Here it is folks, the one you’ve all (Sprint customers) have been waiting for, the Samsung Epic 4G. This is number three out of four of the Samsung’s Galaxy S phones, the other two being the AT&T Captivate and the T-Mobile Vibrant. The fourth US-Galaxy S phone will be the Verizon Fascinate, but not much has been said about the device.
Unlike the Captivate and Vibrant, which are truly the same phone with different shells, the Epic 4G does sport a few features that the others don’t:
Samsung is expected to formally announce the new Samsung U (SHW-M13OL) sometime this week. We have the specs, which are below, so all we are waiting for is info about the price and availability.
Size: 119.5×59.6×12.4mm
Weight: 131g
Network: J-CDMA, CDMA Rev. A
Display: 3.7-inch 16M AMOLED Plus (480×800)
OS: Android OS
CPU: 1GHz S5PC111
Camera: 5 megapixel autofocus camera with 720p HD video recording
DMB: T-DMB
WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth: 3.0
Video Formats: MP, 3GP, 3GPP, K3G, Divx, Avi, Mkv, flv, asf
Audio Formats: MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, AAC, MID, MIDI, FLAC
3.5mm headphone jack
MicroSD card slot: 8GB bundled, up to 32GB supported
Other Features: OZ Store, Kyobo e-book, Daum maps, Allshare, Live wallpapers, access to Google services
Battery: 1500mAh
Talk time: up to 7 hours
Standby time: up to 370 hours
We’ll have some more specifics for you once the formal announcement is made, so stay tuned.
[via SamsungHub]
That’s one small step for…never mind. Team QuestforStars has done what everyone has thought of doing with their phone at one point or another: launch it into outer space. The team, known for taking time-lapse sequences of the Earth from low orbit using balloons and various cameras, did just that with a Motorola Droid and the program LapseDroid. Check out the video below for the results of the journey.
[via DroidLife]
Having trouble hearing the speaker on your Samsung Vibrant? Well, the guys over at xda are, too… and they have decided to do something about it. The procedure is relatively simple. It simply involves entering a code into your Vibrant, and then selecting the volume type to change and setting the level. The default is 88, but users warn that a level of 100 is almost unbearable.
To try it out for yourself, be sure to hit up the source link below, and let us know the results in the comments!
[via xda]
On top of T-Mobile’s earlier teaser concerning the new G2, their Twitter feed has, more recently, been abuzz with more news. They will be adding one of Motorola’s new devices to their mobile lineup, the Charm. The device will be available on August 25th for only $75.
You interested? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
[via Tmo News
We have all heard about the dual core 1.2GHz and only imagined how fast and responsive it could truly be. Well get this, if everything goes to plan, Qualcomm will be shipping out a 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor by the end of 2011.
This very processor, which was affirmed by Qualcomm and vice president of product management Mark Frankel, may not only be used in smartphones, but also in tablet PC’s and laptops. Although we don’t expect to see this new beast of a processor out until the end of 2011, partners may be able to get the wares out by Christmas.
A couple weeks back we reported on two Android phones by Cricket that were reviewed by Sascha Segan from PC MAG. Cricket has announced the pricing and availability of their new Android phone, Sanyo ZIO by Kyocera. Cricket is known for low-cost phones and this new device just adds to that list. The new Sanyo ZIO is available for only $249.99 without a contract.
By no means is this phone as capable as other recent smartphone releases, but is definitely worth a look due to its low-cost and the fact that it comes with Android OS. It comes with a 3.5-inch WVGA display, a 600 MHZ Qualcomm processor, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and Android 1.6 with plans to upgrade it to 2.1 or higher later on.
Having a 3.2 megapixel camera isn’t really something to flaunt. However, it is a tad better than that of the iPhone 3GS. With its low-cost price, Android OS, and not-so-bad specs, how could you not be attracted to it?
[via Cricket]
Some big news came out today in the ever-expanding world of tablet machines. Apparently HTC, Verizon, and Google are teaming up to release a Chrome OS tablet on Black Friday. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and it’s the biggest shopping day of the year. This year it will be on November 26th. With all the buzz Android has been getting lately it’s been easy to forget about Google’s other OS. Though if this proves to be true that won’t be the case for long.
HTC and Google famously hooked up to bring us the Google Nexus One, an incredibly capable phone that didn’t achieve the sales results many thought it deserved. Since then Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that they won’t be releasing a second Google phone, but apparently they still do want to get Google branded hardware out there. As of right now details are few but here’s what we think we know:
Last week, we trusted the word of Mashable and reported that the Droid Incredible would be receiving its long awaited OTA update to Android 2.2 starting today. Well, Big Red has trumped that report via a Twitter post today (pictured above) which states that they have no information at this time, and that users will not be receiving a Froyo update today.
Sadly, rumors are what they are, and often times they turn out to be false. For now, it seems Mashable needs to get some new sources, but rest assured, we will continue to be on the lookout for any information about when the Incredible will be getting Froyo.
[via Twitter]
There’s not much detail to be had, but it seems that Toshiba is gearing up to release its foray into the Android tablet market this September or October. The device is slated to feature a 10 inch display, and will be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor. Tobisha is expecting to ship 40,000 – 50,000 units by the end of 2010.
[via Digitimes]