Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon Wireless has unveiled its version of the HTC Touch Diamond, which will be available in stores and direct from Verizon’s Web site beginning tomorrow. As with other versions, the Touch Diamond features a 2.8-inch touch screen with full VGA (480-by-640-pixel) resolution, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, and HTC’s TouchFLO interface overlay for Windows Mobile Professional 6.1.

The handset also includes visual voice mail, a VZ-Navigator-capable GPS chip, mobile instant messaging clients, and just plain looks cool. Unfortunately, looks aren’t everything. We’ve reviewed TouchFLO many times before, including unlocked and Sprint versions of the Touch Diamond. Suffice to say that it’s a powerful but flawed handheld, with a sluggish, uneven interface but plenty of high-tech features. I also reviewed Verizon’s version of the HTC Touch Pro, which adds a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to the design.

As is typical for Verizon, the carrier is pricing the Touch Diamond on the high side at $299.99 with a two-year customer agreement. Actually, it’s even higher–that price includes a $70 mail-in rebate, which will come in the form of a debit card, so it’s actually $369.99 up front.

We’re not sure why T-Mobile would be market-testing names other than “G2” for its upcoming HTC Sapphire, but it apparently is — and if these leaked slides are to be believed, it’s not doing so well on the ideas front. Seriously: “T-Mobile Genius 3G with Google” and “Prism 3G with Google” both trade in the well-known G-series branding for banal anonymity, and “myTouch 3G with Google” just sounds like a skin disease that’s gone from bad to worse. Interestingly, “T-Mobile G3” is also on the list, which makes us wonder if there’s a less-drastic G2 model in the works, but that’s pure speculation on our part — what we do know is that we’d take Vodafone’s Magic branding over any of these other sad options in a heartbeat.

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile market testing terrible names for the HTC Magic / Sapphire originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC‘s unleashed a barrel of bad news on the world today with their first quarter earnings statement. The company’s profits fell 30 percent during that period, with a net of NT$4.89 billion — $148 million — down from NT$6.94 billion (or $210 million) at the same time last year. HTC still managed to best analysts estimates (shows what they know) which forecast that the company’s earnings would be in the area of NT$4.64 billion ($140 million). HTC said that the profits fell in part to missed product shipping deadlines, which have been pushed into April. And the recession continues…

[Via MocoNews]
(Warning: Read link is a PDF)

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC first quarter earnings fall a not awesome 30 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The gang at TmoNews have it from a “trusted source” what’s purported to be a list of tentative release dates for nearly a dozen T-Mobile phones. At the top on that list is the Sidekick 2009 (a.k.a. “Blade”) for May 13th, followed by heavy hitters HTC Snap and HTC Rhodium (Touch Pro2) for July 1st / 22nd, respectively. Rounding out the list is a pre-paid Nokia 1661 for April 29th, a mysterious Sony Ericsson CS8 for June 24th, six Samsung T-series phones all debuting between May 6th and August 19th, and a big, fat “TBD” for the HTC Magic (Sapphire). Don’t think these dates as gospel, but with less than six weeks until Blade’s rumored to hit retail, we’ll know soon enough if this list has any credence

Filed under: Cellphones

Sidekick 2009, HTC Snap and Touch Pro2 dated for T-Mobile? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the blurry blob of pixels reputed to be Samsung’s entrance to the Android handset market? It was initially expected to come into focus sometime after July, but word from Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, a Samsung VP, is that the phone will see international release a month earlier, in June. He has also confirmed that two other Google-powered handsets are in development by the company, both set for US release sometime in the second half of the year. The phones are said to be “totally different” from each other and will be so at odds they’ll have to go to separate networks or risk creating a hilarious feud of the type we haven’t seen since TV’s Perfect Strangers. Both are said to offer considerable enhancements and tweaks to Android that should distance them HTC’s offerings, but will the two ever stand a chance of getting along? Don’t be ridiculous!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Samsung’s Android phone arriving to the party earlier than expected, bringing friends originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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