Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft is scheduled to announce its first line of Windows Phone 7 products in a New York press conference next week.

Reporters this morning received an invitation to an Oct. 11 event, where Microsoft will announce which carriers and manufacturers will be making and selling handsets based on Microsoft’s next mobile operating system. The company will also preview the first line of Windows Phone 7 hardware.

It’s evident that AT&T is on board as one of the carriers. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega will be jointly hosting the conference to discuss the latest developments of Windows Phone 7, according to the press invite.

Despite Engadget’s report that T-Mobile will be a highlight of the Microsoft press conference, a Microsoft spokeswoman said T-Mobile is holding a separate press conference on Oct. 11 that is not part of the Microsoft conference. She declined to comment on whether T-Mobile would be among initial carrier partners offering Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s complete do-over of its mobile operating system previously dubbed Windows Mobile. Microsoft established an early lead on mobility with its older mobile operating system, but in recent years the company has suffered substantial losses in market share. Windows Mobile hasn’t been upgraded substantially in several years, and more user-friendly competitors such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android OS have taken market share away from Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft scrapped the Windows Mobile project and redid the entire OS into a tile-based interface incorporating elements of the Zune media player and Xbox Live gaming.

Microsoft is also tackling its competitors on the patent front. On Friday, the Redmond company sued Motorola over alleged patent infringement in its Android phones, covering features such as “synchronizing e-mail, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.” And in an interview in the Wall Street Journal Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that Android sales will generate licensing fees for Microsoft.

Though the company will announce details about Windows Phone 7 at the Oct. 11 conference, multiple reports have claimed that the official shipping date of the first Windows Phone 7 devices is Nov. 8. Wired.com has heard the same date from sources familiar with the project.

See Also:

• Microsoft Blends Zune Media, Xbox Live Into New Phone OS
• Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Series
• Microsoft Tells Windows Phone 7’s App Story
• Microsoft’s Mobile Strategy Takes Aim at Apple, Google

LG fans waiting for the company to launch a tablet may want to consider the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab or the BlackBerry PlayBook instead. LG has decided to cancel plans to launch an Android tablet by the end of the year, according to a Reuters report.

LG says it wants to wait for a newer version of Android to support its efforts to bring a tablet to market. That could mean an LG Android tablet is unlikely to launch before mid-2011.

The move is a setback for LG, which is now likely to lose ground to competitors in the tablet category.

Since the launch of the iPad in April, tablets have become one of the hottest consumer products of the year. So far, Apple has sold more than 3 million iPads. Meanwhile, Dell, Samsung and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion have introduced or announced new tablets.

Though, LG  has scrapped its Android tablet, the operating system is being used by other tablet makers. The Dell Streak, a device with a 5-inch screen, and the Samsung Galaxy, a tablet with a 7-inch touchscreen display, both use Android OS. The Streak runs Android 1.6 but Dell has said it plans to upgrade it to Android 2.2 later this year, while the Galaxy tablet will debut with Android 2.2 Froyo.

That makes LG’s decision puzzling. LG has had a checkered past when it comes to its tablet plans. The company was working on a prototype based on the Windows 7 operating system but it seems to have abandoned that.

Now it seems LG wants to wait for Android 3.0 ‘Gingerbread,’ which arrives next year.

So far, Google hasn’t been clear on what kind of devices are best supported by the current version of Android OS. Though Android is open source, Google controls the app store, Android Market. Devices that don’t meet Google’s guidelines for Android systems don’t have access to the Android Market.

However, Samsung has been able to convince Google to support its 7-inch tablet. All apps from the Android market can run on the Galaxy Tab though not every app will be optimized for the device.

LG could have done the same.

See Also:

• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• How the Tablet Will Change the World
• Build Your Own Tablet for $400
• Samsung Introduces 7-Inch Tablet to Rival iPad
• RIM Unveils Tethered Tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook

Photo: Samsung’s Android tablet/Samsung

If you needed any further proof that Android in its present form isn’t mature enough to perform tablet duties, here it is. Reuters is citing an unnamed LG official who has categorically written off the possibility of his company producing an Android 2.2 tablet. The LG informer has said that his company wants “the most suitable version [of Android] for our tablet and that is not Froyo 2.2.” This mirrors Motorola’s strategy of holding out until at least the next iteration of Google’s mobile OS before diving into the tablet pool. Still, it’ll be disappointing to those who took LG’s words at face value when it promised its tablet will be an iPad killer — that may still happen, mind you, just not this year.

LG scraps plans for Froyo tablet, will wait for next Android version originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Reuters  | Email this | Comments

Erudite tipster Abe found this little gem — if you search for “HSPA” at T-Mobile’s online store, up pops the image above, and as you can no doubt see with your sparkling eyes, that’s the myTouch HD we’re looking at. Or perhaps just the “myTouch,” as that’s the moniker on this particular page, or even the “myTouch 2,” as that’s the name affixed to the tiny image. No matter what it’s called, though, it looks like that front-facing camera is confirmed, and given our query we wouldn’t be terribly surprised if it had HSPA+ connectivity too. The big question is how disappointed you’ll be if it’s not “priced as low as free” when the handset comes out.

Update: Tipster David R. found some extra shots of the HTC handset buried deep in T-Mobile’s site — it’s got a black front, but the back of the unit is actually silver and white. You’ll find a 3.5mm headset jack up top, a micro-USB port on the left and a likely shutter button on the right, while the rear has a camera with what appear to be LED flash and speakerphone to either side.

Update 2: That link didn’t work before, but it sure does now — it’s the myTouch, and it’s got HSPA+ all right.

myTouch HD confirmed by T-Mobile website, could be free on contract? (update: live!) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  T-Mobile  | Email this | Comments

Here’s a little something to make your weekend fly by — Android Central scored a hands-on look at Verizon’s dual-mode CDMA / GSM worldphone, the HTC Merge (or is that Lexikon?) and it’s looking like one hell of a handset. Though the prototype’s Android 2.2 build is saddled with HTC Sense and Bing for search, the hardware’s reportedly superb, with a “clicky and responsive and very well spaced” slide-out QWERTY keyboard with no Desire Z hinge nonsense, and a weighty, solid feel. There’s also a 5 megapixel shooter that does 720p video, a likely 2GB of on-board storage and 512MB of RAM, not to mention an 800MHz processor that’ll surely help derail the megahertz myth with superb benchmark scores. See it pull a 1,500 in Quadrant after the break, and start dropping those nickels into your piggy bank.

Continue reading HTC Merge / Lexicon prototype previewed, 800MHz processor produces sweet scores (video)

HTC Merge / Lexicon prototype previewed, 800MHz processor produces sweet scores (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Oct 2010 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Android Central  | Email this | Comments