IBLOG SPACE

This is the week that the original Droid will be getting the Android 2.2 update , but it looks like that update won't be bringing two of the most oft-requested features: tethering and a mobile hotspot. Why's that? While tethering seems to be simply due to a lack of an app that "isn't part of this update," the mobile hotspot issue is a bit more curious -- Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney says that the Droid "doesn't have [the] hardware to support a mobile hotspot." No further explanation than that, but we have a sneaking suspicion that Motorola and Verizon aren't passing over the feature because of a lack of hardware, but because of too much hardware -- namely, theDroid 2 and Droid X.

Though we admittedly missed it in our initial review -- this is the kind of thing you just expect to work -- we circled back and amended our look at Samsung's Captivate and Vibrant when we discovered that AGPS is completely busted. Not "sort of working," not "flawed," just utterly broken and non-functional; we waited minutes upon minutes without a location lock in our follow-up testing. AGPS is the kind of thing you don't miss until you don't have it, at which point you realize how woefully inadequate straight-up GPS alone is for mobile use when you're frequently (for some of us, nearly always) trying to locate yourself indoors, under a tree, or in the heart of an urban canyon. This isn't a low- or medium-priority fix -- this is something that Samsung, T-Mobile, and AT&T should've been working to get out immediately. Actually, let's step back a bit: this is a problem for which there's no reasonable explanation why it made it all

Contactless payments made using your phone are hardly a new idea in themselves, but when three of the big four US carriers decide to unite behind it, the time might have come to start paying closer attention. Bloomberg reports that AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are about to test the NFC payment waters with pilot schemes in Atlanta and three other cities, potentially aided by partnerships with Discover Financial Services and British bankers Barclays Plc. This would require all-new readers for merchants and embedded NFC chips in phones, but we reckon plenty of people might be happy to pay a small premium to streamline their lives that little bit more and leave the plastic behind. Either way, Visa's nascent attempts at conquering the mobile just got themselves a big old cabal-sized competitor.

The Library of Congress made it legal, MuscleNerd showed us it was a go, and now Comex and company have delivered the long-awaited jailbreak to the fourth rendition of iPhone. According to their new page JailbreakMe , the hack works right on the iPhone 4 (or 3GS, or 3G, or iPad, or...) itself, using via the handset's Safari browser to reportedly break into most any iOS device. The servers are getting slammed pretty badly, and only a few Engadget editors have so much as seen the page pictured above so far, but rest assured we're testing this as we speak and will have more details up soon. Update: Sorry folks, we've tried repeatedly, but apparently the servers just can't handle the load -- Comex tweets that the purple screens we're seeing are evidence of server fail. Here's hoping for a Cydia celebration when the stampede is over. Update 2: Comex says you might want to reboot if you got stuck staring at that purple screen, and you could also try their backup serv

Looks like those regulators over in the Middle East don't mess about. Following this week's revelation that the United Arab Emirates' telco overseers weren't happy with being unable to monitor how people were using their BlackBerrys , today we're hearing what their solution to the problem will be: an outright ban. Internet access, email and instant messaging on RIM devices will be blocked in the UAE starting this October -- provided, of course, that the Canadian phone maker doesn't do something in the meantime to appease the authorities. Saudi Arabia is similarly peeved with the BBM service, which it intends to shut down later this month. And just in case you were wondering why all this drama is taking place, the BBC cites a Saudi Telecom board member as admitting it's designed to pressure RIM into releasing users' communication data "when needed." Charming.

In 2009, Chris Paget showed the world the vulnerabilities of RFID by downloading the contents of US passportsfrom the safety of his automobile. This year, he's doing the same for mobile phones. Demonstrating at DefCon 2010, the white hat hacker fooled 17 nearby GSM phones into believing his $1,500 kit (including a laptop and two RF antennas) was a legitimate cell phone base station, and proceeded to intercept and record audience calls. "As far as your cell phones are concerned, I'm now indistinguishable from AT&T," he told the crowd. The purpose of the demonstration was highlight a major flaw in the 2G GSM system, which directs phones to connect to the tower with the strongest signal regardless of origin -- in this case, Paget's phony tower. The hacker did caveat that his system could only intercept outbound calls, and that caller ID could tip off the owner of a handset to what's what, but he says professional IMSI catchers used by law enforcement don'

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

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?

