‘The Shack’ downsizes, opens Bullseye Mobile kiosks in many Target stores

Radio Shack is at it again, expanding your perceptions of the place that once actually sold radio components. A year after that ill-received ‘The Shack’ marketing campaign the company is now making a rather more substantial move, securing an arrangement with Target stores to see the creation of so-called Bullseye Mobile kiosks. This has started with a 100-store pilot program but, throughout this year and into summer next, the expectation is to prop them up in 1,750 big box locations.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 coming to O2 UK in September

It doesn’t have the X10′s beefy spec sheet — nor the X10 mini’s cute-as-a-button looks — but if you’re looking for a midrange Android device that’s a little lighter on the pocketbook, you might want to keep your eyes glued to O2 in the UK where the X8 is now slated for a September launch. Pricing hasn’t been announced, but considering that it tops out with a 3.2 megapixel camera and will go unsubsidized for €259, we imagine you won’t need to spend very much on your monthly plan to get it for free. Let’s hope it comes off Android 1.6 rather quickly, eh? Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 coming to O2 UK in September originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:45:00 EST.

Enso whips up two smartphones and three new slates, but we wouldn’t order any of ‘em

Oh, Enso — must you really give us a reason to hope? After dealing with what felt like a case of the vaporwares , and then being epically disappointed with the zenPad (which is now out of stock, curiously) that you finally shipped, we just can’t muster up the courage to look fondly upon the five new products that are gracing your webstore. That said, those that don’t mind risk taking and actually enjoy the thought of fighting for a refund have three new MIDs / slates to ponder along with a pair of Android-based smartphones to consider. Let’s break ‘em down real quick, shall we? zenPad 2 ( $219; shipping now ): Here you have a 5-inch, Android 1.5-based MID with an 800 x 480 resolution resistive touchscreen, a bundled stylus, inbuilt 3G, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, microSD slot (8GB included), 128MB of RAM, 256MB NAND Flash, a 624MHz Marvell PXA303 Xscale CPU, integrated accelerometer, onboard GPS, micro-USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack and a battery good for 4.5 hours of use

iPhone 4 launch day in Canada: the experience

Our own Myriam Joire was in the thick of things for Canada’s iPhone 4 launch today out in lovely Vancouver, and as you might expect, hysteria was reaching… well, iPhone 4 levels. Lines formed early and stayed strong through much of the day, and generally, camaraderie seemed high — always a good thing when you’re standing a foot away from the same handful of people in summer heat for hours on end. As you might expect, the wait for subsidized phones was longer than for the considerably pricier unlocked ones.

Rover Puck WiMAX hotspot gets FCC’d, traction on ice subject of fierce debate

The pool of choices for WiMAX hotspots continues to expand, and thanks to the FCC , we now know of another up-and-comer. The Rover Puck — trademarked by Clearwire and previously unheard of — joins the ranks Sprint’s Overdrive and its various rebrandings by providing pocketable 4G WiFi service. Unlike its predecessors, however, we finally have a new, more aerodynamic form factor. There isn’t much to the glean from the user manual at this point, and the oft-referenced Rover website still isn’t live — a WHOIS lookup reveals it was last updated via GoDaddy on July 2008 with no other details disclosed. So , until we get some word from the official news pipelines, a plethora of external / internal photos and user manual screenshots are only a mouseclick away

EVO 4G’s Froyo firmware was available for download, manual install (update)

Like we said, you don’t have to wait until August 3rd to get your Android 2.2 Froyo update for the EVO 4G . You can grab the update file right now from HTC’s servers (via source link). All you gotta do then is move the file to the root directory of your SD card, boot the phone into recovery mode (hold the “up” button while the phone is turning on), and select apply update from the associated .zip file — you might also have to rename the file “update.zip” and expect a few other variations in the instructions, user depending. Too much thought process for Friday evening

Motorola Sage: AT&T’s next Android phone?

We tend to go into full-on conjecture mode when we see an interesting FCC filing, but our instincts haven’t let us down in the past , so allow us to throw something out on the table. A new Motorola just hit the feds with 7.2Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, quadband EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth, AGPS, and a digital compass. In other words, this is definitely an Android set, and it could definitely work on AT&T.

The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 6:15 ET!

After an ever-so-brief hiatus, we’re back in business today — and as always, we’ve got a lot to discuss, possibly in a heated tone. Fortunately, the hosts are thousands of miles apart, so we can’t injure one another. Follow the break for all the action! (Note: we’re recording hot on the heels of the Engadget Classic podcast, so you might catch the tail end of it if you join the livestream early.) Continue reading The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 6:15 ET! The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 6:15 ET! originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

NTT DoCoMo announces ‘Xi’ brand for LTE, somehow pronounced ‘crossy’

You’re probably thinking “chi” or “zee,” right? Nope: NTT DoCoMo has laid down the law in its press release touting the LTE service it’ll be launching later this year, and it turns out that “Xi” — in this case, anyway — is pronounced “crossy.” Of course, ultimately, they can call it whatever they like — it’s the service itself that matters, and to that end, we can expect downlink speeds up to a positively blistering 75Mbps, rolling out first in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya in December followed by “other major cities and then additional areas of the nation.” DoCoMo’s accounting for handoffs, too, so you won’t be dropped (theoretically) when you move between Xi and FOMA areas. 75Mbps seems a bit optimistic for a first-phase LTE launch, but hey, we’re pulling for ‘em. Pricing and hardware will be announced later; in the meantime, you can follow the break for the full press release. Continue reading NTT DoCoMo announces ‘Xi’ brand for LTE, somehow pronounced ‘crossy’ NTT DoCoMo announces ‘Xi’ brand for LTE, somehow pronounced ‘crossy’ originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:10:00 EST.

LG, Samsung report earnings, phone businesses not in perfect health

South Korean archrivals Samsung and LG have both come clean with their second-quarter earnings this week. While there’s still black ink across the board, LG suffered a 33 percent decline in net profit year-over-year, undoubtedly due in large part to a little bit of bleeding going on in the giant mobile division where they’ve posted a year-over-year loss “due to investment in R&D and expansion of channels in emerging markets for future development.” Samsung, meanwhile, saw a 7.2 percent profit margin in its mobile business and a respectable 22 percent year-over-year improvement in shipments, but it came at the cost of higher price pressures — margins are razor-thin for these guys, and they seem to be getting even smaller. The company ends on a positive note by saying that the Galaxy S series and the Wave should help push it through the third quarter, but considering how these guys flood the low end (read: the part of the market where it’s especially difficult to make a buck) with dozens of devices every year, it seems like it’s going to take superhuman efficiency to keep shareholders smiling.

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