ol’ smartphone itself. In fact, we’re most disappointed that there’s no support for Android. Those in the privileged iPhone community will be able to purchase the Next Gate as of June 1st, and you’ll find the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Clarion Next Gate brings iPhone apps (and distractions) to your windshield

Clarion Next Gate brings iPhone apps (and distractions) to your windshield originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 12:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Say goodbye to swapping out the litany of chargers at your desk or nightstand. It’s time to streamline, and the crew at Scosche have a rather nice solution. The company is taking the wraps off of its Revolt H4 USB charger, which offers four 10W (2.1A) USB ports that’ll properly (and quickly) reinvigorate up to four smartphones or tablets simultaneously. Sure, it’s nothing like the 16 port behemoth of the PowerPad, but this is for home use, and we can’t deny — it’s quite the temptress. Consumers may choose between the base model or the Revolt H4 Pro, which offers a micro-USB cable along with an adapter for Apple’s dock connector. As another product of interest, Scosche is similarly introducing its 2.1 amp Recoil II car charger, which allows users to cut down on the clutter with its retractable cable while also quickly juicing up a single iOS device — just hop the break for a peek. Pricing isn’t yet available for either, but keep your eye on Scosche’s website for the official word. For other charging solutions, you’ll find the full PR after the break.

Update: Scosche just got in touch to say the four-port version won’t be ready in time for CTIA Wireless, but the two-port Revolt H2 definitely will be, priced at $39.99. We’ve switched out the PR to reflect this.

Continue reading Scosche debuts Revolt H4, a four-port, 10W USB charger at CTIA Wireless (updated: only two-port model available now)

Scosche debuts Revolt H4, a four-port, 10W USB charger at CTIA Wireless (updated: only two-port model available now) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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 April 30th, 2012

Refresh Roundup: week of April 30th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 19:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This past week, we saw the first rollout of Verizon LTE from one of its rural partners, and both the Optimus L7 and Xperia U were spotted for Fido. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of April 30th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of April 30th, 2012

Mobile Miscellany: week of April 30th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 21:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s not gonna like this one, but news of the perpetual cat-and-mouse game between it and the hacking community continues with the announcement of an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1, which is now alive and kicking on the iPhone 4. The good news went out in the form of a tweet from pod2g, and while the naughty bit of software isn’t yet available for public download, we can only hope that it’ll soon be ready for mass consumption. As you’ll recall, we last saw hints of an untethered jailbreak for the latest iPad (also iOS 5.1), which similarly remains elusive to the public. At any rate, we welcome the progress — now bring on the exploits.

iPhone 4 named latest recipient of untethered iOS 5.1 jailbreak, exploit remains MIA originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 May 2012 21:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eurocom calls its Racer 2.0 a small form factor mobile workstation — by which it means it’s a rather sizable laptop, but with plenty of power and decent aesthetics. Known for designing its rigs to be upgradable, the Racer 2.0 is such a recipient, which now offers the Intel HM77 Express chipset and support for both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs. It offers a 15.6-inch, 1080p display (in both glossy and matte configurations), which is powered by a 1.5GB GeForce GTX 660M GPU as the basic option. Those desiring even more oomph may opt for the 2GB Radeon HD 7970M, and even those in need of true workstation graphics may select from a lineup of NVIDIA’s Quadro GPUs. The four SO-DIMM slots will accommodate up to 32GB of RAM, and it’ll even accept two hard drives (in addition to an mSATA SSD), so long as you’re willing to fill the optical drive’s slot. Naturally, all the upgrades can make the price soar in a hurry, but the base configuration starts at reasonably palatable $1283. Ready to be sold a new laptop? You’ll find the PR after the break.

Continue reading Eurocom Racer 2.0 laptop receives Ivy Bridge, offers Radeon HD 7970M graphics

Eurocom Racer 2.0 laptop receives Ivy Bridge, offers Radeon HD 7970M graphics originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 May 2012 06:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Upon its debut, the Xperia Play suffered from a lack of game titles that were compatible with its unique built-in gamepad. While the selection has improved considerably since its inception, the question remains: wouldn’t it be nice if the handset supported any Android game you threw at it? Wonder no longer, because that’s exactly what GameKeyboard 2.0 brings to the table. Yes, the app requires root access, but most importantly, it allows users to map on-screen touch controllers to the Xperia Play’s physical gamepad. While it’s slightly cumbersome to setup for the first time, anybody who has ever configured an emulator with a USB game controller will feel right at home. GameKeyboard 2.0 sells for $2.49 in the Play Store, and if you’d like a quick overview of how it all works, just hop the break for a video. Those who proceed with the download will also benefit from written instructions (for both root access and configuration) in the xda-developers forums.

