8525 -- Engadget

8525 posts

The 2006 Engadget Awards: Vote for Gadget of the Year

by Ryan Block posted Apr 16th 2007 at 2:34PM

This is it, the moment you've been waiting for. After all these long months you can finally cast your ballot for the 2006 Gadget of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Wednesday, April 18th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best gadget in all of 2006 win! The nominees: Apple MacBook Pro, Dell 3007WFP-HC, HTC Hermes / 8525, Nintendo Wii, SanDisk Sansa E280R, Slingbox PRO, and Sony PlayStation 3.

Lego dock provides home to full assortment of handhelds

by Paul Miller posted Apr 6th 2007 at 2:54PM

It doesn't get much better than when the Lego bricks of our youth meet our gadget stash of today, and while we've seen Lego docks for various devices before, Chris C built himself an all-in-one unit to house his 8525, iPod and DS Lite in plastic digs. We've gotta hand it to Chris for mixing an indie Lego-hacker ethic with three of the most stereotypical devices of their respective categories, but let's hope that iPod's running Linux, the DS has a DS-Xtreme cart in it, and he's got some sort of snazzier Windows Mobile Today Screen for his 8525 -- live the dream, Chris!

[Thanks, Chris C]

Engadget Podcast 094 - 11.17.2006

by Trent Wolbe posted Nov 18th 2006 at 2:08PM

Big, big week for gadget news (as we all well know). The Zune, the PS3, and the Wii, it's been pretty crazed around the hallowed halls of Engadget HQ. We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about the news surrounding the gadgets since something tells us a lot of you are wondering what they're like, and whether you should buy one. We also briefly touch on some other noteworthy announcements, including the Lenovo X60, Nikon D40, the Core 2 Duo MacBook, and those sweet new Cingular Windows Mobile devices. It's going to be a hell of a holiday season this year.

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Hosts: Peter Rojas and Ryan Block

Producer: Trent Wolbe

Music: Solvent - Instructograph (Ghostly International)

Program:

0:01:25 - Zune review
0:20:37 - PS3 unboxing!
0:35:03 - Wii hands-on, unboxing!
0:43:03 - Xbox HD DVD hands-on
0:48:03 - Xbox Live Video hands-on
0:52:54 - Hon Hai cops to iPhone contract
0:56:02 - Apple's MacBook goes Core 2 Duo, too
0:56:16 - Cingular 8525, BlackJack now for sale
1:00:46 - Nikon D40 officially announced
1:03:40 - Hands-on with Lenovo's X60 Tablet PC

LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)

Contact the podcast: 1-888-ENGADGET, Engadget (Gizmo Project) or podcast at engadget dawt com

Cingular 8525, BlackJack now for sale

by Ryan Block posted Nov 16th 2006 at 1:17AM

Hey you -- yeah, you. Cingular 8525, you know the one, right? Ok, and the BlackJack? The i607? Right, those two hype HSDPA WinMo handsets are now officially for sale, $400 and $200, respectively, after two year contract (with unlimited data) and rebates. Just save some for the kids, ok? They're tired of getting coal in their stockings because of your sick device addiction.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Cingular 8525 released, reviewed

by Ryan Block posted Nov 6th 2006 at 12:41AM

So, Cingular's finally announced their 8525 -- what a relief. As we suspected, it'll set you back $399 (with two year contract -- sorry, no price yet listed with 1 year or no contract) when it launches November 16th but LAPTOP has the first official review of the unit, which resulted in a 4/5 star rating. There isn't really much to tell here that one didn't already know (except that the ok key underneath the wheel is now a deactivated Push-to-Talk button), but just in case you hadn't been following the Hermes, it's generally regarded as a pretty slick piece of kit. Outside of the usual software package, you can, of course, hook up with MobiTV, Good, and any other supported services on Cingular's network. We definitely take issue with the five hour talk time, though, our Hermes is lucky to get a couple (and with data, forget about it). Still, for your $400 you're unlikely to find a hotter Pocket PC phone on the US market.

