According to an official press release from the wireless carrier, EVO owners should expect to get an OTA notification beginning August 3rd. Now, as is the case with all other OTA updates, for pretty much every other carrier out there and every phone that can do it, this is going to be a staggered roll-out. Not all the EVO owners out there are going to get it at the same time, or the first day. There’s just too many of you, after all.

However, Sprint is also quick to mention another way you can get the update notification. Instead of waiting with your hands under you, at the edge of your chair, you can just go into the Settings menu of your EVO, and find System Updates. Just selecting that will make your EVO start searching for the update, and as soon as it’s found, you’ll go through the process. So, no waiting. Check out the full press release below.

[via Android Community]

Press Release

Sprint is the first wireless carrier to bring Android 2.2 to customers using the award-winning HTC EVO™ 4G beginning Tuesday, Aug. 3

Android 2.2 offers HTC EVO 4G feature enhancements including Bluetooth® voice dialing, built-in Flash, the ability to store apps to the memory card and much, much more

The award-winning HTC EVO 4G just got that much better. We are excited to announce that beginning the week of Aug. 1; Sprint will begin rolling out the Android 2.2 upgrade to its HTC EVO 4G customers.

Sprint will be the first wireless carrier to bring1 the latest version of Android to its customers. The Android 2.2 software release provides a significant number of feature enhancements, including:

• Voice Dialing Over Bluetooth.
• Application Storage on External Memory, giving users more storage room for all their apps.
• Camera 4-way rotation allows the camera icons to rotate with the camera.
• Improved Browser Performance including a faster JavaScript engine and Flash 10x Support improving the user’s ability to view videos and available content associated with web pages.

“Sprint is thrilled with our customers’ response to HTC EVO 4G and the innovative and exciting experience it offers,” said Fared Adib, vice president – Product Development for Sprint. “It is exciting for us to lead the industry in bringing the Android 2.2 update to these customers and improve on the amazing experience they receive with America’s first 4G capable phone.”

Easy Downloading
Sprint will begin sending update notifications to users in waves beginning Tuesday, Aug. 3 and the upgrade should be available for all HTC EVO 4G users by the middle of August.
The notification will let the users know that the update is available and it will provide the simple two-step over-the-air download process.

1. Users will receive a notification that Android 2.2 is available for download.
2. Once the user has downloaded the update, they will be prompted to install the update. The user will be notified that their device will be disabled during the installation process. The phone will be ready to use once the process completes.

For those who just can’t wait to get Android 2.2, there will be an easy user initiated option to download the upgrade. Customers can access the software update through their HTC EVO 4G under the Settings Menu System Updates HTC Software Update. This will initiate the three-step process also.

Customer favorites on HTC EVO 4G’s long list of features include the 4.3-inch screen, dual 8MP video camera capable of capturing HD quality and front-facing 1.3MP camera. They also appreciate the HDMI output jack making it simple to start a movie for your children in the backseat of the car with the phone and then connect to an HDTV to finish it when you arrive at home.2 Business customers highlight its super-fast 1GHz processor, simultaneous voice and data capability in 4G or Wi-Fi coverage areas enabling Web surfing and more during conversation, and built-in mobile hotspot for up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices.3 For HTC EVO 4G images visit Sprint’s image gallery.

Amazing at 3G, Unbelievable at 4G

Sprint is the first national carrier offering the next generation of broadband technology today in 43 markets. Sprint 4G delivers download speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G from any other wireless carrier4, giving HTC EVO 4G a faster data speeds than any U.S. wireless device available today. HTC EVO 4G’s exciting features and applications are compelling and powerful in a 3G world, but they become even more amazing when experienced with 4G speeds.

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The Starter Pack is just what it sounds like. It includes the PlayStation Move controller, the PlayStation Eye camera, and one game called Sports Champions. You get all of that for only $99. However, the UK version of the same bundle, instead, isn’t getting a full retail game at all. According to a recent report with MCV, the UK bundle is actually going to be ship with nine demos, and not the same Champions title.

Instead, purchasers will get six snippets of retail titles like Sports Champions, The Shoot, TV Superstars, and Beat Sketchers. Amongst others. The UK Start Pack for Sony’s Move will be £49.99. So what do you think? Are US customers getting the better Starter Pack deal, or UK-based residents?

