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‘smartphones’ Stories

MIX 2010 delivers fresh WP7s news: Windows Phone Marketplace, Silverlight 4 RC and more

By Vincent Nguyen on Monday, Mar 15th 2010 No Comments

Today marks the kick-off point for MIX 2010, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, and while usually we’d leave it to the programmers this year promises more information about Windows Phone 7 series. Microsoft deferred pretty much all questions about hardware and software technicalities from MWC 2010 last month to this week’s event, but with it already confirmed that WP7s will break software ties with Windows Mobile 6.5 and earlier, developers are understandably keen to find out exactly what’s involved getting up to speed with the new platform. Among the announcements today are the launch of the Silverlight 4 Release Candidate and the debut of Windows Phone Marketplace, the successor to Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

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HTC Desire & exclusive HTC Legend hitting Vodafone UK in April 2010

By Chris Davies on Monday, Mar 15th 2010 3 Comments

Vodafone UK have announced that they will be offering HTC’s two newest Android smartphones, the HTC Desire and – exclusive to the network – the HTC Legend which we reviewed last week. Both smartphones – each of which run Android 2.1 – will arrive sometime in April 2010.

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WSJ shocked not all Microsofties drink the WinMo juice

By Chris Davies on Monday, Mar 15th 2010 No Comments

Surprise amounts of disbelief over the weekend at Microsoft’s apparent unhappiness with employees who choose to buy an iPhone rather than carry one of the company’s own smartphones. In a WSJ piece – from which both Microsoft and Apple spokespeople perhaps wisely kept away from – Microsoft employees are described as “nuts for the [iPhone]“, though many attempt to hide their use from senior management or even disguise the Apple handset with generic-looking cases. Biggest motivator to drink the Windows Mobile Kool-Aid? Since early last year, Microsoft won’t let employees expense their service fees for anything other than Windows Phones.

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Nokia C6 touchscreen QWERTY slider leaks

By Chris Davies on Monday, Mar 15th 2010 No Comments

We made no bones about our general displeasure with the Nokia N97 and N97 mini QWERTY keyboards, the lack of tactile feedback of which (and general bumpy rubberiness) let to a sluggish typing experience, so we’re hoping this leaked shot of the purported Nokia C6 turns out to be authentic. Ostensibly a 5800 with a slide-out QWERTY, the keys look more in line with those of the N900.

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HTC Touch Pro3 (aka HTC Tera) offering WinMo 6.5 in Q3 2010?

By Chris Davies on Monday, Mar 15th 2010 No Comments

Generous pinch-of-salt time now, but according to one xda-developers tipster HTC are readying their new version of the Touch Pro2, the unsurprisingly named HTC Touch Pro3 (aka the HTC Tera from the leaked roadmap) for launch in Q3 2010. Apparently informed by a contact at HTC’s European distributor, member LocDogg says initial stock of the Windows Mobile 6.5 handset is expected to come in over the Summer, though the Pro3 itself will be going on sale just shy of Windows Phone 7’s debut.

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CDMA Nexus One stock already headed to Verizon?

By Chris Davies on Monday, Mar 15th 2010 No Comments

Last we heard through the rumor-mill, Verizon were readying themselves for a March 23rd launch of the CDMA version of the Google Nexus One. In apparent preparation for that, Chinese newspaper Economic Daily News are supposedly reporting that HTC have begun shipments of the handset to Verizon in the US, with European shipments of the GSM Nexus One headed to Vodafone “soon”.

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Motorola CLIQ XT for T-Mobile gets reviewed

By Chris Davies on Friday, Mar 12th 2010 No Comments

Room in your heart for another Motorola Android smartphone running MOTOBLUR but stuck on Android 1.5? The T-Mobile CLIQ XT by Motorola is set to hit the market imminently, and we’ve got our full review over at Android Community.

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The Palm Paradox

By Michael Gartenberg on Friday, Mar 12th 2010 No Comments

It’s been a rough few weeks for the folks at Palm. First false rumors about Palm shutting down production lines, followed by less than stellar results have once again started the usual suspects putting Palm on either some death watch or have them about to be sold to (insert vendor’s name here _____). Regarding the second, I don’t believe Jon Rubenstein came out of retirement to build a world class product only to have it sold to (insert vendor’s name here _____). But with regards to the whole death watch theme, Palm reminds me a lot of TiVo these days. It’s not just the death watch meme that’s plagued TiVo for years, it’s the fact that Palm suffers from their own version of the TiVo paradox.

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iPhone Pro concept adds slide-out gaming controls, MagSafe [Video]

By Chris Davies on Friday, Mar 12th 2010 1 Comment

If we’re being honest, we far prefer clever renders of what designers think the next-gen iPhone should look like rather than so-called “leaked” shots that smell unduly fake. Italian design firm ADR Studio have thrown their oar in with this, the iPhone Pro, coupling iPad styling with some Transformer-like slide out panels offering gaming controls.

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Video demo after the cut

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HTC Legend review

By Chris Davies on Monday, Mar 8th 2010 6 Comments

We did little to disguise how impressed we were with the HTC Hero when we reviewed it all the way back in July 2009. At the time we suggested it was the device with which Android came of age; since then, of course, we’ve seen a huge growth both in the number of manufacturers and devices available, and in Android itself. Into that fray wades the HTC Legend, undoubtedly one of the stand-out devices from MWC 2010 in February and packing the latest versions not only of Android but of HTC’s Sense, which rather fittingly debuted with the Hero. Can HTC history repeat itself? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

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