Nokia N8 first unboxing

Nokia said Q3, Nokia has delivered Q3. Just. The long-awaited first shipments of the Finnish market leader’s N8 handset are today finally going out, and we’ve gotten our hands on one of the very first retail units out there. Gaze upon the gallery below to see what you’ll be getting inside the box alongside your multimedia powerhouse, and do make full use of our comments section too — we want to hear any questions you may have about the N8 and will try to answer them in full, both here and in our full review, which is naturally coming up soon!

Nokia N8 first unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 05:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Six Android browsers enter the ring, only one reigns supreme

Choice is a good thing, and Android users certainly have a lot of choices. Default launcher or Launcher Pro? Fancy animated live wallpaper or static picture of adorable puppies? Stock browser or alternative? It’s that last question that has plagued so many, and to offer some guidance PC World pitted six of the Market’s top choices against each other. The 2.1 and 2.2 stock browsers entered, along with Skyfire 2.0, Opera Mini, Dolphin HD, and Mozilla Fennec (the pre-beta release of what could bring Firefox to your phone). The winner? Well, you can see the ultimate speed results above, with SkyFire surprisingly trumping Opera Mini, though that one seemingly has ‘em beat when it comes to repeat-visits. However, the full story when it comes to things like page rendering and Flash compatibility is naturally a good bit more complex. For those details you’ll need to click on through.

[Thanks, Tim]

Six Android browsers enter the ring, only one reigns supreme originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N8 shipments begin, usher in Symbian^3 era

Nokia’s N8 is now shipping to those of you who pre-ordered. It may not be the device that’ll make you leave your beloved BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android phone but Nokia’s N8 with its significantly enhanced Symbian^3 OS is without a doubt the best you can do if you’re one of the millions of Symbian users looking for a smartphone upgrade. Having said that, fans of cameraphones on any platform might be swayed by the N8′s 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, extra large image sensor, and HDMI out. Nokia says that availability will vary by country and operator and should be everywhere within the coming weeks.

Update: Pictures of the N8 assembly and shipping operations added in the gallery below.

Continue reading Nokia N8 shipments begin, usher in Symbian^3 era

Nokia N8 shipments begin, usher in Symbian^3 era originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google opens Android database at former phone store URL, but only for devices using Google services

Remember when Google opened up its own portal for purchasing the Nexus One? It was January 2010, and the URL was as simple as www.google.com/phone — ah, those were the days. Of course, the store has been down since late July when the phone sold out (permanently), so what’s the company to do with such a catchy web address? Simple: make a database of devices running your über-popular Android OS and help customers both compare and find where to buy. Only, it’s not just any devices running the platform: according to the Official Google Mobile blog, “all the phones in the gallery include Android Market, Google Search, and other Google Mobile services such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube.” In other words, no phones that meddle with the Android Vision by opting for Bing or Yahoo instead. Maybe Fascinate can join the ranks after that purported Android 2.2 launch, but for now it’s conspicuously absent. Them’s the breaks — still, it’s fun to explore and draw up side-by-side comparison charts. Go on, give it a whirl, why don’t ya?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Google opens Android database at former phone store URL, but only for devices using Google services originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rogers now shipping BlackBerry Torch

See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Would-be Captivate buyers are still waiting, but the slightly-delayed BlackBerry Torch is now shipping up on Rogers for CAD $199.99 ($194) on a three-year contract… all the way up to a rather mind-blowing CAD $609.99 ($592) contract-free. For that matter, opting for a two-year contract — which is the longest you can get on AT&T, of course — will mean you’re shelling out CAD $499.99 ($485), which seems like a pretty tough pill to swallow considering the insanely non-linear decrease in subsidy. Doesn’t seem like these guys are too close to contract and ETF reform, does it?

Rogers now shipping BlackBerry Torch originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayOn finally gets its iPhone app approved, HTML5 lets out a sigh of resignation

We’re loving this new, slightly more liberal wave of App Store approvals (aren’t we easily pleased?), and it looks like PlayOn drew the lucky number today. After waiting in vain for an app approval, PlayOn actually developed a fairly sufficient HTML5 solution to its streaming-web-video-to-your-device problem, but there’s nothing quite like the sheen and polish of a bonafide app. Unfortunately, PlayOn’s desktop software, which is required to make this Netflix / Amazon / Hulu / ESPN / CBS / etc.-beaming possible, is still PC only.

[Thanks, Corey]

PlayOn finally gets its iPhone app approved, HTML5 lets out a sigh of resignation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Confirmed: Droid 2 hack brings FM radio, in one ear and out the other

When we heard that the Motorola Droid 2 was the latest Android handset to nab the ancient magic of frequency modulated audio using Droid X files, we just had to give it a try, and sure enough, if you’ve got root, the FM Radio app can be yours with a quick download and just a few lines of code. Before you run off to void your warranty, however, you should know it’s got a fairly desirable feature missing — it only plays audio out of the right earphone. But hey, if we’re going old school, we might as well go all the way, right? Excuse us while we go listen to some glorious monoaural sound. Files and instructions at our source links, immediately below.

Confirmed: Droid 2 hack brings FM radio, in one ear and out the other originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Mondrian poses for press shots?

German site BestBoyZ has delivered a string of HTC leaks in recent weeks, and the latest is a fairly legit-looking handful of alleged press shots of the Mondrian. As a refresher, the Mondrian seems to be one of the many code and commercial names floating around for Windows Phone 7-based devices HTC is looking to ship at or very near to the platform’s retail launch, a higher-end unit (possibly equipped with a 1.3GHz Snapdragon) that would probably hang in the same space as the rumored HD7 and Trophy. Interestingly, the shots — which show a unit with a German ROM — have HTC Hub listed on the home screen, despite some recent talk by CEO Peter Chou that his company’s first-gen WinPho 7 products would lack serious software customization. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on how much you appreciate HTC’s design team, we suppose.

HTC Mondrian poses for press shots? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Transform pictured in Sprint document, alongside Kyocera… err, Sanyo Zio?

Well, dear reader, we’ve got a pair of minor revelations for you, assuming this picture is real. First, that mid-range Android slatephone the Kyocera Zio is headed to Sprint, with the familiar Sanyo branding. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the elusive Samsung Transform has finally shown its face. Since that mug looks just like the Epic 4G, however, you can color us a bit confused — Sprint’s the only carrier without a keyboard-less Galaxy S, so that might make sense, but then why would they call it the Transform? As far as we can tell, it hasn’t been tested for WiMAX, so perhaps it’s an Epic without the 4G, plus a new form factor of some sort? Odds are we’ll find out soon, given the company it’s keeping: that BlackBerry Curve 3G 9330 got shipped off to Sprint just this last week.

Samsung Transform pictured in Sprint document, alongside Kyocera… err, Sanyo Zio? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile G2 now shipping to some pre-orderers

You can’t grab one of these bad boys from your local store just yet — you’ll have to wait until early October for that — but some current T-Mobile customers who’d pre-ordered the G2 (including our own Myriam Joire) are reporting that their devices have shipped. That means we’ll probably see at least a few of these showing up in excited forum threads tomorrow, and a whole phalanx of ‘em by week’s end. Get those QWERTY thumbs oiled and warmed up, folks.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

T-Mobile G2 now shipping to some pre-orderers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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