30
Sep
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Come one, come all — let’s gather and act shocked, shall we? It’s no secret that Google’s Android Market is far easier to penetrate than Apple’s App Store, which is most definitely a double-edged sword. On one hand, you aren’t stuck waiting a lifetime for Apple to approve a perfectly sound app; on the other, you may end up accidentally downloading some Nazi themes that scar you for life. A curious team of scientists from Intel Labs, Penn State and Duke University recently utilized a so-called TaintDroid extension in order to log and monitor the actions of 30 Android apps — 30 that were picked from the 358 most popular. Their findings? That half of their sample (15, if you’re rusty in the math department) shared location information and / or other unique identifiers (IMEI numbers, phone numbers, SIM numbers, etc.) with advertisers. Making matters worse, those 15 didn’t actually inform end-users that data was being shared, and some of ‘em beamed out information while applications were dormant. Unfortunately for us all, the researchers didn’t bother to rat out the 15 evil apps mentioned here, so good luck resting easy knowing that your library of popular apps could be spying on you right now.
Study: select Android apps sharing data without user notification originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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Sprint said it was coming, and lo and behold, the carrier has proven to be true to its word. Here on the final day of September, the year 2010, Sprint has issued a highly anticipated firmware update for the Epic 4G. We’re told that it’ll be pushed automatically to phones, bringing along four major fixes: WiFi standby battery drain, Amazon MP3 cannot download in 4G, large emails lag in upload speeds and increased 3G upload speeds. The new version is S:D700.0.5S.DI18, should take seven or eight minutes to download and will be beamed across The Now Network over the course of the next few days. Is that a congregation celebrating off in the middle distance? Sure is.
Sprint Epic 4G update now rolling out, promises ‘increased 3G upload speeds’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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You know what they say: “another day, another hypothetical
space hotel.” Fans of the
space tourism (mostly Lance Bass and a handful of gazillionaires) know that these things pop up every few years, so one can be a little skeptical about the plans recently announced by Russia-based Orbital Technologies to put a seven room guest house into orbit, where it would follow the same path as the International Space Station. While CEO Sergei Kostenko does mention things like well-appointed suites and food cooked up by celebrity chefs, it’s not entirely clear that the firm has the funding to build the thing or even who will be doing the construction, although Energia (Russia’s state-controlled spacecraft manufacturer) has been mooted as the project’s general contractor. But this isn’t merely a rich man’s plaything — as Kostenko points out, it could be used as a place for astronauts to flee to in case the ISS comes under alien attack (although he didn’t say it in exactly those words).
Russian firm hopes to have luxury space hotel in orbit by 2016 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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It looks an awful lot like the XM SkyDock that launched right around this time last year, but a SkyDock it’s not. Sirius XM has just unleashed its first new piece of hardware in a few decades, and the XM Snap! might just end up being the must-have gizmo this holiday season. Uneducated guesses aside, the Snap is actually a fairly simplistic device; so long as you have a Sirius XM subscription, you simply plug this into your vehicle’s cigarette adapter, tune into an open FM station (we’re assuming, anyway), and enjoy the muddled, static-filled mess that always ends up coming out when an FM transmitter is involved. The company has done a fairly astounding job keeping the details to a minimum here, but we are told that it’ll be Ridin’ Solo in October for a reasonable $59.99.
Continue reading Sirius XM unveils $60 XM Snap, brings sat radio to any FM-capable car stereo
Sirius XM unveils $60 XM Snap, brings sat radio to any FM-capable car stereo originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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Two tiny black 720p boxes, two interesting choices. The
$59 Roku HD will put Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and Roku’s 75 other content channels on your TV quickly and easily, while the
$99 Apple TV offers up iTunes rentals, Netflix, and eventually AirPlay streaming from your iPad or iPhone. (You could step up to the Roku XDS with 1080p support for $99, but we don’t think the extra money will be really worth it until the USB playback channel is released and / or there’s more useful 1080p content available.) It’s a tough decision, so check out our
Apple TV review, our
Roku XDS review, and our
in-depth comparison chart to just try to make up your mind. Then again, you could grab ‘em both and still not break the bank.
