honor

Score one for Cricket, whose Huawei Mercury is arguably the most feature-rich phone in its lineup.

I say "arguably" because the Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone lacks Muve Music, the all-you-can-download music portion of the unlimited voice and data plan for select Cricket handsets, such as the Samsung Vitality.

Muve would be the icing on the cake, but if you're no audiophile, the Mercury is absolutely a phone that Cricket fans should eye.… Read more

Our mobile reviews team checks out a fair number of unlocked phones. It's fun to see what's available elsewhere in the world, and it's a window into models that might come out here soon with a carrier.

Unfortunately, these phones rarely perform as well as they would if they were tied to a network, especially a fast one. Still, there's much to glean from checking them out, even if their high prices keep us from recommending them to U.S. shoppers.

The Huawei Honor is a case in point. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread device is a midranger that looks pretty good and has some notable additions, like an interesting virtual keyboard. It also has a 4-inch screen, a 1.4GHz processor, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 1,900mAh battery for longer life.

Call quality and data speeds were poor on the unlocked unit, and the cameras underperformed in some situations. Still, if the specs and design strike you, you'll also be able to check it out stateside as the Huawei Mercury for Cricket.… Read more

If, like me, you had assumed that the Samsung Nexus S would be the first Android phone to receive the official update to Ice Cream Sandwich (after its debut with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus), we'd both be wrong.

Huawei has bypassed carriers to distribute the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system to owners of the Huawei Honor through its Web site. (The second tab below the image translates to Software.)

Of course, this demo build is not an official carrier push, and you'd have to be comfortable manually updating your phone from the kernel contained on the Web site. If you don't read the Chinese alphabet, you'll still be able to switch to other languages that Android supports.… Read more

Huawei announced that it will begin shipping its next Android handset, the Honor, in December to select markets.

Powered by Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and running the latest build of Huawei's custom software, the handset features a single-core 1.4GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera, 512MB RAM, and 4GB internal storage.

Obviously, it's not the most advanced smartphone on the market, but one particularly interesting detail about the Huawei Honor is the battery life.… Read more

Huawei announced its next Android endeavor yesterday, unveiling the Gingerbread-powered Honor and putting it on track for a fourth-quarter release.

Ask an average Android user to name one item they'd like to improve on their handset and you'll likely hear battery performance. That's why Huawei is really hoping to impress by adidng a 1900 mAh battery with a promised three days of juice. While it's not the highest-capacity battery we've seen yet (Atrix 4G has 1930 mAh), it still manages to keep the phone relatively light (140g) and thin at only 10.9 mm.

Other specifications include a single-core 1.4GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera, 512MB RAM, and 4GB internal storage. Falling right in the middle of the pack of today's new Android releases, the Honor will likely make a lower cost alternative to handsets from competitors such as Samsung or HTC. Additional noteworthy details for the 3G smartphone include a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, a microSD expansion slot, and support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and FM radio. … Read more

Pardon our dust, 404 video viewers! We're right in the middle of a grand studio makeover! The 404 clubhouse is getting all new gear, including wide-angle lenses and a brand new HD tricaster so you can see our radio-friendly faces in high-definition! Actually, we'll let you determine whether that's good or bad, but bear with us for the next few days as we finish setting everything up.

To make it up to you (and in honor of our favorite holiday), we're giving away original 404 art courtesy of the incredibly talented Blake Stevenson! If you just started listening to the show, Blake is the unofficial artist of The 404 that donated his talents to our official logo as well as many of the posters you see in our studio! He recently created the Halloween poster you see on this page and we're really excited to give it away! To enter, all you have to do is follow Blake on Twitter and RT this message:

"RT this & follow @blakestevenson to get some original @the404 ink! http://goo.gl/1XXG"

...and that's it! You have all weekend to do that for a chance to win some awesome art from your favorite podcast; we'll announce the winners next week--good luck!