[via MCV]

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[Image credit Ryonix.com]

Hayes-compatible 1200 baud modem

This is sort of a cheat, because the Hayes-compatible modem was definitely important, but it came bundled with a membership to the Prodigy network. Signing up for Prodigy was one of the most important moments of my life, and it started my contentious relationship with the Hayes modem.

For those of you who are a few years younger than I, Prodigy was sort of like AOL without the rest of the Internet behind it. It was a pay service with tons and tons of original content. You could shop on Prodigy. You could read the news and send e-mail. You could post messages on bulletin boards and comment back and forth on what other people were saying. Except for the multimedia, there is little about today’s Internet that wasn’t already possible on Prodigy, 20 years ago.

For those of you decades younger than I, Prodigy is what the Internet would be if it were only Wikipedia . . . with comments. We had flame wars. We had anonymity. We had modems that made crazy loud beeping noises, followed by the static white noise sound. I often wonder if my toddler son will understand that sound in 10 years when he hears it in an old movie.

I could say more about Prodigy and its effect on me, but let’s just say I blossomed on that early network. I made some of the best friends I’ve ever made. Real friends; in-person friends. I took a girl to my Junior Prom after getting to know her on Prodigy. I still talk to old Prodigy friends. But Prodigy was inseparable from that modem. I had one computer at the time, a huge beige desktop. I couldn’t tell you the brand; at the time we just called it an IBM-compatible.

The modem was a giant unit that had its AC plug built into the box. You plugged the entire modem into the wall, and then plugged the phone line into the modem. My parents had to get a new line installed in our basement, where I kept the computer for homework. I had no games on the computer, since it used only a CGA graphics card, and my gaming consoles were much better. It was a computer for word processing and Prodigy.

At some point during my Sophomore year, my grades slipped a bit. It wasn’t Prodigy’s fault. I was hanging out with friends after school. I was blowing off work I didn’t enjoy. My grades slipped from “A”s and “B”s to “B”s and “C”s, but never lower. My parents blamed Prodigy. It was easy to blame, because it was right in front of them.

When I was home, I was usually tucked into the basement, keeping up with my new online friends. Even when my parents couldn’t see me, they could pick up the phone in the kitchen and hear that modem connection. Since it seemed like the modem was always connected, Prodigy was an easy scapegoat for my falling grades.

They didn’t take away Prodigy, they took away the modem. Except that my parents had no idea what a modem looked like. They saw the hardware: a large AC plug with a cord running to the PC. The cord ended in a pin adapter. The modem came with two, one each for two differently sized serial ports.

Instead of taking away the modem, they took the adapter. Thankfully, the modem came with a spare that fit the other port size, and this worked fine with my machine. They took the serial adapter and hid it away in an antique apothecary scale that my father displayed on the mantel.

I kept connecting. When I heard footsteps upstairs near the phone, I would quickly kick the modem out of the wall. With no power, the connection terminated instantly. Using this deception for about a year, I was only caught once. That was enough. They couldn’t figure out my trick, but they did figure out that canceling my subscription would solve the problem.

Not really, though. Like with AOL, every Prodigy account came with 6 different login names. I lost my account, but a good friend, the girl I took to prom (the one for whom I made mix tapes as well, if you read the first half of this column), gave me one of her login names. I never got caught again.

As a post script, that apothecary scale sits on a new mantel in a new house, my parents having long-since moved. I checked last thanksgiving, and the serial adapter is still there. Perhaps if my grades improve, I’ll get it back, someday.

Macintosh Powerbook 520c

It almost seems like a copout putting this machine on the list. It’s just too awesome. The Mac Powerbook 520c was the low end of Apple’s Powerbook line at the time. There was a 540c using an active-matrix, full color display, but my machine used a passive matrix screen that left trails and a foggy picture. I loved that computer.

It wasn’t the color screen, the first I’d seen on a laptop computer. It wasn’t the trackpad, either, the first I’d seen anywhere. I’ve owned computers since I was 10 years old, and Macs since I was 17. I was 19 when I bought my Powerbook 520c, a sophomore in college, and it changed my education for good.

I had always typed papers for school, since I was in middle school. But my note taking was atrocious. I managed to squeak by. I had a good mind for math equations, and I could fake my way through any English test. But in history, science, even my language studies, I was at the mercy of my own memory. My handwriting is nearly illegible, and in all my time in grammar school, I don’t once remember studying from my own notes.

