Hasta La Gadget!

Remember that alleged Microsoft MyPhone beta page that popped up on getskybox.com yesterday? It’s back up now and being hosted under the company’s official domain, with everything apparently intact except that tantalizing “Sign In” button. According to a statement from the gang at Redmond, a limited invite-only beta is in the cards, and more details on the syncing service formerly known as SkyBox are coming to Mobile World Congress later this month. As for the beta itself, the wording’s a bit ambiguous here — will we just be getting new details on the trial or will the signup actually launch then? Looks like we’ll find out for sure in just over a week.

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft confirms MyPhone, invite-only beta coming to MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally, an honest to goodness Qualcomm Snapdragon device is about to land in the form of the Toshiba TG01. The 9.9-mm thin handset will feature a 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) touchscreen display, HSDPA data, GPS, WiFi, a microSD slot, and custom Tosh 3D GUI to hide the Windows Mobile 6.1 uglies within. Most notable is that 1GHz Snapdragon chip that Toshiba claims makes the TG01 considerably faster than any device currently on the market with the promise to “revolutionize the mobile entertainment world.” Perhaps that’s where the DivX support comes in? We’ll see when the TG01 is unveiled at Mobile World Congress in less than two weeks followed by an expected summery launch. One more picture after the break.

Update: Oh man, the hands-on photo galleries from the London launch are coming up over at Pocket-Lint and Electricpig, the latter with head-to-head pics of the TG01 against the 12.3-mm iPhone 3G chubster and BlackBerry Bold. She’s definitely a slim-lined beauty but we have our doubts about that stripey UI. Hey Tosh, where’s the Android OS we saw running on Snapdragon at CES?

[Via Pocket-Lint and Stuff.TV]

Continue reading Toshiba TG01 with 4.1-inch WVGA touchscreen: a world’s first Snapdragon

Filed under: Cellphones

Toshiba TG01 with 4.1-inch WVGA touchscreen: a world’s first Snapdragon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already seen some Samsung rumors start to crop up in advance of Mobile World Congress, and it looks like the flood gates have now fully opened up, with a slew of new leaks and rumors of varying veracity now making their way across the internet. The most solid of those is the 16GB Samsung Omnia pictured above, which otherwise isn’t too radically different from its current 8GB incarnation. That includes quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and single-band UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, along with the usual 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen, a five megapixel camera with built-in flash, a secondary QCIF front camera, and the trifecta of built-in Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS. In other pre-MWC news, the Dutch site GSM Helpdesk has reportedly confirmed that Samsung will indeed be introducing both a 12 megapixel and an 8 megapixel handset, the latter of which will supposedly be a successor to the Innov8 and run the Symbian S60 OS, while the 12 megapixel phone will apparently run Samsung’s own OS. Lastly, but certainly not least, GSM Helpdesk is also reporting that Samsung will be announcing its very first Android phone within the next two weeks, which just so happens to line up nicely with MWC, although it unsurprisingly doesn’t have any more details than that.

Filed under: Cellphones

16GB Samsung Omnia shows itself, other Samsung rumors surface originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know who’s blabbing again? That reclusive set of business people who always seem to be “familiar with the matter,” that’s who. This time, they’ve got the Wall Street Journal in a twist over renewed rumors that Dell is “preparing a move into cellphones as early as next month.” Next month, is of course the big cellphone coming out party known as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona — an event Dell has flat-out denied any intention to attend. Still, the evidence presented by the WSJ is pretty overwhelming. First, sources say that a variety of smartphone prototypes, including one with a QWERTY-less touchscreen and another with a sliding keyboard, have already been built running Android and Windows Mobile. Second, Dell’s smartphone team “spent much of last year” meeting with suppliers, carriers, and Asian phone manufacturers. Dell’s team includes the former head of Motorola’s phone division (Ron Garriques) and another Moto employee (John Thode) who heads up Dell’s netbook group. The latter being of interest since the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm are considered netbooks by their makers. Oh, and Dell still hasn’t made good on its purchase of Zing and its plans to build an all encompassing media ecosystem to manage your audio and video files across PCs and mobile devices. Sources do contend that plans have not been finalized and Dell may still abandon the effort. But with Acer making the jump into Smartphones next month and other non-traditional players having great success in the space at the expense of the former cellphone powerhouses, one thing is clear: PC guys “will just walk in” and figure this out. Right Ed?

Filed under: Cellphones

WSJ: Dell “preparing a move into cellphones as early as next month” originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shortly after Acer snapped up E-Ten last year it’s been making public and private mention of plans to launch an Acer-branded smartphone. Now we’ve got a date: February 16th at the big Mobile World Congress cellphone event in Barcelona. We’ll be there so let’s call it a date, deal? Iaaaaiaiaiiaa!

Filed under: Cellphones

Acer smartphone launching February 16th, everybody flamenco! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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