Now onto today's stories. The first one is almost NSFW so I'll skip that for now, but the next one raises controversy about the recently released first person-shooter game, Medal of Honor. The EA reboot is a gritty take on the current conflict in Afghanistan, and the prerelease even let you play as Taliban soldiers attacking the U.S. Special Forces.

EA has since renamed the Taliban the "opposing force," but the post-censorship becomes a divisive issue for The 404. Jeff doesn't have a problem with it, Wilson thinks it's just "too real," and I'm stuck in the middle like a preteen begging his parents to stop the madness. Tune into the first half to get the full story!

After the break, we hit another milestone for the show: our first ever listener-submitted VIDEO VOICE MAIL! As you know, listeners usually call in and leave an audio voice mail that we play on the air, but Blazer from Cincinnati had the genius idea to post a YouTube link to show us a skateboard trick he created and named after the show!

It's a no-comply pressure flip that he calls The 404 Flip, and we'll definitely show Tony Hawk when he returns to the show next Friday! In the meantime, we'd love to receive more video voice mails, so upload your best messages to YouTube and send us a link at the404(at)cnet(dot)com. Of course we understand that not everyone has access to a video/Web camera, so audio voice mails will certainly be accepted as well--the number's the same: 1-866-404-CNET. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you back here on Monday for the triumphant return of Ms. Natali Del Conte!

Medal of Honor marks the reboot of a franchise that found a handful of success on the original PlayStation and PC. Eleven years after its original release, developer Danger Close has teamed up with EA for the self-titled Medal of Honor on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This time, the events are all too familiar--directly dealing with the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

The game isn't without its share of controversy; over the summer, Medal of Honor made headlines when it was learned that the multiplayer mode would have players assuming two team roles, one of which was to be called the Taliban. Though EA stood by the decision for a while, the Taliban was ultimately renamed to "Opposing Force" right before the game was released.

The big question, though, is whether Medal of Honor will be able to weather the inevitable Call of Duty: Black Ops storm that will hit on November 9. Will this month head start be enough for the title to be a legitimate contender?

Jeff: A fair amount of hype has been laid upon the shoulders of Medal of Honor, namely because it's Call of Duty: Black Op's biggest competition this holiday season. There aren't too many drastic departures from Call of Duty's formula, but the campaign in Medal of Honor gives much more realistic and gritty insight to actual infantry combat. The decision to consult with members of the U.S. military has proved beneficial, thus making it a superior single-player experience on many levels.

Medal of Honor gets the atmosphere right, arguably the title's strongest feature. There is a comforting conversational interaction with the nonplayable characters you'll team up with--both in-person and over the radio--that completely humanizes the soldiers.

Gamers will undoubtedly befriend Dusty, with his "NYPD" backward hat and sunglasses, a character who helps represent the new-found American patriotism immediately after 9/11. Since Medal of Honor takes place during the current war in Afghanistan, there are a few educational moments scattered throughout. If anything, Medal of Honor successfully portrays soldiers as more down-to-earth, further emphasizing the real tragedy of war.… Read more

Today, for the first time on preGame, we're demoing a Nintendo DS game! Super Scribblenauts is the sequel to last year's breakout hit and we're taking a first look at the game by running through a few of the early levels.

Next, we'll jump into Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a title that takes the franchise in a radical new direction. Loyal fans will notice the game does pay homage to classic Castlevania titles, but Lords of Shadow is a completely new endeavor.

Before the demos, Mark and Jeff recap last week's exciting first hands-on with … Read more

After a long battle with critics, the embattled Medal of Honor game will not have Taliban fighters in its multiplayer mode, the game's executive producer announced in a blog post today.

Medal of Honor Executive Producer Greg Goodrich said that he and his team have been receiving "feedback from friends and families of fallen soldiers who expressed concern over the inclusion of the Taliban in the multiplayer portion" of Medal of Honor. He said that he and his team "care deeply about" those opinions.

"Because of this, and because the heartbeat of Medal of … Read more