Hasta La Gadget!

Since neither T-Mobile nor AT&T have ponied up a branded, high-end Android device yet (though the former is almost certainly about to announce the Galaxy S), we were particularly chuffed to get the news from HTC today that it’ll be bringing the lovely Desire to US shores through carriers in August. Thing is, it won’t be coming through any of the big guys — instead, it’s destined for “select regional operators,” and HTC is quick to note that the Hero has been “well received… in regional markets,” so we imagine some of those same little guys will be scooping the Desire. We’re told to wait for word from specific carriers on pricing and technical details, but the branded Desires have been confirmed to sport a 1GHz Snapdragon and Sense atop Android 2.1, two of the most important line items — now let’s just make sure we’re already cracking on a Froyo update, yeah?

Update: Cellular South is on the short list, which makes sense since they carried the Hero as well. Thanks, Richard!

HTC Desire in the US pipeline for ‘select regional operators’ this August originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s all just noise right now, but the United States Justice Department is purportedly having a “very preliminary conversation” with Apple regarding the company’s music business, wondering in particular if anything it’s doing (or has done) would violate antitrust legislation. According to unnamed sources familiar with the situation, DoJ staff seem most interested in whether or not Apple’s dominance in the market enabled it to unfairly prevent Amazon’s music service from exclusively debuting new songs. Beyond that, details of the investigation are few and far between, but it’s coincidentally coming down on Cupertino when its iTunes numbers are on the up and up. The latest NPD research figures show that over a quarter of the music purchased within the US is now procured through iTunes — 28 percent, if you’re looking for specifics, which is up 4 percentage points from Q1 2009. Meanwhile, Amazon has pulled into a tie with Walmart for second place, which may or may not coerce Wally World to ditch its morals and finally start stocking that uncensored version of My World 2.0.

DoJ making preliminary inquiries into Apple’s music endeavors while iTunes dominance continues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nothing like a little bad press to change corporate policy. Diane Campbell made US national news this week (seriously) when her attempts to purchase an iPad with cash were rejected. Apple’s no-cash policy (credit cards and debit cards only please) was put in place by Apple as a means of ensuring that customers were sticking to the two-device limit — a policy that was originally put in place in October 2007 in order to deal with high demand for the iPhone and, some would say, to keep the devices off the grey market. Well, some members of the US media got so feverish with affect rage that they lashed out at Apple with chants of “anti-American” and “anti-disadvantaged” (Diane is described as disabled and on a fixed income). Apple has reversed the policy: it now accepts cash just as long as customers sign up for an Apple account while in the store at the time of purchase. As for Diane, she got a free iPad and “changed a little piece of the world.” We feel safer already. Check the local news report video after the break if you must.

Continue reading Apple now accepting cash for its cold hard iPads (video)

Apple now accepting cash for its cold hard iPads (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 01:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Call us crazy, but it seems as if the FCC has been earning its keep of late, and the toiling continues today with an effort meant to address “bill shock.” For those unaware, bill shock is a phenomena on par with bitter beer face in terms of significance, and it typically occurs when you accidentally roam internationally, text well beyond your monthly limit or burn through your minutes within the first week of your billing period. ‘Course, some would argue that you — as a functioning human being — should keep tabs on how often you use your own mobile, but we wouldn’t kvetch with a heads-up here and there so long as these alerts are cheap and easy to implement. As of today, the Consumer Task Force is listening for solutions, and while some carriers already ping you when you leave the country and are about to incur severe roaming charges, that practice is far from uniform. Too bad such a service would essentially nix your ability to play the ignorance card when you get back from that jaunt to Mexico, eh?

Continue reading FCC task force seeks to squash ‘bill shock,’ give you the 411 on impending overages

FCC task force seeks to squash ‘bill shock,’ give you the 411 on impending overages originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you go and pre-order the Archos 7 Home Tablet, thinking it would ship by the end of April. Our deepest apologizes, but according to the official press release below, the 7-inch, Android 1.6 tablet won’t be shipping in the US until early June — though an Archos spokesperson told us that those who pre-ordered may get units before the end of May if they count their lucky stars. The rest of the release doesn’t reveal much, but does confirms that the resistive touchscreen device won’t have access to the Android Marketplace. Instead — and as you can see in the unboxing pictures below — it comes with Archos’ AppsLib store and is preloaded with a few apps, including eBuddy and Aldiko’s e-reader software. Still, we know the $199.99 tablet sounds tempting, but our review should be up in the next few days. In other words, you should probably hold off on sliding that credit card out — after all, she ain’t shipping ’til June.

Continue reading Archos 7 Home Tablet ships to Android lovers in June

Archos 7 Home Tablet ships to Android lovers in June originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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