[Thanks, Dreb]

Continue reading GameKeyboard 2.0 requires root, maps Xperia Play gamepad to all Android games (video)

GameKeyboard 2.0 requires root, maps Xperia Play gamepad to all Android games (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 May 2012 03:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s latest Series 9 Ultrabook is certainly a beautiful piece of engineering, but really, what’s the fun in purchasing a new laptop with yesterday’s internals? Fortunately, users won’t need to make that compromise, as the company has now outed a refreshed version of the computer that’s complete with Ivy Bridge internals. The move follows Samsung’s recent reveal of the Series 7 Gamer laptop, but as you’d expect, components in the Series 9 are geared more toward efficiency than performance. At its heart, you’ll find a dual-core 1.7GHz Core i5 3317U CPU (which has yet to be announced), Intel HD Graphics 4000 and the HM75 Express chipset. While its internal storage remains the same, with a 128GB SSD, its memory has received a pleasant bump up to 8GB. No word yet on pricing or availability, but for those who want to own the very latest, we invite you to stay tuned.

[Thanks, Brooks]

Samsung teases Series 9 Ivy Bridge Ultrabook, leaves availability in the ether originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there’s anything that Google doesn’t like, it’s things that collect dust. The company is famous for its annual spring cleaning efforts, in which the firm rids itself of redundant and dead-end projects, along with more bullish moves, such as its push to overhaul the internet’s DNS system. Now it’s looking to replace HTTP with a new protocol known as SPDY, and to that end, it’s demonstrating the potential speed gains that one might expect on a mobile network. According to the company’s benchmarks, mean page load times on the Galaxy Nexus are 23 percent faster with the new system, and it hypothesizes that further optimizations can be made for 3G and 4G networks. To its credit, Google has already implemented SPDY in Chrome, and the same is true for Firefox and Amazon Silk. Even Microsoft appears to be on-board. As a means to transition, the company proposes an Apache 2.2 module known as mod_spdy, which allows web servers to take advantage of features such as stream multiplexing and header compression. As for HTTP, it’s no doubt been a reliable companion, but it seems that it’ll need to work a bit harder to earn its keep. Stay weird, Google, the internet wouldn’t be the same without you.

Google badmouths HTTP behind its back, proposes SPDY as a speedy successor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 14:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All hail the e-book! Seriously, if it weren’t for this marvelous literary development, try saying with a straight face that you wouldn’t at least take pause before adding a new title to your collection. Numbers are in from The Publisher’s Association — a group of 120 companies across the trade in the UK — which reveals that e-book digital sales have increased 54 percent for the year 2011, and of that statistic, 13 percent of revenues came from academic and professional titles. As a sign of changing preferences, the total sales of both e-books and their traditional counterparts fell by two percent during the year — and let’s be honest, it’s not hard to see which group fell short. Also reflective of the shift is the fact that average book prices fell by 1.3 percent during the year, which compares favorably to the UK’s current inflation rate of 4.47 percent. Those interested in the full story will find the PR after the break.

Continue reading Yes, people still read: e-book sales by UK publishers grew 54 percent in 2011

Yes, people still read: e-book sales by UK publishers grew 54 percent in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 08:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Owners of the Galaxy Nexus for Verizon Wireless are now joining the proud ranks of Android 4.0.4 users. As a common practice, it seems the rollout is gradual, and many of the devices receiving the update appear to be the property of corporate stores. Nonetheless, the 39.8MB download carries a build number IMM76K and similarly brings an update to the baseband software — which is reason to hope that the (resolved) connectivity issues reported by Android 4.0.4 users of the HSPA+ and Sprint variants will be a non-issue. Are you one of the proud and few to receive the refresh? Let us know in the comments below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Galaxy Nexus for Verizon Wireless receives Android 4.0.4 update originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 21:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe he’s finished running with the underdog, or maybe he’s just done with the corporate gig altogether, but one thing is certain: as of May 25th, Cole Brodman will mark his exit from T-Mobile. For the past two years, Mr. Brodman has served as the carrier’s chief marketing officer, and his departure concludes 17 years with the company. During his tenure, Cole Brodman railed against the subsidized handset game, helped drive the adoption of smartphones and — sadly — crushed our dreams for the potential of a Magenta-branded iPhone. He must also claim at least partial responsibility for the carrier’s net loss of customers in 2011, with a total of 802,000 subscribers jumping ship in Q4 alone.

One thing is certain of Mr. Brodman’s exit, however: he seems content with the decision. Likening the move to a retirement, he remarked, “It’s an opportunity to step away, get a break and start to think about how I want to do something next.” Andrew Sherrard will replace Cole Brodman as T-Mobile’s interim chief marketing officer while the company searches for a permanent replacement. So long, Mr. Brodman, and thanks for the smartphones.

[Cole Brodman photo via CNET]

T-Mobile USA’s chief marketing officer, Cole Brodman, calls it quits originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a classic case of east meets west, Huawei and Intel have joined forces to create an interoperability test lab that will focus on China’s homegrown time-division LTE (TD-LTE) network. While the technology runs contrary to the more common frequency-division LTE (FD-LTE), the Chinese brand of 4G is situated to take root in the US under Clearwire’s banner. Through its partnership with Huawei, Chipzilla — a newbie in the smartphone arena — will be able to engage in end-to-end testing of its mobile equipment and verify its readiness for TD-LTE. For Huawei’s part, it plans to use the test lab as a means to court other handset and chipset manufacturers, and hence drive the adoption of TD-LTE. Naturally, we’re left wondering the obvious: whether this unique collaboration will bring about Huawei smartphones with Intel Inside. Mum’s the word on that one… for now.

