SamsungContinuum
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Refresh Roundup: week of August 1, 2011
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Official Android updates Verizon and Motorola have finally begun rolling out the Gingerbread update for the Motorola Droid X2. [via PCMag] Sticking with Verizon, the LG Revolution is in the process of receiving maintenance update VS910ZV6, which consists of a few new features and bug fixes. This is not a major refresh. [via AndroidCentral] The HTC Desire Z has been updated to Gingerbread in the UK. As of now, only those devices without carrier branding are seeing the OTA show up. [via PocketNow] Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc hackery Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play, Neo, and Arc should soon be added to the CyanogenMod repository. Once approved, we'll likely see nightlies appear in the near future. [via PocketNow] Did somebody say Xperia Play? Yes, we did. It looks like the phone's finally been rooted, and the bootloader's been cracked. [via Droid-Life] The Motorola Photon 4G came out last Sunday, but XDA was able to root it within a couple days. [via SprintFeed] XDA's also the provider of a Froyo update to the Samsung Continuum. [via XDA] Along with an official update for the Droid X2, an SBF is now available for download. [via Droid-Life] Other platforms The Dark Forces Team has released tools to enable custom ROMs to be used on your first-gen Windows Phone device. Currently, the supported phones are: the HTC Mozart, HTC Surround, HTC Trophy (excluding Verizon's version), and the HTC 7 Pro (excluding the HTC Arrive). [via Windows Phone Hacker] Shortly after this, the HTC HD7 also got its first custom ROM courtesy of XDA. The downloadable package consists of a ChevronWP7 unlock, a Mango Beta 2 update, and the ROM. Head over to XDA to grab it. [via Windows Phone Daily]
Samsung confirms Continuum dual-display Android handset for Verizon
After a rather large complement of leaks, Samsung has finally confirmed its Continuum phone for Verizon, via Twitter of all places. The phone will ship on November 11th. Samsung is billing it as the "first phone with a dedicated ticker display," referring to the secondary 1.8-inch color screen below the capacitive touch buttons. There's a Samsung Mobile event happening at 6PM EST that will undoubtedly shed more light on this Android handset, but for now we expect the specs to be in line with other Galaxy S-series handsets. You know, except for the ticker part. Samsung is also proud to announce that it's shipped 3 million Galaxy S phones in the US, a sizable chunk of the 7 million or so sold globally so far. Update: We've got PR! Check it out after the break. Here's the feature breakdown: 3.4-inch Super AMOLED primary display, 1.8-inch Super AMOLED secondary "ticker" display. "Grip sensor" lets you touch the bottom sides of the phone to light up the ticker. Android 2.1 (ouch). Bing Maps / Bing Search (double ouch). Samsung 1GHz Hummingbird processor. Six-axis sensor + accelerometer. 5 megapixel camera, shoots 720p video. 802.11n WiFi. 8GB microSD card included. $200 on two-year contract after $100 mail-in rebate. Update 2: Hands-on! %Gallery-107012%
Samsung throws up hands, posts Continuum user manual on Verizon website
There is a slim possibility that come tomorrow evening, Samsung won't reveal the dual-display Continuum smartphone. But honestly, the company may not have to, as all the pertinent details have already leaked out. However, if you harbor any lingering curiosity about how that 1.8-inch secondary "ticker" display might work, you can find out right now -- the full user manual is inexplicably available on Verizon's website ahead of a formal announcement, along with the standard size comparison and 360-degree views. Find them at our source links immediately below.
Verizon pricing Droid Pro at $179, Samsung Continuum at $199?
Well, here's some good news -- we just received an internal Verizon pricelist confirming that the Droid Pro will sell for $179 when it hits on November 9th, a far sight lower than the $299 we'd originally heard. That's a pretty tempting price for Moto's Android-with-a-Blackberry-keyboard handset, although we're assuming that it'll be $279 with a $100 rebate at launch. We're also seeing that the dual-display Samsung Continuum Galaxy S phone will hit for the usual $199, while the Droid 2 indeed fell to $149 last week in order to make room for the now nearly-mythical Droid 2 Global, which will come in two colors for $199. We're also separately told that the HTC Merge won't arrive until after the 17th, so those reports of a launch on the 11th might be premature. Either way, it looks like Verizon's going to have a pretty loaded holiday lineup -- and it looks like we've got some serious reviewing to do.
Full Samsung Continuum specs leak out in Verizon comparison charts?
How does the as-yet-unannounced Samsung Continuum stack up against Verizon's pack of Droids, not to mention its Galaxy S brethren? That's what we're finding out for the very first time in a set of allegedly leaked charts. Performance-wise we're looking at a fairly familiar beast with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 384MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, plus 2GB of on-board flash storage and a preloaded 8GB microSD card. Where it gets interesting is that secondary display, which measures 1.8 inches with a 96 x 480 resolution, which will indeed act as a status update, RSS feed and weather report stock ticker that you activate (even when the handset is asleep!) by gripping the bottom of the phone. You're also getting a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and 3G mobile hotspot for up to five devices, but it's not all peaches and cream -- the whole shebang uses Bing for search, and runs on Android 2.1. Here's hoping Samsung intends to provide us a Froyo rollout date when it finally announces this phone. Find the full spec sheets at our source links.
Samsung Continuum turns up on Verizon's holiday site
Verizon still hasn't officially announced that it will be carrying the Samsung Continuum Galaxy S phone, but that doesn't seem to have stopped it from including the phone on it's new holiday website -- 'tis the season for being generous, after all. Unfortunately, any word on pricing or a release date will apparently still have to wait for that formal announcement, which we assume will be coming any day now -- previous leaks have pointed to a November 11th release for the dual-display phone.
Verizon nabs Samsung Continuum, Zeal and Motorola Citrus on November 11th, according to gushing leak?
Someone's found their way into an internal database and pulled out details on three Verizon phones -- the Samsung Continuum, Samsung Zeal and Motorola Citrus, all of which will reportedly drop on the 11th of next month. We don't have any reason to doubt that, as all three showed up on a recent rebate, but there's more to these leaked screens than a release date. For instance, the Continuum will apparently sport a Swype virtual keyboard on top of a 3.4-inch Super AMOLED screen, to say nothing of that secondary display, and the Motorola Citrus explicitly doesn't support tethering. The Samsung Zeal, meanwhile, isn't a modern smartphone at all, but rather a dual-hinge device with "magic" e-ink keys that change from a standard dialer to a four-row QWERTY layout. Isn't it nice to have all that sorted out? [Thanks, Gavin]
