Even though Broadcom, Atheros, and Qualcomm have all been sampling phone-ready draft 802.11n chipsets for some time now, you're still not seeing the tech swiftly overtake 802.11g in the mobile arena -- in fact, we dare you to find a single phone in your carrier's store that can do it. Odds are you can't, but HTC HD2 owners can win a few quid off their skeptical (non-Engadget-reading) friends by enabling support after the fact. Looks like draft-n support got buried in the company's WinMo monster -- a fitting device to add such a rare display of raw, savage wireless power, if we do say so ourselves -- but it got turned off in the shipping firmware for some reason, possibly concerns over increased battery draw, flakiness, or a stark realization that the benefits of 802.11n might not be fully appreciated in a device hamstrung more by a crappy browser than by slow WiFi. If you want to live on the edge anyway and flip the switch, xda-developers has the registry hack you need -- and if you're using an HD2 in the States without 3G right now, let's be honest: you kinda need all the speed-boosting wireless hacks you can dig up.
HTC HD2 can be coaxed into doing 802.11n, if you know how to sweet-talk it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's always a good sign when a device-specific product release becomes the focal point of the XDA development community: it means you've got a winner on your hands. Not that anyone ever doubted the intense demand for Google's new turn-by-turn Navigation introduced exclusively on Motorola's DROID. No more. Brave souls have now tweaked the original code to run on the original Android device, the HTC G1 running on T-Mobile. Anecdotal reports suggest that it's working great -- a good sign that we'll see a cooked ROM unveiled just as soon as feverish fingers can package the new code.
[Thanks, Alex H.]
Filed under: Cellphones
Google Navigation hacked onto T-Mobile G1 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jumpin' Jehoshaphat! With Apple lowering the smartphone price bar with its last-gen iPhone 3G at $99, any well-specced phone hitting the airwaves these days for over a buck ninety-nine on contract just seems outrageous. And then, there's this. T-Mobile USA has somehow found it within its heart to charge a near-astronomical $349.99 (on a two-year agreement, no less) for HTC's latest WinMo-packin' powerhouse, the Touch Pro2. Look, we aren't saying the phone isn't worth its weight in gold, but a quick look around the marketplace shows just how out of place this obscenely large asking price really is. The silver lining? We're betting this slips beneath the $200 mark just as soon as the HTC fanboys have chipped in their early adopter fees (and it hits every other carrier in America).
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Filed under: Cellphones
T-Mobile hits the sauce, demands $350 for HTC Touch Pro2 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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