Flip Slide HD officially official, on sale now

Flip Slide HD officially official, on sale now originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera Mini for iPhone approved, will be available for free (update: hands-on)

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Opera_Mini_for_iPhone_approved’; Our man Thomas Ricker was just wondering how long it would take before Apple determined the fate of Opera Mini for iPhone, and we’ve got some good news — it’s been approved and will be available for free on the App Store within 24 hours! Can’t say we were expecting that, since non-Safari-based browsers have typically been verboten from Apple’s little kingdom, but we’re certainly happy to be surprised. We’ll do up a full hands-on when we see it in the store, but for now check the demo video after the break.

Update: We’re getting reports that UK and Australian readers are already able to download and enjoy this surprising little addition to the app store — be sure to give this iTunes link a shot and see if it works in your region, mmkay?

Update 2: We just got our hands on Opera Mini for the iPhone, and the first thing we noticed is, in fact, how fast it renders pages. When we open the app, we are quickly introduced to the default Opera Screen, with links to Facebook, Twitter and the like. Opening a new tab is a single touch and loading virtually any homepage is quick. While scrolling through the loaded page, some images don’t fully render until you stop over them. Multitouch is enabled to some extent — you can pinch to zoom, and double tapping only fully zooms in and out, with really no inbetween. Something else we noticed that we’d been looking for in OS 4, is the ability to Find in Page. It works really well, and the words being searched are highlighted for an easy find. This browser totally kicks safari out of the water, and we’re definitely looking forward to updates for Opera Mini.

Update 3: It looks to be live in the US now! Hit up that iTunes link and go wild!

Continue reading Opera Mini for iPhone approved, will be available for free (update: hands-on)

Opera Mini for iPhone approved, will be available for free (update: hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm also looking at licensing webOS and / or finding new investors

Although we’ve got the feeling that Palm will eventually be sold off, apparently that’s not the only option on the table: Reuters and Street Insider have followed up last night’s news that Palm is up for sale with some more details, including the revelations that Cisco is an interested buyer and Palm is also considering licensing webOS and / or seeking an additional infusion of cash from an outside investor. We’re at all sure who’d be willing to join Bono’s Elevation Partners in pumping more cash into Palm as it stands right now, but we can certainly see the company loosening the strings and licensing webOS to other manufacturers, something it did with great success back in the Palm OS days. Of course, that success eventually led to a string of terrible business decisions and the brink of failure, from upon which Palm has never returned, but hey — at least it’s familiar territory, right? Sigh.

In other news, Palm CTO Mitch Allen is scheduled to talk about Palm’s patent strategy next month, and the press release announcing his talk straight-up values the company’s IP portfolio at $8-$9 a share, or around a billion and a half dollars. If that’s true, it means anyone buying Palm at today’s closing price and market cap of $6 and $1.01b would be getting a nice little discount — which is probably why bids are expected to come in this week. We’ll see what goes down; it looks like most of you agree with us that HTC would be a terrific match here, but anything can happen. Stay tuned.

Palm also looking at licensing webOS and / or finding new investors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Kin Studio saves all your phone content to the web (update: video!)

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Microsoft_Kin_Studio_saves_all_your_content_to_the_web’; There’s no denying that Microsoft’s new Kin phones are a next-gen riff on the Sidekick, and just like the Sidekick, everything that happens on the phone will be backed up to a Microsoft service, called Kin Studio. Text messages, photos, videos, music, other content — it’s all instantly synced to the Studio, which is obviously accessible from any browser. Of course, it’s sort of funny for Microsoft to be saying that it’ll back up all your data for you, since it just had a major Sidekick data loss incident, but hey — the kids don’t know that, right? They’re off skateboarding, or hanging out watching fat people eat burritos*, or whatever they do.

Update: Video for the “upload generation” now available to stream after the break. Think you can handle that?

*Actual line from teen testimonial video shown during Microsoft event. We are not kidding.

Continue reading Microsoft Kin Studio saves all your phone content to the web (update: video!)

Microsoft Kin Studio saves all your phone content to the web (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs apparently says original iPhone won’t be upgraded in the future

Now that the iPad is out and iPhone OS 4 has been announced, it looks like Steve Jobs is taking a little time to catch up on his email — in addition to taking up the new SDK rules, it appears he’s very tersely confirmed what we sadly suspected all along: the first-gen iPhone won’t get an upgrade to iPhone OS 4. That makes a certain amount of sense, given that Apple’s subscription accounting model for the original iPhone only booked free upgrades for 24 months, but really, that’s just paperwork — we don’t see why Cupertino couldn’t at least allow for an iPod touch-style paid upgrade, especially since the upgradeable iPhone 3G runs essentially the same hardware. And let’s not forget that first-gen iPhone owners paid more or less full price for their devices, so if this is true, Apple’s summarily dead-ended a $400 phone just under three years after it launched. Of course, none of this is officially confirmed yet, so anything can change — we’ve pinged Apple for comment and they haven’t responded yet, but we’ll let you know what we find out.

[Thanks, Tanzeel]

Steve Jobs apparently says original iPhone won’t be upgraded in the future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bloomberg: Palm is up for sale

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Bloomberg_Palm_is_up_for_sale_Engadget’; Uh, whoa. Bloomberg just reported that Palm is putting itself up for sale and that offers will potentially come in this week. That’s pretty wild news, considering CEO Jon Rubinstein was adamant just a few days ago that Palm had a plan to get profitable — even while his company’s stock price went on a buyout-rumor fueled rollercoaster. Bloomberg says that Palm’s already retained Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, with HTC (yes!) and Lenovo both expressing interest — and Dell’s apparently already taken a pass. Naturally none of these parties are saying anything on the record — we just pinged Palm and they declined comment — but if this is true, things are about to get wild, and fast. We’ll keep you updated, stay tuned.

[Thanks, Sean]

Bloomberg: Palm is up for sale originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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