Hasta La Gadget!

Nothing like rumors of corporate layoffs to throw 89,000 Microsoft employees into unproductive turmoil. This time the rumors are being mongered by the Wall Street Journal and TechFlash, both of whom have been told to expect “far smaller” cuts than the 5,000 heads lost during the global financial downturn. And while it’s easy to come to the conclusion that this round of layoffs is the result of the Kin debacle, keep in mind that Microsoft is entering a new fiscal year — the perfect time (from a budgetary perspective) to trim down and refocus on new strategies. Still, if this does affect the Kin team, then let’s just hope that the skilled engineers toiling inside the project’s pink trenches are spared when the reductions begin as soon as today, according to TechFlash. While J Allard may be gone, one executive alone doesn’t create a culture and governance model that builds multi-million dollar silos of duplication and then turns a blind eye to inter-team stonewalling. We say aim high when it comes time to swing that axe Microsoft.

Update: TechFlash is now reporting that, yes, Redmond has wielded its handled blade. At this point it’s suggested to run only in the hundreds across the globe, and “the low hundreds in the Seattle region,” across several groups. Sounds indeed more like a pruning of its over 88,000-strong workforce and less like Kin fallout.

Microsoft layoffs: the axeman cometh? (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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O, to see what Omio sees. The outlet has obtained what it claims to be “a huge UK mobile phone release schedule for the rest of the year… [from] all the manufacturers” (emphasis its own). So, from where would such an all-encompassing roadmap hail? We don’t know, nor can we corroborate any of this, but the details are numerous so let’s go through it — albeit with cautious optimism and a few grains of salt. The biggest phone we can see of this baker’s dozen of a lineup is the HTC Gold (sound familiar?), due in November and loaded with Microsoft’s mobile OS newcomer Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately, that’s all the information provided, but it’s certainly enough to entice us. Also in November, we’ve got Samsung i8700 and Nokia E7 — the latter being possibly a N8-esque QWERTY slider with AMOLED display and Symbian^3, and the former being a mystery (although Omio takes a gander that its aquatic Greek mythology might suggest a Bada-powered existence).

Going up the list Memento style, October purportedly brings across the pond-ers HTC Vision, the virtually unknown HTC Ace, Nokia N8, and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X8 and Yendo. September’s a bit of a yawner — SE Hazel and a Nokia X2 candybar — as is August with the X6 8GB and BlackBerry Curve 9300. And July? Nokia E5-00, Sony Ericsson W20, and Samsung i5500. As is usually the case, the more you can wait, the better your options. Now, let’s see if this supposed roadmap stays on course.

HTC Gold with Windows Phone 7 in November, and more from a rumored UK roadmap leak originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For reasons seemingly known only to Peter Chou himself, HTC has mostly steered clear of producing high-quality physical QWERTY devices running Android, despite the fact that there might be no phone manufacturer in the world more skilled at making them (let us remind you of the Touch Pro2, among many others dating back the better part of a decade). Anyhow, we caught wind last month of a possible entry in the form of the so-called “Vision,” but we didn’t have any visuals — just a user agent profile that may or may not amount to anything. Well, that seems to be changing today with a couple blurry shots out of a Croatian site that allegedly shows the goods featuring a 3.7-inch display, a 1GHz processor (Snapdragon, we assume), and Android 2.1 with Sense (the launcher looks like stock Android in this photo, but the status bar is clearly HTC custom). At a glance, it doesn’t seem to be the prettiest thing in the world — but for a form factor traditionally associated with power users and suits, this might be just the ticket.

[Thanks, Ivan]

HTC Vision with Android, full QWERTY in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eldar Murtazin has a pretty decent track record when it comes to smartphone whispers, but his Android 3.0 Gingerbread morsels yesterday are now at odds with someone a bit closer to the dough — namely, Dan Morrill, Android’s Open Source and Compatibility Tech Lead (yeah, that’s a bit of a mouth full). Here are a few highlights from his Twitter feed tonight: “I love it when people just make stuff up” (sarcasm, obviously), “rumors are not official announcements,” and so on. Sure, he could just be playing coy here, but for now, this is more or less the final word on the matter — until either Google or the rumor mill heat up again, of course. Guess that’s how the, erm, cookie crumbles.

Android team’s Morrill discounts Gingerbread rumors originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The mathematical symbols are aligned… and they’re pointing to a greater cash outlay if you want to have (a legitimate copy of) Hulu on your PlayStation 3. Technologizer recently discovered the highlighted line above in the source code for the Hulu website, and if correct, you’ll need a PlayStation Plus subscription on top of your Hulu Plus one in order to stream the best brain-numbing shows from broadcast TV. While that adds up to an additional $18 for three months or $50 annually on top of your $10 monthly Hulu Plus fee, it’s not like you’ll get a better deal on a different game console — Microsoft has confirmed Hulu will require Xbox Live Gold when it launches on Xbox 360 next year. Besides, this isn’t like those janky Netflix Instant Streaming Discs — further down the source code, there are hints that Hulu’s developing a bona fide app for PlayStation 3. See the relevant section of the code right after the break.

Continue reading Hulu Plus will be a downloadable app on PS3, require PlayStation Plus subscription?

Hulu Plus will be a downloadable app on PS3, require PlayStation Plus subscription? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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