Hasta La Gadget!

The Desire HD is official, folks, finally bringing a 4.3-inch LCD to European Android fans. The handset is made from a solid block of aluminum and comes packing a 1GHz 8255 Snapdragon processor, 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video recording, Dolby Mobile, and HSPA+ data with 802.11n WiFi when it lands in Europe and Asia sometime in October. It’s also one of the first HTC devices to feature the enhanced HTC Sense experience with HTCsense.com services.

Continue reading HTC launches the Desire HD: an EVO for the rest of world

HTC launches the Desire HD: an EVO for the rest of world originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC’s announcing more than hardware this morning, it’s also announcing an enhanced HTC Sense experience. At the heart is HTCSense.com, a series of dashboard-connected services for backup, security, and control of your HTC handset. A new locate feature triggers the handset to ring loudly (even when set to silent) while flagging its location on an online map. If the phone was lost or stolen, owners can remote lock and/or wipe the phone. Backups will automatically archive your contacts, text messages, call history, customizations and data. Sense is also adding advanced multimedia capabilities to help ease the way we capture, share, and upload our content. HTC’s also added on-the-fly capture effects and filters to manipulate depth of field or for adding distortion and vintage effects.

Update: We’ve got a gallery’s worth of interface shots from the new Sense experience!

Continue reading HTCSense.com will backup and remotely locate / wipe HTC devices

HTCSense.com will backup and remotely locate / wipe HTC devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Didn’t get in on one of those $199 netbook closeouts earlier in the year? If you’re willing to deal with Android (an Android that lacks bona fide Android Market access), you can redeem yourself right now. Augen‘s 10.2-inch netbook, dubbed the GenBook 108, is now on sale through Kmart, offering a 1024 x 600 resolution display, an 800MHz ARM11 processor, 256MB of DDR2 memory, 802.11b/g WiFi, an SD / MMC card slot and a 2100mAh battery. The whole shebang weighs just 1.8 pounds, and Augen even throws in a (p)leather carry case, a USB cable and a 93 percent full-size keyboard. Get in on the fun for just $189.99 — but you may want to read about our disappointment with the outfit’s Gentouch 78 and $99 netbook before carelessly pulling the trigger.

[Thanks, Nick]

Augen’s 10.2-inch GenBook 108 goes on sale at Kmart for $190 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tensions seem to rise between Apple and Google every time they launch a phone or acquire a new media company, but the real battle is happening in a wonkier arena: telecom.

That’s what Elia Freedman, CEO of Infinity Softworks, argues in his intriguing piece “Fighting the Wrong Fight,” featured in today’s Tweet of the Day. Freedman tweeted: “This is critical. We’ve been distracted by Apple v. Google. But that’s not the real fight, one for the soul of mobile.”

In his post, Freedman enumerates examples illustrating that the experience you get on your phone ultimately boils down to what carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile want you to have. He’s right.

Ever wonder why the iPhone doesn’t have free tethering? Or why some Android devices are shipping with bloatware? These were decisions imposed by carriers, who are fighting to regain control of their industry in the aftermath of the iPhone revolution.

As Wired’s Fred Vogelstein originally reported in his bombshell 2008 piece “How the iPhone blew up the wireless industry,” Steve Jobs transformed the wireless game by convincing AT&T to carry Apple’s phone without even seeing it. That sly move resulted in a phone that Apple was able to design for customers to enjoy instead of carriers. After the iPhone became a blockbuster hit, the rest of the wireless industry was forced to offer competitive products tailored to a rich customer experience.

However, carriers didn’t simply wuss out. As Vogelstein revealed in a followup piece, the relationship between Apple and AT&T has since turned dysfunctional. In one incident, Apple was pushing for AT&T to include tethering as a free service as part of its unlimited data plan, but AT&T wouldn’t allow it without incurring a fee. The two companies were arguing over this matter in late 2008, and only recently did tethering finally become available for iPhone customers — for an additional monthly cost, just like AT&T wanted.

And as large and influential as Google may be, the search giant appears to have ceded control to carriers in light of its recent joint proposal with Verizon regarding net neutrality (as Wired.com’s Ryan Singel summarizes poignantly in his piece “Why Google became a carrier-humping, net neutrality surrender monkey“).

Now is indeed a time for concern. While consumer tech companies appear to be the gods delivering our products, it’s the carrier overlords who possess the keys to the broadband fueling our mobile experiences. That’s a tough position for even Google and Apple to wrestle with.

Seen any especially awesome tweets you’d like us to feature? Share them with Gadget Lab by Twitter.

See Also:

• AT&T Plans 5 Android Smartphones in 2010
• TV ‘Anywhere’: AT&T Relents on iPhone 3G Slingbox
• How Apple, AT&T Are Closing the Mobile Web
• AT&T’s Data Limits Rein In Cloud-Based Media Services
• Cap My iPhone? Try This Instead, AT&T
• In Escalating War Against Verizon, AT&T Is Getting Tone Deaf — and …

Image by Lore Sjoberg

We suppose one way around Google TV’s initial reliance on IR blasters to communicate with some set-top boxes is to just give away everything necessary for a good experience — Sony HDTV, Google TV (it’s unclear whether the first two are separate or one item), six months of Dish Network service and a free installation from Best Buy’s Geek Squad — which, according to AllThingsD, is exactly what the 600 attendees of today’s Google Zeitgeist event received. That even the great minds of our time presumably require a custom installation just to get everything going may not be a great initial sign for the product, but as the post points out, Aaron Sorkin probably isn’t used to plugging in his own HDMI cables anyway. With those 600 units in the wild and a retail release presumably around the corner, we should see some first hand reports leaking out just about any time now.

Update: Search Engine Land reports users actually received 3 months of complementary service from Dish and a Google TV-equipped Blu-ray player from Sony, not a an HDTV — which certainly makes more sens than suddenly tossing new flatscreens into random households.

Zeitgeist attendees comped with Google TV gift bag: Sony Blu-ray player, Dish Network and free installs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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