Thursday, April 28, 2011

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Contest: Win Qualcomm’s 1.5 Ghz, 13 Megapixel Android Development Superphone (Worth $1,350!)

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 02:43 PM PDT

I get to give away lots of cool stuff on MobileCrunch… but this might be the coolest thing we’ve given away yet.

This morning, Qualcomm began selling an Android device called the Snapdragon MDP MSM8660. This thing is, in a sense, a glimpse of the future. Built on top of a dual-core, 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon CPU, the crazy fast Adreno 220 graphics chip, and sporting a 13 megapixel camera, the MDP is primarily meant for developers to get a head start on the tech that’ll be hitting handsets later this year.

As you might expect, this thing doesn’t come cheap. If you were to buy it direct from Qualcomm, it’d set you back $1,350. Win it from us, however, and it won’t cost you a dime.

What you win:

See that big ol’ protective suitcase? You win that. Inside of it is the Snapdragon MDP, plus a handful of other goodies that we’ll let the winner find for themselves.

As for what’s inside the Snapdragon MDP, check out the specs on this thing:

  • Dual-core 1.5 GHZ CPU
  • 13 Megapixel rear camera (Capable of 1080p video recording at a full 30 FPS)
  • 1 Megapixel front camera
  • 3.61″ WVGA capacitive multi touch screen
  • HDMI video output (Capable of pushing stereoscopic 3D video)
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 16 GB internal storage, plus an included 8GB SDHC card
  • 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM

(Note: This chipset inside this phone is compatible with both CDMA and GSM networks, and CAN be configured for use as an actual phone. With that said, some carriers don’t allow non-certified devices on their network, so getting it up and running might require some… convincing. Gettin’ things working on any given carrier is the responsibility of the winner, though we’ll try to point you in the right direction.)

How To Win:

We’re doing things a bit differently than we usually might. In this contest, we’ve got three ways to enter. Two of the routes are worth one entry each, while the other will get you three entries.

The best part: you can enter all three ways if you so choose, scoring you a grand total of five entries into the contest. Like buying five tickets for a raffle, it gives you considerably better odds than the guy who only entered once.

Entry Method #1: Like Us On Facebook, Find The Passphrase:

We’ve got this fancy MobileCrunch fan page on Facebook. Hit the “Like” button, then dive into the photos section. In there will be a photo of the suitcase shown up above — tucked into the details of that photo will be a secret passphrase. E-mail that secret passphrase to greg+MDP1@crunchgear.com, and bam — you’re entered. The catch: if you didn’t “Like” the MobileCrunch page before you sent your email, your e-mailed entry won’t count (if you liked the page before the contest started, you’re good to go.) Get to liking! Worth one entry.

Entry Method #2: Leave a comment

Drop a comment on this page describing why you want the Snapdragon MDP, and you’re entered to win. Comment as much as you want, but each commenter will only be counted once (No trying to cheat! We’ll have the anti-cheat bots lookin’ for fishy details, and anything suspicious will be disqualified in a heartbeat). Worth one entry.

Entry Method #3: The Egg Hunt

This one might take a few minutes, but it’s worth up to three entries! Here’s how it works:

It’s April, and there’s no better way to celebrate the fourth month of the year than a hunt for totally secular egg-shaped objects. We’ve hidden three “eggs” like the one below in MobileCrunch posts from the last 30 days (March 29th — April 27th).

Find the stories with the eggs (not including this one) and e-mail each story’s URL to greg+MDP2@crunchgear.com. Send all the URLs you find in one e-mail. Each egg you find is worth one entry, totaling three possible entries.

This contest is only open to folks 13 and older from the US (Sorry, foreign friends! Exporting this thing would be a mess). The winning entry will be picked at random at 11:59 PM on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011. Happy hunting!

First Nokia-Made Windows Phone 7 Handsets Might Hit In Q4 2011

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 01:24 PM PDT

Okay, Nokia/Windows Phone 7 fans: cross your fingers. If you wish really, really hard — and, you know, if all goes well in Nokia’s R&D labs — you just might see a Nokia-branded Windows Phone 7 handset in 2011.

In an interview with Finnish broadcasting company YLE, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop dropped the following little nugget:

“Our pattern now is to announce launch dates of products very close to availability. In the past, there have been longer lead times and that hasn’t always worked out. It is possible [that we'll] see the first new phone in the last quarter of this year.”

With Elop touching on everything from Nokia’s plans to transfer Symbian to Accenture (an outsourcing firm) to the recent layoffs, the interview is definitely worth watching if you’ve got 20 minutes to kill (Plus, it’s in English!)


LG Optimus Big Is Indeed Big

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 01:22 PM PDT


The Big. That’s really what it’s called. The Colossus, the Behemoth, the Monster — these I can see, but the Big? Well, whatever, if it makes its way to the US, this 4.3″ beast will probably have a different name anyway. It’s being announced in Korea at the moment, but if LG is smart, they’ll cash in on the bigphone trend going on right now and bring it stateside toot sweet. (Or “toute de suite,” if you’re… you know. French.)

