BLU Products launches trio of Dash smartphones starting at $49

BLU Products launches trio of new Dash smartphones starting at $49

Too thrifty to buy a $199 Nexus 4, or even a $99 Lumia 520? BLU Products has you covered with three new smartphones in its Dash range. The line starts with the Dash Jr., a 3.5-inch dual-SIM phone that costs just $49 unlocked -- cheap enough that we (almost) don't mind its single-core Spreadtrum processor, 2G-only data, 2-megapixel camera and Android 2.3. If you can afford to splurge, the Dash Music 4.0 ($99) and Dash 5.0 ($129) jump to their namesake larger screens, 3G data, dual-core MediaTek chips, higher-resolution cameras and Android 4.2. BLU expects all three Dash handsets to ship before the end of September, so penny pinchers won't have long to wait. Check out press shots of the Dash Music 4.0 and Dash 5.0 after the break.

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Source: BLU Products

OLPC XO Tablet review

OLPC XO Tablet

In late 2007, One Laptop Per Child launched its "Give 1 Get 1" program. While the do-gooder organization had originally shrugged off suggestions that it should offer its XO Laptop as a commercial product, OLPC finally gave in, letting consumers get their own device for a $399 donation (that price also paid to send one to a child in a developing nation). Unveiled back at CES, the Android-powered XO Tablet marks OLPC's first proper foray into the consumer space, with the device available for $149 at major retailers like Walmart and Target. So is it any good?

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CyanogenMod 10.2 nightlies arrive, offer an unofficial taste of Android 4.3

CyanogenMod mascot Cid

Official Android 4.3 upgrades are currently few and far between, but you won't have to wait for one if you're willing to experiment -- the first CyanogenMod 10.2 nightly builds have arrived. As of this writing, those with Samsung's Captivate, Galaxy S Relay 4G or AT&T Galaxy S III can install the unofficial firmware to take advantage of 4.3's new features. Just be aware that you're taking more risks than usually exist with such firmware; this is an early release of unsanctioned code, after all. If that's no deterrent, the first releases of CyanogenMod 10.2 await at the source link.

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Via: CyanogenMod (Google+)

Source: CyanogenMod Downloads

Refresh Roundup: week of August 5th, 2013

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. 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 we could find during 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!

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Toshiba Excite Write review

Toshiba Excite Write review

It's a tricky thing to name your devices after a verb. And when we say "tricky," we mean ill-advised. That Toshiba could willfully overlook Excite as a magnet for terrible (and terribly negative) puns speaks to its distance from the tablet category (remember the Thrive?). Yet, here we have another generation of Excite tablets and this, the Excite Write, is the line's top-shelf offering. Its Wacom digitizer and included stylus mean this tablet can go toe to toe with the Note 10.1; both have the same screen size and 1,024 degrees of pressure sensitivity. But where Samsung's outsized Note skimped on the HD resolution, Toshiba's gone the opposite direction. Boasting a 2,560 x 1,600 display, a Wacom digitizer, a Tegra 4 heart, 2GB of RAM and Harman Kardon speakers, the Write is a welcome chord change in an otherwise uneventful 10-inch Android fugue. Of course, the catch to all of this premium goodness is a premium price: $600 in this case. You still there?

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Moto X review

Moto X review

One year ago, Motorola, fat and fed by its Google acquisition, inched quietly into a silicon-spun cocoon to gestate. The subsequent passage of time allowed it to transmogrify and re-emerge a thing of red, yellow, blue and sometimes green beauty; a Google thing made by a Google company. The Moto X, its newborn monarch, arrives in an array of different colors, made possible by the NikeID-like Moto Maker site. It also comes with a homespun narrative: it's assembled here in the USA. Time to empty your wallets, patriots. This is America's smartphone and it costs $199 on a two-year contract.

