GADGET BUZZ

In a rather lengthy blog post, Sony Ericsson explained its decision to launch its long awaited Android offering, the X10, with Android 1.6 instead of the newer Android 2.1. In a nutshell, Sony Ericsson is not focused on the version of the OS as much as it is the total UI package offered by Android and SE’s proprietary OS layer dubbed the Sony Ericsson User Experience Platform. Despite its handsome hardware and slick UI, Sony Ericsson realizes that people still ..read more

UK-based Times Online is reporting that Google is developing a mobile phone service that will have the ability to translate speech, from one language to another, on the fly. Google’s hoping to build off of their text-to-text translation engine — which is currently capable of translating 52 languages — and voice search technologies. “We think speech-to-speech translation should be possible and work reasonably well in a few years’ time,” said Google’s chief of translation services. Industry ..read more

Motorola DROID users as a whole are a pretty happy bunch, but after finally getting their first taste of official multi-touch, we can’t help but blame them for wanting a whole lot more. The good news on this front is that Android 2.1 for the DROID will be made available next week, according to Motorola’s Facebook page. Motorola has not detailed what the update will encompass, but here’s what Engadget has been told:

Well, well, well, look what we have here: an actual HTC Legend. For those that don’t pay particularly close attention to the world of Android, the Legend can best be thought of (though by no means officially) as the successor to the Hero. A device that many of you might remember left us wanting more. Featuring a new design approach which includes an aluminum body as well as a gigantic HTC logo on the rear (HTC is typically conservative when ..read more

They’re back at it again. The iPhone dev-team has released an update to their popular jailbreaking software, PwnageTool, for Mac OS X. The new PwnageTool — version 3.1.5 — boasts the ability to properly jailbreak Apple’s recently released 3.1.3 iPhone/iPod Touch firmware. Before you get too excited, the dev-team does offer up this proclamation, “Unless you’ve personally observed a problem with the reporting of your battery percentage, there’s no reason to update to 3.1.3.” For those that feel the ..read more

Motorola has been going toe and toe with RIM over alleged patent infringement both here in the US and across the pond in the UK. Motorola’s UK case focused on BIS and BES technologies, claiming that the two messaging systems infringe upon patents that Motorola holds for an RF-based message communication system. In ruling against Motorola, the judge noted that messages from BES servers were not suitable for RF transmission and that RIM’s BIS servers are physically located in Canada ..read more

It has been a little over two months since the Barnes and Noble Nook first went on sale and the popular e-reader is finally ready to make its nationwide in-store debut. With Amazon and its Kindle under assault by the book publishers over e-book pricing and the news media for its Macmillan book pulling stunt, the timing could not be more apropos with the Nook expected to be available for purchase in stores within the next few days. Folks looking ..read more

4chan, the internet message and image board known for its legion of anonymous users, has been explicitly blocked by Verizon Wireless. 4chan founder Christopher Poole said, “Over the past 72 hours, we’ve been receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers having difficulty accessing the image boards… After an hour and a half on the phone, we’ve received confirmation from Verizon’s Network Repair Bureau (NRB) that we are ‘explicitly blocked.’” The reported block is not affecting users of Verizon’s home ..read more

Rumors of a Superbowl ad for Google’s search service began circulating the internet last week when Google CEO Eric Schmidt tweeted: “Can’t wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter. (someone said, ‘Hell has indeed frozen over’).”  Google, a company known for it’s web advertisements, rarely (ever?) spends company dollars on television-based ads for its line of web services. However, as tweeted by the CEO, a Google spot did air during the ..read more

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! We want to thank everyone that threw their name into the proverbial hat for the HTC Nexus One giveaway we launched on January 10th. Over the 7+ days we saw around 16,000 comments; of those comments 15,720 were left before the January 17th 11:59PM contest deadline. Today, we are pleased to announce that the winner of our N1 lottery is BGR reader Frederik… from Belgium. Congrats Frederik and thanks again to all who entered!