Huawei partners with Intel to test TD-LTE interoperability in China originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 07:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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George Hotz is no stranger ’round these parts. Better known as Geohot, he first achieved internet fame at the age of 17 with his announcement of a hardware unlock method for the original iPhone. From there, he moved on to even greater notoriety with a PlayStation 3 exploit that quickly attracted the ire — and legal wrath — of Sony. Now profiled in The New Yorker, we’re given a candid and unique insight into the world of George Hotz, whereby his own admission, he wasn’t motivated by an ideology so much as boredom and the desire to control a system. The freedom issues, it seems, were merely an afterthought.

George Hotz is unique. We’re talking about someone who was programming by age five, building video game consoles by the 5th grade and making appearances on NBC’s Today at age fourteen. Like many brilliant adolescents, he experimented with drugs and rebelled against authority. Eventually, the powers that be caught up with him, and George Hotz was sued by Sony on January 11th, 2011. The lawsuit drew the attention of malicious hacker groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec, which retaliated against the company in very public ways. However unintentional, Geohot became the poster child for hacktivists and inspired a movement that quickly grew out of control — if only more of us could be so productive with our boredom. For an insightful read into one of the most influential hackers of our time, be sure to hit the source link below.

My whole life is a hack: how Geohot owned the iPhone, PS3 and inadvertently rallied hacktivists originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 04:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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 April 23rd, 2012

Refresh Roundup: week of April 23rd, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This past week, we learned that ZTE intends to release a phablet of its own, and Samsung unseated Nokia as the world’s largest supplier of mobile phones. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of April 23rd, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of April 23rd, 2012

Mobile Miscellany: week of April 23rd, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following news of the first successful white space trials in Cambridge, UK, Nokia is now touting its research in the area with a demonstration of location-based services for the unlicensed spectrum. Traditionally, proponents of white space usage have positioned this unused portion of the airwaves as a viable, low-cost method of data transmission, but the Nokia folks have now demonstrated its ability to pinpoint one’s location with much greater accuracy than either WiFi or cellular networks. Think of it as a counterpoint to NFC, if you will, but in the following clip, we’re shown how an individual might move throughout a museum, and as they approach various exhibits, one’s smartphone could provide supplemental information for the nearby artifacts. Beyond its use in museums, Nokia also foresees the technology as useful in the retail space, where businesses may provide consumers with promotions as they walk by. Currently, the necessary equipment to make this all possible is much too large to fit within a typical smartphone, but Nokia hypothesizes that the necessary chipsets and industry standards may be in place by 2015. Until then, you can dream of what might be with the following video.

Continue reading Nokia experiments with location-based white space services in Cambridge, UK (video)

Nokia experiments with location-based white space services in Cambridge, UK (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You knew it was gonna happen, but Google’s cloud-based storage service has now been married to its cloud-based operating system, as Chrome OS users who receive updates via the dev-channel may now benefit from integration with Google Drive. Most notably, Drive will now appear as an additional folder within the file manager, although the implementation isn’t without its quirks. For example, our peers at TechCrunch described the inability to make these files available for offline access. It goes without saying that dev-channel releases aren’t for everyone, but if you enjoy living on the edge, then be sure to take a peep at what Google has in store for the inevitable mainstream release.

Google Drive now offers a bumpy ride for Chrome OS dev-channel users originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so maybe physical keyboards were a bigger deal back in 2010 when this thing was filed, or maybe — just maybe — we’ll one day see an Xperia Play smartphone with both a gamepad and a full QWERTY counterpart. A patent for such a contraption was just granted to Sony by the USPTO, which stakes its claim for a device with two sliding mechanisms in addition to the display. When the primary sliding mechanism is engaged, the second will come along for the ride — and for those curious, it seems the default option is the keyboard. Once both are open, the sliding units may be disengaged from one another, so that when one of the units retracts, the other will remain accessible. It all sounds quite feasible, and if the mechanism works well enough, what’s a few extra millimeters among friends?

Sony patent suggests Xperia Play with dual keyboards, it’s slidingly slidable originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wouldn’t ya know it, but Panasonic was spot on with its announcement of the Eluga smartphone’s European arrival this month. The elegant, waterproof handset is now available unlocked from Expansys, where it retails for £369 and approximately €460, with slight variations among countries. While the phone supports quadband GSM, its UMTS / HSPA connectivity is limited to the 2100MHz and 900MHz bands, which makes it less than ideal for North American use — though, if you really want one, it seems safe to peg this one in the $600 territory.

Similarly available through NTT DoCoMo as the P-04D, we first managed to get a hands-on with the Eluga at Mobile World Congress. For those in need of a quick refresh, the phone features a TI OMAP 4430 SoC with a dual-core 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, an 8 megapixel rear camera and a rather paltry 1,150mAh battery. The Eluga includes a heavily-skinned version of Android 2.3.5, although an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich has been pegged for release this summer. The phone represents Panasonic’s return to the smartphone arena, and while it’s a bit behind the curve, it’s no doubt a fine starting point.

Panasonic Eluga now available unlocked in Europe, yours for £369 or €460 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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