Skip to Content

Summer Budget Travel Tips from Gadling
AOL Tech

Posts with tag speed

Acer Liquid handled, evaluated, 'not too shabby'

Looks like quite a few folks have got their hands on the Acer Liquid as of late, and lucky for us they've been rather loose-lipped with their thoughts on the subject. As suspected, the handset is running a 1GHz Snapdragon that's been under-clocked to 768MHz. And it looks like Acer didn't go crazy with the User Experience either, pretty much staying true to its Google Android 1.6 roots, albeit with a number of additions, including: social networking integration (Facebook and Flickr contacts and photo sharing), nemoPlayer for multimedia files, DataViz for Microsoft Exchange support, and the Spinlets music streaming service. In addition, Acer has redesigned some of the widgets, including the clock and the task manager, which now includes a preview of open apps. All-in-all, it seems to be a pretty solid Android handset with a few useful additions -- but as always, the verdict is out until we get our hands on one. In the meantime, hit up the read links below for a generous helping of screenshots, hands-on pics, and impressions.

[Via JK On The Run]

Read - PREVIEW: Acer Liquid Android 1.6 WVGA Touchscreen Smartphone
Read - Acer A1, Screenshot and Interface

Acer Liquid's Snapdragon processor to be clocked at just 768MHz?

Ugh. Just weeks after we figured that Acer's first Android-based handset would indeed ship with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a new slide over at an international Liquid presentation is suggesting otherwise. As you can clearly see above, it looks as if the Qualcomm-sourced CPU will be underclocked to just 768MHz, which makes little to no sense on the surface. Granted, most average consumers couldn't care less about the CPU in their next smartphone, but it seems reasonable to think that the Liquid will lag behind its 1GHz contemporaries when used side-by-side. Who knows though -- maybe this is just the thing necessary to squeeze a full week of battery life out of this thing. Or not.

[Via MobileTechWorld, thanks Gully and Jose]

iPhone 3G S data isn't really faster than the 3G's in Chicago


There's been talk the last couple days about the fact that there really isn't anywhere in the States to take advantage of the blazing 7.2Mbps downlink connection supported by the iPhone 3G S -- except for one great hope, one diamond in the rough that could become a shining destination for 3G S owners the world over. That destination would be Chicago, where AT&T fired up 7.2Mbps trials late last year, and the hope was that they might be letting lay folk (like us) in on the action in time for the 3G S release. Well, we've been running side-by-side tests today, and the short answer is that we're clearly not accessing 7.2 -- granted, the 3G S is getting marginally faster speeds both up and down, but we figure this can easily be attributed to the new model's faster processor because a doubling of the downlink pipe simply doesn't account for a 100kbps bump in speed (latency was all over the map on both phones, for the record). If you're holding out on upgrading from a 3G to a 3G S, go ahead and crack a smile -- because for now, anyway, this is one spec bump that means precisely zilch in the real world.

Quigo ad placement

Ericsson promises 42Mbps HSPA demo using multi-carrier technology


Leave Ericsson alone for five seconds, and it goes and makes the technology it was just bragging about seem archaic. Just in case Telstra's 21Mbps Next G network seemed a bit -- how do you say, sluggish? -- Ericsson will be showcasing a new approach that enables peak downlink data rates of 42Mbps at Mobile World Congress. In order to achieve such tremendous speeds, it will rely on its so-called multi-carrier technology, which is the next (or is that next-next?) generation of HSPA. The secret? It allows users to "receive data simultaneously on two frequency channels," which doubles the data rate in the coverage area of an HSPA network and on the cell edge. The best part of all this isn't that you can one day look forward to crushing your cable modem with a wireless USB stick, it's that "one day" will be ready to happen before the dawn of 2010. Huzzah!

[Via phonescoop, image courtesy of TornadoChaser]

Cellphone jammer crammed into key fob, ends texting / talking while driving


Face it, kids. You missed the best time to be a teenager by around five or so years. As it stands now, technology is cutting into that adolescent fun, with device like Ford's MyKey and this one here ensuring that you're actually safe behind the wheel. In all seriousness, the terribly named Key2SafeDriving is a fine concept (at least in the parent's eye), as it fuses a cellphone jammer (of sorts) into a key fob in order to put the kibosh on freeway conversations. Essentially, the signal blocking kicks into action anytime the "key" portion is flicked out, connecting to a handset via Bluetooth or RFID and forcing it into "driving mode." No actual jamming, per se, is going on; it's more like a manual override of the ringer. Anyone who phones / texts you while you're safely driving will receive an automated response informing them of such, though we are told that handsfree devices can be utilized. Researchers at the University of Utah are hoping to see it on the market within six months via a private company "at a cost of less than $50 per key plus a yet-undetermined monthly service fee."

