We have some news on the app store that Meizu announced for the M8 a while back . The official name is apparently MStore, and it is indeed open for business with its first paid app, Mr. Jelly, going for about 29 cents (we believe it’s a productivity tool for managing your, um, jelly). If that sounds familiar, it is — the game is a port of an iPhone App Store gem. Regardless of its somewhat KIRFish nature, we do wish Meizu (its app developers) all the best. Now, when are we going to get Super Monkey Ball for this thing? Meizu MStore open for business, Mr. Jelly on sale now for 29 cents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Meizu Me | Email this | Comments
As everyone knows, Garmin and TomTom have their backs against the ropes in a fight to remain relevant in an age of free GPS turn-by-turn navigation on smartphones (thanks Google and Nokia ). While dedicated personal navigators are almost always superior to their converged competition, the gap has certainly narrowed such that it’s become difficult to justify another device when an increasing number of people already carry a fine navigation device in their pockets. But that’s just gut instinct talking, where’s the hard evidence? Certainly not speculative stock prices . A good place to start is in forward-looking financial statements like the one Garmin, the leading navigation device maker in the US, just issued. Gamin says that it expects competition to cause prices to decline by about 10% in the personal navigation device (PND) industry putting pressure on margins, and thus profits, in 2010. It also see flat or slightly declining revenue over the same period. Fortunately for Garmin, it has a diversified product offering that includes the Nuvifone. However, so far Garmin admits to being disappointed by sales of the handset that “won” our Editor’s Choice award for Worst Gadget of the Year . Things aren’t all doom and gloom, though. Garmin has a pair of Nuvifones in the chute including the Android-powered A50 . And its Q4 results of $1.43 per share easily beat analyst expectations of 95 cents a share. Even TomTom surprised many last week with a 1% increase in Q4 revenue and net profit of €75 million compared to a €989 million loss a year ago. So there’s some hope left for the dedicated PND market… but not much. Garmin and TomTom cling to profits, hope originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | FT (TomTom) , Reuters (Garmin) | Email this | Comments
If your N900 is in need of a little more excitement, this post is for you. First up is word of a new firmware release (3.2010.02-8 (PR 1.1.1)), 16.2MB worth of apparently minor changes along with a slew of new regions, the inclusion of which may mean good things for those who haven’t been granted to this smartphone yet. If that’s not enough for you, at MWC Nokia is showing off some new apps for the handset, the most notable being a couple of 3D games that look a wee bit simplistic in terms of gameplay but don’t disappoint in terms of graphics. No word on when exactly these will be hitting Ovi Store — well, nothing more specific than “soon.” Video after the break (of the games, not the firmware update). [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Continue reading Nokia N900 gets new firmware, new games coming too (video) Nokia N900 gets new firmware, new games coming too (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Firmware at Forum.Nokia.com , Game Demo at YouTube | Email this | Comments
Remember Motorola ’s decision to pause the sale of its largest division ? Change of plans again, folks. According to The Wall Street Journal , the company’s getting ready to reveal a new initiative, whereby it still sells its wireless networking business, but the set-top box and core handset business would instead be spun off into a new, publicly-traded company. That’d invariably leave a pretty small Motorola — less than one-third its current size in terms of sales, selling primarily public-radio system and bar-code scanners. Would the newly-minted company get a new name, logo, and series of catchy, name-inspired puns? Plans are still being finalized, but we’re watching this closely. Motorola to roll out revised plan, schism not so clear-cut anymore originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | WSJ | Email this | Comments
Sometimes it’s nothing, but often, especially when it’s a Tuesday and we’re sitting on a stack of overdue rumors, an Apple Store outage is a tell that new products are due. Especially when the store goes down on a global basis as it has just now. So take a moment to reflect on the latest rumors and chime in with your predictions in the comments. Our guess? Refreshed MacBook Pros … or iPonies, either or. Then check back at 08:30 ET (as is the norm) to see who got it right. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Apple Store down globally, let the speculation begin originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments
