Google and Sprint team up to take your digital dollars with new NFC payment system? (updated)

Google and Sprint team up to take your digital dollars with new NFC payment system? (updated): "

There's been rumors of a Google-fied mobile payment system for some time, and now it looks like the Mountain View crew is teaming up with Sprint to finally make it happen. Last month, we heard that the Now Network would bring NFC payments to its customers this year, and Bloomberg reports that the partnership and payment system will make its debut on May 26th. Apparently, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are the first cities getting the service, which is a much broader initial footprint than its Isis mobile payment competition. The anonymous sources also say that Verifone and Vivotech are providing the hardware and software that will let you replace your credit card with a Nexus S -- because you always wanted to replace your credit card with your Nexus S.



Update: According to All things D, the payment system will be put through its paces by none other than El Goog's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt at the D9: All Things Digital conference next week -- where we'll be on hand to peep the contactless payment presentation in person.

Google and Sprint team up to take your digital dollars with new NFC payment system? (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smartphone buyer's guide: the best phones for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and more!

Smartphone buyer's guide: the best phones for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and more!: "

The world of smartphones changes mighty quickly, and if you blink, you're bound to miss the latest and most delectable devices. That's where we come in, to provide timely roundups of everything your friends expect you to know, along with the insight that you crave. To bring you up to speed, in our December buyer's guide, at first blush you might have thought we were doing an overview of the best Android phones on the market. That's because of our 16 highly-esteemed handsets, a whopping 13 of them had Google's operating system at the core. As you'll see, the landscape has changed somewhat, and these new contenders that have come out swinging.



We've broken down this buyer's guide by mobile carrier, each including the best handset money can buy, our favorite QWERTY alternative, and the most well-rounded budget phone available (with $79 as the absolute ceiling). For smaller US providers, we're providing a single selection, though we're confident it's a good one. You'll definitely be presented with some difficult choices, but that's merely a testament to the abundance of stellar phones that aggressively compete for your dollar. With that said, let's dive in -- it's roundup time.

Continue reading Smartphone buyer's guide: the best phones for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and more!

Smartphone buyer's guide: the best phones for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and more! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Ice Cream Sandwich coming in Q4 2011 to smartphones and tablets alike

Google Ice Cream Sandwich coming in Q4 2011 to smartphones and tablets alike: "

'One OS that runs everywhere.' There you have it, folks! Google intends to meld its Honeycomb tablet wares and Gingerbread smartphone software into one delicious Ice Cream Sandwich. Maybe that's why the 'sandwich' bit is in the name? Either way, it'll be a universal OS that runs on everything from teeny tiny Android phones to 10-inch tablets and will intelligently adapt to each form factor with things like a resizable status bar. Some other fancy new additions are being demonstrated right now, including face-tracking and camera focus shifting based on voice recognition.

Gallery: Android Ice Cream Sandwich

Google Ice Cream Sandwich coming in Q4 2011 to smartphones and tablets alike originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Music Beta to stream 20,000 songs for free, official! (updated)

Google Music Beta to stream 20,000 songs for free, official! (updated): "

It's not quite official but there's little doubt that Google will launch its Google Music service at its big I/O event later today. While the Wall Street Journal couldn't get a Google spokesman to admit it, Peter Kafka over at All Things D got Jamie Rosenberg, Director of Android Product Management, to spill the details a bit early. Google's service will essentially mimic the music locker functionality of Amazon's Cloud service, albeit without the ability to sell songs direct to consumers. Ouch. Unfortunately, Google's plans to launch a more feature-complete service were derailed when discussions with the labels broke down. According to Rosenberg, 'A couple of the major labels were less focused on the innovative vision that we put forward, and more interested in an unreasonable and unsustainable set of business terms.' So, rather than putting the service on hold, Google will launch its music service with the ability to store up to 20,000 of your own uploaded songs for free which you can then stream over the web to your desktop or Android phone or tablet -- any device that supports Flash (don't worry iOS users, your time will come). Amazon's service, by comparison, offers just 5GB of free storage for about 1,200 songs stored at a mediocre bitrate. Google will also best Amazon with a feature that automatically creates playlists. Google expects to roll out the service to its US users within 'weeks' with Music Beta invites going out later today to Verizon Xoom owners (others will be able to sign up at music.google.com). Keep it right here because we'll be bringing you the announcement live.



Update: And it's officially official, called 'Music Beta by Google' at this point. There's a simple presentation with artists, albums, and easy playlist creation. You can manually create them, or there's a feature called 'Instant Mix' that will make you a playlist based on any single song. It'll automagically pick 25 different tracks to build a 'truly ingenious mix.' You know, kind of like another, similarly intelligent service. All of this syncs to the cloud, which means no wires needed to download anything.



But, more importantly, songs can be cached locally. You can pick any song, album, or playlist to download onto storage, at an unknown quality. It's the same pinning idea that's in the new movies feature. That and more is demonstrated in the video below.



The service is launching in beta today, allowing 20,000 songs, and it'll be free -- 'at least while it's in beta.' Also, the updated music app is available now, which will work with any music on your phone and any phone running Android 2.2 or above. To get full-featured you can request a beta and get in line, but if you happen to be reading this from I/O you're in the beta. Congrats, you lucky bums!

Gallery: Google Music

Continue reading Google Music Beta to stream 20,000 songs for free, official! (updated)

Google Music Beta to stream 20,000 songs for free, official! (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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