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May

Fly To Europe Today And Pick Up An HTC Flyer With 3G For £599.99 Or WiFi For £479.99

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Flyer, News

The HTC Dream, launched in 2008 by a then little-known Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer, took the world by storm as the first "Google-phone".

Now HTC is back delivering its tablet which is available today from the HTC Flyer Store in Europe. The 32GB 3G + WiFi version costs £599.99 ($975.88) and the 16GB WiFi-only version costs £479.99 ($781.38). These prices seem to be a lot higher than Best Buy's $499, but this is hardly surprising considering almost all electronics (notably Apple products) are much steeper in Europe.

The 7" tablet will also be available in-store in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

May

T-Mobile Gets Free Unlimited Wi-Fi Calling Starting May 11th

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, T-Mobile

T-Mobile has seen better days. First, it looks as though T-Mobile will be acquired soon by AT&T and to pour salt in their wounds apparently the subscriber results for Q1 2011 have been atrocious. However, T-Mobile is still doing all it can to win back its customers by revamping its prepaid plans to allow for unlimited data, launching cutting edge handsets, and now allowing unlimited calling over wireless networks.

TmoNews has gotten hold of a screenshot that shows that calls over wireless networks will be completely free from tomorrow (May 11th).

Right now you can make calls over a wireless network, which is useful where your data coverage is poor, but on the flipside, it cuts into your in-plan minutes.

Apr

Compared: HTC Droid Incredible 2 vs The Original Droid Incredible [Specs]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Editorials, HTC, Incredible, Incredible 2 (Vivow)

It's April 28th, the official release date for the 2nd generation Droid Incredible from HTC, and if you haven't studied this phone in detail yet, you're probably wondering just what exactly has changed since the original "Dinc" entered the market last April. Let's have a look, shall we?

Key Differences

Network

First and foremost, just like the Droid 2 Global Edition, the new Incredible 2 is a world phone with both CDMA and GSM frequencies. Verizon Wireless provides the following interesting numbers:

voice service in over 220 countries
data in over 200 countries
3G speeds in more than 125

Quite a step-up from the original already, isn't it?

Mar

Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi Root Now Available (Sans Bricking Feature)

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, News, XOOM

In typically blisteringly-quick fashion, the hackers at XDA have managed to root a Wi-Fi XOOM in no time at all - good news, considering that the root method for the regular XOOM was bricking the Wi-Fi models. It's worth noting that unlocking the XOOM's bootloader (which is required for root) wipes the device.

The current method does require some ADB commands, but certainly nothing tricky. Still, for those who are hesitant, it's likely that an automated method won't be far behind. The instructions, as posted by Xaositek:

This is it guys... HUGE props to MADindustries and modplan!

Download the Motorola WiFi Xoom Root Zip file and unzip it.

Mar

[Deal Alert] Wi-Fi XOOM For $589.99 + Gel Case + Free Shipping From Costco; Amazon Is Taking Pre-orders Too [Updated]

Posted by Will Shanklin in Deals, News, XOOM

Now that we know that the Wi-Fi-only model of the Motorola XOOM is just around the corner (launching March 27 to be exact) perhaps you are looking for the best deal on the tablet. Costco's website may be the place to look, as they are offering not only a $10 discount (from the listed $600 price tag) but they are also throwing in a free gel case and shipping it to you for free. Yes, all of that can be yours for a mere $589.99 and they are taking pre-orders now. The units won't be shipping until April 1 though, which is five days after the tablet is released everywhere else.

Mar

Pre-orders For Wi-Fi-only XOOM Live On B&H For $599

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors, XOOM

A couple of weeks ago, word popped up of a UK site starting to take pre-orders for the Wi-Fi-only version of the Motorola XOOM, being available in early April. Not long after that images leaked of the same model showing up in a Sam's Club training center with a price tag of $539. Not to be outdone, yet another story arose saying office retailer Staples would be supplying the slate for $600 with employee training starting on March 23. Today the rumors take another step into becoming reality, as site B&H is now taking pre-orders for the Wi-Fi model of the Honeycomb debut for $599, making them the first American site (to our knowledge) to offer pre-orders on the carrier-free model.

Feb

Now That The Verizon XOOM Is Here, When Will We See That Wi-Fi-Only Model?

Posted by Will Shanklin in Editorials, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

If you began drooling from the very first murmurs of a "Pure Google" tablet running Android 3.0 'Honeycomb', to the buzz at CES, through the anticipation building up to launch: your day has arrived and you likely now have a Motorola XOOM in your hands. Congratulations. Of course that would be the $800 Verizon Motorola XOOM that's in your hands. But what about that $600 Wi-Fi-only XOOM? Not only is it not in anyone's hands, but there has yet to be a confirmed release date either.

With nearly every Android phone capable of generating a wireless hotspot to share its data plan with a tablet, taking on the burden of yet another monthly data bill can seem like an unwelcomed guest to many users.

Feb

Motorola XOOM $799 + 1 Month Data And $749 Off-Contract Thunderbolt Now Confirmed By Best Buy Circular

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in HTC, Motorola, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), XOOM

If one thing can put an end to rumors, it's the official Best Buy weekly ad - the one you get in print from the store. Unfortunately, this time, all the rumors turned out to be correct. Namely:

As rumored, Motorola XOOM is indeed going to cost $799 and will require a 1-month data package to unlock WiFi. February 24th remains the go-live date. Anyone still up for picking it up? Oh, and the same spelling errors are still present (/sigh).
HTC Thunderbolt's regular, off-contract price is also confirmed at $749.99, just like we told you yesterday. Bummer. 2-year contract price is still $249.99.

Feb

BBC iPlayer App For Android Goes Live In UK Market; First Order Of Business - Top Gear. Oh, And User Revolt

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Earlier this week, BBC teased us with some delicious news of the official iPlayer app for Android arriving later in the week. The app lets UK residents watch TV, listen to the radio, manipulate their favorites, and look up schedules of TV programs. Oh yeah, and it just went live in the UK Android Market.

Watch and listen to BBC TV and Radio programmes from the last 7 days

BBC TV and Radio programmes now on Android. Watch and listen live, or choose your favourites from over 400 hours programming from the last 7 days.
- Watch live TV
- Listen to live radio
- Scroll through and find Featured and Most Popular programmes
- Add programmes to your favourites and have them ready and waiting when a new episode or series is available
- Browse through the schedule for upcoming programmes

Sounds good, right?

Dec

Notion Ink Adam Pre-Orders Starting At 10:30AM PST Today At Lower Than Expected Prices; Mystery Feature Still Unrevealed

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Adam, News, Notion Ink

The wait for Notion Ink's dual-core Tegra 2 based Adam tablet pre-orders is finally coming to an end - after yesterday's teaser blog post that now generated over 8000 comments, Rohan Shravan, the CEO and the public voice of Notion Ink, put up some details of the pre-order that is indeed coming today.

Timeline

First up, the timeline:

10:30 a.m PST Dec 9th (0:00 a.m. IST Dec 10th): pre-orders start for a pre-selected group of people who have been actively participating in the Notion Ink Blog
4:30 p.m. PST Dec 9th (6:00 a.m. IST Dec 9th): pre-orders open up for everyone (link TBD)