Nokia’s rolling more of its experimental Symbian projects out to its Windows Phone hardware and City Lens is the latest to arrive in its immaculately-kept Beta Labs. Not to be confused with existing efforts, it throws together an augmented reality interface to give you a better overview of the best places to eat in town, and those tourist hotspots you simply must see. It’ll then connect with your current location (which can be shared with your your contacts) and even offer up directions if you’re in need. The app remains in testing for now, but you can help Nokia out by donning your labcoat and registering for its Beta Labs at the source below.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a Kyocera smartphone for the US market, and if you’ll recall, its previous two attempts — the Milano and Echo — didn’t manage to sway many consumers. Today, the company is adding two new Android handsets to the deck: the Hydro and Rise. True to its name, the Hydro plays off of Kyocera’s experience in the waterproof segment, and while it’s not mil-spec, the phone’s able to withstand submersion at depths of up to one meter for a half-hour. The Hydro is a CDMA handset, although Kyocera is keeping the carrier close to its chest.

The Hydro will ship with Ice Cream Sandwich, and we’re pleased to report that the interface is largely unmolested, save for Kyocera’s app to conserve battery life — whether the carrier dictates future changes remains to be seen. Beyond the OS and the waterproof aspect, however, it’s rather humdrum in the spec department. It features a Qualcomm MSM8655 SoC with a 1GHz CPU, a 3.5-inch, 480 x 320 display, a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash and a 1,500 mAh battery. Because the screen is an IPS LCD, the quality is definitely a step-above your run-of-the-mill TFT-LCD mainstays, although it’s hard to ignore the low-res image quality. The Hydro also offers 512MB of RAM, 2GB of built-in storage and a 2GB microSD card. In terms of connectivity, you’ll find 802.11n (WiFi), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and EV-DO Rev. A. The handset itself is comfortable to hold, though its plasticky build materials reinforce the fact that it’s a low-end handset. While the Hydro doesn’t blaze any new trails, it may very well be suitable for those on a budget who’d like a phone that can handle life’s accidents. Follow the break for our hands-on video.

Terrence O’Brien contributed to this report

Kyocera is looking to regain a foothold in the US smartphone market, and curiously enough, it’s doing so by catering to niche audiences. First we saw the Hydro, a waterproof handset, and alongside it is the Rise, which features a sliding QWERTY keyboard. Both phones are built for CDMA networks, although Kyocera has yet to announce carrier availability for either.

Spec-wise, the Rise is very similar to the Hydro, and this extends to the OS. In our brief time with the phone, we were treated to a largely vanilla interpretation of Ice Cream Sandwich, which makes the Rise a bit of a rare breed in the QWERTY world — hopefully its future carrier doesn’t dictate huge alterations. The phone features a Qualcomm MSM8655 SoC with a 1GHz CPU, a 3.5-inch, 480 x 320 IPS LCD display, a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash and a 1,500 mAh battery. When compared to other QWERTY sliders, the handset itself is rather compact and fit nicely in our hand. We were similarly quite fond of the sliding mechanism on the Rise, which felt natural and provided just enough resistance. The four-row keyboard is altogether forgettable, but it should serve those who insist upon physical keys just fine. Our biggest gripe about the Rise, however, is its low-res display, which seems like quite a misstep — even for a budget device.

In terms of storage, you’ll find 512MB of RAM, 2GB built-in and a 2GB microSD card. The Rise also features 802.11n (WiFi), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and EV-DO Rev. A. It’s safe to say that Kyocera is targeting budget audiences with the Rise, but the strategy may work to its advantage if other carriers fail to keep their QWERTY sliders up-to-date with the latest version of Android. You’ll find our hands-on video after the break.

Terrence O’Brien contributed to this report

Leafsnap contains beautiful high-resolution images of leaves, flowers, fruit, petiole, seeds, and bark of trees found in New York City and Washington, D.C., and it will soon grow to include the trees of the entire continental United States.  This website shows the tree species included in Leafsnap, the collections of its users, and the team of research volunteers working to produce it.

This application is currently available for free to iPhone and iPad users.  An Android version is under way, but there is no estimated time for release yet.