If I'm right in reading between the lines of Google's marketing speak, the Moto X was made in the image of the everyman. It's the product of a democratic process -- you can take that future design poll on Facebook as proof of this point. The 4.7-inch screen size, the curvature of its back, the composite materials, its weight and front-face look were focus-tested for maximum inoffensiveness. The Moto X exudes no tech halo like the Galaxy S 4 or the HTC One because it is the sum of averages. Here's how I see it: You know those people who own iPhones, but don't know which model number they own and also refer to all Android phones as Droids? This phone is for them.

Gallery: Moto X review

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Refresh Roundup: week of July 29th, 2013

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. 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 we could find during 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!

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Google Play Edition smartphones start receiving Android 4.3 (updated)

Google Play Edition smartphones start receiving Android 43

If you were wondering just how long it would take the Google Play Editions of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 to get Android 4.3, we can now tell you: not long at all. Owners of both devices report that they're receiving over-the-air updates to the new OS. There isn't yet word of any GPE-specific additions, but we'll let you know if there are surprises in store.

Update: AnandTech has noticed a few GPE-specific changes. Most home screen icons appear larger, infrared now works on the HTC One, and Bluetooth-based internet tethering is now an option for the Galaxy S 4.

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Via: Brian Klug (Twitter), Ernesto Arias (Twitter)

Source: AnandTech

More than 40 percent of active Android devices now run Jelly Bean, Gingerbread stubbornly holds steady

More than 40 percent of active Android devices now run Jelly Bean, Gingerbread stubbornly holds steady

The last time Google visited Jelly Bean's user saturation numbers, it took the combined efforts of 4.1 and 4.2 to edge out Gingerbread's (v2.3.3 through 2.3.7) hold on the user base. Not anymore; the latest numbers from the Android Dashboard show the base version of Jelly Bean, Android 4.1, representing 34 percent of the active devices -- singlehandedly surpassing the old guard's 33 percent share of the market. When combined with the rest of the Jelly Bean contingent (Android 4.2 and above), Google's latest flavor of Android crushes Gingerbread with a 40.5 percent majority.

Froyo (v2.2), Eclair (v2.1) and Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.0.3 through 4.0.4) all took modest hits as well, though the latter of the trio retained its third-place position with 22.5 percent of active users. The only builds to hold steady? Honeycomb (v3.2) and Donut (v1.6), each retaining a miniscule 0.1 percent of the market. We'll admit, it's cute to see these old versions hang on, but please -- if you're still rocking a handset running Android 1.6, do us all a favor and turn it off.

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Source: Android Developers

Moto X preview: A Google phone assembled with you, the user, in mind

Moto X preview A Google phone assembled with you, the user, in mind

Motorola. A Google company. It's time to commit that to memory. With the Moto X, a 4.7-inch phone going on sale later this summer for $199 on contract, the company has officially started the shot clock for the "new Motorola"; this is the first Moto product designed from scratch with Google's direct oversight. And it shows, from the packaging to the messaging to the features aimed at mainstream users. Most importantly of all, there's Moto X's standout feature: personalization. We've been hearing for years from various OEMs that smartphones are a personal statement, a reflection of the individual, but aside from the occasional color option, the wallpaper and case have been the only real opportunities for personal expression. Well, you can kiss those days goodbye. Motorola's keyed in to a core part of the user experience -- self-styling -- and we expect its rivals to follow suit.

But all of that backstory can wait. We need to talk about the Moto X. The company never explicitly said so when it showed us the phone behind closed doors today, but this is clearly a mainstream phone (it's geared towards the "majority of users" several execs told us). To that point, its spec sheet and feature list (Touchless Control, Active Display, Quick Capture) won't dazzle the technorati. And, from what we can tell, it's not supposed to. To hear the company tell it, the Moto X's journey began one year ago with a whiteboard listing all of the most common user problems, ways to address those issues and a plan to get the device into as many hands as possible. You won't be able to assess that for yourself until the phone launches on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular later this summer. For now, though, if our initial hands-on time is any indication, it appears Motorola's succeeded.

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