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. We&#

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. Weren't able to make it yourself? Aren't Canadian? Want to pretend for a few sweet moments that you are? Follow the break for our video!

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'sOverdrive 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.

Though many versions of the Touch Pro2 have been updated from WinMo 6.1 to 6.5 over the last half a year, theTilt2 -- AT&T's version -- has been so far left out in the cold. That still hasn't changed in any official capacity, but a new branded ROM leak seems to change all that, giving us hope that a formal release is finally in the cards (some four months after Sprint, for the record). At a quick glance, WMExperts says that the leak is running Sense 2.5 and feels more responsive, which is always a good sign -- and considering that Windows Phone 7could very well be out by the time AT&T outs this on its own for all we know, you might want to strongly consider pulling the trigger upgrading to this early release.

It's not guaranteed to make you any smarter, but having such an intelligent little bird upside your ear may at least give you a minor boost in confidence. A full 1.5 years after the original Q1 made its debut, BlueAnt is introducing its Q2 Smart Bluetooth Headset. Aside from being able to cancel out noise while traveling at up to 22mph (read: Usain Bolt's average walking speed), the Q2 also touts a fully integrated text-to-speech feature that belts out news, weather, sports and the latest gossip from Microsoft's Bing 411. And if you just so happen to use a smartphone with Android 2.0 or newer, it'll actually read your text messages and emails aloud without you having to fish your handset out of your britches. It's available now at AT&T stores for $129, and just in case you're wondering, you can freak mall walkers out for five solid hours without needing a recharge. Not that we'd encourage such behavior.

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 meantimea

You'd probably assume that Samsung would have a difficult time overshadowing the Galaxy S right now, but all it really takes is a salacious Bluetooth SIG entry that leaves only the most important parts to the imagination. We've known for some time now that Sammy would be one of Microsoft's closest Windows Phone 7 launch partners, and we've even taken the time to toy with a prototype earlier in the year. But a new Bluetooth certification is now all-but-confirming a name: Cetus. The SGH-i917 is apt to be North America's first WP7 device from Samsung, a 4-inch smartphone with an 800 x 480 AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera, a VGA front-facing camera , an FM radio tuner, inbuilt GPS, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, USB 2.0 and of course, Bluetooth. As for pricing, availability and form factor? "Not yet."

Wondering when the Galaxy S will be getting its own cup full of Froyo, the 2.2 build that every Google handset is screaming for? Samsung promised that an update would be coming not long after release, and now courtesy of the company's official UK Twitter feed we know it's due in September. At least, Samsung is saying it's coming in September. That company has shattered our little hearts before with its broken promises, and we'd sure hate to see it happen again.

The iPhone 4 may be launching on all the major Canadian carriers tomorrow, but we're only just now starting to get the actual details on what they'll be offering. Rogers is the first out of the gate and, for a change, it looks like folks in the US may just be a tad jealous of their northern neighbors. It's not only offering the iPhone 4 for a further discounted price -- $159 for the 16GB and $269 for the 32GB on a three-year contract (for both new and existing customers eligible for a hardware upgrade) -- but it's bringing back its 6GB data plan for $30 a month as well. On top of that, Rogers is also offering a new iPad sharing plan that will let you share those 6GB between the two devices for an extra $20 a month. Still no official word from the other carriers, but MobileSyrup has turned up a leak that suggests Bell will be offering 6GB for $30 as well, and iPad sharing for just $10 a month -- although that's yet to be confirmed. We'll keep you posted as more

Though Samsung has developed a near-legendary reputation for giving its phones silly names, it turns out that " Intensity II " is surprisingly appropriate in a way: this thing's got an infrared camera. Or at least the 1.3 megapixel shooter has an infrared mode, which should make it unusually adept at taking pictures of things that people never intended to be captured for posterity. Like itspredecessor, the Intensity II has a slide-out landscape QWERTY keyboard paired with a numeric keypad in front; you've got a 2.2-inch QVGA screen and microSD expansion up to 32GB, perfect for those thousands of night shots you'll undoubtedly be taking. It's available today for $49.99 on contract after rebate in your choice of silver or blue.a

You know the drill: blurry shots of phone get leaked... user's manual gets leaked... excited would-be buyers voraciously consume manual's contents... phone finally gets released. Indeed, that's precisely the same well-trodden path the upcoming Droid 2 is taking, so if you're looking at getting this thing in the next few weeks, you might want to start skimming the documentation so there aren't any embarrassing newbie missteps in your first few moments of ownership. As Droid Life notes, we've got more confirmation here that the phone will be running the same skin as the Droid X, complete with the Swype-enabled (and presumably multitouch-enabled) soft keyboard for those times when you're too lazy to pull out the physical keyboard. We can't imagine what else could possibly leak at this point -- so hey, Verizon, can we recommend you go ahead and get this show on the road?