After a month with my first laptop, I was bringing it to every class. In 1994, I was still the only one with a laptop in class. By the end of college, I could type out an hour-long lecture verbatim. I was sharing my notes with other people, comparing my notes to make sure they were correct.

I don’t think that reviewing notes later necessarily improved my education. But being able to take accurate notes and follow closely as the class was in session was a priceless advancement for me, and I think it would help an incomprehensible number of today’s students.

Note taking is a difficult skill to teach because it is so personal; but every teacher expects students to take notes and follow closely at the important moments. If every student went to class armed with a computer of her own, it would change the way students interact in a classroom.

I’m not talking about advanced networked classrooms sharing multimedia presentations and taking digitized quizzes at the end of a term. I’m talking simply about taking notes. Writing things down. Processing and recording the information as it is being thrown your way. I can’t think of a better way to pull underperforming, bright students into the modern age than arming them with the proper tools for the job. In today’s education system, those tools are no longer notebooks and pens, but laptops and wireless networks.

TiVo

This seems like an easy choice, and I’m sure plenty has been written about how TiVo has rocked the entertainment world. But it all hit home for me about ten years ago. I was a very early adopter for TiVo. I’ve been a customer since the first boxes hit the shelves.

A professor of mine once said that the VCR was the most disruptive thing to happen to performance art in a hundred years. For the first time, you could pause a work of art while it was happening, leave the room for a snack, and start the piece where you left off. Before the VCR, you couldn’t stop a movie, you could only choose to miss some of it. You couldn’t stop a play, you couldn’t only interrupt it, or remove yourself from it.

TiVo is similar, but it adds another component. TiVo is always recording what you see on television. It has a constant buffer, so if you see something you want to save for later, you can hit record and it’s already done. On my oldest TiVo (of the three I’ve owned), I have an assortment of shows that I’m keeping for posterity. Some I even have cued to my favorite part. Press a button and George Costanza says “Well, there’s nothing dirtier than a giant ball of oil.” Start up my favorite Simpsons and the first thing you hear is Homer asking: “Are you really the head of Kwik-E-Mart? Really? You?”

TiVo changed the world for me on September 11, 2001. I was faxing resumes, looking for a teaching job. My wife was working in midtown Manhattan. She called to tell me to turn on the news, something big and evil was happening downtown. I turned on CNN, and even in my initial shock, I knew to press the record button. I still have those first hours of the newscast from that day.

Some day I’ll show it to my children. I know they could probably find archival footage, but I want them to see the moment as I saw it. Aaron Brown starting to speak mid-sentence. The camera cuts to a building billowing smoke. That’s when I pressed record, and created a memory that I’ll never forget.

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The PT is manufactured by a company in Germany called Ewee, and they designed it to take all of the unnecessary elements of the Segway out of the equation, and just scale it down to the bare-bones needed to function. So, you’ll be holding onto nothing but those skinny handlebars, and your hopes and dreams as you propel yourself down the sidewalk in this mechanical contraption.

Movement is handled much the same way as the Segway, though. You move forward by leaning forward, and if you want to stop, you simply straighten yourself out. Steering, though, is handled by a joystick of sorts. Or be comfortable. The Ewee-PT is available for preorder right now, all for a low cost of €799, or about $1,039. Check out the video below before you whip out your credit card, though.

Press Release

fun-mobility will be more attractive
- Segways little sister -

The ewee-PT – segway-like but although very different: Most compact and flexible, the little personal transporter (PT) reaches a speed of at least 16km/h.

Riding this little scooter is very simple: just lean forward for accelerate the ewee smoothly and leaning backward will slow down. Steering will be done easily with a joystick – it feels like a game console -– driving pleasure is guaranteed.

The capabilities of the ewee-PT are endless: Indoor using as well as outdoor explorations will be possible. Long ways in factory halls, airports or shopping malls will be done very comfortably and quickly. And of course you will enjoy sight seeing tours and beach promenades much more without increasing air pollution.

The ewee-PT with its size of a paper sheet will carry you safely like going on rails because of the dynamic stabilization system (SFS). It reaches a max. speed of 16 km/h with a cruising range of nearly 8km.

Delivery will be pre-assembled, so that within a few steps the ewee-PT can be used and otherwise can be folded easily for transportation.

The small PT scooter will be distributed exclusively by www.fun-components.com for 799,00€ plus
shipping costs. Find more information about ewee-PT at www.ewee-pt.com.

