Samsung

We normally wouldn’t post news about a Sprint device in the FCC without any juicy details on decent specs, but hear us out — this one’s kind of engaging attention. As our tipster noted to us, the prefix “SPH” on Samsung phones typically means that particular model is heading for Sprint, and an SPH-M920 got FCC approval not long ago. A quick search reveals that the M920 appears to be christened the “Transform,” suggesting that this phone… well, transforms somehow. Of course, that could be as simple as a sliding keyboard or as strange and unique as Verizon’s LG Versa — we really have no idea — but it’s notable that the Transform has a WiFi certification under its belt for 802.11b / g / n, so we can assume the phone’s no slouch and might even fall into smartphone (read: Android) territory. Any educated guesses out there?

The original Samsung Wave — which happens to be the first production Bada device — sports some pretty awesome specs, which probably doesn’t make much sense for a proprietary platform that walks a very fine line between the smartphone and feature phone labels, has an immeasurably small fraction of the market uptake Android has, and isn’t available in any form in the US. To that end, Sammy’s toning things down a bit for round two in the form of the oddly-named Wave 723, which eschews the original’s Super AMOLED display for a 3.2-inch TFT LCD but still manages to squeeze in 802.11n plus a 5 megapixel AF cam with LED flash. The phone’s based on Bada 1.1, which adds UI auto-scaling — in other words, Samsung’s prepping developers to make sure their bountiful Bada apps work seamlessly across devices of different resolutions. No word on pricing, dates, or regional availability at this point, but it’s reasonable to say that it’s devices like the 723 that’ll make or break Bada in the long term. Why this thing isn’t just an Android 2.2 phone with TouchWiz 3.0, though… well, only Samsung can answer that one, we suppose.

Is anyone developing for Bada? Hello, anyone? Seems like all of the hotshot code monkeys out there are (or at least should be) working on bigger, hotter platforms — some of which Samsung is fully supporting — but be that as it may, Sammy has just gotten around to releasing the final 1.0 version of its Bada SDK for devs interested in trying their hand at busting out a Wave app or three. The full SDK package (which includes a number of languages, some of which you may not care to work on) measures over 1.3GB, so it’s plan to take some commitment, a fast connection, and a hard drive not filled to the brim with Android app projects to get it installed.

Samsung Bada SDK hits version 1.0; in other news, a tree falls and no one’s around to hear it originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.