[Via Gadgets-Weblog]

Super 3G hits 250Mbps downlink in NTT DoCoMo field test


Just think -- this time next year, we'll all look back at this milestone and wonder how on Earth we thought it was impressive. For now, however, we wouldn't blame you for high-fiving everyone around, as NTT DoCoMo has stretched the boundaries again with a recent Super 3G field test. Reportedly, the outfit was able to record "a downlink transmission rate of 250Mbps over a high-speed wireless network in an outdoor test of an experimental Super 3G system," and while it's not quite the 300Mbps we'd heard about before, you won't find us kvetching. If all goes to plan, the firm is hoping to "complete development of the technologies required for the eventual launch of a Super 3G network" by 2009, but who knows how long we Americans will have to wait to indulge after that.

Quigo ad placement

Verizon's entire EV-DO network leaps to Rev. A


In what's likely yet another futile attempt to steal some limelight from that other national carrier today, Verizon has finally enhanced "100-percent" of its EV-DO network to Revision A technology. Of course, some locales have been enjoying the Rev. A niceties since February, but now Verizon users coast-to-coast (those under an EV-DO umbrella, that is) can stop feeling envious and start enjoying the higher speeds. Interestingly enough, this news comes just days after the company lowered its BroadbandAccess rates and merely hours after throngs of AT&T users reported their EDGE speeds skyrocketing for no apparent reason. Verizon subscribers in EV-DO areas can now expect average download speeds of nearly 600kbps to 1.4Mbps, while uploads will top out somewhere between 500kbps and 800kbps.

"Danger hiptop 2.0" burns rubber in speed tests


Call it wild speculation -- because that's exactly what it is -- but when you see a bunch of "Danger hiptop 2.0"-class browsers hauling butt at speeds approaching 2.0Mbps (according to dslreports.com's speed test, anyway), it's bound to raise a few eyebrows. Said browsers are coming from the dngr.net domain; we suspect it's possible that the speeds are actually indicative of what's being seen between the dslreports.com server and Danger's proxy, but instead we'd like to dream of a WCDMA-enabled Sidekick being prepped for T-Mobile's 3G launch later this year. Seems plausible enough, right?

[Thanks, teeratt]

Mobile speed cameras to suprise chatty motorists with penalties


Nowadays, we're lucky to be able to so much as breathe air while driving without getting penalized. As of late, motorists in South Yorkshire have quite the incentive to keep their phone conversations under wraps while in transit. Mobile speed cameras, traditionally used to catch speeders, will be used by police to catch unsuspecting chit-chatters in the act, who would later receive an unexpected notice showing 3 points on their license and a demand for £60, which was recently, and perhaps not-so-coincidentally, increased from £30. "If officers using mobile cameras see someone using a hand-held phone, whether with their own eyes or through the lens of their camera, then they are fair game." There's been no word on plans for similar implementation within the automated camera system, but "that is not to say that we can't change the policy," states Meredydd Hughes, the head of roads policing for the Association of Chief Constables. Drivers may soon feel compelled to throw down some cash for a headset, although there's even been speculation on the perils of hands-free yapping -- looks like a good tint-job's the last resort... and how about some spinners while you're at it?

[Via Textually]

Researchers show 100Mbps cellular data

As usual, we're given virtually no time to revel in the high-speed (relatively speaking, of course) wireless data we do have before some eggheads have to go and throw the wet blanket on us. Researchers from Germany's Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (a division of Fraunhofer) have apparently taken some standard-issue UMTS equipment and modified it to use MIMO -- the same tech employed in many modern WiFi devices -- to achieve 100Mbps downstream and a full 50Mbps upstream. For the sake of comparison, UMB (aka EV-DO rev. C) takes the crown with 280Mbps down; while there's no word on when this MIMO stuff might hit the streets, UMB won't see the light of day until 2009 at the earliest, so our German friends have a little time to capitalize. And yes, we'll be just fine with a mere 100Mbps on our cellphones, thankyouverymuch.




    AOL News

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: