RIM’s first all-screen Curve has sashayed over to the FCC. Two models of the BlackBerry Curve 9380, the REA70UW and REB70UW, are included in the latest filing, which goes into typical laborious detail on radio frequencies and the like. Thankfully, those myriad charts and graphs reveal support for WCDMA band IV, meaning that the phone plays nice with T-Mobile’s 3G network. Let’s just hope that, if given the chance to strut its stuff in the US market, it follows the Curve family tradition of arriving keenly priced. We’ll have to wait and see if it hits our wallet’s sweet spot, but for those more interested in the phone’s internals, the source link beckons below.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 hits the FCC, talking the T-Mobile talk originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thanks to its Android strategy, Samsung is quickly rising through the ranks and is soon expected to be the top smartphone seller in the world. The company will surpass Nokia to claim the no. 1 spot as early as this quarter due to a long-term plan that began with the Samsung Galaxy last June. Other Android device makers have reaped benefits too, but Samsung’s approach has been calculated and methodical.

Instead of building a wide range of Android devices, Samsung focused on one, the Galaxy S, and then tweaked it for different carriers and regions, saving on research & development, as well as manufacturing costs. The company also designs and builds its own processors, flash memory and displays, helping to eliminate reliance on component providers. Samsung also has its own media ecosystem for books, music and videos, plus it created a backup plan to Android: Phones running the company’s Bada operating system outsold Windows Phone 7 devices in the first quarter of this year.

Other Android phone makers are trying to replicate Samsung’s approach, but supplement it with new features that differentiate. Smartphones with 3-D video capabilities are appearing, helped in part by more capable chips, graphic processors and display technologies. But consumers don’t want to wear 3-D glasses to view this content and two handsets aim to deliver a glasses-free vision.

The LG Optimus 3D and HTC Evo 3D both use a stereoscopic display to show both pictures and videos in 3-D without glasses. LG demonstrated its 3-D Android phone in February and now says it’s rolling out in Europe. Here in the U.S., consumers will see the HTC Evo 3D on June 24. The phone, for Sprint’s 3G / WiMAX network, will cost 9 after contract, comes with Android 2.3.3, HTC Sense 3.0, and a pair of 5 megapixel cameras for capturing pictures or 720p video in 3-D. I took an early look at a review unit to demonstrate how the 3-D functionality works, which surprisingly, was impressive.

Also impressive to many is the Swype keyboard for Android, which now claims 50 million downloads. The unique input system allows you to trace your letters, making for quick text entry with just a single hand. Swype debuted the next version of its keyboard, 3.0, in a public beta this week and it just may have me switching keyboards on my smartphone. The new version includes a tap word prediction function and support for displays up to 960 x 540 resolution. Swype is adding support for Honeycomb tablets as well, allowing for the keyboard to be resized or moved on the larger display of a slate.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T
• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015
• A Global Mobile Handset Platform Forecast, 2011 – 2015

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Apple investigating 3G issues on some Verizon iPad 2s, software fix expected soon originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Being Mobile World Congress, quite a few software vendors found themselves tucked into corners of bigger booths, eager and willing to showcase their latest work. Ittiam is one of those companies, relying on Texas Instruments’ OMAP 4 platform to power its new HD video conferencing system. The demo shown here at MWC involved a foursome of TI development boxes, but the underlying platform was most certainly Android 2.2. Anil Kumar, the manager of Ittiam’s video communications division, noted that the system would work just fine on Gingerbread and Honeycomb, enabling up to four devices (smartphones, tablets, whatever) to link up and enjoy a multi-faced call over a standard 3G network.

Of course, the demonstration that we were shown used an Ethernet network for maximum stability, but the low-bitrate technology would allow bearable results on 3G networks (and better-than-average results on a 4G network). We were told that the company is in talks with “numerous” phone makers, in hopes of getting their VCS software integrated onto Android devices by the year’s end — think Qik, but for video conferencing — but he couldn’t hand out any specifics. Head on past the jump if you’d like to see a demo (and hear an awful lot more).

Continue reading Ittiam shows off four-way 720p HD video conferencing using Android, OMAP 4 (video)

Ittiam shows off four-way 720p HD video conferencing using Android, OMAP 4 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Android-powered, 3G-enabled smartphone with full touchscreen display and intutive Samsung TouchWiz interface
• Compatible with T-Mobile’s 3G network (available in select markets); GPS for navigation and location-based services via Google Maps
• Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g); 5-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music; microSD memory expansion to 16 GB; access to personal and corporate email
• Up to 6 hours of talk time, up to 400 hours (16.7 days) of standby time
• What’s in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, charger, 2 GB microSD memory card, USB cable, wired hands-free headset, quick start guide, user manual

Amazon.com Product Description
The sequel to Samsung’s popular Behold smartphone, the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile is now powered by the Google Android operating system and further augmented with Samsung’s 3G Cube menu navigation for one-touch access to your favorite multimedia applications. It also offers three different home screens to organize multiple workspaces with favorite widgets and application shortcuts. Enabled for T-Mobile’s expanding high-speed 3G network, the Behold II offers fast data delivery while on the go as well as compatibility with Wi-Fi networks and hotspots (802.11b/g).

The full touchscreen Behold II is a multimedia powerhouse with fast Web and data supported by Wi-Fi and T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network. The phone sports a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen for crisper colors and wider viewing angles, and a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, zoom, flash, five shooting modes and video capabilities. The Behold II offers GPS location services fo… More >>

Samsung Behold II t939 Android Phone

We’re told that AT&T President and CEO John Stankey announced in New York today that their next gen 3G network—HSPA+, not 4G LTE—should cover around 250m people by the end of the year, pending their software rollout. What does this mean? If you’ve got a compatible device (you probably don’t, right now) AT&T says this’ll double your 3G speeds as compared to their HSPA 7.2Mbps network, which is already fairly peppy. More »

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