Hasta La Gadget!

For those folks who are still clinging to their T-Mobile G1s (and I know there are a few out there) even though they’re officially end-of-life, T-Mobile announced today that its successor, the T-Mobile G2, would be available for pre-order later this month. They didn’t mention how much the new phone would cost, but T-Mobile did lay out a number of its features.

The G2 will ship with Android 2.2 “Froyo” installed, along with an 800-Mhz Snapdragon processor that’s built for longer battery life with a little less performance. The G2 will feature a slide-out keyboard and come with 4GB of internal storage and an 8GB memory card installed. The G2 will also be the first HSPA+ phone in the US, meaning it can take advantage of T-Mobile’s fastest 3G networks. You can read more about the announcement, why it may be the “Googliest phone ever,” and exactly how fast the phone may perform when it’s released over at PCMag.com! 

Kno Movie from Kno, Inc. on Vimeo.

Big players have tried and failed to bring out a “textbook replacement” e-reader. Kno won’t be shipping their entry until Christmas at the earliest, but it’s a serious candidate that’s worth a second look.

Kno’s form factor is essentially two slightly-oversized iPads on a giant 180-degree hinge. It has two 14″ stylus-compatible touchscreens, which you can keep separate for a textbook or multi-screen layout, unify for a single widescreen display, or fold back for a single tablet.

(I’m guessing you could also lay one side flat and use it with a software keyboard like a notebook, but I haven’t seen that configuration advertised — maybe you can’t make a hinge fluid AND stiff enough to pull that off.)

Under the hood is a 16GB hard drive and an NVidia Tegra 2 processor. You could compare it to Microsoft’s scrapped Courier project or a larger take on the Toshiba Libretto. The Libretto, though, is a warning sign; Kno wants to keep their price under $1000 (preferably under $900) but Toshiba’s smaller entry is stuck starting at $1100.

That said, it just might work. Kno’s CEO Osman Rashid has raised a lot of venture capital money, brokered deals with most of the major textbook publishers, and already has one education-market success with textbook-rental service Chegg. He’s been making the rounds, giving interviews talking up the product. Your college student just might discover a Kno in his or her stocking, just in time for Spring semester.

Story via Fast Company and TechCrunch.

See Also:

• Dual-Screen Tablet Maker Hopes to Reinvent the Textbook
• Toshiba Dual Screen PC Folds Like a Book
• Startup Gives Digital Textbooks the Ol' College Try
• Amazon.com Kindle DX
• New, Black Kindle DX Now $380
• Colleges Dream of Paperless, iPad-centric Education

There’s a rumor going around today that Verizon is stripping Google services out of its Android devices going forward in favor of their Bing equivalents (much the same way that AT&T has gone with Yahoo on some phones), but the company says this afternoon that it’s simply false:

“…that is not true. We have a relationship with Microsoft and Bing is the search engine on our multi-media phones but we have never said it would be exclusive on all of our devices.”

We think the wording here is pretty important: “on our multi-media phones.” We take this to mean that Verizon’s looking at using Bing on its high-end featurephones and its midrange smartphones, possibly keeping the end-to-end Google experience exclusive to its cream of the crop — which would also explain why the recently-launched Fascinate didn’t get the coveted Droid brand as a part of its name.

On a related note, we’re hearing from a tipster today that an upcoming low-end Android device for Verizon from LG is loaded with Bing services, which strengthens the case — it looks like Bing is the “cheap” experience for Big Red right now. We’ve gotta admit, we’re wondering how Microsoft feels about that positioning.

Update: Microsoft is basically corroborating Verizon’s statement, saying that “the deal for Verizon Android devices is not exclusive.”

Update 2: Verizon is additionally saying that Google’s revamped search box that includes its new voice action capabilities will be available for download once the Fascinate hits Android 2.2 — in other words, they’re not explicitly blocking Google services from being installed on the device. Of course, that doesn’t solve the root problem, which is that Bing is baked into the shipping ROM — but it’s something, we suppose.

Debunk: Bing not replacing Google on all Verizon Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The stars are really aligning for this shindig HTC has scheduled in London for next week, aren’t they? All signs point to the launch of the Android-powered Desire Z and Desire HD — international versions of the G2 and EVO, respectively — and this render pulled off of German site BestBoyZ matches up perfectly with in-the-wild shots we’ve seen of the HD before. The only sticking point, really, is that there’s a Windows Mobile 6.5 Sense UI shot inexplicably plastered on top, which makes about as much sense as… well, re-releasing the HD2 right now. Bottom line, we think the hardware part of this picture is real; software, not so much.

[Thanks, Kamal]

HTC Desire HD rendered, looks pretty legit to us — oh, except for that WinMo UI originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft responds to a rumor that Bing will be the default search engine on all Verizon Android smartphones. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20015979-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p