Archive for December 1st, 2009

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and the quiet startup formerly known as Squirrel are finally opening up a bit. The the company now called Square, as we noted back in October, has launched a website for its iPhone payment dongle, although it’s still in somewhat private beta testing. TechCrunch managed to catch up with Dorsey, who gave a brief overview of the product and then showed it off by charging $4 for a cup of coffee — so it goes in San Francisco. See Square in action after the break.

Continue reading Square iPhone payment system gets itself a website, showcased in public

Filed under: Cellphones

Square iPhone payment system gets itself a website, showcased in public originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Fring brings one-way video calling to the iPhone

Fring brings one-way video calling to the iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TmoNews seems to have it on good authority that T-Mobile will be rolling out a firmware update over the air to the Motorola CLIQ today — the device’s first since launch — and we’ve got good news and bad news. First, the bad: by all accounts, it appears that this’ll still be an Android 1.5-based firmware, adding fuel to the fire suggesting that UI skins like BLUR are a huge barrier to keeping devices up to speed with Google’s breakneck release pace. The good news, though, is that the update seems to be lined up to fix a plethora of issues involving Bluetooth, touchscreen accuracy (we can attest to this one), connectivity, accelerometer functionality, and — wait for it — battery life! Looks like the build number is 1.1.31, so let us know if and when you get hooked up, owners.

Update: We’ve gotten tips from several users now that they’ve already been able to nab the update, so it looks like the CLIQ is definitely getting a little better today. Well, hopefully, anyhow.

T-Mobile pushing CLIQ firmware update today? (update: yes!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just saw some leaked shots of a Hero running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense a couple days ago, and now it looks like you can get in on the action yourself, thanks to a leaked ROM now up on XDA-developers. Installation appears to be pretty straightforward, but there are some steps involved, so make sure you backup and set aside some time to get things right — and let us know how it all goes in comments!

HTC Hero gets a leaked Android 2.1 ROM with Sense originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just saw some leaked shots of a Hero running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense a couple days ago, and now it looks like you can get in on the action yourself, thanks to a leaked ROM now up on XDA-developers. Installation appears to be pretty straightforward, but there are some steps involved, so make sure you backup and set aside some time to get things right — and let us know how it all goes in comments!

HTC Hero gets a leaked Android 2.1 ROM with Sense originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VIA’s Pico-ITX platform took things to an entirely new level a few years back, and now the company is introducing an even smaller variant for even more minuscule applications. The Mobile-ITX specification measures in at just 6cm x 6cm, or right around 50 percent as large as the aforementioned Pico-ITX form factor. Aimed specifically at next-generation embedded devices that are barely visible to the naked eye, Mobile-ITX employs a modularized design that includes a CPU module card and an I/O carrier board. We’re told that CPU modules based on the Mobile-ITX form factor integrate “core CPU, chipset and memory functionality and I/O that includes the CRT, DVP and TTL display support, HD Audio, IDE, USB 2.0, as well as PCI Express, SMBus, GPIO, LPC, SDIO and PS2 signals,” and the 5-watt power usage means that these are well suited for always-on systems. Look for the first commercial Mobile-ITX-based CPU module to ship in Q1 2010.

VIA’s Mobile-ITX platform is half as big as Pico-ITX, still full of heart originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All is not well in the land of the E6400- and E6500-series lappytops. What looks to be hundreds of owners of these machines have been complaining of massive performance issues, throttling themselves down by as much as 95% under what would seem to be normal operating conditions. Whenever the devices get slightly warm the BIOS automatically starts dialing down the performance until they basically crawl to a halt, some indicating that even when cool they won’t go over 50% of maximum clock. Users have been reporting this issue since early in the year and Dell has apparently started censoring some posts on its forums, including a link to a PDF created by (now-banned) user Tinkerdude describing the problem in detail. It’s entitled “Performance loss during normal operation in a Dell Latitude E6500 laptop due to processor and bus clock throttling”, and if you think that’s long wait until you see all 59 pages of analysis (at the read link). As of now there’s no official fix provided by Dell, leaving many to call this Throttlegate, and we do love a good Stargate reference.

Dell facing massive E6400 and E6500 overheating and underclocking problem? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like the looks of Oregon Scientific’s solar-powered +ECO Clima Control unit but don’t need something that sophisticated — or expensive? The company has just expanded the line with two (slightly) more affordable options for budget and environmentally conscious folks like you. First up is the $100 +ECO Solar Weather Station, which provides the same functionality as its $20 more expensive predecessor, monitoring temperature and humidity in multiple locations and recharging itself via detachable solar panel, but does so with a smaller screen capable of showing indoor and outdoor temperature, time, and an icon representing the coming weather. Also on offer is the $70 +ECO Solar Weather Clock, pictured below, which ditches the weather display and the ability to display humidity, things that may or may not be much of a loss depending on your meteorological inclinations.

Continue reading Oregon Scientific’s +ECO Solar Weather Clock and Station don’t predict solar weather

Oregon Scientific’s +ECO Solar Weather Clock and Station don’t predict solar weather originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready to start lusting after a new smartphone? If Creative has its way, you’ll soon be enjoying Full HD video on a 3.5 / 4G device, with built-in WiFi, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, accelerated 3D graphics, and mini-HDMI and Composite video outputs. The newly announced 3.1-inch, multitouch-capable Zii Trinity has been designed by Creative subsidiary Ziilabs, and will be licensed out to clients who’ll be able to customize a Zii-optimized Android install and Plaszma interface. As if we haven’t got enough smartphone ecosystems knocking about already, this also marks the introduction of ZiiLife, which aims to be both a content delivery and productivity suite. Powered by the ARM-based ZMS-05 or ZMS-08, the new handset actually seems destined to perform plenty of KIRF and grey market duties, judging by Creative’s “strategic partnerships” with Chinese manufacturers, but that might be no bad thing as, according to Gartner, the grey market is booming right now.

Zii Trinity mobile platform packs 1080p punch, looking for OEM love originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Price fixing is nothing new in the LCD panel business. Hell, collusion is pretty common across the entire consumer electronics industry though it’s difficult (and costly) to prove. Now Nokia, the world’s largest maker of cellphones, is suing a who’s who of Asian LCD manufacturers alleging a ploy to fix prices on handset LCDs. The November 25th filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco division, names Samsung Electronics, LG Display, Sharp, Hitachi, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes as co-conspirators. Nokia, of course, is seeking cash and injunctive relief to remedy damages incurred and has the dubious honor of following another high-profile move launched against Apple just last month. With Nokia’s high-margin smartphone sales waning against stiff competition, it’s easy to understand why its execs would be miffed if they paid artificially high prices for panels considering the sheer volume of lower-priced handsets Nokia sells at razor thin margins.

Nokia sues LCD manufacturers for alleged price fixing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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