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This time around, we’ve got Verizon’s first LTE USB modem, which as you can see from a Boy Genius Report tipster, is very shiny. It’s brandishing all of the tell-tale signs: Verizon and LTE logos, and there’s even that LG brand name on the back, letting everyone know who’s manufacturing this little guy.

We can also see there’s room for those 4G SIM cards that showed up a few weeks ago, too. So, basically everything is coming together quite nicely for the largest wireless carrier in the United States, and they should be pretty excited about their LTE future. Unfortunately, the tipster didn’t have many other details about the modem itself, so for now we’ll just have to look at the pictures.

[via Boy Genius Report]

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There are 125 pieces in this metal puzzle. And, as you can see form the image above, it looks like a normal cube in its normal state. But, once you start disassembling this bad boy, and you find the 20 correct pieces, you can solve this puzzle into a functioning, single-shot .45 caliber handgun. Yes. It’s a single-shot, functioning .45 caliber handgun. Which you create from a puzzle.

Just in case solving a puzzle wasn’t good enough protection from hiding your new handgun, there’s also a special key that you need to use to “unlock” the original cube, before anyone can start taking apart the pieces. So, you can have this block sitting around your home, looking like a nice decorative piece, but all the while you’ll know it’s hiding a very deadly, yet awesome secret.

[via DVICE]

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That is, unless your a child’s playmat. The HRP-2, which is a manufacturing project from AIST, is moving on in the world. It wasn’t too long ago that it wasn’t able to do what you see in the video below, which means the engineers and designers are obviously hard at work at making the Promet one of the best robots out there. As you can see, Promet is perfectly capable of handling small terrain changes — no, they aren’t in any way mountains or even mole hills, but at least it’s a start where the engineers can build from.

And considering all the “competition” out there, making sure that Promet sees the light of day, and the top of the hill, should make their priorities pretty clear. There’s no word on when the next advancement in Promet’s systems or capabilities will be completed, but as soon as this guy can jump or play soccer, we’ll be all over it.

[via Plastic Pals]

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You’ll have the ability to preorder starting today, but you’ll have to make a quick trip to Brookstone’s website to finish the deed. If you’ll recall, the AR.Drone can be piloted by an iPhone, iPod Touch, or even an iPad, and it will rely on augmented reality to fly around the terrain in the real world. Parrot is using open source technology to create the augmented reality “stages,” so that means designers will be able to create their own levels, and you will be able to reap the benefits of their endeavors.

If you’re interested in preordering one, the full cost of the drone is $299, and it will ship your way come September 3rd. Or, if you’d rather just have that instant gratification after you purchase, you can head into a Brookstone brick-and-mortar location beginning October 31st and pick one up. But, if you’re still on the fence, check out our hands-on video below. It will make you want one.

[thanks, Nick]

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Just over a month ago, we told you that Clearwire had their sights set on installing WiMAX modems into a bunch of Intel Core-based notebooks, which would then subsequently be sold through Best Buy some time by the holiday shopping season. Even as the report hit the ‘net, there were still plenty of questions. Primarily, was this a one time thing, or would a new deal come from the situation? It looks like we have our answer, as Best Buy and Clear have just made it possible for the two to work closely together to bring 4G service to people.

Best Buy’s Connect service just debuted a few weeks ago, and now it’s time for the service to put their foot forward and start doing some good. Unfortunately, you’ll be at the mercy of Best Buy’s Connect service, which is only available in “dozens of cities,” but the major electronics retailer affirms that the service will be rolling out to other cities through the coming months.

The deal will allow for a new 4G-based tier through the Connect service, but the companies said it won’t be ready for prime time until 2011. So, that holiday roll out of those 4G-capable notebooks still seems like the best way, at least in the short-term future, to get your WiMAX on.

[via CNET]

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Yasushi Hiroshi Minagawa spoke out on Nintendo’s behalf today, and told the world that the company will be ready to make another announcement on September 29th. The spokesman was speaking with the Japanese branch of Bloomberg, and disclosed that more details about the 3D handheld would be released in just one month. We’re still waiting for the announcement, of the announcement that the Nintendo 3DS’ price and availability has been announced. That’ll be a good day. So, start placing your bets now, folks — in just a month, we’ll find out whether or not Nintendo’s pricing the 3DS to move, or sit on shelves for eternity.

[via TechRadar]

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