So, how do you feel about the look of this myTouch 3G HD we've been seeing this week? Haven't formed a complete opinion yet? Well, maybe this new shot -- seemingly of said phone's backside -- will help. As we've seen on past models, the rear features a tastefully-sized myTouch logo, lending a dose of credibility to the picture that seems to have been covertly snapped off a monitor where the render was being shown. In other words, we don't have much reason to doubt this thing -- and considering that the Vibrant isn't a member of the myTouch line, T-Mobile's overdue for a refreshed non-QWERTY Android device in that segment of the market. Should be an interesting few months for these guys, no?

Boost Mobile does a fine enough job advertising its $50 monthly unlimited plan, but how's about the phone selection? If you're a fan of flips, Motorola has a new duo headed to the aforesaid operator next month. First up is the Rambler (shown right), which boasts a full QWERTY keypad , integrated 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture, stereo Bluetooth, IM / email capability and inbuilt GPS. The Bali, on the other hand, rocks a more traditional input surface along with an MP3 player, external touch controls and a microSD slot. Both handsets will go on sale August 11th, with the Rambler running $99.99 and the Bali $149.99. Who said Boost never gave you more (keys) for less (dough)?a

It's a crying shame that the American flavors of Samsung's otherwise stunning Galaxy S lack a front facing camera, but even those camped out in the Great White North should know that the European versions (i9000) do have such a feature. Lucky for them, Bell's Galaxy S Vibrant will also have a camera mounted on the front, enabling video chats with a lot less hassle. Oh, and if you're wondering exactly when you'll be able to grab hold of one and brag to your friends down south, a contest from Bell is providing reason to believe that August 6th is the day to watch. Furthermore, the fine print makes mention of a CAD$599 retail value, so we're guessing that you may be able to pick up an off-contract Vibrant for that very price. Fingers crossed, right?

Call us jaded, bitter or just downright unlucky, but we've received more new Citi card digits in the past two years than we know what to do with. Every other month or so, some prankster is breaking into some database and compromising some quantity information over at Citi (or at least that's how it seems), and now the frustrations have spilled over into the mobile realm. Citigroup recently fessed up to a security flaw in its iPhone app, and even Apple has joined in encouraging users to upgrade in order to maintain their dignity, identity and sanity. According to reports, just over 117,000 customers were affected, though "the bank doesn't believe any personal data was exposed by the flaw." Of course, if you'd like that to remain the case, we'd suggest you upgrade right away.

This new Bold 9780 is really looking like the real deal, isn't it? The phone, which includes some ultra-minor aesthetic tweaks over the 9700, along with 512MB of RAM to handle the new BlackBerry 6 OS, has been described on paper, caught on camera, and now has gotten the requisite video walkthrough. The video, obtained by Driphter.com , includes some nice WebKit browsing, with fast page loads but some slightly sluggish scroll speeds. Of course, this is still pre-release software, so we'll see where we end up when BlackBerry 6 starts landing on these RAM-bumped devices for reals

If you're an iPhone user, the only privacy notice you'll see from an app regards your current location -- as much a warning about the associated battery hit from the GPS pinging as anything. If you're an Android user, however, things are different, with a tap-through dialog showing you exactly what each app will access on your phone. But, do you read them? You should, with Lookout running a sort of survey across 300,000 apps on those two platforms, finding that many access personal information even though they seemingly don't need to. One particularly scary instance, an app called Jackeey Wallpaper on Android, aggregates your browsing history, text messages , could get your voicemail password, and even your SIM ID and beams it all to a server in China. That this app has been downloaded millions thousands of times is a little disconcerting, but it's not just Android users that have to fear, as even more iPhone than Android apps take a look through your contact info

It's a good day here, because rather than poor 'ol Sad Moto we get to bust out Happy Moto, as Motorola has released some good news in its Q2 financial report. Earnings were $162 million, up from $26 million this time last year. That sounds like a big jump, but compared to overall sales of $5.4 billion you can see things are still rather tight -- especially since those sales were down from $5.5 billion the year before and all-important mobile device sales figures dropped six percent to $1.7 billion. Also, these numbers were boosted by a "significant legal settlement" valued at $228 million. Maybe intellectual property wasn't the only thing Moto got from RIM?

