IRL: Macally Ecofan Pro and the Nexus 4 on Telus
App Store gives away popular iOS games and apps, likely to mark its 5th anniversary
The After Math: Made in the USA special
Solar Impulse ends cross-country US flight slightly early in NY due to torn left wing
Alt-week 7.6.13: deep-space radio, scent-ography and the new hunt for Aliens
Is it worth spending $40 on a laptop stand? How about $299 on a Nexus 4? Yes and yes, at least if you ask the Engadget staff. After the break, Don Melanson explains why he splurged on a solid wood notebook stand, and Jon Fingas makes a case for the Nexus 4 as a budget handset.
Computer makers will have Microsoft's Windows 8.1 update in hand by the end of August. Speaking at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference today, Windows chief Tami Reller announced the RTM timeframe, giving manufacturers ample time to prep new systems before the busy holiday season. A preview of Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 8.1, has been available to download for several weeks, so you don't need to wait until autumn to take the refresh for a spin. You can snag that pre-release version at the source link below.
It's rare that people email to ask us when a certain product is launching, but plenty of you have been jonesing for Amped Wireless' new 802.11ac WiFi router. Six months after the company teased the flagship hardware at CES, the unit's finally ready to step into the spotlight. Marrying the latest WiFi standard with Amped's trademark high-power wireless gear, the RTA15 comes with the usual four gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB 2.0 slot for file sharing. The unit's available to pre-order, at a cost of $190, from Amped's website from today, with orders shipping from July 16th and if you'd like to learn some more, there's a commercial nestled down after the break.
Following on from the Canvas HD launched earlier this year, Micromax unveiled its newest flagship in India today: the Canvas 4 (aka A210). It's pretty similar to the HD, packing an identical 5-inch 720p IPS LCD display (under a Gorilla Glass panel), MediaTek MT6589 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 2,000mAh battery. Improvements over the HD that may justify its higher price include the 4's 16GB of internal storage (expandable to 32GB), 13-megapixel main camera with Sony sensor and 5-megapixel front-facing shooter. An aluminum rim wraps the handset, which measures 8.99mm thick (0.35 inch) and tips the scales at 158 grams (5.6 ounces). With dual-SIM support and a radio capable of HSPA+ data speeds, the device runs Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean and touts software features like blow-to-unlock, look-away video pausing and pop-up window multitasking. Available in "Pristine White" and "Smoky Grey," the Canvas 4 costs Rs 17,999 (around $295) with a free aluminum flip cover apparently worth Rs 2,999 (approximately $49) thrown in.
Just an innocuous boating photo, you say? Not quite. That's Microsoft's Joe Belfiore on the left, and his companions recently took both this snapshot and one other using a Nokia Lumia 1020 -- a phone that doesn't officially exist yet. While there aren't many clues to the 1020's camera performance in Belfiore's Flickr pages, the image metadata shows both a wide-aperture f/2.2 lens as well as cropped 3.7MP and 5MP image sizes. Whether or not the photo posts are accidents or deliberate teases, we're likely to learn more about the new Lumia on July 11th.
Forget Mac versus PC, there was a time when Amiga reigned supreme -- at least in the heart of many computer gamers of a certain age. The Amiga 500 simply blew other computers from the '80s away, especially in the gaming department. But then the '90s happened (and you know where this is going): Microsoft won, Apple nearly went bankrupt and Sony introduced the world to Crash Bandicoot. So what about all those old classics like Alien Breed and Wings? Amiga Games Incorporated, and its library of over 300 titles, have been purchased for $500,000 by Writers' Group, a company that acquires and distributes digital content. The new owner is promising several announcements over the next few weeks, and hopefully one of them has to do with Overdrive.
Well, we can't say we didn't see this one coming. Shortly after making a stop by the FCC and being teased on Twitter, MetroPCS has made the Galaxy S 4 official with a $549 plus tax sticker price (and no contracts attached, of course). Samsung's latest flagship is only available across eight covered areas initially (list in source link), however the plan is to set in motion a "full market rollout in the near future." The GS4 is up for grabs in stores starting today, and MetroPCS says extra locations and online availability will "be announced soon."
Many Android-based Google Voice users don't like having to use the official Google Voice app for text messaging, especially when its performance can be flaky. They now have some choice courtesy of experimental code from ClockworkMod's Koushik Dutta. His test release lets those running CyanogenMod nightlies send and receive Google Voice SMS through any suitable Android app as long as Google's software is present. The project should be helpful, although there's no question that there's some risk involved -- it's a beta that requires an unstable custom ROM, after all. If that's no deterrent, though, you can get Dutta's code and instructions from the source links.
THL is a name that makes us cringe whenever we come across it, not only because its logo is clearly "inspired" by HTC's older counterpart, but more so because it's been shamelessly cloning designs from the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung. Alas, these KIRF phones sell well in China, thus letting THL rapidly expand its retail business in recent years -- there are now a handful of THL stores in Shenzhen alone. But today, the company finally has something worth writing about: the Android 4.2.2-powered W11, also known as "Monkey King" (a main character from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West).
It looks like some of Nokia's Windows Phones have a notable change in store. At a gathering in Hong Kong, as reported by BlogJack, the company said that Bluetooth LE support (part of the 4.0 standard) will come to the Lumia 520, 620 and 720. Strangely absent from that list are the Lumia 820, 920 and the 925 -- all of which are powered by Qualcomm chips that support BT 4.0 at the hardware level. We're also not entirely sure if this update is a part of a more mature Windows Phone release that Microsoft plans on pushing out later this year or whether it's specific to the "Amber" refresh that's tailored to Lumia devices. We've asked Nokia for further details, and we also plan on getting some face-to-face time at its unveiling of a whole new Lumia this Thursday.