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Froyo served for Telstra Desire

Do you hear the music Desire owners? The tinkling melody of “Greensleeves” playing in the distance? That’s the HTC ice cream truck dropping off a fresh batch of Froyo. That’s right folks, today’s the day. The Android 2.2 update for Telstra-branded HTC Desire handsets is finally available to download via HTC’s Australian website. The file, …

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Sony Walkman NWZ

Three new Walkman MP3 players from Sony — the NWZ-W252, NWZ-A845 and NWZ-B150 range — offer waterproof fun, iPlayer high-jinks and all manner of musical tomfoolery. The NWZ-W252, pictured above, holds 2GB of music and runs for up to 11 hours. It’s water-resistant, designed for the gym, and even the shower afterwards (where do you put it?). It comes in …

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FCC crunches numbers on spectrum crisis

The Federal Communications Commission is laying the groundwork for freeing up wireless spectrum. Last week, the FCC held a workshop that examined the looming spectrum crisis. In a report published as part of the meeting, the FCC indicated that over the next five years, data usage will increase 35 times, compared to rates of today. While the wireless industry is …

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Samsung to reveal new Android phone Nov. 8

Save the date, cell phone fans. Samsung sent out media invites this morning for a November 8 event in New York where it plans on announcing its new Android phone. Unfortunatley, the invite doesn’t offer up very many clues as to the identity of the device, but I’m sure that won’t stop people from talking. Of course, we’ll be there …

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BlackBerry PlayBook readies for Adobe AIR apps

About a month after RIM announced its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the company is releasing its BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR, a software developer kit that can be used to program apps and games for the PlayBook. The SDK specifically targets Adobe AIR, a tool that allows developers to create software that can work on a variety of platforms, …

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Virgin Mobile’s first Android phone (review)

The Samsung Intercept may be a first for Virgin Mobile, but we hope it’s the start of a beautiful relationship between the prepaid carrier (a Sprint subsidiary) and the Android platform. There’s a lot to like about this Android phone, including the Android 2.1 operating system, a combination touch-screen-plus-QWERTY keyboard, and all of Google’s tightly integrated apps and services, including …

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WiMax and LTE told you ain’t no 4G

The next generations of phone network haven’t made a big enough advance to qualify as 4G, according to a global telecoms standards body. The International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) has ruled that neither WiMax or LTE, the technologies currently loosely marketed as 4G, aren’t sufficiently faster than 3G to be worthy of the extra digit. The ITU has decided …

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The 411: Is 4G for real?

Welcome to The 411, my column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have similar queries, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers if I’m stumped. Send your questions and comments to me at [email protected]. If you …

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iPhone overtakes BlackBerry, makes nearly half of Apple’s money

Apple’s imperial march to smart phone domination is smoothly proceeding, with the company now selling more handsets than BlackBerry makers RIM and closing in on Nokia. The launch of the iPhone 4 in June resulted in a huge Q3 (July to September) in terms of global smart phone shipments, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple stormed into second place, …

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Wi

Wi-Fi Direct helps making connections between Wi-Fi-enabled devices much more flexible. Wi-Fi Alliance First demonstrated at CES 2010, Wi-Fi Direct has taken another step to become part of the Wi-Fi usage spectrum. The Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that tests and certifies Wi-Fi products to make sure they interoperate, announced today that it has begun certifying products capable of making Wi-Fi-based …

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