A wordy headline, to be sure, but a pleasing one nonetheless. We came across HTC's Chinese web portal listing the Desire as coming with Android 2.2 (with Sense!) and simply had to ping the official source for confirmation. It turns out the info up there is no mistake: all HTC Android handsets shipping to China -- which includes the Wildfire and Tianyi -- will do so with Froyo preloaded, cutting down on your upgrade angst at least until theGingerbread man comes a'knocking. HTC has also reiterated that a 2.2 update for its phones already on the market will be delivered "very soon," so if all goes well, we should be looking at a Froyo-dominated August in the land of High Tech Computers.

Nokia's Symbian^3 flagship -- the 3.5-inch N8 with 12 megapixel camera -- just went up for pre-order on Espoo's Italian storefront showing an end of September availability. Now before you get up in arms about the €469 price tag (about $610), remember, the €370 estimated retail price announced was pre tax and pre carrier subsidy. That's just how Europe does things, deal with it. We're not seeing the preorder available elsewhere but we'll update you if that situation changes.

Back when we outlined the iOS 4 features missing from iPhone 3G , we forgot one key bullet point: performance. As more and more two-year veterans of Apple's phones have taken the plunge and upgraded to the latest firmware, slowdown and battery drain issues have become a common complaint, which is even more irksome when you think of just how little the update really adds to the UI. The Wall Street Journal reports speaking to anApple spokesperson who said the company is looking into the matter. That doesn't necessarily mean a fix is coming anytime soon, but hey, at least you can hold the darn thing however you want.

Well this is getting good . Motorola was one of the first to take a subtle swipe at Apple's iPhone 4 antenna dilemma with an ad saying you could hold the Droid X "any way you like," Apple came right back with a videopurportedly showing the Droid X suffering similar attenuation issues when held in the right hand, and now Moto's responded with this cheeky ad that plays off Apple's free iPhone case solution by saying the Droid X can make calls "without a bulky phone jacket." Yeah, it's pretty good -- particularly because unlike most other phones, we haven't been able to death grip the Droid X with any noticeable effect on 3G reception. (Although, truth be told, we can drop the WiFi signal by a few bars pretty easily.) Either way, we're certainly enjoying this little slice of swagger from Moto

We knew it was coming, and now it's official: Rogers Wireless has today launched its entry-level "chatr" wireless brand for Canadians everywhere -- and by "everywhere," we mean Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa (Montreal is coming soon, as is possibly elsewhere). Two plans are available: $45 monthly for unlimited talk-and-text and $35 for unlimited talk and 50 free texts. As of now, the official website's showing four devices to choose from, available at full price only (no subsidizing). On the low end, relatively speaking, there's the Nokia 1661 candybar for $60, followed by the LG GB125R flip for $75, the Nokia 2680 portrait QWERTY slider for $95, and Samsung's Gravity landscape QWERTY slider sitting at the top of the chain for $130. Rogers -- whose name appears nowhere in Chatr's branding so far -- expects "hundreds" of chatr kiosks to be rolled out at Future Shops, Best Buys, Costcos, and other retail outlets. The b

HTC Europe director Mark Moons caused quite a stir this morning when he tweeted that the company would begin rolling out Android Froyo updates to devices tomorrow, starting with the Desire, but we wouldn't get too excited yet -- HTC tells us that it's possible a rollout will begin tomorrow, but nothing's finalized yet pending some final testing. We've certainly got our fingers crossed -- and we're sure Desire owners the world over will be hitting that System Updates button nonstop for the next few days.

A suspected al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network's global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks. Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaida's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said. Shukrijumah (SHOOK'-ree joohm-HAH') and two other leaders were part of an "external operations council" that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed — his former boss. "He's making operational decisions is