Read - release
Read - LAPTOP review

Cingular launches 3G-enabled 8525, sort of

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 31st 2006 at 2:08PM

It's still forwarding us back to the old-skool 8125's product page at the moment, but a tipster has managed to coax Cingular's site into giving up the goods on the 8525 -- Buy Now link and all. We're guessing it has something to do with region or Premier account status, we're not sure, but the point is that a select few are able to place their orders for Cingular's first HSDPA smartphone as we speak. Breaking out the wallet might be hard to justify for folks in 2G areas coming from an 8125, but if speed and power are top priorities, lick your chops as you read the full specs (highlights include a 400MHz Samsung core, 2-megapixel cam, and that fabulous 3G radio) after the break.

[Thanks, John]

Update: Judging from commenters' experiences, it's sounding like there's some buffoonery going on behind the scenes over at Cingular HQ -- the phone may not be shipping to anyone yet after all. In the meanwhile, enjoy the literature and imagery we've scooped, and we'll let you know what's going on as soon as we do.

Continue reading Cingular launches 3G-enabled 8525, sort of

Palm Treo 680 and Cingular 8525 price and release!

by Ryan Block posted Oct 28th 2006 at 4:34AM

Ah yes, this is what we've been so eagerly awaiting. Enough pussyfooting around with the Palm Treo 680 and HTC Hermes / 8525 coming to Cingular -- we know they're due. We need prices, we need dates. And according to what appears to be a recent Cingular marketing presentation, we've got 'em:

Treo 680: $424.99 straight, $349.99 one year, $249.99 one year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate), $274.99 two year, $174.99 two year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate; their ad, however, shows a $200 list price, but it's good to know we can count on around two Benjamins. Expect it November 5th (tentative).
Cingular 8525: $559.99 straight, $484.99 one year (not including $50 rebate if included with unlimited data), $409.99 two year (also not including that same rebate); expect it October 29th.

See, now that wasn't so bad, was it? Both came in right around where we'd expected and hoped; between the Dash, the Q, and the 680, it looks like that $200 price point is the sweet spot for ever-slimming smartphones. And the 8525 ain't too bad either, considering what you're getting.

[Thanks also to djnth]

Cingular 8525 spotted (again)

by Ryan Block posted Oct 24th 2006 at 3:07AM

Thar she blows. We're not going to pretend like there's any surprise left here -- it's the 8525 in all its tri-band UMTS / HSDPA glory, it was on Cingular's page, and it looks like they're about ready to go. Yep, all we're waiting for is a price and release date. Yep, just gonna keep on waiting. Cingular?

[Thanks, JeShUa, Matt, and jetfxr]

Continue reading Cingular 8525 spotted (again)

Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes) in the wild

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 30th 2006 at 3:02PM

It's with mixed feelings that we greet the Cingular 8525's first live shots in the wild. Yes, it's apparently real, and yes, it matches the renderings we posted not long ago, but these pics also seem to sadly confirm our fear that this particular rendition of the Hermes will be coming to American buyers sans front-facing cam. There's no crying in cellphones, though, so we're going to do our best to concentrate on the positive: the 8525 should improve significantly on the 8125's speed thanks to a new processor, and of course, it's hard to argue with HSDPA. We don't have ship date for this puppy, but given the pics, the state of Cingular's 3G network, and the general availability of Hermes variants worldwide, we'd say that "real soon now" is an appropriate attitude to take.

[Thanks, Notorious Jatt]

Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes) renderings leaked?

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 20th 2006 at 7:38PM

If you're familiar with the Hermes and you know that it's coming to Cingular 'fore too long, these supposed renderings of Cingular's variant (henceforth known as the 8525) should come with no surprises -- except one, that is. Note that the Hermes' front-facing cam is conspicuously missing here, allegedly removed at Cingular's request since their video calling infrastructure isn't quite ready for prime time. Of course, we would've preferred that they leave the cam in, disable it, and cut a new firmware down the road to re-enable it when video calling is live rather than ask HTC to cripple their hardware, but we're sure the corporate suits had their reasons.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]