That 4.3″ screen is even bigger than the big one on the 2X we recently reviewed, and it’s actually of the same “Nova” variety as the Optimus Black, meaning it’s brighter than most. It’s got a 1GHz processor, a 5MP camera on the back, and what looks like a smaller one there on the front.

It’s launching on Korea’s U+ tomorrow – no other plans were announced, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground.

Human Interface Guidelines Updated for Android Honeycomb

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 11:48 AM PDT


The Human Interface Guidelines for Android I posted about earlier this month generated considerable interest. The folks behind it, Mutual Mobile, received a lot of feedback. The most common request was for more information and guidance about designing for Android 3.0, aka Honeycomb. Mutual Mobile has wasted no time in responding to these requests, and are today releasing version 1.1 of their Android Design Guidelines. The update “introduces some of the OS's unique new features such as the Action Bar and Notification/Status bar along with how to utilize new UI elements like Fragments. As always, these guidelines are a living document and will continue to evolve as the platform evolves. We hope designers will use this tool to continue to innovate in Android design and help Honeycomb evolve into the enterprise tool it could be.”

From the version 1.1 document:

Honeycomb is a game changer for Android. By introducing an optimized UI, holographicthemes, intuitive multitasking and a redesigned widget structure, Honeycomb has created auser experience that not only makes sense functionality-wise but also has the capability of be-ing stunning visually. While there are not many Honeycomb optimized applications on the mar-ket yet, the ones that have been developed are well constructed and beautiful. CNN, YouTube,and Google Earth are three examples of remarkable Honeycomb applications.

I continue to remain a strong supporter of Android, and look forward to more elegant, intuitive applications. With design guidelines like this, all Android users stand to benefit.

Fring’s Four-Way Group Video Calling Goes Live To All

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 10:36 AM PDT

Unless you’re raiding with your WoW clan or something, I’d wager that most folks would be a bit hard-pressed to find 3 other people with the time and reason to do a 4-way mobile video chat. With that said: when it all comes together, it’s pretty damn cool.

Fring first rolled out 4-way group chatting a few weeks back, albeit in a super-tight limited beta. This morning, anyone and everyone can get in on the fun; they’ve just opened up the feature to anyone with an iOS 4+ or Android 1.5+ device.

What do you think: is 4-way video chatting going to be a part of your daily life in the future?

Qualcomm’s Augmented Reality Platform Augments Its Way Out Of Beta

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 10:24 AM PDT

Back in mid-2010, Qualcomm launched a rather cool new product: a free development framework for building vision-based Augmented Reality applications on Android. (Geek-speak translator: watch the video above — it lets developers build things like that for Android without having to do all the insanely-complicated image recognition stuff themselves). Shortly thereafter, they announced that they were tying it into the (rather awesome) rapid game development suite, Unity. All the while, it roamed the dev-lands with a Beta tag.

This morning, they’re dropping the Beta tag and officially releasing the platform. While that may not mean a lot to most immediately, it’s good news for anyone who’s built something on the platform: as of this morning, they’re free to market and release their AR apps as they see fit.

You can find more info on their AR platform here.

(Interesting factoid: Qualcomm distributes and licenses this framework for free. Why? Because it’s pretty processor intensive. If people want these games, they’ll need pretty fast phones — and they just happen to supply the components tucked inside most of the faster phones out there. Whether that really works out in their favor or not, it sounds like a totally clever way to justify making something nifty for free.)

Verizon’s 4G Network Goes Down

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 10:01 AM PDT

Wuh oh — if anyone picked today to be the day when they finally go and pick up that Verizon 4G phone they’ve been saving up for, they’re going to be a bit… underwhelmed.

According to the carrier themselves, anyone rockin’ a Verizon 4G phone (read: the Thunderbolt) is “experiencing connection issues” this morning. On the upside, the phones should still work as, you know, phones — data connectivity will just be quite a bit slower.

So, what’s causing the issues? Good question. As of about an hour ago, Verizon was still investigating the cause. Maybe the LTE network saw that PSN was taking a little vacation and decided to do the same?

[Photo: Jay Gorman]

Chinese Pirates Finally Get Around To Copying Windows Phone 7

Posted: 27 Apr 2011 06:53 AM PDT

People always say “Superficial UI duplication is the sincerest form of flattery.” If that’s true then Microsoft should be blushing because this pirate “HTC” phone – it looks more like a Samsung Omnia – is paying them all sorts of complements.

The device is basically a standard touchscreen phone running Windows Mobile 6.5 skinned to look like WinPho7. The front page apps aren’t really usable and most crash. It also looks as big as a piece of wheat toast.

Spec-wise it’s actually not too shabby. It runs a 1GHz Snapdragon processor with 800×480 capacitive screen and GPS. It has a 5-megapixel camera and two SIM slots and two MicroSD slots (?!). It costs about $153 in the Chinese markets.

via MICGadget


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