Hasta La Gadget!

Just in case you’re still dissatisfied after taking a peek at one leaked Verizon screenshot today, well… here’s numero dos. The folks at Droid-Life managed to get their paws on a couple of monochrome sheets that look more like VZW promotional material than anything else, and if Sprint’s Simply Everything plan thought it had the whole market locked down, it might just have another thing coming. Best we can tell, the impending (?) ‘Unleashed’ pricing options will allow customers to choose a contract-free $50 / month unlimited calling and texting plan, with “Mobile Web” access thrown in as well for featurephones. ‘Course, you’d have to pony up extra for legitimate data on a legitimate smartphone, but it’s hardly a bad place to start — particularly for those who are growing increasingly tired of locking themselves into two-year agreements. Hard to say if the carrier is planning to actually implement any of this, but why waste the intern’s time mocking it up, right?

[Thanks, Mio]

Leaked Verizon Unleashed pricing sheets detail $50 unlimited talk / text plans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson debuted its Xperia Arc smartphone, pictured above, at this year\’s Consumer Electronics Show in January. Photo courtesy of Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia line of Android smartphones were set to launch this spring. The earthquake that struck Japan last month, however, has delayed a wide release of the Xperia Neo model till the fall.

“Due to supply chain disruptions resulting from the situation in Japan, we have shifted the timing of Xperia Neo’s broader launch,” a spokesperson from Sony Ericsson told Wired.com. The phone is now scheduled to be released in the fall.

Sony Ericsson also stated that “some volume” of Xperia Arc and Xperia Play phones were affected by the quake, although the company declined to state whether the global releases of either phone would be impeded. The Xperia Play — an Android-based smartphone capable of running Playstation games which can be downloaded from the Android Market — was released in Europe in April, as well as the Xperia Arc.

Sony Ericsson says it will address the delays further in its April 19 financial results conference call.

With its 3.7-inch touchscreen, the Xperia Neo is the veritable younger brother to the Xperia Arc (which measures in with a 4.2-inch screen). But the Neo and the Arc share many of the same specs under their hoods — both come with 8 gigs of microSD card storage, an 8-megapixel back facing camera, and a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor running the latest version of Android for phones, 2.3 (Gingerbread).

The Neo will retail for 400 GBP in the UK, or about $650 US.

See Also:

• Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Hands-On
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, a Slim Gingerbread Phone
• Hands-On With Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc Smartphone
• Sony Ericsson W890i

Another quarter, another spectacular set of financial results for HTC. The once-small Taiwanese phone maker reports its net income for the first quarter of 2011 nearly tripled earnings in the same period of 2010, now totaling an impressive $513 million. Overall quarterly revenue was in the vicinity of $3.6 billion and the causes cited were, rather predictably, demand for Android smartphones and higher-speed internet connectivity (as provided by the likes of the EVO 4G and Thunderbolt). Guess now we know why the stock markets are loving HTC so much — the company just can’t stop growing!

[Thanks, Karan]

HTC breaks its own sales and profit records, keeps riding the smartphone wave to success originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The electronics retailer has suspended sales of the iPad 2 as the tablet continues to sell out. Stores contacted in So. Calif. got an e-mail Friday morning ordering the suspension.

Originally posted at Nanotech – The Circuits Blog

In this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, the usual dorks gawk at a homemade gear composed of möbius strips. It’s probably not very useful, but it sure looks awesome.

We shift gears into the debate on whether Google’s Android operating system is “open” or “closed.” Google is holding off on opening the source code for Honeycomb, a version of Android for tablets. We think it’s a good idea for Google to exert some control to avoid hardware fragmentation.

Speaking of Google, the company inserted a clever Easter egg in its search engine: Search for the word Tilt, and you’ll get a little surprise. An extra surprise is that the search brings up an outdated AT&T ad for the Tilt cellphone, which is no longer available.

Last, we zoom in on Uber, an extremely cool startup using iPhone and Android apps to run a car service. Booking an Uber car is simple: Launch the app and tap a button to request a ride. However, under the hood, Uber is an extremely complex operation, crunching crazy mathematical algorithms to station drivers effectively throughout the city.

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Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast on iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds.

Or listen to the audio here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #111

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0111.mp3