Apple TV vs Roku HD… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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We heard back at IFA that Sony was making the absolutely brilliant move of incorporating a market leading navigational system into its Xplod line of in-dash A/V units, and now that love is being shipped across the Atlantic (or the Pacific, if you’re taking the scenic route) in the form of the XNV-770BT and XNV-660BT. The beautiful Sony / TomTom partnership will soon be assisting clueless American motorists when both of the previously mentioned units ship in November, with the 770BT offering a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen and the 660BT stepping down to a 6.1-incher. They’ll both feature rear USB ports for iDevice connections, support for multi-channel audio playback and most importantly, pre-loaded maps of US and Canadian roadways. TomTom claims that its maps offer more than one million more miles of roads than other GPS brands in America alone, and buyers will also be treated to familiar TomTom extras like IQ Routes, Advanced Lane Guidance, MapShare and six million POIs. We still wish Garmin would’ve received the nod here, but it’s certainly better than some white label system — check ‘em soon for $1,300 and $1,000 in order of mention.
Continue reading Sony brings TomTom to US-bound XNV-770BT and XNV-660BT in-dash head units
Sony brings TomTom to US-bound XNV-770BT and XNV-660BT in-dash head units originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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Well, it was only a matter of time — first the leaked press shots of this elusive HTC Spark (although possibly misidentified as the Mondrian back then — note the shinier earpiece in the leaked AT&T ad), and now the real thing is in the hands of some lucky hardware tester. Fortunately for us, this guy also happens to have a naughty friend over at xda-developers — you’ll see in his photos that HTC Hub is alive and well, but otherwise, there’s not much info coming out of here. Regardless, feel free to head over to the source link for more Windows Phone 7 eye candy — you’ll need to register first, though, so we’ve grabbed a few shots below to get things going.
[Thanks, Adam]
HTC Spark leaked in the wild, shows off plenty of WP7 goodness originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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The Fascinate’s ride at the top of Sammy’s Android lineup for Big Red might be a short one — a very short one. Feast your eyes on this monster, said to be the rumored SCH-i400 Continuum, whose biggest claim to fame would be the addition of a secondary OLED display below the main. What might you use it for? Well, it’s called the “Ticker,” and it’ll show notifications and RSS updates (and judging from that picture, weather conditions, too). Naturally, one of the selling points is that you can access basic phone functionality and information without having to fiddle with the normal UI or turn on that big, power-sapping primary display; in fact, the Ticker will automatically turn on when you grasp the bottom of the phone. The Continuum’s also got a microSD slot on the side (accessible without a battery pull) and a dedicated camera button, and judging from one of the shots we’ve got, it might be Galaxy S-branded. Follow the break for a couple more shots!
Continue reading Exclusive: Samsung Continuum for Verizon has double the displays, double the fun
Exclusive: Samsung Continuum for Verizon has double the displays, double the fun originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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It’s been almost two months since GoPro announced it’d be releasing a cheaper helmet cam, the HD Hero 960, positioning it beneath the $299 and 1080p HD Hero we enjoyed last year and give those doing professional stunts on amateur budgets a chance to capture their glory. Now here it is, yours for the taking today — if you don’t mind a resolution capped at 1280 x 960 and a deleted “Hero Bus” expansion port, meaning no external displays or batteries. That port is what you’ll need to use the company’s next accessory, a dual camera mount shown off at Interbike (and pictured below) pairing two of the HD Heros to film in 3D. You’ll need to manually stitch the resulting footage together, but there is at least a sync cable included so that the two start and stop at the same time — something sadly lacking on the Tachyon XC 3D. That mount is set to retail for $99, but the requirement for dual $299 cameras will price this out of most budgets. However, the $179 MSRP on the HD Hero 960 makes it a compelling alternative to Contour’s $220 720p ContourHD.
[Thanks, Jonathan]
Continue reading GoPro releases its budget-friendlier $179 HD Hero 960, teases 3D case for moneybags
GoPro releases its budget-friendlier $179 HD Hero 960, teases 3D case for moneybags originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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30
Sep
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If you were proactive enough to pre-order a T-Mobile G2, there’s a better-than-average chance that your shiny new smartphone is already en route to your abode. For those who slept in, it looks as if RadioShack will be the go-to place if you’re looking to snag one early from the retail universe. According to the badly formatted flyer pictured above, The Shack will be the first B&M location to stock the US version of the HTC Desire Z, and it’ll be hawking ‘em for $149.99 on a two-year postpaid contract starting October 3rd. Got that penciled into your little black book? Good.
[Thanks, Anonymous]
Continue reading RadioShack to sell T-Mobile G2 ‘first’ starting on October 3rd
RadioShack to sell T-Mobile G2 ‘first’ starting on October 3rd originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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