Hasta La Gadget!

Though hard facts on the HTC Thunderbolt’s availability were hard to come by, conflicting rumors were flying fast and strong — now, a Best Buy ad seems to clear most everything up. Like we’d originally heard, the 4.3-inch LTE smartphone will launch for $250 on a two-year contract — or a wallet-crushing $750 without — but the key ingredients here are three words at the very top. The Thunderbolt is apparently a “national retail exclusive” for Best Buy, which explains how the device could simultaneously face Verizon delays and yet come in for a Valentine’s Day landing at the big box store. You’ll also note that the ad mentions Skype video and 4G mobile hotspot functionality, so we’d be surprised if the phone came without, though it’s also possible that the whole kit and kaboodle has been delayed to match — Droid-Life says this ad comes from a February 20th circular, so we might not see anything until then.

In case you needed an additional reason to be excited about the Thunderbolt, the developers at AndIRC have some related news — they’ve already rooted a prototype version (which just so happens to have the familiar codename Mecha) and believe the same technique will work on retail devices. Wouldn’t it be nice to have root on day one… whenever that is?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC Thunderbolt exclusively hits Best Buy for $250 at launch, rooted prototype provides hope for easy unlock originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Third-party mobile retailer Wirefly has just released a seven-minute video detailing the HTC Thunderbolt’s unboxing procedure in glorious detail, something that’s just liable to make the wait for prospective buyers even more excruciating. Speaking of waiting, word on the street is that the phone might be delayed from its previously-rumored Valentine’s Day launch; an ominous screen shot over on Droid Life says there’s “no ETA at this time,” a fact corroborated by Amazon’s removal of the launch date on its Thunderbolt product page. What’s more, in announcing its unboxing, Wirefly only says that it’ll “begin selling the Thunderbolt soon” without offering a date — so yeah, all signs are pointing to an open-ended delay here. Let’s hope it stays within the short bounds of February, eh? Follow the break for the full video.

Continue reading HTC Thunderbolt gets unboxed by Wirefly, Verizon delays launch?

HTC Thunderbolt gets unboxed by Wirefly, Verizon delays launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Someone screwed up at Best Buy this morning, letting slip two big product release dates. Now we may be seeing a new Android-powered tablet and smartphone sooner than we thought.

Onsale dates for Motorola’s new Xoom tablet and HTC’s Thunderbolt smartphone were posted to a Best Buy retailer’s Facebook page early Friday morning. According to the Grand Rapids, Michigan Best Buy store’s status update, we should expect the Xoom to debut on February 23 and the Thunderbolt on February 14.

The status update has been promptly taken down from the page, as the higher ups at Motorola and HTC probably wanted to wait to announce the product debuts at Mobile World Conference, a major mobile industry event occurring in Barcelona, Spain in mid-February.

We can’t say for sure whether or not the release dates will be firm. “The info from the Grand Rapids store was posted in error, as the details included are not yet finalized,” a Best Buy spokesperson told Wired.com. “We will share updated and accurate information when we have it.”

Details on the Xoom have been sparse since the tablet’s announcement at CES in early January. Speculation has filled the void of information — a previously leaked internal Best Buy memo showed a potential $800 price tag for the Xoom, which will run on the upcoming Android update to version 3.0 (Honeycomb). We do know, however, that the tablet touts a 1-GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a 5-megapixel back facing camera, and a 2-megapixel front facing camera for video chat.

Motorola’s upcoming Xoom-promoting Super Bowl ad will also tease the company’s tablet, while simultaneously taking a shot at Apple’s famous 1984 Super Bowl ad, making the Cupertino-based company out to be an Orwellian version of itself:

Photo: Duncan Geere/Wired.co.uk

Best Buy Leaks Xoom Release [via DroidLife]

See Also:

• Verizon Memo Leaks Motorola Xoom Pricing: $799
• Motorola Previews New Android Tablet, Droid Smartphone
• XOOM_Front_Home_CES
• Hands-On With T-Mobile’s 7-Inch Tablet, Due Feb. 2
• Hands-On With HTC’s 4G Thunderbolt Smartphone
• Android Phones Fuel HTC Growth; More Planned for 2011
• HTC

We won’t lie: we’ve been pretty skeptical of the rumors so far that the HTC Thunderbolt would have support for simultaneous voice and data over EV-DO — SVDO, as it’s known — turned on. Perhaps more than any other US carrier, Verizon has a reputation for testing the living daylights out of devices and locking out hardware that doesn’t meet its reliability standards, and so we were a little leery of some supposedly leaked internal communication not long ago letting reps know that although it’ll be enabled, it shouldn’t be discussed because it doesn’t offer an “experience… consistent with [their] brand.” Well, we’ve just been fed a second document that features the same wording, so it looks like this might be real after all — and what’s more, it’s got updated verbiage stating that mobile hotspot capability will be available at launch, contrary to other leaks floating around today. This particular document is dated today, so we’re feeling good that the information is current — and if anything, it should get potential Thunderbolt buyers more excited than ever.

[Thanks, David]

HTC Thunderbolt might be getting simultaneous voice and data on 3G after all originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wow, insider tipsters are getting efficient! Verizon appears to have only just added Minimum Advertised Pricing for the Motorola Xoom to its internal systems, but already it’s been leaked out by more than one source. Android Central has the damning evidence, which lists an $800 levy for any prospective owners of the flagship Android Honeycomb device. It’s accompanied by a listing of the HTC Thunderbolt at $250, with the logical conclusion being that the Moto tablet will come unsullied by subsidies while the HTC LTE handset will probably cost that much on a two-year deal. That makes plenty of sense to us — the typical smartphone price is $200 and Verizon can point to the 4G goodness the Thunderbolt brings as justifying its $50 premium, whereas the Xoom’s cost seems to be in line with the Galaxy Tab’s pricing. Now, how about some launch dates, leaksters?

Motorola Xoom priced at $800 at a minimum, according to Verizon leak originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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