U.S. special operations forces carry out some the military’s toughest, most high-stakes missions. To pull them off, the commandos need speed, agility and swift perception skills akin to those of top-tier professional athletes. That might explain why the military’s latest commando training program will rely on a virtual-reality system already employed by pro sports teams.

Cloud storage abounds at the moment. We told you about Box and their free 50B and how to get the best out of using it.  And of course, there’s always Dropbox, Sugarsync, iCloud, and a plethora of other options.  Heck, even Google just released Google Drive.  My 25GB SkyDrive account has always been like my Box account; the web interface-only and the lack of an app to synchronise between devices left it purely as an archival tool.  Dropbox was my preferred product for sharing and synchronising files. Well, Microsoft has just upgraded their offering and included applications for Windows Phones, iPhone and iPad, Mac, PC, and Android.  Now you can sync data between multiple devices regardless of platform.

This added functionality however comes at a price, their previously free 25GB has been dropped to 7GB. Still, this is a good free capability when compared with other services, but not quite as compelling as it was. Plans are available for additional storage up to 100GB.  But wait, if you already have a SkyDrive account and were signed up before April 22 and have uploaded at least one file, then there’s an option to upgrade your account from your reduced 7GB back to 25GB for free.

This change may well see me moving away from Dropbox  as my free storage with 5GB – which is less than my 7GB SkyDrive, which is actually 25GB. Confused? Don’t be.  If  you’ve got a SkyDrive account, just login and check if you’ve got the option to upgrade after your downgrade (it may be under Manage Storage).  25GB of free synchronised cloud storage certainly can’t go astray

What we’ve learned: the new iPhone will indeed be longer and thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S. Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm—a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width. According to our source, Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic. Our artist’s rendition provides a rough idea of what this change will look like; it echoes the current-generation iMac design, to be sure.

The report also claims that Apple will be adopting the rumored smaller dock connector for the device, which will be “closer to a pill shape” than the existing connector.

iLounge has offered some correct information in the past, and was rather accurate in its claims regarding the latest iPad. Not all of the site’s claims came to fruition, however, with the new iPad’s front-facing camera failing to gain HD resolution and Apple offering no sign of an enhanced smart cover for the device.

“Apple reasserted its dominance in the market this quarter, driving huge shipment totals at a time when all but a few Android vendors saw their numbers drop precipitously after posting big gains during the holiday buying season,” said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices at IDC. “Apple’s move to position the iPad as an all-purpose tablet, instead of just a content consumption device, is resonating with consumers as well as educational and commercial buyers. And its decision to keep a lower-priced iPad 2 in the market after it launched the new iPad in March seems to be paying off as well.”

Amazon had surged into second place in the tablet market during the fourth quarter with a 16.8% share of the market as the Kindle Fire debuted in the United States. But while IDC did not report a number for Amazon’s first quarter shipments in its press release, it did note that Amazon’s share dropped to to “just over 4%” in the total tablet market of 17.4 million units, yielding shipment volume of roughly 700,000-750,000 units for Amazon.

As a result of Amazon’s decline, Samsung was able to regain the second position in the tablet market, ahead of Amazon, Lenovo, and Barnes & Noble. Amazon’s slide also comes as mass retailer Target yesterday announced plans to discontinue the sale of all Kindle devices and other Amazon- and Kindle-branded products.

The overall tablet market grew 120% year-over-year, but the 38% quarter-over-quarter decline was even steeper than expected coming off the strong holiday quarter. Apple obviously has a significant influence on the overall tablet market given its dominant position, and the company did ship slightly fewer than expected iPads during the quarter as consumers held off on iPad 2 purchases ahead of the new iPad’s launch and Apple experienced some supply constraints when the device did launch with just three weeks left in the quarter.

It truly is the end of an era. In just under two weeks, Microsoft will follow through with its plan to shutter the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace for good. In a cautionary email, Redmond asked that those still using a WM device “install any available updates in advance of the [...] shut-down,” scheduled for May 17th. Not all hope is lost for the antiquated mobile operating system, though, as the announcement reminds technology holdouts that application updates can be acquired directly from developers (good luck with that). If you’re out on the town this evening having a few drinks with friends, remember to pour one out for Windows Mobile, a true OG smartphone operating system.

Microsoft reminds users of Windows Mobile Marketplace’s imminent demise originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 17:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.