Hasta La Gadget!

Horror, shock, surprise! Microsoft CEO and prime fanboy of all things Windows and developer-related, Steve Ballmer, will be the keynote speaker at Microsoft’s New York launch event for Windows Phone 7. He’ll be joined on stage by AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega and when the pep rally is over, we’re promised opportunities to finally handle the official incarnations of retail Windows Phones for ourselves. We know all this because Microsoft has just dropped a kind little invite into our inbox urging us to attend its October 11 get-together. We will, of course, be there live, but don’t forget Microsoft’s also holding a London event on that day, ostensibly for the same reason, so make sure to be up nice and early next Monday if you don’t wanna miss a thing.

As we reported last night, the company is also holding a gathering centered around T-Mobile WP7 handsets, though details are more scarce on that event. We saw an official invite from the folks in Redmond, but it looks like that showing may be smaller in scale. We have to imagine that AT&T and their GSM competition don’t want to share the stage, but as this is a Microsoft launch, anything is possible. Regardless, if there are multiple carriers showing hardware come October 11th, we’ll have all the goods.

Steve Ballmer and AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega to headline Windows Phone 7 launch event in NYC on October 11 — we’ll be there live! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Nokia said Q3, Nokia has delivered Q3. Just. The long-awaited first shipments of the Finnish market leader’s N8 handset are today finally going out, and we’ve gotten our hands on one of the very first retail units out there. Gaze upon the gallery below to see what you’ll be getting inside the box alongside your multimedia powerhouse, and do make full use of our comments section too — we want to hear any questions you may have about the N8 and will try to answer them in full, both here and in our full review, which is naturally coming up soon!

Nokia N8 first unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 05:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’d heard October. We heard Europe in October. We heard next month. Now, Neowin cites anonymous sources that Windows Phone 7 will arrive in the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy on precisely October 21st, and is preparing a good deal of marketing fanfare to support a fancy October 11th unveiling in New York City. We can’t say whether the rumor’s correct, but it’s certainly picking up steam, as these particular numbers were independently reported by Pocket-lint and the Spanish publication El Economista earlier this month as well. Now all we need is an alleged US release date — misery loves company, right?

Update: Microsoft expert Paul Thurrott says that while Redmond’s indeed holding an October 11th shindig in NYC, it’s not a Windows Phone event… but his source tells him the long-lost US launch date is actually November 8th. Imagine that!

[Thanks, Stephen]

Microsoft prepping Windows Phone 7 for an October 21st launch? (update: US on Nov. 8?) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocket-lint  |  Neowin, Eleconomista  | Email this | Comments

Uh, oh, looks like Verizon has indeed distanced itself from Microsoft after the Kin debacle: the carrier confirmed to Bloomberg Businessweek today that it won’t offer any Windows Phone 7 devices at launch this year, instead waiting until 2011 to support the new OS. That certainly ties right in with AT&T’s claims that it’ll be the “premier carrier” for Windows Phone 7 and the flood of Blue-tinted device leaks we’ve seen, but it also leaves Microsoft in a seemingly tough spot to start — we haven’t heard more than the slightest whisper about WP7 devices on Sprint or T-Mobile yet, and until we do it’s going to be the iPhone and WP7 head-to-head on Ma Bell while Android continues to dig in everywhere else. We’ll see — this launch can’t come quickly enough.

Verizon won’t sell Windows Phone 7 until 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhoneScoop  |  Bloomberg Businessweek  | Email this | Comments

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.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments