Hasta La Gadget!

According to PreCentral, Palm’s forthcoming tablet — which we suspect will be officially revealed in just a few hours — will be dubbed TouchPad. They were able to sneak in and hear a few details during the event preparation session, enabling them to confirm that it’ll weigh 1.5 pounds and measure 13mm thick (just as we’d heard). If those figures sound familiar, it’s because a fledgling startup in Cupertino just so happens to have a slate that aligns exactly to those very specifications. Keep it locked right here for our impending liveblog — we’ll be bringing you the blow by blow as it goes down today in San Francisco.

Update: Robert Scoble seems to have let loose a bit of information as well, confirming that a 10-inch slate is indeed on the docket, as well as “the smallest little phone” he has ever seen. And before you think that’s a positive attribute, he also mentions it being too small to be taken seriously, and definitely not as “a competitor for the iPhone or Android.” Ouch. Guess we’ll have to see for ourselves as the day develops.

Update 2: Oh, boy! The HP Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad just leaked on HP’s official site. We’re cautiously optimistic that all these will be on sale later today.

Palm TouchPad leaked: 1.5 pounds, 13mm thick, and just moments from official originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that the Xperia Play is finally official ahead of a full unveiling at MWC next week, carriers are ready to hop on the bandwagon — or at least one is: O2 in the UK. Other than a brief tweet, no other details are given at this point, though the quick support of a major European carrier has to be good news for Sony Ericsson considering that device subsidies are no longer a sure thing… and without question, the Play represents something of a Hail Mary for one of the most badly bruised and beaten titans of the wireless industry. Pricing on contract is, of course, a huge open question — as is North American support — but hopefully all will be revealed on the 13th.

[Thanks, Ed]

Update: Pocket-lint says it can “exclusively confirm” that Vodafone will be getting the phone as well, suggesting that Sony Ericsson may not be pursuing exclusivity periods here — at least, not in the UK.

Update 2: Pocket-lint is additionally reporting that Orange and T-Mobile UK (collectively known as Everything Everywhere) are signed up to get it in April, which would put it around the same time as the Xperia Arc. Still no word on what this might mean for North American launches.

O2 UK says it’s getting the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (update: other UK carriers, April launch) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Better late than never” has been Nokia’s rallying cry when it comes to releasing high-end devices, but we can’t begrudge the delay we’ve experienced with the E7, this phone was gorgeous back in September and it’s still a beauty today. The QWERTY-equipped sibling to the N8 brings a 4-inch Clear Black Display — whose name is no exaggeration, it’s as sharp and vibrant as any AMOLED screen we’ve seen so far — together with the latest version of Symbian, an 8 megapixel camera round the back, 16GB of onboard memory, and a finely crafted aluminum body. The slideout keyboard on this device is easily among the best we’ve ever handled, although the same can’t be said about the mechanism for opening it up. Nokia hasn’t been specific about the markets the E7 will be arriving in over the coming days, but the UK seems a lock and distribution should expand rapidly from there. Jump past the break for Nokia’s press release and a sweet little video promo.

Continue reading Nokia E7 starts shipping to ‘select markets’

Nokia E7 starts shipping to ‘select markets’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson has finally stopped teasing, winking, and nodding knowingly and has just come clean — the Xperia Play is most definitely real and it’ll be one of the first devices announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We’re treated to a date and time, February 13th at 6PM GMT, a pair of full frontal shots of the Gingerbread-running, gamepad-wearing smartphone, and the full version of that creepy ad we saw for it a couple of days back. Missed it on the Super Bowl? Scope it out after the break.

P.S. – Missed our coverage of Super Bowl Media Day? Catch up here!

Continue reading Sony Ericsson makes Xperia Play official in Super Bowl commercial, full launch coming February 13th

Sony Ericsson makes Xperia Play official in Super Bowl commercial, full launch coming February 13th originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Call us crazy, but we’re having a hard time interpreting this line of fine print in any other way:

“To activate WiFi functionality on this device, a minimum of one month data subscription is required.”

That’s listed under Best Buy’s most recent ad highlighting the world’s first Android 3.0 tablet, and it most certainly sounds both ominous and ridiculous. Hardcore Verizon followers may remember the days of Big Red crippling Bluetooth radios in phones in order to “coerce” users to purchase ringtones and such from them rather than snagging one on the subway from Tom, Dick and / Jane, so we definitely wouldn’t put something like this by the company. It’s hard to say how this will be implemented once the $800 Xoom hits retail shelves, but it’s certainly hard to believe that this is a Best Buy policy (and not a Verizon mandate). We’ll be digging for more details (after all, this could all be some strange, terrible dream), but we’ll be straight with you — we don’t like the potential implications here.

Update: We’re hearing from some Best Buy Mobile employees that these simply won’t be able to be sold without being first activated on Verizon’s network, so even though you could theoretically cancel the same day, you’ll still likely get hit with a one-time activation fee (and possibly one month of data). Then again, there appears to be typos on the flyer, so you may want to wait for Verizon’s official word before getting up in arms.

[Thanks, Michael]

Verizon locking WiFi on Motorola Xoom until you buy one month of data service? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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